Time for that Bugs Bunny quote again

I got a fund-raising appeal yesterday from Joseph Schweitzer, finance chairman of the S.C. Democratic Party. It began:

Dear Brad,
We know that you’re one of the most passionate supporters of the South Carolina Democratic Party…

Time to trot out one of my favorite Bugs Bunny quotes yet again:

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You know, I’m not going to worry about the machines taking over until I stop getting emails such as that, and Netflix finally figures out what movies I might like…

9 thoughts on “Time for that Bugs Bunny quote again

  1. Karen Pearson

    Don’t feel to badly, I keep getting solicitations to contribute to my favorite candidate–Cruz.

  2. Dave Crockett

    Well, if everyone had access to all of the personal information kept electronically in encrypted files on your iPhone about you, your writings, your phone calls, your address book, your friends, your associates, where you shop, your web habits, where you drive, your religious associations, your family, your pets, your health and your hobbies….then you wouldn’t see something so outrageous as suggesting that you are a passionate supporter of the Democratic Party associated with your name.

    After all, you no doubt broke a law sometime in your life and law enforcement needs to know all about you. So, too, the Democratic Party clearly has a need to know. And your employer. And me.

    Just sayin’… 😉

    1. Brad Warthen Post author

      But see, they DO. All those apps that know where I am and what I’m doing. All those Google searches tracking every move I make, so as to throw particular ads at me. And anyone who wants to know what I think about pretty much anything can find out easily.

      I’d really like to know what Apple thinks it is protecting by refusing to cooperate with law enforcement, and even announcing that they plan to make it HARDER for the government to find out what’s on an iPhone. I mean, if Apple isn’t collecting data on me an my movements, they’re really putting themselves at a competitive disadvantage vs. Google.

      And I would prefer, a thousand times over, that a law enforcement agency conducting a legitimate investigation of a heinous crime look through my data than a private company that is only out for itself and its bottom line…

    2. Brad Warthen Post author

      You know, this Apple stuff is really making me not want to do business with the company going forward. But I’m really not in a good place financially to invest in all new equipment. I have my iPhone, my iPad and my Apple TV, and I rely on them working together. In fact, my Apple TV remote quit working awhile back (and changing the battery didn’t help), so I now control the TV with my phone and iPad.

      At least I’m still solidly in the PC world. Everyone else at ADCO uses Macs, but I refuse to. I just use my own Microsoft-based laptops.

      But with the other stuff, I’m in a bit too far to divest myself…

      1. Brad Warthen Post author

        I liked it when Apple distinguished itself by making great products.

        Obviously, Tim Cook knows he’s no Steve Jobs and will never make his mark with innovation. So he’s making his name by kowtowing to the government-haters — which puts him in the same category as Donald Trump and Ted Cruz in my book…

        1. Doug Ross

          Isn’t it great that if you disagree with Cook, you can buy any other phone from any other provider who markets their product as open to government searches? They could call it the Patriot Phone – comes in red, white, or blue. Marketing slogan: “What Have You Got To Hide?”

          Maybe someone should start a company that stores all text messages, records all calls, captures all browser history and uploads it to a database run by the FBI. Just to save them the trouble of having to do something hard like justify a warrant to get it.

      2. Dave Crockett

        Now Microsoft has said it will file an amicus brief supporting Apple. And Bill Gates is walking back his comments that appeared to support the FBI’s argument. You may have to go to open source-based hardware. Maybe you can find one of those ‘Lindows’ machines using Linux that Walmart tried to sell a few years back (largely unsuccessfully). Or go back to taking notes on those skinny reporters’ notebooks we used to carry back in the 20th Century. And your blog may have to be a paper-based broadside handed out on corners by scruffy street urchins.

        1. Brad Warthen Post author

          Yeah, so it looks like I have nowhere to turn.

          But I’m not much of one for boycotts — or marching in the streets, for that matter. I prefer to express my views in writing…

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