Captain Digital

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

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Free Money.

Just when the going gets weird…it gets even weirder.

Today, the Fed dropped the Prime to .25%. I’m no math genius or financial wizard, but that means that the Federal Reserve is loaning banks money for 1/4 of a percent. That’s 1/4 of a percent away from FREE. This means that if a bank actually has money to loan, and if you’re credit is squeaky-clean (know anybody like that? I don’t…) you can get a loan for a ridiculously low rate.

Mere mortals need not apply.

I’m sure everybody’s gonna wonder and worry over this. I don’t know why – when the Treasury is printing money like spammers send bulk emails, it’s all funny money. The only worry here is what are they gonna do when we get to ZERO? To cut rates further than that, we’d have to do negative interest, in other words, have the government pay the banks to take their money.

Oh, wait…they’re kinda already doing that. It’s called the TARP funds program.

Whoops.

Not much to say about this, other than buckle your seatbelts…it’s gonna be a bumpy night week month year decade.

Happy Holly-Dazed.

Went out shoppin’ with the fam’ tonight. First time this holiday season. Being in Amarillo, traffic wasn’t that bad (our idea of rush hour is when a Farmer’s combine breaks down on what we laughingly here call the “Loop”…it was a good 12 months after I moved here before I was able to stop laughing maniacally, every time someone mentioned the words “rush hour” locally). Of course, some places are the same the world over. Never been in a Hobby Lobby at any time of day/year, for instance, where there wasn’t a line at every available register. But I digress. [Read more…] about Happy Holly-Dazed.

Governorgate.

I’m I the only one that is watching the situation in Illinois with a sense of 70’s déjà vù? I mean, this is kind of like watching the döppelganger of a famous scandal (that gave us the postfix “-gate”). I was all of 16 years old, between my junior and senior years in high school in 1974. I was at Louisiana Boys’ State, learning about government down in Baton Rouge – the state capitol. They called us into a big hall and had us sit down and get quiet. Nobody told us what was going on, but we knew it was something bad from the solemn looks on all the adult’s faces. Richard Nixon’s voice came on the radio. He announced that he was resigning from the Presidency. 

You could have heard a pin drop. Some 350-odd teenage boys, not breathing, not making a sound. It was history being made, and we all knew it. 

So you see, I have a special connection to Watergate. And I know that those who do not remember history are condemned to repeat it. Let’s see how we’re doing so far: [Read more…] about Governorgate.

What’s good for General Motors…

Chales Irwin Wilson
Charles Irwin Wilson

…is good for America, or to be completely accurate, “What was good for our country was good for General Motors and vice versa”, or so said Charles Erwin Wilson, Ike’s Secretary of Defense back in the 50’s. He believed that anything that was good for GM was good for America, because the two economies were inexorably intertwined. But what is good for General Motors?

I’ve been following the bailout of the Big Three for a long time. And I’ve got some ideas on a REAL solution…not this three-card Monte they’re playing in Congress. Real solutions. Here’s my ideas: [Read more…] about What’s good for General Motors…

G-Rod gets caught red-handed.

NEWS ITEM: Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, were arrested today by FBI agents for what U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald called a “staggering” level of corruption involving pay to play politics in Illinois’ top office.

Blagojevich is accused of a wide-ranging criminal conspiracy, including alleged attempts by the governor to try to sell or trade the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by President-elect Barack Obama in exchange for financial benefits for the governor and his wife. Blagojevich also is accused of obtaining campaign contributions in exchange for other official actions.

FBI agents served a search warrant on his office at the Thompson Center this morning, said Frank Bochte, an FBI spokesman.

Blagojevich was taken into federal custody at his North Side home this morning—one day shy of his 52nd birthday.

Wow. [Read more…] about G-Rod gets caught red-handed.

As scene on TV…

One of the many benefits of having a home office is having a TV on my desk. I keep it tuned to Fox News or the Sirius Classic Jazz channel for most of the day – having either a background of news or jazz suits me just fine. I also have a conveniently-located mute button, in case I need to take a call, work on audio, or if it gets distracting.

This time of year, most companies pushing gifts spend a year’s worth of ad budgets in 30 days or less. Where as before November 2nd we were assaulted with All Political Ads, All The Time, now it’s ads for Omaha Steaks (making me hungry), has-been singers pushing a Greatest Hits album, or the latest and greatest kitchen appliance, each and every one guaranteed to be The Perfect Christmas Gift.

I’m sure you’re as annoyed with this kind of dreck as I am – at least you would be if you left your TV on all day. My vote for the most annoying ad in the Fox News rotation? Christy Lane’s 30 Christmas Classics. [Read more…] about As scene on TV…

Dr. StrangeGun.

…Or How I Wish I Could Stop Analyzing and Enjoy the Movies.

When I was a kid, there were three things I loved – listening to live music, watching live theatre, and going to the movies. In short, entertainment needed to be live or larger than life to jazz me. As I grew up and became a professional musician, my love of live music was tempered by my knowledge. In other words, since I was no longer blissfully ignorant, a slightly out-of-tune french horn or drummer that rushed a little really bugged me – to the point where I could pay attention to nothing other than what to me were glaring errors. Kind of a bummer, really. Can’t tell you how many otherwise fine events have been spoiled for me that way. [Read more…] about Dr. StrangeGun.

O.J. (Karmically speaking.)

Karma. What goes around comes around. Fate. Call it what you will, it looks as if Orinthal Julius Simpson has finally gotten what he deserves. I’m not sure if the time he’ll serve is more severe because of his infamy over beating the rap for murdering his wife and a waiter. It could be that he’ll serve less time, because he’s famous. In this case, I doubt it, because he already used his “Get out of Jail FREE” card he was issued due to his fame. Nope, I think he’s getting what he’s gotten, at least partially because he got off scott-free before. Not just that – he got off, and then spent the intervening years searching for his wife’s “real” killer on the nation’s finest golf courses.

Give me a break. [Read more…] about O.J. (Karmically speaking.)

Living in the Age of Tivo

When I was a kid, there were three channels where I lived – CBS, ABC, and NBC. Because our entertainment options were limited, everybody in my “social circle” watched the same programs at the same time. God help you if you missed The Green Hornet or The Time Tunnel the next day at school…you’d have nothing to talk about.

Today, things are a lot different. Our satellite system delivers hundreds of channels. (Sadly, there’s still nothing on TV really worth watching.) Even better, my digital video recorder makes it possible for me to watch the shows I like when I want to watch them – and skip over the commercial breaks.

That rocks.

Still, even with a system I would have given an arm, a leg, and probably several other appendages for when I was a kit, there are still problems. For instance, if a station or network decides to delay the start of a program due to some event running over it’s allotted time, you’ll record only a portion of your program, and miss at least the last few minutes. This has happened to me more than once. It’s annoying. It’s frustrating. It’s aggravating. Still, if this is my biggest problem in life, I think I can learn how to Cowboy up. Besides…I can always go watch the episode online if I miss something…

The Paradox Effect.

This perception versus reality thing is rearing it’s ugly head again in regards to the Presidency. Just about every conservative pundit and blogger out there (myself included) looked at Obama’s record in the Illinois legislature and U.S. Senate (what record there was) and assumed that he would immediately make good on his campaign promise to bring our troops home from Iraq immediately. He promised to be a different kind of politician, putting together an administration that did not represent Washington insiders, but outsiders, with new, fresh, progressive ideas. 

I don’t know that I’ve ever been more comforted to discover that Obama is the same old kind of mendacious, obfuscating, say-anything-to-get-elected-and-then-do-what-you-have-to-no-matter-what-you-promised brand of politician. In short, Obama lied. He gave every indication that he was going to tilt our defense and homeland security hard to the left. In fact, if we can judge future performance by his cabinet nominees, he’s going straight to the center, bypassing a main course of “dove” with a healthy serving of “hawk.”

Thank God. [Read more…] about The Paradox Effect.