Wednesday, May 27, 2015

New Jersey Plays Where's Waldo with Chris Christie

Our wandering Governor is AWOL again for the month of June, being everywhere but there for New Jersey residents. Check out the Washington Post update of our out-of-state governor.   We could post Where's Christie everyday and let the residents who elected this guy take guesses on where he's at.

The line up for his June travels
June 2nd he starts a nice little va-ca with Gov. Rick Scott. You know, the one who's pushing to restrict women's rights regarding abortion? Probably a good fit since one of the first things Christie did when he took office was to cut funding to Planned Parenthood and family planning clinics. (Clinics closed in the poorest part of the state.) So, lets watch him buddy up with Scott who thinks he knows the vagina better than those who own one.

Next Christie is off to New Hampshire for a "Tell it like it is" event. Very funny Mr Christie. While you're telling it like it is, can you tell us what happened to the Sandy funds?

Then he has to hit Iowa up because...well, you know...he has to win Iowa or he loses his chance as the contender in the big race. It's why, even though 90% of New Jersey is against gestation crates for pigs, Christie voted for them. He couldn't do that to the Iowa farmers. Wait! Whose Governor is he? Sometimes it's hard to figure who he's working for...maybe, himself? No one explains it better than Jon Stewart. 

Then it's back to New Jersey? No, Christie goes to Utah to play with Mitt Romney and the other GOPpers because what the heck would he do in New Jersey anyway? Govern? Help the victims of Sandy who are still not in their homes? Maybe do something about rising taxes? Education? Pension problems?

I guess the GOP is paying for these travels, but I really want to know if they're picking up the room and board for all the State Troopers who have to tag along? Anyone know?

So, there's the line up for the Where's Christie in June show.... Who needs Where's Waldo when we have a wandering Governor?

Saturday, May 23, 2015

Gay Marriage and Irish Pride

Ireland voted, by a wide margin to legalize gay marriage. Yay! So proud to be Irish today.

If Only Irish TTo tell the truth I was a little worried about this vote. There is a big prevalence of Catholics in Ireland and a lot of people use their religion as an excuse to hate things they really have no business forming an opinion about. So the fact that there was such a big margin of "yes" votes on the emerald isle  makes me believe that Ireland is much more progressive than half the states in the U.S.A.

Why should anyone who's not gay care about, or make laws about, gay marriage? Maybe this point of view comes from growing up in America where it's drummed into our heads that we live in the "land of the free." I always understood that meant free without judgement or religious persecution. America was founded on religious freedom and its only when people who claim to be God-fearing disagree about a subject that we need to make it a law. Do we really need to go back in history when bigots frowned upon interracial marriage? Living together without marriage? Women's voting rights?  Now these things are no big deal. Love is love and if two adults want to live happily ever after that's really a good thing. Wasn't Jesus all about love?

Ireland? When I think about how this whole country could make Gay Marriage  a law I wonder why the USA hasn't done this yet? Instead we go state by state infringing on a basic human right. The right to love and share your life with whomever you please.

Go Ireland! You made me proud.


Monday, May 18, 2015

Monday, May 11, 2015

Smoking & Marketing

One thing to remember about marketing anything is the target audience. Who's the customer?

Dear American Cancer Society,

When you're trying to convince young people not to smoke, leave out the old people. No teenager or twenty-something is going to ever think they'll be that old or that sick. You're not scaring them. They just don't relate

Come on, tell me the truth. When you were 19 or 20 would you really think of what you'd be like at 50, 60, or beyond? Or were you thinking about hot guys (or girls), fashion, the next place to go on Friday night?

So there's our target. Creatures who care about meeting new people and where to go next. How do we target them? Bring it down to their level. What are the negatives of smoking that they might fear? How about this?
Young people care about being appealing to others in their peer group. Reminding them that they'll smell like an ashtray if they smoke, might go further than showing them an old person wheezing. 

Here's three ways to reach them ~

Scene One; Give them the dynamics of two young people taking;

Cute boy & girl talking. Girl says goodbye and walks away. Cute boy's friend walks up. 
Friend; Hey! She's hot. You ask her out?
Cute boy: Naw, she smells like an ashtray. 
They both scrunch up their nose like they smell something bad and walk away. 

Scene Two; 
Boy and girl kiss as they pull apart girl says; "Oh, you're a smoker." and backs away covering her mouth. Look of disgust on her face. 

Scene Three; 
Two cute guys or girls discussing kissing. 
1st person; Ever kiss a smoker?
2nd person: Yeah, it's kind of like kissing an ash tray. 
1st person: Gag!
Both laugh and make gagging, vomiting noises. 
Voice over; Don't be the ash tray, quit today.

There ya go! Three commercials that will grab their attention and let them relate. Bottom line; Make smoking unpleasant to their peers and you'll hit a nerve. 


Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Christie, Wildstein, & that Forgotten Court Case

In January 2014, a civil action suit was brought against Chris Christie, Bridget Kelly, David Wildstein, Baroni, Stepien, Drewniak for the traffic tie up caused by closing 3 lanes on that infamous bridge into/out of Fort Lee. It seeks damages for residents and business owners.

Brings to light the fact that a lot of businesses were affected when traffic snarled all over Fort Lee. If the roads were clogged, people couldn't get to work, couldn't go shopping, couldn't take the kids out after school...if they could even get to school through all the traffic. Four days of this, almost a week, can be a really big financial detriment to the shops and businesses. I have to wonder how long it took them to recover?

According to the lawyer for the residents, Wildstein and Kelly never responded to the complaint and so could be found in default.

The other's named in the suit did respond. They asked for a dismissal. I'm guessing that's just what lawyers do, try to get stuff dismissed. Would that be possible? So many emails go back and forth between these political appointee mobsters that the evidence is kind of overwhelming. If you read Wildstein's indictment you see a lot of back and forth between the major players and some of it was kinda nasty. If this gets dismissed, there is something seriously wrong with our justice system.

Let's see...they used a bogus traffic study to hurt a mayor because he wouldn't come out publicly to endorse Christie. When did bullies take over Trenton?
Oh wait! Christie was elected in 2009? That's when the bullies took over.
How embarrassing for New Jersey....