The Perky 30-minute Jihad

This country is out of control with it's obsession about symbolism.

I read with dismay this article in AdAge where Michelle Malkin publicly accused Dunkin' Donuts of having Rachel Ray pose with a supposed keffiyeh on while promoting their coffee.
The fear-mongoring and over-analyzation of what people do, say, sing, write in this country has gone far past the level of absurdity. As always, people have a right to say whatever the hell they want in this country but what is concerning is how quickly Dunkin' Donuts reacted and pulled the ad and the perceived POWER that the person who started all of this seems to wield.

We've become a nation of knee-jerk reactionaries and the minute we are personally offended by something, even something PERCEIVED and even if we're the ONLY one offended, that we expect marketers to reverse course...and they DO, and that's the sad point. It costs less to just cave in, than stand up for something that clearly is a rediculous comment. The more marketers, entertainers, speakers give in to the pressure, the stronger they make the critics. They give power to those who have a bully pulpit when in fact they should be just ignored.

The behavior and reaction towards the spoken word or towards entertainment in this country harkens back to the "Red Scare" days of old. "Are you now or have you ever associated with anyone who has an individual or different opinion than what Fox News wants you to believe?"

We just need to take a giant CHILL pill and lighten up. To quote Sean Hannity "These are just words people. If you don't like what you hear, turn the dial". In this case, Michelle Malkin should have just gone to another webpage. (Yes, it was an ONLINE ad. This is probably the most print an online ad campaign has EVER received, other than the early days of the X10 Webcam)

Happy 40th Birthday

I'm not sure if my brother reads this or not. But if he does, Happy 40th old man.

I hope you are happy in life and you are getting everything out of it that you hoped for!

Everyone was wrong and no one was right.

2.5 Months and this is my post??!!!

Although I know every Cub fan loves the tradition of singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the 7th inning stretch in honor of Harry Caray, there has to be a point where the club puts a stop to having potential controversial singers perform the task.

Tonight saw 59-year employee of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Tommy Lasorda sing. The Cubs were playing the Dodgers. So what do you THINK Tommy was going to say when it came to "root root root for the CUBBIES". Yep, he sang Dodgers. Adding to the growing list of idiots who come into town and don't sing Cubbies. Well, when it happened I turned to Mary Kay and said, I hope we get 10 runs this inning to shove it in his backside. At the time the Cubs were down 1-0.

They got 3!! But this isn't how it always turns out and the 38,000 faithful who bundled up and sat in the evening chill at Wrigley didn't even HEAR him say Dodgers (there was no booing) and Kasper and Brenly didn't bother to call him out on it, reminding all of us that Steve Stone would have at least JOKED to Tommy that because he sang that, we were going to win!!!! We all remember what happened when Bernie Mac, a Chicagoan, but a Southsider sang "root root root for the Champs Champs!" A Bartman ball and a Gonzalez booted double play later, and the Marlins are in the World Series.

Someone who showed his true colors was Mark Grace who sang "Cubbies" even though he's employed by the Diamondbacks. Thanks Gracey, you always have been one of my favorite Cubs.

But either you ask the "homers" to sing it, or you find someone from the CROWD to do it. Seriously, you cannot ask someone employed by a rival club to do this task. It puts them in an awkward position and I'm sure, even if Cubs PR folks remind them to sing "cubbies", they are going to blow it off just because they can.

C'mon Cubs PR, wake the hell up. Even though I hate it, I'll take the Northwestern Wildcats backfield hacking their way through it before we allow someone like Lasorda any day!!