Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Commercials on TV
As a reasonably well-educated man who has lived and observed life for several decades, I am puzzled. What puzzles me is the thinking behind many of today's television commercials. The ones that annoy me the most are those that tell some alleged memorable or supposedly amusing story but that have little or no relation to the product they are selling. Even if I get or appreciate the vignette or story, what makes the creators of these commercials think I will transfer those warm and fuzzy feelings to their product? Or that I will even mentally connect the point of the commercial to their product,their company? "Ah yes, I just love that commercial about the dancing squirrels. But what are they selling?"
Monday, December 5, 2011
Analogies to describe Republican schemes
For various reasons I have taken most of this past semester off from Blogging. I'm not positive I want to dive back into the deep end of the pool. But we'll dabble a little during this "downtime" and see how it goes.
I've been puzzled by the way the media and the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress have avoided challenging Republicans on some rather outlandish demands they have made every since they retook the House of Representatives a year ago and retain their stranglehold on the Senate by using Senate rules to insist on super majorities in that chamber. It got me thinking if I could find analogies that would highlight this in different ways. Here's the first effort.
1. Analogy: for those who signed onto Grover Norquist’s “Pledge”.
It’s like the Republican football team takes the field and at the coin toss declares to the referees (media?) that they will only play if everyone agrees that their end of the field, from the 30 yr. line, through the “Red Zone” and their goal line and end zone are all off-limits. They wish to play only from the 30 yr. line to the other end of the field. On any occasion where play penetrates their imaginary new goal, even though it’s not the actual goalline, they will leave the playing field (mostly by invoking Senate filibusters and “super-majority” requirements) until the situation is rectified.
What’s incredible is that the opposing team (Democrats) would agree to continue playing, to give in to these demands.
I've been puzzled by the way the media and the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress have avoided challenging Republicans on some rather outlandish demands they have made every since they retook the House of Representatives a year ago and retain their stranglehold on the Senate by using Senate rules to insist on super majorities in that chamber. It got me thinking if I could find analogies that would highlight this in different ways. Here's the first effort.
1. Analogy: for those who signed onto Grover Norquist’s “Pledge”.
It’s like the Republican football team takes the field and at the coin toss declares to the referees (media?) that they will only play if everyone agrees that their end of the field, from the 30 yr. line, through the “Red Zone” and their goal line and end zone are all off-limits. They wish to play only from the 30 yr. line to the other end of the field. On any occasion where play penetrates their imaginary new goal, even though it’s not the actual goalline, they will leave the playing field (mostly by invoking Senate filibusters and “super-majority” requirements) until the situation is rectified.
What’s incredible is that the opposing team (Democrats) would agree to continue playing, to give in to these demands.
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