Parallel

This is a word of many meanings. What brought me to this line of thinking was I was helping my daughter with her geometry homework yesterday. It was graphing to show how you could translate shapes to varying sizes while keeping the same proportions. I then heard my favorite morning radio show talking about a TV game show with Jeff Foxworthy called “Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?” The first contestant, a UCLA graduate in American History, could not answer the 1st three questions which caused him to utter the phrase, “I am not smarter than a 5th grader.” One of the questions was who was the 1st president to be impeached? He went with John Quincy Adams. The fifth graders went with Andrew Johnson. What does this have to do with parallel? Don’t know but it was on my mind.

Now things can run a parallel course. You can parallel park. You can do the parallel bars in gymnastics. People can have parallel thoughts. I have heard of archeologists talking about parallel evolution. Science fiction writers talk about parallel universes. When I think of parallel, I see two white lines down the middle of a street. The mathematical assumption is that they are identical and equidistant apart. The real world interpretation is that you have two very similar things that are close enough to being identical.

I guess you could draw a parallel between a game show contestant / college graduate from UCLA who bombed after being asked three questions that fifth graders could answer and what happens to adults in general. For some reason, adults start to crowd out ideas that make sense as a child. You used to knew things that assisted in the decision making process. Knowing why Andrew Johnson was impeached would be important in today’s environment with the current class of invertebrates residing in our nation’s capital. As we get older, the knowledge seeps from out memories and is replaced by the less important things like keeping up with the neighbors or where I am going this year on vacation. We seem to forget that solving the basic problems is important and envisioning the blue sky ideas is a process to work on. It becomes more about the avoidance of pain and the seeking of enjoyment. The next question should have been who was the second President to be impeached? He was a Quaker.

Icool

Cobb

Brontosaurus Linked To Global Warming

The contributors to the non-sense press releases behind global environmental change have developed a new way to modify our behavior. Governmental studies indicate that the flatulence from our bovine livestock is a large contributor of methane in the atmosphere. So in other words, cow farts cause global warming. Wow, who would have thought. We are now facing the propaganda barrage that is leading us down the path towards vegetarianism. If they can fill our youth’s heads with enough misdirection to convince them that eating beef is harmful to the atmosphere and to the health of our planet, they will succeed in one of their goals. We will eliminate cruelty to animals and PETA will have saved the world from harming those cute furry creatures that God gave us to eat. I love propaganda.

So now that the link between cows and greenhouse gas has been nebulously proposed, let’s take it to the ultimate absurdity, like usual. We know that dinosaurs roamed the Earth 65 million years ago. Now since they were the rulers of land, air, and sea, they had populations everywhere. It has been shown that some dinosaurs were plant eaters. Since we have never actually seen a dinosaur eat, we will have to take that as a strong possibility since we currently have carnivores, omnivores, and herbivores. If there were herds of dinosaurs that were plant eaters and they were the dominate life form on the planet, there must have been a sizable population. Again we can only place a strong possibility on this as we have never seen herds of plant eating dinosaurs roaming the plains. Since cows are herbivores and forage for vegetation and dinosaurs would have had similar traits, then methane would be released by both.

Since there were many more dinosaurs and many species were bigger than cows (at least that is what the fossil records indicate), it would stand to reason that they amount of methane released would have been greater. So dinosaur flatulence contributed to global warming and may have caused their extinction. There may not have even been an asteroid. With all of that methane floating in the atmosphere, it must have smelled like a sewage treatment plant all the time and any lightening strike would have caused rolling fireballs. It must have been a living hell for those poor misunderstood creatures. Everywhere they went it smelled and every time it rained the air exploded.

Now, if the propaganda actually convinces our youth to be vegetarians, the main source of vegetable protein is beans. We all know the song about beans and could be facing the same fate as the dinosaurs if we are not careful.

Icool

Cobb

How To Win An Oscar

I came as no surprise to me that former Vice President Al Gore won an Oscar statue for best documentary. His continuing foray into our cultural evolution toward socialism by portraying man as the evil polluter has earned him the admiration of liberal Hollywood brain trust; IE actors (see me read the lines and emote what I feel). Although it was a documentary, it could have easily won for a fiction short or some other made up category due to the actual factual nature of it. Since I have not seen the film, (I have had more interesting things to do with my time like clip the dog's nails and plunge the toilet) I cannot judge whether there were any facts, other than the credits but since its very topic is little less than fantasy, I should have been entered as fiction.

All one needs to do to get a statue now days is find a new and interesting way to spread the socialist agenda through film. Pound the environmental issue or go after gun control. Present the turmoil in Africa as America's fault or any other world conflict as either the interference of Americans or the lack of interference and you could win an award. It does not matter which side you present as long as a conservative member of our government looks like a bumbling idiot.

So everyone get your cameras ready. It should not be tough as nearly everyone has one on their cell phones. Make a series of shorts and piece them together. Pick from the liberal agenda list of topics to distort truth and further their communist agenda and viola, you have an entry into some film festival. From there, you get a distribution deal and submit to the academy for entry. You could be just like Al Gore and become recognized and loved by all of Hollywood. Just think, Leo or George might show up at the after party and you could get a picture with them. Oh boy.

Icool

Cobb

Ergolicious

I heard a new word today while listening to the radio. It was a blurb from a local radio talk show. I think it was the morning guy on WSPD but I am not entirely sure. The talk show host was responding to a person who had called in. The caller was relating that he is sometimes late to work or does not show up at all. He claimed that he was not lazy but just afraid to go to work. He claimed to be ergophobic. I listened in stunned belief that someone would claim to be afraid of work. I know it was something I was accused of growing up and that you could say that most teenagers suffer from a fear to work. I prefer the obvious implication which is to say, “You are just lazy.”

People will try to justify just about anything. Short of someone having obsessive compulsive disorder about leaving the house, being around people, traveling from one place to another, being a productive member of society, and numerous other rational every day activities, it sound like someone is just trying to avoid work. What amazes me is that someone would get on the radio and reveal just how lazy they are. They have the gumption to go after their 15 minutes of fame but then again everyone wants to be an actor. That isn’t work.

So the next time you see someone sitting by the road with their hand out, remember that they may be suffering from Ergophobia. The quickest way to find out is offer them a job as a means to earn the handout. If they agree to work, they may just be down and out or out to rob you. If they say no, they could be suffering from the obsessive compulsive disorder known as laziness. Tell them to leave the light switch alone and stop locking and unlocking the doors. If they are that down and out, you will not have to worry about the hand washing.

Icool

Cobb

Running With Scissors Part 2

There are a bevy of directions I could go with this title. What comes to the forefront today is personal responsibility. I can understand the constant reminder to little children to walk when carrying a sharp instrument. After all, children need to be instructed on the do’s and don’ts so thy can grow up to take care of themselves. Good parents provide the building blocks that allow children to grow up and take make their way in the world. It is the children that are not provided the solid foundations that are the future members of the scissor’s hurdle team.

As an adult, I continue to puzzle over why people refuse to be responsible. I can see from a child’s standpoint that a little lie will keep you out of the immediate path of trouble. But one of the lessons that should be carried out of childhood is that little lies turn into big lies and big lies create big problems. Being honest might hurt in the short term but it stops the long term effects from mushrooming into a massive explosion. Being honest also keeps relationships from suffering the pain of living through the lies. Lies are the biggest destroyer of trust between two people. Even a little lie erodes the foundation on which a relationship is built. Enough erosion and you have nothing but lies at the heart of the matter.

Maybe it is the inability of children to get over the selfish I want what I want, when I want it behavior. Some people are only out for themselves. I guess you could call it immaturity. They refuse to see the path of destruction that results from protecting only themselves. When you combine selfish behavior with other basic human failings like greed you end up with a society of people who covet what their neighbors have and are willing to do just about anything to get it. We have become a nation that runs with scissors but refuses to acknowledge that we were using our feet. It was the scissors fault that I was injured, not the fact that I was careless. You can hear it again and again when you listen to how the news is presented. You hear about the gun that killed or the SUV that caused the crash and never the gunman or the driver. There are people behind the instruments. Inanimate objects tend to stay inanimate. It is only in the hands of people do they gain the ability to do harm.

So maybe maturity is when a person accepts that they are responsible for their actions. When they face the reality of the situations they create instead of searching for someone else to take the blame. It may not be 100% of the time but a mature person will act in a manner that demonstrates that they understand that there are consequences to every action. Maybe it is the acceptance that you must face the adverse price when you cause harm to others or to yourself. Heavy.

Icool

Cobb

Reflection

Sometimes it is just good to stand back and think about where you are heading and why you have chosen that path. Today provides an incentive as it is Ash Wednesday and marks the beginning of the Easter season. Many people will give up something for Lent. The usuals are chocolate, soda, meat or smoking. Others will take on something like exercise or visiting someone who is shut in. All of these things are meant to bring you closer to Christ and for some the focus on that one thing and the sacrifice is a moving spiritual experience. I have never practiced the act of giving something up for Lent. My usual statement is I will give up self denial. Not exactly a spiritually moving sacrifice.

My issue is that I do not think in terms of giving up one single item. For me, being a parent is like practicing Lent all year long. There are many things that I would like to get or things I would like to do but because I have put the welfare of my wife and children before me, I do not even consider acting on them. As the typical American middle class family, we try to make sure that our kids are given every opportunity to experience the opportunities we never had. It becomes a challenge to find ways to get them to places and pay for the ever increasing costs. The one thing I have decided that I cannot afford to let pass by is my own health. I have made sure that I exercise at least 4 time per week for 30 minutes and if some family need pops up, it waits until I am finished. And even the act of getting into shape is not completely selfish. My family has a history of heart attacks and by working out, I lessen the possibility of becoming a statistic.

I guess I practice the art of sacrifice all year long and cannot see giving up something for a six week period as bringing me any closer to Christ. Maybe some time in the future I will come to a different understanding of the Lenten period but for right now, I will continue to give up self denial for Lent. Not that I really practice self denial. It is just something the get a reaction out of people when they question what you are doing for Lent.

Icool

Cobb

Running With Scissors Part 1

We have all heard that phrase whether from a parent or on a sit-com. The implication is always that you could put out an eye or do some serious physical damage and that running with them in your hand improves the odds that a calamity will occur. We all seem to see the danger of grabbing a sharp implement and making quick and potentially dangerous movements with it but we seem to have a blind spot when it comes to things that are not as physical such as ideas or systems. In the long run, a bad idea or a poorly designed system will do more damage than a pair of scissors ever will.

The difference between the Haves and the Have Nots has been going on from the beginning of time. The European royalty seemed to have this issue under control for the longest time by creating the royalty and nobility and then the serfs. I am sure that there was still class envy but the development of the divine right of kings allowed them to draw their authority right from God which made it sit a little better with those under them. Of course once the Dark Ages ended and once the philosophers began to provide a different view of the world, the thinking in Europe changed and you had revolutions. The most noted was the French revolution with the off with their head mentality but the British had theirs also. So the Haves ended up becoming little less than figure heads and we are back to the class envy problem once again.

With the Industrial revolution opening up the possibility of a man with an idea becoming a Have, capitalism became the leveling devise between those with privilege and those without. Now you have people who have nothing to start ending up with a big piece of the pie. They are willing to stick their neck out and struggle a little to get there so it is no longer being given a privilege, it is earned. A good example is Bill Gates. He went from college drop out computer geek to the richest man in the world. Yet people still think he does not deserve what he has. Something is wrong with this picture. America was founded on hard work and earning your way but we seem to have drifted to a hand out system where we do not earn things, we expect them. This is a dangerous system. It starts the path of rot from the inside and leads to collapse. If everyone expects something and no one is taking the risks, you are left with the government, which produces nothing, managing the needs of its population. Look to Europe if you need an example of how to tax yourself out of existence.

So for anyone willing to run with scissors, welcome to the race. Mind how you hold them though, they leave a nasty scar if mishandled.

Icool

Cobb

Welcome To The Third Reich Part 2

The use of propaganda has been a great weapon in the arsenal of those seeking and maintaining power. As media has become a more focused form of communication, with channels designed for select groups of people, it allows for an intense concentration of ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one's cause or to damage an opposing cause. We have CNN (Communist News Network), NPR (National Proletariat Response), MSNBC (Message Sent No Body Cares), and the national evening news outlets that spew the collective slant and misdirection to the American audience. Welcome to 21st century American freedom of the press.

The Nazi rise to power was a result of many different influences. One of the major influences was their use of propaganda to get their message out. Adolf Hitler used propaganda as a means to gain power. Get everyone focused on what is wrong. He used the media and powerful speeches to get the message out that the government was not heading in the right direction. That the war agreement from WWI was the reason behind Germany’s current woes and the Jews, who controlled the purses, were to blame. Once you have the culprit clearly identified, he began pounding those facts over and over again into the minds of the German people. That constant pounding ensured that there would be no misunderstanding of who They were and why They are the ones to be vilified. With the villains firmly identified, it was easy to create the mindset about what should be done. Even when people knew that what they are hearing was not the truth and it could be proven statistically or even visually (in the case of Nazism and the final solution), they were drawn to the conclusions because of the constant barrage of misinformation that saturated everything they see and hear. And once in power, you can control what the people hear.

Fast forward to a more totalitarian regime that Hitler’s; the liberal new media. They have absolute power over everything that we see and hear. With the exception of talk radio, a hand full of magazines, and FOX news, almost every form of media from television to newsprint and magazines has a liberal heart bleeding at its center. Now the talk radio and FOX news have the same issues but they are focused in the other direction. No one just reports what happens. They all use the colorful phrases or report only those facts that make their view of the world fit the actual happenings.

If I only report that people are being killed in Iraq and constantly barrage Americans with the death toll and the bombings and imply civil war again and again and again then you never hear the facts about what good is happening. Or if they report anything that is positive, it is noise against the background of the day’s bombing or troop deaths.

The same thing happens with the environment. Global warming, glaciers melting, islands flooding, Al Gore making a documentary and schools forcing children to watch it. Man is bad. Man pollutes. Man destroys the environment. Man is causing global warming or global climate change (make up you mind). It is the SUV that pollutes. Burning hydrocarbons are causing the Earth to heat up and melt the ice caps. All the while, science refutes the facts but no one announces the good news. It is the “scientists” that hold conferences that get press coverage that continuously announce the news that man is causing global warming. When in reality, it is the Earth and its orbit around the sun that are the major players. A volcano has more influence on the heating and cooling of the Earth’s surface than man does. I hear crickets.

Icool

Cobb

Welcome To The Third Reich Part 1

I wish I could take credit for the idea behind this entry but I will have to give credit where it is due. I listen to WSPD radio on the way home and the afternoon talk host, Brian Wilson, gave the definition of propaganda in reference to (my favorite topic) global warming. He only provided his version of the definition which I did not write down so here is the Webster’s version.

Propaganda

2: the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person
3: ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one's cause or to damage an opposing cause; also : a public action having such an effect

The gist of Brian Wilson’s rant was that there is all of the talk about global warming when the weather is hot but nary a word when we have a blizzard. The fact that we have had a series of ice ages with warming and cooling between the glacial flows seems to be lost on the list of events that we can confirm. The fact that weather is unpredictable and changes like the phrase used to describe global warming also appears to be a lost fact.

What we get is the alarm when something happens that is unpredictable. People hate to be surprised and when a hurricane, tornado, typhoon, monsoon, or other weather related disaster affects their lives they look for blame. When you are looking for someone to blame, it is easy to believe that man is the culprit even though other factors have a greater impact on the world around us. The environmental movement had to find a new thing to keep their coffers filled when the EPA went after the industrial polluters and stopped the wholesale dumping of toxic chemicals into the environment. That is where the propaganda war began. Find some way to tie in saving the environment with any action man takes to go for the maximum guilty feeling.

To get a good feeling for how effective propaganda is we only have to go back to Germany in the 1930’s. Hitler’s rise to power was the result of a good propaganda campaign. If you look at definition 2 of propaganda, it is the spreading of ideas, information or rumors to help or injure an institution. The 3rd definition is even harsher. Joseph Goebbels was the Nazi Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. I will focus on how the rise of the Nazi’s is actually the catalyst for the current environmental movement in the next entry.

I love history. You can’t hide from the past.

Icool

Cobb

Convenient Media Political Incorrectness

When a world event happens that affects America, Americans, or American interests, the liberal news media always finds a way to soften the edges from the antagonists. We have Muslim terrorists that are running around Iraq but the media refers to them as insurgents. What has the more harsh view attached to it? Terrorist or insurgent? Terrorist sounds like something to be afraid of and fear. Insurgent sounds like something is rushing toward something else. You can always tell when “the bad guys” are viewed by the media as bad for America when their status is upgraded from scum of the Earth to curiously annoying.

The article in Yahoo yesterday on Warlords Re-emerging in Somalia, pretty much says it all. They use the term Warlords to describe the “bad guys” in that war torn nation. The war has been going on for years (refer to events in Somalia during the Clinton administration) and the last time you heard about the Warlords, they were restricting the flow of humanitarian aid to those in need. Well, they are at it again. So instead of calling them greedy local governmental officials or militant tribal leaders, they are referred to by the not so flattering title of Warlord.

Now what did these poor local governmental officials ever do to the media? They must have some way tied themselves to the Bush administration. After all, the latest battles have been to remove the Islamic fanatics that were attempting to take over the country. Sounds vaguely similar to another world event that is shaping American politics but I cannot put my finger on it. Maybe it is the fact that they are doing something to ebb the tidal wave that is attempting to push human rights back into the superstitious Middle Ages. If we are going to ignore that Islamic ambition, we might as well go all the way. How about if we pick the best of the world wide human rights violations and enforce them on a global level, that way we can really do some damage. We can pick up the caste system from India, binding the feet from China, wearing Burkas and female castration from the Islamic faith, treatment of minorities from the 20th century American culture, and maybe head shrinking and cannibalism from the Pacific cultures. Of course I am sure that the media would find some way to make our current administration responsible for those Islamic ambitions.

Icool

Cobb

Bang Bang, Shoot Shoot

I’d love to talk about the shooting in the mall in Utah but I cannot work up enough passion for the subject to do any research on it. It heard that the shooter was a Bosnian born Muslim youth. Talk about irony. A Muslim gunman going (I cannot say postal because I have a good friend in the US Postal Service) all Taliban (I like that better anyway) in a state that has a large Mormon population. Maybe I should say Latter Day Saints but ya’ll know what I mean.

I would rather talk about The Beatles “White Album.” I put White Album in italics because it is what the album was called not what it is named. The fact that the cover was white I am sure holds some kind of significance. This was one of the 1st albums I bought as an adult. I purchased a Sony Walkman cassette player in 1980. The White Album was one of the first tapes that I bought along with the Rolling Stones Black and Blue (a great blues album.) It literally wore those tapes out. Since they were cassette tapes, the listening was linear. That is a phrase this generation does not understand. If you didn’t like a song, you had to fast forward through it or pick up the needle and move it. For the most part, you learned every song on the album whether you liked them or not.

So happiness is a warm gun. From what I have gleaned from reading about the Beatles, it refers to shooting heroin, although John Lennon, who is credited for writing the song, denied that. There seems to be a strong hint in the song in favor of that being the correct interpretation though. The lyrics have that usual Lennon flair for vividly describing a person as to imply some personality trait and there by categorizing that person for the listener. Along with the catchy music that accompanies the song, it is a great listen. Since I do not have sound attached to the site yet, here are the lyrics. Enjoy.


She's not a girl who misses much
Do do do do do do do do
She's well acquainted with the touch of the velvet hand
Like a lizard on a window pane.

The man in the crowd with the multicoloured mirrors
On his hobnail boots
Lying with his eyes while his hands are busy
Working overtime
A soap impression of his wife which he ate
And donated to the Nation Trust.

I need a fix 'cause I'm going down
Down to the bits that I left uptown
I need a fix cause I'm going down
Mother Superior jump the gun
Mother Superior jump the gun
Mother Superior jump the gun
Mother Superior jump the gun.

Happiness is a warm gun
Happiness is a warm gun
When I hold you in my arms
And I feel my finger on your trigger
I know no one can do me no harm
Because happiness is a warm gun
-Yes it is.

Where The Yetis Play

Well another round of weather related conversation. It looks like we have been transported back to the last ice age outside. The weather maps all say we are having a blizzard. I say it is too soon to tell but certainly shaping up to be one for the scrap books. I certainly know that I do not want to be outside today and am not looking forward to the drive home. It will be 25 miles per hour all the way unless someone in front of me decides to drive slower. It could happen.

I keep thinking about that scene from Monsters Inc. where Sulley and Mike are sent through a door that leads to the Himalayas. There they meet the abominable snowman who is played by Pixar’s reoccurring voice; John Ratzenberger. Abominable has accepted his banishment and thinks that Mike and Sulley should do the same. Would have made for a boring movies but it was a great sequence. Yellow snow cones that are “lemon” flavored. Lemon, right. Not in the peaks of the highest mountains in the world.

Anyway, the blowing snow and squall conditions in the movie could have been taken from the view outside my window. Normally snow falls but today it is blowing up, sideways, crosswise, and any which way it can go. It wouldn’t be bad if it was hovering near the freezing mark but it is currently 18º F and the snow is too cold to stick. Great powder but awful for anything else. And since I have never skied, fresh powder is probably best for reloading ammo or facial application.

Icool

Cobb

Bait and Switch

I was on line this weekend looking at flights for the family trip to Colorado. I found great tickets last week but we had some technical issues that prevented us from going after them. The minute the decision was made to buy the tickets, the price went up and the flights were no longer available. That was alright because we had waited too long but when the same thing happened this weekend, I began to get a little leery of the purchasing of tickets on line.

My sister called me yesterday at about 7:00PM. She had found roundtrip tickets from South Bend, Indiana to Denver, Colorado for $223. I logged in, saw those prices, and after confirming which flights we were taking, went to purchase them. I tried several times but kept getting kicked out. When I back out and went back into the web site, the entire group of flights had disappeared. They were no longer available at any price. So we went to the next group which was at $263. Again, it was a better price than I was seeing other places. After settling on the flight, I tried to book. It would not let me confirm the seats. There were not enough tickets at that price to allow me to buy them. I tried another flight at that price and I was successful but my sister was locked out. By the time we got it figured out, those prices were locked out. After spending an hour and a half being frustrated on the computer, I gave up. What a joke. They promise a price and then before you can react, either remove the flight or don’t allow enough seats to get my family on the plane.

So, we will wait. Maybe we will find a bargain that will allow us to get all nine of us on the same flight. Hopefully we can sneak in through the back door of one of these on line travel sites and get a decent price on a return trip to Denver. I just hope that I do not have to drive to Nashville to get a price that I can live with.

Icool

Cobb

Mourn The Loss

Our country was hit with another devastating loss yesterday. One of our national treasures has left this fleshy existence and gone on to meet her maker. Her passing will certainly leave a gigantic vacuum that will take virtually no time to fill but that is the way it goes in our nation of celebrity wanna bees. Yes, I am talking about Anna Nichole Smith. Her passing will leave a nation weeping with sadness. I just wish I knew which nation.

Americans and to a lesser extent, the rest of the industrialized nations, have developed an appetite for eaves dropping on people that are famous. They do not have to be famous for any good reason like the aforementioned Anna Nichole Smith (what is up with the three word name) and to a greater extent the amateur porn star, turned reality TV star, party girl, turned pop star Paris Hilton. Talk about wasting time on something totally worthless.

To give you some kind of perspective on how pathetic this worship of the “famous for no actual reason” has progressed, a poll was done asking both young and old alike two questions. The first question was who discovered the polio vaccine? Many of the older people rattled the answer off like it was their last name. A sizable percentage of the young people asked what polio was. None of the youth knew the answer. The answer they were looking for is Jonas Salk but I would have accepted Albert Sabin also. The second question was who is Nichole Richie’s side kick? The children all answered that one correctly and most of the adults. I pray the adults are just aware of their surroundings and not actually watching the trash or reading the tabloids. I may just be dreaming. We can rattle off the name of the heiress turned attention whore but we cannot name the man that cured one of man’s most devastating diseases. Somebody shoot me.

We waste so much time and effort on this pursuit of the worthless effort that I wonder how anything gets done. I guess the technology allows us to waste the time we spent in transit. Before the cell phone, you listened to the radio while you drove. Now you can surf the net, play video games and have a group conversation while driving to work. What will they thing of next?

Icool

Cobb

Soak Up The Sun

With the weather so bitter cold, the dreams of summer vacation and all of the activity that surrounds it are dancing through my head. We had originally planned a family vacation to Rhode Island for the summer. We had a great house picked out with a pool and a great location. It was close to the beach and there was plenty of side trips to take for an action filled week of relaxation. Unfortunately, the house sold and the new owner was less than friendly on the phone so we decided to let that house go. Our spotlight has shifted from the beach to the mountains. We have booked a house in Dillon Colorado for our week in the sun.

Now Colorado is not your typical summer vacation spot. It gets great press as a destination for skiers but not somewhere you would go for summer. Being a flatlander and living in a state that has no mountains, it sounds like an interesting place to relax. The air is thinner so you cannot exert yourself too much. The weather should be warm since we are going in July. The house has a pool and jacuzzi and a work out center in case I get ambitious. Right across the street is a lake for water sports. It will probably be too cold to swim in but who knows.

So as the weather continues to keep my skin chapped and running from one heated area to another, I am again dreaming of spending a week relaxing with an Absolute and cranberry, lounging by the heated pool, watching the kids jump in and out of the water. Of course the new Harry Potter book comes out shortly before we leave so I will have a great book to accompany the trip.

Icool

Cobb

Leading The Blind

I must be missing something really big. Ford Motor Company has just announced they are going to rename the Ford 500 and make it the Ford Taurus. After an initial launch that saved the company in the late 70's and early 80's, Ford left the car to go stagnant and finally killed in last October. The car was left virtually unchanged for 10 years and went horribly stale while they piled up huge profits on the Ford Explorer and other big SUV's. It seems that Ford banks on miracles to save themselves and I think their angel has left the building.

Ford launched the Ford 500 Sedan last year to a yawning public. It is basically a cereal box on wheels. I understand the interior is slick but if you don't like it well enough to drive it, a great interior does not mean much. Now they are going to take the same ugly car and hope to inspire potential buyers by putting the Taurus name on it. If they mount the horns of a bull on the front at least it might make people curious. I can't envision any other way to get poeple interested in an out of the box pine wood derby mobile.

If Ford is going to pull another miracle out of the hat, they are going to need to

be inventive and out of the box like Chrysler. Chrysler has been the only American auto manufacturer pushing the envelope on styling over the last 20 years. GM has finally come out with it's Saturn Sky and Pontiac Solstice but until then, it was a race to be mediocre. Ford has failed in minivans, lost in luxury, crapped out on the SUV market. The only domain left for them is the working man's truck and that is a long way from where they need to be.

So hopefully they are taking the eye patch off the seeing eye dog that is leading Ford. Maybe the canine stereo vision will provide the guidance to get the tarnished blue oval back on track. If not, another American icon will be nothing but a footnote in the pages of the Harvard Business Case Study required reading.

Icool

Cobb

The Icebox Commeth

It has turned bitter cold here in America's heartland. It is so cold, they have done something that would have ben laughed at in my youth; closed the schools. We would have been told to suck it up and put on a sweater, not stay home but with the money hungry lawyers and absentee parents both looking for any reason to take a school to court, I do not fault the decision.

The current temperature is -1 and I think the high for today is around 8 (both those are in fahrenheit, not that confusing and little understood metric.) This has done a few things that are going to hurt. One, the price of oil has jumped $9 per barrel. That hurts at the pump and should be short lived. Another is that my furnace has been running non stop. Not so much of a this month concern but it will certainly impact the March billing cycle.

At least those businesses that depend on the cold weather are finally able to gain a little ground. The land scaping businesses that do snow removal during the winter were in a world of hurt earlier this year. The ski shops and the winter sports shops are selling their gear as the kids head to their sled hills and the adults head to the slopes or out on the ice to drop a line and wait for a bite. All this does is make me look toward spring. Not that I am a warm weather person but I like my temperatures closer to freezing.

Icool

Cobb

Mad Dash

As the wanna bees from the world of professional liar's club continue to throw their hats in the ring, one thing becomes evident; we have a leadership void in America. I almost get the feel of a circus routine with all of the clowns streaming out of that little car. You start to wonder where all of the clowns are coming from only to realize that it is an illusion. They have always been there. Every one of them having asperations of leading our great country and none of them having distinguished themselves with any meaningful accomplishments. No one wants to take a stand to fix what is wrong. They will harp and complain but only if they can get a campaign contribution out of it.

Yes, it comes down to follow the money. That is what our government does best. It provides the financial incentive to seek office. Those who can grant the favor are the street lamp on the hot July night. The moths swarm around it like a plague of locust. The usually accomplish little more than bashing themselves to death but they keep trying. Chalk another one up to greed.

I am amazed what people do for money. The want of a few dollars seems to be all some people want. Everyone needs money but stealing and cheating to get it seems a poor way to get rich. Of course it should be obvious to most that greed is why we have our current political mess. Our Founding Fathers wanted people to serve for a while and return to their lives. What has happened is the creation of a professional group that thinks they are born to lead. What I see if Ali Babba and his band who have created a hiding place in our nation's capital. Where is Aladdin when you need him? Open Sesame.

Icool

Cobb

Escape From New York

Great movie. Kurt Russel plays a great jaded hero. Things have been crazy lately and it has been as tough as escaping from New York to get everything done. My office at work has been torn up for a few weeks for remodeling. I do not have a desk or a computer to do anything on. Life has been restricted as to what there is time for.

I should ask, "What would Snake do?" So WWSD? He would keep on moving forward. I guess I should rent the movie and watch it again to give myself a little fuel to stoke the fire.

Anyway, got to make haste so, TTFN.

Icool


Cobb