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The Riot Act
GO GREEN AND SAVE THE PLANET!
(Not really, it's just corporate hype to save some bucks)
Isn't it great how big corporations are allowing us to
"go green" by letting them email our bills and junk ads rather than their
having to mail them? Gives you warm, green shivers doesn't it?
Never mind that the real reason they want us to "go green" is because it
saves them postage and printing costs.
The truth is it takes the procurement and refining of
lots of metals and minerals (including gold and silver) and extensive
molding of plastics and the use of hydrocarbons just to make a computer.
And guess how you run a computer? Electricity that comes
largely from the combustion of coal.
And never you mind that dead electronic devices have become a huge
stream of toxic waste that we have yet to fully deal with.
I like paper bills and paper junk mail. Besides, I'm Irish so I'm
already well acquainted with green.
THE TROUBLE WITH THE NEW H1N1 FLU
SHOTS IS MARKETING! Why does the cost of H1N1 flu shots keep going
down? Two months ago they were unavailable in my area, then when the
vaccine showed up it was $20 a shot. Now it's $10. Maybe they'd
sell more of the shots if they tried a different marketing approach.
So many drugs have happy, smiley names, like Celebrex
("Celebrex good times, come on!!") and Ascenden ("I'm ascending, I'm
floating my way up into the sky, ahhhhhhh") and even old Dimetapp (sounds
cheap, huh?...but based on the real price they ought to call it
"50-cents-a-tapp").
The drug companies should rename the H1N1 shot and
maybe call it "FluOver," like "YOUR flu fears are OVER!" (or like One Flew
Over the Cuckoo's Nest).
Or maybe they should call it "Affluent" to
give consumers the feeling they're rich because they've had their shot.
Millions of people are out of work. We need to hear words like
"affluent."
Considering how dangerous the shot appears to be to
some people, maybe they should market it as "Advench-aflu." ("Be
adventurous! Get pandemic relief with Advenchaflu!")
Or just market it as protection against a very strange flu, and base
the campaign on price ("Your expensive $20 flu shot is now PRICED JUST
RIGHT! Get your shot, give us a $20 bill and we'll give you TEN
DOLLARS BACK, guaranteed! Now that's change you can believe in!").
PRESIDENT OBAMA CALLS FOR BIGGEST BANK OVERHAUL SINCE
THE GREAT DEPRESSION...NOW THAT THE BIGGEST OVERDRAW OF TAXPAYERS SINCE THE
GREAT DEPRESSION HAS RESULTED IN A GREAT HAUL BY BANKERS, DERIVATIVES
MARKETERS AND RE-INSURANCE COMPANIES IS OVER! WHAT?
That's the problem with the current economy. Nobody can figure it out
except the ripoff bums.
(Overhauling the banks is a no-brainer: Reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act,
which limited speculation by banks and others, which was repealed in 1999.
That repeal led to the current Great Recession. But it's like Vice President
Hubert Humphrey said in 1969 about how to end the Vietnam War: "We must not
look for easy answers.")

QUOTE
OF THE YEAR (SO FAR:)
"Let’s get one thing
clear once and for all: the only person who has ever been allowed to “reach
out” (and, in her case, touch someone you love) was Diana Ross.
Anyone else should just “get in touch with” their colleagues, perhaps even
“write a letter” asking for their views. What was once a mild rash has
become a contagious bug and we need to find a vaccine for all this reaching
out. Not only is it a drippy, meaningless phrase, it also conjures up an
unpleasant image of people’s sweaty paws grabbing at you.
"The people
who “reach out” are also those whose thinking is always “blue sky”, who
can’t describe anything vaguely contemporary without incorrectly enlisting
phrases such as “minimalist” or “modernist” and who don’t have to hurry to
the airport but need to “rocket” there. But for now if we can just get
everyone to delete “reach out” from their memory banks, opening our emails
in 2010 will be a less tense experience. And if they don’t, perhaps we’ll
have to reach out – and grab them by the throat."
-- Monocle magazine
A Marist College poll shows how
much we hate certain overused words.
The top 5 most
annoying words:
Whatever: 47 percent
You know: 25 percent
It is what it is: 11 percent
Anyway: 7 percent
At the end of the day: 2 percent
It may be a sign of our cultural laziness that we allow our
communication to be so debased. When it comes to the rich,
cultural heritage of the English language, we should be ashamed to
obfuscate our precious language. Anyway at the end of the day,
it is what it is, you know, whatever.
BREAKING THE ICE
...We got a new refrigerator not too
long ago. When it happened my family leapt into the 21st
Century. It's really nice because you don't have to use
trays to make ice. The icemaker works great, but it's just not
the same as having big squares of ice for a soft drink. These
ice "cubes" are like big, thick half-moons. Every time I reach
for a handful of ice, I drop at least one "cube" on the floor.
I'm going to try the built-in ice crusher soon. I'll
probably find a way to drop some of that on the floor too. But
since they're not ice "cubes" anymore, what do I say to my family?
"Oh, I just spilled another ice half moon again?" "Oh, look, again I
spilled some slush?" They're already worried about me. I
can't say that.
Kind of Like Brain Droppings
"Why do Americans choose from just two people to run for
president and 50 for Miss America?"
"Children: You spend the first 2 years of their life teaching
them to walk and talk. Then you spend the next 16 years telling
them to sit down and shut-up."
'If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple
of payments."
"How is it one careless match can start a forest fire, but it
takes a whole box to start a campfire?"
"You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a
parachute to skydive twice."
"Some people say "If you can't beat them, join them". I say
"If you can't beat them, beat them", because they will be
expecting you to join them, so you will have the element of
surprise."
"TV can insult your intelligence, but nothing rubs it in like a computer."
-- From Onelinerz.net: The
TOP 100
funniest one-liners on the internet
SIX
STRANGE FOODS
AlterNet has come up with "The 6 Weirdest, Scariest Processed
Foods," and they are remarkable. I
already knew (did you?) that the prime ingredient in the white
filling in Oreos is Crisco, a vegetable alternative to lard, but a
fat is a fat. The other prime ingredient is sugar.
Did you know that the addition of
chemicals like trisodium phosphate in Kraft Easy Cheese (the
cheese from the spray can, remember?) causes much of the calcium to
be leeched from the cheese-like product squirted from the can?
So Kraft has to add extra calcium to make up for it.
Canned condensed soup contains about 90% of the sodium (salt) you
should have in one day. AlterNet says Spam is essentially
pork-flavored Jello. And what are those things that look like
blueberries in blueberry waffles? Are they blueberries?
No, they're bits of blueberry-flavored sugar.
And you may have looked at the ingredients in Kraft's guacamole
dip and noticed that avacado is not an ingredient. Real
guacamole is always made with avocado, so how does Kraft do it?
Flavoring. AlterNet points out that when this was brought to
Kraft's attention, the dip was renamed "guacamole-flavored"
dip.
With as much Easy Cheese, Spam, Oreos and condensed soup we were
fed when we were children, how did we live through childhood?
NOW LISTEN UP YOU PEOPLE!!
On blogs such as this one you're supposed to rant, so I just
wanted to mention that one of the things that really bugs me about
some people is when they say, "Listen up!" As soon as you say
that I immediately stop listening. If I were in the military
and my DI said that, I'd listen. I'm not so I don't.
I also stop listening to anyone who refers to me as part of a
crowd when that person addresses us as "You people," or even worse,
just "people." As in "listen up, people." What? I
was listening kindly till you addressed me in that demeaning, stupid way.
-- MS
GOOD MORNING
SUNSHINE!
(Robin Meade didn't make up
that phrase, y'know) This is from the other day in
Yahoo! Finance: "Retail maven" Howard Davidowitz says
THERE'S NO HOPE FOR AMERICA! We're "in the tank forever" he
says, just to make sure we know he's acquainted with hyperbole.

Davidowitz
But here are his
specifics:
"On retail:
- "The retail business is terrible... It's
almost all negative."
- "We're going to close hundreds of thousands of
stores."
On the consumer:
- "They’re still over leveraged, they're losing
jobs, their credit has been cut back."
On America:
- "We are in the tank forever. As a country we
are out of control, we're in a death spiral."
On the stock market:
- "We're in terrible shape. That's what the
fundamentals tell me. I can't explain the stock
market."
He does offer some hope -- yes, hope despite our
"death spiral:" He likes Family Dollar, Dollar
Tree and 99-Cents Only stores (we coulda told you
they're great places for bargains, but he says
they're also exceptionally well-run retailers).
Oh and he says Kohl's will be among the few
survivors among department stores when the economy
rebounds, because of Kohl's cost controls.
So I want to ask Mr. Davidowitz: when is the
economy going to finally rebound? Given his
penchant for optimism, I would expect an answer
like, oh, "2017."
Green shootdown?
As hybrid cars gobble rare metals, shortage
looms
The Prius hybrid automobile is popular for its fuel efficiency,
but its electric motor and battery guzzle rare earth metals, a
little-known class of elements found in a wide range of gadgets and
consumer goods.
That
makes Toyota's market-leading gasoline-electric hybrid car and other
similar vehicles vulnerable to a supply crunch predicted by experts
as China, the world's dominant rare earths producer, limits exports
while global demand swells.
Perhaps it's
a story of the often-thin line between talent
and madness...
Speaking of the Houston Press, it's now
ten years ago that the little Oil Town weekly
free-paper did a heartbreaking history on the rise
and fall of a quite talented filmmaker from Texas
named Eagle Pennell.
When I knew him he was one of the most
enthusiastic would-be movie directors you'd ever
want to meet. He had such charm because this
gangly young guy dearly loved to talk about movies,
just as my friends and I did. Later he started
to become successful and for some reason, his
downhill slide was much too quick.

Eagle Pennell
Not long before he seemed ready to descend upon
Hollywood with a resume that you might envy, he
ended up a homeless derelict. Still, I raise a
glass to you, Eagle. I know you wish you could be
here to be part of it, both for the glass and to
once again talk film.
The grande auteur of Eagle's Houston
Press story, Steve McVicar, caught up with
Pennell for this tender story just as Eagle's psyche
eventually caught up with Eagle, you might say.
Never mind McVicar's crass judgment that Pennell was
a "loser." To me, it's a tragedy in the
classic sense of the term:
FADE TO BLACK
Eagle's insightful movie about hope and
hopelessness in The Lone Star State -- The Whole
Shootin' Match -- has now been released on DVD:
LET THE EAGLE SOAR

At the end of the year, I remember
the death of John Hughes, the
brilliantly talented comedy writer and director who made so many
great movies, from the "National Lampoon's Vacation" films to the
"Home Alone" movies to my personal favorites, "The Breakfast Club"
and "16 Candles."
In case you missed his obituaries, he worked
hard and became a solid filmmaker, but was also
known to be a fine human being, something of a rarity in Hollywood.
Maybe that's why he didn't spend his last years in LaLaLand.
Here's a very touching blog from a Hughes fan who
got to know him pretty well and can corroborate Hughes' kindnesses
-- and fondness for those of us who loved his work:
wellknowwhenwegetthere.blogspot.com
Okay, so columnists keep saying that
Tuesday's Massachusetts election indicates that people are fed up with
President Obama's policies. So the nation is moving toward
Republicans. As an Independent, I have to ask you:
If you vote Democrat and you don't like what's happening and then you vote
Republican and then you don't like what's happening...isn't that kind of
like Einstein's definition of insanity: You keep doing the same thing
over and over again and expecting different results?
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I LOVE FACEBOOK! NOW IT'S TIME FOR THE NEXT GENERATION OF
SOCIAL SITES! I once saw a
high school friend ten years after graduation and the first thing he said
was, "Hey Mike! Can you loan me ten bucks?" Sweet guy. That was back in the
days when you saw people in person and had to really face them and maybe
talked on the phone.
Then came Caller ID, so you could ignore the people you didn't want to
talk to on the phone, but you still had to acknowledge people you met in
person. Except John Green, a guy I used to work with, who saw me in a
supermarket once and walked right past me like a zombie -- eyes wide and
straight ahead -- even though I was saying "Hi John." But that was
John Green.
Email was great because people could send you a note, pouring out their
heart or asking a sincere question, and you could ignore it. If you
ever took their phone call, perhaps mistaking the Caller ID, you could then
tell them that you never got the email. They couldn't prove you did.
Now you can live your life on Facebook or MySpace, and never have to
interact socially except when you choose to -- and you create your own
image. The only information people have about you on Facebook or
MySpace is the information you choose to give them. You can still
ignore anyone and everybody if you want.
Ugly? Put up a fake photo of a good-looking person and attach your
name. Anti-social? Pretend to be social at your own convenience,
when you're in the mood. Good-looking but don't like people? Put up a
photo of "yourself" that resembles those Neanderthals in those
FreeCreditReport ads.
But then you can reveal everything about yourself on FaceBook and people
will know all they want to know about you without ever wanting to contacting
you. That's another way to keep people at bay. And a great way to get
people to check a box that says "I like this!" without actually saying
anything.
Put up on FaceBook that you're having a wonderful time in Europe!
Great! I know your address and it's a great time to burglarize your
house!
Or be really coy and have one of those FaceBook pages that says "Farish
Shanna only shares information with certain people [and you're certainly not
one of them!]. Ask Farish to be your friend and maybe you'll get
lucky."
Now we need a social website where we don't have to do anything, just put
up a fake biography (much like many resumes today). People will then
start sending us fan letters! Hundreds of them! Just like all those
truly loyal people who follow our every 140-character pronouncements on
Twitter!
Then we can separate ourselves from other people completely, but pretend
we're still alive and very, very important on a worldwide basis!
No pain, all gain!
Life don't get no better than that.
IT'S COLD! How cold is
it?
It's so cold we had to chisel the dog off a fire hydrant.
It's so cold the
underwear bomber is considering trying again. That's cold.
It's so cold President Obama has decided he's going to take the
heat...for anything.
That's not a rock in your shoe, that's your toe.
Sarah Palin was seen wandering the streets of midtown Manhattan carrying
a gun, saying it's "great to be home in Alaska." She ended up shooting
and mounting that thing on Donald Trump's head.
People are moving to Buffalo for the warmer climate.
Joy Behar is now considered "warm."
New York cabbies are wearing flannel turbans.
My mom is serving chicken soup popsicles.
I was so blue when I got to work my boss asked if I was a Smurf.
People are so desperate for hot air they're putting their hands to Nancy
Pelosi's mouth.
-- We miss you, Johnny.
The Top 10 Words of the Year Are...
The No. 1 political catchphrase for the decade, according to the Global
Language Monitor, is "We hear you!" Former President George W. Bush said
those words standing in the rubble of Ground Zero following the September
11, 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York City.
Other political catchphrases of the decade are:
Global warming/climate change (2000)
War on terror (2001)
Weapons of mass destruction (2002)
Embedded (2003)
Shock and awe (2003)
The audacity of hope (2007)
Economic meltdown/financial tsunami (2008)
Obamamania (2008)
Decade ahead could see big changes in energy, schools
Natural gas, wind and solar are
the darlings of the alternative energy movement, but Patrick Tucker of the
World Futurist Society puts something else near the top of the list: algae.
"Algae has the potential to be the most important biofuel," Tucker said in a
telephone interview.
"The Great Salt Lake could produce $250 billion worth of it a year. It could
be grown by irrigation with saltwater on land that's now considered
wasteland."
2010 --
Digital
Piracy: The Trend Of The Decade
Special Report: America's route to recovery
Does a College Degree Protect your Career?
Unemployment Rate for College Graduates Highest on Record
(Turn around) Every now and then I get a little
annoyed when they're playing that old song (turn around) "Total Eclipse of the
Heart." I'm sure you've always wondered: How does that tune break down into a chart?
The amazing answer is
here. --MS
$100
million question: Where's broadband in US?
The No. 1 Song That Changed the World
Folk singer Mary Travers of Peter,
Paul and Mary dead at 72
We're
going to have zombie capitalism for the next 15-20 years,' says
Jim Rogers

Interviews With Legends of Television Hit the Web
Paul Burke, ‘Naked City’ Star, Dies at 83
New Set-Top Box Promises To Bring 3D to Television
5 things to hate about HDTV
Patrick Swayze: Near the End, He Said...
America's Favorite TV Dad Is...
Digital Contacts Will Keep an Eye on Your Vital Signs

THE NEXT
POLITICAL SUPERSTAR?
COULD BE!

DIANE SAWYER IS THE NEW ABC
EVENING NEWS HOST Well,
she waited long enough. This woman is 63? She's likely the oldest
person ever to acquire a national network anchor job. Forget
about those YouTube videos where she appears to be drunk. The big
question is:
Now who will replace her on Good Yawning America?
And BTW forget about those YouTube videos where Anderson Cooper
appears to be drunk, too. We all have bad days.
Meanwhile one of the fastest-rising newsmen in television
history is former Clinton advisor George Stephanopolis. Starting
with no
broadcasting background and no gravitas, he's taken over the
ABC Sunday morning "This Week" and is now filling in on the ABC News
broadcasts as an appealing buffer between Charlie Gibson and Diane
Sawyer.
Anyway, we hope Diane will have more time now with her husband,
the great director Mike Nichols ("Charlie Wilson's War" among so
many other wonderful movies). It's tough getting up at 3.
BLOGS:
POTENTIAL BIG NEW PAYCHECKS FOR LAWYERS
Meet Cass Sunstein. He
could be confirmed any minute now, after being nominated by
President Obama to be
US "regulation
czar"
and his theories of Internet "lies" could become a boom industry for
lawyers:

Brain food: The [legal] theory of lies
Vogue model Liskula Cohen took Google to court – and sashayed
into a new social science: the theory of lies.
Followup:
Outed Blogger Doesn't Apologize to Cohen
Did Liskula Cohen "badmouth [Rosemary] Port to her ex-boyfriend?"
Is that all it is?

BLOGGERS' NOTE: In essence, the judge in this
case says just because you're a blogger, you can't defame someone
(call 'em a "ho" or a "skank") and then hide behind the general idea
that blogs are just opinions and therefore safe from big lawsuits.
And who's got the deep pockets? Google and...

One of
the funniest people in America has died.
You may not have
heard of him, but to me Larry Gelbart was more than just a comedy writer
-- he was
one of the funniest men of the 20th Century. He wrote one of
your favorite TV shows, plays, stories, radio shows and movies, I'll
bet.
He started
making up jokes as a high-school kid, and would tell his
jokes to singer/comedian Danny Thomas. It was easy because Gelbart's father was Thomas' barber, so Larry would spin joke
after joke, cracking up Thomas with his one-liners, and
considering how boring haircuts can be, Thomas must have been quite
impressed.
(That was the 1930s, when men were men, soldiers were dogs and
stylings were haircuts. The great 20th century singer Perry
Como started out as a barber. If you've ever heard Como, can
you imagine getting Perry to cut your hair, sing you a song, and
then have 16-year-old Larry Gelbart tell you a few jokes? The
price of a haircut would have gone up! Well, okay, that was
way before my time, but I can imagine.)
Danny Thomas, the guy who discovered Gelbart, was also the guy who
much later launched Dick Van Dyke into superstardom (1962). He did
the same for his daughter Marlo Thomas (the TV series "That Girl"
1966), Mary Tyler Moore, Andy Griffith, Don Knotts and so many
others. Thomas kept talking about that "funny kid" Larry
Gelbart.
Soon (still the 1930s-'40s) Gelbart was writing radio material for big stars like Bob
Hope, Eddie Cantor and later Jack Paar ("The Tonight Show").
He was also a writer -- along with Woody Allen, Neil Simon, Mel
Brooks and other greats -- on Sid Caesar’s genius “Your Show of
Shows” TV series in the mid-1950s. That crew of writers was
the real-life inspiration for later movies ("My Favorite Year,"
"Laughter on the 23rd Floor")
and TV series (such as "The Dick Van Dyke Show").
Gelbart's biggest hit, though,
came 30 years later when he developed "MASH" for television and
wrote many of the early (funniest) episodes. He
created the character named Klinger.
Gelbart also wrote for the stage, his most successful
production being “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum." It's
one of the big stage success stories. High schools,
colleges, regional theaters still perform it today.
And you guessed it: he covered all media, writing movies like
“Tootsie” and “Oh God.”
For cable TV (HBO) he wrote "Barbarians At the Gate" among others. Larry Gelbart
lived 81 years.
I was privileged to interview him in 1998. He had his
wits about him even on an early workaday-weekday California
morning, and it ain't easy being funny on the radio at 8 or 9 in
the morning, being reminded of events that happened 40 years ago.
But he was intelligent and thoughtful and private about his
personal life, but hilarious. He lived and breathed comedy,
as the cliché goes.
For most, he entertained us in ways we may not even remember.
Even though you may never have heard of him, if you were to
gather all his work together, you would have to agree he was one
of the funniest men anyone anywhere can think of.
At least we still have his contemporaries, the names we can
remember: Woody, Mel and Neil.
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The Purpose of TV News Is to Scare Women 18-54 Into
Watching the Next Newscast
"It didn’t use to be like this. I’ve been in the
business long enough to live through the change. There actually was a time
in TV [AND RADIO] news when reporters showed up at work every day to just go
out and report the news. The reporter would
chose the story with the photographer (now the “photojournalist”) and they’d
return with a story, put it together and it would be broadcast at 6 p.m.,
simple as that. I did it thousands of times and was trusted to get it right.
"Nowadays, a full staff of
management, marketing directors, consultants, producers, executive
producers, writers and probably the gal at the front desk all play a role in
what goes on air. Half a dozen people or more may be involved in the
choosing of the story, the content of the story, who is interviewed for the
story and the angle of the story. Ron Burgundy was funny in Anchorman
when he complained about women in the newsroom, but he was also right about
some things."
What? Christopher Dodd isn't going to run
again for Senator from Connecticut?
Maybe the Obama administration is grooming him for
Treasury Secretary.
Carville:
Airport scanners can 'measure my penis'
It's a dirty job but somebody has to do it, right? Ah,
what savoir faire. That's the great thing about Carville. He's
such an angel. He's always up in the air harping about something.

HOUSTON'S MAYOR SHOWS HOW TO WIN
USING GLOBAL WARMING AT COPENHAGEN
Thanks to the mayor of Houston, Bill White,
we've come to understand how the minimal agreements at Copenhagen
on climate change could be sustained.
White is a multi-term mayor who's now subject
to term limits, so he's decided to run for governor of Texas.
Frankly, while mayor White presided over the second-most-botched, dangerous
evacuation of a major city in modern American history. (New Orleans
takes most-botched.)
As Hurricane Rita approached, an evacuation was
called, resulting in gridlock on the highways leaving Houston.
Thousands were stranded in their cars for so long that they suffered
heat exhaustion, dehydration and were forced to defecate along
roadsides. But memories are short and we've forgotten all that (at
least, those who didn't go through it have forgotten).
While mayor of Houston, White came upon the idea of taxing oil
refineries outside the city. The idea was that since
the pollutants (regulated by the federal Environmental Protection
Agency and state pollution regulators) drift into Houston's air at
regular, smelly intervals, the city is entitled to compensation from
the refinery owners like Exxon, Chevron and British Petroleum.
The refineries are not in Houston. Houston has no
jurisdiction over the refineries because they are outside the city.
But the smog drifts into the city, so the city tried to tax, er,
fine the refineries. The city has no legal right to do so, but
the city needs tax income and you gotta try everything you can,
right? It's kind of a wealth redistribution scheme, taking money
from the rich (oil companies) and giving to the poor (anyone who
lives in Houston). But, y'know. Whatever works.
What's the idea behind some of the agreements to be reached in
Copenhagen? Global warming is man-made and something most be
done to reduce global warming within months or, as British PM Gordon
Brown says, we're all doomed.
So nations (really companies and corporations) that contribute to
global warming must be fined, taxed and anything else we can come up
with, in order to stop this global warming catastrophe that
threatens mankind with extinction.
Therefore those producing not only badly-needed energy and
products will have to give up profits (money to be diverted to other
nations and resources) because they also produce air pollutants and
carbon as they convert oil to readily-usable gasoline.
Gasoline that's to be consumed in, among other places, those very
countries that will benefit from the global warming taxes and fines.
Even if it's true that global warming may mean the end of the
world as we know it within months, the proposed Copenhagen
agreements are really just wealth redistribution schemes disguised
as a worldwide public health emergency. But whatever works.
I still hate the fact that every time I type in the word "Obama"
my Spellcheck wants to correct me. It's about time the
White House orders a universal Spellcheck correction. I don't
want to tell you the alternatives Spellcheck wants to replace "Obama"
with. -- MS
EARLIER THIS YEAR I WOKE UP IN A SWEAT AND
REALIZED...
...I
don't think
President Obama should continue using phrases like "wee-wee," as in
his recent comment that people are getting "all wee-wee'd up."
I know he was trying to be funny. It just doesn't seem
becoming to a world leader to use pee-pee language. I know
some people like to compare Obama to John F. Kennedy, but Kennedy
had wit. Any use of "wee-wee" is not wit. It worries me that soon President Obama will be telling people their ideas "aren't worth
doo-doo" and y'know how politicians are -- they work in
increments -- and that could create an opening for them to start using words
like "shit" and "piss," just following the example of The President. I
don't think I want to hear politicians say "shit." Though most of them
talk a lot and, well, frankly they don't say shit.
YOU'RE NOT
COOL IF YOU THINK "33 1/3 RECORDS" ARE OLD
FASHIONED
There are some great record shops around the US
selling old and NEW vinyl records. It may be a
fad, but it's the Sound Of Music that makes the
difference. And if you don't know what 33 and
1/3 means you're too immature to be reading this.
How's that for journalistic arrogance?
Music on vinyl still sounds warmer, sweeter and
less treble-y than music on CDs. You have to play a
CD and then a vinyl record to hear the difference.
For an example of how 33 and 1/3 never dies, see
this story from the Houston Press:
VINYL HEADS
A tribute took place
in Toronto the other day for one of the greatest rock groups in
history. The Band. Not just any
band, THE Band. As I wrote at The Band website back in 1999...
The music of The Band will go down as among the best of the 20th
century. It invokes a timeless feeling that approaches that of any
of the great "orchestras" of the big band era. added to classic
images from American country music, religion, history, myths and
literature (yes, and film and rock and roll), wedded to a mid-20th
century point of view.
The Band's music is classic, at once soothing and bold, at once
jolting and mystical. It's music for the ages, for all ages. No
group of five musicians has done anything like it before or since.
And the more you come to understand the music, the more you
understand the unique contribution of each artist, each Bandmember.
The sharing of the music by each musician -- the musical
restraint by each gifted artist in service of the song and the
performance -- may be The Band's greatest untold legacy, because
each member was (and is -- God rest you, Richard and Rick) a
brilliant solo artist alone, lost in a tempest of commercial music
trends, saved by membership in this mature and highly-styled
collaboration.
Snopes Confirms: Doctor Speaks Out, Calls
Obama Health Care Plan "Fascist"

Dr. David Janda of Ann Arbor, Michigan, an
orthopedic surgeon: The first part of the Obama Health Care
Plan has already been passed -- it's buried in the Stimulus Bill
signed by the president in February...It's the second half of
the Plan that's being debated now.
Under the plans now being considered, after
each American turns 65, he or she will be forced into a counseling
program that's designed to end life sooner. Section 102 of
the Plan would make it illegal to keep private health insurance if
your status changes, e.g. you lose your job, change your job,
retire, etc.
"If I am asked what is the one word to describe the plan, what
should I answer? The answer is simple, honest, direct, analytic
and sad but truthful. The word is FASCIST."
No Recovery -- So Far
So far there is no recovery in the economy,
despite what some people (mostly in the government) are saying. This
recession has been going on since late 2007 or early 2008, depending
on your source.
Unemployment is expected to reach beyond 10% next
year. Many sources, including the president, have said so.
If you look closely at the official economic information
that's readily available on the Internet, you'll see the
unemployment numbers are being manipulated and have been manipulated
for years. The jobless now number more than at any time
in the past 25 years.
The true unemployment rate in the United States is right
around 20%.
I know some people will tell you different, but my research says
18%. And that number will go up. You may remember from learning about the Great Depression that
unemployment back in the 1930s reached about 25%. Well, if you
believe economic writers who say this "depression" is over, you're
not among the millions of us whose businesses are failing or who
can't find a job.
And kick us while we're down: The combination of too many job
seekers and too few jobs is dropping the amount of money many
private sector jobs pay, if you can find a job.
Public sector jobs -- especially at colleges and other
federally-funded non-profits -- are so far unaffected.
In fact, this appears to be the Age of the Relatively
High-Paying Non-Profits.
The S&P 500 is up about 50% from the low in March, but the
increase can't continue considering the bad financial news expected
later this year.
Some companies are planning more layoffs. Some big
companies are close to bankruptcy. Mortgage delinquencies and
foreclosures (nearly 2 million so far this year) continue to
increase.
Consumers are generally deeply in debt and appear to be paying
down that debt and even starting to save money. This will not
stimulate the economy, which in some ways is already overstimulated
(the Federal Reserve's interest rate is down to zero; the TARP
program has put billions upon billions of dollars into banks, who
continue to hold onto the money rather than increasing private and
business loans).
There are no "green shoots." At least not yet.
The news is not all bad. People are getting jobs,
just as people got jobs during the Great Depression.
Twenty-five-percent unemployment means 75% employment. There
are jobs out there and people still quit or get fired for various
reasons.
It's just harder to get a job these days that pays a living wage
because when too many people are chasing too few jobs, you can fire
someone making $32,000 a year and take your pick among people who
will work for $20,000 and pocket the difference. If there's
anything to pocket during "the worst recession since the Great
Depression," as many have called this thing we're going through.
And not only that, it's harder than ever for the average person to keep track of
the economy. The stock markets are no longer the top indicator
of the health of the economy. You gotta look at the big
picture. Y'know, industrial activity, inventory, stockpiles of
oil and natural gas, bank loan rates and activity, trucking...
And right now, the big picture stinks. We all have hopes
for a better year in 2010. Democrats who control Congress are
also placing strong hopes on a better year next year, or they might
well lose control of congress by November's 2010 elections.
-- MS
Some Dallas Editors Will Report to Ad Sales
"Some editors at The Dallas Morning News have started
reporting directly to executives outside the newsroom who oversee
advertising sales, under a restructuring that overturns longstanding
traditions in American newspapers aimed at shielding news judgments
from business concerns."
So sales executives need to take polls of readers to find out the
kinds of stories they want to read about. Then the sales guys can
tell the editors and reporters what to write about. Maybe then
we'll finally get rid of those annoying crime stories...and all that
confusing economic stuff...and those boring international news
things. What we need are more comic strips and more news about
big stars like Zac Efron and anyone who plays sports.
More
Columns by Mike Shiloh
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Mike Shiloh News,
Views and Abuse
INDEPENDENTS ESSENTIAL TO MASSACHUSETTS UPSET
High turnout among Independent voters seen by some as key to
victory for Republican Scott Brown.
The Disposable Worker
Pay is falling, benefits are vanishing, and no one's job is
secure. How companies are making the era of the temp more than temporary
California to Consider "Legalizing" Marijuana
Good news for the makers of Twinkies, Hawaiian
Punch and Doritos
Layoffs, bankruptcies:
Daily Job Cuts
INDEPENDENTS ARE INCREASINGLY "GOING" CONSERVATIVE
-- 2010 GALLUP POLL
"The rather abrupt three-point increase between
2008 and 2009 in the percentage of Americans calling themselves conservative
is largely owing to an increase -- from 30% to 35% -- in the percentage of
political independents adopting the label. Over the same period, there
was only a slight increase in professed conservatism among Republicans (from
70% to 71%) and no change among Democrats (at 21%)."
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