Archive for October, 2010

Jill Ciminillo

I honestly haven’t received this much attention in a while. And I wish I could say it was because of something I did with my hair or that really cute dress I was wearing.

But alas, it was all about the car.

I met neighbors I never knew. Had random strangers come up to the car and ask questions–while I was driving. Got more tweet traffic in a week than I usually get in a month. And had several photos taken, um, without me in the car.

The rear-wheel drive Chevrolet Corvette is always a favorite for ride, handling and sheer comfort. But you add “Grand Sport,” and you take it to a whole new level of cool. Especially when you add options such as the Grand Sport Heritage Package ($1,195), chrome aluminum wheels ($1,995) and dual mode performance exhaust ($1,195).

And the Torch Red exterior paint didn’t hurt.

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Brett Noel

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Dan Calabrese

National Public Radio’s problem with Juan Williams was obviously that he spoke forbidden apostasies concerning Islam, and worse, that he said them on Fox News. The idiotic comment days latter from NPR CEO Vivian Schiller, about how Williams should have talked to his psychiatrist or something, only illustrates how petty and personal the action was.

I got a hell of a sense of humor!

But this is all part and parcel of a much bigger problem in the world of journalism, which is that it’s become full of people like Vivian Schiller, who came up through the ranks of the New York Times before taking the reins at NPR. I don’t mean liberals, and I don’t mean “strong women” so to speak. I’m talking about humorless, self-important drones who prattle on about “codes of ethics” and “standards and practices” and so forth, but lack any ability to exercise common sense or understand how and why others do so on a daily basis.

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Bob Maistros

“The O’Reilly Factor is on.  Tonight:

“It’s been five days since Juan Williams was fired by National Public Radio, but to keep the story alive, viewers’ blood at a high boil and ratings high, we’ll hear from him and several of our other usual ‘yes-Bill’ commentators on the matter again tonight.

“It’s been 11 days since two panelists stormed off The View in the face of my superior presentation, and I’m still running segments and polls on it because I can’t get enough of any subject as long as it involves me.

“Caution!  you are about to enter my No-Win Zone.

“Tonight’s Talking Points Segment homes in again on the Juan Williams firing by NPR.  It’s clear there’s one and only one reason for it:  Juan comes on the Factor, and we’re the number one cable news show, and they and the rest of the liberal media don’t like it.”

“And here is Juan Williams.  Juan, you’ve certainly had a lot of attention over the last few days.”

No-Win Zone?

“Yes, Bill.  All that political correctness, intolerance and character assassination aimed at me has people all over the country up-at-arms.”

“Well, Juan, we know it’s really all about me and Fox News.  NPR has been looking for a reason to fire you for coming on my show.  Did I mention that I am the biggest influencer of public opinion and they don’t like that?”

“Yes, Bill.  But …”

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Gregory D. Lee

You know it has got to be bad for Democrats when the AP, MSNBC, Washington Post and the New York Times all run articles about the probable Republican takeover of state governorships, the House of Representatives and maybe even the Senate. The president himself gave an interview for the New York Times Magazine where he provided analysis of why the Democrats did so poorly in the election that hasn’t even happened yet.

Restoring regularity.

Republicans are fired up as never before. They have a gut feeling that this November’s mid-term election will be like the 1994 midterms, but on steroids. They’ve been celebrating since long-term incumbents like Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pennsylvania) are being defeated in primaries by either members of their own party or by Tea Party newcomers. They sense that all incumbents are endangered species, especially Democrats. Republican political bosses are beginning to understand that something has happened in the past two years that has transformed grandmas, grandpas and apolitical working men and women into a powerful force to be reckoned with.

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Herman Cain

I spent last week in China as part of a board meeting with some of our joint venture business partners based in China. It was my first time in China, and some of my preconceived notions were shattered, as is the case for many people who visit there for the first time. But other perceptions were confirmed.

No information gets in.

China is a Communist country, but we were not met at the airport with machine gun-carrying soldiers. We were not harassed during our visit simply because we were Americans. In fact, we were warmly greeted and shown the best of hospitality by our business hosts and the government officials who were invited to attend our dinners and luncheons.

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Dacia Nichol

In a Wikileaks world, what exactly are we learning that history buffs didn’t know already?

“Targeted assassinations, drive-by shootings, executions, checkpoint killings; these are the small but relentless tragedies of this war that these logs reveal in unprecedented detail,” says Professor Sloboda of Iraq Body Count, describing the recent Iraq document dump by Wikileaks.

Proud of yourself?

Upon hearing about the Wikileaks dumps, call me naive or call me a pragmatist, but definitely call me . . .not shocked. The reality of war is that it’s ugly. I don’t even have to subject myself to hours of Vietnam and WWII documentaries to know that. A few Mel Gibson movies, perhaps with a sprinkle of James Cameron, and war does not look like something I would tell my kids about in great detail before bed.

Actually, my kids will probably handle war stories better than I would thanks to Medal of Honor, Grand Theft Auto, Resident Evil and the rest of the video game series world that captures violence and death as entertainment from a first-person perspective. But I digress.

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Brett Noel

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Dacia Nichol

Damn, I’m so proud to be a citizen who can say that my country’s military is pure unadulterated “awesome”.  Recent ground news, despite the political fray surrounding it all, has me swelling with pride…and hope yet.

Good news on the Afghan front.

Intercepted Taliban communications are showing good news about our boys on the ground (see: “Marines are crazy!”).  Now the goal is to push onward and drive that message even farther to a forfeit or…ahem…annihilation if they insist.

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Brett Noel

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