Nu Obs & Ops       Page 2
News, Observations and Opinions with a Sensa Humah  

If you're planning on voting this November, beware the new kind of politics.

You may be aware that the public is more divided than ever, it seems, with political advertising and broadcast news soundbites less rational and more "us versus them, which side are you on?" than ever. This new political environment has been building for some time, but there's an element of desperation that's set in, making it harder than ever for voters to discern the truth -- while at the same time making it easier for voters who've already made up their minds to find affirmation of their political beliefs...beliefs that may not be rooted in truth.

The Obama campaign is trying to seem presidential by insulting the Romney camp in an odd, "passive-aggressive" way by joking with messages about which the campaign is deadly serious. The Romney campaign appears to be waging a kind of psychological warfare against Obama followers by accusing the Obama campaign of being divisive, for instance, before the Obama campaign can accuse Romney of being the same thing; the Romney people are working preemptively against their opponent.

But what about the real issues facing Americans? With so many millions of people out of work, why aren't both campaigns trying to win voters by talking about creating jobs? There appears to be agreement among most people running for office these days that catering to the unemployed won't win votes. It's understandable why Obama's strategists don't have their candidate talk about unemployment -- the president has had nearly four years to work substantively to increase employment, or at least keep it an important topic using the "bully pulpit" of the presidency but -- the president has done little to tackle the unemployment problem.

So we have political campaigns based on diversion. Democrats are playing the diversion technique quite well, by bringing to the forefront issues that are most likely to cause derision or anger among conservative Republicans. Gay marriage, abortion and the so-called "war on women" by Republicans are not the most important issues of today by any means, but keeping public debate on those topics pleases the base of the Democratic party and brings furor to Republicans.

Once Facebook was the future but now it’s slowly becoming the past. Internet expert Eric Jackson says Facebook will in five years or so be largely forgotten as the next generation of web companies make new unthought-of-yet innovations. By the way, a new poll says the vast majority of those asked say they’ve never made a purchase based on Facebook ads.

More American adults lacked health insurance coverage last year than in any year since Gallup and Healthways started tracking it in 2008. The uninsured rate has been increasing since 2008, climbing to 17.1% in 2011.

GO GREEN AND SAVE THE PLANET! (Not really, it's just corporate hype to save some bucks)
Isn't it thoughtful and community-minded of big corporations to allow us to "go green" by letting them email our bills and junk ads rather than their having to mail them? Gives you warm, green shivers doesn't it? Never mind that the real reason they want us to "go green" is because it saves them postage and printing costs.

The truth is it takes the procurement and refining of lots of metals and minerals (including gold and silver) and extensive molding of plastics and the use of hydrocarbons just to make a computer. And guess how you run a computer? Electricity that comes largely from the combustion of coal.

And never you mind that dead electronic devices have become a huge stream of toxic waste that we have yet to fully deal with.

I like paper bills and paper junk mail. Besides, I'm Irish so I don't need to "go green."

BREAKING THE ICE

...We got a new refrigerator not too long ago. When it happened my family leapt into the 21st Century. It's really nice because you don't have to use trays to make ice. The icemaker works great, but it's just not the same as having big squares of ice for a soft drink. These ice "cubes" are like big, thick half-moons. Every time I reach for a handful of ice, I drop at least one "cube" on the floor.

I'm going to try the built-in ice crusher soon. I'll probably find a way to drop some of that on the floor too. But since they're not ice "cubes" anymore, what do I say to my family? "Oh, I just spilled another ice half moon again?" "Oh, look, again I spilled some slush?" They're already worried about me. I can't say that. -- MS

THE TROUBLE WITH THE NEW H1N1 FLU SHOTS IS MARKETING!

Why does the cost of H1N1 flu shots keep going down? Two months ago they were unavailable in my area, then when the vaccine showed up it was $20 a shot. Now it's $10. Maybe they'd sell more of the shots if they tried a different marketing approach.

So many drugs have happy, smiley names, like Celebrex ("Celebrex good times, come on!!") and Ascenden ("I'm ascending, I'm floating my way up into the sky, ahhhhhhh") and even old Dimetapp (sounds cheap, huh?...but based on the real price they ought to call it "50-cents-a-tapp").

The drug companies should rename the H1N1 shot and maybe call it "FluOver," like "YOUR flu fears are OVER!" (or like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest).

Or maybe they should call it "Affluent" to give consumers the feeling they're rich because they've had their shot. Millions of people are out of work. We need to hear words like "affluent."

Considering how dangerous the shot appears to be to some people, maybe they should market it as "Advench-aflu." ("Be adventurous! Get pandemic relief with Advenchaflu!")

Or just market it as protection against a very strange flu, and base the campaign on price ("Your expensive $20 flu shot is now PRICED JUST RIGHT! Get your shot, give us a $20 bill and we'll give you TEN DOLLARS BACK, guaranteed! Now that's change you can believe in!").

KIND OF LIKE BRAIN DROPPINGS...

"Why do Americans choose from just two people to run for president and 50 for Miss America?"

"Children: You spend the first 2 years of their life teaching them to walk and talk. Then you spend the next 16 years telling them to sit down and shut-up."

'If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of payments."
"How is it one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?"
"You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to skydive twice."
"Some people say "If you can't beat them, join them". I say "If you can't beat them, beat them", because they will be expecting you to join them, so you will have the element of surprise."
"TV can insult your intelligence, but nothing rubs it in like a computer."

-- From Onelinerz.net: TheTOP 100 funniest one-liners on the internet

SIX STRANGE FOODS

AlterNet has come up with "The 6 Weirdest, Scariest Processed Foods," and they are remarkable. I already knew (did you?) that the prime ingredient in the white filling in Oreos is Crisco, a vegetable alternative to lard, but a fat is a fat. The other prime ingredient is sugar.

Did you know that the addition of chemicals liketrisodium phosphate in Kraft Easy Cheese (the cheese from the spray can, remember?) causes much of the calcium to be leeched from the cheese-like product squirted from the can? So Kraft has to add extra calcium to make up for it.

Canned condensed soup contains about 90% of the sodium (salt) you should have in one day. AlterNet says Spam is essentially pork-flavored Jello. And what are those things that look like blueberries in blueberry waffles? Are they blueberries? No, they're bits of blueberry-flavored sugar.

And you may have looked at the ingredients in Kraft's guacamole dip and noticed that avacado is not an ingredient. Real guacamole is always made with avocado, so how does Kraft do it? Flavoring. AlterNet points out that when this was brought to Kraft's attention, the dip was renamed "guacamole-flavored" dip.

With as much Easy Cheese, Spam, Oreos and condensed soup we were fed when we were children, how did we live through childhood?

NOW LISTEN UP YOU PEOPLE!!

On blogs such as this one you're supposed to rant, so I just wanted to mention that one of the things that really bugs me about some people is when they say, "Listen up!" As soon as you say that I immediately stop listening. If I were in the military and my DI said that, I'd listen. I'm not so I don't.

I also stop listening to anyone who refers to me as part of a crowd when that person addresses us as "You people," or even worse, just "people." As in "listen up, people." What? I was listening kindly till you addressed me in that demeaning, stupid way.

Mike Shiloh, editor at TheLatest.Net, is an award-winning broadcast news reporter, anchor and Internet writer, a regular on CNN, as heard on WINK News Radio, KNTH, KKHT, KTRH, KRBE, KILT, KKHT, KKBQ, KVST, KNTH, KSEV and KQUE.

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