A Director Speaks...

For those who put little stock in the criticism about outside contractors in Iraq, linked is a portion of a filmmaker's testimony to Congress about the insane war profiteering going on in Iraq at taxpayer expense.

It's sickening.

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/51719/

From the statement: "Cost-plus and no-bid contracts are hopelessly undermining our efforts and costing the taxpayers billions. They do not operate within a free-market system and have no competition, but instead create a Stalinist system of rewarding cronies. In a letter from Sgt. Jon Lacore talking about the enormous amount of waste, he said, 'I just can't believe that no one at all is going to jail for this or even being fired or forced to resign.' "

Who's ultimately responsible for this? The Commander-in-Chief.

Anheuser-Busch Still Doesn't Get It

In a market dominated, unfortunately, by bland beers churned out by corporate monoliths, the big fella in St. Louis is trying to put out some better beer. Well, sort of.

As the Post-Dispatch reports today, A-B is going to kick it "old school" with one of its signature brands, Michelob.

Link: http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/business/stories.nsf/story/B29E9DAD87C0AC058625727C00135AFF?OpenDocument

I like that Michelob is going back to its signature bottle, but the reporter describes it curiously as a "teardrop" design. Huh? If anything, the bottle always reminded me of Mae West, and that's a good thing (Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mae_West). Besides some exceptional females, men still mostly drink "Michelob heavy," so the move to the old curvaceous bottle makes sense.

The Atkins-induced Michelob Ultra is a subject for different rant though.

Taking Michelob back to all malted barley is a move I applaud, but will this really make a dent in the craft brewers' rising market share? Part of the reason people drink Red Hook or Sierra Nevada or Pete's Wicked or Schlafly or Boulevard is that those beers have so much more flavor and body than the industrial brews.

Michelob will certainly have more body with all barley malt, but if the hops quotient and quality is not revised, it'll just be an industrial brew with a bigger body and simplistic flavor. It's not a revamping of Michelob as the article asserts; it's a feeble change to a beer that's not doing well.

Cool bottle though.

Hillary Clinton = Sarah Silverman

Below are links are two articles that talk about people's perceptions/reactions to Hillary and how women comedians, such as Sarah Silverman, create such harsh reactions from certain audience members.

"Harpy, Hero, Heretic: Hillary" by Jack Hitt
Link: http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2007/01/harpy_hero_heretic_hillary.html

"Are Women Allowed To Be Funny?" by Gloria Goodale
Link: http://www.alternet.org/stories/47657/

Hitt does an interesting job of discussing how we all have our own versions of who we think Hillary is or what she represents. To use the author's categories, I think she's a hybrid of Dianne Feinstein and Lisa Simpson, which I why I like her at times and am also revolted/exasperated by her from time to time. Of course, as Hitt asserts, the fact that she's a woman does play a serious factor, whether you're willing to admit it or not.

Likewise, people's nasty reactions to Silverman's brand of raunchy yet thought-provoking humor reveals that we still have this conception that women should be "lady-like." I don't think she's much different than Dave Chappelle in her type of humor and gags, but she's a white woman. There's the rub.

"Pick Your Poison"

In a world where ExxonMobil is willing to pay scientists and pseudo-scientists serious money (allegedly 10K a "researcher") to help criticize or raise skepticism about global warming, which contrasts to past global warming skeptics like Bob Inglis (R-S.C.), Pat Robertson, Frank Luntz, and Gregg Easterbrook finally waking the hell up about the effects of global warming, this link provides some advice on where to buy your gas.

Link: http://sierraclub.org/sierra/pickyourpoison/

As you can see, BP, Sunoco, or Shell are your best bets. Sunoco is the only American company.

Where you spend your gas money is a political statement.

Garbage to Energy: A Not So Modest Proposal

As this article in today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch shows, one corporation in the area has put forth a wonderful proposal on how to compete vs. Laclede Gas in Maryland Heights.

Link: http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/business/stories.nsf/story/EEECD8F117BB34C5862572730010DC4F?OpenDocument

This is a good example of businesses (Weber is one of 423 projects across the nation) taking advantage of natural processes for profit: taking something that we produce a lot of (garbage) and turning it into something we use a lot of (energy).

Huzzah.

Addendum on Global Warming

If you missed it (dated Jan. 3), here's an important statment by the Union of Concerned Scientists about the disinformation campaign about global warming waged by the oil industry, in particular ExxonMobil.

The link is to a short article, but you can also read the UCS's full report through subsequent links.

Link: http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/ExxonMobil-GlobalWarming-tobacco.html

An Interesting Analysis of Last Night's Speech

A fascinating and sometimes snarky analysis..."The Semantic State of the Union."

Link: http://webtools.uiuc.edu/blog/view?blogId=25&topicId=504&count=1&ACTION=VIEW_TOPIC_DIALOGS&skinId=286

As expected, the president only addressed global climate change once, with the statement that "These technologies will help us become better stewards of the environment -- and they will help us to confront the serious challenge of global climate change." The US needs to address climate change supported by something more than a belief that technology will be our savior, the belief that technology will save us from the fact that most Americans are not strong stewards of the the environment because they are neither financially nor ethically compelled to be so. Fundamentally changing how we produce and use energy is needed.

His mention of raising CAFE standards is long overdue, say two decades overdue in fact, and part of the reason for that is because of the influence of American automakers, who have been soundly thumped by Japanese manufacturers for years. I support raising CAFE standards and strongly funding R&D of cellulosic ethanol, but changing the status quo in regard to smokestack pollution and energy plants is necessary.

And it's obvious that this administration doesn't want to harness market forces to reduce and regulate CO2 emissions. On Monday, a coalition of business leaders and environmental groups called upon the administration to address climate change in a comprehensive manner. Link: http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=12078

While Bush's speech had a few good but vague energy policy ideas on the surface, he's pretty much "staying the course" on the global warming and true change about our country's energy policies. From my eyes, the speech in this regard was mostly hokum and rhetorical gladhanding. But maybe Bush's lapdog Blair can introduce him to Sir Nicholas Stern and some change can come about?

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6096084.stm

This Super Bowl should be renamed...

The Fragile Psyche Bowl: Manning vs. Grossman.

Although I'm an SEC fan, I rooted for both the 'Aints and the Pats today. The people of Nawlens needed that win, and I've been tired of Peyton Manning's histronics since he played for the Tennessee Viles.

Add the Manning lovefest that ESPN regularly pumped out or still churns out (repeated shots of Archie at Ole Miss games, NFL experts' man-crushes on Peyton) and add Peyton's overexposure via the relentless barrage of those damn commercials, and I'm pulling for the embattled Gator in this bout. And Chicago is by far a better city than Indy. No contest there.

Chicago wins.

Peyton never could beat a Gator. Just ask Spurrier.