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You may remember the tag line of a popular ad campaign: “This is NOT your father’s Oldsmobile.” The company was trying to reinvent its image, to shake the automaker’s reputation as a stodgy businessman’s car company, and recast it as a home of sleek design for hip young people. Whether it was successful or not, it was useful as a reminder that nothing is static anymore; some aspects of an issue remain the same, while others are constantly changing. A famous 1970s book and film, Alvin Toffler’s “Future Shock,” hammered this home for my generation, stressing not only that some...

Spend five minutes listening to politicians and pundits talk about countries like Iran and North Korea, and you walk away thinking the world is a scary place. But politicians have agendas, and pundits want viewers. They aren't always the most reliable sources, but they're usually the loudest, which is why you probably believe that ... Read more: 6 B.S. Myths You Probably Believe About America's 'Enemies' | Cracked.com http://www.cracked.com/article_19461_6-b.s.-myths-you-probably-believe-about-americas-enemies.html#ixzz1aR3SbSp2

Spinning Out of Control By Norma Zager “There Is A Voice Inside Of You
 That Whispers All Day Long,
 ‘I Feel That This Is Right For Me,
 I Know That This Is Wrong.’
 No Teacher, Preacher, Parent, Friend
 Or Wise Man Can Decide
 What's Right For You—Just Listen To
 The Voice That Speaks Inside.” Shel Silverstein There is always an abundance of political rhetoric before an election. Spin doctors are practically churning themselves into butter trying to take a president’s negatives and convince a disgruntled public they are actually positives, they just don’t see things clearly. It seems American voters...

A government report was released this week, at the following link. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60J37V20100121?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&rpc=22&sp=true It details how the Government will generate 20% of all the electrical power for the Eastern half of the US from Wind power, mostly from towers constructed offshore along the Eastern seaboard coastline. The Government will put in $90 Billion towards the project. Do the figures really stack up, and can something of this scale actually be achieved? Not likely.

Not even the NYT can avoid reporting that on the last trading day in October, the Dow Jones dropped like it was pole-axed, completely erasing yesterday's 2% gain, while other financial indexes posted a monthly loss for the first time in 7 months. Consumers still seem skittish despite news the Economy grew by 3.5% in the 3rd quarter. How can we grow like that and still have major issues with the Economy?

For the first time, Governor Kathleen Blanco has responded to those Hurricane Katrina e-mails and documents her office has turned over to Congress and the media. They detail, in some cases, minute-by-minute staff decisions, and some of those e-mails talk about how the governor should dress and ways to make her look more commanding. The governor was forceful Wednesday when addressing those documents and didn't mince words. Working with our colleagues in New Orleans, 9 News asked her about whether she was embarrassed at an apparent focus during a crisis on how to improve her image. She told us...

Political spin is as old as politics, and it is tempting to view the Campaign ’04 version as nothing more than an update of the same old, same old. Ask a dozen reporters about this campaign season and you’ll hear a dozen variations on recurrent themes: the campaigns are dishonest, the attacks and counterattacks fly nonstop, the wash of information dumped on the press is bewildering. Such assessments, though, miss a crucial new development: President Bush, Senator Kerry, and their operatives are deliberately using a cynical combination of calculated deception, speed, and volume to exploit the press’s reluctance to call...