Media Concepts

Hey DC, Good Luck With That Medical Pot

2010-05-21T11:29:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago, the DC City Council approved the use of marijuana by patients with certain illnesses. Based on what has happened with medical marijuana in Los Angeles, DCers may be in for a wild ride.

California approved the use of marijuana for medical purposes in 1996, for "seriously ill Californians." A subsequent law made clear that medical pot dispensaries had to operate as non-profit "collectives." However, possession and use of marijuana for any reason, even medical purposes, is illegal under federal law, so there is always the potential for the feds to come cracking down.

In Los Angeles and other California cities, medical marijuana dispensaries -- identified by their signs with green crosses -- began sprouting up. In 2007, the Los Angeles City Council passed an interim ordinance to regulate the burgeoning medical pot dispensaries, establishing a moratorium on new dispensaries. The L.A. moratorium allowed only the existing 186 registered dispensaries to operate. However, the moratorium contained a loophole permitting dispensaries to apply for "hardship exemptions." Over 500 dispensaries applied for the exemptions, and were left alone while their cases were pending. In the meantime, dispensaries and doctors proliferated in the Los Angeles area, with estimates of as many as 1,000 dispensaries operating locally.

By 2009, things were out of control. Whenever I went to the beach in the L.A. area, pot was permeating everywhere. I called it the "Summer of Pot." On Venice Beach, bikini-clad girls on roller skates lured passers-by into a giant dispensary right on the beach. People joked about getting -- or got -- prescriptions for pot based on phony or exaggerated ailments. Fairly or unfairly, medical pot in Los Angeles gained a reputation as a giant scam being used more for recreational than medical purposes. Indeed, the dispensaries had lists of doctors to got to in order to get the prescriptions, and I never heard of those doctors and dispensaries turning anyone down.

But every bubble bursts, and so did L.A.'s pot party. First, L.A.'s City Attorney, backed up by the Los Angeles County District Attorney, declared that most of L.A.'s medical marijuana dispensaries were really for-profit pot shops in violation of California law. The pair vowed to prosecute offending dispensaries. They pushed the City Council, and L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, to crack down on the pot dispensaries. Earlier this year, the Los Angeles City Council passed, and Mayor Villaraigosa signed, a new medical marijuana ordinance containing strict zoning requirements (no dispensaries allowed within 1,000 feet of schools, parks, libraries, churches, etc.), and ordered the closure of all but the original batch of dispensaries fully registered with the City. A couple of weeks ago, the City sent letters to over 400 dispensaries in Los Angeles, ordering them to shut down by June 7. Hundreds more such letters are likely to follow.

But now, Los Angeles medical pot smokers are pissed. They had something, and it's being taken away, or at least it will be harder to get. Some of the dispensaries can be expected to the sue the City rather than quietly shutting down. Considering that many of them were left to operate for years, they may have a good case.

And this November, a statewide voter initiative to legalize small quantities of pot for use by adults for any purposes, even recreational, will be on the ballot in California. But as DC residents could probably tell Californians, that kind of party would be too much fun for the feds to permit.

It Did Get Loud

2010-03-25T12:14:00.000-07:00

The documentary "It Might Get Loud" isn't just for electric guitar freaks, or fans of "Guitar Hero" and "Rock Band 2." It's for music fans everywhere. Directed by acclaimed documentary filmmaker Davis Guggenheim, who directed the Oscar-winning "An Inconvenient Truth," "It Might Get Loud" brings together guitar legends from three generations -- Jimmy Page, Dave Evans a/k/a The Edge, and Jack White -- to share their passion for the electric guitar.

Meeting in a sparsely equipped sound stage in Los Angeles, Page, Edge, and White sit on sofas and discuss their favorite music, their songwriting techniques, and the career paths they followed to get to the top. The movie also spends time with each guitarist alone in his element and at landmarks of his past -- Page at the Headley Grange house in England where some of Led Zeppelin's legendary albums were recorded, The Edge at the Dublin high school where he and his fellow U2 band mates met and first played together and at home on the Irish coast, and White in the Texas countryside, where It Gets Loud for the cows near his front porch.

In the film, Page comes across as the guitar wizard, who helped usher in the modern era of electric guitar playing with innovations such as the distortion pedal and the dual-necked guitar (one with six strings, one with twelve, so he could play "Stairway to Heaven" live). The Edge is the most articulate of the bunch, his precision and economy with words echoing that of his guitar playing. However, some U2 fans may be surprised to discover that much of Edge's distinctive sonic wall guitar sound comes from a dizzying array of special effects technology, including a huge board of foot-activated switches through which separate effects for U2's most famous songs are pre-programmed.

But surprisingly, the true genius is the youngest member, Jack White, whose vision of re-creating the roots music of the original 1920s and 1930s bluesmen such as Son House is pure and unshakable. Of the three, White is also the performance artist, whose visual accoutrements range from the hat, vest, and bow tie of the bluesman to the red, white, and black aesthetic of his former two-piece band The White Stripes. In his film segments, White also incorporates a young, similarly dressed actor who plays White as a youngster, so that the older Jack White can impart his musical wisdom on himself as a boy. White also likes to play cheap, out of tune, even broken guitars, and constructs a crude electric guitar out of little more than wood, nails, wire, and a Coke bottle.

Perhaps the most joyful moment of "It Might Get Loud" is when Jimmy Page plays one of the most famous electric guitar riffs of all time, Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love." The supremely accomplished White and Edge are reduced to beatific smiles, White's head tilted like the dog in the old RCA ad, as they watch just how Jimmy does it.

If you rent "It Might Get Loud," be sure to watch all the additional footage contained in the special features. Besides extra playing by each guitarist alone and together, it contains a press conference from Toronto in which one clueless reporter engenders snickers by asking White about casting his "son" in the film. Then, White confidently shows his fellow guitar gods how to play The White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army." When finished, White tells them, "that'll be five dollars." And a worthwhile lesson it it is.

Luge Tracks: Unsafe at Any Speed?

2010-02-12T19:36:00.001-08:00

By now, most Olympics followers and news consumers are aware of today's deadly luge accident in Whistler, Canada involving Georgian competitor Nodar Kumaritashvili. NBC has been showing the crash over and over in slow motion. Much has been mentioned of how fast the Whistler luge track is. This misses the point. What I find most shocking is the row of columns, apparently made of steel, that Nodar crashed into. These columns appear to be just 2 feet away from the open embankment of the track. I can't believe this hasn't been identified as an obvious safety hazard.

Many sports have had to improve safety over time. While a full summary would take too long, one analogy comes to mind. The sport of auto racing was notorious in its early years for posing deadly hazards not just to the drivers, but to spectators in the stands. There have been some horrific crashes, especially the 1955 LeMans crash, in which the cars crashed into or over the wall, disintegrated, and sent shrapnel (described as "flying guillotines") into the stands at high speed. So, over time, this hazard was ameliorated by installing safety fences along the walls. Ditto for the glass above the boards at hockey games, the netting along downhill ski runs which you'll see in this and previous Olympics, improved helmets for football players, etc.

That's why I was so shocked at the proximity of those columns on the Whistler luge track. Surely the technology exists to put up some kind of safety netting above the embankments on those tracks. As often happens, someone will probably propose and require this now that such a tragic accident has occurred.

What the East Coast Snowstorm and 9/11 Have in Common

2009-12-21T10:03:00.000-08:00

This past weekend, as I walked along the beach in 70 plus degree weather in my Southern California backyard, I saw the snow-capped mountains in the background and remembered that my former home, Washington, DC, was getting walloped with record snowfall. I suddenly felt out of touch with the East. Then I realized that on September 11, 2001, the shoe was on the other foot.

On 9/11/01, I was living in the DC area and working just a few blocks from the White House. I was personally affected by 9/11 in a big way, including losing a former girlfriend on one of the flights, wondering if we would be targeted again in DC, being from New York, having friends and family working in the World Trade Center that day, and having once worked there myself. After 9/11, I was a mess for months, at one point being so distracted that I smacked my car into a support column in the parking garage of the building where I had been living for years.

But that was not necessarily the case with everyone in California. One person out here had an idea of how I and others in the East had been personally impacted by the events of 9/11, yet seemed oblivious and barely brought the subject up. I was plenty pissed off about that, and it caused a strain in our friendship.

Now, as I live here near the beach, and the weather is nearly perfect, I can see how folks in California can lose touch with their compatriots in DC, and vice versa. All those homilies we heard about how 9/11 brought this country together, even for a moment, were greatly exaggerated, in my opinion. There is a vast physical distance, and often a wide gap, between East and West. I tried to bridge that gap yesterday, on long telephone calls with my best friend and my sole family member who live in the DC area, to see if they were having fun and getting along okay in the snow.

L.A.'s Medical Marijuana Program Sounds Like "The Godfather"

2009-11-23T12:08:00.000-08:00

From today's Los Angeles Times:

“Cities have limited the number of dispensaries in two ways. The most common is to require them to be a certain distance from places that children frequent, such as schools and libraries. That's the approach in the proposed city ordinance. Less common, but gaining in popularity, is a cap on the number of shops.”

****

“The proposed Los Angeles ordinance would initially cap the number at the original 186 by requiring other dispensaries to close for six months before applying to reopen.

It also requires dispensaries to be 1,000 feet from each other, schools and other institutions. That would also reduce the number, but city officials are not sure by how much. A study of the 186 concluded that about three-quarters of them would have to move or close.

That has led some council members to suggest a 500-foot setback, but no studies have been done to show how many dispensaries that would allow.”

From "The Godfather" (1972):

ZALUCHI: I want to control it as a business, to keep it respectable. I don't want it near schools -- I don't want it sold to children! That's an infamia. In my city, we would keep the traffic in the dark people -- the colored. They're animals anyway, so let them lose their souls.

BARZINI: Then we are agreed. The traffic in drugs will be permitted, but controlled -- and Don Corleone will give up protection in the East -- and there will be the peace.

Would You Have Children if You Knew They Would Die Before You?

2009-10-26T14:25:00.000-07:00

Worse yet, if you knew they would rapidly age and then die before your eyes? That's why I can't get a dog.

I love dogs. I'm crazy about dogs. I grew up with dogs. I pet dogs, visit dogs, and walk dogs. But most dogs, depending on their size, breed, and other factors, can only be expected to live about 10 to 15 years. And after five or six or seven years, they may start to show clear signs of aging. The playful puppy who tireless chased down tennis balls is suddenly the white-faced older dog who has trouble climbing and descending the stairs. And then one day, not long afterward, ....

Maybe it's because, when I was a kid, I saw my four year-old dog struck and killed by a giant Cadillac. But even if that didn't happen, I would have outlived her, and a succession of other beloved dogs that I might have acquired, by many years.

I keep thinking of the verse from the song "Mr. Bojangles," which now I find out was inspired by a man who was grieving about his dog being struck and killed by a car:

He spoke through tears of 15 years how his dog and him traveled about
The dog up and died, he up and died
And after 20 years he still grieves

Like the man in the song, I just don't know if I could take it.

D.C. Bar, You Got Some Balls

2009-10-20T13:19:00.000-07:00

Note to D.C. Bar: you don't get to place deadlines on me to fix your mistakes. As a member of the D.C. bar, I pay my annual dues shortly after receiving their annual invoice. This year, I paid the D.C. Bar in mid-June. At the end of August, I received a refund check from the D.C. Bar, along with a note saying that I had paid twice. I didn't give this much attention, and figured that I had probably paid the first invoice, then received a reminder invoice before that payment was received, and then just reflexively paid again, forgetting that I had already paid once. I have done that before with my auto insurance company, which is also aggressive about sending payment reminders.

Then, a day or so ago, I received a voice mail message from someone at the D.C. Bar, stating that their refund to me was in error, and could I please return it. Today, I received an email message from the same person. However, her message states that "[t]he funds must be returned to our office by October 30, 2009." Oh really? As Sylvio Dante of The Sopranos might say, "what a fricken joke!" I sent an email back to the D.C. Bar as follows:

"Hi [name], I received a voice mail message from your office a couple of days ago. I am checking my records to verify whether the check was sent to me in error, as opposed to being sent to me possibly because I erroneously paid twice. Assuming that I agree that the check was sent to me in error, I will promptly send you a check in the same amount.

However, I find your statement that 'the funds must be returned to our office by October 30, 2009' rather curious. While I’m fairly confident that, if a check to the D.C. Bar is forthcoming, it will be sent well before the 30th, I certainly do not accept, and, frankly, am offended by, any D.C. Bar deadline placed on me to correct a mistake that the D.C. Bar has made and which the D.C. Bar took a long time to identify!"

That's as polite as I can be. Trust me, "curious" was not the first term I chose. Hey Sil, you believe the balls on these people?

FTC Issues Rules Governing Paid Blog Endorsements

2009-10-06T11:45:00.000-07:00

The Federal Trade Commission has issued new rules requiring bloggers to disclose financial or employment relationships regarding products they endorse on their blogs or in other online forums. The FTC's action, which began this past Spring, is a result of numerous cases of "blogola" (blog payola), whereby companies offer bloggers compensation, including free products, or instruct their own employees, to write rave reviews about the companies' products, without disclosing the relationships driving such inherently biased reviews.

Of greatest importance to bloggers, the FTC's new rules (which it calls "guides") contain a couple of online and blog-specific examples of when disclosure is required (violation of these rules would presumably subject the violator to the FTC's hefty penalties):

1. "A college student who has earned a reputation as a video game expert maintains a personal weblog or “blog” where he posts entries about his gaming experiences. Readers of his blog frequently seek his opinions about video game hardware and software. As it has done in the past, the manufacturer of a newly released video game system sends the student a free copy of the system and asks him to write about it on his blog. He tests the new gaming system and writes a favorable review. Because ... his relationship to the advertiser is not inherently obvious, readers are unlikely to know that he has received the video game system free of charge in exchange for his review of the product, and given the value of the video game system, this fact likely would materially affect the credibility they attach to his endorsement. Accordingly, the blogger should clearly and conspicuously disclose that he received the gaming system free of charge. "

2. "An online message board designated for discussions of new music
download technology is frequented by MP3 player enthusiasts. They exchange
information about new products, utilities, and the functionality of numerous playback devices. Unbeknownst to the message board community, an employee of a leading playback device manufacturer has been posting messages on the discussion board promoting the manufacturer’s product. Knowledge of this poster’s employment likely would affect the weight or credibility of her endorsement. Therefore, the poster should clearly and conspicuously disclose her relationship to the manufacturer to members and readers of the message board."

Any blogger with a modicum of integrity would already have thought of this. But if not, consider yourselves now "guided" by the FTC.

Is Health Insurance as Important as Cable TV?

2009-09-30T13:05:00.000-07:00

Screw the public option. We don't need it. Let's have good old-fashioned price regulation of health insurance, the way we had for cable tv. To recap, in 1992, Congress overrode President George H.W. Bush's veto and passed the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act. This law, among other things, regulated the price for basic cable television service. The arguments made in favor of cable regulation apply even more clearly today to health insurance.

The 1992 Cable Act essentially treated cable television service as a utility, something everyone needs, like water or electricity, but which is prohibitively expensive for smaller competitors to produce and distribute. Congress noted that a relatively small group of cable operators controlled the market for cable tv such they were able consistently to raise prices faster than the rate of inflation. According to Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), "Before the 1992 Cable Act was passed, cable rates were rising three times faster than inflation rates. I do not think you can name a consumer in this country who did not feel that he or she was being gouged."
Sound familiar?

Price regulation of health insurance makes even more sense than it did for cable tv. First, cable tv has lots of substitutes. Cable competes with satellite dish tv service, which has been gaining more subscribers than cable for some time, as well as broadcast television, which still gets the most viewers ("So You Think You Can Dance," the Super Bowl, etc.), DVDs (on which one can rent movies, cable and broadcast television programs), the Internet, and other forms of entertainment, such as live sports events.

Second, it's hard to argue that cable tv is more of a necessity than health insurance. The majority of bankruptcies in the U.S. are due to medical bills.

Third, not only does the health insurance industry have no competitors, many health care companies themselves have little or no competition. They have been given an exemption from antitrust laws, and, surprise surprise, have developed into regional monopolies and some statewide monopolies . As a result, it can be no surprise that the price of employer-sponsored health insurance premiums has increased at four times the rate of inflation over the past decade.

So, much more than cable tv, health insurance is a product that (a) nearly everyone needs; (b) has no substitute; (c) is controlled by a small number of companies; and (d) has skyrocketed in price, way beyond the rate of inflation.

Is it time to take away the insurance companies' antitrust exemption and regulate their prices at the federal level? Do you care about your health as much as your cable tv?

My Ted Kennedy Story

2009-08-29T15:12:00.000-07:00

February 1975. I'm a kid sitting at the Brodie Mtn. ski lodge in Massachusetts with an un-set just-broken right ankle. The first aid people had misdiagnosed my injury, slapped an Ace bandage on me, and sent me on my way. Since the ankle isn't immobilized, I can move my foot, which causes great pain. I've got the foot propped up on a table. I'm waiting for the rest of my group to finish their day of skiing (no cell phones that day), & feeling sorry for myself.

All of a sudden, Senator Ted Kennedy and his son, Ted Jr., walk by. Teddy Jr., not much older than me, is on crutches with 1 leg. It's a little over a year since Teddy lost his right leg to cancer. He's going skiing on the remaining leg, using those poles with the little skis at the bottom.

Talk about changing your state of mind. I learned a few lessons in that moment. Lesson 1: there's always someone in more misfortune than you. Lesson 2: sometimes, the less fortunate person is someone who you thought was more fortunate than you. Lesson 3: if someone's misfortune doesn't stop them, don't let yours stop you. Lesson 4: quit whining.

My Earthquake Kit

2009-08-14T11:22:00.000-07:00

While others obsess over phony health care protests, we in Southern California have a genuine health concern: earthquakes. Scientists predict that there is more than a 99 percent chance that a major earthquake will strike California within the next 30 years. I have felt at least four earthquakes in less than three years in Southern California and, in contrast to the reactions of many jaded natives, I do not find them amusing. Accordingly, I have done something to prepare for the next big earthquake.

In addition to the supplies I keep in my home -- water, canned food, candles, flashlights, hand-crank radio, simple plug-in telephone (note that cordless phones that require electricity will not work if the power goes out, even if the telephone lines still work), I have purchased a separate "earthquake kit" for my car. The kit arrived the other day from Emergency Essentials. I was most impressed with the very secure packaging in which the kit arrived. The list of the kit's contents can be found here.

Since the emergency kit seemed to be short on food, I also ordered a bunch of military-style Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) from the same company. Chicken and dumplings, mmmm. I also tossed in a jar of peanut butter, and will add some food bars and other snacks. My theory is that, in most cases. I will need no more than 3 days' worth of food and water for a couple of people (although I have considerably more water than that) before some help arrives. Emergency Essentials' website even contains a chart indicating how long the MREs can be expected to last in various temperatures. Even in the trunk of my car in California summers, I can expect the MREs not to expire for more than 4 years.

Hopefully, I will throw out many sets of expiring MREs before ever having to use them!

One Giant Leap Backward For Mankind

2009-07-28T13:44:00.000-07:00

No, this isn't about the moon. It's about the man. Specifically, it's about all the words that now begin with the prefix "Man." Here's a partial list:

"Manscaping"

"Man-purse"

"Mandals"

"Mangina" a/k/a "Manwhore"

"Man-date"

"Manswers"

"Man cave"

New words beginning with the prefix "man" are seemingly cropping up every week. I'm sure that the journalists, screenwriters, and bloggers who invent them think they're so hip and clever. But are all these extra words necessary? Don't we have enough words in the English language already? Men have been wearing sandals since "Spartacus." Hell, since "Ben Hur." Wasn't the word "sandals" descriptive enough? And if there's no gender-specific term for female body grooming, why do we need one for men?

Next time you're standing by the fireplace womantle, drinking a Womanhattan, and thinking about whether President Obama received a womandate from the voters, you can ponder this one.

Who is the Greatest Athlete of All Time?

2009-07-26T12:26:00.000-07:00

Right now, my vote is for cyclist Lance Armstrong. Here is what Lance has done: Today, he came in third place in the 2009 Tour de France, arguably the most challenging sports event on the planet. Armstrong did this at age 37, nearly twice as old as some of his competitors. Armstrong's Tour de France podium finish comes less than four months after breaking his collarbone in a race in Spain. Moreover, Armstrong had just come out of a nearly four-year retirement from pro cycling. Before his retirement, Armstrong won the Tour de France seven times in a row, a feat that no one else has accomplished.

But more importantly, Armstrong did all of this after having survived cancer which had begun in his testicles and had spread to his brain, abdomen, and lungs. To be able merely to return to the top echelons of professional cycling after surviving this nearly deadly illness is itself wondrous. To win the Tour de France seven times in a row, retire for four years, and come back in third place at age 37 is absurdly improbable. Incredibly, Armstrong is already planning to race in the Tour de France next year, and some analysts say that, with a bit better conditioning, Armstrong has a very good chance to win it again.

Now, sports fans are among the most argumentative and passionate people, and I'm sure some fans have other ideas as to who is the greatest athlete of all time. Obviously, athletes besides Lance Armstrong have achieved extraordinary success in their respective sports: Tiger Woods in golf, Roger Federer in tennis, Muhammad Ali in boxing, Joe DiMaggio in baseball, Michael Jordan in basketball, Jim Thorpe in football and Olympic track and field, just to name a few. Indeed, some bike racing fans say that Eddie Merckx, who won the Tour de France five times, was a more dominant cycling champion than Lance Armstrong. But I cannot think of an athlete who has both overcome such severe illness and then reached and repeated such greatness in such a grueling sport as has Lance Armstrong.

Don't Call it "Health Care"

2009-07-23T17:00:00.000-07:00

The hottest domestic issue this month goes by the term "health care." For example, yesterday's headlines included "Obama Seeks to Rally Support For Health Care Bill" and "Obama Moves to Reclaim the Debate on Health Care." However, the term "health care" in this context is a misnomer. "Health care" is what you get from your doctor, if you are lucky. What is being debated in Washington this month is "health insurance," not "health care."

The difference is important, because insurance companies do not provide "care," nor, as we know, do they "care" about us. They would love for us to call them "health care" companies, as many people do, and to make the subconscious association of what they do with the warm fuzzy word "care." We shouldn't let them. Even "insurance" and "coverage" are euphemisms, since we know that these companies often don't "ensure" or "cover" anything.

Maybe the most accurate term for what these companies do on a regular basis is "insurance fraud." That's supposed to be illegal, isn't it?

"Couple Texts While Having Sex!"

2009-07-17T15:00:00.000-07:00

I haven't seen that headline yet, but I expect to within a year. People are texting everywhere else, so why not in bed? A girl fell into a manhole while texting. A guy I know was disturbed by the large number of people texting during a recent Hollywood Bowl concert. California joined seven other states by actually having to pass a law prohibiting texting while driving, as if common sense wasn't enough to prevent this act of colossal stupidity.

So, what's going on here? Is all this texting while doing other activities just an adaptation of the latest mass communications technology that has been taking place since the first men and women drew on caves? Or it the latest example of rudeness and inattention that one can commit with a cell phone or PDA?

I'm not sure. I think it may be a good sign of people's desperate need to connect with each other any way they can.

I Watched It Today, Did You?

2009-07-07T18:39:00.000-07:00

It was everything I hoped it would be. A formal ceremony in the round, complete with kind words, applause, hugs, and an outpouring of emotion directed at one man and his achievements. I'm referring, of course, to Senator Al Franken's swearing in at the U.S. Senate. Oh, you thought I was talking about something else?

Michael Jackson Funeral: the Circus Comes to Los Angeles

2009-07-03T17:54:00.000-07:00

Michael Jackson's memorial service will be held this Tuesday at the Staples Center sports arena in Los Angeles. Although I know some folks who will be covering this event, the Michael Jackson Memorial is now second on my list, after the Superdome during Hurricane Katrina, of Things I Never Want To See Inside A Sports Arena.

People are already camping out to get one of 11,000 free tickets to Jackson's memorial inside the 20,000 seat Staples Center. Vendors outside plan to hawk the same Michael Jackson t-shirts that were to be sold on Jackson's planned concert tour. The media mob inside and outside the Staples Center, and the area-wide traffic tie-up, will be legendary. I don't know how anyone will stop the news helicopters, which will probably number over a dozen, from crashing into each other. You think you've seen a lot of coverage of Jackson's death so far on the cable news networks? Just wait: the Michael Jackson Memorial will make Princess Diana's over-the-top funeral seem downright quaint in comparison.

Then again, I suppose this this combination of zoo and amusement park that will occur during the Michael Jackson memorial will be fitting for the former resident of a combination zoo and amusement park known as Neverland.

It's a Great Day to Be a Cable Television News Anchor

2009-06-25T19:27:00.000-07:00

Geraldo Rivera at Faux Noise: It's all about meeee! I was ready to shave off my mustache if Michael Jackson was convicted of child molestation. Let me tell you about my visits to the Neverland Ranch and the Playboy Mansion.

Larry King at CNN: It's all about meee! Here's a picture of me with Michael Jackson in 1971. Here's a radio interview I did with Michael Jackson in Miami in 1970. Here's me with Barbara Walters in 1957. Here's me with Joey Bishop before electricity was invented.

Keith Olbermann at MSNBC: It's all about meeee! Hear my deep, serious tone of voice as I fill 24 hours regarding the poignancy of Michael Jackson's death. Don't I sound like Edward R. Murrow or some serious journalist?

Going Postal

2009-06-17T10:30:00.000-07:00

Several days ago, I sent my parents an anniversary card with the wrong zip code on the envelope. Surprisingly, the card arrived at their home, all the way across the country, on time. This got me thinking about the U.S. Postal Service. The Postal Service is a favorite pinata for many people, who knock it for supposed inefficiency, lost mail, and workers who, every once in a while, "go postal" with an automatic weapon. But think about the millions of pieces of mail, many of which, like my card, are addressed with errors or at least bad handwriting, that the Postal Service accurately processes and delivers each day, for a measly 44 cents per letter. You can't buy a can of Coke for 44 cents. Nor a Snickers bar. Not even a day's worth of cable television or Internet service. And how many letters, postcards, and packages have you mailed in your lifetime? How many times has your mail gotten lost? I cannot even think of a single time that it has happened to me.

Some people claim that most everything in this world, including the Postal Service, should be "privatized." Imagine if the Postal Service was privatized. I cannot fathom that mail delivery would be any more efficient, or any cheaper. Just look at services like UPS and Federal Express. To me, they're quite expensive, and, despite their fancy online tracking capabilities, each of them has lost deliveries for me. The private Postal Service would also likely move its customer service call center to India, create an offshore tax haven in Bermuda, invest in risky derivatives, and then come to the U.S. Government -- meaning you and me, the taxpayers -- for a bailout.

So the next time the privatization crowd attacks the proposed public health insurance option (they'll do it again today), or other government agencies and functions, I'll be thinking about how our federal Postal Service workers delivered that anniversary card quickly and cheaply to its proper destination.

GM, Charging Boldly into the Past

2009-06-08T11:42:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, I spotted a new Chevrolet Camaro, very similar to the 2006 concept version pictured above. Although the new Camaro is great-looking, stirs the senses, and faithfully harks back to the original Camaros of the 1960s, the problem is just that -- the Camaro is, literally, a car of the past. On Saturday, I read this article in the Washington Post, which confirmed my fears about the Camaro, its bankrupt manufacturer, General Motors, and GM's 76 year-old Vice Chairman and former global product development chief, Bob Lutz. Incredibly, they just don't get it.

The Camaro comes with either a hefty 3.6 liter V6 engine with 304 horsepower, or a much heftier 6.2 liter V8 engine. The Camaro weighs from over 3,700 to over 3,800 pounds. Fuel "economy," if you can call it that, for the Camaro is rated at only 17 miles per gallon city/29 highway for the smaller engine, and an even worse 16/24 for the larger one. In other words, the Camaro is a "muscle car" that reflects little change from its forty year-old ancestors. This is at a time where President Obama has raised the U.S. fuel economy requirements to 42 mpg for cars by 2016.

So what does GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz have to say about this? Tellingly, he drives a Corvette, another GM gas-guzzling muscle car based on even older ancestors than the Camaro. But wait -- GM is developing and marketing the hell out of a true car of the future: the all-electric Chevrolet Volt. Isn't it? Well, not so much. As the Washington Post reports, Lutz says, "If you look at most of the mainstream media, you get the impression that 95 percent of Americans today want a vehicle like the Chevrolet Volt or a [hybrid such as the] Toyota Prius . . . . And that, by God, the reason General Motors is in trouble, is that we have not offered a vehicle like that. But when you look at the reality, at today's fuel prices, most Americans still want a conventional car." Then why is GM developing the Volt at all? Lutz says, "[b]ecause it is an important symbol. We need it. It has a chance to change our image."

What? GM is half-heartedly putting out a car that its executives think Americans don't even want, merely for reasons of "image"? And Lutz thinks people want to buy Camaros instead, based on "today's fuel prices?" Has Lutz paid any attention to the rapid rise of oil and fuel prices at the pump in recent months? It's obvious to almost everyone, except Bob Lutz, apparently, that we are never going to see $ 2 or less per gallon gas again. It's also shockingly obvious to me that General Motors executives like Bob Lutz still don't get it. When it comes to looking backward when developing cars like the "new" Camaro," they have no trouble seeing back decades. But when it comes to looking forward, the limits of their vision seems to be a few months at most. Meanwhile, Toyota is coming out with the third generation of its wildly successful Prius Hybrid, which gets 50 miles per gallon and comes with such innovative features as solar-powered ventilation. Whose business plan do you think is better, GM's or Toyota's?

Now that I and the other American taxpayers own 60 percent of GM, I'd like to vote my shares. My first vote would be to replace dinosaurs like Bob Lutz, and to get some new executives with some fresh, forward, realistic thinking in there, quickly.

UPDATE: Hours after I wrote this post and just as I am publishing it, news comes today that Bob Lutz is leaving GM. That's a good first step.

Slumdog is a Dog

2009-05-31T17:47:00.000-07:00

I finally saw Slumdog Millionaire. Hated it. I had a feeling that Slumdog wouldn't be quite as good as it was hyped up to be, even though every person I know who saw it in the theater told me Slumdog was the best movie of last year. These people neglected to tell me that Slumdog uses just about every Hollywood movie cliche to create an emotional experience that is no different from that found in the most formulaic movies of all time, including Rocky, E.T., and Titanic.

The most manipulative trick in Slumdog is the exploitation and placing of children in peril. That is probably three-fourths of the content of the entire movie. To me it's the cheapest of stunts. The remainder of Slumdog is made up of ridiculous coincidences in which *spoiler alert* the answer to each question asked of the main character on a nationally televised game show just happens to be something that he experienced precisely during that aforementioned traumatic childhood.

What is most disappointing is that Slumdog's director is Danny Boyle, who rose to prominence by directing such innovative films as Trainspotting and 28 Days Later. Other than the thrilling soundtrack and bright color palette (which sounded and looked, respectively, truly awesome on Blu-Ray dvd), I could find not a trace of the old, brilliant Danny Boyle in Slumdog.

It's true that, like Rocky, E.T.,and Titanic, Slumdog Millionaire was immensely popular and won some of the top Academy Awards. But I hated those movies too. I have not yet seen all of the Oscar contenders from 2008, but I can name at least three thus far (The Reader, Milk, and The Wrestler) that were ten times better than Slumdog. Watch some of them back-to-back at home, as I did with The Reader and Slumdog, and I think you'll find that there is no comparison.

Federal Trade Commission Goes After Bloggers

2009-05-19T17:23:00.000-07:00

Business Week reports that the Federal Trade Commission plans to issue guidelines this summer requiring bloggers to disclose when they are being compensated by an advertiser to endorse a product. The guidelines are being enacted in the midst of what is being called a "blogola" scandal (an ungainly term that tries to conjure up the radio "payola" scandals of the 1960s, wherein record companies compensated some of the nation's premier disc jockeys to play certain records), in which advertisers are compensating bloggers with cash, laptops and other goodies in order to write positive reviews of their products. I have received several such offers and immediately felt dirty about even considering them.

However, I'm sure there are more than a few bloggers who fiercely value their free speech, for good reason, of course, and who will say that the FTC's planned rules will violate their First Amendment rights. As they teach in law school, however, fully "free speech" does not exist in the U.S. The classic example is that you are not allowed to yell "fire!" in a crowded movie house. As Woody Allen once wrote, however, you are presumably permitted to yell "movie!" in a crowded firehouse.

Advertising is one area where speech really isn't free. Federal law prohibits "unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce," and the FTC is charged with enforcing this law. I for one don't mind this at all. For instance, I have no problem with the fact that it is illegal for a drug company to claim that a certain drug in their asthma inhaler helps kids breathe when they are having an asthma attack, when in fact the drug does no such thing, and a child then has an asthma attack, uses the company's inhaler, and dies.

If Business Week's report is correct, the FTC's proposed guidelines would not curtail bloggers' free speech in any event. The FTC would merely require bloggers who are being paid to endorse a product to disclose this fact. Once they do so, they are still free to spread their phony endorsements all over the Internet.

Law or no law, it seems to me that, if a company has to advertise its product in a secretive way, perhaps it should look into the quality of the product.

(h/t to The Huffington Post)

Are You Panicked About the Swine Flu Yet?

2009-04-26T14:30:00.000-07:00

I wouldn't blame you if you were. Once again, the media are fanning the flames of fear. Remember the killer bees from Africa? The Y2K computer meltdown? This time it's the swine flu outbreak from Mexico.

It's true that the U.S. Government has declared an "emergency" over the swine flu outbreak. "Emergency" sounds like a scary word that's not a big step from "panic," but really it's just an appropriate step for the government in order to release federal funds and the like. There have only been 20 confirmed cases of swine flu reported thus far in the U.S. That's hardly cause for panic, and is a tiny number compared to gun shootings, car accidents, mercury-filled coal plant emissions, high fructose corn syrup, and many other things that we really should be concerned about.

Unfortunately, the media tend to blow the latest thing out of proportion prematurely. And, coincidentally, they then run advertisements for pain relievers and other drug company products. I for one trust my body's defenses to fight off the swine flu, the killer bees, the Y2K virus, and most of the other germs that have caused the human body, through thousands of years of evolution, to become the powerful fighter that it is.

Tom Braden and the Death of Cable Television News

2009-04-04T15:27:00.000-07:00

You probably don't know the name Tom Braden. What if I mention CNN's "Crossfire" or the television program "Eight is Enough"? Tom Braden was an originator of both, and he died yesterday at age 92.

Braden joined the CIA, ran unsuccessfully for Lieutenant Governor of California in 1966, then became somewhat famous when he wrote the book "Eight is Enough," published in 1975, about his experiences as a dad raising eight children. The book was developed into a hit tv series of the same name, which featured dad "Tom Bradford" and his eight children, and launched the career of teen heartthrob-turned-pathetic reality show loser Willie Aames.

Braden, a liberal, then co-hosted a Washington, D.C. radio program called "Confrontation," which pitted him against conservative Pat Buchanan, tackling substantive issues of the day. The fledgling Cable News Network ("CNN") took on Braden and Buchanan and turned "Confrontation" into "Crossfire."

The fiery Buchanan and the equally feisty liberal lion Braden were perfect for the new 24-hour cable news medium. They would invite a guest to sit between them and get caught in the "Crossfire." I know -- I worked on "Crossfire" as a college student. Research and preparation for Buchanan and Braden was an easy job, because each of them was so knowledgeable and so well prepared that they didn't need my help. I remember one hilarious episode, recounted in this CNN article, where the guest was the Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. Braden was especially contemptuous of this man, asking "should I call you Mister Wizard?" At one point the guest had to remind Braden that he, the Wizard, had been invited on the program after all. Here's a YouTube video of Braden's "Crossfire" program in 1986, where guest Frank Zappa defended free speech in music.

After several changes in personnel on "Crossfire," CNN canceled "Crossfire" in 2005. In doing so, CNN President Jonathan Klein specifically cited Jon Stewart's memorable appearance on the program, where, as this YouTube video shows, an angry Stewart chastised "Crossfire" commentators Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala, as well as the cable television news networks generally, for "hurting America" by merely shouting opinions at each other instead of offering substantive information and holding politicians' feet to the fire. In canceling "Crossfire," CNN's Klein stated "I agree wholeheartedly with Jon Stewart's overall premise."

Unfortunately, neither CNN nor the other cable television news networks followed Stewart's advice. Just like Willie Aames, cable news gets both more shrill and more inane every day. For example, during last week's G20 Summit, against the backdrop of the worst global economic crisis since the Great Depression, how many stories about iPods and queen hugs have the cable news networks aired? It's gotten so bad that even I, with my background in and love for this business, have had to tune out. Somehow, I don't think that's what Tom Braden had in mind.

Netflix Giant Price Increase Causes Customer Relations Fiasco

2009-03-31T15:11:00.000-07:00

My new name for Netflix is Netfux. If you are a Netflix customer who rents Blu-Ray DVDs, by now you have probably received an email from Netflix announcing a huge price increase for Blu-Ray DVD rentals. The increase is supposed to take effect on your next Netflix monthly statement, on or about April 27. This is the second time in six months that Netflix has added a Blu-Ray surcharge, and this time the increase is much greater. In my case (3 DVDs per month plan), after a $1 increase last October, Netflix wants to charge me an additional $3 per month. Based on my $17 per month rate ($16 before last October's surcharge), these surcharges amount to nearly 25%. That's not going to happen.

The large Netflix price hike makes no sense. Netflix states that the price for it buy Blu-Ray discs is higher than regular DVDs. But Blu-Ray is becoming the DVD standard. Additionally, as more customers buy Blu-Ray DVD players and opt for Blu-Ray discs, Netflix will purchase more and more Blu-Ray discs in relation to standard DVD discs. So, Netflix is trying to have its customers pay a lot more for its regular and replacement product.

Also, Netflix is a huge buyer of DVDs. It should negotiate better prices for Blu-Ray discs from its suppliers, instead of paying through the nose for Blu-Ray discs (if Netflix is to be believed) and simply passing on the costs to its customers. The planned Netflix price increase is also unjustified based on the paltry number of Blu-Ray titles (currently only about 1,300 out of some 250,000 DVDs, or .52%) that Netflix makes available. I'm not going to pay more than 20% extra per month for a product that I only receive one-half percent of the time.

Perhaps most importantly, we're in the depths of an economic recession, or even a depression. Many businesses, including airlines, restaurants, home builders, and stores, are lowering their prices in order to retain customers. It's insane from a business standpoint to raise prices by such a large amount in the middle of an economic crisis, and not expect to lose customers and revenue.

Finally, we know from the history of DVD prices that Blu-Ray prices will eventually come down as production increases. Note how Netflix makes no promise to lower its prices when the prices it pays to buy Blu-Ray discs declines.

The planned Netflix price hike is also abysmal from a customer relations standpoint. Just go to the Neflix blog and check out the more than seven hundred responses received in just 24 hours thus far to the price increase announcement from Netflix VP of Marketing Jessie Becker. Virtually all of the comments are from angry Netflix customers who say they are either downgrading their service, or leaving Netflix entirely. How does less revenue and an army of irate customers, including bad press on the blogs and elsewhere, grab you as a business plan?

If you don't want to pay the Netflix price increase, do what I did:

1. Write a comment on the Netflix official blog post. Tell VP Jessie Becker what a dumb and ill-timed idea the price increase is. Tell her that the amount of increase is way too high. Tell her that you plan to downgrade your service or leave Netflix altogether for a competitor (such as Blockbuster, RedBox, or DVD Express) if they try to push their full price increase through. I checked the prices at Blockbuster, and they are cheaper than Netflix's planned prices, with no Blu-Ray surcharge and the ability to rent from and return movies and video games to Blockbuster stores. That seems like a no-brainer to me.

2. Call Netflix at 1-888-923-0898 or 1-800-585-8131. Calmly tell the representative why their price increase is unacceptable. I called today and was told that Netflix is not negotiating price for "customer retention" purposes at this time. That, however, may change in the coming days or weeks. If Netflix does not offer to negotiate with you over the increase or wipe it out altogether, tell them you plan to downgrade to a lower level of service (or terminate your Netflix service altogether). Point out how it makes no sense for their price increase to result in less revenue to them as customers are downgrading or leaving altogether. Note that cancellation of your service takes effect immediately, so you can wait until just before your next billing date to do so.

3. If you have nothing left to say to Netflix by phone and have made your decision to downgrade or cancel your service, you can also do so at the Netflix website. I haven't done it that way, but hopefully there is a "Comments" section where you can explain why you are taking this action. If not, hopefully there is the ability to do so in the "Contact Us" section of the Netflix site.

4. If you're a zealous letter writer, send letters to Netflix's CEO and top officers. Their names are listed here. Netflix's corporate address, according to Hoover's Online, is:

100 Winchester Cir.
Los Gatos, CA 95032
Phone: 408-540-3700
Fax: 408-540-3737

5. Publicize your views about the Netflix price increase, and the steps you have taken to counter it, on your blog and in other media to which you have access. It's hard to overestimate the power of negative publicity.

Perhaps when enough people take these steps, Netflix will realize the tremendous error they made, and either change their plans, or, if customers downgrade and leave en masse, ask us to return at our previous level of service at or near the old rate. If not, Blockbuster will do just fine.

"The Cougar" -- it's all about Women's Empowerment, Right?

2009-03-30T11:33:00.000-07:00

I just saw a promotion for a new television program called "The Cougar." On the program, which premieres on April 15 on the TV Land network, twentysomething men will vie for the romantic attentions of a fortysomething woman. The "cougar" will eliminate the guys one by one, presumably for not being boy toyish enough.

I find it a bit odd that older women who lust after younger men are now so widely referred to in terms of a deadly cat that pounces on its prey. Even "Saturday Night Live" has jumped on this trend, with a recurring skit featuring a talk show called "The Cougar Den," where desperate, hair-teased women with considerable mileage on them pounce, sometimes literally, on their younger male guests. It is not a flattering portrayal.

What would television executives call a program where women competed to be the most successful corporate executive -- "The Bitch"?

(Photo of cougar from Washington Dept. of Fish and Wildlife)

How to Blog Like Frank Rich

2009-03-15T13:55:00.000-07:00

If you want to be taken seriously as a blogger, do what New York Times columnist Frank Rich does in his columns posted on the New York Times website. Check out this latest example, regarding the shrinking influence of the "culture warriors" in the face of economic crisis. First, Rich packs a novel's worth of information into one column. His writing is about as tight as it gets. Second, Rich generously links his sources, his facts, and his quotes. I counted thirty links in this column alone. Unfortunately, too few bloggers do that, even so-called "journalists" who should know better. Simply arguing and name-calling, without providing the evidence, may provoke people who don't already agree with you, but it won't convince them.

You may or may not agree with Frank Rich's rather strong point of view, but it's hard to argue with the skill and thoroughness with which he presents it. That's a good model for any blogger to follow.

I'm Blogging Less; Are You?

2009-03-05T11:39:00.000-08:00

My blogging frequency is steadily decreasing. Interestingly, so is the blogging frequency of several of my blogger cohorts, the one impressive exception being Barbara at Looking2Live. As for the others, I won't single you out. You know who you are.

Why am I blogging less? For one thing, most of my earliest blog posts were about political or policy issues. That quickly got boring, especially given the number of blowhard bloggers who bloviate about politics. Also, moving outside the Beltway and to California has refreshingly changed my perspective on politics. "Inside the Beltway" is a genuine mindset.

Since I rarely write about politics anymore, and I don't write about my sex life, celebrities, or the television shows "Lost" or "24," what the hell am I gonna blog about? I've gotten very choosy about blogging subjects. I will only write and publish a blog post if (1) the subject is really on my mind, or near and dear to my heart; and (2) I think it will have wide appeal to readers.

Speaking of reader appeal, the other change in my blogging thinking involves the target audience. I no longer blog from the "inside out," to try to attract a following of readers/commenters. I don't bug my busy friends to read my blog. If they read the blog, fine, if not, that's fine too. On the other hand, the number of site visits I get from the "outside in," i.e., searchers on Google and other search engines, has steadily increased over time. My months-old blog posts on certain random subjects (layered t-shirts, Grouply, Sambo's restaurant, and euphemisms) consistently get hits every day. Perhaps some of those searchers are converted into regular readers.

I am also cheating on my blog with another group blog where I am a contributing writer. That blog is occupying an increasing amount of my blogging energy.

Ironically, however, the less frequently I blog here at Media Concepts, the more site visits, links and citations it receives, and the more popular it gets, according to the rankings. Is this a case of something being more attractive when it's more scarce? I don't know, but, given these results, what is my incentive to blog here more often?

I would be interested to know, however, if other bloggers besides the ones I have in mind are blogging on their personal blogs less frequently, and, if so, why? Did they get bored? Did the novelty wear off? Are they committing blog adultery with another blog? Or are their blogs, like mine, counterintuitively becoming more popular the less frequently they write?

This almost sounds like one of those government subsidies where farmers are paid not to grow crops. Oops, that's political, forget it.

Don't Worry Bombay-bee

2009-02-28T13:44:00.000-08:00

Whenever I am on the phone with a company's technical support department in India, the representative repeats the phrase "don't worry." Actually, it's more like "don't vorry." I find this phrase really patronizing and really annoying.

It happens every time I call Dell technical support. The other day, it also happened when I called Time Warner Cable's technical support. Apparently, there's a master call center or two in India (located, I believe, in Bangalore) where the training supervisors, among other things, teach the representatives to say "don't worry."

It's not up to these representatives to judge whether the customer is worried or not, or to suggest what state of mind we should maintain. That is very insulting. Rather, it's their job to try and solve our problem (the success rate for which, in my case, by the way, is far from 100%).

Speaking of state of mind, however, instead of staying annoyed when this happens, I now turn it into a joke. When I spoke to the Time Warner representative the other day and she said "don't vorry" for the first time, I politely asked her not to say this to me. When she said it for the second time, I started counting and said "that's twice." By the time she said "don't vorry" for the fourth time, we were both laughing.

Which, incidentally, is the best way to stop worrying.

In Your Face Pie

2009-02-26T12:48:00.000-08:00

I had never heard of a "Marion berry" when I purchased a "marionberry pie" at Trader Joe's yesterday. However, I am familiar with Washington, DC "Mayor for Life" Marion Barry, having lived in the DC area during an especially embarrassing period of Barry's rule (otherwise known as any point in Barry's adult life). I was in DC for Jay Stephens, the crack pipe drug bust, and "the bitch set me up!"

It still astounds me that DC voters keep electing Marion Barry to office. Not only did DC's Ward 8 residents elect Barry to the City Council after he served time in prison, voters then re-elected Barry as DC's Mayor! Now there are news reports that Barry is, surprise surprise, in legal trouble once again, this time for failing to pay his taxes. No matter, I'm sure that won't negatively affect Barry's popularity or electability one whit.

I am hoping that my digestive reaction to my Trader Joe's marionberry pie will be better than my digestive reaction to Marion Barry.

Boycott Rupert Murdoch!

2009-02-19T11:30:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Rupert Murdoch's New York Post published a despicable racist smear against President Barack Obama that masqueraded as a cartoon. The Post's cartoon depicted two white police officers shooting Travis the chimpanzee (known from Coke and Old Navy television commercials), and one of them saying "[t]hey'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill."

After Reverend Al Sharpton and many others expressed outrage about the cartoon, and the New York Times quoted a newsroom employee at the New York Post as saying that the Post's City Desk telephone was ringing off the hook with complaints from readers, the Post and its defenders denied that the cartoon had anything to do with President Obama. The Post issued a statement that read: "[t]he cartoon is a clear parody of a current news event, to wit the shooting of a violent chimpanzee in Connecticut. It broadly mocks Washington's efforts to revive the economy. Again, Al Sharpton reveals himself as nothing more than a publicity opportunist."

I don't buy the Post's explanation. First, the Post ignores the long history of racist comparisons of black people with monkeys and apes. Worse, this association was explicitly and repeatedly made regarding Barack Obama while Obama was running for President. Second, there is a street sign in the Post's cartoon that reads "Beware of Dogs." White police? Dogs? Black people? There's quite a historical connection there. That sign didn't get into the cartoon by accident. Third, in blog comments and elsewhere, right wingers say that the Post's cartoon did not refer to Obama because Obama didn't "write" the stimulus bill. But of course Obama is the author of the bill. It was Obama's idea, and he gave the Congress the elements that he wanted in the bill. Tax cuts. Check. Infrastructure spending. Check. Renewable energy spending. Check. Education and other long-term job creation spending. Check. Home mortgage assistance. Unemployment assistance. Check. The House and Senate then ironed out the exact details and mix of these elements. It's normal for a President whose party controls the House and/or the Senate to "author," "write," "germinate," "pass down," or otherwise cause to have his party leaders draft up what is essentially "his" bill. Indeed, the Post said that the cartoon addressed "Washington's efforts," not "Congress' efforts," "to revive the economy," and obviously, President Obama is a principal part, if not the primary mover, behind those Washington "efforts."

The New York Post has the First Amendment right to publish this garbage. But there's a difference between what the Post has the right to do, and what's right to do. Even if the Post's flimsy explanation is to be believed and the dead chimp in its cartoon represented Congress, or "Washington," and not President Obama, it was still wildly negligent of the Post to publish a cartoon that raised so many ugly connections to our country's racist past, some of which were on full display against Barack Obama only a few months ago. Also, the best that can be said against the Post's cartoon is that it approved of deadly violence against people at one end of Pennsylvania Avenue or the other.

We have rights ourselves, including the right to speak out against the Post's cartoon, and to vote against such irresponsible corporate behavior with our wallets. I think the appropriate response to the Post's cartoon is to demand a full and unambiguous apology from the Post, and not the half-assed kind that merely expresses regret for "readers who may have misinterpreted the cartoon." If the Post refuses to issue such an apology, we should call for a boycott, and termination of subscriptions, to all of Rupert Murdoch's media properties, including the New York Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Fox television channels and networks, and the movies produced by 20th Century Fox's film studios.

My Recipe for Tequila Banana Pancakes

2009-02-07T13:00:00.000-08:00

Step 1: Throw a party. Serve Margaritas. Use measuring cup.

Step 2: (*Crucial: Do this before having coffee*) Make banana pancakes the next day, using same measuring cup. Don't wash measuring cup beforehand.

Delicious!

Is Christian Bale's Rant for Real? (Warning: NSFW Language)

2009-02-03T11:20:00.000-08:00

This audio recording is supposedly the voice of actor Christian Bale on the set of the film "Terminator Salvation." Apparently, the Director of Photography, Shane Hurlbut, walked into a scene Bale was shooting, after which Bale went berserk, at one point threatening to hurl Hurlbut's butt off the set and off the picture entirely.

I don't know if the audiotape is a genuine recording of Bale, or whether it is a prank. It has shown up all over the news media as accurate. If the tape is real, it confirms some of the worst stereotypes about spoiled, abusive, infantile famous actors. Remember when Alec Baldwin was recorded in a similar telephone rant ("what a rotten little pig you really are") against his own young daughter?

Even though I live among some of these people, this sure doesn't make me want to go out of my way to get to know them.

(Photo from Amazon.com)

Pet Safety Alert

2009-01-26T16:59:00.000-08:00

Today I saw a dog running down the right lane of a very busy four-lane road. As I made a right turn, I covered my eyes so as not to see the likely outcome. A few minutes later, in a shopping center that backs onto the road, I saw a few people wandering around the parking lot, searching, and one was whistling. I spoke to them, and, sure enough, they were looking for their dog. I told them where I had seen the dog, and they took off to find it.

Then, moments later, I saw a woman tie a beautiful golden lab to a concrete post, and then go into Ralph's supermarket. I can't imagine that's it's very safe to tie a dog outside a busy store, where someone could easily steal the dog. Moreover, it must be a bit scary for a dog to be tied up where, as was the case here, it is then constantly approached by a stream of strangers.

Pets are not people, and I don't know whether the first dog got loose due to the negligence of its owners, but I think that, when it comes to safety, people should treat their pets as they would their children.

Three Things that Struck Me During Barack Obama's Inauguration

2009-01-20T15:55:00.000-08:00

1. I counted at least two screw-ups by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts in administering the Presidential Oath of Office. First, Roberts left out the word "faithfully." Then Roberts recited the phrase "office of the President to the United States." Of course, it should be "President of the United States." Obama, a former Constitutional law professor, then stopped to give Roberts a "do-over."

It appeared to me that Obama did this not only to preserve the history of the day, but also to prevent the wingnuts from spending four or eight years claiming that Obama isn't the legitimate President because (if he had repeated Roberts' original words) he didn't state the Oath correctly. Think that's far-fetched? Shortly after the Oath was administered, Fox News' Chris Wallace wondered out loud "whether or not Barack Obama in fact is the president of the United States." Then Wallace hilariously claimed that "[i]t's just conceivable that this will end up going to the courts."

2. Dick Cheney being wheeled away in a wheelchair. To me, that just sums up the Bush Administration, limping out of town with a whimper.

3. The unanimously cheering crowds gathered at Obama's swearing-in and along the inaugural parade route. Contrast that with George W. Bush's inauguration in 2001, which was met by thousands of angry protesters, some of whom wielded "Hail to the Thief" signs and some who threw eggs at Bush in his Presidential limousine. While Obama took a slow ride and a couple of strolls down Pennsylvania Avenue while the crowds erupted in cheers, Bush was met with such hostility that he had to hide inside his car, which then rushed off at high speed along Pennsylvania Avenue towards the White House.

Yes, it's a new day.

Television Ratings Miracle on the Hudson

2009-01-17T13:43:00.000-08:00

Last Wednesday, along with other viewers, I was glued to my television set, following the "Breaking News." It was dramatic. It concerned life-or-death issues. It was of importance to all Americans. I'm referring, of course, to the hearing for Attorney General nominee Eric Holder. Oh, you thought I was talking about the "Miracle on the Hudson"? Yeah, not so much.

Once again, the television news networks are flogging a non-news story for all it's worth. Unfortunately, the so-called "Miracle on the Hudson" was a perfect storm for the television news networks: a "dramatic" rescue incident, with a human interest angle, unusual television pictures captured on videotape (Look! An airplane! In the water!"), and which took place just blocks from their studios. Since the plane went down, we have been subjected to endless coverage, including interviews with family members and numerous "aviation experts." I have no doubt that made-for-television movies and book deals are in the works, from the pilot and passengers. You have to love American capitalism.

Once again, however, someone needs to explain how this is "news" deserving such lopsided coverage, let alone national (and indeed, worldwide) "news" warranting so much coverage by nationwide television news networks such as MSNBC, CNN, and Fixed Noise. A prominent blogger and journalist I know recently defined "news" as when "someone tells me something I didn't know before." Even under that low standard, the "Miracle on the Hudson" isn't "news." We all knew before that airplanes sometimes crash. We knew that, in particular, planes sometimes hit flocks of birds and then crash or have to ditch. We knew that planes sometimes ditch in the water. We knew that, when planes ditch in the water, they can float for a while, and, if rescuers arrive soon enough, the people can be rescued.

By next Tuesday, the television news networks presumably will have moved away from the "Miracle on the Hudson" and onto the Obama inauguration. But until then, it's more airplane airtime. At least when the Runaway Bride ran away, or when Chandra Levy went missing, or when Caylee Anthony's body was found, or when O.J. Simpson was arrested for kidnapping and armed robbery, that was something I didn't already know.

Facebook 30-Day Review

2009-01-07T12:43:00.000-08:00

It's been just over a month since I joined Facebook. Here are my 5 thoughts about it:

1. Facebook is a virtual high school reunion. I did not list my high school on my profile, but, as I added a couple of old high school friends, other classmates from their networks have contacted me. Some of these are people who I did not know well or was not friends with. I'm not sure I feel the need to connect with them now.

2. People's Facebook profiles cover the entire range in tone and subject matter. Some of my Facebook friends have very dry, very safe, corporate-oriented profiles akin to a LinkedIn or Plaxo page. Some of my more creative, non-conformist friends, however, have gone to the other extreme, even to the point of posting photos of themselves in fetish gear. I'm trying to strike a balance in between, and believe me, the area in between is vast.

3. Some of my Facebook friends send personal messages to each other's walls, often to make plans. I'm not sure why they don't just text or email each other when they're making plans to attend a yoga class or talking about other people, and it's clearly not a network-wide announcement. It's also an example of people seeming less concerned about their privacy as they use the Internet more.

4. A month ago, I was concerned that Facebook could be a giant time suck. I was right. Some Facebook folks seem to spend an inordinate amount of time virtually throwing snowballs, sending bottles of champagne, "gossiping," playing "word twist," etc. But as with everything else, Facebook only becomes a time suck if you let it. I have been able to limit my time spent on Facebook, and have had little interest in sending or receiving virtual goodies or playing games.

5. Speaking of "gossiping," I do see that certain applications on Facebook, such as the "gossip" function, appear to be spam/phishing attempts in disguise. When I received a notice that someone has "gossiped" about me and clicked the link, I received a notice that, to read the "gossip," I would have to hand over my Facebook personal information. I have no doubt that doing so would place me on some companies' marketing lists. Watch out for this stuff!

All in all, I find Facebook instantly fun for social purposes, and potentially useful for business purposes. But, as with everything else on the Internet, Facebook should be used with care.

I'm Dreaming of a Wired Christmas

2008-12-23T12:18:00.000-08:00

This holiday season, I've got social networking on the mind. Over the past few weeks, I've blogged about both Facebook and Twitter, having joined Facebook and thus far rejected Twitter as less than useful. For many of us who are not the earliest adopters, I suspect that 2008 was a watershed year for social networking.

The 2008 election no doubt provided a huge boost for social networking. Barack Obama's use of Internet technology, especially social networking, to help win the Presidential election will be the subject of textbooks and case studies for decades to come. Now that the election season has turned into the holiday season, I am finding social networking to be an invaluable tool in other ways. In just the past few days, I:

-- used Facebook to find the email addresses of some new "friends" and send them an article regarding something we talked about over Thanksgiving dinner;

-- added someone I met at a recent trade show to my LinkedIn network; and

-- took a look at some fun photos of a recent writers' holiday party that one of the attendees put up on our Yahoo! group.

Who knows what other social connections, business associations, and synergistic combinations of the two will result from the use of these and other social networking tools?

Deadliest Popcorn Bag on the Planet?

2008-12-15T11:03:00.000-08:00

I was shocked to unfold the above-pictured microwave popcorn package and read Step 2: "Stay By Microwave & Listen," accompanied by a drawing of a woman seemingly standing with her ear up to the door of her microwave oven. Is this the last company left on the planet that receives no advice from lawyers or insurance companies? I think they left out the steps which state: "Hold cell phone up to other ear to maximize risk of brain cancer" and: "While eating popcorn, sit as close to television as possible."

Headline of the Day: Bush Versus the Brazilians

2008-12-11T13:22:00.000-08:00

The headline at Salon.com today says it all: "Bush is Back!" But they aren't talking about the president kind of bush. According to the article, "a cheeky Inauguration Day event called 'Shave the Date'" is scheduled to take place, for which women are being called upon to "Show your love for your country" by "leav[ing] no bush behind" and "rid[ding] the world of bush once and for all." However, according to Salon, Shave the Date is bumping up against the reality of the economic crisis. More and more women are being forced to trim back their personal spending. As a result, according to Salon, the Brazilian is going the way of the leisure suit and, instead, "when it comes to our most private places, bush is back."

This article is sure to cause a raging brush fire of a debate, or at least a deep split of opinion. Is bush really back? Is the Brazilian really dead? Is this the "Change we've been waiting for"? Even in a recession, will women really stop spending money on grooming and beauty treatments? Or will women "leave no bush behind" on Inauguration Day to show their patriotism? Will this become a badge of honor, the new lapel flag pin for women? How will men's opinions and preferences figure in the mix?

America wants to know.

(Flag of Brazil from enchantedlearning.com)

Facebook's Siren Song

2008-12-06T10:18:00.000-08:00

I just joined Facebook after having received a bunch of invitations in recent months. However, the jury is still out on whether I'll remain an active Facebook member, or a member at all.

On the plus side, Facebook is a fun way to have old friends find and contact you. Likewise, Facebook is another avenue to keep up and communicate with your current friends and loved ones. Through Facebook, I have learned some interesting things about my friends, such as the fact that a number of them have adopted the middle name "Hussein."

However, Facebook has a couple of significant minuses. First, Facebook involves a loss of privacy. Depending on how you adjust your settings and what information you list, your Facebook profile may include your full name, your photo, your email address, your mailing address, your place of employment, your interests and activities, etc. This is not necessarily information that you would want to place into the public domain, especially consolidated on a page or two. Everyone from stalkers to marketers could then use Facebook to follow your life and make unwanted contact with you. To avoid this intrusion, you might have to be vigilant in tweaking your Facebook settings to maximize your privacy, but, in doing so, you might defeat the reason for joining Facebook in the first place, i.e., making yourself accessible for others to find you.

The other downside is that, like Twitter, Facebook can be a giant time-suck. The "What are you doing right now?" box at the top of your Facebook home page is almost identical to Twitter. I'm surprised at how many people are using this device to update their Facebook pages during the day, and at how many people are then responding to these messages. My Facebook "wall" is now covered with this graffiti. Similarly, I have received a number of comments on my posted photos. While this attention is amusing and flattering, who can afford to be lured away from work and other activities by yet another attractive, time-consuming technology? Who has the discipline not to get inhaled into this giant and ever-growing vortex of Internet inanity? Besides, I'm already too busy cat bowling and reading hopelessly corny email jokes.

While it has been enjoyable to have old and current friends get in touch with me via Facebook, somehow I don't think I'm going to be a very good Facebooker.

(Charlie Chaplin "Modern Times" photo from Teachwithmovies.org)

Should I Twitter?

2008-12-03T14:20:00.000-08:00

As an active blogger, I'm not averse to new technological and social networking tools. But any tool is only useful if it's useful. I'm still trying to figure out how Twitter is useful.

I've spoken to friends about Twitter, and have followed discussions about Twitter on some group bulletin boards. Many people say that they're addicted to Twitter, and that they use it every day. They say that Twitter is a quick way to update people on what they're doing. But how important is it to know what people are doing all day? Aren't people's daily routines fairly hum-drum? If following their daily details was so important, I would already be on the phone or emailing with them numerous times during the day. Do I need to know via Twitter that Jay is "in a boring meeting" or that Julie is "making meatloaf"? At the expense of doing my work?

Other people say that they use Twitter to "promote their blogs." I'm not sure exactly how that works, but constant pimping of one's blog is extremely off-putting, and would be no less so over Twitter.

On the other hand, I'm no Luddite. So somebody, please convince me why I should Twitter. If you can do so in a 140-character Twitter message, even better.

(Photo from Telegraph-office.com)

Ka-Boom!

2008-11-30T14:36:00.000-08:00

Today I discovered another cool thing about living on the Southern California coast: Space Shuttle sonic booms!

Space Shuttle Endeavour was due to land at its usual location at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida this morning, but, due to bad weather, the Shuttle was re-routed to its backup landing area at Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California's Mojave Desert.

With little notice, I tuned into CNN to see Endeavour descending from the sky. Then, at 1:20 p.m. local time, I heard a loud double boom! At that moment, the official NASA announcer being broadcast on CNN stated “two sonic booms signaling a landing at the California coast.” Apparently, Endeavour flew in from the Pacific Ocean, and created the sonic booms as it decelerated through the sound barrier at about the time it crossed over land, somewhere above my home.

I was very excited to witness this meeting of natural science and human technology in action today, and I know I'm not the only one.

(photo from NASA.gov)

The Boob That Won't Die

2008-11-23T14:15:00.000-08:00

America arguably faces its greatest collection of challenges since World War II -- an economy sliding past recession and into depression, two wars, and a climate crisis, for starters. You would think that George W. Bush and his administration would be spending their final weeks working hard to avert disaster at home and abroad. But instead, the Bush administration is focused on boobs on the boob tube. Five months after a federal appeals court overturned the Federal Communications Commission's $550,000 fine against CBS for airing the Janet Jackson "wardrobe malfunction" boob incident during the 2004 Super Bowl, Bush has ordered the FCC to appeal the court's ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.

I predicted this Supreme Court appeal five months ago, but that was before the economic meltdown that began in mid-September. It's pathetic that, with just weeks remaining in his presidency, Bush is instead focused on boobs, and throwing away America's legacy and resources to kowtow to the right wing and big business instead of trying to help this country avoid catastrophe. Unfortunately, such misplaced focus is no longer shocking to me, or, I suspect, to the rest of America.

Given the recent election results, I can only say to Republicans, how's that working for you? Perhaps the best answer came from the Republicans' own Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky: "Our members, in one way, are kind of relieved by the departure of an administration that became unpopular and made it very difficult for us to compete."

The word "boob" seems appropriate to describe the situation, in more ways than one.

Ground Zero in California's Cultural War

2008-11-15T12:39:00.000-08:00

Today the news from California is all about The Fires! The Fires!, but there's something much larger, akin to a major earthquake, a massive fire, and a giant gathering snowball all put together, taking place here. Many Californians are taking to the streets and organizing boycotts to protest the recent passage of Proposition (Prop) 8, a statewide ballot initiative which changed California's Constitution by taking away the right of same-sex couples to marry. The scope of the fight over Prop 8 could well approach that of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, and could dwarf anything most bloggers have seen in their lifetimes.

I want to focus on what I consider Ground Zero in the Prop 8 war, a historic restaurant in Los Angeles called the El Coyote Mexican Cafe. One of the El Coyote's managers and part owners, Marjorie Christoffersen, is a Mormon. Her Mormon Church was massively involved in the campaign to pass Prop 8, providing millions of dollars to the Yes on Prop 8 folks and asking the members of its congregation to do the same. So Marjorie answered her church's call and donated $100 to the anti-gay marriage cause.

When word got out about Marjorie's contribution, all hell broke loose. Protesters have been picketing and boycotting El Coyote. They even went to the Yelp restaurant review site and have been giving El Coyote the lowest rating of one star. Local blogs are on fire. It got so bad that Marjorie had to host an open breakfast with the community, where she tearfully, yet unsuccessfully, tried to explain herself. Then Marjorie caved and made an offsetting contribution to the anti-Prop 8 effort. Apparently, Marjorie has left town and is having a breakdown somewhere. But it may be too late for the El Coyote. Unless people flock to the El Coyote in support of Marjorie or Prop 8, the El Coyote could suffer permanent damage to its business.

My thoughts about California's Prop 8 cultural war are the following:

1. As a history major, I learned that "revolutions of rising expectations," which occur when the government takes away a right that people already have, can be much more powerful than when the fight is over whether to grant a new right in the first place. That's part of what is fueling the battle over Prop 8 in California.

2. How pathetic is it that churchgoers like Marjorie lose their minds when their church asks or tells them to do something? How awful is it that churches are pressuring their congregations to give money for political causes, especially when some members are then caught between their conscience and their church? For that matter, why are churches involving themselves so heavily in political matters? What happened to America's separation of church and state? Hasn't the Mormon Church just disqualified itself for tax-exempt status?

3. While protests and boycotts can be very effective tools, and while I'd be plenty upset if I found out that the money I spent at a business establishment was used in a campaign to take away my rights, it's important to pick one's battles and choose one's targets wisely. I don't get the protesters' obsession with El Coyote, given Marjorie's modest $100 contribution involved there. Other individuals and businesses donated hundreds and thousands of times this amount to Yes on Prop 8.

4. Would state-sanctioned civil unions for same-sex couples, with the same rights as a marriage (inherit money, jointly own property, hospital visitation, insurance benefits, etc.), but without the label "marriage," be a compromise that everyone could live with? I suppose that, if I wanted to marry someone and was told that I could not do so for whatever reason, I'd be incensed, and might find the offer of civil unions to be half a loaf. I might just fight for it all.

Why John McCain Lost in a Landslide

2008-11-05T11:05:00.000-08:00

I wrote a long post explaining why John McCain lost so badly, and then Blogger deleted it when I clicked "Preview," even though I had saved the post dozens of times as I wrote it. Of course, it was a brilliant post, but no way am I going to do it over. Suffice it to say that, even in this tough year for Republicans, McCain should have done better, but he made poor choices, from simply demonizing Barack Obama instead of propounding a positive vision, to choosing the wildly unqualified Sarah Palin and appealing only to the narrow Republican base, to acting erratically in the face of a severe economic crisis.

It will be tempting for Republicans to excuse McCain's loss as inevitable in a year when Republican President George Bush is so unpopular and the economy has crashed. But John McCain bears responsibility for his bad choices, and Republicans in Congress, and the Republican Party as a whole, will pay a high price as a result.

I also need to add that this election wasn't about "the black." The MSM are trying to make it all about the black, by interviewing black pundits about how they feel about electing a black President, and focusing on crowd reaction shots of teary-eyed black people from last night. This election wasn't a social experiment. Obama is as white as he is black. I can be just as proud of Obama for being white as blacks can be for his being black. What the media just don't get is that Americans were sick and tired of being screwed by George Bush and Dick Cheney in every way for eight years, they have seen everything go sour, and they felt that Obama had the best plans to solve our problems and the better judgment and temperament to implement those plans. The MSM's relentless focus on carving up the country into convenient demographic groups, and on "the black President" who overcame racism to get elected, is itself a form of racism that will only divide us further at a time when we need to unite.

As for me, at least I don't have to move out of the country, but I think it's time to migrate to WordPress.

So You Want to Be a Rock and Roll Star

2008-10-29T09:16:00.000-07:00

Then all you have to do is play Rock Band 2. This video game has swept the country. I have noticed for about a year that, whenever I'm in a Best Buy store, guys from ten to over thirty years old are lined up at the Rock Band display, playing the guitar to Aerosmith, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and other mostly classic rock tunes.

Then, last Saturday night, I went to a Halloween party at a private home in Hollywood. There was entertainment everywhere, including a pumpkin carving contest outside. When I glanced inside, I saw a band playing, including one guy I know on guitar. However, instead of interacting with each other, the musicians were all looking forward. Later, when I walked inside, I saw that it was a six-piece (guitar, bass, drums, lead vocals and backup singers) Rock Band 2 rock band, playing along to Rock Band 2 songs on a tv set up in front of them. What a blast! Other folks in the room were also singing along as the band attempted to master Rock Band 2, which entails trying to match the lyrics and the musical chords, notes, and beat of such classics as Fleetwood Mac's "Go Your Own Way" and 80's dairy staple "Wanted Dead or Alive" by Bon Jovi. I even stepped up and took over lead vocals for the Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter." This was a huge evolutionary step forward from karaoke. In fact, when the drummer finished playing, having broken into a sweat, he told me that friends of his have set up a weekly Rock Band 2 karaoke-type event at a bar in Los Angeles, and that it has become so popular that MTV is now filming the goings-on.

MTV's sister channel VH1 also has its own Rock Band 2 reality show, where bands compete by playing songs along with Rock Band 2, and one member of the losing team is eliminated each week. And VH1 Classic airs "Rock Band 2 Riffs," which are the original music videos (mostly from the 80's) of the songs that are available on the Rock Band 2 video game.

Coincidentally, I was in a Circuit City store yesterday, and, like Best Buy, it had a Rock Band 2 demo set up with guitar for Microsoft's XBox 360. I tried my hand for the first time at playing the guitar, to Aerosmith & Run DMC's version of "Walk This Way." Impossible. Those notes just flew at me on the screen, and I had no time to catch up. Then I saw the Rock Band 2 "bundle" (which includes the Rock Band 2 game, a guitar, a drum set, and a microphone) for both the Sony PlayStation 3 and XBox 360 video game platforms, as well as a bundle from competing rock video game Guitar Hero. I was tempted to buy the Rock Band 2 bundle, but I may need to wait until the stock market rises again, since my original XBox machine won't even play Rock Band 2. In addition to the necessary PlayStation 3 ($400), XBox 360 ($200-$400), or $300 Nintendo Wii game console, the Rock Band 2 bundle runs nearly $200, and another guitar (for use as a bass) runs about $70.

On the other hand, given that aging, past their prime classic rock bands such as Aerosmith, Fleetwood Mac, and others now charge upwards of $250 per ticket to perform just one concert, the Rock Band 2 bundle just might be a bargain. It's certainly a bundle of fun.

(Flickr photo by David Markland, used with permission)

In Honor of Senator Tubes, it's The Tubes on YouTube

2008-10-27T17:55:00.000-07:00

As you probably know by now, Republican Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska was found guilty today on seven counts of corruption. Previously, the 84 year-old Stevens became infamous when, as the Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, which oversees the telecommunications industry, he referred to the Internet as "a series of tubes." This earned Stevens the nickname "Tubes."

Therefore, I think it's fitting to honor Senator Tubes with a YouTube video from 70's camp/glam band The Tubes. Ironically, YouTube has been the undoing of several Republican Senators, including Stevens, George "Macaca" Allen, and now John McCain, as previous public statements that they try to deny or disavow instead get put on YouTube, to be viewed by millions, sometimes within a matter of hours. Any Senator that fails to recognize the power of "the tubes" or "the 'Tube" does so at his peril.

Houston, We Have a Problem

2008-10-20T17:30:00.000-07:00

These photos show what it looks like behind my home entertainment center. I fondly call it Houston Mission Control due to the plethora of wires and cables. Whenever I replace an old piece of equipment or add a new one (television, audio/video receiver, dvd player, cd player, speakers, XBox, etc.), I am presented with a fresh challenge as to how to connect the new piece. I'm having a double such challenge this week, as I replaced two items in the system.

What makes this all so complicated nowadays is one word: cables. In years past, there were few or no options for connecting home audio and video equipment to each other. Today, old-fashioned copper wires are typically found only in speaker cable. Instead, consumers can now choose from High-Definition Multimedia Interface ("HDMI"), optical digital, S-Video, coaxial, digital coaxial, component, and composite cable connections, among others. My system pictured above contains every one of these connections, except for composite. As a result, today's audio/video components such as receivers and high-definition television sets have rows upon rows of input and output jacks on the back, to give consumers flexibility as to what types of connections to make between components. And the instruction manuals packaged with this equipment read like NASA flight manuals.

This dizzying array of home entertainment wiring options has caused two cottage industries -- the high-end audio/video cable industry (best represented by Monster Cable) and the numerous individuals and companies who charge a pretty penny install home audio and video equipment -- to explode. Even if you install your own cables, unless you purchase a "home theater in a box" system, you can expect to pay up to $1,000 or more for the high-quality cables needed to connect a typical home entertainment system consisting of an HDTV, an audio/video receiver, six or more speakers (to achieve at least 5.1 surround sound), a cd player, a dvd player, and a video game player.

But instead of hiring the Geek Squad to assist me with my installation, I enjoy figuring out how to do it myself. It's problem-solving, and it's good exercise for the brain. I get out my little Mini Mag flashlight, and sometimes I even put it in my mouth to free up both hands (and to look like a high-tech burglar from an action movie). Although I have not yet figured out the new installation completely, I have not yet had to get on the phone and say, "Geeks on Call, we have a problem."

Unintentional Supermarket Double Entendre of the Day

2008-10-14T18:02:00.000-07:00

Today in the supermarket, I saw a tall, beautiful Asian woman in blue surgical scrubs. As I walked by her, she was kneeling to inspect items on the bottom shelf. Her hand-carry basket was on the floor and was overflowing. Especially vulnerable was a carton of eggs that teetered over the top. It looked like it might fall at any second.

I wanted to say, "watch those eggs, they're about to drop." But I felt that she might take it the wrong way.

It's Project Bluebeam, and I Feel Fine

2008-10-10T11:28:00.000-07:00

Just as Mercury gets out of retrograde, something very strange is supposed to happen on October 14. I heard about it from the people where I get my hair cut, so it must be true. Some say it will be a massive invasion of space aliens. Others say it will be a NASA-created fake alien invasion called Project Bluebeam.

Project Bluebeam is supposedly a super-secret NASA project designed to replicate an alien invasion and cause earthquakes. The NASA-created light show and electromagnetic pulse wave will cause people to think that God is talking to them. (Of course, many people already think that. They're called Sarah Palin supporters.) All Gods will appear (through holographic technology) and meld into one, and Jesus Christ will lead the new World Religion. Apparently, Satan himself will also make an appearance. The New World Order will be ushered in.

Oh, and all this will supposedly take place over Alabama.

And yes, my haircut place is just a few blocks from Venice Beach, what's your point? I say, as long as Project Bluebeam doesn't cause my Internet and cable service to shut down again, I'm fine with it.

You Know Mercury is in Retrograde When ...

2008-10-08T10:35:00.000-07:00

... First, your Internet and cable service quit, and it takes days to get it fixed. You are forced to take radical steps, such as going online at coffee shops and reading actual books at home. Then, your computer battery stops charging, and, after arguing on the phone to Dell Technical Support for an hour and forty-five minutes that you don't need a new $180 battery, they suggest having you start the computer in Startup mode -- something you could have done in the first five minutes -- which instantly reveals that, as you were telling them all along, the problem is the AC adapter.

Then, to top it off (pun intended), you have a surreal and ultimately comical experience with the guy behind the Costco pizza window. A friend and I ordered a pizza, and I asked for mushrooms and green peppers.

Guy behind window: "You can only get it with all the vegetables, including onions and olives."
Me: "Huh? Why can't the person making the pizza just stop after sprinkling on the mushrooms and green peppers? Isn't that less work for him?"

I got some head scratching, but never a clear answer on that one.

So I went online, and, as I suspected, Mercury is indeed in retrograde, from September 24 through October 15. For those of you who are not familiar with this phenomenon, people who believe in such things say that it is an unsettling time often characterized by electronic devices, travel plans, contractual arrangements, and other things (such as pizza making) going absolutely haywire.

Mercury, you were named for your speed of movement. So will you please speed up?

Get Ready For the McCain-Palin Slime Machine

2008-10-04T13:48:00.000-07:00

The only thing slimier than a Republican candidate is a Republican candidate who is losing. That is the position that John McCain and Sarah Palin find themselves in today. Barack Obama has opened up a sizeable lead over McCain. A couple of days ago, the McCain campaign cut and ran from Michigan, which it had formerly considered a battleground state. And now McCain's campaign has hunkered down in formerly Republican states like Florida, Missouri, Virginia, and even Indiana, ones that George Bush won (and, in the case of Indiana, which Republicans typically win handily), treating them as the battleground states. When you're fighting just to hold onto your base (as Sarah Palin seems to do with each appearance), you're in big trouble.

This means that the McCain-Palin campaign has only one tool left in their arsenal -- to turn on their slime machine against Barack Obama. I thought of this last night, and, lo and behold, there's a news article on the Washington Post's website this morning confirming that "McCain Plans Fiercer Strategy Against Obama." The sub-headline reads "GOP plans to focus on Democrat's judgment, honesty and personal ties."

The slime tactic from Republicans is nothing new. Republican campaign operative Lee Atwater honed his dirty campaign tricks while working for Presidential candidate Ronald Reagan, and then perfected them during George H.W. Bush's successful 1988 Presidential campaign against Michael Dukakis. The result was the infamous Willie Horton television ad. After Lee Atwater died, his protege, Karl Rove, took over the Republican slime machine, and we all know what happened. First, Rove helped George W. Bush defeat John McCain in the 2000 South Carolina primary using Atwater's dirty tactics. The Bush-Rove smear campaign against McCain in 2000, which included "push polls" spreading the false implication that McCain had fathered an illegitimate black child, reportedly caused a bitter rift between Bush and McCain that to this day has not healed. Bush and Rove successfully used similar tactics against Al Gore and John Kerry in the 2000 and 2004 elections, culminating in the false "Swift Boat" campaign against Kerry that helped Bush win re-election in 2004. About the principal "Swift Boat" ad that ran against Kerry, McCain said at the time, "I think the ad is dishonest and dishonorable."

Ah, but what a difference four years makes. McCain has now hired Rove's own proteges, such as Steve Schmidt. Amazingly, McCain's hires include some of the very people who falsely slimed McCain in 2000, such as Charlie Condon. A month ago, McCain hired another of the South Carolina Dirty Tricksters, Tucker Eskew, about whom McCain previously said "there is a special place in hell," to work for Sarah Palin. It is now obvious that McCain intends to use these same Bush-Rove operatives who destroyed McCain's character in the 2000 primary to do the same to Barack Obama.

I have no doubt that, after observing what the Republican slime machine did to John McCain in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004, Barack Obama is ready for the most vicious, sleazy, tawdry, false attacks imaginable. Are you?

(Obama "HOPE" image by Shepard Fairey)

Why This Layman Opposes the Bailout

2008-09-29T16:38:00.000-07:00

I'm no economist, but the proposed bailout of Wall Street sounds like a bad idea. Maybe that's why it was defeated in the House of Representatives today. Basic psychology dictates that if you want to change people's behavior, you must punish bad behavior and reward good behavior. The bailout would do the opposite. It would reward bankers, investment bankers, mortgage lenders, and those on Wall Street, many of whom lobbied successfully for looser lending laws with no regulatory oversight and then took advantage of those laws to make risky loans when they knew better (pocketing billions of dollars along the way) with a giant taxpayer dollar party.

I don't get why these malfeasors should be rewarded. Apparently, they used creative financing products to lend money to home buyers who couldn't really afford the loans, and those home buyers have defaulted on their mortgages, sticking the lenders with bad debt. If we bail those lenders out, what's to stop them from going out and driving us into the ditch all over again? We're told that the bailout is about perception, that, somehow, giving the bankers all this money will "calm the credit markets." Those who favor the bailout say that, if banks are too afraid to lend each other money, more banks will fail, businesses will not be able to get loans, the whole economy will be brought to a standstill, and we'll have a recession or even a depression.

First of all, most Americans think that we're in a recession already. Second, we'll have a recession (or a deeper one) next year no matter what. Third, so what if more banks fail? Depositors' money is insured by the federal government via the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. That safeguard was put in place during the Great Depression specifically to avoid another one. If the banks ran their business poorly, let them fail. If you start a business and made bad decisions, would the government bail you out or would it let you fail? Isn't that capitalism?

Moreover, the bailout is the ultimate "top-down" economic stimulus, rewarding Wall Street fat cats who have made millions of dollars. We've already had a nearly trillion dollar top-down stimulus for military contractors, oil companies, and other friends of the Bush Administration. It's called the Iraq War. Now it's time to avoid a depression by a bottom-up stimulus. How about giving money directly to the homeowners who are about to default on their mortgages, so they can negotiate with their lenders to pay the mortgages? Wouldn't that avert the financial crisis all by itself? How about putting the money into our infrastructure, building roads and bridges that are in serious disrepair? That will have the secondary effect of giving people jobs and money that they can spend to help the economy. How about a government program to retrofit homes and buildings to make them more energy efficient? This will create more jobs, help out the building contractors, stimulate the companies involved in efficient energy, and make us less dependent on oil.

There are many ways to spend hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to help our economy. I'm sure I'm being overly simplistic, but my gut tells me that giving the bailout to the fat cats who got us into this very mess is the most unfair and least effective way to do it.

Scopes Monkey Trial -- Sarah Palin and O.J. Simpson Would Fit Right In

2008-09-23T08:28:00.000-07:00

The famous 1925 State v. Scopes "monkey" trial was an epic struggle of Science versus the Bible with superstar lawyers, a media frenzy, and a political backdrop. Sound familiar?

In May 1925, Tennessee teacher John Scopes agreed to be indicted in order to test a new Tennessee state law prohibiting the teaching of evolution instead of creationism to public school students. Two months later, Scopes was put on trial. The Scopes trial became a media circus worthy of O.J. Simpson, including the first live radio broadcasting of a trial, and a chimpanzee in the audience. Tennessee hired superlawyer and three-time Presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan as chief prosecutor, and megalawyer Clarence Darrow volunteered to defend Scopes.

In this excerpt from the Scopes trial, Darrow puts Bryan himself on the witness stand -- which the judge had moved outside to the courtyard lawn to accommodate the massive audience -- to discuss whether the Bible should be taken literally. To me, the exchange between these two legal titans over perhaps the biggest issue of all time, complete with grandstanding and cheering spectators, as if the trial were a sports event, is about as interesting as a thing can get.

A week later, just days after the trial ended, things got even more interesting as William Jennings Bryan, who in many people's minds Darrow had destroyed on the witness stand, lay down to sleep and died. Or, put another way, he rested.

Too bad Clarence Darrow isn't around today to ask Sarah Palin about those humans and dinosaurs living side by side at the creation of the world, just 6,000 short years ago.

(William Jennings Bryan/Clarence Darrow photo credit: CORBIS/Bettmann)

Joining the Supersize Costco Cult

2008-09-20T10:28:00.000-07:00

In this lousy economy, I have eschewed the new Whole Foods that opened nearby, and instead accompanied a friend to the equidistant Costco. It was my second attempt to join Costco, after having made a previous scouting mission and being completely overwhelmed by the bigness of it all. This time, however, I joined the Costco cult.

The first thing I noticed upon entering Costco was the large selection of flat-panel televisions to my left. These must be the ultimate impulse items, especially given that Costco's shopping carts can easily fit a large screen tv, with room left over for a Smart Car.

I enjoyed the energy bars and other samples being served throughout the store, although the old hairnetted ladies serving them could have used some speed training. I wonder if they were hired from some "special" group home.

Costco's pharmacy section looks really useful. Their prescription prices seem to be discounted a bit, and over-the-counter items such as Excedrin are well-priced. However, many items, such as shaving cream, come 4 cans to a pack. Does the stuff expire?

Ditto for Costco's beverage section. It has great deals on Pellegrino and Diet Coke, but, with cases of 24 bottles and 32 cans, respectively, one needs a storage warehouse to buy them.

My local Costco has a pretty good selection of books, and the prices are excellent. Bob Woodward's brand-new book, The War Within, was selling for almost 50% off the retail price.

Nearby, some good deals on toys could be had. And yes, there was already a musical Christmas display, when Halloween is still more than a month away.

I was curious as to whether Costco had the XBox 360, and, given Microsoft's recent price reduction on the machine, whether Costco was selling it for some crazy low price. Surprisingly, Costco had the XBox, but at the old, higher price.

Athletic socks! Do you need athletic socks? I wish I did. Costco had lots of them, including white ones and grey ones, for a good price.

My friend kept raving about Costco's food, so I checked it out to see what all the fuss was about. The good news is, Costco does appear to have good quality food, from produce to meats to fish to cheese, as well as a nice selection of cookies and cakes. However, when I picked up what looked like a one-pound package of organic beef, it was attached to two more such packages. Many items were likewise double and triple packed. This is great if one (a) is having a party; (b) sports a large family of typically overweight suburban Americans; or (c) owns a freezer of the type in which axe murderers store dead bodies in suspense movies. For the rest of us, not so good.

Costco is known for their wine selection and prices, and a quick run through the wine section proved the rumor to be true. Even better, you can buy wine in individual, normal-sized bottles. The beer selection and prices were also good, and buying beer by the case does not seem so outlandish.

On the way out, those damn televisions beckoned again. I think Costco has modeled itself after the Las Vegas hotels that make you walk through their casinos no matter where you want to go. Somehow, I was able to avert my gaze and plow forward.

I ended up purchasing a basic Costco membership, and was joined at the counter by several others who apparently were also looking to economize in the current economy. At $50 per year, my Costco membership should pay for itself when I stock up for my next party.

In the meantime, would anyone like to split 24 pairs of athletic socks? They're cushioned and everything.

(Almost) Liveblogging Conference Call With Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of The Daily Kos

2008-09-10T19:13:00.000-07:00

When I registered for tonight's conference call with Markos, founder of The Daily Kos, which is being sponsored by the Courage Campaign, I was asked for my name. I blog anonymously, so there was no way I was going to give my real name. Instead, I gave my blog name, "Media Concepts." When I called in a few minutes ago, the operator asked my name. I stated "Media Concepts," but pronounced the first name like "Medea." It's pretty funny to be referred to by a name from Greek mythology. Anyway, here goes:

6:05 p.m. -- Host: Rick Jacobs of Courage Campaign. Over 500 people RSVP'd for the conference call. Kos has changed the way politics is conducted in U.S.

The call is listen-only, but then questions will be allowed.

Rick is describing Courage Campaign: California based, and does online organizing, but also gets into national issues. Many of these start in CA.
Markos has a new book out: "Taking On the System -- Rules for Radical Change in a Digital Era." Introduces Markos.

6:11 p.m. -- Markos thanks Courage Campaign. CC is fighting "hate amendment" (Proposition 8) that would ban gay marriage. CA is a progressive state but gets stuck with some non-progressive politicians like (ousted CA governor) Gray Davis.

Kos talking about his book. He's been an activist for only 6 years, but has come in on the ground floor of the digital revolution that has transformed politics. Wants to impart lessons he's learned through trial and error.

Internet and technology has led to democracy in allowing us to have a greater say. We all know that, so that won't be his focus.

He's focusing on the change in our culture that has led to acceptance of "amateurs." 500 years ago, people who could do many things (Michelangelo, etc.) were revered. But then, society only put their faith in credentialed professionals, and everyone else was riff raff, hoi polloi.

Now, it's getting back to regular folks who are showing great expertise in politics, are writing about it, and are getting great acclaim. They don't have poli sci degrees, they're just self starters. On the Internet, people respond to quality, no matter who it's from. These stars then get famous on traditional media. Kos is a prime example. He came to U.S. in 1980, fleeing civil war in El Salvador.

This is happening in other areas too -- music (create and sell your own), art, filmmaking, etc. Markos runs a network of sports blogs where many people want to have discussions with non-experts who offer quality content.

This makes traditional elite gatekeepers uncomfortable. They have lost control. Amateurs break the rules. Result is disdain toward bloggers.

We're empowered and have more control over things now. Big advance for our culture. Thanks, and I'll take questions now.

Rick: CA Sen. Diane Feinstein wants to run for governor. Her advisers say she'll win, and no one else should even get in the race.
What is the role of organizers and activists vs. gatekeepers known as campaign consultants? How do we go around them and beat them.

Kos: the game is changing. Outsiders are winning more and more. E.g. Ned Lamont winning Dem primary in CT in 2006. CA has 4 0r 5 Dems who Feinstein would have to beat. Fragmented field opens the way for progressive who on-the-ground activists could back. CC should help i.d. some. No more mishmash, retread, damaged candidates.

Rick: How about you run for CA gov?

Kos: That would be a "horrible fate" for CA. I'd be falling asleep at meetings. I'm better as an outsider. Al Gore is a great example of someone who stepped out of elective politics and has a vital platform now against global warming. Politics would diminish his ability to be a cross-partisan champion of the environment. Kos: I'm a good writer, good explainer, good manager of online community.

Callers can queue up to ask questions. They will also read some that were previously submitted by email (I submitted one about fighting back on defense vs. taking the offense during the presidential campaign).

Question: How can we have effective protests in the digital age?

Kos: Current street protests are ineffective. To build popular support through the media, having a crowd on the street & get covered by the 3 networks is obsolete. Many protesters shout different messages. Media doesn't much care. Today, it's more effective to use protest as exclamation point to a campaign around a specific issue. E.g., protest against unfair immigration laws (that would deny public education to kids of illegal immigrants). Another example is Cindy Sheehan's caravan to Bush ranch in Crawford. Big buildup before she showed up. It bubbled up in blogs and indy media. She had a single message ("I want my son to tell my why my son died in Iraq.") It was a huge catalyst that shifted opinion against the war.

6:33 p.m. listener question: Barack Obama needs to repeat his original message of humility and a redemption story (skinny kid, unlikely candidate, etc.). McCain has a great story (POW) that people i.d. with, Obama needs to do something like this.

Kos: Obama isn't doing as bad as some people say. He's doing well state by state. He's getting a lot of advice lately. McCain has a bump from convention and more popularity among Evangelicals who are GOP base anyway. Thought McCain's convention speech was "horrible."

Listener question: Has strategy to turn around economy in CA. Make own biofuels like ethanol and live sustainable. Need a biofuel farm. Use manpower from "corrections union" (? I don't follow her question at all).

Kos: says that sustainable living is a successful movement and campaign that barely existed a few years ago. Clear goal. Divide into bite size chunks. Quotes right winger Grover Norquist re tax cuts: In 10 years, you'll see how much not getting everything you want gets you. Kos: Don't demand everything up front.

Rick: Tax cut advocates in CA have similar goals. What issues should CA voters use to tie to national issues and campaigns?

Kos: better to keep it at state level. E.g. target Republicans who espouse the most egregious tax policies, win more Democratic seats. But long term project needed to fix CA budget. Need to build popular support by traditional means (letters to editor, organizing, etc.) First term of president will be dominated by Health Care and Energy.

Question: any advice on what to emphasize in swing states in presidential campaign.

Kos: find what you enjoy the most and focus on that. Kos hates doing phone banking but others love it. Some like going door to door. Professionals such as lawyers can help by giving their professional time. Montana and ND would be unique battleground states to go to (and they're beautiful).

Question: concerned about keeping electronic voting tallies from being rigged. What can citizens to do keep it honest.

Kos: E-voting boxes can be sketchy, but many other types of voting problems. E.g. 2004 election -- many types of disenfranchisement in Ohio (purging from voting rolls, Democrats didn't get absentee ballots, urban districts didn't have enough voting booths, etc.). We need to make sure barriers to voting broken down before people get to the booth. Need to elect Dem secy. of states. We have one new ones now in Ohio and 7 other states, thankfully. Kos likes Oregon model -- vote by mail, has paper trail.

6:49 p.m. Question: what can we in CA do to reach people in swing states to get Obama elected?

Kos: talk to your friends and family in swing states. No one is more influential to a voter than their close friends and family. Make sure they are registered to vote & that they plan to vote. This is the essence of democracy and citizenship.

Question: Civil disobediance is effective when focused. Do you see any relevance for it now?

Kos: Cindy Sheehan example. She set up camp where she wasn't supposed to. But most effective disobediance used media at the time. Ghandi used newsreels that were shown before movies in the theater. Today, media are jaded. Need something new and different.

Question: How can the presidential race be so close, and why do people believe McCain given his record?

Kos: It's a 50-50 country. McCain has effectively portrayed himself as not a
Bush clone. So has Sarah Palin. Our job is to point out that Republicans are Republicans, and the problem is with their ideology that says Government doesn't work. Bush chose Michael Brown, a "horse lord," to run FEMA because if he chose someone competent, people would believe that government does work and they'd buy into the Democratic ideology. GOP is paranoid that government would work.

Question: How can we get corporate software out of elections?

Kos: Repeat previous answer re Democratic secy of state and increased voting by mail. It's allowed in CA.

Question: How can I convince my relatives who are pro-choice but who watch Fox every day to get online for their information?

Kos: Explain to them what matters. Explore why they want to vote a certain way, and try to present facts and info. on your side. Use the source material (New York Times articles, etc.), not just the editorializing on blogs like the Daily Kos. Don't give up, be persistent.

Question: How should Obama handle Sarah Palin?

Kos: I'm better at analyzing decisions than giving advice or reading popular sentiment. We can't leave her alone. We can't let false media narratives to stick (e.g., she opposed Bridge to Nowhere, she's anti-pork, she's not allied with Ted Stevens). Media won't confront those falsities unless Obama does so first. This is starting to work on the Bridge to Nowhere and pork issues. Obama should stick to issues, not personal or family matters, regarding Palin. She's "Dick Cheney redux."

7:07 p.m. call ends.

That was a very worthwhile call for me, although I just realized that, technically, I didn't liveblog the call, since I wrote the post as it was happening, but published the whole post a few minutes later. It's a learning process.

Dear IKEA, I Have an IDEA

2008-09-08T12:25:00.000-07:00

Shopping in one of your stores yesterday was fun, in a sick way. Here are some suggestions to make IKEA shopping more fun and less sick:

1. If IKEA can design elaborate storage and shelving systems with hundreds of customizable choices, do you think IKEA could lead us to the exits without getting us so lost? I don't even want to think about what would happen if a fire broke out in your store.

2. And speaking of trampling over pregnant women, do you think IKEA could have a designated day either especially for pregnant women, or one designated for everyone else? Then let me know which is which. The last thing I want when pushing my shopping cart full of sharp protruding Plekva shelves is to smack into unborn Junior while rounding the ice cream scooper display.

3. Two words: Swedish Women. Can't IKEA fly some over here as "friendship hostesses," or position them at the information or checkout counters? I guarantee that IKEA will more thank make up for the cost in increased sales. Many of us think that Swedish women are among the world's most stunning. I once walked into a McDonald's in Stockholm, looked behind the counter, and thought the Ford Modeling Agency was doing a location shoot there.

4. More coffee bars. I stumbled into one near the end of our shopping excursion, but my espresso infusion came way too late to do any good. The IKEA Gaze, that disoriented, burnt-brain feeling recognizable by an unfocused stare into the distance and which is similar to the Thousand Yard Stare experienced by many of our brave soldiers in combat, sets in within 60 minutes. I recommend having at least one coffee bar, or even roving employees dispensing the stuff, on each floor of all IKEA stores. That's where those imported Swedish ladies would come in handy.

5. Please eliminate the "Birch" finish from IKEA's furniture products. It's a crappy pine veneer at best, covering compressed particle board. We know that IKEA products are cheap, so why remind us by making them look cheap?

6. Please get rid of the assembled furniture products in the item pickup area. Do you know how ticked off I would be if, after three hours of a head-exploding wild goose chase picking IKEA furniture, determining and writing down all of the necessary parts and bin numbers, I came downstairs to pick up the pieces and saw a different item that I liked better? Pretty ticked off.

Thanks for listening, IKEA. Even if you choose not to follow my suggestions, I'm sure I will return to IKEA sometime soon for some good sick fun.

Sarah Palin's Troopergate Scandal Heats Up

2008-09-05T09:57:00.000-07:00

Shortly after John McCain picked Sarah Palin as his running mate, we learned that Palin is involved in a "Troopergate" scandal in Alaska. Palin is alleged to have ordered the firing of Alaska state trooper Mike Wooten solely because Wooten was married to Palin's sister and the couple was engaged in a divorce and child custody dispute. According to the allegations, when Palin ordered Alaska's Public Safety Commissioner, Walt Monegan, to fire Wooten and Monegan refused to do so, Palin had Monegan fired.

In the past few days, several new developments have emerged in the Palin Troopergate scandal. First, emails from Palin have surfaced which clearly demonstrate that Palin was complaining to Monegan that he had not yet fired Wooten. Then we learned from the head of Alaska's state police union that Palin's aides snooped into the trooper's personnel and worker's files, which are reportedly required to be kept confidential.

From there, it gets worse. Now Palin and her lawyers are reportedly trying to delay the Troopergate investigation until after the November election. Palin's aide refuses to give a deposition to the investigator from the Alaska legislature. Palin refuses to turn over relevant emails, citing "executive privilege." Does that remind you of anyone? And now John McCain has reportedly sent a team of lawyers to Alaska to help stall the Palin Troopergate investigation.

If Palin fired a government employee for personal retaliation, had her aides illegally spy on a state trooper's files in the process, and is now stonewalling the Troopergate investigators, then she, not just McCain, really is a clone of George Bush and Dick Cheney.

I don't mean for this blog to become the Sarah Palin Scandal Blog, but new information about Palin's record just keeps coming and is pretty hard to ignore.

Sarah Palin and the Goblet of Photographic Evidence

2008-09-04T12:01:00.000-07:00

The drip drip drip of news stories about Sarah Palin keeps dripping. Today we have a couple of very revealing photos. Not that kind of revealing (although I have seen one of those and I'm sure it's easy for others to find), but the kind that reveal Palin's record, back before Palin decided to run for Vice President and flip it and reverse it.

1. There's this photo of a document containing the logo of the Washington Independent and listing $2.5 million in "Wasilla City Projects," with an accompanying note containing the circled intials "SP" and which is purported to be Sarah Palin's handwriting. The note reads: "State funds we are going to receive:" and "Council -- FYI This does not include our $ nearly one million Dollars from the Feds for our Airport Paving Project. We did well!!" (underlined emphasis in original). The handwriting at the bottom of the page reads "Frontiersman" with a date that appears to be "June 1, 1999," a time when Palin was Mayor of Wasilla. The Frontiersman is the local newspaper in Wasilla.

Evidently, Sarah Palin was pretty proud of those earmarks she obtained for Wasilla with the help of lobbyists, before she began running for Vice President. John McCain? Not so much.

2. Then there's this photo of a smiling Sarah Palin proudly holding up a t-shirt that reads "Nowhere 99901." That is the zip code for Ketchikan and Gravina Island, Alaska, where the Bridge to Nowhere was to be built with $223 million in federal taxpayer funds. The photo illustrates what we now know -- that Sarah Palin supported the Bridge to Nowhere before she became John McCain's running mate. Since McCain had repeatedly criticized the Bridge to Nowhere as part of his anti-pork barrel spending persona, Palin's support for the Bridge has become an inconvenient truth.

I suspect that more such inconvenient truths regarding Sarah Palin's record will emerge in the days to come.

Who Is Sarah Palin?

2008-09-03T11:44:00.000-07:00

In addition to Sarah Palin's scandals, here are some other interesting things about Palin:

1. Palin loves lobbyists and "earmarks" (local pork-barrel projects that lawmakers, often after receiving money and pressure from lobbyists, insert into the federal budget). Palin hired a lobbying firm, and worked directly with Steven Silver of the firm, who had previously been the chief of staff to now-indicted Senator Ted Stevens, to handle the lobbying for earmarks. The lobbying firm also employed Ted Stevens' son Ben. Then Palin submitted a proposal to Senator Ted Stevens for 31 earmarks totaling $197 million, more per person than any other state. This is exactly the opposite of the reputation that Sarah Palin and John McCain's campaign are trying to claim for Palin, including Palin's own statement the other day that "I've championed reforms to end the abuse of earmark spending by Congress." Palin is the "champion" of "earmarks" all right.

2. Speaking of lobbyists, Palin's lobbyist also worked with Jack Abramoff, the ringleader of one of the biggest corruption scandals in the history of our federal government. In fact, Silver appears to have worked with Abramoff on Indian tribe gambling, the very issue that got Abramoff and others in so much trouble.

3. Palin's views on the God/industrial complex: Sarah showed up at her home town church, and said some whoppers. It's all here on video, so you can watch it for yourself:

-- She wants Alaskans to "pray about" getting a "natural gas pipeline, about a thirty billion dollar project."

--"I think God's will has to be done in unifying people and companies in getting that gas pipeline built."

--"Our national leaders are sending them [U.S. soldiers] out [to Iraq] on a task from God . . . that plan is God's plan."

In part two of the video, Palin's pastor, standing next to her, says "there are some things that God wants to tap into to be a refuge for the lower 48. And I believe Alaska is one of the refuge states, come on, you guys, in the last days. And hundreds and thousands of people are gonna come to the state to seek refuge, and the church has to be ready to minister to them, amen."

Yikes, talk about having a pastor problem.

4. Palin tried to ban books from Alaska's libraries for religious reasons. According to this Time Magazine article:

"[Former Wasilla, Alaska mayor John] Stein says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. 'She asked the library how she could go about banning books,' he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. 'The librarian was aghast.' That woman, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn't be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving 'full support' to the mayor."

Hmm, so much for the McCain campaign's plan to use Sarah Palin to attract Democratic women who supported Hillary Clinton.

Will Scandal-a-Day Sarah Palin Be the Next Tom Eagleton?

2008-09-02T10:58:00.000-07:00

Since being named John McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin is averaging a scandal a day. Will she, like Senator Thomas Eagleton in 1972, have to be cut loose from the Republican ticket before the election? Here is what we have recently learned about Palin:

1. Palin lied about her opposition to the Bridge to Nowhere. Moments after being introduced as McCain's Vice Presidential pick, Palin stated that "I championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. In fact, I told Congress — I told Congress, 'Thanks, but no thanks,' on that bridge to nowhere [a proposed bridge to only 50 people in a remote part of Alaska that was inserted into the federal budget and became the most celebrated recent example of political pork barrel spending]." It turned out that Palin's statement was patently false, and that Palin strongly supported the Bridge to Nowhere while running for Governor.

2. Palin is embroiled in a "troopergate" corruption scandal. Palin also stated that, while serving in a public post in Alaska, she "found corruption" and "fought it hard." This "fight corruption" meme about Palin has become so prevalent that, during last Sunday's "Meet the Press" television program, host Tom Brokaw and his panelist Doris Kearns Goodwin repeated it no less than four times, with Brokaw even "stipulating" it to be a fact. The problem is, it's false. In fact, Sarah Palin just hired a lawyer because she is involved in a corruption scandal in which she is alleged to have ordered the firing of an Alaska state trooper who was married to Palin's sister, solely because the couple had divorced and was engaged in a custody battle.

3. Palin ran indicted Alaska Republican Senator Ted Stevens' lobbying group. Far from "fighting corruption" in government, Sarah Palin seems to cozy up to it. In particular, Palin was the director of a lobbying group (the kind that get to raise unlimited funds from corporate donors, in this case oil companies) for Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, who earlier this year was indicted on criminal corruption charges.

4. We learned yesterday that Palin's teenage daughter is pregnant. This might not be a big issue, except that Palin always touts "family values," and favors abstinence-only "marriage education" for students as opposed to sex education that would include the subject of contraception. So forget glass ceilings, now the issue is Palin's throwing stones in glass houses.

And all this is after less than a week! Anxious Republicans must be asking themselves, what other shoes are waiting to drop regarding Sarah Palin?

In 1972, presidential candidate and Senator George McGovern chose Senator Tom Eagleton as his running mate. Apparently, McGovern and his staff did a rush job of vetting Eagleton beforehand. It turned out that Eagleton had been hospitalized three times for psychiatric disorders, and had undergone electric shock therapy. Eagleton was soon ditched from the ticket, and McGovern lost the election in a huge landslide.

It's pretty clear what Sarah Palin's scandals say about Palin thus far, but they say much more about McCain. Since the 1972 Presidential election, 24-hour cable news networks and the Internet, including YouTube, have sprung up. A candidate's recent statements and actions are readily accessible to millions of people, often within minutes. Can you say "Macaca?" In picking a Vice Presidential running mate, the Presidential candidate must "first do no harm." In the modern media context, this means fully vetting one's potential running mates to avoid fresh scandals. This is especially true of Sarah Palin, who is almost universally unknown, has not been on the national stage, and thus has never been subject to widespread public scrutiny before. It's even more true when McCain is the oldest Presidential candidate in U.S. history. And the election is only two months away, hardly enough time for the voters to publicly scrutinize Sarah Palin, or for the McCain campaign to adequately respond to any fresh scandals involving Palin.

Yet John McCain, who had zero familiarity with or use of the Internet until just weeks ago, doesn't get it. This was evident when he tried to claim that he had never said that he had little knowledge of the economy, then was confronted by Tim Russert and others with quotes and video footage of him saying exactly that more than once, which made McCain look dishonest and clueless. McCain seems to be stuck in time around 1968, when we were fighting the Soviets in the Cold War and a political candidate's recent controversial statements and actions might more easily be forgotten in a few months.

But this is 2008. Inexplicably, it appears that McCain may have picked Palin after only a minimal amount of vetting and either being unaware of her scandals and controversies, or worse, being aware of them and ignoring them. Unfortunately for McCain, the media and the voters will do neither.

What do John McCain, Sarah Palin, and Karaoke Have in Common?

2008-08-30T12:25:00.000-07:00

Last night, I went to a karaoke bar in west Los Angeles. It was a blast. Rank amateurs, clearly not ready for prime time, got up and sang before, after, and sometimes along with, professional quality singers. Old men, way past their prime but still talented, sang standards that dated back to not only before the audience was born, but before most of the audience members' parents were born. When the truly tuneless amateurs sang, many in the audience laughed, rolled their eyes, and groaned a bit, but in the end, they gave the singers a hearty round of applause for trying.

Afterward, it occurred to me that the goings-on in the karaoke bar were a good analogy to what had just happened in the Presidential election with John McCain's pick of Sarah Palin to be his Vice Presidential running mate. McCain, the old man who can still trot out the old standards, picked Palin, the unprepared amateur, to sing a duet with him, and to take over the lead vocals if he could not continue. I guess McCain thought that the women in the audience would appreciate a female face on stage.

The problem is that the Presidency isn't karaoke. The female audience members can't stand the kind of tunes that the amateur female singer chooses to sing, and many are quite insulted that the old singer would assume otherwise. More importantly, we wouldn't have the luxury of rolling our eyes, groaning and then politely applauding when this amateur stumbles. In this case, the amateur would be a 72 year-old heartbeat away from the Presidency. And that's no laughing matter.

Clinton Supporters Take Heart -- Joe Biden is Hillary Clinton With a Penis

2008-08-23T15:33:00.000-07:00

Barack Obama's running mate, Joe Biden, has everything that Hillary Clinton has, except a uterus and breasts. So, will Clinton's supporters finally step up and support their party and its nominees?

Hillary Clinton hit her stride late in the primary campaign, by appealing to blue-collar Americans, who she unfortunately termed "hard working Americans, white Americans," with a heartfelt economic message that let voters know she understood their plight. This was on top of Clinton's truly impressive 35-year record of standing up for women's rights, civil rights, affordable health care coverage, and other issues that are paramount to Democratic voters.

Well, guess what? Joe Biden's record is stunningly similar to Hillary Clinton's. He comes from a working class, Irish Catholic background in gritty Scranton, PA, in the very heart of Clinton country. Biden also has a 35-year record of standing up for Hillary Clinton's supporters on the exact same issues, including civil rights, women's rights, health care, economic issues, America's foreign policy, and Supreme Court judges. Biden even voted, as did Clinton, to authorize George Bush to use force against Saddam Hussein (the so-called "vote for the Iraq War") in 2002. It's possible that Biden's voting record is as close to Clinton's as any other two members of Congress.

In addition to having both a Presidential and now a Vice Presidential nominee who closely share the views of Hillary Clinton and her supporters, the Democratic party has rewarded Hillary and Bill Clinton in an unprecedented way: by giving them the spotlight on two of the four nights of the upcoming Democratic Convention, and in placing Hillary Clinton's name in nomination at the convention. And, apparently, there will be plenty of opportunity for Clinton's supporters to loudly voice their support for Clinton, in what Clinton has described as a "catharsis."

So the question I have for Hillary Clinton supporters is, what more do you want? The last I checked, our electoral system consists of party primaries, each with multiple candidates. By definition, a huge chunk, often the majority, of voters in each party do not get their first pick as the ultimate nominee of the party. 2008 was no different. Will you now fail to support the Obama-Biden ticket because Clinton lost to Obama fair and square? Because that's what I call being a sore loser. Will you fail to support the Obama-Biden ticket because a woman isn't on it? Because when Republicans favor one gender over another, we correctly call that sexism. Will you fail to support the Obama-Biden ticket because Obama has dark skin? Because when Republicans do that, we correctly call that racism.

Or is this a case where, even though Hillary Clinton's positions on issues of importance to you are closely matched by Barack Obama and Joe Biden, even though Obama beat Clinton fair and square in a well-fought contest, you still won't support anyone whose name isn't Hillary Clinton? Because when people in other countries do that, we call it a Cult of Personality and "Drinking the Kool-Aid."

Come on in, the water's nice. I promise.

My Shouting Match With Paul Newman

2008-08-21T11:15:00.000-07:00

Apparently, Paul Newman is in pretty bad shape. According to some reports, he has cancer and may not have long to live. Hopefully, that is not the case, and Newman will be with us for years to come. Whenever he does go, though, undoubtedly there will be an outpouring of praise for Newman's acting, his devotion to his wife and family, and his extremely generous contributions to numerous charitable causes. So instead, I would like to describe the shouting match I had with Paul Newman.

It all started with me being drunk. If I recall correctly, it was a Friday night. I was a college student. My internship at CNN's Atlanta headquarters did not include Saturdays. So it was okay for me to be drunk.

I got to sleep at 4 a.m. Four hours later, the phone rang. I reached down and somehow located the receiver.

Rrnnff.

Matt? It's 'Sally' from CNN. We need you to come in right away. Paul Newman is here. 'Sharon' [CNN evening talk show host] has flown in from New York. We're taping a show with Paul, and we need your help.

Hrrnnphhh.

Eventually, I made my way in to CNN's studios. For a Saturday morning, CNN was buzzing with activity. I met with Sally, Sharon, and Paul Newman. Paul was in his late fifties, slight of stature, and very casually dressed, with big sunglasses. I asked him what he was doing in town, and he said that he was competing in an auto race at Road Atlanta. But he had come to CNN to speak specifically about nuclear disarmament. This was the Reagan Era, and the fear of a nuclear conflict between the U.S. and the Soviet Union was still quite palpable. Newman wanted to urge the U.S. to engage in nuclear disarmament talks with the Soviets.

My task was to be Paul Newman's bodyguard. It turned out that the people from whom I had to keep Paul safe were CNN's female employees. Attached to Paul's side, walking through CNN's hallways, I could see what it was like for a heartthrob like Paul Newman, even in his late fifties, to walk the earth. It was pretty damn good.

Every woman at CNN, whether old, young, married, or single, made sure to get in Newman's field of vision and to walk by him. Most of them said "hey Paul, how are you doing today?" in a mildly suggestive way. When we walked by the ladies' room, a line had formed into the hallway, and the door was open, revealing a gaggle of CNN women furiously primping for Paul in front of the vanity mirror. I asked Paul, "is it always like this?" "Yeah, pretty much," he replied, "but I'm used to it by now."

Then I deposited Paul Newman at his makeshifit makeup and wardrobe room, which, as I recall, had an open door or no door at all. I stood a few feet away with my hands folded in front of me, like a good Secret Service agent or Russian bodyguard. Paul was wearing white socks with loafers. He said he had no dark socks, and asked if the camera shot would be wide enough to include his feet. I said "no, don't worry."

Then, while Newman was grooming himself for the show taping, I asked him how we could trust the Soviets to negotiate nukes with them. I mentioned recent news reports that the Soviets had used chemical weapons in Afghanistan. The term "yellow rain" was being used to describe the atmospheric effects of these weapons. Granted, many such reports were being pushed by right wing, anti-Soviet interests, but I had been flirting with Republicanism at the time (I know, I know, but it was the Reagan Era, after all), and had gobbled up such reports as gospel.

Not so for Paul Newman. He aimed the most intense pair of blue eyes that I had ever seen right at me.

Don't try to impress me with that! All they found was some fungus on a tree branch!

His booming, gravelly voice could easily be heard down the hallways of the CNN newsroom.

Surprised, I shot back as best as I could:

But they invaded Afghanistan! How can you trust them?

Just then, Sharon walked in, to tell Paul that it was time to tape the program. She had obviously heard us down the hallway. She shot me a look that said, "I can't believe you just pissed off Paul Newman moments before I'm about to interview him on television!"

But the interview went fine. Paul Newman was reasonable and measured in tone as he urged the United States and the Soviet Union not to go down the path of nuclear confrontation. I got Paul a nice cup of coffee. The camera pulled back, and showed Paul Newman's white socks to the world.

Good luck, Paul, I hope you remain with us for a good long time.

Is Netflix Going the Way of AOL?

2008-08-15T08:00:00.000-07:00

Netflix is posting notices on its website that it is experiencing a major shipping delay. Does this remind anyone else of AOL's fiasco during the mid-nineties?

The similarities between the current Netflix problem and the AOL debacle are striking. In particular, Netflix, for at least the second time, has been unable to fulfill its basic duty, as advertised, of sending customers dvds from their "queue" within one to two days of receiving a viewed dvd back from the customer. At the same time, Netflix floods the Internet with annoying pop-up advertisements seeking new customers. I know several popular websites, including The Huffington Post, where Netflix's ads pop up every time I enter the site.

Sound familiar?

In AOL's case, AOL subscribers sued AOL, alleging that AOL falsely offered "unlimited" service for a flat rate, but did not have the capability to provide such service on a steady basis. AOL's customers -- and I was one of them -- constantly received busy signals when trying to connect to the Internet via AOL through their telephone modems. It was clear that AOL's liability was in large part due to the fact that it was sending millions of free disks in the mail (remember those?) soliciting new subscribers, while at the same time AOL knew that it did not have the capacity to handle the resulting influx of new customers. AOL eventually paid a huge sum to settle the class action lawsuit.

Along the way, AOL racked up gigantic losses and became a huge drag for parent company Time Warner, a drag that has long been reflected in Time Warner's depressed stock price. Time Warner has tried several times in vain to sell AOL. The name "AOL" has become a punchline ("America on Hold").

The lesson for Netflix, and other businesses, seems clear: if you want to avoid losing massive market share and goodwill that you will never get back, if you want to avoid becoming a worldwide joke, then do not paper the world with advertisements seeking new subscribers when you cannot meet the basic service demands contained in your contracts with your current subscribers.

Now pardon me while I go check out Blockbuster's website.

Who Thinks About Men's Make-up During the Olympics?

2008-08-11T11:45:00.000-07:00

I do. Or at least I did yesterday. That's because, on Friday, I saw a guy I know, who had just returned from China. He was there with his wife, who is a movie make-up artist. He told me that his wife stayed on in China to do Bob Costas' make-up during the Olympics. Then he told me that President Bush's people asked her to do Bush's make-up during the Olympics too.

Yesterday evening, I turned on the tv to try to locate some Olympic events. There on NBC was Bob Costas interviewing George Bush. I could have focused on a lot of things: the backdrop of the stunning Bird's Nest stadium, the serious subjects that Costas was questioning Bush about, including North Korea and Iran. But no. All I could think about was Bob Costas' and George Bush's make-up.

I don't know anything about make-up, except that when I see a woman wearing too much make-up, and it calls attention to itself, that's bad. I even had to research how to spell "make-up" to write this. I didn't know if "make-up" had a hyphen or not (apparently, there is a split of opinion on this issue, but Make-Up Artist magazine spells "make-up" with the hyphen).

Now I know that Bob Costas and George Bush had nice make-up jobs while they were conducting their interview from the Olympics in Beijing. Bush's complexion was ruddy and healthy looking, Costas' was more yellow or olive. I assume that reflects their natural skin tones.

I was probably one of maybe six people on the planet thinking about this at the time.

(photo from whitehouse.gov)

Is Silk Soy Milk's "Green Cap" an Oxymoron?

2008-08-08T10:30:00.000-07:00

Instead of missing children, Silk brand soy milk containers feature their own "green caps." These plastic caps, including the one pictured here, are used to pour the soy milk from the side. Silk's caps are green colored. The graphic next to the cap contains two windmills, and the message "Green Caps for Green Energy." The side of the container reads, "for years we've offset the electricity used to make Silk with clean wind energy."

Is this all bullshit?

Specifically:

1. Why do Silk's containers need plastic caps? Aren't such containers designed to fold out and pour from the ends at the top, with no extra parts? Plastic caps take energy to produce. And they're made from oil. How could it be considered "green" to produce these extra parts?

2. What does Silk do to "support" "green energy?" It's all pretty sketchy on Silk's website. The most specific information I could find are two boxes on Silk's website. One box is entitled "What Are Green Tags?" It states, "green tags are renewable energy certificates that offset polluting energy sources." However, there is no explanation of Silk's connection, if any, with such "green tags." The second box is entitled "Wind Farms We Support," and contains a map of the United States with five windmills pictured. When you scroll over each windmill, its name and location is listed. But again, Silk offers no explanation of how it "supports" such wind farms.

3. Even if Silk "offsets" the production of its "green caps" or other materials by "supporting" wind farms financially or otherwise, isn't Silk using excess energy and creating unneeded pollution by producing its caps in the first place?

Perhaps Silk can offer a better explanation about its "green caps." Until then, Silk's caps, and its accompanying "green energy" messages, remind me of the photo I saw recently of a huge Humvee with a "Coexist" bumper sticker on the back. And it reminds us that we need to scrutinize closely any company's claim to be "green."

How My Obama Bumper Sticker Caused Another Republican to Demonstrate His Ignorance

2008-08-06T11:21:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, a guy in a convertible version of my car pulled up to my right at a red light, and hollered:

Hey, did you hear that Obama told Kucinich that he'll take the [our brand of German car]s off the road?

Me: No, I haven't heard that.

Him: Yup, he said it.

Then the guy sped off.

I guess I should be happy that someone noticed the Obama bumper sticker (pictured above) on the back of my car. That's what the sticker is for. But I have to assume that the driver next to me is a Republican who was merely spreading another false meme regarding Barack Obama.

These phony Obama memes are really laughable in their lack of logic. My favorite one is the "Obama's a Muslim" meme, which was portrayed on The New Yorker magazine's recent satirical yet wildly unfunny cover. The people who spread that meme also spread guilt-by-association criticism of Obama regarding Reb'n Wright, Obama's former pastor at the Trinity United Church of Christ. Hmm, Muslim? Church of Christ? These Republicans never pause to examine the inherent contradiction, indeed, the impossibility, of believing these two memes at the same time.

Ditto for the European car meme told to me at the traffic light yesterday. For years, Republicans have characterized Democrats as "Volvo-driving liberals." If there is any truth to that characterization, then no Democratic presidential candidate in his right mind would ever say that he would take drivers of cars made in a nearby Western European country off the road. Not to mention that there was no common sense reason given to do so.

Pollsters and pundits are constantly trying to determine demographic categories -- age, race, education, religion, etc. -- that predict whether people will vote Democratic or Republican. I think I just figured out the most accurate predictor of a Republican voter: the absence of logic in the voter's mind.

Another Earthquake Hits Southern California, Another Chance for Cable News Networks to Lose Their Minds

2008-07-31T11:20:00.000-07:00

Maybe I'm jaded because I've just been through my second California earthquake in less than two years, but all I can think about is how the people who run the cable news networks once again proved what asses they are.

This time I knew right away that we were having an earthquake. My vertical blinds starting swaying violently, and it could not have been the wind, since my doors and windows were closed. I kneeled in the nearest doorway. That's probably the closest I'll get to the Catholic praying position (or any other praying position, for that matter). The earthquake was over in about 20 seconds, although my high-rise building kept swaying and creaking for about 15 seconds more. I'm told it's designed to do that.

I immediately got on the U.S. Geological Survey's website, and learned that the quake was centered in Chino Hills, not too far from me, and measured 5.4 on the Richter scale (initial estimates were at 5.6), which is considered moderate. Then I made the mistake of turning on the cable news networks to find out if there was any damage. There were no reports of damage or injuries, but that didn't stop the cable news networks from losing their minds, as usual.

The coverage of the quake was non-stop, even though (1) there were no reports of damage or injuries, and (2) there was other big news that day. In particular, Republican U.S. Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska had been indicted for corruption. The indictment of a U.S. Senator is a very big deal. We only have a hundred Senators. But the cable news networks could not cut away from their crucial earthquake coverage, which included aerial shots of an airport that the announcers could not even identify (it turned out to be Burbank), more aerial shots of kids outside of a school (even though it was mid-day and they could have been at recess), and interviews with inarticulate high school students about having to evacuate their building. Actually, the students were downright geniuses compared to the on-air cable newsreaders, who were babbling incoherently and speculating wildly.

Of course, the earthquake was newsworthy given the giant population center involved, but once again, the people in charge of the cable news networks proved that they have no sense of perspective. On the Internet, I could choose from stories about the earthquake, stories about Ted Stevens' indictment, business, foreign and other stories that were taking place at the time. One such story was that Japan had had a much larger earthquake, measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale, just a few days earlier. How much coverage did that quake merit on cable news? Or how about that Alaska had had an earthquake measuring 5.0 just the day before the California quake? How much did you hear about that quake on the cable news networks? Wouldn't it have been useful for us to know about the Alaska earthquake?

Is there anyone left who tunes into the cable news networks for real news?

If Cats and Dogs Can Get Along, Can't We?

2008-07-26T14:00:00.000-07:00

My friend Natasha sent me this photo of her newly acquired cat and dog sleeping next to each other on her sofa.

This photo gives me some hope for humanity. Aren't cats and dogs supposed to fight like, well, cats and dogs? Not these two. Perhaps it's because they were both rescued from a shelter, and, compared to what their life was like before, they have it pretty good now, lounging on their white leather Barcelona.

Of course, notice how it's the cat who is being more selfish, using the dog for a pillow rather than the other way around. Isn't that typical for a cat? What was it that George Orwell wrote? "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."

FCC Punishment of Janet Jackson's Boob Sags, Falls Flat

2008-07-21T13:16:00.000-07:00

It was the Nip Heard Round the World. Almost everyone can picture the image of Justin Timberlake ripping Janet Jackson's costume during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show, revealing Jackson's jewelry-laden breast. The Janet Jackson incident, which even spawned a new phrase -- "wardrobe malfunction" -- caused George Bush's Federal Communications Commission to change long-standing policy and penalize broadcasters for "fleeting," unplanned utterances and portrayals of "indecency" during live broadcasts. Now another federal appeals court has told the FCC to "fu*k off."

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit joined its sister court from the Second Circuit in ruling that the FCC went too far in penalizing CBS for the Janet Jackson incident, which led to a new FCC policy of sanctioning broadcasters for airing fleeting utterances of profanity during live awards programs. According to the court, the evidence showed that the Janet Jackson Wardrobe Malfunction incident was unscripted, unintentional, and was aired live, so that CBS could not have prevented it. Additionally, the court held that CBS was not responsible for the behavior of Jackson and Timberlake, who were acting as independent contractors. The court also noted that the supposed outpouring of complaints to the FCC after the Janet Jackson incident was in part a form letter-writing campaign instigated by political groups.

So now at least two regions of the country are not bound by the FCC's "fleeting utterance" punishment policy. Of course, the FCC could appeal the latest ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, which, given its current right-wing tilt, will probably order Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake to be tortured, er, "enhanced interrogated." But for now, at least, we have a bit more sanity when dealing with profanity.

Euphemism of the Day, From London

2008-07-19T17:23:00.000-07:00

This sobering article from Reuters catches Citigroup's Chairman predicting the housing downturn to last another two years. Then the article contains this paragraph:

Bischoff told the BBC that there would be redundancies at the bank, which
employs 12,000 people in Britain, and warned that some of them would be
compulsory.

Here is the BBC televised interview cited by the Reuters article. It's the BBC interviewer who uses the term "compulsory redundancies," to which Citigroup Chairman Win Bischoff agrees. Anyone wanna take a wild guess what that term means?

Those British, always making the worst things sound rawther pleasant, wouldn't you say?

Bischoff, on the other hand, is German, so who knows what indelicate, non-euphemistic description he may have given had he not been fed the phrase from the BBC reporter?

(photo from prankplace.com)

The Shock Doctrine in Paperback

2008-07-16T15:15:00.000-07:00

You know that queasy feeling you get each time a crisis occurs? 9/11? The Iraq War? Hurricane Katrina? The explosion in oil and food prices? Well, guess what? Big companies like to capitalize on your distress by receiving fat government contracts and privatizing government functions from running schools to running wars and national security. That may not be surprising, but it's the government's job to put the nation's interest over corporate interests, right? Not so in the Bush Administration, which has eagerly used the shock of various crises to invade and occupy countries and to hand over no-bid contracts, public functions, and unprecedented power to their corporate cronies, the public interest be damned.

This "disaster capitalism" is the subject of Naomi Klein's 2007 book "The Shock Doctrine." Klein's book is now available in paperback. Klein held an interesting online discussion today at the Crooks and Liars blog. As Klein points out, the attempt by oil companies, President Bush, and the Republicans to use high oil prices to push for more offshore oil drilling leases is a classic Shock Doctrine tactic. So is the attempt by the multinational oil companies, through no-bid contracts, to grab control of 75% of Iraq's oil output now and into the distant future.

If you want to know whether "The Shock Doctrine" will be of interest to you, some fascinating interviews with Naomi Klein regarding her book can be found here with Bill Maher, here with Keith Olbermann, and, if you want a really in-depth discussion, here with Amy Goodman. I promise that you will not view another crisis in the same way again.

Big Money Flocks to Renewable Energy

2008-07-08T13:11:00.000-07:00

CNN.com reports today that billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens is backing renewable energy sources such as wind power. Pickens said that "[o]ur dependence on imported oil is killing our economy. It is the single biggest problem facing America today." Pickens went on to state: "Wind power is . . . clean, it's renewable. It's everything you want. And it's a stable supply of energy. . . . It's unbelievable that we have not done more with wind."

According to the CNN report, "Pickens' company, Mesa Power, recently announced a $2 billion investment as the first step in a multibillion-dollar plan to build the world's largest wind farm in Pampa, Texas." The Pickens Plan also calls for increased use of natural gas to replace oil as an energy source.

I have been saying for some time that there's green in green, that there are vast fortunes to be made by those who invest in the renewable energy sources of the future, whether they be wind power, solar power, or a combination of several sources. And when T. Boone Pickens, an oil billionaire from Texas and one of the world's richest, best known, savviest investors, bets billions of dollars of his own money on a renewable energy future, then I know that the future just got a bit brighter.

Racist Sambo's Restaurant Still Exists?!

2008-07-06T11:37:00.000-07:00

During a recent meetup with fellow local bloggers, I learned that there's still a Sambo's restaurant in Santa Barbara, California. That really threw me for a loop around the tree.

Many of us vaguely remember the story of Little Black Sambo. The version I remember was: Black kid chases tiger around tree, tiger turns into pancake batter, kid eats pancakes. Then I recall hearing that the Sambo story turned into a racial flashpoint, and the name "Sambo" was subsequently banned from the vernacular and, especially, from an eponymous restaurant chain.

That's close, but not quite accurate. First, "Little Black Sambo," published in 1899, was written by a Scottish woman living in India, and the Sambo of the story is Indian, not Black (as in African or African-American). Second, according to Wikipedia, "[t]he little boy has to give his colorful new clothes, shoes, and umbrella to four tigers so they will not eat him. Sambo recovers the clothes when the jealous, conceited tigers chase each other around a tree until they are reduced to a pool of delicious melted butter." Then I think the pancakes part was accurate. The story is an allegory about pride or something.

Somewhere along the way, the term "Sambo" became a racial slur. Then, in the late 1950s, Sam Battistone and Newell Bohnett started a restaurant chain, and thought they would be clever by combining their names to call it Sambo's. Then they decided to be even more clever by using the themes and characters of the book to decorate their restaurants.

With the help of public pressure and even some lawsuits, the owners of Sambo's restaurants or their heirs eventually got a clue and changed the name. Many of the restaurants became "Sam's." This is similar to the whitewashing of the "Coon Chicken" corporate name that is uncovered in the movie "Ghost World," and which, until now, I (and most people who have seen "Ghost World," I'm sure) thought was purely fictitious.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I was told that the original Sambo's restaurant, in Santa Barbara, California, is still called Sambo's! Just as bizarre is the restaurant's continued use of the Sambo and tiger characters from the book. Note, however, that in the logo that pops up when you view the Sambo's restaurant website, Sambo's skin has been lightened.

So I guess a few things have evolved since 1899. Racism has diminished in the United States to the point where some restaurants have to change their names. Men who are half African and half White win the Presidential nomination of a major political party. Stories of dark-skinned boys take on or are recognized as having racist overtones, and are no longer acceptable. But apparently, we get to keep some reminders of our racist past, as long as those reminders are, literally, toned down.

Photo from veganmomma.com

Latest Sign that John McCain's Campaign is in Disarray

2008-06-30T11:14:00.000-07:00

I have read reports that John McCain's campaign is in disarray. And now I have proof. A few days ago I received this "Emergency Telegram" from the McCain campaign, asking me for money. Me?

Asking me for money for a Republican presidential candidate is like asking Guy Ritchie to pay for Madonna's divorce lawyer. I have been a registered Democrat for decades. I sign an average of at least one letter or petition per day against actions by George Bush and the Republicans on a plethora of issues, from Iraq to the environment to universal health care. The "Links" sidebar to this blog includes the Democratic National Committee, MoveOn.Org, and the Daily Kos.

So I am now convinced that the McCain campaign is in disarray, and probably in big trouble. I am forwarding McCain's campaign a list of like-minded friends who are also committed Democratic voters. I'm all for McCain wasting more of his money on us.

I'm Full of Shirt

2008-06-26T13:39:00.000-07:00

The picture above is of my collection of short-sleeved shirts. There are red shirts, yellow shirts, green shirts, white shirts. There are t-shirts, golf shirts, hiking shirts, biking shirts. I'm now up to 54 shirts, and I have hit the breaking point. The piles are so compressed that some shirts can no longer be seen, and others get pushed to the back and can no longer be found.

The problem is that I'm a saver, and I tend not to get rid of shirts, or other items of clothing, unless they either wear out or shrink too much to wear. But this creates a vicious cycle, as the more shirts I accumulate, the less I wear each one, and thus the longer it takes each shirt to wear out or shrink.

But today I'm doing something about it. I'm going to take a bunch of these old shirts and put them in a bag to give to Goodwill. I have to get the pile down to a manageable, non stress-inducing level.

Oh, and the shirts in the picture are just the ones that pull over. I have at least twelve more short-sleeve shirts with buttons, hanging in the closet.

Oil Prices and the Paradigm of Stupid

2008-06-25T16:04:00.000-07:00

The debate over oil drilling has exposed the stupidity divide in America. Tom Friedman touched on this in his New York Times op-ed piece last Sunday:

"Two years ago, President Bush declared that America was 'addicted to oil,' and, by gosh, he was going to do something about it. Well, now he has. Now we have the new Bush energy plan: 'Get more addicted to oil.'"

Predictably, the explosion in oil prices has led to the taking of sides. On one side are George Bush, the Republicans, and the oil companies, who argue for more oil drilling in environmentally sensitive places, such as off our coasts and in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). On the other side are Democrats and environmentalists, who argue that we would not benefit from any such drilling for years, and that our potential oil supply is nowhere near enough to satisfy our demand in any event.

Why does every problem lead to such a binary response? Are there really always two sides to everything? Is it just human nature to divide into opposing camps? Or are entrenched money interests driving the binary paradigm? Are the cable television news networks, which thrive on such Right versus Left battles, partly to blame?

Instead of the Right/Left paradigm that seems to govern every problem and which invariably stifles common solutions, I would like to suggest a new paradigm: the paradigm of stupid. Under the paradigm of stupid, we look at our problems, and the proposed solutions thereto, by shedding our political beliefs just for a moment, and by asking a simple question: is the proposed solution stupid? If so, the solution, no matter who proposed it, should be rejected. Anyone who cannot do this should be suspected of having a financial or other bias.

The paradigm of stupid can be applied to the oil crisis by using mathematics. The math says that the U.S. has only three percent of the world's oil reserves but uses 25 percent of the world's energy sources. The math also says that the estimated amount of oil under ANWR and off our coasts is just a drop in the barrel compared to what we use, and thus it could not possibly meet our oil demand. Finally, the math shows that developing nations, especially China and India, are competing for more of the world's oil supply each day, so that the prognosis for the world's oil supply versus its demand isn't good. In short, the math dictates that approaching the problem of rising oil prices simply by calling for more oil drilling is stupid.

The non-stupid answer to our energy crisis isn't easy but it is obvious: we need to conserve more energy, and we need to develop alternative energy sources such as wind, solar, hydrogen, etc. Under this paradigm, many people who oppose more oil drilling off our coasts might support such drilling in the short term IF people on the other side would support a comprehensive, long-term plan to develop and switch to clean, renewable energy sources.

Anyone still caught up in the binary debate might do better to get rid of the stupid and figure out a way to get in on the vast fortunes that are inevitably made by those who solve America's big problems. That's not politics. It's just math.

Hair Wars: DC vs. California

2008-06-21T14:21:00.062-07:00

Of all the cultural differences between Washington, DC and Southern California, one of the most striking is guys' hair. I'm sure the women's hair is very different too, but their hairstyles vary so widely that I have not yet gotten a handle on them. For the guys, however, the hairstyle differences can more easily be gauged. Here's what I have found:

The most prevalent hairstyle for men in DC that I observed is the Republican "Family Values" look. Epitomized by well-known Washington Republicans such as columnist George Will

and former Senator (now lobbyist) Trent Lott,

nothing says "I hate Social Security," sidewalk wheelchair ramps and other forms of socialism more than this look, especially when it is accompanied by the ubiquitous striped repp tie. If a guy under the age of 30 sports this 'do, chances are he will retain it, along with his political beliefs, for life.

Ironically, the Republican hairstyle, parted on the side, with short sides, and longer, but perfectly-in-place top, seems to be a vestige of Democratic President John F. Kennedy.

But current Democrats would no more be caught dead sporting the Kennedy haircut than they would be caught voting for permanent tax cuts for the rich. Rather, the Democratic look is typically longer, more coiffed (often at a pricey salon rather than a Republican barber shop), and combed or brushed either forward or back, but not harshly to the side. Some well-known Democrats who sport this look are former President (and now campaign meltdown king) Bill Clinton,

and almost-President-if-not-for-voting-machine-cheating-in- Ohio-now-back-to-Senator John Kerry.

So much for Washington, DC. In Southern California, rather than politics, the key industry is show biz, a/k/a film and television entertainment. The people who work in this industry, other than the "suits" (lawyers, accountants, agents) are supposed to look creative. This means that, as far as men's hair, anything goes.

The most popular hairstyle I see in Southern California for guys aged 11 to 30 is the long "shag" parted on the side. It's popular among some actors, notably whiny-voiced funnyman and failed suicide Owen Wilson.

Another popular look for men in SoCal is the buzz cut. Soccer player David Beckham, newly arrived in L.A., is well-known for his buzz cut.

Also prevalent in Southern California is what I would call the Short Shag. Usually it's neat on the sides and messy on top. It's good for those windy days by the beach. Here's one of Brad Pitt with said look.

So, you may ask, which one of these haircuts do I have? Well, I tried to grow it long, but it ends up looking like the guitarist/lead singer for Wolfmother, a/k/a the Sixties Afro:

That works great if you're the guitarist/lead singer of Wolfmother, especially when paired with giant 60s "mutton chop" sideburns, but not so great for everyone else.

I guess the haircut I have currently is more like the short shag. Yeah, I now expect to get stopped on the street and mistaken for Brad Pitt.

What Happened to Boxing?

2008-06-20T22:15:00.011-07:00

The other night, on ESPN2, I caught the last few rounds of the 1990 Heavyweight Championship Boxing match in which Buster Douglas upset Mike Tyson with a mouthguard-launching knockout (pictured here). The fight is considered one of the greatest upsets in sports history. As soon as it was over, I tried to remember who the current heavyweight boxing champ is, or when was the last time there was even a heavyweight fight. I couldn't.

What on earth happened to professional boxing? Heavyweight boxing matches used to be global events, featuring larger-than-life megastars and exotic locales. Mohammed Ali. Joe Frazier. George Foreman. Mike Tyson (back when he was known for his uppercut rather than his overbite). Howard Cosell. Don King. The Thrilla in Manilla. The Rumble in the Jungle.

Does professional heavyweight boxing even exist anymore?

Blogging Cliches, Time for You to Die

2008-06-12T11:50:00.011-07:00

In December 2006, Gawker published a prescient post listing tired phrases used by bloggers, and seeping into the mainstream media. Last March, Gawker had to run an update listing even more such blogging cliches. Around the same time, a writer's group that I belong to had a similar discussion on our message board regarding "overused writing techniques that, er, must. stop. now."

Apparently, the bloggers have not been listening. Therefore, in the hope of spreading the anti-cliche message just a bit further (and having nothing to do with filling a blog quota without coming up with any new material), I have cobbled together some of the most offensive blogging cliches. Please ban these from your blogcabulary immediately:

1. "Best. [insert noun here]. Ever." And other one-word sentences. Trust me, this cliche is not the best anything ever.

2. Overuse of the word "so," as in "I am so over that," "That is so [fill in time frame] ago," and "That is so not happening." "So" should be reserved for productions of The Sound of Music and imperial vice presidents who don't care what the American people think.

3. Ghetto talk by people who are not from the ghetto, unless the writer is writing dialogue spoken by characters in this vernacular, a la Mark Twain or James Ellroy. "Oh snap." "Don’ be hatin’." "Help a brother out." "That's how I roll." "Fo' shizzle." You know the others.

4. LOLcat speak, especially the phrase "I can has" and the dyslexic spelling of the word "teh." People, it's no longer funny to write the way lipless cats would speak. It never was.

5. "Vajayjay." The claim to fame for this phrase is that Oprah said it. To quote Dick Cheney, "so?" Hopefully Oprah is not your role model for relationships or weight maintenance, so why make her your role model for speech?

6. "____ called. They want their ____ back." Thankfully, this phrase seems to be dying a natural death. Perhaps we can drive a stake through it.

7. Mashups of celebrity couple names, such as Brangelina, TomKat, and Bennifer. This one may be the fault of the tabloids more than the bloggers, but we're supposed to be better than they are, right?

8. "The Internets" plural. This one apparently originated with George W. Bush. Do we really want to take speech lessons from Bush, even for ironic effect?

9. Lists (except this one, of course). I'm kidding. Lists are important, since many bloggers no longer know how to read horizontally.

What is the problem with blogging cliches, you may ask? The problem is that they make bloggers look like stupid sheep, all marching in monolithic lockstep. People, have some originality. Have some style. If you need to, make up your own words and zorks (see, it's easy). Or be really original and write in plain English. After all, your goal is to communicate clearly, isn't it?

Help a blogga out.

(Bonus points to anyone who comes up with additional blogging cliches that should go the way of the duckbill platypus.)

(More bonus points to those who point out the cliches that I used in writing this piece. I'll swear that they were all used intentionally!)

(photo from absolutenow.com)

Let's Hear it for the Boy

2008-06-08T22:10:00.003-07:00

Here's a shout out to my newest blogroll member, Will at Betheboy.com. He's able to be funny, moving, and knowledgeable about music and popular culture, sometimes all at the same time. Check out his moving post about the food he had to eat (or not) during a poverty-stricken childhood. Will is also a generous blogger, regularly featuring blogs that he finds interesting, entertaining, or well-written. And, he blogs at Los Angeles Metblogs, under the name The 8 Track Kid. Good work, Will.

I'm Wired!

2008-06-04T23:16:00.009-07:00

Once again, I discover a television program when it's about to go off the air. Last time, it was "The Sopranos." This time, it's "The Wire." Granted, I don't have HBO, so I depend on Netflix. But, why didn't anyone introduce me to "The Wire" before this year? I guess I should read Slate more.

What really turns me on or off with a television show or movie is the script. I like them complicated. I like when I really have to pay attention. I like when I get lost momentarily, and have to rewind and play a scene over again. These are sometimes characteristics of critically acclaimed television programs with limited popularity. This describes "The Wire" exactly.

Right now I'm plowing through season one. Four more to go. All but season five, the final season, are available thus far on Netflix. BET is also airing the re-runs. In the meantime, for those relative few yet ardent fans who have seen all episodes of "The Wire," please don't tell me what happens.

(The Wire promotional art from Wikipedia.com)

Naked Crotch, Meet Naked Intellect

2008-05-28T17:06:00.008-07:00

Sharon Stone now suggests that the devastating earthquake in China may have been caused by bad "karma" based on "the way the Chinese are treating the Tibetans ...." Stone joins a celebrated list of wackos who blame horrible natural and man-made disasters on various scapegoat groups of people.

In September 2001, we had, on Pat Robertson's "700 Club" Television program, Reverend Jerry Falwell blaming the 9/11 attacks on "the Pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians, ... the ACLU, People For the American Way - all of them who have tried to secularize America," and Robertson saying "I totally concur."

More recently, John McCain's "spiritual guide," pastor John Hagee, enlightened us that Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans because the city was holding a Gay Pride parade.

I guess Sharon Stone and these religious nutjobs have honed their blame game by doing what they all do for a living -- playing pretend.

(photo from sharonstone.net)

Is Gasoline as Important as Cable TV?

2008-05-23T18:36:00.011-07:00

In 1992, the U.S. Congress overrode President George H.W. Bush's veto and passed the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act. This law, among other things, regulated the price for basic cable television service. The arguments made in favor of cable regulation apply even more clearly today to gasoline. So, is it now time to regulate the price of gasoline?

Basically, the 1992 Cable Act treated cable television as a utility, something everyone needs and which is prohibitively expensive for smaller competitors to produce and distribute, like water or electricity. Congress noted that a relatively small group of cable operators controlled the market for cable tv such they were able consistently to raise prices faster than the rate of inflation. According to Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), "Before the 1992 Cable Act was passed, cable rates were rising three times faster than inflation rates. I do not think you can name a consumer in this country who did not feel that he or she was being gouged."

Hmm, sound familiar?

There are two big difference between cable tv and gasoline which makes price regulation even more applicable to gasoline. First, cable tv has lots of substitutes. Even if the market is defined narrowly as multichannel non-broadcast television programming, cable competes with satellite dish tv service, which has been gaining more subscribers than cable for some time. Plus, a more realistic view of the market in which cable competes would include broadcast television, which still gets the most viewers ("American Idol," the Super Bowl, etc.), as well as DVDs (on which one can rent movies, cable and broadcast television programs), and possibly even other forms of entertainment, like live sports events and, hopefully, blog reading on the Internet.

Second, it's not easy to argue that cable tv is a necessity (I can hear "Flavor of Love 3" fans going "what are you talking about?"), and it's even harder to argue that cable tv is more necessary than gasoline.

Gasoline has few or no competitors to power motor vehicles at this point. Hybrid cars still require gasoline. If drivers ditch their cars to take the bus, most buses run on gasoline. Electric commuter trains are not available to many people, especially those who do not live on the coasts or in large cities. Plus, how would you get to the train station? Bicycles? Horses? I don't think so.

So what we have with gasoline is a product that (a) nearly everyone needs; (b) has no current substitute to power motor vehicles; (c) is controlled by a small number of companies; and (d) has skyrocketed in price, way beyond the rate of inflation.

Maybe we should skip the price regulation and regulate gasoline as a drug.

(photo from atomsmasher.org)

No Mas!

2008-05-19T18:45:00.010-07:00

Recently, I received a Motorola Bluetooth headset, complete with a separate instruction booklet printed in Spanish. Now, it's common for electronic products to come with a cheap paper instruction booklet in several languages, including English, Spanish, French, and German. But this is the first time I have seen one with a separate, glossy, expensive-looking Spanish language instruction booklet.

This means that I paid more for this headset because of the cost of that booklet. On a broader scale, we all pay more for every street sign, government booklet, Department of Motor Vehicles instruction, and corporate voice mail instruction in Spanish that is directed at U.S. residents. Plus, each of these bilingual messages takes away one more incentive for non-English speaking immigrants to the United States to learn English.

I'm not some anti-immigration nativist. I recognize that almost all of us are ancestors of immigrants, voluntary or not, and that's what makes the U.S. so special. But I'm convinced that it's important for non-English speaking U.S. immigrants and their children to learn English toute de suite if they want to make it economically in this country, and that learning our common language is the one cultural tie that has bound us together as Americans for over two hundred years. Plus, doing so might save you and me some money on Bluetooth headsets.

A Lesson for Bloggers Everywhere

2008-05-16T14:44:00.016-07:00

You will rarely see me angrier than when my integrity is wrongly impugned. That's what happened two days ago, at the hands of another blogger, no less. Here is what transpired:

I am an anonymous contributing blogger at a particular blogging site. Recently, I wrote a rather lighthearted post about a particular item, that began with some background and then segued into my own comparison test and review. The background portion, though brief, contained numerous links. Yesterday, I received an email from someone who runs a blog with which I am only vaguely familiar:

Subject: WOW
Did you not link to any of the [her blog] stories about [broad topic of my post] for a reason? We broke half of those [broad topic of my post] stories, all copied (and naturally unattributed) by the newspapers, etc. Seriously. Wow.

I puzzled over this email for a bit. It wasn't clear to me whether she was accusing me of (a) not using her source material on a subject which she thinks she "owns;" or (b) using her source material and not crediting her with a link. At first, I thought it was (a). Although I wasn't happy to have my methods questioned, I decided to send her a diplomatic email explaining that I did not use her material:

Hi [name], thanks for your interest. The short answer to your question is "no." I read numerous stories, blog posts, press releases, etc. about the local [subject in question] shops and chains, and I cited what I thought were the most relevant ones for the specific points I was making at each link location. As I'm sure you recognize, what a blogger feels is the most relevant citation for a particular link in a blog post is not necessarily the first or even the most comprehensive story on a particular topic. Furthermore, the point of my post was a subjective [ ] test, as evidenced by the "read about the [ ] test" teaser after the first paragraph. The brief background I provided was really just to set up my visit and [ ] test. If you have been on the forefront in writing detailed stories about [broad topic of my post], good job! Since this seems to be a rich topic, I'll look forward to future stories from you.
Best regards, [my name]

After sending this email, and giving my chief editor a heads up, I started to think that the blogger was accusing me not of ignoring her source material in favor of other sources that I cited, but of the much more egregious offense of using her source material and not citing it. That's when I started to get really angry. My conclusion seemed to have been confirmed after my editor sent the woman an explanatory email, and she responded thusly to both of us:

Thanks [editor name], and to [my name] for also emailing. You know, it was a momentary lapse. I tend to just bite the bullet with bad non-linking etiquette. It bothers, but it really is fleeting. As you said, it’s so rampant, it happens all the time; it really gets me with big media. Anyway, I know it wasn’t intentional and appreciate the emails. [Then she thanks my editor for his offer to give her a future shout out]. Thanks again. Best, [her name]

So now a third possible accusation had apparently been leveled against me: that I did use her source material, but unintentionally neglected to link to her. At this point, I'm steaming mad. I send her another email and do my best to be diplomatic once again, while clarifying that I did nothing wrong:

[Her name], I'm glad we were able to clear this up. Just to close the loop, please be assured that, unlike those big media newspapers you mentioned, I always link to source material that I use for my posts, and I have no doubt that the other contributing authors at [my blog site] do the same. [My name]

She wrote back to me and my editor yesterday, thanking him for mentioning her blog in the day's post. I told my editor that she should not be rewarded for making false accusations, but that was his call.

This episode is apparently over, but it contains a few lessons for all bloggers:

1. It's crucial to link to source material that you use in your posts. Not to do so is plagiarism. Other bloggers and writers spend many hours researching and writing about their topics, and are justified in getting extremely upset when boggers steal their material without a link (preferable), citation, or hat tip. For established "big media" newspapers to steal a blogger's work product is doubly inexcusable. Such plagiarism, if significant enough, could also be a copyright violation.

2. That said, if you are going to accuse someone of stealing your source material and either intentionally or unintentionally failing to link to you, you damn well better have the evidence to back it up. A false accusation made in writing, especially on the Internet where it lasts forever, is not only extreme douchebaggery, it could be considered libel and can subject the accuser to legal action.

3. Such false accusations should not go unanswered. I try to make a friend out of a potential enemy if it's not too late. If you do not respond, the accuser will be left with the impression that she was right, and then she might take her accusations public and falsely smear your reputation. Bloggers have little else more important to protect in the blogosphere than their reputations.

4. I cannot think of a case where a blogger "owns" a topic and must be considered a source for any other story written on that topic, unless the blogger and her post are the topic of your blog post. With well over a hundred million blogs in the world, plus millions of other sources such as newspapers, magazines, books, websites, journal articles, television and radio networks and stations, corporate press releases, etc., it is delusional to think that one's blog post, no matter how brilliant, is somehow entitled to be a source for all other blog posts that might relate to the same topic.

Now please excuse me while I go calm down.

(bumper sticker image from Amazon.com)

West Palm Beach's Living Landmark

2008-05-15T11:40:00.006-07:00

If you are ever in West Palm Beach, Florida, make sure to take a historic walking tour of Worth Avenue with West Palm's only certified living landmark, James Ponce. Claiming a Florida ancestry dating back to Ponce de Leon, the 90 year-old Ponce arrives at Via Gucci (in West Palm Beach, luxury stores get streets named after them) resplendent in a blue blazer, straw Panama, waistcoat, and pearl tie pin.

Under a pencil-thin mustache, Ponce has a sweetly rolling Southern accent that one does not hear in the movies. His "war" is pronounced "whoa-uh." Taking us back more than a century, Ponce's tales quickly become spellbinding.

According to Ponce, oil and railroad baron Henry Flagler built a rail line down the East coast of Florida to West Palm Beach and, ultimately, Miami and the Keys, thus opening up this tropical land for sun-seeking vacationers. Flagler's Palm Beach Inn, built in 1896 and later renamed The Breakers, remains West Palm's landmark hotel. James Ponce is The Breakers' official historian.

Ponce then explains that, while Henry Flagler brought vacationers and residents to West Palm Beach, Addison Mizner created the city's Mediterranean Revival architectural style that has become emblematic of South Florida. Mizner was the son of a diplomat, and as a child traveled with his family to numerous countries. He was especially taken with the buildings in Spain and Central America, and developed a lifelong passion for architecture. In 1918, suffering some health problems, he arrived at Palm Beach for some r and r. His buddy, sewing machine company heir Paris Singer, encouraged Mizner to turn his architecture passion into a local profession.

Mizner embarked on a development binge that included West Palm Beach and Boca Raton to the South. Mizner meticulously stamped his Mediterranean influences on the buildings and homes in these areas, including Spanish tile roofs, towers, spiral staircases, and imported inlaid tile. In West Palm Beach, along Worth Avenue, Mizner created a miniature Venice. Instead of canals, Mizner set winding paved "vias." The most famous of these are Via Mizner and Via Parigi. These pedestrian vias were lined with homes above shops, carefully placed palm trees, archways, towers, gates, coats of arms, and open vistas above.

Millions of tourists walk through these vias each year, on the way to lunch or the next glitzy jewelry store along Worth Avenue. But taken at a relaxed pace, accompanied by James Ponce and the ghost of Addison Mizner, an important and influential piece of Florida history comes thrillingly alive.

photo by Florida Sun-Sentinel

Television of the Idiots, By the Idiots, For the Idiots

2008-05-07T11:25:00.012-07:00

This isn't a rant as much as a eulogy. My television is off. And I don't know when it's going back on. No, it's not broken. And I did not make a decision to turn it off. I just feel no desire to turn my television back on.

I think it was all the tv news channel banshees and hyenas braying and yelling at each other for months over the Democratic primary race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, especially their focus on pseudo-"issues." The last straw may have been the recent Democratic debate held on ABC and moderated by Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos. That dismal, embarrassing performance by the ABC moderators, focusing on lapel pins and whether someone's pastor "loves America" in the midst of two wars, a mortgage crisis, and an economic meltdown, may well become The Day Television Died. It certainly felt that way for me.

The rest of the tv networks' schedule seems equally embarrassing. Here was the bulk of the networks' lineup during prime time (8 p.m. to 10 p.m.) this past Monday:

"How I Met Your Mother"
"Deal or No Deal"
"Gossip Girl"
"Dancing With the Stars"
"Celebrity Expose"
"TV Watercooler"
"Dirty Jobs"
"Lockup"
"Star Trek: Enterprise"
"Flavor of Love 3"
"Die Hard" (which airs at least once every two weeks)

After seeing this schedule, I think a lot switch went off for me. So I turned on another light switch -- the one on the reading lamp next to my sofa. Then I opened a book. And I think I have closed another chapter.

The Most Bizarre Yet True Separated at Birth Involving a Pink Floyd Member to Date

2008-05-05T10:15:00.010-07:00

One of these is a trend-setting icon who has been in the public spotlight for several decades. Actually, both of them fit that bill. One of them made his mark with a Fender Stratocaster and a voice. The other, with her looks and, uh, acting. On the left, it's Pink Floyd's David Gilmour. On the right, Ukraine's hottest export, Milla Jovovich.

Separated at birth? You decide.

(photo of David Gilmour from Mike Markley/The Pink Floyd Fandom. photo of Milla Jovovich by Steve Granitz/WireImage.com.)

Trying to Remain a Four Dollar Per Gallon Virgin

2008-05-02T14:44:00.013-07:00

It has not been easy to be a four dollar virgin. Today I paid $ 3.92 (don't try to fool me with $ 3.91.9) at the gasoline pump for medium grade 89 octane. Premium was four dollars (duh, $ 3.99.9, same thing) at this gas station, the cheapest one around. My car is supposed to use premium but I gave that up a long time ago. Other area gas stations are charging well over four bucks, even for regular.

Most trucks, which move so many of our goods, use diesel fuel, the price for which is approaching five dollars per gallon. Does anyone want to guess what effect five dollar per gallon diesel fuel might have on commerce and prices in the United States? Does anyone think that skyrocketing energy prices in the U.S. do not represent a crisis?

Gasoline has been this expensive here for weeks. As a result, I am driving less, and planning my automobile trips more. I'm looking at the car not as some default or automatic necessity, but as a choice among other choices, including walking, bike riding, and public transportation. In other words, I'm doing what most other people in the world have been doing for many years.

What, if anything, are you doing differently?

Joke of the Day, Courtesy of the U.S. Congress

2008-05-01T16:19:00.010-07:00

This email I received today from the ACLU perfectly illustrates the absence of cojones among Congressional Democrats. The ACLU email message contains photos of former Bush Administration officials John Yoo, John Ashcroft, Douglas Feith, and George Tenet (who first served as CIA Director under President Bill Clinton), and calls them "Bush's Torture Team."

The email from ACLU goes on to state that House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) has invited the Torture Team "to appear at a crucial hearing on May 6th. As of yet, not a single one of them has agreed to show up. In fact, John Yoo and John Ashcroft -- central figures in the Bush strategy for defending torture -- have already refused."

The ACLU email then states that "We’re flooding Chairman Conyers and the whole House Judiciary Committee with 'Citizens’ Subpoenas.' Let Chairman Conyers and the Judiciary Committee know you want them to go all the way by issuing real subpoenas, legally compelling Bush’s torture team to show up."

So I'm supposed to be shocked that the Bush Torture Team has refused to accept invitations to voluntarily appear before the Judiciary Committee and expose themselves to perjury and war crimes prosecution? And I'm supposed to issue a "citizens subpoena" telling Conyers and his majority of Democrats on the Committee to do their job by issuing subpoenas to these criminals?

I don't like to swear on this blog, but WHAT A FUCKING JOKE!! This is the difference between Democrats and Republicans. Democrats ask law-breaking Republicans to please come to a hearing and admit their law-breaking. Then Democrats do zero when the Republicans logically refuse to comply. If the tables were turned, the Republican Congress would be issuing subpoenas, impeaching the President, and sending jack-booted thugs to go medieval on these crooks' asses.

(photo from the Washington Post)

What is it with April Birthdays?

2008-04-27T16:24:00.005-07:00

I just finished a fun, stimulating, exhausting week of birthday celebration, that included dinners, parties, classes, two writers' groups, and even a volunteer stint at the L.A. Times Festival of Books at UCLA. It was a great birthday because I did so many things that I enjoy doing, with some of the people (the ones who live locally, at least) with whom I enjoy doing them.

Then I saw a blog post stating that today is William Shakespeare's birthday. This reminds me that my birthday is sandwiched right between those of Willie the Shake and Adolf Hitler. I also share my birthday with Barbara Streisand and Shirley MacLaine (and, presumably, all the people and animals Shirley MacLaine was in her many past lives).

What do I have in common with all these people? I don't know, but April is a most interesting time to have a birthday.

Separated at Birth? Television Edition

2008-04-23T11:55:00.005-07:00

First up we have Dan Abrams, the host of MSNBC’s “Verdict with Dan Abrams” and chief legal correspondent for NBC News. Dan is something of a boy wonder, having served as an anchor and reporter for Court TV, and then having his own program on MSNBC, "The Abrams Report," while still a thirtysomething, before being named General Manager of MSNBC.

Dan looks an awful like like another television boy wonder from a few decades ago -- the original Boy Wonder, Batman's sidekick Robin, a/k/a Dick Grayson, who in real life was known as Burt Ward.
In fact, if I didn't know that Dan Abrams is the son of famous first amendment attorney Floyd Abrams, I might think that Dan and Burt were Separated at Birth.

Wikipedia is the Greatest Fount of Knowledge Ever Part Deux

2008-04-20T11:28:00.006-07:00

Once again, Wikipedia has referenced the Media Concepts blog as a source. This time, it's in a Wikipedia article regarding Grouply, which, as my referenced post on the subject indicated, is a controversial service that involves handing over your group sign-in information, including your password, to a third party that claims to "organize" your Internet groups.

Since I have had concerns about Grouply from the moment I heard about it, I am glad to be part of a public notice regarding that organization. And of course, I can vouch for Wikipedia's excellent sourcing and references.