March 30th, 2009: In Defense of Detroit

General Motors makes some of the best cars in the world. That said, they are in a horrible position because of some major mistakes made. First off, they put all of their eggs into one basket, the SUV/Truck. I think SUVs are fine and it’s a great thing that America was leading the world in making those vehicles, but when the cost of gas rose to over $4 a gallon, it was a reminder to people of how stupid it is for most people to buy one.

 

On top of that, there was a bubble in commodities, so after the shock of people seeing how stupid they were, they had no money to buy any cars. Any cyclical industry is especially hit by recessions, because they sell things than people don’t need to buy. Still, the harsh bubble/bust world is not the end for Detroit. The Unions put the American car companies in an extra harsh position because the increase the labor cost and thus increase the labor cost. Add on top of that the legacy cost, and you got one huge mess. Lastly, I want to downplay this thing that Detroit is not making green cars, which is crap. The problem is not that Detroit was not making green cars, but simply that they were making cars that people did not want to buy.

 

What do we do now? As the Republicans said months ago, we need these companies to go through bankruptcy. We can not keep throwing money down this pit. Still, the Democrats noted that we could not do this because people are not going to buy a car if they don’t know if that car company is going to be around. Well, Obama struck the perfect chord today, as he favors bankruptcy, but he favors it while at the same time the government protecting the car warranty. He is taking the system designed for this system and fixing it up to work in this case. Here they can shed the legacy cost and lower the labors cost and streamline the product. We can’t lose General Motors.

 

While I love what Obama did with bankruptcy, I am pissed over what the administration did to Rick Wagoner. They used him as an offering to the American people. I find it sick that the US Government is firing the CEO of a great American company. Wagoner made his mistakes, but that give the Gov’t no right to ax him. Where do they get this power?

 

So, good plan with the bankruptcy, but bad getting rid of Wagoner, he was a good man doing his best during a hard time.

March 25th, 2009: Bloggers and Newspapers

A subject I don’t talk about often but follow closely is Newspapers. For those of you not following, Newspapers are dying. I personally find this a tragedy. Now I don’t think we ought to be bailing out the Newspapers like some in the Congress are suggesting. There is an idea going around Congress that we should allow Newspapers to operate as a non-profit for tax purposes and thus take out their ability to endorse political candidates. I do not favor this because Newspapers are not non-biased. I don’t like the idea of a newspaper saying they can’t endorse at all. The myth of newspapers is that they are un-biased.

 

I love the New York Times. It is one of the best papers in America today (yes, you read that right my fellow conservative friends). They gather news well and they are focused on their goal, getting the news first. They are also solidly biased to the left. I know this when I read it. If someone only read the NYT, they would be getting a distorted view on the world. The people who work their naturally have their biases seep in to what they choose to cover and how they write about it. Still, I want to make clear that they don’t try to slant the news to the left (not talking Op-ed page), it just comes through from their view of the world.

 

No matter what you think of newspapers, the truth is clear. Less and less people subscribe to them. I currently get one Newspaper which I will not be renewing, Investors Business Daily. (Which is a very Right leaning paper, like most Business papers) In a hard economy, I am looking for places to cut in my budget and this makes natural sense. The truth is though that Newspapers do something critical, which is they gather news. Many people say that bloggers will replace Newspapers. This is not the case. Bloggers can’t replace newspapers because bloggers have their own jobs. Even those bloggers who are successful enough to make it their job are not the same thing as a news organization.

 

Newspapers will have to change to an online outfit, which they are doing now. Again, the New York Times website is very, very well done. Another of my favorites is the LA Times, which is a good conservative paper, unlike the joke Washington Times. Newspaper medium will change, but their purpose will not.

 

So what about Bloggers? I think they are a very good thing. Remember this key line by Robert Di Nero in Casino:

 

 

The Bloggers are the eye in the sky. They call out when the media screws up. They can also make news themselves, as they watch us all. Still, there will always be a place for organizations who make a living following news. Now they just got that eye watching them. Remember Dan Rather?

March 16th, 2009: Jon Stewart is a Self-Righteous Hack

Jon Stewart is getting praised as this voice of reason. People are saying he took down Jim Cramer. We know that Gibbs, if no one else, enjoyed seeing Stewart use Cramer as his punching bag on CNBC last Thursday. The crux of Stewart’s argument is this: CNBC is a finance network, they ought to have been ahead of the game on this whole debacle in the stock market.

 

CNBC is a right leaning financial news network. Lets compare this to their left leaning political news network, MSNBC. From 6AM until 9AM, CNBC has on Squawk Box, a financial morning show. It is on this show that a lot of the leaders of business appear. At the same time on MSNBC, the show Morning Joe is on, which is a morning news/politics show. They are very comparable to one another.

 

From 9AM-11AM, CNBC has on Squawk on the Street, which follows the opening of the market at 9:30AM, then from 11AM-12PM is the call, which is more market coverage. After that is Power Lunch from 12PM-2PM, which is a more broad show market wise, more like a news at noon show. Following that is Street Signs from 2PM-3PM, which is Erin Burnett trying to dig deeper into some top stories. Then from 3PM-5PM is Closing Bell, which the name describes well. So you see, all day CNBC is covering market news.

 

From 9AM till 5PM, MSNBC has MSNBC News Live, which is news as it happens. During the 9-5 hours, both networks do the same thing. The report breaking news and then spend the rest of their time debating each other. Stewart says that the network does not poke and prod enough. Why is he such a harsh critic on the conservative CNBC yet he has no harsh words for the liberal MSNBC? Because he is a leftist who has a venue to vent and has been put up on this throne as a bystander.

 

It is sick that we allow Jon Stewart, a comedian who relies entirely on writers to look good to be this arbiter. He pulls Jim Cramer onto his show, a man who is a commentator and has a show at 6PM that is not a hard news show but rather a show of commentary. Cramer has a show with his own style, as he said himself “I am not Murrow.” Cramer’s first concern is getting good ratings and he does that by being considered intelligent and entertaining by his viewers.

 

We allowed this same man to take down one of the greatest shows, Crossfire. He went onto crossfire and lectured Paul Begaula and Tucker Carlson and the show was taken off the air a few weeks later. The show was classic cable, one from the left and one from the right battling it out. He came on the show and talked about how what they were doing was so bad for society.

 

My question, what is what Jon Stewart doing that is so good for society? He is on a network that has been a joke since Battlebots and Win Ben Stein’s Money left and he has this horrible routine as a comedian and then when he decides he gets to get on his ivory stool and talk about who is right and who is wrong. He wrong and he ought to be resigned to what he does best, that is read what his writers have written him. Get out of these logically false arguments you are making on Business and Political Commentary.

Also, stop trying to appear as an independent bystander who can make judgments freely. You attack CNBC became you don’t like that they are questioning Obama’s policies. You a partisan hack and a bad one at that. Get back to what you do best Jon, which is not being seen or heard except by those young people that worship you.

March 11th, 2009: The Grocery Game

Last April, I told everyone about how I buy groceries. I used to buy for at least a month at a time. Well that has changed since I discovered “The Grocery Game” at http://www.thegrocerygame.com The site was created by a housewife, Terri Gault. What does Terri do? Well, she tells you what to buy at the grocery store. Rather, she tells you what are the best deals at the grocery store and she provides a great service (its more than a 1 woman operation now).

 

I know what you are thinking. Can’t one just look at the circular of your local grocery store in the paper? Well, you could, but the truth is that most of the deals in the ad are not the great of deals at all. For example this week I picked up some Frutis Shampoo. My local giant is running a special where the shampoo cost $3. Now some of the shampoo typically cost $3.30. This deal is minor, and is not a buy. Now some other of the shampoo typically cost $5, so you have a 40%.

 

Now what about coupons? The last key to the grocery game is the coupons that come in your Sunday paper. Frutis had a $1 coupon for their products in a coupon packet on 2/8 that expires 3/15. That drives the price down to $2. Giant (my grocery store) also printed 4 special double coupons in their circular for $1 coupons. Now my typically $5 shampoo cost $1. That is a savings of 80%!

 

So what the website does is they give you a list of possible things to buy. There are blue items, black items and green items. Blue items are the best buys, and are typically at least 50% off their retail price. Black items usually are about 20-49% so you only buy those in dire situations. Green items are the best, they are free! (but rare, but it does happen)

 

See, the magic is marrying the best deals with a bonus card with coupons. The web site makes it so great because it tells you exactly the coupons to pull. It is amazing. Now I am eating healthier because I am getting fresh food every week, and I am paying less because I am saving at least 50% on my grocery bills. It’s also fun cause I never know what I am going to get. Last week I got porterhouse steak 50% off ($4.99lb)! I also got 2 family packs of pop tarts for $1.50 each (typically $3.50). I have not had those in ages. I am spending on average $25 a week, so I am saving money.

 

The website charges $5 a month, but its well worth it. I tried doing it myself, and it can be done, but it’s a lot of work. They do all the work for you and it’s great. I suggest anyone who guys groceries to try the grocery game (they have it for just about every grocery store, including Wegmans for my Rochester friends)

March 9th, 2009: The Anti-Life President

Today Obama took a huge anti life step today. He has opened up federal funding on embryonic stem cell research. It is a sad day indeed when the taxpayer is killing human life to try to cure human diseases. This problem is really just an extension of another problem. The pro-embryonic stem cell people argue that we are only using stem cells that would be discarded anyway. I say that one sin does not justify another. I want to get at the root of this problem.

 

Why are extra embryos being created? Someone please answer this question for me. We should only be creating these things for their intended purpose, in order to become children. Now I see one case where you could have some extras. Say you create 3 because the person wants 3 kids, and they can do it without in-vitro. Later, they choose only to have two children. Thus, you have 1 extra frozen embryo. This embryo ought not be discarded or scientifically worked on. It should be adopted, and that happens today with so called “snowflake babies.”

 

Now many people will say, well you idea sound good Nic, but there are many, many more embryos then we ever could adopt. Ought we do something with these embryos other than discard them? To that I say no. We don’t want to go down this road my friends. We already have a huge problem that we are killing life everyday. Let’s not put on top of killing life using life for scientific research.

 

People are buying false hope. Nothing has come of embryonic stem cell research. More has come of adult stem cells. Now, something may. But if you listen to the pro stem cell crowd, we are going to have a cure to Alzheimer’s Parkinson’s disease and other in no time. There is no guarantee. Even if there was, it is not worth the destruction of life. To change a famous Michelle Bachmann line, with what Obama did today, I am funding the destruction of human life, and I don't feel very good about that.

March 6th, 2009: Stop with the Tweets!

Congressmen and Senators think they have found the Mecca in Twitter. Remember this commercial about how John McCain does not understand technology from the Obama campaign?

 

 

Well folks, McCain learned something because he, like many other people on the Hill are getting big into Twitter. He even talked about his tweets on the floor of the senate. Am I the only one who thinks “tweets” ought not be in the Congressional Record? Here is John’s most recent tweet, picking out a pork barrel project he don’t like:

 

 

But hey, at least McCain is talking about something related his job. Check out Claire McCaskill’s (D-MO) Twitter, such as this example of great English on her feed:

 

 

While horrible English, at least its job related, look at this one from McCaskill

 

 

Thanks ESPN analyst McCaskill. Here is an attack on people like me, who are attacking her and her fellow tweeters.

 

 

Well I do like communication. How bout sum qlty communication Claire? We have kids who can’t write complete sentences because they send thousands of text messages. How about some respect for the office? How about some people communicate in a way that would at least have passed my 6^th grade English class. Look, I am horrible with grammar. I am horrible with spelling. Still, I see the problem and I try to give quality.

 

The internet is a great thing. You can have more open communication with your voters. Still, we must have quality communication, not just a higher quantity of communication.