Life On the Wicked Stage: Act 2

Sunday Morning Reading

Some Sunday morning reading to share.

A Kansas Supreme Court may have just thrown foreclosure out as a legal tool. This could get very interesting and I’m sure it won’t hold up.

A Census worker is found hanged with the word “fed” written on his chest in Kentucky. Scary stuff.

The Washington Post gives its employees new guidelines for social networking that essentially says don’t show that you have an opinion. The need to keep pretending that impartiality exists.

Time Warner is thinking of selling its magazine business.

Nancy Nally of Web Worker Daily challenges the assumption that extra batteries really come in handy. 

The Birthers are now running Infomercials. These guys know when a money is to be made out of nothing. 

Looks like there is going to be a resurgence of George S. Kaufman plays this season.

Ballmer admits Microsoft screwed up Windows Mobile, long after the horses are out of the barn.

The airlines are adding surcharges for the busiest holiday travel days. No surprise there. Here’s the question, does this mean they are going to improve their service on those days? Guess again.

Sunday Morning Reading

It’s been quite some time but here is the return of some Sunday morning reading to share.

Fake Steve Jobs has some lovely posts about the flack that Snow Leopard is getting from some circles. Doe Snow Leopard = Vista? Read and find out here and here.

So, we’re all getting used to the fact that we were robbed blind by the bandits who control the financial industry. We’re slowly but surely coming around to the fact that we’re going to let the Insurance industry continue to kill us off one way or the other. Now comes word that Wall St. is looking at creating another product to sell that bundles life insurance polices together and bets on you and me dying off early. This just sounds like a bad idea. Unless you love industry controlled death panels.

Most say they are sure there is a similar list for Democrats, but I doubt it. Not because Democrats don’t have stupid beliefs, but because they could some how figure out a way to screw up even a list like this. So, take a read on Things Only a Republican Could Believe.

Remember Diebold? You know the company that got all mucked up with voting machines? Things got so bad they changed their name and  now they are getting out of the e-Voting biz all together.

Scientists are creating music to help over wrought monkeys chill out. No, this is not about trying to get Glen Beck to calm down after all his advertisers left him.

The NFL is banning social networking before, during, and after games. Who knew that they only like the rabid followers who make fools of themselves in the stadiums and in bars.

The Arts are once again suffering when it comes to budget cutting in these fearful times. Everything has to get cut on some level these days. (Don’t I know it.) But you know what happens when you get rid of the story tellers or those would be the story tellers? You end up with TV.

And just a quick word on the Obama speech to school children: Numbskulls. For the sake of winning a fight and scoring a point, the idiots on all sides of this debate have forever excluded this or any future president from making a speech to school children again. It must feel really good to be on the thrill ride that is swirling around the toilet bowl waiting to be flushed into the sewers.

AT&T, Loopt and the Blogger Guy Video

So, yesterday AT&T released the Blogger Guy video basically apologizing for the fact that its network isn’t up to snuff and the delayed rollout of MMS. Seeking forgiveness from consumers everywhere who can’t use their phones for the fast and reliable service they advertise, AT&T’s effort here comes on the heels of some of the upgrades to its networks in San Francisco and New York.

Set aside the fact that the Blogger Guy looks like a deer caught in headlights during the apology, the attempt is getting some kudos, eliciting some understanding, and getting its fair share of derision. Somehow I doubt that this guy has ever blogged in his life. AT&T’s claim is that it is really hard and time consuming to upgrade their networks and that no one in their right mind should have expected that all those customers they were signing up for the iPhone would actually use the device they way it was advertised, marketed and sold.

Sunday Morning Reading

Some Sunday morning reading to share.

Take it for what it’s worth. Frank Schaeffer helped weave the Christian Right into our political life, then had a Lee Atwater-like change of heart once things got out of control. Here he talks about how we are damaging our political and social fabric.

American Express and Discover are ditching over limit fees. They’ll make up for it in other ways.

This story is recycling again after it came up during the last administration. Politicians and scientists may debate whether or not climate change is real, but the military is preparing for climate change as a threat to national security.

The man who made a bundle by destroying the media, Rupert Murdoch continues his myopic ways. Now, he wants the names of those who subscribe to the WSJ on the Kindle or he’ll take his publications of it. I say take his publications off the Kindle.

Our Marines can’t use Twitter, Facebook, etc.. but the British are encouraging their troops to do so.

Apple goofs again. And again. And again. Sorry. Broken record there. This one is about Boobs. No dictionaries this time. Just boobs. Apple has reached a tipping point where they fortunes are starting to decline. This happens to boobs. It’s called gravity.

Andy Borowitz on Twitter and the Taliban.

Loren Heiny thinks the Apple Tablet will boost Tablet PC sales. I’d prefer we stop calling these rumored devices Tablets.

Sunday Morning Reading

Some Sunday morning reading to share.

The media free versus not free circus continues and probably will never end. Should we pay for content? Should we not? Does it matter? Not until there is content worth paying for? Barry Diller says free content is a myth. So here’s my question. If I’m going to pay you for the content, are you willing not to run ads on top of what I paid for? I didn’t think so.

The Apple Tablet rumor mill looks like it might have gotten closer to becoming “the Apple Tablet what will it be mill.” I’m still being a bit skeptical about this, but things do seem to have some momentum. I’m not sure that I agree that it will become the flagship product though.

Swine flu looks like it is going to be a big news topic again this fall as I keep seeing stories about how many will be affected and have been. Those stories are few and far between now, so I’m guessing everyone is hedging there bets until fall.

Scientists worry that machines will eventually outsmart humans. From the looks of things here lately, it won’t take much.

As if to prove the above point, a young guy gets elected mayor of Hoboken, NJ and with three weeks he’s busted by the Feds for taking bribes.

James Cameron talks about Avatar and the rise of 3D. Got to do something about those glasses before 3D will become much more than a gimmick. 

John Dvorak thinks Microsoft’s party is over after the latest earnings report. I’m not sure about the party, but this downturn for Microsoft has been coming for a long, long time for many of the reasons Dvorak says. They are spread as thin as Dvorak is these days, and that just dilutes everything.

Everybody is excited now that the Dow is over 9000. We’re even hearing that the recession is over. Don’t fool yourselves. The guys who play with your money just have more of it to play with and have found new methods of rooking us all.

AT&T Gets Crapped On. Again.

MG Seigler of TechCrunch says he’s surprised by the number of responses and the depth of those responses to his post, AT&T Is A Big, Steaming Heap of Fail. I’m not sure why he’s surprised at all. Too, too many have trod this path before pointing out that AT&T wins the prize for one of the biggest bald face corporate liars out there. Heck, they won an Ink Blot award for just that last December, and no one seems to be trying to pass them by so far this year.

Dreaming here, but maybe MG’s post, given TechCrunch’s rank in the world, will have some success in moving the needle, but I doub it. AT&T is far too busy counting money and figuring out ways to keep the status quo alive to try and rectify any of the blatant insufficiencies that they saddle their customers with. While they laugh all the way to the bank, I’m sure they figure they can even fend off the federal government. I mean after all, we keep filling their coffers faster than we complain. Intriguingly, AT&T is alone as a target of scorn as evidenced by some of the comments on Sigler’s post, which is another reason AT&T can keep on shucking and jiving. They are a part of an industry that thrives on the fact that they don’t need good consumer rankings to make the cash register ring.

Sunday Morning Reading

Some Sunday morning reading to share.

This week’s Claude Rains moment. Cheney told the CIA to keep info from Congress.

I”m curious as to why there isn’t more coverage of the cyber attacks that are hitting the US Government. Probably because we are afraid to admit something, and also because there is no good video.

Folks are spending a lot of time arguing about saving journalism and the like. I’m not sure it is worth saving at times. Here’s an example of why. From Dvorak Uncensored, some interesting “suppressed footage” from 60 minutes the Swine Flu vaccine disaster from 1977-78.

Newt Gingrich gets it thrown back in his face by a New Hampshire fisherman.

The Republican sex scandals keep getting sillier and sillier. So does the coverage and the commentary. How about this from John Marshall: Economy May Force Politicians to Have Sex with Their Own Wives.

Frank Rich, predictably, continues to elevate Palin through his derision of her. Of course she deserves the derision. Rich’s problem here is that he understands ‘real Americans’ as much as Palin, Mika Brzezinksi, or anyone else who has been tossing that phrase around lately as if it means something. 

Google shakes up things with the announcement of the Google Chrome OS. Some (like me) think this will change things long before we even see the eternal beta. Some think not. Hot topic in the tech world, that will turn hotter.

Thoughts on Iran, Sanford, Bachmann, Health Care, Lying, and Other Things

Been a crazy and stressful few days and it seems like a lot has been going on that I haven’t been commenting on. I’m sure no one has missed my commenting. But hey, I have, so here goes.

The regime in Iran took the path of tyranny and bloodshed and have proven once again that humans have an amazing propensity for cruelty, especially when doing so in the name of God, and trying to protect their power. From what little we are hearing it sounds like the horrible violence is keeping pace with the insanely idiotic lying and debunked propaganda that is going on. The Nazi’s had nothing on these guys as they’ve apparently thrown Neda’s family out of their home.

Don’t cry for me Argentina. SC Governor Mark Sanford got caught and had to admit he was having an affair while on a trip to Argentina. His disappearance sparked curiosity and then the story about hiking along the Appalachian Trail didn’t have an ounce of creditability to it. This story isn’t over, and the hypocrisy (from all sides) continues unabated. Something about throwing stones while living in glass houses comes to mind.

There’s now a comic book about Michelle Bachmann. Somehow that just seems redundant.

The Health Care debate is in full swing. The lying machines are in full swing as the debate inside the beltway has shifted away from health care to who is going to win. Yeah, our leaders’ priorities suck, just like always. With what little I’ve seen of this debate recently, I’m amazed that no one in the media isn’t smart enough to call everybody out on this. The hyperbole is excessive and the amount of money spent rallying either side must be astronomical. Meanwhile, it doesn’t look much will change in the end. Hope I’m wrong.

Goldman Sachs is on pace to issue largest bonuses on record. I’ll accept a thank you letter any day.

Steve Jobs did indeed have a liver transplant and it was in Memphis. Beyond wishing him well, now the talk is about Apple’s secrecy and what money can by. Hint, the secrecy thing is working as they are laughing all the way to the bank.

All of the above have something in common. It has become so common place to accept lying from CEOs, corporations, politicians, the media, and ourselves that I’m wondering if we shouldn’t stop teaching public relations and start teaching the next generation classes on how to lie better and how to do a cover-up. I mean we certainly don’t have great role models for them to follow as near as I can see.

Jobs May Have Had a Liver Transplant and Fake Steve is Back

Crazy Apple news over the weekend that Steve Jobs may have had a liver transplant in Memphis and is "looking forward" to returning to Apple later this month. Rumors bounced around this past winter that he had bought a house in Memphis. Intriguingly only a few blocks from Playhouse on the Square that I visit every February for the UPTA auditions.

But anyway, the timing of the whole thing was intriguing to say the least. The Wall St. Journal broke the story around midnight on Friday, the day the iPhone 3GS was released. (its official, Dwight Silverman's boycott of the space between the G and the S seems to have taken hold in Cupertino.) Late Friday's are the days you dump bad news in the PR biz.

Even more curious is that it looks like Fake Steve Jobs is back as of late last week as well. Can't say that this isn't an entertaining world to follow.

Events in Iran

The whole world may be watching but at times it is tricky to tell where to find news on the events in Iran. Today is being ‘hyped’ in some quarters as a day of decision and if you read the reports, it looks like the government is going to put out a show of force and attempt to shut down the protests. I’m guessing those in control have had enough. There are some disturbing and almost fatalistic portents in some of what I’m reading.

If you’re looking to follow what’s going on here are two sources that should have some info as the day’s events move forward to whatever they are going to be.

The New York Times Lede Blog is live blogging what they hear and see.

Andrew Sullivan is also live blogging events as he gets info. Sullivan has been on top of this from the beginning and his coverage is excellent, IMHO.