Is this possibly for real??

According to aides, in his State of the Union address tonight, W "will propose long-term plans to promote alternative energy sources and take on an issue his critics say he has largely ignored for five years: the rising cost of health care."

Dare I hope??

Bush to aim speech at 'kitchen table' issues

Effective advertising?

Unfortunately, I won't remember the commercial exactly as it is, but here's my shot at it...

Last night I saw a McDonald's commercial that was, I think, for the Big Mac. There's a guy sitting down to eat a Big Mac, and he has a lot of sauces on the table with him, but then he takes a bite of the Big Mac and makes a pleased sound. Then the narrator's voice says, "Big Macs are so tasty, you won't need any of your _________." (When I first heard it, I thought maybe he said "sauces," but I think he actually said, "salsas.") Then it goes to a logo screen that includes two phrases in Spanish (none in English). I found myself sort of offended by the commercial. It seems obvious that it was aimed at Hispanics/Latinos (not sure here what the correct categorization should be), which isn't what I have a problem with, but it seemed to really be stereotyping in not a good way. Like people of that culture have to have salsa on everything or something. Maybe I shouldn't be offended, I don't know.

Here are two articles about advertising aimed at Hispanic consumers:
Latinos Taste the U.S. Market - Advertising Seeks Hispanic Consumers
Marketing Latin Style You can use the login minnie@mouse.com for this one or try porky@pig.com or bugmenot if you want.

Journalist deaths in Iraq

No surprise that this morning Good Morning America was all about wounded ABC journalists Bob Woodruff and Doug Vogt, who were victims of a roadside bomb in Iraq Monday morning. An interesting statistic they also showed was the number of journalist deaths during the current Iraq war (since March 2003) compared to the number of journalist deaths over the entire course of the Vietnam war (1955-1975).

• Iraq War: 79
• Vietnam War: 63

Is it as simple as numerical statistics? Probably not. Perhaps many more journalists are covering the Iraq war. Perhaps they're doing increasingly dangerous reporting. Perhaps not many journalists even went to cover the Vietnam war until the later years. I really don't know. But the numbers are still very striking. Divided out, that's about 26.3 journalist deaths per year for Iraq, compared to 3.1 journalist deaths per year for Vietnam.

This article from September 2005 had slightly different figures: Iraq: more journalists killed "than during Vietnam war".

If links have expired, please see full texts at wounded ABC journalists and journalist deaths: Iraq vs. Vietnam

Ah, Committees

If you grew up Mennonite (or perhaps other denominations also; I just can't speak to those), you grew up hearing jokes about church committees. How many committees does it take to...? Why can't [insert task here] ever get done at church? And the like. So I am now one of these committee members and have been for a year or so. I experienced some of this "committee ridiculousness" earlier this week. My committee met because we had two tasks to complete. After an hour and a lot of discussing and reading of the bylaws, we determined that in reality, we had no tasks to complete. Apparently one of our supposed tasks is really the duty of another committee, so we punted it to them. Remind me again, why are there jokes about committees making everything take longer?

Drive-thru...literally

So I was in Bluffton, Ohio, around new year's for a wedding, and I saw one of the most comical things I've seen in a while. Now, I'm a bit confused about Ohio's liquor laws (e.g., what's a state liquor store? and why can only a state liquor store sell jack daniel's?), but as I understand it, only 3.2% can be sold in Bluffton, but harder stuff can be sold elsewhere in the state. Which is why there are two liquor stores right outside city limits, I suppose. I've seen drive-thru liquor stores before, but the ones I've seen are more like a McDonald's drive-thru, you know, with a window and all. One in Bluffton, on the other hand, is a true drive-thru, like the one in the picture below. By the way, as far as I can figure out, the one pictured is in Dayton, Ohio. Only in Ohio, I guess (I mean, probably not; I just haven't had the fortune to see them elsewhere).

Poverty2: hitting closer to home

So our church got on board with staffing the homeless shelter in town for a week—or is it half of a week?—every quarter (refer to Poverty post). Yay, church! My first overnight stay is next Monday, so I went to a training session a couple of days ago. My world was shaken a bit there: one of the guys staying there was a camper at Camp Mennoscah. And I mean a camper when I was a counselor or staff member, not a fellow camper of mine. I tried to place his age, remembering other campers who attended with him, and I came up with that he's at least two grades younger than my brother. That puts his maximum age at about 18 or 19. It really hit me, perhaps one of the saddest realizations I've experienced. And it's not that his family's staying there; he's all by himself. This is a "kid" I have had several longer conversations with in my past. For some reason, the two of us sort of hit it off at least one summer, if not more (let's face it—I was rarely the popular counselor or staff member, so I tend to remember those few kids I made connections with). When I talked to him the other night, it appeared that he may not even remember Camp Mennoscah, and he went there when he was somewhere in the age range of 7th-10th grades, for more than one year. I can't even imagine what's gone on in his life between then and now; he seemed so incoherent and scattered. That night, I felt the saddest I've felt in a while.

An unintended byproduct of controversy

What's interesting about the recent controversy surrounding James Frey and his book A Million Little Pieces is that it's getting such widespread publicity that even more people will now want to read it, if for no other reason than out of curiosity. I know I'm curious.

Some people should just quit airing their opinions

From Hugo Chavez to Ariel Sharon, no one escapes the criticism of Pat Robertson.

If links have expired, please see full texts at Robertson vs. Chavez and Robertson vs. Sharon