super bowl winner: google
Feb 8th
Club Soda did a great job summing up the political ramifications of an actual Green Police. Last night’s Audi ad was great because it appealed to both groups. Please read David Roberts’ article today in the Huffington Post. The same site that brought the world Katrina Cannibalism has this take on the Green Police ad:
The ad only makes sense if it’s aimed at people who acknowledge the moral authority of the green police — people who may find those obligations tiresome and constraining on occasion, who only fitfully meet them, who may be annoyed by sticklers and naggers, but who recognize that living more sustainably is in fact the moral thing to do. This basically describes every guy I know.
In other words David Roberts is okay with a police state as long as it suits his political beliefs. This is the great thing about totalitarianism. Someone ultimately gets to be in control. Everything is cool until someone has a gun in your face telling you to stop emitting C02.
Anyway, the point of my post today is to discuss what I thought was the best advertisement last night during the Super Bowl.
Google’s Parisian Love ad is simple. Google’s service is simple. The ad told a story and the sole focus was the brand. From a marketing perspective it was perfect. Evidently Microsoft’s search decision engine Bing is slowly gaining traction. Google has never advertised like this before. Plus, the fact there was a Google ad and nothing for Apple must make someone unhappy.
countdown to fascism: the green police
Feb 8th
Each year at this time I hope to be dazzled by the fast-moving action on the field and the non-stop hilarity and/or profundity of the commercials that play in between. And each year any hopes of a memorable Super Bowl Sunday are dashed to bits in a hail of chips, queso and New Belgium beer (this year’s choice was a dark one called 1554; therefore, my stupor was a particularly stupefying one).
By the end of each year’s Super Bowl I’m left counting the cost to my body, my soul and my mind, and the reckoning is horrible. This year was worse than most, thanks in large part to the unending litany of crappy commercials. The agencies that created the spots all seemed to be trying far too hard to amuse. By doing so, any attempt at humor is usually forced and unnatural. And so it was.
There was one commercial, however, that stood out. Not because it was particularly clever, but because it was prophetic. I’m writing of course about Audi’s Green Police ad. I won’t bore you with a description of it; watch it below and let me know in the Comments whether or not you agree with my assessment, which follows the ad…
Okay then. Here’s why this ad is so prophetic… At first, I thought it was a satirical political ad aimed at Cap and Trade and the Climate Change-ocrats who would have each individual subject to draconian environmental rules and taxes. Come to find out the ad was for what I guess is a “socially responsible” car company called Audi. All Audis will simply pass through the fascist roadblocks that are sure to be part of our Utopian future because they’re so “green”.
Though the ad is obviously meant to be amusing, as in, “Ha ha ha. Wouldn’t that be funny if you were ticketed for having Styrofoam on your person? Hilarious!” It’s so absurd, you see, that it’s funny. But something tells me that Audi and the agency that created the ad would love to see this really happen.
It’s humor with an edge of truth in it; the scenes of constant harassment from the authorities regarding your personal consumption would actually happen if the environmentalists and their lackeys in Congress had their way. Of course, all those who spearhead the environmental regulation of the individual will be exempt, but everyone else (that’s me and you, by the way) will be subject to the microscopic bureaucratic meddling portrayed in the ad. The Green Police are funny (I guess) in the abstract, but less so in reality, kind of like the Gestapo and the KGB. Hilarious on paper, but rather authoritarian in person.
real problems: lonely college girls
Feb 7th
Carpe Diem does a good job discussing feminist hypocrisy in regards to gender equality in higher education; however it’s the article he links to in the New York Times that is classic. Imagine if the New York Times wrote an article like this about the lack of women on campus.
Leaving aside complaints about “affirmative action for boys,” less attention has been focused on the social ramifications. Thanks to simple laws of supply and demand, it is often the women who must assert themselves romantically or be left alone on Valentine’s Day, staring down a George Clooney movie over a half-empty pizza box.
I’m sorry if I’m completely unconcerned about the average college female’s prospects for landing a date on Valentine’s Day. In a world full of problems this isn’t one. It seems as if the average college male of the 1950s survived not having a lot of women around. I know this is a surprising observation but the goal of college is to secure an eduction.
new layout…
Feb 6th
Obviously I’ve made big changes to the layout here. After using Dreamhost the past couple of years I changed hosts to Media Temple. Dreamhost was charging more than what I could get at MT. MT is much a better service.
I’ve also moved the side from Movable Type to Wordpress. I stuck with Movable Type as long as I could, but Wordpress is just easier to deal with at this point. I’ve spent thousands of hours customizing Movable Type, but I can’t keep it up anymore. Plus, Wordpress has an Android App that will make updating the site a breeze on the road.
I’ll make a few more adjustments to the site over the next few weeks. So far I’m very happy with the the change.
krugman the hypocrite
Feb 5th
Paul Krugman is such a sad fellow. His partisan rants in the New York Times make “progressives” feel good about their terrible economic practices. They think to themselves, “Krugman is an economist and he agrees with us, so we must be doing something right.”
Now Krugman is upset at Republicans for moaning about deficits. It seems he’s not very concerned about the growing debt:
Many economists take a much calmer view of budget deficits than anything you’ll see on TV. Nor do investors seem unduly concerned: U.S. government bonds continue to find ready buyers, even at historically low interest rates
That’s all well and good. Those crazy Republicans are just trying to scare the public like they did about Iraq. I wonder what Krugman thought about deficits during the Bush administration? Oh, I don’t have to wonder, Google enables me to search myself. Here’s Krugman’s take on deficits in 2003:
Still, do deficits matter? Some economists worry, with good reason, about their long-run effect on economic growth. But I worry most about America’s fiscal credibility.
You see, a government that has a reputation for sound finance and honest budgets can get away with running temporary deficits; if it lacks such a reputation, it can’t. Right now the U.S. government is running deficits bigger, as a share of GDP, than those that plunged Argentina into crisis. The reason we don’t face a comparable crisis is that markets, extrapolating from our responsible past, trust us to get our house in order.
Well Mr. Krugman, which one is it? American fiscal credibility is much worse in 2010 than it was in 2003, but now he’s completely changed his attitude. It seems Krugman is only concerned with deficits when a Republican is in charge. Krugman’s observations aren’t from an economics standpoint, but they represent the views of a bitter hypocritical liberal quite well.
Does Krugman even bother to read his own drivel?
what would i do: the economy
Feb 5th
If I was in charge I would push for enormous changes to fix the economy. Here is what I would do.
- Abolish several departments. Agriculture, Education, and Homeland Security do not need entire departments. These departments are either too big, obsolete, or just useless. I’m sure there are other departments that can go as well. One of Bush’s biggest mistakes was creating the Department of Homeland Security.
- Reduce the number of government employees, reduce wages, and reduce pensions. Government employees’ wages have been going up the past two years. It’s time these people start sacrificing like the rest of us. Federal and State pensions are absurd. We’re basically paying able bodied people not to work.
- Raise the entitlement age for Medicare and Social Security. Don’t hold your breath waiting for this to happen. If there’s one thing elderly people do well, it’s vote.
- Temporarily cut the payroll tax. This would be much more beneficial for the average American than the stimulus package.
- Halt the stimulus package. Use the allotted funds to help pay for the shortfall in payroll receipts.
That’s just a short list of things to do. I could think of others, but this would be a step in the right direction. I don’t expect Obama to take up any of these ideas any time soon. Politicians love to talk about reducing waste, but they lack the courage to do it.
blame israel: wife beaters
Feb 5th
Lancet has another crazy study. For those trying to remember Lancet they’re the ones who created the absurd death toll in Iraq that gave fuel to faux outrage by “progressives.”
Evidently Palestinian men are more likely to beat their wives? No worries though, the real culprit is Israel.
Because exposure to political violence is associated with increased odds of intimate-partner violence, and exposure to many traumas is associated with poor health, a range of violent exposures should be assessed when establishing the need for psychosocial interventions in conflict settings.
If political violence leads to domestic violence why aren’t Israeli men beating their wives? Who funded this survey? Part of the funding came from the Palestinian National Authority. I think that pretty much sums it all up.
we’ve got to spend our way out of this mess
Feb 2nd
Why are “progressives” so quick to assume that most people, scientists, economists, horse whisperers, and terrorists are behind their absurd ideas? Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), the House majority whip is the latest to join this trend.
“We’re not going to save our way out of this recession,” the majority whip added. “We’ve got to spend our way out of this recession, and I think most economists know that.”
Does anyone really believe that spending money is really the answer? We’ve been spending money hand over fist since Lyndon Johnson. This is like telling a boxer who has suffered too many concussions that the solution are more hits to the face. The government cannot fuel economic growth. Economic growth comes from the private sector; however, the government can dampen economic growth.
big satan, little satan and the left
Jan 28th
A growing meme amongst the progressive crowd, and closely related to the Truther movement (Truthers being those who believe 911 was an inside job by the American government), is the audacious accusation that America brought 911 on itself. This Blame America First trope is the direct result of left-wing politics being force-fed to youngsters through America’s “educational” system.
A growing number of academic programs in the university system across this great country are thinly veiled ACORN-like recruiting centers for budding progressive, social-justice activists from a pool of blissfully ignorant, beer-guzzling, medical marijuana-smoking young whippersnappers.
These precocious youngsters are taught by seemingly scholarly academic types that America (sometimes spelled with a K, as in Amerika, or the KKK of Amerika) is an imperialist, racist nation bent on subjugating people of color the world over, and that anyone to the right of Michael Moore is a fascist. The mass media relentlessly reinforce this message with constant propaganda that Joseph Goebbels would be proud of (see also: Cameron, James. Avatar, et al).
Ironically, many progressives reared in such a system find themselves in common cause with global Jihad. Of course global Jihadists, if they reach their goal of a world caliphate, are likely to frown upon the myriad of causes most dear to progressives, such as a homosexual marriage free-for-all and abortion. By “frowning” I mean “putting the infidels to death by stoning.” Mark Steyn put it as only Mark Steyn can: “A little girl born today will be unlikely, at the age of 40, to be free to prance around demonstrations in Eurabian Paris or Amsterdam chanting ‘Hands off my bush!’”
So very true, yet progressives seek to undermine any attempt to squelch this particularly virulent strain of the peaceful religion, Islam. I suppose they’re too busy re-hashing America’s shoddy treatment of Native Americans and blacks (can we move on, please?) to realize that justifying Jihad – in effect, collaborating with Jihad – may very well lead to some dire circumstances.
Still, I’m struggling with this concept; that is, how America is ultimately to blame for 911. Usually, the response to the question of how America brought 911 on itself is, “America’s global policy.” Okay. What about America’s global policy?
What is it, exactly, about America’s policies in the past 100 years that ultimately led a bunch of Islamic fanatics to fly airplanes into buildings with hundreds of terrified passengers on board with them? And, regardless of America’s policies, this is justified? Put yourself in the airplane with Mohamed Atta, amigo, and then tell me if that deranged idiot was justified in his actions.
It’s easy to sit safely in Middletown, USA and pontificate in abstract about how Muslim countries have been subjugated by Europeans and Americans and quite another to come face to face with someone who’s preparing to put the infidel (you) to death. And I tell you what, if I had lost a loved one on 911 and some hipster dufus made a crack about blaming America for 911, there would be hell to pay.
But I digress, as usual… Typically, our progressive friend cannot answer the follow-up question. Sure, they may rattle on about the division of Muslim countries after both World Wars or America’s policy during the Iraq-Iran war, and so on and so forth. But there’s one particular piece of land that’s the sticking point here, and which has driven U.S. policy since 1948. That’s right. It’s all the Jews’ fault!
Why, ultimately, do the Islamic radicals hate us? Primarily, it’s our association with Israel. Secondarily, yet related, is the fact that most of us are infidels of one stripe or another. Progressives don’t care to delve very far into the actual messages coming out of the madrassas and media in Muslim countries.
Instead, parroting the popular progressive line about poverty, they simply close eyes and ears to the truth being shouted from the rooftops… er minarets. The message is not, “We’re desperately poor, so we’re going to strap explosives to ourselves and blow up amongst the infidels!” No, it’s: “We hate the Jews and the Christians! In fact, we hate the Buddhists, the Hindus, the atheists, the agnostics… Heck, anyone who’s not Muslim, especially those who ally themselves with the Jews!”
(I suppose the usual PC disclaimer should be inserted here. Yes, most Muslims are peace-loving, law-abiding folks, depending on the law to which they’re subject. Still, the volume of officially-sanctioned anti-Jewish, anti-infidel material coming out of Muslim countries with nary a peep in dissent is disconcerting, to say the least. Plus, if you’re not Muslim in a Muslim country you’re a second-class citizen. You can’t even own a Bible in most Muslim countries.)
This Jew-hating thing has been going on for a long time, at least since the Jews were identified as Jews. It’s the oldest trick in the book, and progressives buy it hook, line and sinker. My guess is that progressives, since they believe in the goodness and ultimate perfectibility of human beings, figure the Muslim world will come around once they recognize the esprit de corps they shared with Jihad. My other guess is that they will be sorely disappointed in the outcome.
There were a lot of people back in the 1930s who figured Hitler was someone they could deal with. The problem was they never bothered to read Mein Kampf, or if they did they skipped the parts about world domination and getting rid of the Jews.
So, while the Jihadists and Iran’s Ahmadinejad and his ilk lay out their plans plainly for all the world to see (destroy Israel, kill and subjugate the infidel), progressives rattle on meaninglessly about America’s complicity for global terrorism. Oh well, at least Howard Zinn would be proud that progressives reared in our university system will continue to mindlessly regurgitate his Marxist nonsense masquerading as scholarship.