Unusually, I watched 60 Minutes last night, and I came across an interesting article.

It was about something called stealth marketing. It’s where you’re being pitched to and don’t even know it.

There is a term out there known as ‘viral marketing.’ It’s where a person pleased with a product or service will tell other people how much they like it. If the listening person tries the product in question and likes it, they become ‘infected’ and will pass the good recommendations along to the next person, and so on.

Stealth marketing takes the form of being a paid viral marketer. They are salesmen cloaked in innocent conversation.

One example was a young person at a bar with a pack of cigarettes open and on the bar. They are waiting for someone to come by and then bum a cigarette. Then the person launches into a low-scale pitch about “how good it tastes” and so on to sell this brand to their new found acquaintance.

To me, this is at least slightly dishonest. It just doesn’t feel right because there is an element of deceit involved. You could say there is an element of deceit in all marketing, but that’s involved with the product, I’m talking about the method of marketing here.

It is things like this that are souring me on striking up conversations with strangers. I must now be suspicious that they will be trying to sell me something.

I’m not paranoid, but I’m getting there.

Only cowards take hostages. – Klingon proverb

In their latest gig, the terrorists have started kidnapping Indians, who don’t even have troops in Iraq. India, With No Troops in Iraq, Faces Latest Hostage Crisis.

Please notice they have stopped taking American hostages, they have seen that it doesn’t work with us. But it worked great with the Philippines, so they are seeing who else doesn’t have the stomach to see a little blood.

Please don’t take this the wrong way. I grieve for the dead, and I am enraged by the manner of their death. But to give up all that we have gained to prevent one death would be to insure the deaths of thousands later. Terrorists are no better than your common criminal. They pick on the weak and unprotected. If they see a house with bars on the windows and dogs in the yard, they just go on down the street until they find a house that is as good as open.

Actually, this proves to us just who we want on our side in this fight. Better to find out now then if we go to them really needing help and the can’t/won’t provide that help. Our best friends don’t have to tell us we’re friends, they show it through their actions.

The eco-nuts are at it again. States, NYC Sue Energy Companies Over ‘Global Warming’.

They are specifically suing out of state energy producers because they can’t harm NYC, et. al. Imagine if NYC sued NYPower. NYPower would just totally cut power to the city, claiming that they are no longer contributing to global warming. If they did this with timing and killed power during the hearing, they could settle the case right there, with a rather large exclamation point.

The eco-nuts are going after these specific entities because they have MONEY. You see, Africa pollutes almost as much as we do by burning thousands of tons of dung in campfires for cooking and stuff. But there’s no money in suing African tribesmen. Besides, they’re living “in tune with Nature,” which means a subsistence level two lumps ahead of an animals, with horrendous AIDS levels and a child mortality rate that is through the roof.

If you want to solve the problem of too much CO₂, all you have to do is plant more trees. That will solve the problem right there. Also, maintain the trees so they don’t burn up in wildfires so they release CO₂, instead of absorbing it.

Linda Ronstadt could be invited back to the very same hotel she just got booted from as early as September, after it changes management. Welcome Mat For Linda Ronstadt.

I don’t think the message is getting through. It was the audience that got upset and performed a mini-riot over her comments. The management got Ronstadt out of the hotel as quickly as possible to quell that mini-riot. When paying customers don’t like your product, they tend to go elsewhere, and the new management needs to take that into consideration.

I think that performers need to understand that the stage is a place for them to sing, not proselytize, unless the concert itself is for a particular cause. I wouldn’t have a problem with Ms. Ronstadt saying what she said at a Democrat fundraiser, but not part of a Vegas show. The audience didn’t pay for that and in this case they let the management know unequivocally that they did not appreciate her message.

Now what will happen if the new management books Ronstadt again and bills her with Moore? I don’t know. They will likely pack the house again, this time with people who are tuned into that message.

But I can hope that no one shows up.

Like I said yesterday, I’m not a wild sports fanatic, but I do root for the Titans.

It seems that Eddie George landed on his feet after all. He’s almost signed a one-year deal with the Cowboys, all he has to do is pass a physical.

The Titans didn’t waste any time in replacing George either. They’ve already signed Antowain Smith, fresh from the Pats.

This should turn out to be an interesting year.

Michael Moore plans to crash the Democrat Convention. Fahrenheit 7/26: Michael Moore: I will crash Kerry’s party.

This will be wonderful. Kerry is trying to appeal to the uncommitted middle of the country, and the loony far-left is bounding up saying, “I want to help!” This is akin to the Vietnam movie where the newbie doesn’t watch where he’s going and trips the booby trap, wiping out the whole squad.

This kind of help Kerry doesn’t need right now. This is specifically why Moore wasn’t invited to the convention. Kerry is trying to go centrist without alienating the Left, and the Left refuses to leave him to go there. As long as the vocal Looney Left is with Kerry, there is no chance for him to get any significant portion of the centrist vote. In fact, as long as the LL stays loudly vocal, it will drive the centrist vote right into the GOP camp.

Perfect.

The latest Rocky Top Brigade Tailgate Party is up at
Big Orange Michael. And yours truly has the first slot. Boo-Yah!

You know, stealing Top Secret code word documents and notes is a serious offense, and Billy Bob ain’t there to bail him out. Whatever his motivations are for doing this, the consequences has to be more serious than 20 years hard time in Club Fed. Unless something miraculous happens Sandy is Persona Non Grata for the rest of his life. His breaches of security is of such seriousness that he can no longer be trusted with sensitive documents.

Archives Staff Was Suspicious of Berger and Guards left Berger alone, sources say are today’s reports of more information on this subject.

It is likely that the guards in question who violated protocol will be fired, since they knew better. Ever since the John Walker spy ring, handling and destruction of highly classified material has been tightened to an extreme factor. When dealing with such material, you do so only in places known as “No Lone Zones,” where obviously no one is alone in these places. If Sandy Burglar had to make a sensitive phone call, he should have done so outside of the No Lone Zone.

His theft of highly classified documents (and there is no other way to put it, you simply cannot be a National Security Advisor and be that sloppy in the handling of classified documents) constitutes a grave threat to the security of the United States.

He should be punished to the fullest extent of the law.

Well, it seems the Internet is getting crowded. Trillions more internet addresses may emerge. They are looking to revamp the current TCP/IP protocol with IPv6, which will provide the opportunity for approximately 3.4 x 10³⁷ addresses, or 34 followed by 37 zeros. That’s billion, billion, billion, billion. That means that every one of the 6 billion people on the planet can have almost 4 billion web pages each. And still have room to spare.

I’m not normally a sports fanatic, but this one caught my eye. Eddie takes the money and runs – to where?

I root for the Titans because they’re the home team around here. I thought Eddie George was great. His stats has not been fantastic over the past couple of years, but he did his best. Because he got greedy, he’s out on his butt, and it’s likely no one will touch him. After all, who wants someone who’s near the end of their career who’s demanding top dollar? If it’s anyone, it’s someplace that has no one to begin with.

Oh, well. Good bye Eddie.

My apologies good readers, but no commentary today.

I am not having an attack, but I think I took a fall on the emotional scale to about a -4 today. Just for reference, Zero is normal and -10 is a suicide attempt. I am feeling down because I am facing a pile of emergency chores that I don’t want to do. I am long overdue to clean the apartment, do the laundry and go grocery shopping, even a haircut. I woke up two hours late because I just didn’t want to get out of bed this morning.

I know, I know, everybody has days like this. But when it’s gone on for a couple of months, it’s depression. And this has gone on for a couple of months.

I have had to force myself to do even the simplest things, like feeding myself. Personal hygiene is almost non-existent. Even perusing the message boards that I love to read and post on has become a chore. Blogging has been a way for me to get out of bed in the morning and get my juices working so I can do more stuff. Sometimes it works.

Still, I plan on at least doing my laundry today. That involves my case manager taking me a mile down the road and dropping me off at the closest Laundromat, then picking me up from it to bring me back. It just requires that I have everything ready when he comes by, which hasn’t happened over the last couple of weeks. This is something I should be doing at least every other week, not every other month.

I’m going in. Cover me.

It has been a bedrock of the Clinton administration. If something was potentially embarrassing, it would mysteriously disappear before the press could get hold of the details. As always, it was ‘inadvertently’ lost, destroyed, etc.

Well, it’s happened again. Sandy Berger Probed Over Terror Memos.

As someone who has handled classified material, if I did something like this I would have been in Leavenworth for a looong time. Mr. Burger won’t even get a slap on the wrist because he was a high level official under President Clinton.

How do you “accidentaly” stuff classified notes into your pants? How is it only the papers that could be critical of the Clinton Administration end up in his briefcase?

Here’s even more evidence of how bad this is: Sandy Berger Not Front Page News in Some Major Newspapers.

The Washington Post played the story at the top of page 2. The New York Times played the story at the bottom of Page 16. USA Today was among the newspapers playing it above the fold on the front page.

Good for the USA Today.

Linda Ronstadt got unceremoniously tossed from a gig in Las Vegas this past Saturday. Ronstadt Praises ‘Fahrenheit,’ Gets Booed.

She opened her mouth and praised Moore and his schlock piece, Fahrenheit 9/11. The audience got so raucous that Ronstadt was immediately escorted off the property. They sent her stuff afterwards.

I find this wonderful, that there is an audience that is not willing to put up with celebrities cashing in on the pulpit they have and editorializing their views down the audiences throats. For once, they fought back and the venue was listening.

I’m proud of you guys. Shame on you Ms. Ronstadt.

Ladies and Gentlemen, dear readers.

My family lives off my disability, and I live off what Social Security lets me earn, which is $800/month. It’s a very tight existence, I can barely afford the bills that I do have, let alone have a lot of disposable income.

As you can see by the picture below, the chair that I use to communicate with you is in very sad shape. I have to sit on it like a one legged stool, and yes there were at one time one legged stools. Ask me and I’ll tell you about them.

Anyway, I am asking you to donate $2.00 to my new chair fund. I ask for $2 because by the time PayPal takes it’s cut, it’s about $1.25. If I can get everyone who visits over the next 3 days to donate 10 minutes and $2.00, I can afford a new chair. This would let me concentrate more on what I need to communicate to you rather than falling off and breaking the chair even worse.

Thanks.

All men are equal, up to the point of exertion. How much you exert will determine how far you will go. The Power of Optimism.

I quote it all because it’s short and important.

Blacks from immigrant families outperform native-born blacks in school, notes Clarence Page, a black columnist, somewhat belatedly. Why? Page says it doesn’t take a Harvard study to figure out the answer:

Immigrant kids work harder.

They work harder, in part, because their parents work harder — and their parents work harder because of their relentless optimism: Where others see a dead-end job, immigrants of all colors see an entry-level opportunity.

Where others may see inequities, immigrants tend to see a ladder to be climbed. With a hyper-optimism, they move ahead, upward and outward, undeterred by discrimination, short-term poverty, substandard housing, lack of financial capital or any other barriers that fate throws in the way of their hopes and dreams.

And they pass this spirit of enterprise on to their children. A University of Chicago study in 1995, for example, found children from a variety of minority groups whose mothers are immigrants outperform students from their same ethnic group whose mothers were born in the United States. “Family optimism” about the future played a crucially important role in determining school success, according to sociology Prof. Marta Tienda.

In the 20th century, optimistic blacks moved from the rural south to the industrial north, Page writes. But that spirit has been lost and needs to be revived.

There are many outreach programs designed to help the poor and underperforming Black person. But they have to expend the effort to get the help and outperform everybody else. I have found throughout my travels that if you want a promotion, you have to already been doing that job for a while. If you want to be shop supervisor, you need to be doing that job whenever the supervisor is out sick/on vacation/etc.