Your Superbowl Ad Sucked—A Public Service Announcement

 Ads have been called the artform of the 21st Century. They can be artful if not art and The Superbowl used to be the SB of ads too. They used to be funny, daring or visually stunning. "Did you see the one with..." or "How did they talk the client into ..." were standard postgame water cooler fare. They used to be a celebration of unbounded creativity, of the big dog let off the leash for one glorious run around the stadium.

Every year the bar would get higher and those of us in advertising and marketing awaited the Big Game Spots with the eagerness of kids at Christmas. There was always one ad with an incredible concept backed by stunning production values that blew everybody away. It was a point of pride that we could share with our civilian friends and family. We could point to the screen and say, see, this is what I'm talking about. This year we all got coal.

Clients, it seem have become more conservative and so have their agencies. In their effort not to offend, they've failed to entertain or innovate. Microsoft runs the same chirpy ads, the same-ish interchangeable jiggly blonde works it for Carl's Junior, the boldest moves were reserved for Budweiser who poked millennial beer snobs (so risky) and Nationwide who cheerily reminded us that death is an important part of life (insurance).

A PSA from creatives, for creatives, a reminder that in Superbowl 2015, the most exciting part of the game, was the game. So be it. Like they're saying in Seattle, there's always next year. And for those of us who've forgotten what shocking, funny and creative look like all bundled together, there's this little gem for a product most Americans will never see or use. But I'm tempted to sign on, just because their ad is so good. Isn't that the point?

Watch it, but maybe not with your boss looking over your shoulder.

Cosby karma is a bitch

Karma is a bitch, they say. As early as the mid '80's I'd heard through the Temple production network that the studiously folksy Dr. Pudding Pop, though the most famous supporter of my alma mater, was a bitch to work with, that he treated crewpeople like dirt. Later, I recall one or two whispered allegations of sexual misconduct, but at the time, it was common to dismiss them as conservative dirt—the bigoted stereotyping of African American men as sex-crazed. The video crews’ reports I didn’t dismiss. I know these folks and if they said, with a sad shake of the head, that America's favorite TV dad is a raging asshole off-camera, then I believed them.

Flash forward 20 years and he becomes the darling of the conservative set for his "calling out" of black social values. I must admit that I listened with interest to one of his screeds until I came to the part of him slamming people with Africanized names. I said, whoa, hold the fort, Heathcliff, I know lots of good people with names like the ones he was insulting. Who is he to judge my friends or their children for something as personal as their names? Does his race or his success give him carte blanche to rail against people whose lives he doesn’t know?

Though I happen to agree with him about hip hop below groin level pants, guns, the social cost of having multiple children of multiple parentage and absent fathers, the name thing stopped me cold. I couldn’t listen anymore. And my opinion of the opinionator changed.The name thing revealed a lot of loathing, not even below the surface anymore.

So maybe the names are “made up” and so what? Five generations ago there weren’t any Cosbys or Bills in the village where Dr. Heathcliff Huxtable’s ancestors were kidnapped, chained and sold into slavery halfway around the world. The irony of Cosby’s Anglicized names and character’s names is too much, so “white,” but that’s even beside the point. A name, inherited or new to a family, even a made up name, misspelled or creatively spelled, is a point of pride. This is sacrosanct. Names are people. Names are identity and you don’t disparage identity unless you yourself are a bigot of the worst sort.

Ta-Nehisi Coates, a black journalist must have felt the sting of Cosby’s blanket disapproval. Coates is a talented Atlantic staffer whose conversational but layered writing style is always a good, sometimes a great read. So it must be terribly hard to look back on your work and question your own failure to address the painful disillusion that comes from seeing your heroes fall. Coates writes with true humility while Cosby's Huxtable humility is mugged and method act superficial. Reading this article, my estimation of Coates rises inversely as my estimation of Cosby falls.

So many heroes fall today. Practically, to a man, they all seem to fall/fail. Is it in the meanness of our social nature to tear down what we once put on a pedestal or does fault lie in the meanness and triviality of the elevation of celebrity? Cosby presented a (superficially) easy icon to raise up and a painful and difficult one to tear down. But tear down we must. While 12 allegations are not the same as a conviction, they are damningly consistent and sordid almost beyond belief.

Talk shows are dropping like flies, NBC and Netflix have cancelled comeback projects, but his disgrace is worse than that. Mr. Cosby now lives under a terrible, poisoned shadow that will follow him for the rest of his days. His loss of face is both cruel and just. There is no comeback from this. For the women he apparently victimized, this will have to serve. It is an incomplete justice that condemns our culture of celebrity as much as it condemns the predators who feel their elite status grants special dispensation for misanthropy and misogyny. Cosby is perhaps both types of devil. Though the social judgement brought down upon him is horrible, he deserves no pity. He is a self-made man.

Midlife Coursing and Cognitive Dissonance

A West coast friend of many decades, (same age as me) skyped me yesterday and among our mutual ruminations about what the future holds for us, she advised me to identify and follow my passion. That’s easy, I told her. Lately my passion has been education reform and tonight, it paid off for our school.

"The SRC also voted to renew three schools' charters. Two - Planet Abacus and Laboratory Charter - are strong academic performers whose renewals had been held up because their founder, Dorothy June Brown, was on trial on federal fraud charges.

Brown was acquitted on six counts and will be retried on 54, but officials were satisfied that both schools had met several conditions, including severing ties to Brown."

3D or not to D

I saw “Gravity” in 3D on Saturday night with one of my BFFs, having just seen it the night before with my son. How that came about was my perfectly boneheaded move after a long day’s work, click-buying too fast without reading the small print, aided by some less than stellar user navigation by Moviefone.com, but Spencer and I found ourselves headed to the 2D version of Alfonso Cuarón’s space opera, “Gravity” on Friday instead of the 3D version we really wanted to see.

Once I realized that the tickets were non-refundable, we each made our own flavor of lemonade if you catch the drift. Spencer, who is prone to vertigo, thought the 2D version might be safer and I told myself that this would be the perfect acid test of whether the film was worth seeing twice, simply to resolve whether Real 3D is integral to the storyline or just a gimmick.

To be sure, the film is stunning in standard format 2D. We thoroughly enjoyed it. But by the end of my viewing, I had no doubt I needed to see it again to test the question. When I asked my 13 year old if he felt the same way, he said he did, but I could tell from the lack of commitment in his voice that he didn’t really share the same zeal I did.

When All Around You Go Short, It Pays to Go Long

http://www.flickr.com/photos/donkeyhotey/

Democrats vilify Republicans as arithmetically-impaired, fundamentalist Randian social Darwinists. Republicans cast Democrats as godless, spendthrift, entitlement-sucking socialists. The extremes of both parties flame each other with such withering intensity that moderates are incinerated in the crossfire.

Independents went to the dance, kissed both boys, listened to their promises, but are playing coy as to which one (if either) they'll go home with. There's a very impolite word for that kind of date. I'm not going to use it, but do keep it in mind.

Independents are angry that the conventions offered them so little specificity and exact detail to make up their minds. What are they expecting? Paul Ryan found out just how draconian specifics can be when the fact-checker zombies come back to feast on his flesh. So has President Obama when he extemporaneously gotcha'ed himself in the "you didn't build this" line. Unpinch your nostrils my rabbity independent friends and inhale the partisan air. It may stink a bit, but it won't kill you. It is in fact, the best we have to breathe. A short guide to full bodied respiration follows ...

Is anybody surprised to learn that presidents don't dig ditches?

Presidents don’t perform “the mission” any more than Barack Obama pulled the trigger on Osama bin Laden.  But presidents DO make big things happen. They say go and Seal Team Six went. They are executive change agents. They paint with broad brushes, create mandates, which they hand over to the legislative, judicial and military branches to execute the details. That’s their jobs, even after they are on the job. That’s our system.

On the campaign trail or the Oval Office, the president is Preacher One. That’s our process. Expecting anything else is like asking for Christ to climb on the cross for a repeat performance. Human history, not just American history, offers poor job security for messiahs. We need to grow up, stop expecting them and definitely, we need to stop throwing them under the bus as soon as we grow the least bit impatient with their progress. We need to start thinking more longterm and allow history, economics and law to unfold in their own time. If we keep making midcourse corrections to molify the "election-deciding independents," if we keep jerking the rudder every two years, we’ll get nowhere anybody wants to be. 

Which is exactly where we are now. And it's all thanks to you.

Random Olympic closing observations

In no particular order:

Whether you found the opening and closing ceremonies quirkily entertaining or insufferably pompous and my FBF's already know where I stand, the Brits did an amazingly good job.

Brit pop music rocks. It has from the '60's when I was a kid and still does. Continue to invade at will, lads and lasses.

I don't know how they did from a budgeting/profit/loss standpoint, but they pulled the games off without Chinese overkill and with no major delays, no scandals, NO TERRORISM and all in one of the world's largest, busiest, most diverse cities. Well done, London!

This (or something like it) is what Mitt Romney should have said, but we already know he's no statesman or spokesman for American anything. Whatever he was asked when he made his infamous comment, he should have realized that his job wasn't to consult as a former Olympic organizer, but as an American dignitary. The hubris of the man. Epic fail on his part. Mr. PM and Mr. Mayor of London--well-said sirs!

The Dark Night of The Dark Knight

In answering critics who say that dark movies cause dark acts, movie industry apologists sound eerily similar to NRA apologists ....
by Rick Weiss (c) 2012 Trident Productions

As horrific as it is, the “The Dark Knight Rises” premiere massacre in Colorado is already fading from our “news-stream” mentality. Before it completely washes downstream, let’s throw a little keylight on two troubling, if related connections and see what we can learn from them, if anything.

We know from “Inception” that Chris Nolan can bend space and time and keep 4 or 5 different realities going simultaneously, but “The Dark Knight Rises” is even more ponderous, a kinda a big goofy allegorical soufflé. It rises, but falls flat soon after leaving the oven. Good girls and bad girls trade places with reality-defying aplomb. Batman is masked. Unmasked. Masked again. He needs to conquer his fear. He needs to learn to fear again. He's rich. He's poor. He's rich again. He's dead. Alive. Dead again, then alive again. The Scarecrow sits in judgment on the rich. The film’s best line is left to Catwoman:

"There's a storm coming, Mr. Wayne," she purrs. "You and your friends better batten down the hatches. Because when it hits, you're all going to wonder how you ever thought you could ever live so large and leave so little for the rest of us."

New Toy

Did I ask you for your love?

Did I ask you for your dedication?

I don't want, I don't want your love.

I don't want, I don't want your affection!


Dateline, June 31, 2004

8 years ago,
to the month, I plunked down good money ($1600) for the old desktop. Call it Big Blue Dell. Despite its long service, I don't really harbor any emotional attachment. People love and make love to their computers, mod them, endlessly customizing inside and out, imbue them with personalities—only to chuck them out too soon when the newest shiny box becomes available. But to a writer, a computer ideally, should just be a typewriter. Sure, a typewriter with endless time-squandering fingertip access to a world of knowledge and social engagement, but a typewriter nonetheless. Means to an end.

But when you're on your own, business-wise, your box is not just a toy—it's your work, your productivity, your revenue generator. And when you're on your own, you have to be your own IT and IT training department. So no, I'm not a tech, I don't program or solder, but I've learned a bit about everything. Even when I knew far less, every upgrade I opened my wallet for has to run this gauntlet:

1.    Is it going to make what I do easier, faster or better?
2.    Do I need it now?
3.    How soon can I afford it?

Most of my techno-fancies are felled by the first blow. Few survive all three. These are good rules. Abiding over all is the genetic predisposition to buy smart, agnostic and not very often. Modern technology and its advertising make this very difficult. Device manufacturers want you to buy early and often and that is how their advertising is geared. To build brand loyalty. When the bloom is off the rose and you want to find out how to keep older tech serviceable, well that requires some serious research skills.

I want a New Toy (oh ay oh), to keep my head expanding.
I want a New Toy (oh ay oh), nothing too demanding.
Then when everything is in roses, everything is static
Yeh my New Toy (oh ay oh), you'll find us in the attic.

Reflections of a Walker--Three Up, Three Down

Three up, three down. My after-dinner routine, 5-6 nights a week. We're talking the Rocky Steps, so roundtrip, that's 426 steps in all, not counting the long landings. I used to bring my music along, but lately, I go unplugged, to better hear what's in my head.

Steps are a metaphor for life. Steps are work done, effort expended, reward gained, new highs, interminable plateaus, repetition, repetition, religion, progress, process, meditation and more. From antiquity, we've climbed steps to seek absolution, gain power and worship gods.

These particular steps lead to Philadelphia's Art Museum, "the Parthenon of the Parkway," a temple to art. A quick, keylike turn around the fountain reveals the glittering city in expanse, at its feet. My neighborhood, Fairmount, predates the Museum's construction by a good two centuries. William Penn had originally planned to put his manor house here on the neighborhood's most prominent point. I am so spoiled, having six, now seven museums in a ten minute walk. Two of them are literally at my feet, across the street from my house.

This particular night, I did not veer across Pennsylvania Avenue, rather I stayed on it, skirting Mark di Suvero's "Iroquois," another of my favorite nightly visual markers, seen here photographed by Inquirer alumni and friend Eric Mencher. My evening peregrinations had another destination, the newest and most controversial of our "art temples," the home of the new Barnes Collection. My nocturnal crawl had become an "arts reconnaissance."

Much has been said about this building--not all of it complimentary, some of this naysaying dished by yours truly.  I called it second-class, dowdy and unworthy of its prominent place on the Parkway, Philadelphia's museum mile, which, did I mention, I am privileged to live at the crown of?

I compared The Barnes unfavorably with the Phoenix Museum of Art (same architects--Tod Williams and Billie Tsien) and wondered if it was something of an architectural slight on my people and place.  When I wrote my piece, an architect friend admonished me to keep a close eye and an open mind. So I did. I have watched The Barnes grow from a hole in the ground. Though I'm not entirely won over, lately a new notion has taken hold of me which I'm finding increasingly hard to shake.

I am not an architect or an architectural critic. But being a visual artist, living smack in the midst of a city where dramatic structures rise up with some regularity makes it hard to be neutral or ambivalent to your surroundings. You take sides. You form attachments. You walk the beat and research with your eyes, ears and feet. So, what I've been grappling with is the idea that perhaps The Barnes is not an architectural mediocrity after all. Quite possibly, it is a work of subtle and compelling genius.

It ain't necessarily so ... Political commentary

All I know is what I have words for.

– Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, 1953

Time Magazine called the Protestor "Person of the Year." The first New Yorker of 2012, on my desk today shows Old Man 2011 eying Newt prancing about as the 1994 baby. Already, given the peripatetic nature of the Republican race, the New Yorker cover is obsolete before its cover date. I'm afraid the Time cover is too.

It ain't necessarily so

The t'ings dat yo' li'ble

To read in de Bible,

It ain't necessarily so.

Perhaps it's fitting to revisit this George Gershwin composition that has been recorded by so many of the greats. Like most things Gershwin, it was really quite before it's time. This song's time is now. Even the statement "these are cynical times" sounds breathlessly naïve. These are way beyond cynical times. These are times I have no better words for. What's more cynical than cynicism? Fatalism. Both assume the worst of inputs. The latter affixes inevitability to outcomes. As much as I abhor predetermination, there's only so long you can drive along saying, it's a wall, up ahead, coming closer, it's a wall, it's a wall, before you smack into something.

Let's play history rematch. I re-pair Ronnie Reagan, the Teflon optimist and Jimmy Carter, the one term president who preached austerity, mano e mano 2011 and wonder whether Carter would have been so convincingly trounced. We've got your New American Century right here, Ron. How do you like it?

While our president gets to play hail the conquering heroes to soldier boys and girls on airbases and transport ships coming home from Iraq, worldclass skeptic Trudy Rubin writes how profoundly and non-partisanly we've failed that country and the region.  It doesn't take a skeptic to see that wherever in the world we (mis)adventure, we unerringly make the wrong moves.  It makes some of what libertarian skeptic Ron Paul says make sense. Not the John Bircher stuff, but the "we should keep to ourselves stuff."

Once we invaded Iraq was there ever any positive exit to be had? Whatever happens there next, civil war, Armageddon, Iranian puppet statehood, Muslim sects running after each other with power tools, etc. ... America's first and biggest folly was to ever go there and we should never forget this. For a writer, that's like starting a sentence with a period. I see a lot of revisionist media about Iraq and it sickens me. Not so much because of the disinformation fed our own people, but the false hope stirred up in the Iraqis. We have abandoned the few secular, progressive Iraqis we've encouraged in our short stint there. Once branded American sympathizers, their fates are double-sealed. They should notice that the American dream did not flower in Iraq and flee their country while they can. This sort of abandonment happens with some regularity. Ask the Kurds under Saddam.

In Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, et.al, we hail "the will of the people," the triumph of the protest movement over multi-decade dictatorships but worry about what has replaced them. In America, we automatically assume that our way is the best and brightest beacon the world has to offer.  I'm less convinced than ever that the world wants what we offer. I'm not even so sure we ourselves still want it.

We watched our Congress bring the economy to the brink over the deficit limit, watched in horror as Standard and Poors downgraded U.S. Bonds from AAA to AA+ and decided, as individual investors and en masse that it really didn't matter. Congress doesn't matter. The Tea Party doesn't matter. The OWS doesn't seem to matter.  None of the Republican candidates matter. They all surface briefly like blips on the radar, then fade into the murk. Why? Because they appeal to our craving for novelty more than our desire for hard work and lasting solutions.

What matters? I say this to the Republican presidential wannabees as I say it to the Democratic president I voted for. Failed. All failed. What makes you worthy of another chance? Unbelievably enough, I'm going to give you one if only because I'm not yet a fatalist, but a failed fatalist, I'm reluctantly willing to listen. But I know that you're lying to me. Your lips are moving I know you're telling me what you think I want to hear.

Never has cynicism seemed like such a requisite and important virtue.

Wadoo, zim bam boddle-oo,

Hoodle ah da wa da,

Scatty wah !

Oh yeah !...

It ain't necessarily so. Happy New Year.

In defense of the (revised) liberal education

"This is a tough time to graduate from college. While unemployment is high across the board, recent grads face a brutal 9.3% unemployment rate -- the highest that statistic has been for them since the Great Recession began. Worse yet, studies have shown that fewer than half of recent college students are finding jobs that relate to their majors, and just more than half felt their jobs made use of what they learned as undergrads."

I came across this article by DailyFinance.com's Bruce Watson, thanks to an FBF and it made me think about how much things have changed since I was a starry-eyed student.

The old saw when we didn't have gray hair was that college was less valuable for what you learned and more valuable that you "learned how to learn." As a grad of communications, back further than I care to say, the attrition rate was appallingly high. Maybe 1 in 10 still working in the field. The one thing I got right back in my youth was that "you really have to want it" and I did. And I do. So here I am, still working in a field that is every bit as tough as it was when I got out of school, if not tougher.

Naked Scarlett Johansson Pictures

This isn't about one middle-aged man's hopeless infatuation with the sexy Scarlett starlet. It's something scarier that you and the pretty and pretty smart young actress probably don't think about enough. Ms. Johannson sent some nudies to her then husband. In her own words, "Nothing wrong with that."

Despite about a billion drooling fanboys craving a better look, any look, she hasn't willingly shared all of her voluptuous curves with the global filmgoing public. Good for her. It should (have been) her decision to do it or not. She obviously has strong personal or business reasons for keeping the full-frontal stuff private. When you get to Ms. J's place in the world, your body is a commodity. Still, you're a person and you deserve to have your wishes respected. Or so you'd think..

And that's where she and you, if you feel the same way, are in error.
Some geek, with shockingly little effort got her password and is off to the races. Now, he's going to spend a lot of time in jail doing a less senstive version of the shower scene from "Midnight Express." Maybe that is some consolation to Ms. J and her well-wishers. But to me, it's a sad case of closing the barn door after the horse has bolted, run down the road and been sold to the glue factory by your evil neighbor.

I am not a network expert. But I know (and you know) that everything you see, send and do on the Internet is available if somebody is smart enough, motivated enough and puerile enough to make hacking you their business, be they government, divorce lawyer or pathetic fanboy.

People use their damned smartphones as cameras. People think of email the same way they thought of private letters. What Scarlett and the rest of the world seem to forget with shocking regularity is that every sext, every candid, every incriminating thing you write and send resides somewhere on some server that even the strongest password is only a pathetic bandaid on.

So what should Scarlett or you do if you want to share something sexy, provocative or incriminating with your paramour or fellow conspirator? Use a non-internet connected camera. Save the sexy private stuff for face-to-face. Keep in mind that the more public you are, the less private you are. And Scarlett, love, you are a smart, sexy and very talented woman. I respect you. But if and when you do decide to bare all for the camera, I'll be right in line with all the other pathetic fanboys. I don't care if you are reading a phone book.

OMG, did I really just put that out on the Net?

A Speechwriter's Contribution

Dear President Obama:

I am a working media and speech writer and though struggling in this economy, I am not in the habit of working for free. 

Nonetheless, please consider the following an act of civic contribution to your re-election campaign. I can't offer money I don't have, but I do have ideas and words aplenty. Some of them, I think, belong to you. They are yours for the taking. An attribution would be nice, but I'm not even insisting on that. If you use it, I'll know.

The title of this speech is: 

"Things I should have said and done"

Three years ago, I was elected to the most important chief executive position in the world. I, like others, thought of it as the most powerful position in the world, but experience has taught me otherwise. With a thousand thousand media spotlights turned on me and powerful forces bent against me, I have seen the failure of my best intentions and at times have felt powerless to stop this failure.

I don't feel that way now.

ARE WE NOT MEN -- Mainly on Masculinity, Learning and "Anti-Social" Media

Last month I spent a marvelous weekend in the company of two of my best friends and their sons. It was a multigenerational, manly weekend, full of beef, beer, boasting, boating and blasting the open road in my friend's Porsche 914.

Manly stuff, including long reminiscent and forward-looking conversations wherein we expressed fears, concerns, hopes for our boys. On the whole, they are like the children of Lake Woebegone, above average lads, and nearly all labor with some degree of academic challenge.


Two speakers at Ted Talks intelligently and eloquently spoke to "boy issues" in academia.



Psychologist Philip Zimbardo asks, "Why are boys struggling?" He shares some stats (lower graduation rates, greater worries about intimacy and relationships) and suggests a few reasons. He stops short of solutions. He tells the audience that it's their job. And no doubt it is – their job and ours.


So what the heck do we do?

Face to Face

A recent freewheeling FB chat I had with my brother who is a teacher in the Chicago Public School System on the subjects of privacy, "friending," "defriending," kids and personal technology and the up/downsides of all:

10:16pmMe
are you still home?

10:17pmGreg
yes if you mean Pgh.

10:17pmMe
just got K's msg about defriending ###### for Mom. I can't do that. Would need access to her account and pw to do that. So perhaps you can while there.

This is one area where Mom and I disagree, but she has the right to her own opinions and "friends"

10:18pmGreg
I can handle it...think I'll just hide ###  for her...that way #### won't hound her and won't know that she isn't seeing ####'s posts unless ### posts to her directly

10:19pmMe
I thought of that and while I'd advocate hiding too, I think if she looks at her friends list, then she'll know ### is still there.

10:19pmGreg
it's a more "polite" way to ignore
we already talked about that

chances are real good ### won't
talk to her any more on FB than #### does already

10:20pmMe
abso, as long as she agrees
I've spam foldered ##### already. The crap I get from her isn't even personal email.
Just lame and stupid jokes.
The last series of Obama "cartoons" are positively racist, some of them, so off to spam she goes.

10:21pmGreg
I haven't received a single post from ### --to me, since friending.

#### is no more a part of my life now than before FB
no surprise

10:23pmMe
I am one for maintaining congeniality. which fb is a great way to do
friendship/contact but without the sticky stuff.

10:24pmGreg
I am no more/less congenial...like I said, the connection is the same as before.
I think ###, like most "collects" friends...
something I am not interested in doing

I only have about 150 people
on my list
not several hundred

10:25pmMe
I've had marvelous time reconnecting with bricks and mortar friends, some from as many as 30 years ago.

10:25pmGreg
did that with 1-2 people
most are people I already am in steady contact with on a regular basis

10:26pmMe
had a great discussion with 10 people over a photo from the early 90's ITVA. Might even inspire a reunion. Social media at its best.

Don't string me up but ...

Big man for smaller government?

Okay, this might destroy my blue bonafides, but I kind of admire this guy. He's tough, plain-spoken and breathlessly un-demagogic. I'm just grateful for every conservative politician who isn't foaming at the mouth about stem cells, reproductive rights, religion or guns. Maybe my standards have been lowered, but we have a history of pragmatic and respected Republican pols in PA -- from John Heinz who was lionized by the common people in Democratic PGH to Arlen Specter to Tom Ridge. We have some flakes too (cough Santorum). Christie is not a flake. He's a straight-ahead fiscal conservative which the folks across the river arguably need right now to prevent fiscal collapse.

Some people slap the "bully" label on him. Christie has stated that he advocates "adversarial collective bargaining," which sounds like tough-guy talk until you realize it is the norm in the private sector. Ed Rendell engaged in it in PHL during his first term as mayor and he is a Dem. folk hero.

As much as I support unions and the right to collective bargaining, nobody says it should be easy. Christie's point that if you're a CEO and it's your money, you negotiate as if it counts, because it does -- it's your bottom line. However negotiating in the public sector means "other people's money" and it is far too easy to give away the candy store with no pain to self and a positive payoff in campaign contributions if you are seen as union-friendly.

We're hemorrhaging here and you can blame the evil bankers and you'd not hear me raise a squawk, but it's we middleclass folk who have to take the brunt of it and make it work. We always do. It sucks, but that doesn't make it less true. Want to have a bonfire and roast some derivatives traders. I'll be there with bells on. But we all suffer from the rich men's greed until we put a stop to it. Different issue.  

Back to Chris Christie and NJ politics. My younger (Republican) brother was the mayor of a small NJ borough. He was elected with impressive numbers after he donated about a year's worth of legal assistance to secure flood relief for the township. Toward the end of his term, he had the temerity to propose that the borough's police and fire merge with the larger borough that surrounded his smaller one. A recent NY Times article talks about this unique situation in NJ, where every little podunk town has its own emergency response system which means a lot of waste and redundancy. In my brother's case, the savings would have been in the millions to the tax base and the good people of his constituency rewarded his prudence by egging his house, leaving threatening messages on his home phone. Needless to say, they tried to recall him while still in office then rode him out on the rails in the next election.

I told him no good deed goes unpunished. I told him about favorable coverage of Christie in the Inky last year. He was genuinely shocked that a "mainstream liberal paper" (not my opinion, mind you) had anything nice to say about the new guv. Unspoken, was that his Democratic older brother would have a similar positive take. 

What we don't get in these polarized times is that the fact based respectful debate between fiscal conservatism and social activism is balanced and necessary. We should help the neediest of our population. And we should be able to pay for it. Nobody should be demonized for taking one side or the other, as long as they're working with facts instead of pandering to emotions.

Make me barf!

I'll tell you, I saw the Time mag cover "Obama (hearts) Reagan" and it made me want to hurl. Reagan was the trendsetter for everything that is wrong about today's Republican party. Ideology over principle. Show without substance. Teflon. Telling people what they want to hear instead of what we need to hear. Reagan trained up a new army of wingnuts who think patriotism means selfishly voting with their wallets and prayerbooks instead of what's good for the entire country. Reagan might as well have been Gordon "Greed is good" Gekko. So what is the best hope for leadership in this country doing embracing a such a demagogue? 

I'd be far happier if O embraced the fleshy, still very much alive Chris Christie. Then we could have a real discussion about what's gone wrong and how to fix it.

One more thing. PA Guv Tom Corbett is talking about emulating Chris Christie. You want to make "smaller government" I say fine. Start with the boondoggle that is Harrisburg where we have more state reps per unit of population than any other state than New Hampshire. If Corbett sent about half of those hillbilly nosepickers back to their one horse towns, even I'd vote for him. PA is proof that more representation is not better representation. See table below:

Population and State Legislative Size Population   Legislatures            State  In  2005  Population  Rank  Total  Size  Total  Rank*  Senate  Size  Senate  Rank*  House  Size  House  Rank*  Alabama  4,557,808  23  140   24   35  16  105  16  Alaska  663,661  47  60   39   20   25   40   30   Arizona  5,939,292  17  90  35  30  20  60  26  Arkansas  2,779,154  32  135  26  35  16  100  18  California  36,132,147  1  120  29  40  12  80  22  Colorado  4,665,177  22  100  34  35  16  65  25  Connecticut  3,510,297  29  187  9  36  15  151  6  Delaware  843,524  45  62  38  21  24  41  29  Florida  17,789,864  4  160  17  40  12  120  13  Georgia  9,072,576  9  236  3  56  4  180  3  Hawaii  1,275,194  42  76  36  25  22  51  27  Idaho  1,429,096  39  105  32  35  16  70  24  Illinois  12,763,371  5  177  13  59  3  118  14  Indiana  6,271,973  15  150  18  50  6  100  18  Iowa  2,966,334  30  150  18  50  6  100  18  Kansas  2,744,687  33  165  16  40  12  125  10  Kentucky  4,173,405  26  138  25  38  14  100  18  Louisiana  4,523,687  24  144  22  39  13  105  16  Maine  1,321,505  40  186  10  35  16  151  6  Maryland  5,600,388  19  188  8  47  9  141  8  Massachusetts  6,398,743  13  200  6  40  12  160  5  Michigan  10,120,860  8  148  20  38  14  110  15  Minnesota  5,132,799  21  201  5  67  1  134  9  Mississippi  2,921,088  31  174  14  52  5  122  12  Missouri  5,800,310  18  197  7  34  17  163  4  Montana  935,670  44  150  18  50  6  100  18  Nebraska  1,758,787  38  49  40  49  7  N/A  N/A  Nevada  2,414,807  35  63  37  21  24  42  28  New Hampshire  1,309,940  41  424  1  24  23  400  1  New Jersey  8,717,925  10  120  29  40  12  80  22  New Mexico  1,928,384  36  112  31  42  11  70  24  New York  19,254,630  3  212  4  62  2  150  7  North Carolina  8,683,242  11  170  15  50  6  120  13  North Dakota  636,677  48  141  23  47  9  94  21  Ohio  11,464,042  7  132  28  33  18  99  19  Oklahoma  3,547,884  28  149  19  48  8  101  17  Oregon  3,641,056  27  90  35  30  20  60  26  Pennsylvania  12,429,616  6  253  2  50  6  203  2  Rhode Island  1,076,189  43  113  30  38  14  75  23  South Carolina  4,255,083  25  170  15  46  10  124  11  South Dakota  775,933  46  105  32  35  16  70  24  Tennessee  5,962,959  16  132  28  33  18  99  19  Texas  22,859,968  2  181  11  31  19  150  7  Utah  2,469,585  34  104  33  29  21  75  23  Vermont  623,050  49  180  12  30  20  150  7  Virginia  7,567,465  12  140  24  40  12  100  18  Washington  6,287,759  14  147  21  49  7  98  20  West Virginia  1,816,856  37  134  27  34  17  100  18  Wisconsin  5,536,201  20  132  28  33  18  99  19  Wyoming  509,294  50  90  35  30  20  60  26  TOTAL 296,410,404   7,382  1,971  5,411 * Due to equal sizes of legislatures or legislative chambers, rankings may not range from 1 to 50. Source: http://www.ncsl.org/default.aspx?tabid=13527