Captain Digital

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

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You need to see this.

I’m not in the habit of endorsing products or companies. For a couple of reasons. First, it’s not like people are looking at me as if I’m the Great White Hope to dethrone the Oprah-centric world. Second, I like to think that people should make up their own minds as to how good a product might be. And Third, if you’re gonna buy my endorsement, my price is pretty high (a chalet in the Swiss Alps) and frankly, nobody’s been willing to meet my price (as of yet…I’ll let you know).

That not withstanding, a catalog came across my desk the other day, and I can’t help but to recommend it to you, my loyal readers. [Read more…] about You need to see this.

Where will it all end?

I’m a big fan of Gilbert & Sullivan. In their immortal operetta, The Gondoliers, the ingeneue’s father, the Duke of Plaza-Toro (Count Matadoro, Baron Picadoro), realizes that being a member of the nobility is at odds with his current, destitute state of affairs. His novel solution was to apply for by the public under the Limited Liability Company Act. In American terms, that means he “went public,” offering shares in his Dukedom on the stock exchange. If Gilbert & Sullivan were alive today, I’m sure they’d write The Gondoliers II – The Baratarian Pirates Strike Back, where they’d script the Duke in debt once again, applying to the government for a bailout.

First it was the mortgage companies.

Then the insurance companies.

Next it was the automobile companies.

Now the credit card companies step up for a handout.

Will somebody please tell me where this governmental largess (with OUR friggin’ money!) will end? [Read more…] about Where will it all end?

I’ve got rhythm. (And you can, too.)

 

My daughter – let’s call her “Private Digital” – is studying the violin. She played with her symphony orchestra this past Saturday. Way cool. I wish I’d been able to play with a symphonic orchestra when I was in grade school. (I got to play with a lot of jazz combos and rock groups, but that’s another story.)

What I find interesting is that in many ways, she’s much like most of my better students, back when I taught music lessons for a living. I found that the ones that were pretty sharp had more trouble with the mechanics of music, because they relied on their ears instead of their eyes. That may sound odd, since music is an aural media, but using your eyes (to read music) is essential. It’s what makes the difference between someone who plays violin and a violinist. [Read more…] about I’ve got rhythm. (And you can, too.)

Economics and Perception.

One of my favorite stories involves a blind street vendor of hot dogs. One day, one his customers suggested that if business was good, he should consider expanding. The customer offered to help the blind vendor with introductions to a banker, and so the vendor ended up buying a second cart, and hiring someone to work for him. That worked out so well, that he was able to buy more carts, and hire more people. This gave him enough discretionary income that he was able to send his son to college. The son majored in business administration. When the kid graduated, he returned home to see that his dad had purchased a corner lot and an old diner trailer that he rennovated and opened as a freestanding restaurant. The son was horrified. “Dad…don’t you know the economy is lousy! You shouldn’t be expanding right now…you need to pull in your horns and hunker down for a long recessionary period. This has got “Depression” written all over it! You’d better be careful, or you’ll lose everything!” 

The father thought, “Well…my son did go to college, which I’ve never done, and he did major in business, and he did get a degree. Maybe he’s right.” So he sold the restaurant, sold off the other carts, and went back to working a single street corner, selling hot dogs. He thought, “Boy, my son was right. The economy is lousy.” [Read more…] about Economics and Perception.

Fatherhood.

I was at a banquet tonight given under the auspices of “America Supports You,” a group that helps Americans show tangible support for our military personnel and their families. It got me to thinking about tough jobs. Anybody serving in our military has a tough job. That almost (but not quite) goes without saying. Military families have a tough (and usually under-appreciated) job, too. Keeping things going stateside while your significant other is deployed can be every bit demanding (in a quite different way) from serving in harm’s way. Tonight, I’d like to talk about another tough job: Fatherhood. [Read more…] about Fatherhood.

October Surprise(s).

shirt courtesy of www.vectorright.com
shirt courtesy of www.vectorright.com

In most election years, candidates worry about the “October Surprise” phenomenon – late-breaking bad news for a candidate, that makes a big enough impression to reduce their vote count, with not enough time left to counter the bad news before the November election.

Barack Obama is not “most candidates.”

The Chosen One instead has a (dirty) laundry list of things to worry about, and I’m not talking about his “Great Pumpkin” infomercial from last night. Some are relatively new. Some, like Christopher Lee in a Hammer Films Dracula flick, just keep rising again from the grave: [Read more…] about October Surprise(s).

Conservative News…and Views.

Amarillo is a pretty conservative place. Conservative politically. Conservative socially. Conservative fiscally. So it came as something of a surprise to me that there was no local, conservative newspaper or magazine to provide conservative viewpoints on local and national issues.

Now, there is.

The Amarillo American Standard has released it’s first issue, as of today. I designed it, and contributed both artwork and one feature story. It’s available all over Amarillo, at various merchants. If you’d like to look at a copy online (and don’t mind a 3MB PDF) you can download it here.

This is the “preview issue” – the plan is to begin publishing on a weekly basis, starting in January.

Let me know what you think.

Karma is a Hillary.

shirt courtesy of VectorRight.com

There are so many ironies in the last days of the campaign, that I hardly know where to begin. But I’ll try. Here’s a baker’s half-dozen things that I think the Left is doing to hand McCain the victory he wants, and the country needs:

ITEM ONE:
The latest flaw in the Master Plan of The Chosen One revolves around a video tape detailing the close, personal relationship Obama had with a Palestinian terrorist. At least that’s what it smells like, but the L.A. Times (“All the news we slant and print”) won’t release it. They’ll be more than happy to tell us what (they say) is on the tape, but are standing on “journalistic ethics” (an oxymoron, with an emphasis on the last two syllables) if ever I heard one), and refuse to release it. [Read more…] about Karma is a Hillary.

No, I’M Spartacus!

You gotta love the whole Joe the Plumber thing. For all the efforts John McCain has made to make a dent in Obama’s Teflon armor, it took a blue collar guy like Joe to make a connection to We the People…(Hey! This guy Obama is gonna take my money and redistribute it to people who don’t work, or don’t have as much money as I do!)

Of course, the Obama campaign, those on the Left, and the mainstream media could not let this go unchallenged. [Read more…] about No, I’M Spartacus!

Groupthink.

groupthink (grūp’thĭngk’) n. The act or practice of reasoning or decision-making by a group, especially when characterized by uncritical acceptance or conformity to prevailing points of view.

It is a part of human nature to want to belong. Belonging takes many forms – families, clubs, schools, sports teams and their fans, and even politics. In society, many of us classify themselves by labels that indicate to which group we belong. Conservative. Liberal. Republican. Democrat. But where things get weird is when one group takes hold of the idea that their ideas and beliefs are not only superior to the other groups, but that the other groups are stupid, wrong, and even dangerous.

Welcome to politics in 2008. [Read more…] about Groupthink.