Today I drove from Charleston, S.C. to JimEltringham.com Headquarters in lovely Merrifield, Va. in a mere eight hours. I could have made it in six if only I'd had Brawndo.
(If you want to learn more about this wonderful product, I'd suggest getting more information here.)
The major news story of the week - though it was conspicuously absent from the mainstream media - were the street demonstrations by people who felt like they weren't getting what they paid for. In fact, they even used caffeinated beverages to get the point across.
Tea parties? Even worse: Angry Yankee Fans, who felt a Pepsi promotion wasn't delivering as promised - which put the softball company just about on par with the Red Sox:
Jon Stewart doesn't think this week's Tea Party protesters - some of whom are sending tea bags to the White House - know what they are saying:
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | M - Th 11p / 10c | |||
| IndigNation! Populist Uprising '09 - The Enragening | ||||
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Or, maybe they know exactly what they're saying - and sending a very specific message to Washington:
Have you ever found yourself wanting to scream in public but not wanting to sound like you had mental problems? Well, now you can store and save those screams for later with the "Screambody":
This may actually be pretty helpful if, for instance, you're trying to fake Tourette's Syndrome - because, you know, if you're faking it it means you don't have it.
While perusing Right Wing Video, I found this insightful clip that displays the inner workings of our government's monetary policy:
McDonald's is well-known for their targeted marketing - including a big push for their Filet-o-Fish sandwich each year around this time to capitalize on Catholics who don't eat land meat during Lent. But this year, they are apparently mixing that with subtle, pro-fish messages:
Since Friday's post was so popular, let's go back to hear more from Scranton City Council gadfly Ray Lyman, who reminds us that the "Cons-itution" overrides the "Scrantin City Consil."
The folks at Right.org are giving away stimulus/bailout checks! And they're also giving out stimulus/bailout invoices...
Incidentally, if you think you can make a better video panning the stimulus, you should enter Right.org's contest to do just that. Grand prize is $27,599 - your share of the stimulus.
With all this talk about government intervention being so direly needed to pull America out of every crisis, my former boss and fellow UMass alum Dan Flynn asks a poignant question: How long before there's a State of the Union address like this one?
With all the talk about the stimulus package this week, I thought it might be useful to review some basic concepts of government intervention in the economy.
First off, government spending programs are frequently wasteful - Canadian broadcasting, for instance, is all publicly funded:
Second, handout programs may seem helpful to some people, but may have different consequences for others:
Finally, it's nice to have outside-the-box thinking when dealing with problems, but eventually the bills will come due:
"Some people can do things other people can't." Like perjury.
Quote of the week:
"The House of Representatives has passed President Obama's stimulus package. And then I guess it goes through the Senate, and then if that's passed, that $800 million just disappears." - David Letterman
Making the rounds last week was video of Dennis Miller on the O'Reilly Factor, criticizing Young Jeezy and Jay-Z for their racially charged diatribe during pre-inaugural festivities.
I've always found Miller funny, but give him credit. In 2003, Miller became an outspoken supporter of the War on Terror. Now, I don't want to get off on a rant here, but circa 2002 the pro-Bush, Republican bandwagon was so crowded that it made last week's Obamafest look like the Australian outback after a nuclear winter. And among the intelligentsia, this was less-than welcome news; Miller was so reviled as a turncoat that some wondered if he was some Dr. Moreau-esque genetic amalgam of Benedict Arnold, Alger Hiss, and Lando Calrissian. Some on the right even questioned whether Miller's outspoken conservatism (though he eschewed the conservative tag) was more a finger-in-the-wind capitalization on the post-9-11 zeitgeist from someone who had just gotten booted from the Monday Night Football booth.
But things change and today the only place on TV talking positively about Bush is the Home and Gardening network. For someone in Miller's position, it would have been easy to embrace Obama's hope and back away from previous support for Republicans under the mantra of independence.
Yet Miller stuck to his guns - and revealed much about his outlook by proclaiming high hopes and well wishes for Obama even while admitting he didn't support his candidacy. Miller isn't a politico: Like most people, he has an informed opinion, but also like most people he isn't boxed in by an Attica-like ideology that confines "open thinking" to one daily jaunt to the prison yard that is echo-chamber opinion press you always agree with. If the casual political observer like Dennis Miller is still more conservative than liberal based on an understanding and acceptance of principles, there might by a chance to win back the rest of America.
Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.
