Facebook is Making Me Stupid

I should qualify that.  Facebook is making me stupid-ER and I am sure it is the “status update’s” fault.  I used to think.  I used to try to string ideas and concepts together into coherent points, arguments, hypotheses, ideas, and sometimes even fiction.  Now I simply dump snippets of stuff into my Facebook status and move on with the rest of my day.  It’s making me rusty; a fact that attempting to write this paragraph serves to painfully illuminate.  I need to do something about that.

Steve Thinks We Need Insurance Reform Too

Two months ago I wrecked my brand new car.  You know those rumble strips next to the freeway that are supposed to let you know when you get too close to the edge?  Well, I was texting my friend Steve and the noise from those things startled me so bad I dropped my coffee, swerved off the road, and hit a tree.  I was fine but my car was completely hosed.  I called around to three different car insurance companies to buy an insurance policy so I could get my car fixed but not one of them would pay for the repairs.  Worse still, none of them even offered me an affordable policy.  They said I was “high risk” (like that’s supposed to make me feel better).  It got me thinking that with all this talk about reforming our health insurance industry shouldn’t we take a good look at what these bastard car insurance companies do and force them to stick to the same standards.

I Am My Own Worst Enemy

By profession I am a marketer and advertiser but contrary to common belief I am also a human being.  While I spend my workday trying to reach consumers on behalf of my clients, during the rest of the day I take extraordinary measures to hide from them. 

Happy Birthday Karl Marx

May 5th, 1818, saw the birth of Karl Heinrich Marx, a revolutionary thinker (literally).  Marx was a philosopher, political economist, historian, political theorist, sociologist, humanist and revolutionary and is credited as the founder of communism.  In his 1875 Critique of the Gotha Program he states that once society reaches its Communistic ideal, it can proudly hang a banner proclaiming “From each according to their ability, to each according to their need.”  Happy Birthday you brilliant crazy dead Communist.

A Eulogy for a Dear Friend I Didn’t Like Very Much

Pontiac is dead.  Saturn is dead.  Hummer is dead.  The plug on Saab’s life-support machine is only loosely in the socket.  As a car guy and a GM fan (all you Ford guys can mock me but you know how it is) I should be terribly sad about the state of The General but honestly, I’m not.

More of the Same

Should I be worried that our nation’s calls for change are being answered with more of what got us into this mess coupled with depression-era economic strategies?  Should it concern me that FDR’s failed policies are being touted as the roadmap for how we are going to turn our economy around?  Should the fact that the most liberal-voting member of Congress has become our President and is taking 50 billion dollars from people that *can* pay their mortgages and is giving it to people that can’t cause me concern that we are becoming a socialist nation?

Evil Geniuses or Incompetent Idiots

Right now I am trying to figure out whether the current Financiapocalypse is a result of Democratic subterfuge, Republican conniving, or just plain old-fashioned incompetence.  Sliced any way the situation still looks bad.

You’re DOING IT WRONG! – Using “the” language

It is difficult for me to criticize people for extraneous word usage since I am such a fan of using a dozen words where six will do but in this case of people who use the word “the” inappropriately I will make an exception.  Seriously, people,  just because it is the most common word in the English language doesn’t make it acceptable to throw it around with complete abandon.

If you use the definite article “the” in front of words describing general concepts or adjectives chances are good that you are DOING IT WRONG!

OJ and Illinois Hate Consequences

As much as the whole Rod Blagoyevich circus dismays me, there is another more concerning undertone to the situation developing.  As Americans we live according to a set of rules.  Lots of sets of rules, actually.  Some are regional, some are contextual, and they are all subject to change in conditions where we find common agreement that it is warranted.  Just like steel, flexibility is one of the things that makes America strong rather than brittle.

What dismays me is the seeming growth of the idea that it is acceptable to ignore current rules and laws if adherence to them creates an unpopular or uncomfortable situation. 

There Will Never Be a Dog World

Driving in the car with my wife and two little girls made me realize that a society of intelligent dogs could never exist.