I’m Back

Howdy, y’all.  Don’t know bout you, but it’s been pretty dang hot everywhere I’ve been this summer.  Definitely glad God gave someone the smarts enough to invent A/C.  Know it’s been a few weeks, but have been a little busy and haven’t really had anything just felt the need to talk about.  Now I’m all rested and recharged. Got a few things on my mind this week so here we go:

• Travelled out to Summerlin, NV last week.  Trip was great until got ready to fly home.  They loaded us on the plane then decided to fill the empty seats.  Trouble was, the computer was broken down so they had to fill the empty seats by hand.  As a result, we were 45 minutes late leaving the gate.  Now, besides the fact it was 116 outside, what’s really aggravating is they held up a plane with about 300 folks already on board just so they could put 10-15 more folks on it.  This resulted in about half of us missing our connecting flights in Atlanta, and seeing as how we got to ATL after 11 pm, there were no other flights until the morning.  Did I mention they were also out of hotel rooms and most of the restaurants were closed?  So, they inconvenienced about 150 people for the sake of 10-15 people.  Wonder how they thought that was providing good customer service?  And they wonder why people get are so angry at the airline industry all the time;
• Best part of my trip was getting to meet fishing legend Bill Dance.  He was on my flight out to Nevada.  He’s every bit the nice guy you see on TV.  If you know who he is, you know he always wears a University of Tennessee ball cap.  He had it on and even had one attached to his brief case for some reason.  Have watched his show since I was a kid.  It was a real thrill to meet him even though it took me a long time to build up the courage to talk to him; 

                                                   

• Went to Gulf Shores, AL, a couple weeks ago.  Great time to go.  Hardly anyone on the beaches, free parking everywhere you went, and a short wait at Lambert’s.  Media reports of the oil are greatly exaggerated (imagine that).  There was some oil there but it was just a thin coat.  You would think there was oil about a foot deep the way the media’s been carrying on.  If you enjoy the beach, but not so much the water, you can still enjoy yourself.  Many rooms have reduced rates right now, too.        
• Speaking of oil and the media, the local news in Mobile started each night with about 10 minutes of oil coverage.  One station even had “breaking news” about every hour just in case you somehow forgot the oil was still out there.  Think the worst story I saw was a 5 minute piece on a dead turtle found in the Intercoastal Waterway.  At the end of the piece, they quickly mumbled something about no one knows if it’s death was related to the oil or not.  Good grief.  Talk about stretching for a news story.  But, now that the oil has apparently been capped, the media will be able to focus on something new now…I hope.  Love how President Obama took 42 days to address the nation while the oil was still flowing, but it took him less than 24 hours to speak out after it had been capped.  Just sayin’…;
• Mid-term elections are coming up.  Wonder how many Dems will continue with the “It’s-all-Bush’s-fault” theme?  Pretty sad that’s all they really have to fall back on after two years.  Think the biggest disappointment to folks is the perceived lack of jobs being created as a result of the big stimulus package which was passed last year.  Part of me wonders if the jobs are out there but they aren’t the ones people want.  When the New Deal was passed, it created blue collar jobs.  Nowadays, folks want to tell others how and where to dig the ditches instead of using the shovel themselves.  Would think it’s hard to create white collar jobs out of nowhere.  But, the perception is out there that the Dems are more interested in handing out unemployment checks than creating jobs.  Americans always talk about being free.  Have to wonder how much freedom we are giving up when we always have our hands out to the government looking for our “free money?”  Got news for you, Folks, ain’t no such thing as free money.  Now, there are always some folks who actually need a helping hand.  Ain’t talking ‘bout them.  Talking about those folks who can be independent but choose not to.  And, in my mind, every time you take a handout from the government or give up a freedom to the government, you are becoming less independent.  Maybe I’m wrong, though;
• Anyone else watching Big Brother this summer?  Pretty funny they had this big “twist” all planned out by having someone play the part of a saboteur.  Bad thing was they were voted out the first week.  What’s even funnier is only one person even had a notion as to who the saboteur was, but the whole group took credit for getting them voted out.  Hmmm, folks taking credit for blind luck.  Sounds like a bunch of politicians, don’t they?  These House Guests are just about as interesting, too.  We have Showtime 2 now and get to watch Big Brother After Dark this year.  They haven’t really been all that interesting during the times we’ve sat down to watch them.  Almost like watching C-SPAN.  Hours of mindless blathering with a few good nuggets thrown in every now and then.  But, still feel the need to watch although I don’t know why…;
• Last week’s Deadliest Catch was the episode where Captain Phil passed on.  Thought the production team handled it about as well as they could.  Definitely proved why they’ve made this show as good as it is.  Have said it before, but it’s hard to believe how empty people have felt for a guy (and his family) they’ve never met in person.  Another sign of a great production team cause they’ve managed to let the real guy through without any embellishments.  Hope you’ve pulling up lots of full pots in Heaven, Capt Phil;
• Well, another real American icon passed last week, Mr. George Steinbrenner.  Whether you loved him or hated him, have to admit he changed the game of baseball forever.  And, you might not have liked his tactics, but he was an owner who was all about winning.  Too many owners out there nowadays who only care about the bottom line.  Mr. Steinbrenner also inspired one of the greatest comedy characters of all-time on Seinfeld.  RIP, Big Guy…

Hope everyone is doing well out there.  Appreciate you taking a few moments out of your day to read my thoughts.

Y’all have a good one!

My Take

Been some folks having bad PR weeks lately.  Also been a few with some good PR.  Am feeling the need to comment on a few of both.  So, if you’re ready, proceed at the risk of your own intellect:

Some of the folks gettin’ some bad PR lately:

• President Obama – Between recent losses by his political allies, a couple of candidates saying he basically tried to bribe them to drop out of the races and the whole BP mess, he’s had some rough weeks here lately.  Some of it’s not his fault.  Ruling parties traditionally lose seats with each progressive election after they take the White House.  Promising people jobs if they’ll drop out of races, if he did have anything to do with them, is something he could have totally avoided.  Not sure what I think about the whole BP situation.  On the one hand, people talk about how government is getting too involved in things.  Then, folks complain when they don’t.  Have said before think this fell under federal jurisdiction so maybe they should have done something earlier.  At the very least, Mr. President shouldn’t have waited 40+ days to say this whole thing makes him mad.  Not sure what else he could have done differently, but, sometimes a leader has to look like he’s doing something even if he ain’t or it won’t do any good.  I have a bigger beef with the folks who keep blaming everything on W. Bush.  Nancy Pelosi even tried to blame this whole mess on Bush being cozy with the oil companies.  Guess she didn’t know they are one of Obama’s biggest contributors, too.  Bush has been gone for almost 2 years now.  Time to stop blaming him for all your shortfalls;
• BP – Now, they’ve had some real bad PR for the last 40+ days and deservedly so.  What happened to that rig and the resulting spill have been real tragedies.  Eleven men were killed and lots of sea life is either dying or will be.  Think some of the bad stuff being said about them is going a little overboard, though.  People talking about how BP don’t care about cleaning things up, saving the environment, won’t pay for anything, etc.  That’s just a bunch of hooey!  They’ve been trying everything they can since Day 1 to solve this mess and keep the oil from leaking out.  Ain’t a company in the world that would intentionally want this kind of PR.  They haven’t tried to shirk any of their responsibility in this.  In fact, they are already handing out money to folks on the Gulf Coast who’ve lost jobs cuz of this whole mess.  And, to all of you thinking about boycotting BP cuz of this, how bout waiting until the clean-up is over.  If you stop buying from ‘em now, they might run out of money to take care of all this.  Contrary to what some folks may think, only the government can create money out of nothing.  Businesses can only get it from their customers.  Can’t blame you for being mad at BP.  Just want to give you something to think about.  And, no, don’t own any BP stock that I know of;
• Israel – Not really sure what they were thinking raiding that flotilla.  Obama’s getting some flak over this, too, cuz he won’t make a strong statement against Israel on this.  Actually think he’s doing the smart thing and waiting until more information comes out.  The natural knee-jerk reaction would be to say the Israelis are completely in the wrong on this one.  Have something telling me there’s more than meets the eye to this story.  They either had some bad intelligence or the whole story ain’t been told, yet.  Maybe they were in the wrong.  Don’t know.  Reckon there’ll be a lot more coming out on this before it’s all said and done;
• Helen Thomas – Case you don’t know who she is, she’s a reporter who’s been in the White House press corps since Washington was president.  She was asked what she thought about Israel and she said they should all go back to “Poland…or Germany…or wherever they came from.”  Saw the You Tube clip myself on Twitter.  Maybe she should read the Bible a every now and then to learn where the Israelites come from.  Anyway, conservative pundits have jumped all over this saying it shows how daft the liberal media is.  Personally, not sure why this is even a story.  She may be a role model for a lot of reporters, but imagine most regular folks could care less what she says or thinks.  Besides, thought she retired several years ago.  Reckon it’s time for her to go back to the old hack reporters’ home;
• Baseball Commissioner/Umpires – There was already some nyah-nyahing going on cuz some of the umps have had hair-triggers on ejecting people this year.  Then, the whole mess with the perfect game that wasn’t cuz of a bad call by the umpire came along.  Have to give the ump credit for admitting he made a bad call after he watched it on replay.  Even went over to the Tiger locker room to apologize.  Not many people would have done that.  Think the worst thing in this whole mess is Commissioner Selig still insisting baseball won’t join the 21st Century and have instant replay apply to something other than questionable home runs.  Was agin it myself for a long time but am slowly coming around to they need to get it right.  Come on, Baseball, get in the game!

Now for some folks who’ve had some good PR here lately:

• Armando Galarraga – In case you don’t know, he’s the pitcher who lost the perfect game cuz of the bad call.  He’s handled this whole situation with a level of class that you wish more people would.  He didn’t argue at all with the umpire about the call, not even in the heat of the moment.  Just smiled, shook his head, and walked back to the mound.  He accepted the ump’s apology by giving him a hug and telling him it’s OK.  You should use him as an example to your kids how people should react to adversity.  Like my wife said on Facebook, people are going to remember him more cuz of the way he reacted to not getting the perfect game than they would have if the call had been correct.  Keep up the great work, Armando!;
• NHL – The Stanley Cup finals have been great this year!  In fact, the entire playoff season has been great.  If you want to see exciting games between two evenly-matched teams with players who go all out on every play, this series is for you.  Been lots of scoring and even more hard hitting.  Glad the refs let them play in the finals.  NBC and Vs. have done a great job covering them, too.
• Dennis Hopper – Hard to say someone who just died is having a good week.  But, there’s been lots of nice things said about him since his passing.  He was one of my all-time favorite actors.  He played a lot of roles, but my favorite was the photographer in Apocalypse Now.  The most surprising thing I read was that he considered himself a Republican.  This is the man who wrote Easy Rider, one of the ultimate anti-establishment movies.  Go figure.  Him doing those retirement fund ads makes a lot more sense to me after reading that.  Rest in peace, Mr. Hopper! 

All I got this time.  Made it to 47 miles running last month.  Not quite to my goal of 50 but I’ll take it.  Hit my 2,000th tweet over the weekend.  Didn’t take as long as I thought it would.  My Twitter name is @scotps23.  Approaching 150 followers now and always looking for more.

And that’s the news that is the news the way I see it.  Y’all have a good one!