Rafael Marquez Online » General Topics

Racial Profiling At Airports, A Viable Option?

Rafael — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 18:52:47 +0000

This post was inspired by an article over on The Huffington Post. Much to my disappointment, the author of the article never bothered to reply to my comment, so I decided to make a post here to preserve my position on racial profiling.

“Dr.” Rachel Ehrenfeld wrote a piece that was published on the HuffPo where she made the argument that in order to have safe airports and safe air travel, the US government needed to engage in racial profiling.

To “prove” her point, she engages in some fear mongering:

On Christmas Day, we were faced with a terrorist who made his way onto an airplane headed for the U.S. How many others like him are boarding planes heading to the U.S. right now?

Then she calls upon the herd to back her up saying that in a USA Today poll done on January 13, 2010:

over 70% of Americans would support profiling passengers who fit the profile of terrorists based on their age, ethnicity or gender

Like Samuel Clements once said: There are lies, damned lies and then there are statistics.

I think racial profiling is a stupid idea. I said so, in the one and only comment to the article:

Sure, this is all fine and dandy. I’m sure a lot of Americans agree with profiling, as long as they profile other people.

The problem with your proposal, is that it assumes that all the terrorists look like Abdulmutallab (the Christmas day would be bomber) instead of like Joseph Stack (the guy that flew the plane into the IRS building in Austin). Stack was a terrorist, simple as that, better start profiling all white people that have a beef with the government.

On a different note, El Al is a tiny airline, with very few flights to anywhere, so their entire security model is not practical at this point in time. The real secret to their success, is limited exposure.

What do you think?

Still shuffling things around

Rafael — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 04:12:35 +0000

I still haven’t quite settled in to what I want to do with this site. As you can see, I’ve created the subdomain http://blog.rafaelmarquez.me for my blog, but I still haven’t quite decided what I want to showcase here.

On a different note: SXSWi was a crazy good time. The one thing that I got out of it, actually the biggest thing that I got out of it is that I need to focus. I need to seriously focus and give a concerted effort in one area. I’m digging too many holes and not getting anywhere with any of them.

Speaking of beer… I really enjoyed doing the fast interviews and doing the guerrilla style filming, what I don’t have, is a solid stream of people that I can interview and interact with.

Last but not least: I think I decided to change the name of the podcast from “Marketing Minutes” to simply “The Rafael Marquez show.” I like the show name better because it will allow me to just do interviews or talk about random things and it will be in line with the “show” format and not necessarily have to be focused on marketing.

What do you think about my idea to change the name of the podcast?

James Ray Charged with Manslaughter

Rafael — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:28:39 +0000

I just watched this video of Brad Brian, who is one of the Attorneys for James Arthur “Death” Ray. There are a few things that just stand out to me.

For a guy that taught people how to have “harmonic wealth” the fact that he doesn’t have the $500,000 to post for bail reinforces his status as a phony. Even his attorney said: “He’s not a wealthy guy.” So, Death Ray was teaching people how to become wealthy, but he wasn’t wealthy himself, he just put on a facade and pretended to be wealthy.
Attorney’s will say douchebaggy things to defend their clients. This attorney says that there was no crime, this was an accident. Sorry hoss, but 3 people died in the sweat lodge that your client organized, accident or no accident when people die there is definitely a crime somewhere.
Larry King is represented by the same agent that represented Death Ray, and Larry King promoted Death Ray back when being associated with him was a good thing. Even this little performance by Death Ray’s defense attorney is nothing more than a publicity stunt to try and influence the potential jury pool.
Don’t believe people with 3 first names, or 2 first names for that matter.

Here’s the video, in case you want to watch it.

I think the thing that really disgusts me about this whole thing is that Death Ray’s attorneys are talking about $5 million being “unconscionable” as in “oppressive, not right, exceptionally unfair” and so on.

You know what I think is “unconscionable?” That 3 people died while Death Ray was in charge. 4 people when you include Colleen Conaway who died at a different event that Death Ray was running in San Diego.

After watching the video again, it seems like Brad Brian, the attorney, is wanting the same people that Ray almost cooked to death to pony up the bail money for their wealth gooroo to get out of jail.

Unbelievable.

Don’t believe the hype.

Over the years I’ve spent lots of money looking for “spiritual growth” and “spiritual guidance” etc. I’ve read lots of books by people like Deepak Chopra, Tony Robbins and other big name people, yet they all seemed phony to me. I just had the feeling that they were just rehashing other people’s writings.

Now that I’m older and maybe a little wiser, or at least better versed in public speaking, I’ve realized that those big name gooroos are nothing more than information marketers with a product funnel. They create product that they need to move and clear out so they can create more product and so on. Very few, if any of them, really care about your personal or spiritual growth.

Your Mileage May Vary

If you want some really good motivation, read “Poor Richard’s Almanack” by Benjamin Franklin, or read the Henry IV series of plays or Hamlet by Shakespeare. There’s no need to pay some fake gooroo like Ray almost $10,000 to go to a “spiritual growth, harmonic wealth death camp.”

If you really, really need help, find yourself a licensed and medically trained psychiatrist, or a psychologist and get professional help. At the very least, find a Bible based church and get spiritual guidance from a pastor. Although I’d classify myself as a “work in progress, ” both licensed professionals and spiritual guidance from a pastor have worked for me.

Seriously.

Defined by what you do

Rafael — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:17:02 +0000

Does what you do define you? Does what I do define who I am?

Why should it?

Why should it not?

Can we really expect the UPS guy to never turn left when he’s driving his personal car?

Why not be defined by what you love instead of by what you do?

Or just be defined by who you are?

Your employment is just that and it doesn’t have to define you or who you are, unless you want it to.

This video was shot over the period of one year, while that kid was travelling around the world. I also happen to like the song a lot.

Death of the land line phone

Rafael — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:31:10 +0000

A few weeks back I read an article on the BBC’s website about the death of the land line. More recently I came across an article on Yahoo finance talking about the same thing. I don’t understand why there’s such a big commotion about this.

I believe the last time I had a land line was the summer of 2001.

Most of the people that I know do not have a landline phone, and no one seems to miss having one anyway. When I first went all wireless, I was worried about my phone minutes, but I just trained myself to not talk too much during the day and to save my conversations for when the minutes went unlimited.

I still follow that routine to this day.

Since long distance is included in the price of the monthly plan, with the exception of international calls, I have a $0 long distance bill. For international calls, I pay a fee for reduced rates to the country I call the most, but I’ve gotten in the habit of using Skype for those calls now too.

Skype calls between Skype users are free regardless if you’re calling next door or to another continent.

An old boss was surprised to learn that I didn’t have a land line phone. She said that credit rating agencies took whether you have a home phone into account when calculating your credit score. Something about if you have a landline you’re more likely to stay at a specific location, making you less of a risk.

I can see the logic of that assumption, 5-10 years ago. I don’t see that as a reality anymore.

According to that Yahoo article I referenced earlier, as of 2006, more than 20% of households in the USA do not have a land line phone. I think the percentage of homes without a land line phone might be much higher now.

What do you think about all this? Do you have a land line phone at your house?

photo credit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpovey/ / CC BY 2.0

Happy New Year Show

Rafael — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 06:12:47 +0000

This is the last show of the night

OpsMonkeyTV 11 PM New Years Eve Show

Rafael — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 05:31:10 +0000

This is the 11 pm show, we went for 30 minutes this time and managed to say hi to some peeps.

OpsmonkeyTV 10 PM New Year’s Eve Show Recording

Rafael — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 04:38:12 +0000

This is the recording of the 10 pm show from the new year’s eve party transmission.

OpsMonkeyTV 9 PM New Years Eve Show Recording

Rafael — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 04:30:12 +0000

This is the 9 PM show, the 10 PM show to follow shortly…

Goodbye 2009 and my predictions for 2010

Rafael — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 16:54:11 +0000

Goodbye 2009.

You’ve been good to me. Really, you have been.

I know there’s a recession and people are having all sorts of problems with the economy and my heart goes out to them. Personally, and in retrospect, I had a good 2009. It wasn’t GREAT, but it was good.

Here are some of the things that I accomplished or achieved in 2009

I found my inner voice
Until this year, I hadn’t quite figured out what it is that I wanted to do with my various online presences.
I figured out what it is that I wanted to stand for.
I got several speaking gigs, and got bitten by the public speaking bug.
I learned how to run my online business a lot better.
More profits from less effort.
I really internalized the meaning of the word: Implement.
A better relationship with my kids
Began to internalize that I’m thirty freakin nine years old.

There are a great many things that I’m purposely leaving off the list, just for the sake of alacrity.

For 2010, here are my predictions:

My inner voice and what I stand for will get me into some trouble.
My online business will go from operating on the equivalent of a 2 cycle weed eater motor to a 4 cycle, 4 cylinder motorcycle engine. What I mean is that it will rev up and grow
More speaking gigs
More travel
More time with my kids, specially over the summer
Upgrades of all my toys, I mean tools.
Better focus
My first ultra marathon

I’m really looking forward to 2010.

I don’t think I’ve ever looked forward to a new year. I think part of that stems from my insistence on focusing on the things that I did not accomplish instead of the things that I did accomplish during the year that is passing.

I’m not discounting what I didn’t accomplish, I’m just going to focus on what I did accomplish instead.

Moving forward into 2010, I feel like I have a better plan of action. I feel like I’ll be able to accomplish most of my goals for the year.

How about you?

What’s your review of 2009 and predictions for 2010?