I got this little piece of wry humor today from GCFL:
Important Notice:
Due to recent budget cuts, the stock market crash, and the
rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil, the light at the
end of the tunnel has been turned off.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
Sincerely,
The Government
It’s an old joke. This version shows the underlying cause of many of the problems we have in America today - people think the Government is responsible for the light at the end of the tunnel.
The NY Times has put together a really cool interactive chart that shows The Jobless Rate for People Like You.
Select your personal demographic at the top or hover over the lines to see who they represent.
It’s the best argument for education I’ve seen in a long while.
In another case of Everything Being Connected, I was irritated in the same way by several things I read today. I think the authors just didn’t think enough about what they were writing.
The first is a blog post called 20 Tips for More Efficient Google Searches. This is actually an informative article. However, in his quest to get 20 items in the list, and (I presume) to elevate them to some kind of parity, he makes this statement about number 8 (italics mine):
Calculator One of the handiest uses of Google, type in a quick calculation in the search box and get an answer. It’s faster than calling up your computer’s calculator in most cases. Use the , -, *, / symbols and parentheses to do a simple equation.
One of the handiest uses? Really? Would Google be compelling with this feature, but without the others?
It’s faster than calling up your computer’s calculator? Not likely. I use “Start+R calc<enter>” - that’s 6 keys. All right - I’ll back off on that one. Not everyone knows how to do that.
The second is a sidebar in Fitness magazine. I happened to see this in an open copy:
Snack Smarter
Next time the munchies hit, try this simple strategy to avoid pigging out: Calculate how long it’s been since you last ate, and consider every hour to be worth about 100 calories. “If you had breakfast at 8 a.m. and it’s now 10:30, you should have about a 250-calorie snack to tide you over until lunch,” says Connie Diekman, R.D., director of university nutrition at Washington University in St. Louis. “This will keep your stomach from grumbling between meals without going overboard.” …
So, if I eat breakfast at 6:00 and eat a snack at 11:30, I should get 550 calories to “tide me over” until lunch (perhaps in 30 minutes, perhaps longer - that’s not included in the article). If I eat my snack at 7:00, I get only 100 calories to tide me over the next 5 hours. Nope. Doesn’t work for me.
Young Johnny finished summer vacation and went back to school.
Two days later his teacher phoned his mother to tell her that Johnny was misbehaving.
“Wait a minute!” said Johnny’s mom. ”I had him here for two months and I never once called YOU when he misbehaved!”
today’sTHOT============================
PASS IT ON!
Yeah, you can send this Funny to anybody you want. And, if you’re REAL nice, you’ll tell them where you got it! www.mikeysFunnies.com
Yes, it’s amusing. Unfortunately, it also has more than a grain of truth behind it. IMHO, our education system and our children are in the mess they are in largely because parents have abdicated their primary responsibility to educate their children - in manners and morals as much as knowledge.
This little article was published in yesterday’s Parade insert in our newspaper – and was one of the front page teasers, no less.
Are TV Ads Too Loud | Parade.com
Are TV Ads Too Loud?
Loud television commercials for everything from used cars to pet supplies have been invading America’s living rooms since the 1960s. Now, some lawmakers want the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to do something about it.
“It’s enough to blast you off the sofa when some of these ads come on,” says Rep. Anna Eshoo (D., Calif.). “It’s a source of irritation to people when they’re relaxing in their own home. For decades, there have been complaints and investigations by the FCC, but nothing has ever been done about it.” Eshoo recently introduced the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act. If passed, it would require the FCC to set new limits on the volume of commercials.
The FCC has no official position on the bill but suggests that consumers simply use their remote controls to keep volume levels consistent. David Perry, head of television production at advertising giant Saatchi & Saatchi, says legislation isn’t necessary since new televisions are equipped with technology that can easily mitigate the problem. He notes that commercials are only as loud as the noisiest part of a program but admits that they can be jarring when they follow quieter moments in a show.
Still, consumer advocates say viewers should not need the latest technology to avoid the annoyance of shouting pitchmen. “Advertisers simply do not have a right to scream at consumers in their living rooms,” says Joel Kelsey, a policy analyst at Consumers Union. He calls the CALM Act “ a commonsense solution to a 45-year consumer complaint.”
— J. Scott Orr
It seems the complaint is that advertisers should not have the right to force their way into your home, without your consent and try to get your attention (by “screaming”), while you are relaxing by consuming entertainment created for your benefit at no cost or inconvenience to you.Perhaps we should pay a government entity to create programming for us to watch?Perhaps all shows should be pay-per-view?Maybe we could discontinue broadcast television and pay the creators of TV programming through our cable and satellite providers (isn’t it expensive enough already)?
If the screaming bothers you, I have an Idea– turn it off.Hint: it works for the radio too.
“Quick question: how many Marxists, Communists, Domestic Terrorists and raving racialists does the President get to associate with before reasonable people can assume that the president on some level shares their particular vision of America?”
Now that Green Environmentalism is both Politically Correct and Religiously Acceptable (no matter what kind of church you do or do not attend), everybody is eager to be seen on the bandwagon. I personally believe there’s a big difference between that which helps the environment, and that which mostly makes it look like you are helping the environment.
Politicians, I’m afraid to announce, tend to fall on the look-what-I-did side of the fence.
Don’t get me wrong, by the way. I believe it is our God given duty to care for the planet given into our safekeeping. I also believe that this is one of the few legitimate roles of government, as market forces alone will not preserve the common pond. I object to expensive policies that are based on poor science and are unlikely to accomplish the stated goal. See The Law of Unintended Consequences.
“How do the Obama deficits compare with past presidents? And how did the national debt get so big anyway. This video tries to answer those questions by looking at the debt as a road trip and seeing how fast different administrations have been traveling.”
It looks like this video dates from back in May 2009…
