Portrait of a doomed business model

No offense to my friends in journalism, but it's pretty clear why newspapers are dying: they think it's still the 1980s.

A friend who runs a local business ran a help wanted ad on Craigslist. The ad was free. He got hundreds of responses, 50 in the first few hours. He eliminated a bunch of the candidates by checking out their Facebook profiles, and ultimately he ended up with a couple of good candidates. Did I mention that all of that was free?

Meanwhile, the same online ad via the Charlotte Observer would have cost $420, and $570 to appear in the print version of the paper. And both packages came with a time limit. Check out their rates for yourself.

It used to be that if you wanted to reach interested people, your local newspaper was the only game in town. It's sad that they still think that's the case.

Classic Children's Stories Revisited: First in a Series

In "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day," the reader is supposed to sympathize with the protagonist against all the ills that coincidentally befall him on this one day.

But in reality, this is the story of a depressed, antagonistic, pissy little jerk who is suffering karmic retribution for his excessing negativity.

Let's look at all the things that happen to Alexander and try to pinpoint the sources. Was it his fault, the "Bad Day's" fault, or is he just being pissy?

• Gets gum in his hair after falling asleep chewing it -- this is both poor hygiene (chewing gum at night) and poor decision making (chewing gum while falling asleep). Alexander's fault.
• Trips on his own skateboard -- poor decision making and lack of focus. Alexander's fault.
  
• Drops his sweater in the sink -- poor decision making and lack of focus. Alexander's fault.
• His brothers find toys in cereal and he doesn't -- random chance. Bad Day's fault.
• He doesn't get car seat by window -- probably the result of a rotating seat assignment system, but could by the whim of the adult who's driving. Bad Day's fault.
  
• No one listens to his complaints of car sickness -- if Alexander's gripe had been that he got car sick, this would have counted against the Bad Day. Instead, he seems most perturbed that no one listens to him complain about it. Alexander being pissy.
  
• Teacher likes a picture of a sailboat better than his picture of an invisible castle -- clearly Alexander shirked the assignment. Alexander's fault.
  
• He sings too loudly: Alexander probably knew that he was doing this on purpose, but without context we'll assume capriciousness on the part of his teacher. Bad Day's fault.
• Leaves out 16 when counting: Alexander's fault.
  
• Paul demotes him to third-best friend: Given Alexander's negative attitude and penchant for whining, this is completely understandable. Alexander's fault.
• He bad-mouths Paul -- confirms Paul's decision about friends. Alexander's fault.
• Dentist finds cavity -- Bad Day's fault.
• Elevator door closes on foot -- Lack of focus on Alexander's part, but still Bad Day's fault.
• Brother pushes him in mud -- Bad Day's fault.
  
• Brother calls him crybaby -- Bad Day's fault.
• Mother scolds him for punching brother, being muddy and fighting -- Bad Day's fault.
• Store is out of striped shoes, forced to buy white ones -- Bad Day's fault.
• "Accidentally" plays with dad's copier and breaks it -- Alexander's fault.
• "Accidentally" knocks over books and spills ink -- Alexander's fault.
• "Accidentally" calls Australia -- Alexander's fault.
• Served lima beans which he hates -- Alexander's fault.
• Kissing on TV which he hates -- Being pissy.
  
• Bath too hot: Being pissy.
• Soap in eyes: Alexander's fault.
  
• Marble down the drain: Alexander's fault.
• Forced to wear railroad-train pajamas: Being pissy.
  
• Brother takes back pillow and night light: Bad Day's fault.
  
• Bites tongue: Alexander's fault.
  
• Cat sleeps with brother: Wouldn't you? Alexander's fault.
  

Met Life: Coverage for Today's Dirty Old Man

A good friend of LisaandJacob's named Aaron pointed us to this disturbing story in the Daily Mail about outrageous politically incorrect ads. And then he produced this little gem from a 1974 "National Geographic":

As Aaron notes, there is just so much wrong with that.

On the other hand, look how much Ernie seems to be enjoying the show. Maybe those rumors about him and Bert weren't true after all.

Anybody remember this quote?

"I can say that Iraqi forces will be ready, fully ready, to receive this command and to command its own forces, and I can tell you that by next June, our forces will be ready."

That was Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki back in December of 2006. Of course, June and come and gone, and the U.S. is sending more troops over than ever. Anyone want to follow up and ask how that's going?

Email from a Marine

A Marine I work with forwarded this email from his buddy. As my friend says, it's quite an insight into what things are like.

Hello,

Just a note to let everyone know that my team is back from Iraq and to let you know that if you're curious, the PBS Frontline piece "Gangs of Iraq" is almost exactly what we did and dealt with in Iraq as police advisers. A picture is worth 1000 words, and no offense, but it's a bit tough to have a 3 hour conversation on Iraq with everyone -- especially for some folks whose knowledge is only CNN/Fox News deep.

Everyone has an opinion, yet few folks know even a portion of the facts (good or bad ones). It can be viewed for free at www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gangsofiraq/view/
if you are curious. If you're not curious, you're better off. You are free to disregard the rest of the email -- my intent is not to bore folks, just to answer the basic question I have been getting from dozens of folks with a snapshot. Like I said, a picture is worth 1000 words.

After deployment, the family spent a week in the Smokey mountains and 2 weeks at the beach in North Carolina. We were blessed with ideal weather and were fortunate to have some friends come and visit while we were there. I am well-rested and now happy to be back to work. It is really toughest on the families. At least out there, you are with your team and you know what's happening all the time, good or bad. On a couple occasions I had to stay on base for meetings and got a taste of what its like for the families, knowing my team was out there outside the wire without me and not knowing what was happening at that instant. I was pleased to be able to deliver on the promise to the kids of a long beach vacation. Everyone had a great time.

Many have asked me about the situation in Iraq. After 2 tours, one at the CENTCOM headquarters level and the last at the advisor/combat tour level in al Anbar, I realize that the more you learn about Iraq the more complex it gets. Even after all the cultural and language classes, studying terrorism and Arab politics in college and as a military intel officer, I didn't begin to understand the complexities and depth of the issues until I lived with these people.
Political pundits, conservative or liberal, oversimplify. Unfortunately, it is not as simple as running away or "staying the course." We confront an evil in the Arab world, an evil I saw on a daily basis, that is hard to articulate. A historical study unveils that we have been fighting radical Islamic fascists since our inception as a nation with the Barbary wars in the Mediterranean and into our occupation of the Philippines and most recently the spate of terrorism beginning in the 1980s up through 9/11.

In Iraq, we conquered an evil nation, now we are trying to civilize it, to teach them freedom and ethics and the free market, but we are trying to do it on the cheap after handing the keys over to an unprepared government. The good news is that the al Qaida insurgency is weakening because they are unpopular with the Iraqis and they cant stand and fight.. and there are more Iraqi forces trained and willing to fight. The bad news is that Iraq is a nation with a multiplicity of interests -- and those interests, be they religious, tribal, political, or economic, are willing to aggressively use corruption and violence to achieve those goals. Iraq is a nation of intrigue and schemes. Within the Iraqi security forces we saw some true evil: embezzlement, torture, corruption, death squads (targeting other tribes, not just insurgents). These are the people who are supposed to create a stable, free Iraq that will be an example for the region. From what I saw, the region lacks a moral compass, and no amount of cultural relativism can explain away their behavior.

I am not usually a huge fan of PBS, but the "Gangs or Iraq" piece does a good job in capturing what we as advisors faced, without getting into too much political commentary. Perhaps I will write a book or Post article at some point. Right now I am just happy to be back in the United States - back with a culture that generally knows right from wrong even if they sway at times, and back with my family. God bless.

Semper Fidelis,
Jeff

Radio communication goes both ways

It used to be really really hard to care about our local public radio station WFAE. Lately, it's damn near impossible.

WFAE prides itself on playing it straight and traditional. There's the traditional three-hour blocks of the tedious Garrison Keillor, the well-meaning but tear-your-hair-out-to-listen-to Diane Rehm, the generic black-oriented community concern show hosted by someone with the demeanor of a Quiet Storm jazz show host.

If WFAE was all you ever heard, you'd be tempted to think the spectrum of public radio shows runs from oatmeal to dishwater. But thanks to podcasting, we know there are creative alternatives out there; case in point: the entire KCRW schedule. In fact, there's a website -- Public Radio Exchange -- whose sole purpose is to CONNECT programmers with new and upcoming shows.

With this is mind, I wrote WFAE suggesting they look into one great new podcast/radio show in particular: Filmspotting. It's fresh, it's interesting, the hosts sound like real guys, they discuss movies in an interesting way, and once you start listening, odds are you'll be hooked. WFAE's response?

"WFAE really isn't looking to make any programming changes at the present time."

Fine. As long as that's the case, I guess I'm not looking to make any listening changes at the time. My iPod is doing a better job of bringing me diverse radio programming than my radio station is.

3/27/06 Update: I sent in my donation to KCRW today after hearing yet another beg-a-thon from our local station. It was the usual without-your-help-these-great-programs-will-go-away schtick, and it made me realize that on the flipside all the terrible shows will stay if I do give them my help.