How much do you know about penguins? Not the hockey-playing kind. The ones in Antartica. I know this sounds weird, but you can learn a lot about marketing from penguins. Here’s what I mean…
[Read more…] about Everything I needed to know about Marketing, I learned from Penguins.Media
Woka-Cola.
When I was a kid, there was nothing better than an ice-cold bottle of Coke. My sister and I used to get a dollar from my grandmother, and walk about four blocks with my little sister, down to the Pak-a-Sak, and buy two Coca-Colas, two candy bars, and two comic books. I was six. She was four. We were barefoot and unaccompanied. It would have been around 1963. I can still taste that ice cold drink, feel the thick, green glass bottle in my six-year-old hand, condensation dripping onto my bare feet. I didn’t know it then, but this was what Heaven will be like.
[Read more…] about Woka-Cola.Lies, Damned Lies, and The Media.
I’ve always loved newspapers. When I was a kid, I had a paper route. I always had a couple of extra newspapers in the bundle, just to make sure that I had enough, if one got messed up, and every afternoon, I’d take one of the spares, and read it, pretty much cover to cover. Back then, reading a paper was a great way to learn about the world, the nation, and your own area. Newspapers used to have a couple of really important rules: 1) Don’t allow advertisers to influence your news coverage, and 2) Maintain a wall between hard news and opinion. Section A of the paper was always hard news – stories that provided the facts of the subject, in what we in Journalism class called the “Inverted Pyramid.” The idea was to provide all the salient details up-front, with more and more details further in. In a way, this is the opposite of how you’d write a story – in fiction, you want to create a hook at the beginning, to grab the reader and draw them deeper into the story. Well into the tale, you deliver the details and critical information to the story.
[Read more…] about Lies, Damned Lies, and The Media.Are Color Palettes Racist?
This whole “color thing” is getting confusing. We’re being segregated into “white,” “black,” “brown,” and “yellow,” as if that should matter. And “white” is supposed to be racist, because in the past, white people referred to people of color “black,” “brown” and “yellow.” In fact, you’re apparently a racist just for being white. But the Left claims you can’t be a racist if you’re black, brown or yellow which, ironically, sounds pretty racist to me.
So what’s the deal about color? I’m a graphic artist. I mean, if a graphic artist can’t get a handle on this, how will anybody else be able to understand color theory. Let me try to explain…
[Read more…] about Are Color Palettes Racist?My Apologies. (Not.)
I grew up with parents that taught me that being polite was essential to being a gentleman. I was told to say “Please,” and “Thank you,” as well as calling adults “Mister,” “Missus,” or “Miss” before their last names, and to say “Yes sir” or “No Ma’am” as was appropriate. I was also taught that when I made a mistake, to own it, make amends for it, and apologize to those I hurt or offended.
Times, sadly, have changed.
With the advent of the Woke Supremacy, the rules of engagement have changed, and not for the better. In my youth, a heartfelt apology was seen as a mark of proper breeding. Today, it’s a sign of weakness, a mistake meant to be exploited to destroy one’s enemies. Don’t believe me? Read on, MacDuff, and damned be he who first cries “I’m sorry.”
Take any case of someone who has run afoul of the Cancel Culture choir. Let’s say, sometime in a more innocent age, you dressed up in some ethnic costume for Halloween. Could have been a sombrero and sarape. Could have been a rainbow-colored afro wig. Maybe a native Arab costume. Pictures were taken. Fun was had. Nobody thought a thing about this. But then, a decade later, a photo surfaces, and you are accused of “cultural appropriation,” and “mocking a protected demographic group.” Ruh-rho, Rohge. You’re in big trouble now. For all of about fifteen minutes (the attention span of the Woke Mob. Unless…unless you apologize and show contrition for your insensitive actions. You didn’t know…it was okay back then…you’ll never do it again, promise! Except, it’s too late now. You’re dead. Oh, maybe not in the physical sense, but you’re career is cancelled, your friends are afraid to talk to you, and you suddenly have no life. Congratulations. You made the fatal mistake of being polite and apologizing.
Donald Trump understood this, instinctively. He never apologized. And for four years, the Left found it impossible to stop him. He did not play by the rules. Compare and contrast this with just about every politician on the Right, who apologized, tried to atone, and found themselves cancelled.
NOTE: There is one exception to all this. If you are on the Left, and either seriously intersectional or in a position of power, you can ride it out, as long as you don’t apologize. The trick is to allow others to apologize for you. You see, there’s a pecking order in the Woke Nation. The more “marginalized” demographics you belong to, the less you have to worry. So let’s say you use the dreaded “N” word, even in a way that is illustrating how you should never use the word, because of its offensive power. If you’re a Conservative, you’re dead. If you’re a Leftist and a white male, you’re still dead, but they’ll send flowers. If you are a Leftist white female, you’re right on the bubble. If you are Leftist, white, female and straight, say sayonara to your career. But…if you’re Leftist, white, female and Lesbian or claim to self-identify as a male, you will likely survive. Those that are Leftist, non-white, on the LGBTQ/EIEO+ scale, and worship Stalin or Satan, you can use the word with absolute impunity.
Am I the only one that sees how stupid this is?
This past week, I was pilloried for using the term “Christian name” instead of “first name” and writing “May God have mercy on us.”
The horror.
I interacted with an angry, white, butch-looking atheist. From her profile pic, I’m just guessing, but I’d be on pretty safe ground to add “Lesbian” to that list. Maybe even “transgendered.” I knew precisely what to do. I doubled-down, explained my reasoning using logic, and refused to apologize. Oh, and I blocked her, after repeated warnings to avoid making personal attacks. She didn’t refrain, so I took a page from Orwell and made her an un-person.
I find it hilarious to hear the righteous indignation coming out of those on the Left, when they discover they are not safe from the Cancel cougars and curmudgeons who demand their pound of flesh. You can just hear the gears turning in their tiny little brains, as they think, “But wait! I’m not a bad person! I’m not a (shudder) CONSERVATIVE! I’m on YOUR side! Why are you picking on me!” By then, of course, it’s too late, they’ve been eviscerated, career-wise, their only hope to find some Betty Ford program for Leftist foot-in-mouth syndrome.
So here’s my recommendation. Don’t apologize. Ever. Wear your verbal gaffes and photos from the past like a badge of courage. Stand up. Be counted. Because I’ve got news for you. There are more of us than there are of them, and if we simply STOP taking them seriously, the will go away. For good.
Things go better when Woke?
By now, you’ve probably heard about an internal Powerpoint stack that was leaked to the public, put together by the diversity department at Coca-Cola, and how they were trying to train employees to be “less white.” You might not have seen the original story, but you couldn’t miss all the memes flying about the ‘net, mocking Coke and their misbegotten messaging. (My particular fave are the ones that show Coke firing the polar bears, and hiring brown and black bears instead, because the polar bears are…wait for it…too white.)
Yes. Wokeness has gotten that stupid.
[Read more…] about Things go better when Woke?Rush is Gone. But Never Forgotten.
I’ve been dreading this day.
I’ve known it was coming, likely sooner than later. But even that advance warning wasn’t enough to lessen the blow.
Rush Limbaugh has succumbed to lung cancer.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/rush-limbaugh-dead-talk-radio-conservative-icon
[Read more…] about Rush is Gone. But Never Forgotten.Jeep Takes a Left(ist) Turn
I’ve held back from commenting on the SuperBowl Jeep ad for a bit, because I wanted to see if others felt about it the way I do.
Weirdly, both Leftists and Conservatives seem to feel the same way. They hate it. But for different reasons.
If you haven’t seen it, it features Bruce Springsteen as his trademarked character, the Working Man™, riding around Kansas, in a Jeep that’s gotta predate the Vietnam War. He’s drinking a cuppa Joe in a diner, driving the backroads, and (metaphorically) wrapping himself in the American flag, all the while staking a claim for unity in America.Lots to unpack on this one. So let’s get started.
Lying is bad. Lying to yourself is worse.
How to tell if someone is lying:
The old answer about politicians is, “If their lips are moving.” Funny, and often true, but how can you tell if someone is lying in print, especially here on Facebook. Another political axiom springs to mind, namely: “If you don’t like the question you’re asked, answer a different one you do like.”
In another post on my wall, some friends have gotten into a ‘spirited’ discussion on a scientific/political issue. I asked a question of one of the people on the opposite side of the issue. He has now ducked my question at least four times, trying to evade the question by changing the subject. I know why. To answer my question means he would have to expose one of the leaders of his side as a fraud, or at the very least, a raging hypocrite.
[Read more…] about Lying is bad. Lying to yourself is worse.Everything That’s Old is New Again
I was born in the late ’50s, a little too late to experience the McCarthy Era firsthand. For those of you not familiar, Senator Joseph R. McCarthy (R-IL) saw his political career rise, then fall, much like Daedalus, soaring high, then quickly crashing and burning. McCarthy was convinced that there were Communist sympathizers in both the Federal government and in the entertainment industry. Turns out, a couple of things were true: McCarthy was right, in that there were Communists and Communist sympathizers, in both the government and in Hollywood. He was also wrong in the way he pursued them, in what came to be called the “Red Scare” and the “Witch Hunts” of the 1950s.
[Read more…] about Everything That’s Old is New Again