I enjoy watching these takes on Seinfeld episodes and thought that this one was especially worthy of being posted. The random things that we think about during the day crack me up.
Category: Popular Culture
Consuming Differently
I believe I have asked this question before but the point needs to be raised again. The economy is in the toilet and people and businesses are suffering, but does the fact that some of these companies were created out of bad habits mean that they deserve to fail? If a company is losing money is it not the company’s responsibility to change that fact? Sure, there are arguments out there that claim the government should step in, which it has in some cases, but my thesis is more focused on companies that have come to fruition out of our seemingly incessant need for “stuff”.
Looking at some examples is probably the best way to make the issue clear. Wal-Mart is a great example. They have built a business out of a false need for all kinds of, what some people would call, junk, and not just any old junk, cheap junk. Sure, they stock produce, meat, electronics, and other useful items but there are whole rows of consumer demanded garbage. If Wal-Mart is concerned with surviving through the economy, would not the smart thing to do be getting rid of waste? It seems obvious but for some reason it is not a priority.
Part of this is consumer habits, we are a nation of junk consumers. I’m guilty and I am pretty sure you are too. The difference between now and 20 years ago is that now we want our junk at a lower price, even if it means cutting jobs here. Maybe our culture needs to think back to 1950s lifestyle and look at pictures from era Life and Time magazines, home and work life were simpler. And what is wrong with that? The struggle is digging ourselves out of hole when the mentality is, “why get out, we’re already here”.
What if U.S. culture moved back from the mega-store to the local store, from the Lowe’s to the local hardware store? What if Target and Wal-Mart downsized and stopped carrying junk? For one thing, the green movement would rejoice in the street for weeks, but there would also be some semblance of simplicity. Do not get me wrong, I am not suggesting a stop in consumption, I am advocating consuming differently, focusing on what’s important, and reversing a trend that has been ingrained in our minds by culture. I think it will help the economy in the long run and I think people will flourish from it. The flip side is that companies who cannot adjust to the change in consumption behavior can and will fail, and maybe they should.
The notion of quantity over quality has been a growing phenomena, with pockets of resistance everywhere, but for the everyday Joe, it’s life. It is time to focus a little more on quality, even if it means cutting consumption somewhere else, because such behavior would stimulate growth in small businesses that specialize in quality products. Simplicity and quality, I do not see the negative. Do you?
Blagojevich on Letterman
I am dumbfounded; Maybe more than Dave. He may be a liar or he may not know the truth, I’m going with liar.
Out of Office: Job Loss in the Age of Blogs and Twitter
Out of Office: Job Loss in the Age Of Blogs and Twitter. As the country and the world digs itself out of financial issues, will time on people’s hands lead to a surge in new technologies and ideas? I think so.
G Commercials
If you have spent any time watching college football, especially the bowls, then you have seen the commercials that show a panning shot of a host of different athletes and celebrities and ends with a giant “G” showing up on the screen. Don’t know what it is about?
After researching some context clues, I’ve figured it out. At the bottom of the commercial you will notice a copyright for S-VC, which, if I did my homework correctly, stands for Stokely-Van Camp, the owner of the Gatorade brand. My guess is that the commercial is for Gatorade G2.
Just in case that commercial was bugging anyone as much as it does me.
The Ethics of Self-Reviewing
There are few things that get under my skin more than businesses that post false reviews of themselves to create a better image. I’ve seen it done a whole host of ways, a family member reviews a product, store, or experience and posts it on a website. Web shoppers, being somewhat gullible, take the review as a valid one and sometimes base their purchases on it.
Reviewing yourself to boost business is an unbelievable practice, even if it is done by family or friends. In your day to day work, if a close friend of yours walked up to someone and told them about your store and how great their experiences was, do you think it alright to fail to inform that person that the opinion is biased? The thought of telling someone I liked a store without informing the listener that I was biased is, in the end, a poor way of doing business. If you cannot generate walkthroughs, purchases, or interest on your own, then maybe you should not be in business.
Dinosaurs and Nukes – What they didn’t teach you in Civics
After watching Matt Damon bash Alaska Governor and candidate for Vice President, Sarah Palin, my brain had to take a break or it would have short circuited. Watch the video, you will understand.
Before we dive into the non sequitur that are Matt Damon’s comments, let’s get personal politics out of the way. My vote is still undecided, but Ron Paul will probably be my write-in choice. I want a small federal government with a balanced budget, so that knocks the current Republicans and Democrats out of the running for me. How do I come to this conclusion? Simple, look at the history of our country, our government, and the reasons we were founded in the first place. “No taxation without representation” sums it up well.
Now, for the real issue. Matt Damon, an actor, critiques Palin on a few things, but the one that stood out was the issue of dinosaurs and nuclear weapons. Damon stated, “I need to know if she really thinks dinosaurs were here 4,000 years ago. That’s important… I wanna know that, I really do. Because she’s gonna have the nuclear codes.” What? How is there any kind of correlation between her personal beliefs on evolution and nuclear weapons politics? Is he implying that he believes Palin thinks dinosaurs are still around and she is going to nuke them? At the very least, Damon’s comment is a logical fallacy and completely unnecessary. The truth is, it does not matter what her beliefs are regarding when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, what matters is her understanding of foreign politics and the issues at hand in this country. If personal beliefs are so important to the left, then Obama’s association with Reverend Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers should be just as important. If there is a correlation between dinosaurs and nuclear weapons as Damon suggests, then there has to be a correlation between the black liberation movement and nuclear weapons or at least the Weathermen and nuclear weapons. The latter actually blew things up.
To be honest, I do not know why I am getting so worked up over this, it does not matter, people are so engrained in their idea of what is normal and acceptable that Damon’s words are simply more fuel for a fire that has been burning for a while. The idea that there are correct and incorrect ideas is fine, but the notion that someone’s beliefs make them crazy and unacceptable are outside the bounds of what we tell ourselves we stand for. The side that touts equality and rights for all bashes others for what they believe, and imposes their own “correct” beliefs. If similar accusations were made toward a Muslim running for President, something like “I need to know if he really thinks 72 virgins is the reward in heaven. That’s important… I wanna know that, I really do. Because he’s gonna have the nuclear codes.” there would be an absolute uproar in this country. Neither the Palin attack by Damon, nor the statement about virgins is appropriate or even relevant to the issue of who is going to lead America, if they were then the whole ideal of our nation being a melting pot would vanish, leaving behind a dusty, dirty mess.
The best we can do is ignore people like Damon when it comes to politics and focus on what he does well, movies. Now step away from YouTube and watch the Bourne Identity one more time. I’ll try to tackle the market issues in my next post.
Can CNN Get Anything Straight?
CNN Headline News is a good source for up to the minute news but CNN the network is an awful web reporting group.
Yesterday an article was posted on CNN Money titled, Why gas in the U.S. is so cheap, that outlines why gas prices here in the states are cheap and how people overseas are paying so much more. Next to the article is a chart showing countries and each country’s respective price per a gallon of gasoline:
Notice the price of a gallon of gasoline in Aruba, $12.03, this number is not even close to the current price being paid there. $4.92. Yep, CNN was a whole $7.11 off.
How hard is it to do a little research. In fifteen minutes I found numerous places that post up-to-date prices. The most obvious of which was ArubaLife. The site goes into detail about how prices in Aruba are set and the fact that there is a Valero refinery on the island. They also have a notice at the top letting people know that the CNN article is false.
Come on CNN, just a little reporter research would be nice.
Juno
Friday night was ‘movie night’ and Jessica and I knew exactly what we wanted to watch. Juno. We had heard a lot of good things about the movie and I had read about the film’s writer, Diablo Cody. We were not disappointed in the movie at all.
Juno, the star of the film, reminded me of a friend who has the same outlook on life and quirky, nonchalant side. The dialogue between Juno and the rest of characters in the movie is believable and witty. Those two key things were the defining points, allowing the story to come out and the movie watchers to connect with the characters.
I never felt a slow point in the entire film and I laughed at numerous points. If you have not seen Juno, you need to rent it. Tonight.
Using the term ‘Neocon’ does not make you sound smart
Listening to chatter around the office and hearing “Neocon” repeated more than 20 times in a five minute span does more than annoy me, it proves to me that people take what they hear on the news and repeat it like parrots.
Me, being a straight shooting moderate conservative (who doesn’t necessarily share the same views of the entire party), has a responsibility to point a few things out.
- Neoconservatism has nothing to do with military aggression – This misconception leads people to believe that the first Bush’s pulling out of Iraq during the Gulf War was a bad idea. That is completely false. Bush’s policy of not pursuing the war and driving into Baghdad had more to do with trying to keep the stable nature in a trying climate. There was, in my mind, a moral obligation to stay as we had promised the Kurds protection and in the end they were rounded up and killed because of our reneging.
- Being conservative does not equate to neoconservatism – People can be conservative without being neoconservative, they are not the same. Please stop grouping them together.
Sorry for the rant, I just hear these things at work and my eyes roll back in my head because my brain cannot take it.