Captain Digital

Random musings on politics, society, and pop culture from the Internet's marketing curmudgeon.

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Archives for May 2009

Updating our Look & Feel

It’s been a while, but I’ve finally gotten around to updating the site’s look. A little. When I first created the “Captain Digital” persona, I wanted to evoke a 1940’s style cartoon look. While that worked well as far as the goal, the reality was that working with the color halftone pattern was a major pain. Add to that a desire to remake Captain Digital’s image into something just a wee bit more modern and hip, and you have a need for a image refresh. Problem was, I really didn’t have time to work on it. I tried an intermediate step of using a modernized cartoon version of the original, but there were some things I wanted to fix – in particular, I felt like losing the helmet would be a good idea. So As of today, we’ve got a new version of Captain Digital. The old ones will be retired, as I can get to it.

Let me know what you think.

The Feds and the Episcopalians – Compare & Contrast

While visiting my Dad in Shreveport this weekend, I had a chance to return to the church of my youth – St. Marks Cathedral. As I sat in the service, I realized that The Episcopal Church (nee: “ECUSA,” herein referred to as “TEC”) makes a dandy analog for the Federal Government, and the current events vis á vis “States Rights” versus “Federalism.” Allow me to explain… [Read more…] about The Feds and the Episcopalians – Compare & Contrast

What are you willing to fight for?

I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately. Here’s a partial list of what I’ve read/am reading/rereading lately:

  • The Five Thousand Year Leap (Cleon Skousen)
  • The Fourth Turning (William Strauss and Neil Howe)
  • The Real George Washington (Jay Parry)
  • An Inconvenient Book (by Glenn Beck)
  • Fluke (Christopher Moore)
  • Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)

As I’ve been reading, I’ve been thinking – thinking about my country, how it works, how it’s changing, and what I want to see for our future. [Read more…] about What are you willing to fight for?

Hell to the Veep.

The Veep. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
The Veep. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Back in the day, I had a college professor for Freshman English who’s favorite assignment was for us to “compare and contrast.” (Beowulf versus Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was his favorite smackdown.) I thought about him today when I read yet another story about  Joe Biden, our illustrious Vice President, putting his foot in his mouth yet again. (Are his shoes orthopedic or orthodontic?)  Think back several administrations ago, when Bush the First was in office. Back then, the media’s favorite sport was lying in wait for then-Vice President Dan Quayle to say something – anything – that they could pounce on. Remember the big brouhaha about “Potatoe”? How about his comment about unwed mothers? As I recall, nothing Quayle did or said even remotely approached the idiocy of what our current Veep comes out with on a more-or-less regular basis. And while we do get to hear about what Biden says (thanks to FOX News and conservative Talk Radio), nobody in the mainstream press seems to be able to muster up more than a “that’s just ol’ crazy Uncle Joe…gotta love him” kind of riff. No outrage. No “off with his head frothing at the mouth.” No “get this guy a muzzle, stat!” panic from the members of the fourth estate. No, they saved all that for Danforth “Full Dinner Jacket” Quayle. Nope. Nary a peep outta the media over Biden, even as virtually every Republican I know is suddenly praying fervently for the continued health of Obama. [Read more…] about Hell to the Veep.

Date Night.

Art House Hell.
Art House Hell.

I’ve always suspected that men and women are actually from two different species. While every woman I’ve ever known speaks English (okay, there was this one girl in Japan that didn’t, but we didn’t date), “speaking” English and “communicating” with English are two vastly different things. Nowhere is this more apparent than when choosing and viewing a movie together.

Keep in mind, I’m not your stereotypical “guy.” I don’t limit myself to action movies, heavy metal, or beer. I appreciate movies with an emphasis on plot and character development, jazz, classical, and folk music, as well as wine and liquor. I’m no metrosexual (ever!), but I’m also not some knuckle-dragging Neanderthal that has no interest in culture.

Having said that, what I look for in a movie is to be entertained. Let me share with you a list of some of my favorite movies, in no particular order: [Read more…] about Date Night.

Perception v. Reality: Guns & States Rights

As you might have already heard, several states’ legislatures have passed – or are in the process of passing – laws that (re)assert states rights for guns that are manufactured, sold, and used within their respective states. Conventional wisdom is that these laws are going through in order to provide test cases that will come before the Supreme Court in order to decide a fundamental question: does the Federal Government have the  right to pass and enforce laws, flying in the face of the 10th Amendment.

I fervently hope that these cases get to the Supremes, and that the States Rights side prevails. We could be looking at the undoing of roughly 80 years worth of progressive laws that have upset the delicate balance between the Federal government and the “Several States.”

All that notwithstanding, the states that are passing/have passed these laws made me stop and ponder for a different reason. For instance, the first state to pass such a law was…Montana. Not to take away anything from Big Sky country, but Montana isn’t exactly (forgive me) number one with a bullet on my list of states where gun manufacturers ply their trade. Matter of fact, I was under the impression that most gun manufacturers were located in Illinois. Turns out, I was wrong. [Read more…] about Perception v. Reality: Guns & States Rights

Green is the new Red.

green-is-the-new-redMy daughter the Girl Scout went out tree planting with her troop yesterday. Nothing wrong with that. I like trees. I like them for their shade, their ability to mitigate the wind, and their gifts of nuts (Pecan trees) and wood (most trees). Trees are good, especially in this God-forsaken Hell’s Half-Acre we call Amarillo (Centrally-Located Between Two Oceans™!). Problem is, the Scout troop was just a part of a much larger contingent, all of which were wrapped up (literally – they got green TShirts) in a big, Liberal, PR event, “Green Select.”

Give me a friggin’ break.

Leave it to the Progressives to turn a wholesome, civic-minded activity like planting trees in a barren park into yet another excuse to excoriate humanity for having the unmitigated audacity to exhale carbon dioxide. Sheesh. The Scouts were regaled with speeches about “green” this and “carbon” that, and told to be good little citizens and do things to help save our planet. Nobody bothered to ask our planet if it needed saving, or even wanted our help. [Read more…] about Green is the new Red.

When Governments Attack.

Q: What are the eight scariest words in the English language?

A: We’re from the government…we’re here to help.

When the Founding Fathers first got together to form a more perfect Union, their first try, the Articles of Confederation, was a dismal failure. After having gone through years of oppression and taxation without representation courtesy of King George III, newly-minted Americans were loathe to repeat the same mistakes. Unfortunately, the first try didn’t exactly hit one out of the park. Call it a bunt, or better yet, a foul tip. The government was too weak, and frankly, completely unworkable. The Founders realized this, scrapped it and tried again. What they ended up with was nothing short of pure gold. The U.S. Constitution is the Gold Standard by which all other governments are judged. But in the years since, Congress after Congress, and more Presidents than I’d care to admit, have drifted away from that cherished concept of “original intent” and warped our Constitution – and our Federal government – into something the Founders would recognize only as the very thing they were fighting against.

I’ve just finished reading The Five Thousand Year Leap, and if you haven’t read it already, buy a copy and read it. If you have read it, go back and read it again. I plan to. It details not only what the Founders meant by every section in the document, but explains why they made the choices they did, and why it’s so vitally important to keep the Federal government from usurping any more power than is explicitly granted them within the Constitution. [Read more…] about When Governments Attack.

What…Me Worry?

Warren Buffet and Rupert Murdoch have a lot more money than I ever will. They are both billionaires, wealthy industrialists, captains of industry. They obviously know more than I do about money. And recently, both have said “the worst is behind us…the economy is getting better.”

So why don’t I feel comforted?

I’ll tell you why. Because I don’t believe a word of it. These are smart men. Knowledgeable men. Talented men. So are both of these guys wrong? Let’s pause for a nanosecond and examine the possibilities: [Read more…] about What…Me Worry?

State of the (Dis)Union.

When Iwas a kid, my friends and I used to play a game called “King of the World.” We’d speculate on all the grand things we’d do or change, if we had absolute power. Who’da thunk it, that we’d elect somebody who’s Hell-bent on playing the same game as a grown-up? If you’re like me, you’ve figured out by now that the Federal government is waaaaaaaaaaaaay out of control. I just finished reading The Five Thousand Year Leap, and I gotta say it was more than eye-opening. Shocking. Inspiring. Disturbing. Motivating. All at the same time. Quite an accomplishment for one book. It got me to thinking, how do we get our country to move away from Socialism, and back to the founding principles that made our country great? If you’re a frequent reader of this blog, you might suspect that I have an idea. And you’d be right. [Read more…] about State of the (Dis)Union.