Random musings on politics, society, and pop culture from the Internet's marketing curmudgeon.
Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving guy.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not a believer Star Chambers or judicial retribution for past sins left unpunished. However, I AM a big believer in Karma, in so far as you reap what you sew. Let me explain… [Read more…] about Famous versus Infamous.
Well, the VP debate is over. Whew! I can breathe again. From where I sit, Palin came, she saw, and she conquered. Flat out, she rocked. Biden was able to avoid putting his foot in his mouth verbally, but he did set a record for smirking, and another for forced smiles. Advantage: Palin.
If we were to use the mainstream media standard, Palin made no mistakes (they would have judged her survival on the basis her not making more than one or two gaffes), and therefore “survived.” So if you’re a conservative, you’re going to say “Palin Won.” If you are a liberal, you’ll probably say something like “Palin acquitted herself adequately [sniff], but Biden enunciated his positions, where Palin made a base appeal to middle America.” [Read more…] about Palin Rocks!
…ladies and gentlemen, I give you the moderator of Thursday night’s Vice Presidential debates: Gwen Ifill.
You’re not familiar with Ms. Ifill? Neither was I. Evidently, neither was the Commission on Presidential Debates (a supposedly neutral organization), nor was the McCain camp. Ifill is a senior correspondent for the PBS show, The News Hour, with Jim Lehrer. (Any association with PBS woulda done it for me – PBS being far from neutral in it’s news shows. But I digress.) More importantly, on January 20, 2009, Ifill’s new book will be released. The title? The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama. If you harbor any illusions that her book is a critical look at the Democrat’s standard-bearer, take a look at this abstract from Amazon.com: [Read more…] about Just in case you had any delusions about a lack of media bias…
The solution to our energy woes is surprisingly simple, but paradoxically, needlessly difficult. If we could get the government out of the way, private enterprise could solve this, by simply trying ever avenue that looks like a money-maker. Drilling (within the 0 to 50-mile zone), coal-to-oil, solar, battery/hydrogen research, wind, nuclear, et cetera. The problem is that there are way too many interested parties that are gaming the system, the worst of these are the Feds. (Close behind are the special-interest green energy and ecology groups.)
If the Feds want to HELP, what we need is legislation that will stop nuisance lawsuits that aim to stop drilling, wind, and nuclear plants. It would also be helpful to push legislation that would provide a “floor” for energy prices – to prevent OPEC from dropping oil prices to kill our own development efforts. [Read more…] about The Energy Solution Paradox.
Okay – full disclosure time, here kiddies: if you’re looking for a blog post that’s going to be uplifting, funny, or one of those “triumph of the human spirit” things, click off, and come back tomorrow. Consider yourself warned.
Did you see the movie The Perfect Storm? If you’re not familiar with it, or perhaps, took a pass on it due to your natural aversion to George Clooney, what happened was several climatological phenomena came together simultaneously to create a killer storm. Change one factor, and it’s a survivable storm. With all the factors in place, nobody gets out alive. It’s sort of like what happens with airline accidents. It’s never just one thing – it’s ice on the wings plus a de-icer failure plus a pilot pushing on through bad weather to make up time for his airline. Or maybe a pilot who didn’t get enough sleep, combined with cracks in the airframe plus wind shear. Take away one of these, and the passengers live. All three, and the NTSB makes another house call.
I’m afraid that we are looking at a perfect storm for the good ol’ U. S. of A., and I’m not sure that anything short of divine intervention is gonna save us. Let’s take a little inventory of what storms are on the horizon: [Read more…] about A Perfect Storm.
One of the few regrets I have in my life is that I know so little about money. I don’t understand how money really works. I never learned about investing, stocks, bonds, money markets, et cetera. So please understand the the comments I make here reflect not the musings of a financial wizard or economics expert, but the thoughts of someone who relies on common sense when all else fails. Having said that…
I got a bad feeling about this, Sundance.
Since I don’t know that much about economics and financial matters, I have to speak about the current meltdown in the financial markets from the basis of a guy who DOES understand marketing (my day job), capitalism (I’m a big fan!) and common sense (with which I have at least a passing familiarity). [Read more…] about The Money Shot.
Item #1: A few years ago, Rolling Stone magazine ran a series of brilliant ads in other trade publications, to educate potential advertisers as to who really reads Rolling Stone. They were two-page spreads – on the left showed someone dressed as a classic, 1960’s-era hippie. The headline read “Perception.” On the following page the same guy was dressed in a Brooks Brothers 3-piece suit, with a briefcase. The headline on that page read “Reality.” The body copy stated some demographics for the magazine, pointing out that a majority of their readers were affluent and held real jobs.
Item #2: My daddy used to impart a number of pearls of wisdom to me, two of which were “you can’t throw mud without getting some on you,” and “the guilty dog barks first.”
Keep these items in mind as I share with you some bon mots from the campaign trail… [Read more…] about Bias, with a side of mud.
As a reader of this blog, you know that I come at things from a conservative point of view. Note that I didn’t claim a Republican point of view, as the GOP has managed to largely divest itself of the Conservative position over the last eight years or so. I long for a leader that will bring back the principled convictions and decisive action of Ronald Reagan. I think I’ve found such a leader. And it has the left positively apoplectic. I’m loathe to quote Al “I invented the Internet, and the Global Warming ScareFest, too!” Gore, but he did say something quite revealing (or at least it’s been attributed to him – you can never really tell with a liberal if it’s a real quote, or just more plagiarism): “When you have the facts on your side, argue the facts. When you have the law on your side, argue the law. When you have neither, holler.” And, boy, the left has been hollering. But why? They claim to have the facts on their side. They claim to have the rule of law. Based on the readouts on the VU Meters in the media, I’d say they realize they don’t. Here’s what I think is really going on…
I’ve always loved to read. It’s relaxing. I read a lot – mostly tech books, but I try to read some recreationally, both to relax and to expand my horizons. I was watching Glenn Beck on Headline News a couple of weeks ago, and he had author Andrew Klavan on, pitching his latest, Empire of Lies. Sounded interesting, so I filed it away to a slot on my list of “books I want to read.” This past week, I thought about the book, but had a hard time remembering the name or the author. It finally dawned on me that I could use Amazon’s “if you like this book you might also like” feature to find it. Sure enough, I was able to remember the general look of the cover. I’m not always into instant gratification, but for some reason, I really wanted to read this, and I had some time on my hands, so… [Read more…] about Empire of Lies; Book of Truth.
Just when I thought things couldn’t get any weirder around here in Amarillo (Centrally Located Between Two Oceans!™), it did. Mrs. Digital was at a local supermarket a few minutes ago, and some Obama supporter when all Zsa-Zsa Gabor on her. That’s right. My significant other was wearing the tshirt you see pictured to the left (available online, by the way, through my wife’s company, www.vectorright.com), minding her own business, when some raving loon…um, I mean “Obama supporter” walked up to her and said “Bitch!” and proceeded to slap her, open handed, across her face. Keep in mind, this was not at some seedy “Stop ‘n Rob” drive up convenience store. Nope. This happened at what is by all accounts, the nicest, most up-scale grocery store in Amarillo.
Immediately, my wife was surrounded by other customers, and the manager ran over to offer his assistance. He asked if my wife wanted him to call the police. My wife is one tough cookie, and (she told me whilst recounting the event) figured that the police have better things to do, so she declined his offer. The manager then escorted the woman who assaulted my wife out of the store. [Read more…] about NEWSFLASH: Obama worshiper exposed as loon.