Low profile? Like You? And You and you and you??

Regarding the story of the "terrorism suspect" with the Birmingham airport connection...the headline, at least in the al.com story, is "suspect kept low profile".

Uh, you mean like all people who don't break the law?

This guy isn't even charged with a crime at this point, much less convicted, but he "kept a low profile"!!!!!

Old Time Religion

     I worked and lived in Asbury Park, New Jersey*, for a while in the 70's...D.J. and radio news mostly, and it was there that I became familiar with Ocean Grove, a Methodist founded community that in some respects still reflects the 1860's when it started.
     Memory tells me they closed off the streets with chains on Sundays...though I'm not sure that's true today.
     Nonetheless, my friend Helen up Jersey way has sent me an article about the tent camp that springs up there each Summer...and here it is! My friend David, who still lives part of the year up that way, raves about the huge pipe organ in the auditorium and the concerts he has attended there. Helen heard Johnny Mathis sing there recently!
    Anyway, just a little travelogue through my past.

[*And yes, The Boss's Mom called me to request I play his songs on the Saturday night show I did. And I would. True story! I'll bet some of  Bruce's songs were influenced by the presence of Ocean Grove!]
    

MMMM #108: Managing Execution Coverage - Public Editor

     It was reported last week that China is reducing the number of non-violent economic crimes (68) that are punishable by execution in that country.The stories almost uniformly reported that China executes more people than any other country.     
      But the stories neglected to point out that there are more Chinese in the world than any other country. There are other countries that execute more people per-capita. Almost every statistic about China is a superlative because of its size.
     The traditional Chinese execution method has been firing squad (or, mostly, a single bullet to the head). Now, high tech "execution vans" roam the country to conduct executions by lethal injection. In the shooting days, families of the condemned were charged for the bullet.
     I don't know of they are sent a bill for the chemical cocktail.


     There was a story in Saturday's NY Times about Japan's seven execution chambers, which were opened to the Japanese media for the first time ever last week. Foreign media was excluded, as if that was somehow going to prevent the rest of the world from finding out the details!
     Japan executes by hanging, and like virtually all countries, has developed a detailed, somewhat fetishistic procedure to be followed.
     Some governments have yet to come to their senses about the Internet age. Blocking the media only serves to make 'em angry, and that can result in even more negative coverage than otherwise. That's not fair, but it happens.
     Alabama is in the top ten for per-capital executions among U.S. States, though Texas easily wins the raw numbers prize (437 since the death penalty was reauthorized by the courts. Alabama has executed just 41 in the same time period. That's a per-capita rate of  0.179 for Texas and 0.088 for Alabama.)
     Nonetheless, the Montgomery-based Equal Justice Initiative organization places Alabama at the per-capita top, and awards the state a couple of other distinctions as well:

Alabama is the only state in the country that allows elected state court judges to override jury verdicts of life imprisonment and impose death sentences without strict limiting standards. About 23% of the people on Alabama's death row received a life verdict that was overridden by a trial judge.

Alabama is also the only state in the country without a state-funded program to provide legal assistance to death row prisoners. Over half of the people currently under sentence of death in Alabama were represented at trial by appointed counsel whose compensation for trial preparation was capped by law at just $1000.

      About the biggest change of heart over execution in Alabama in recent years was The Birmingham News--just about the state's most conservative newspaper-- assuming an anti-capital punishment editorial stance after more than a century of support for executions. As recently as last January, they were editorially calling for a moratorium.
     And theirs was a conservatve agrument: we can't be truly pro-life and support execution at the same time.




[PLUS: On Sunday the NY Times new "Public Editor"...Arthur S. Brisbane...wrote his first column. He pledges to be a fair representative of Times' readers, at a time when those readers have a powerful new arsenal of weapons to do journalist battle with the much larger but less agile newspaper. That's a tough job, and I wish him well. I've always though a TV News operation could go a long way toward sustaining credibility by doing the same, perhaps a retired journalist from another market who could be brought in periodically to comment on the work being done by the station.]
  
{The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this blog.}    

Visit Zoo Atlantassssssssss

     No thanks, think I'll stay right here in Montgomery.
     A venomous (like there's another kind?) rattlesnake "escaped" at the Zoo in Atlanta but they think it's still in the building.

     It's a tiger rattlesnake and here's what they look like:

     I certainly hope they're better at keeping the real tigers contained.

     The Zoo Atlanta people say you should call them and not try to capture it yourself should you spot the two-foot long viper.

     No danger, sir, no danger.

     And what do you think of WSB-TV's story, which includes the information that the two-foot snake is about the length of a cheerleading baton. Now that's helpful! Two feet wasn't nearly descriptive enough...If I'm going in for an ID, I'll use the baton to measure it first, and then use it to sent the snake to wherever snakes go when they are beaten to a bloody pulp. 

One Name Wonders

     It's not just for entertainers anymore...move over Madonna, Cher, (Lady) Gaga, Prince etc...I came across this reference in a serious story this morning about a volcano in Indonesia that has erupted for the first time in 400 years.

Government volcanologist Surono, who uses only one name, said Mount Sinabung in North Sumatra province started rumbling a few days ago and the minor morning eruption had mostly stopped.

     We best hope this doesn't become a trend. Those of us who like to research family history will never find ancestors again!

A Strange OTR this afternoon...

     ...strange as in Todd Strange, Montgomery's Mayor, that is. We discuss a variety of subjects of interest to Montgomery residents....economic development... like trying to do something with the vacant Montgomery Mall, the Federal stimulus money that's saved many a city and state, even though Alabama's entire Congressional Delegation has voted against spending the money, and the Mayor's plan to build combined police and fire stations.

     Watch On The Record this afternoon at 5:30, just before 60-Minutes, on CBS-8 in Montgomery.

Beck

     The Montgomery-based Southern Poverty Law Center is quoted by NY Times columnist Bob Herbert today regarding the great rally in D.C. by "talk" host Glen Beck:

     "The Southern Poverty Law Center tells us that in a twist on the civil rights movement, Beck said on the air that he 'wouldn’t be surprised if in our lifetime dogs and fire hoses are released or opened on us. I wouldn’t be surprised if a few of us get a billy club to the head. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of us go to jail — just like Martin Luther King did — on trumped-up charges. Tough times are coming.'


     He makes you want to take a shower."

     What does Beck really believe? Hard to say. Between the tears and the jeers, he seems to be mostly rallying people to the cause of Glen Beck. Comparing himself to Dr. King? Really? Does anyone truly buy that?

Been a while since we've been able to say it, but
Thank God for Mississippi!

Here's the story.

From Pogue's Lips to the Tech God's Ears

     David Pogue in The Times writes the semi-obituary of cell phone companies in a column today.
     Now...If only he can make the same arrangement for the endless "bundling" that makes cable and a fast net connection an offer you can't refuse (and one that costs a bundle!).
   And by the way, Google is now also offering real-time searching. Put in a name or a phrase, and as new items are found, they appear at the top of your list of found links. Pretty interesting if you want an instant take on what a sampling of folks are writing about a given person or topic.

Honest Services Prosecutions

     Another prosecution under the now-weakened law has been dropped, reports the Times this morning. Now...the question of when (or if) this will touch the Don Siegelman case here in Alabama?
     Unlike the first case cited in the story, a prosecution dropped in Kansas, the same U.S. Attorney is in power here, and I would imagine she is less likely to suddenly be swayed to free the former Governor.

Teachin'

     In a case of the snake swallowing its tail, I'll be using a textbook titled "Broadcast News" when I begin teaching a Broadcast Writing class tonight at Trenholm Tech. That's because the author interviewed me about radio news when the book first came out in the early1980's.
     There have been lots of changes in the Media since then, but my three pages of quotes have survived.

You traffic jam isn't nearly so bad.....

    

                                                                                                               Consider one in China that has lasted nine days! Heads up: the CNN video report at the end of that link is in Chinese (though the print story in English)...and maybe that's what's causing the jam... because all of the road signs are in Chinese too. ("This is Bejing! We speak English here!" to misquote a former Alabama candidate for Governor.

     And you thought those miners were in for a tough time waiting till December for a rescue. At least they won't run out of gas.

     Imagine nine days on Highway 280 or I-85. In a  Hummer. With kids in the back seat.

(NOTE: Thanks to faithful Editor in Chief J.C. for pointing it out!)

Sparks Turn

     Democratic nominee for Governor Ron Sparks, roundly criticised by the man he beat in the June Primary Election, is responding with an Opp-Ed of his own in this morning's Montgomery Advertiser.
     Sparks is mild in his criticism of Artur Davis, but still says Davis never called him after the Primary to say, well, to say anything.
    So Sparks says he called and left a message for Davis. A still unanswered message. Unless you consider last week's Op-Ed (see earlier posting) the response.

It's SO hot......

     The Weather Service and Climate Prediction folks have some good news for those of us who have been sweating through this Summer of 2010. Cooler temps are finally on the horizon....over the next three months. Of course it's not hard to predict that it will be cooler in late November than it is now in late August.     

     And by the way, though there weren't many individual day high temperature records, it really has been hotter than usual, especially in Birmingham, where a number of records were broken. Go here for the numbers!. The map below shows September - November highs.

Plant CSI Needed!

     These pictures show a half dozen very tall plants weeds that have grown in a large pot on my deck this year.
     I have no idea what they are.
     The plants weeds may have been volunteered by passing birds, or by passing black bears, for all I know.
     The same container had a variety of flowering plants in it the last two years, as shown in the other photo, so I figured that's what the plants weeds were. But so far no flowers, and now they're developing seedheads.
     Any ideas what they are? Anyone? Do i grab the roundup?

A.D. Redux

     The Washington Post has a story about Artur Davis's sour grapes opinion piece ("he expected to be called a sore looser", they write) in last Sunday's Birmingham News, if you want to see how outside media paints it.          
     The only thing new I read is the fact that Mr. Davis will move to Northern Virginia once his term ends in January and become a "top flight criminal defense attorney". And Washington always needs another one of those, no?

The Mosque

     I've come full circle on the issue of the Mosque in Manhattan. My original post was angry and, frankly, unfair. Since then, I've decided that blocking the mosque would become the perfect example the next the next time a religion that is out-of-favor wants to built its house of worship.
     Here's what former Birmingham News cartoonist Scot Stantis drew about it yesterday in The Chicago Tribune, and it perfectly expresses where I am now.

     But if we are going to block it, how many feet away from ground zero is considered sacred ground? Would five blocks be OK? Four? Supposing it's a reformed mosque?

     There are people who believe mormons are a dangerous cult...would they be allowed in your neighborhood? There's no shortage of anti-catholic rhetoric...should a parish be kept away?

     Yet I can't leave this posting without another thought: Are Muslims known for their own openness to other faiths? Would they welcome a synagogue or a gay church or a white supremicist church next door to their new Mosque, if it is built?

Where at least SOME of the oil has gone...

...DEEP and long. Story on al.com...
     And that backs up scientists who said they found the oil where they least expected it...way deep in underwater trenches.
     This Sunday's "On The Record" on CBS-8 features an Environmental Historian (betcha didn't know there was such a thing!) from Troy University.

     I talk with her about the spill (of course), the coal ash in Perry County, the concept of environmental racism, and the upcoming decision by the EPA about whether to change the level of Ozone allowed in the Montgomery/River Region air.

      If they decided to reduce the allowable amount, it could stifle industrial development in the area. The guest is Dr. Elizabeth Blum, Ph.D. 

   

Watch it live or TiVo it: "On The Record", Sunday at 5:30, just before 60-Minutes on CBS-8 in Montgomery.

The Alabama Department of Environmental Management

Life Lesson

Story in the Press-Register today about the robbery-murder of a 23 year old man who's roommate/friend went out to get cash from an ATM. It says the four suspects...

 

"...were driving around, looking for people to rob, and they followed the friend from the ATM to the house."

     Driving around looking for people to rob. Why am I shocked? Because it is such Clockwork Orange behavior? The young victim begged for his life before one of the suspects shot him in the head.
     The life lesson is this: plan ahead for needing cash. Visit the ATM when it's not as easy for someone to follow you home.

Books A Million

Also from Forbes Magazine...the Alabama based Books-a-Million is among the most trusted retailers in the country...by both investors and customers. The company is the third largest book retailers in the countrey and is headquartered in Birmingham.

100 Years of Baseball

     Birmingham's Rickwood  Field turns 100 on Wednesday.
    The oldest ballpark in the United States, and it almost suffered the same fate as Terminal Station and other landmark buildings in Birmingham that were torn down.
    The park's official site is here.

We're #3! We're #3!

Alabama is the third most medicated state in America, according to Forbes Magazine!

Retail prescriptions filled per capita: 16.7
Percentage of adults who are obese or overweight: 65.9%
National average: 60.8%
Heart disease death rate per 100,000: 235.5
National average: 190.9
Adults with diabetes: 12.2%
National average: 8.3%

All of the top seven are in The South (then, for some reason Iowa pops up. Iowa??)

16.7 prescriptions PER CAPITA??Is there any wonder why health care costs are out of control???

(NOTE: Thanks to Senior TLC editor Jay for pointing m to Forbes' article!]

MMMM # 107 -- Alabama's Gibbs

     Obama Press Secretary Robert Gibbs is increasingly being given the bum's rush...this weekend by NY Times columnist Maureen Dowd.
     It wasn't the Auburn native's blast of liberals and progressives last week that got to her...she actually thinks Gibbs was correct in blasting the left for blasting The President. She just thinks he's in the wrong job (that's Gibbs, not Obama.).

     We had a newsroom conversation about a "Media Relations" person here in Montgomery the other day, and that particular one was described as someone who sees the job as a media controller rather than a media enabler. It's hard to be both, that's for sure.
     Should a Public Relations person actually help the media? Or block the media from doing unflattering stories about his boss? How about trying to make sure stories that are written are accurate and balanced...if necessary, after the fact?
     I've had PR people lie to me, and go out of their way to make my job difficult, but those are more the exceptions than the rule. I understood what they were trying to do, but always felt their's was only a short term gain. After all, in the long run I wouldn't trust them again.
     Then there are the media people who cross over to become PR types. You would think they would be the best of all, knowing how reporters work. But crossing over also means getting your check from a completely different source, and like it or not, that eventually becomes a driving force in what you do and don't do.
     But now may not be the best time to make that switch. While the media has seen drastic cuts during The Great Recession, so have PR firms. Reuters reports 64% saw their revenue delcine last year.

Happy 75th!

     Social Security turns 75 this weekend, certainly old enough for benefits, if there's any money left to pay them!
     Lots of Boomer Generation folks are facing the choice of collecting less starting at 62, or more starting at 66 + x months (here's where you can calculate your exact retirement age.)
     That's a betting game. Betting how many years you're going to live, basically. And remember, here in Alabama we're anti- gambling!

Post-Politics Artur Davis

     There's an Op-Ed piece in today's Montgomery Advertiser by Artur Davis, lame-duck Democratic Alabama Congressman.
     While he stops short of endorsing Republican Robert Bentley for Governor ( he.." is doing quite well without my help"), he may as well have. Davis trashes not only Ron Sparks, who spanked him in the Democratic Primary for  Governor, but the entire Alabama Democratic Party as well.
     Davis had already said he was done with politics, that his campaign for Governor would be his last. But he takes some last shots in the rant in the paper:

"I remain a Democrat because I believe in the country that Democratic presidents have tried to build for three generations..."

    ...although he did vote against the current Democratic President's Health Insurance reform bill, the only member of the Democratic Black Caucus, and one of the few Democratic Representatives to do so.
     Alabama Republicans have said for years they want to increase the presence of African-Americans in their party, both as members and as candidates.
     Is Davis too democratic to be a Republican, but not democratic enough to be a Democrat?

Ron Sparks and Artur Davis in Montgomery, January 2010, in more cordial times.

Weird Weather, Part II

     My post last Sunday about the recent global weird weather has been echoed (in an obviously much more complete manner!) by today's NY Times...wondering if the extremes of hot and cold, wet and dry, are evidence for (or against)  Climate Change (the preferred name for what used to be called "Global Warming", as I understand it.)

     On Thursday it was CBS-TV featuring a big story on the same question. Earlier this year, CBS produced a story that featured an Alabama meteorologist (Dan Satterfield of WHNT, Huntsville) who believes CC is happening, and a Huntsville scientist who says it is natural, not man-made.
     TV Weather meteorologists play an important role in communicating to the public about the issue, according to a survey by George Mason University earlier this year, yet they are divided about whether it exists, and if so, what the cause is:

More than half of our respondent (54%) indicated that global warming is happening, 25% indicated it isn’t, and 21% say they don’t know yet. About one-third (31%) reported that global warming is caused mostly by human activities, while almost two-thirds (63%) reported it is caused mostly by natural changes in the environment.

     Some of this is almost certainly politics. Some TV weather folks may be adopting one position or the other not because they are climate change experts, but because of' political leanings, or the prevailing politics of the market where they work. Years of work cultivating a positive, believable on-air image could be destroyed in a flash by taking a "wrong" position.
     Al Gore's central roll in the issue may have turned it into a liberal/conservative flashpoint, instead of the critical scientific issue it should be.

The NEW Captain Semmes

     Alabama's Civil War History has caught up with the future.
     An online game modeled after the Star Trek series has introduced a new Star Fleet Captain. And she's a direct descendant of Raphael Semmes, commander of the raider the CSS Alabama in the Civil War. Here's how the game website describes the character:

A direct descendant of the famous Confederate captain Raphael Semmes, Rachael Alderman Semmes is Starfleet's newest captain, and one of their most flamboyant. She is well known for her cunning, courage, and confidence, along with mischievous streak; many of the pranks she pulled on her fellow cadets, and even a few teachers, during her academy years became legendary. One of her high jinks is said to have severely embarrassed Captain Solok of the USS T'Kumbra. Her romances during those days were also legendary and continue to be so; she has a reputation for not being peculiar about her dates, caring little about appearance, race, or gender. Semmes and Kovac have been friends since their days at the Academy and even had a bet going about which one of them would be the first to obtain command of starship. Semmes was the one who apparently "won," having taken command of the USS Albemarle two months before Kovac obtained the USS Kearsarge and she still claims that she owes him a case of kali-fal. Semmes enjoys her duties aboard the Albemarle, exploring the far reaches of the galaxy, considering it the greatest adventure since her days in the Dominion War.

     The game site don't explain the significance of the name USS Kearsarge...but that's the ship that eventually sunk the Alabama, off the coast of France.
     You can play the game online after first downloading it (for about $60).
     I can just imagine what the real Captain Semmes would say.

Dangers Lurking

Twice in recent days I've read about frauds that were "news to me"! And I'm pleased to share them both.

1) If you use a smart phone like an iPhone to upload photos online, the GPS function in the phone's camera can be giving away information about where you live, and even what you own! Just the kind of information thieves would like to have...read about it here.

2) Those nice folks out to steal your credit or debit card information have gotten so clever! They install professional looking attachments to ATM machines---or well-hidden cameras--- that steal your numbers. Read about that one here at Snopes.com.

Take away their toys!

     Clearly, lame ducks Troy King and Bob Riley have proven themselves unable to handle the powers of their offices during the last few weeks before they turn their jobs them over to someone new.
   The AG is suing BP (handing the lobbyist/lawyer who defeated him in the GOP Primary, Luther Strange, a dangerous choice if he wins in November: continue the suits, or drop them and look like a water boy for BP.
     And The Governor is busy filing Executive orders trying to block the lawsuits, saying we should try for an out-of-court settlement first. But 'ya gotta know hatred of Troy King is at least partly a motivating factor. There hasn't been a civil word between these civil servants for years.
     I say both of them should stay home and collect their last taxpayer checks without doing anything.
     Clean out your offices and let the next Governor and AG handle these issues. It's not like the statute of limitations is going to run out on suing BP.

The Selwyn Avenue Deaths

     Eighty-nine years ago this week, three children who would have been my Uncles and Aunt, died under somewhat mysterious circumstances.
     It was August, 1921, and they were part of a big Irish family of eight living in crowded conditions on Selwyn Avenue in The Bronx, New York City.

     Their father, my grandfather Andrew, was a policeman assigned to police headquarters. By trade he was a carpenter, but as was the practice in those days, he wore a uniform, and carried a badge and a gun in addition to a tool box. His wife Sarah had her hands full taking care of the kids.
     Five year old James was the first to get sick, and the first to die. A sore throat that got progressively worse, according to the reports.
     Ten year old Kathleen got sick the day of James funeral, and died within 24 hours.
     The last to fall ill was nine year old Andrew, Jr., who got sick as Kathleen's funeral was being planned, and died quickly as well.
     My Father was a survivor of that tragedy, just a months old infant at the time, no memory of the events, and, physically at least, unaffected by whatever it was that killed the children.

     I've tried to put myself in their lives and imagine how horrifying it must have been for Sarah and Andrew to watch the three siblings get sick and die over two weeks that Summer almost nine decades ago...expecting, I guess, for the other children to die as well of the strange malady that had savaged its way through the family.
     Was it safe for Sarah to serve anything to the remaining children? Did she empty the apartment of food as a precaution? Did she blame herself? Was there police suspicion of a crime? Did the neighbors gossip?
    We've found no police report, though there must have been one, and other than the newspaper reference to a police investigation, no indication of any wrongdoing.
    The New York Evening Telegram of August 13, 1921 reported:

Dr. Reigelmann, Medical Examiner of The Bronx, who reported the three deaths, said physicians at the hospital had found traces of mushroom poisoning, but he had learned, he said, that the children had not eaten mushrooms before they became ill. The Medical Examiner seemed to think that the children, who were accustomed to play in the woods near their home, might have been poisoned by eating wild berries of some kind.

     As a child, I remember visiting St.Raymond's cemetery in The Bronx, where the children are buried. My father told me they had died of something they had taken from the medicine cabinet, the same story my sister remembers.
         Another newspaper clipping also suggests it was something the children had eaten:

Neighborhood children admitted that the Lennox children had eaten several plates of ice cream, and had partaken of a considerable quantity of "penny candy" during the day.

      The death of three children from the same family was fairly big news, and the papers reported that a "thorough" police investigation was underway. Autopsies were conducted on the three...the results somewhat inconclusive. "Internal poisoning" is listed as the cause by the newspapers, though there's certainly no blame assigned.
     Also on August 13, 1921, The New York Times reported on the mystery under the headline

Doctors Unable to Determine Origin of Malady Which Killed Three Children:

An autopsy of the bodies of the two older children failed to reveal the origin of the trouble. One theory advanced was that the children had eaten poisoned berries of some sort which they had found in lots near their home. Other children in the neighborhood where the Lennox family live have been sick with similar symptoms. Dr. Riegelman (The Bronx County Medical Examiner), who has made an exhaustive study of the case, said he had called in Dr. A.O. Gettler of the Medical Examiner's office to make an analysis of the digestive organs of the dead Lennox children. The Lennoxes have three other children.

     There was one additional child born later to Sarah and Andrew, my Aunt Eileen, who died early in 2009.
     In 1923, Andrew himself was killed. He fell from a police vehicle when it ran off the road in upstate New York. He died instantly, leaving poor Sarah to grieve yet again, and to raise the four surviving children by herself, including my Dad, who went on to become a police officer too.
     My Grandmother Sarah died when I was six, and my only memory of her is sitting in her lap in her Bronx apartment as she sang hymns in Gaelic.
     While there are numerous substances children could ingest in the 1920's that would cause death, both iodine and Mercurochrome would have been common in medicine cabinets at the time, and it may be one of them that ended the three young lives. Yet the autopsy on the kidneys of one of the children detected no metals.
     The photo above shows Andrew and Sarah with a child. A note written on the photo suggests it is little Kathleen, who died with her brothers, but there's a question mark written after her name. Another in a very long line of questions about the deaths on Selwyn Avenue 89 years ago.

Eyebrow-raising eyebrows

     There's an old saying that TV News is really all about the ties and the hair...so forgive me for contributing to that trend by commenting on CNBC's David Faber's eyebrows.
    Is this a joke?

     No, this is is not a photoshop job. I've seen teens with slashes shaved through their eyebrows, but this? Were they repossessed after a bad market turn? Has he joined a fraternity rather late in life? 

    There must be a story here somewhere...any ideas?

Quote of the day

Viper isn't a company that Minnesota economic development officials were familiar with, said Kirsten Morell, a spokeswoman for the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.

     They are now. Viper is a manufacturer of very high end motorcycles. And they've now left Minnesota and relocated to Auburn, Alabama.
     Of course it cost Alabama 4.5 Million Dollars in incentives to lure the firm, but who's counting?
     The firm's motorcycles cost as much as $36,000 each. They expect to have as many as a hundred employees within two years in the new Auburn facility.

Education $ on the way - no thanks to our delegation

     The House has approved a job bill that includes state aid to help fund education and medicaid....despite the fact that all but one of Alabama's delegation voted against it. The "holdout"? Not Bobby Bright...he joined the rest of the GOP members and voted nay...it was lame duck congressman Artur Davis...now with nothing to lose by doing the right...doing the right thing.
     State School Superintendent Dr. Joe Morton was a guest on CBS-8s Talkback segment in our 5:00pm news, and he cheered the news that the House had approved the $26-Billion dollar bill which now goes to the President for his signature.
     I think you will be hard pressed to find a state official who wanted to see the money rejected, though they probably won't be very public in their praise.
     This goes back to the dichotomy of Alabama elected officials blasting the spending by the Obama Administration while holding out their hands for the cash they need to balance the state's otherwise out of balance budgets.

Taxes

     A Dave White story in this morning's Birmingham News ranked Alabama next to last when it comes to taxes we pay locally.
     But it was the state at the top of the list that got my attention. Not Taxachusetts or New Yawk or New Joisey...but Sarah Palin's Alaska. Huh? Maybe that's why she didn't want to be Governor there any more?

[UPDATE: Which state gets the most Federal money????]

MMMM # 106 - Life at 2:00a.m.

     CONFESSION: This morning's MMMM is a bit of a cheat. Rather than go without posting one, I'm using a 3:28 long video I shot and edited for a computer editing class I took at Trenholm Tech. (Last year I learned a computer audio editing for radio, so I think I'm now caught up.
     The video was a class assignment about a topic I know a little about. Me.
     Call it a Day in The Life, A day that now begins with the alarm going off at 2:00am. The video is below. Enjoy. (-:
     A more serious MMMM will hopefully return next week.


[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this blog.]

A 2:00am Day in The Life

Retirement

     I joke that my retirement plan is to run out of breath and money at the same time (a great line stolen from the late Tommy Charles "T.C." of Birmingham Radio fame, who for all I know, stole it from someone else.)
     These days I barely open my 401k statements, knowing that The Great Recession has shredded them the same as it did most of the rest of the economy.

     The retirement plans of government employees weren't spared, though some are fairing better than others. But their retirment checks come with a guarentee. My 401k's are free to fall as low as they may (and have!).
     The PEW Center released a report early this year comparing the States' plans, and Alabama fared worse than I would have thought, what with David Bronner running things over at RSA.
     A NY Times column this morning refers to the mounting debt to pay for retired government workers' pensions as a coming "war"..a "class war", nonetheless.
     Presumably, in Alabama, that means The RSA and the State Employees' Association on one side, and the non-government workers on the other side of the battlelines.
     Birmingham News reporter Dave White raised an alarm about the issue this week too, reporting that it will be after fisal year 2012 when the system's actuarial figures hit the fan, so to speak.
     There are good arguments to be made by both camps about keeping the state's commitment to the retired teachers and other workers, but the end message of the Times column is this: cooperate or else.

High School Sports On The Record

     The guest On The Record today at 5:30 pm will be the executive Director of The Alabama High School Athletic Association.
    We'll discuss topics ranging from concussions (The NFL is now warning players that brain damage can occur) to cheerleading (A Federal Court ruled recently  that it is not a sport).
     Join us On The Record, 5:30pm, just before 60-Minutes on CBS-8 in Montgomery.

Hot & Cold

     We are (OK, I am) never satisfied when it comes to our weather. It's been a very hot Summer. Lots of 100+ degree days, lots of sweat and heat danger alerts...lots of high utility bills. But in about four months we will (OK. I will) be complaining about how cold it is.

     Have there been extremes the past year or so? You bet: Pakistan Flooding, Russian Drought and resulting fires, high and low temperatures that seem out of the ordinary, Volcano's belching smoke in Iceland.
     Or is it like this all the time, and it just seems to be hotter or colder or wetter or dryer than ever before?
     Again, if we just wait a matter of weeks, the heat will be gone and the cooler temperatures will return.

Then Tim can complain about the utility bill for heating!

[UPDATE: The Montgomery Advertiser reports there have been many more 100+ degree days than usual this Summer, and it may in fact be record breaking.]

Monitor R.I.P

     The monitor died on the home PC this past wednesday (if had been in serious, but stable condition), and thus I have been without a way to update the blog for 48 hours.
     Taking advantage of the "Sales Tax Holiday" this afternoon, I'm happy to report I can see the computer output again.
     Updates soon!

Tim

Your Product =/is My Product

     I blogged earlier in the year about the German teenager who "wrote" a bestselling novel, only to be uncovered as a "copier"...a girl who lifted portions of the novel from the work of others...and felt no need to apologize.
   Now the Times has a story about how prevalent that thinking is among young people.
   Do the rules no longer apply? A professor quoted in the story:

“If you are not so worried about presenting yourself as absolutely unique, then it’s O.K. if you say other people’s words, it’s O.K. if you say things you don’t believe, it’s O.K. if you write papers you couldn’t care less about because they accomplish the task, which is turning something in and getting a grade,” Ms. Blum said, voicing student attitudes. “And it’s O.K. if you put words out there without getting any credit.”

     Wow.
     Helps explain the conversations I've had about "sampling" in music. Why do young people think it is OK to use other people's work without credit.

MMMM # 105 - Advertising

     I make a living because of advertising these days, but I've been a student of the art since I first started my career in Broadcasting.
     I know that each word in an ad, in print or on-air, is there because some copywriter created it. And sometimes I find myself wondering...how did this ever make it through the advertising editorial process??
     Old Spice has gotten a huge amount of free publicity from the "Old Spice Guy" online videos, including the new series in which he responds to customer questions.

     But that's not the Old Spice ad I'm talking about. The one I've got on my mind is the tag line for one of their deodorant products. This product, advertised on a coupon in this morning's paper; 

"Inhale The Adventure"

     Inhale the adventure? Huh? Perhaps I'm just naive, but isn't the only purpose of deodorant to cover up our stink? Are we supposed to go up to people and sniff their pits?

     The boy's school I attended in the 60's could have been a testing lab for Right Guard spray. It seemed to me that every student used it, and sprayed it ad naseum around the dorm. To this day I won't go near that product for fear of bad memories bubbling up.

     I interviewed an author back in the day who claimed in his book that the sole purpose of all of our "aroma" consumer products was to block the smell sensors in our nose, making it impossible for us to smell whatever was being covered up...and pretty much everything else too.

     I do know that scents can be powerful memory triggers. Once I was sitting at a desk in Vietnam when I was startled to smell the aroma of the pipe tobacco my Father smoked, and i looked up, fully expecting to see him there, thousands of miles away from his home. He wasn't, of course, it was just a visiting pipe smoker with the same tobacco.

     In 1986, National Geographic enclosed a scratch and sniff aroma test in 11-Million magazines. The biggest test of the sense of smell ever.

     The most recent book about the subject is "What The Nose Knows".,a volume published in 2008 that I have not read, but I did watch some interviews with the author.

     Maybe he knows what it means to inhale the adventure? 

The Relativity of calling a farm "old"

     The AP has distributed a story about an almost 400 year old family farm going out of business in New Hampshire, and there are folks blaming corporate farming and other big businesses.
     The story got me thinking about what is called Alabama's oldest farm...in Madison County. Alabama Heritage did a story about it in late 2008. It's half as old as the New Hampshire place.

     Anybody know of any older farms in Alabama? How about the Native Americans who predate Europeans arriving here? Didn't they farm too? Yup! According to the Encyclopedia of Alabama:

Agriculture has been practiced in what is now Alabama for centuries. Prehistoric Native Americans practiced slash-and-burn agriculture, in which they cut and burned forests to make room for their fields of corn, beans, and squash. Early European travelers through Alabama described vast areas of the landscape that were open savannahs, probably the result of natural or human-made fires.

   Gee, isn't "slash and burn" what Alabama's first setters did too? When you have no machines to help do the work, there's not a lot left, is there?
   I'm also sure there were "farmers" in New Hampshire before the 1632 Tuttles too, but what's in a name?

Brand (DIS) Loyalty

     Here's one product of The Great Recession: my brand loyalty is about gone.
     Admittedly, there wasn't a lot of it to begin with, but there were just one or two cereals I would select, a particular brand of bread etc etc.
      Now there's just one big brand: cheapest. With a few restrictions:

  
  I still buy Hellmann's Mayonnaise and Land O'Lakes butter.

      I shuttle back and forth between the outrageously expensive (but delicious) Starbucks coffee and the brand that's on sale, though not quite as delicious.
     I eat more chicken...steaks only every now and then.
     I eat out less.
     All of this is, I believe, fairly typical, no?
     Those dollar dominoes tumble downhill, of course, so the people who own the factories making the rejected brand products have a touch less demand, so they pay workers for fewer hours. And those workers reduce their own brand loyalty...so the vicious cycle continues.
    Henry Ford famously said he wanted his workers to be paid enough that they could afford to buy the cars they were assembling. Amen, Henry, Amen.
     There's a story in this morning's NY Times about China's product counterfeiters adapting to the economy by making less expensive fake goods. There's so much counterfeit product manufacturing in Thailand that they have a museum to it in Bangkok!
    I think I still have two books that I purchased in Taiwan during an R&R trip during my tour in Vietnam. I bought them for pennies from a firm that simply took existing books and reproduced them on cheap paper...without paying anything to the authors or publishers, or course.
     One of them was titled Military Law is to Law as Military Music is to Music...a fake book about a fake legal system.
     If the author is still around, I owe you!

[ADDENDUM: if you want to read a disheatening take on how unnecessary all of this jobless pain is, check out Bob Herbert's column in today's Times.]