My First "Political" Post

First of all, one of the things that I considered (not so seriously) before I started this BLOG was the fact that I was probably eliminating once and for all any future hope that I have of running for public office.  No great loss really - based on the time that I have spent in and around politicians.  Not all of them are bad, don't get me wrong, I think at least 5% of the politicians out there are honest, hard working, true American patriots and I really do admire those people.

I read extensively, sometimes two or three books a week.  Books are great for travel - they never need batteries or re-charging, they may remain "in the on position" for takeoffs and landings and I've been fortunate enough to find a great Netflicks-like book service located at www.booksfree.com.  For this reason you will find many book links on this site, sometimes on the side bar but mostly embedded in the text of my posts.

The best two books (stay with me here I'm getting to the politics) I've read in the last couple of years are 48 Laws of Power and State of Fear .

"Power" is written by Robert Greene and provides incredible life lessons in dealing with people and the world in general in both your personal and business lives.  It's a very easy read and quite simply the best management book I've ever read.  My biggest "take" from the book was to pay less attention to WHAT people are saying and make a bigger effort to understand the WHY of what they are saying.

Along this same vein is "State" by Michael Crichton (yes, he of "Jurassic Park", "The Andromeda Strain" and "Timeline" fame).  In "State of Fear" MC takes on global warming and just about anything that instills the "fear" into human beings.  It's a wonderful narrative on how gullible people can be and how right Mark Twain was ("There are three types of lies - lies, damn lies and statistics").  Is global warming real or something just used to resurrect the political life of Al Gore?  Read this book before you decide.

Which leads to my political statement (finally, right?).

I am not a conspiracy theorist, nor do I subscribe to any grandiose conspiracy theories.

But we are SO gullible.  By "we" I mean the general public.  You know, regular "honest Joe" citizens.  Folks in your neighborhood with wives, children, jobs, 2.3 cars, 1.5 pets and a boatload of debt (both "good" and "bad").

So let's ask ourselves the question of the day: How does media (TV, newspapers, magazines, etc) make money?  C'mon this is easy, you know the answer, right?

Let me give you a hint, they DO NOT make money by subscription fees.  Just as they do not make money by going door to door selling wrapping paper or selling Krispy Kremes on the corner. 

Quite simply, they make money by SELLING AD SPACE.

And they don't sell AD SPACE unless there are people reading their product.

(still with me here?)

So based on THEIR motivation then (thank-you Mr. Greene) the media is completely (and in some cases unethically) motivated around selling AD SPACE no matter what.  It doesn't matter if they have to make up the news, it doesn't matter if they happen to pay off or somehow otherwise financially motivate their sources, NONE OF THAT MATTERS!  All that matters to the media industry is that there are people like you and me that "consume" their product on a regular basis.  (and that they can "prove" this to the corporations actually purchasing the ad space)

You've also got to ask yourself, how much of the "news" that I consume during the course of the day are events that actually "happen" or items that are found or manufactured by the delivery mechanism?  It's just another way to look at your information consumption and (IMO) something you should think about every time you use the reading skills you learned in first grade.

Remember a few years ago that Ebola was the biggest threat in the world and something that required IMMEDIATE attention???  Millions (billions maybe) were made on magazine articles, television "specials", Hollywood movies, etc just to nurture this horrible, terrible thing that was sure to wreak havoc upon humankind.

Now, I might have these out of order, but since then we're been confronted (affronted) with: avian bird flu, killer asteroids, killer bees, ozone holes, terrorist "dirty bombs", shoe bombs, killer hurricanes, tsunamis, and of course global warming.

What will it be next week?  I have no idea, but I do admire the media for their originality.

By the way, one last jab at global warming, one of my favorite Gore'isms.  "The earth is warmer than it has been in over 900 years!"

So tell me Al, what the heck was going on 900 years ago that made the earth so warm?  It sure as heck wasn't global industrialization and CO2 emissions.

My guess is cow farts.

In The Beginning

First of all, welcome.

I have been reading blogs, taking advantage of their advice, sending links from their pages, etc, etc and I have finally decided to start adding my own 0.02.

I would like to start by telling you a bit about myself, but that would just be boring.  So instead, fasten your seat belt and enjoy the ride.  In time you will understand a bit about me, hopefully see things from a different perspective (clarity is very big in my book) and maybe take some use from the links and helpful hints that I post.

I don't plan on posting hourly, daily or even weekly - just when I find the inspiration.

I will apologize in advance to anyone that I may offend with my views.  That is surely not my intention.  My intent is to be an observer, a reporter on "things" if you will.  If I report something inaccurately I have no problem admitting my mistake and posting a correction (and not on page 34D of the AJC).

That's it for now over the next week or so I will be adding a lot more content.  I'd like to start with my favorite reading materials from the past year or so (books, magazine articles, web links, etc).

Here we go, it's either going to suck or maybe I can have a "+" impact.