1057 The Real Housewives of New Jersey
Mitt Romney, the most boring presidential candidate since Walter Mondale, now stands to benefit from the sale of the most boring major radio station of all time, WOR, nominally licensed to New York but actually serving only the real housewives of New Jersey, and not the ones on the TV show, the ones who are over 80.
Women over 80 who want radio that’s older than they are certainly entitled to have a station all their own and they do. With its origins in Newark, WOR has never really left New Jersey. Women from New Jersey who want a radio station that’s Jersier than they are likewise entitled.
WOR, est. 1922, has been sold to Clear Channel, a company that owns about 1200 other stations, most of which it has gutted and run on the cheap -- even in unionized major markets like New York. The major investor in this outfit is Romney’s Bain.
Of course, we all know that even though he was CEO until very recently, he had “nothing to do with” the company. And the checks? It’s said they’re still arriving pretty regularly and in fairly decent amounts in Mitt’s mailbox.
When the sale goes through, as it will, Clear Channel will be only the fourth owner of this station, started by Bamberger’s department store as a gimmick to sell radio receivers, a fairly new idea in 1922. When Macy’s bought Bamberger’s WOR came along with the deal. So that counts as one.
Owner two, General Tire and Rubber, a company whose ownership was on the right side of Ronald Reagan but often on the wrong side of the law, was forced to sell. The buyer was Buckley Radio, whose top guy, Rick Buckley bet the family farm on the purchase and maybe broke even, eventually.
Rick was a good fellow and great fun at a party. When he passed away earlier this year the family decided to sell. At this point in the deterioration of AM radio, there aren’t many willing buyers. So, here comes Clear to save the day!
WOR positioned itself as a “news” station and to prove it, they had a pretty big and decent news department. There were reporters and editors and writers and all kinds of good instincts. And they had these endlessly long newscasts which were a pleasure to listen to because there were virtually no gratuitous and meaningless sound bites, and painful to listen to because most of the readers had these huge, old fashioned voices of the kind you hear on the tape recordings insomniacs buy to avoid medicinal sleeping pills. Another break-even.
RKO General wrecked all that, and then Buckley’s company disposed of the editors, reporters and other riffraff.
The rest of the programming was equally sleep- inducing until recently, when they went full bore (excuse the pun) by putting on such head spinning luminaries as Glenn Beck and Michael Savage to go along with an eclectic mix of cooking shows, consumer shows, storytellers, vitamin salesmen, preachers and financial advice, much of it legal.
The morning show started with an exercise maven who was followed by three generations of men named John Gambling... father, son and grandson. Only one of the three managed a consistent ratings win because he was (1) very good, (2) had far less competition than he would today and (3) cornered the market on weather related school closing announcements with the help of a bluff and funny Irishman, Bill M, who never got much credit.
For reasons like that, I have for years called WOR the longest running B-movie in radio.
Those women in New Jersey keep listening. It may be because the radio is on a shelf too high for them to reach and turn off.
(Disclaimer in the era of self-plagiarism : I have used the B- movie reference previously in other forums.)
(Other Disclaimer: I am a disgruntled former employee and my experiences at WOR were mostly negative. But that was largely the fault of a few small men. There were many good people there. You know who you are and you know who you aren’t.)
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2012
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Monday, August 13, 2012
1056 Creeping Scholarism
1056 Creeping Scholarism
Consider the case of Fareed Zakaria. Zakaria was and still may be an editor at large for Time Magazine and a program host and contributor for CNN. He wrote a column about gun control. In it, he more or less lifted a quote from an article in the New Yorker Magazine. As of this writing, he has been suspended.
The point he was trying to make in the column was simple: The United States has a long history of gun regulation. A statement like that can easily stand on its own without attribution. Anyone interested can look it up -- fact check, if you will.
What Zak did was lift a quote within a quote from the New Yorker, removed a few words and left the impression that it was his own research and his own words.
He had two other choices. He could simply have said “we have a long history of gun regulation.” Or he could have used the words he used, but attributed them to the New Yorker author.
There’s hardly anything that someone hasn’t already said in some form. It’s unlikely that any politician will start a speech today with the words “Four score and seven years ago.” But it’s also unlikely that anyone would fail to know the source of the quote if it weren’t used.
So, what is plagiarism? The definitions vary. There are legal definitions. There are scholarly definitions. There is intentional stealing. There is accidental stealing.
Academic writing is a bumpy road. It’s hard to read. It’s filled with references. The only people who read it are other academics. But we’re getting to the point that we who write for regular people will have to start writing like professors. And that raises a barrier to understanding.
The American Psychological Association, one of two standard setters for academic writing, offers a complex computer program that automatically scans the internet for plagiarism. You can upload a document and it’ll hunt down similarities for you. Are we going to have to start putting everything through StealCheck?
Baby, get me rewrite, as Gable would say. Or was it Bogart?
Shrapnel:
--Fact check: a score is 20 years. Therefore four score and seven years = 87 years. Just thought you should know in case you didn’t.
--The London Summer Freak Show is over at last. The real winner is NBC, which managed to do something it hasn’t done in years: attract large numbers of viewers in prime time and doing it the old fashioned way, with brilliant pictures and brilliant production and direction. As for charges they spoiled the “thrill” for some viewers by delaying some broadcasts until after everyone knew the results: so what.
--Fun to watch how the religious right will handle this. Their vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan keeps extolling the virtues of Ayn Rand and even making his staff read her books. But she was a very public atheist.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2012
Consider the case of Fareed Zakaria. Zakaria was and still may be an editor at large for Time Magazine and a program host and contributor for CNN. He wrote a column about gun control. In it, he more or less lifted a quote from an article in the New Yorker Magazine. As of this writing, he has been suspended.
The point he was trying to make in the column was simple: The United States has a long history of gun regulation. A statement like that can easily stand on its own without attribution. Anyone interested can look it up -- fact check, if you will.
What Zak did was lift a quote within a quote from the New Yorker, removed a few words and left the impression that it was his own research and his own words.
He had two other choices. He could simply have said “we have a long history of gun regulation.” Or he could have used the words he used, but attributed them to the New Yorker author.
There’s hardly anything that someone hasn’t already said in some form. It’s unlikely that any politician will start a speech today with the words “Four score and seven years ago.” But it’s also unlikely that anyone would fail to know the source of the quote if it weren’t used.
So, what is plagiarism? The definitions vary. There are legal definitions. There are scholarly definitions. There is intentional stealing. There is accidental stealing.
Academic writing is a bumpy road. It’s hard to read. It’s filled with references. The only people who read it are other academics. But we’re getting to the point that we who write for regular people will have to start writing like professors. And that raises a barrier to understanding.
The American Psychological Association, one of two standard setters for academic writing, offers a complex computer program that automatically scans the internet for plagiarism. You can upload a document and it’ll hunt down similarities for you. Are we going to have to start putting everything through StealCheck?
Baby, get me rewrite, as Gable would say. Or was it Bogart?
Shrapnel:
--Fact check: a score is 20 years. Therefore four score and seven years = 87 years. Just thought you should know in case you didn’t.
--The London Summer Freak Show is over at last. The real winner is NBC, which managed to do something it hasn’t done in years: attract large numbers of viewers in prime time and doing it the old fashioned way, with brilliant pictures and brilliant production and direction. As for charges they spoiled the “thrill” for some viewers by delaying some broadcasts until after everyone knew the results: so what.
--Fun to watch how the religious right will handle this. Their vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan keeps extolling the virtues of Ayn Rand and even making his staff read her books. But she was a very public atheist.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2012
Friday, August 10, 2012
1055 R. Peter Straus
1055 R. Peter Straus (1923-2012)
Quick... what’s this?
If you’re a New Yorker of a certain age, you will know instantly. If you aren’t, all you need to know is that you could win one of these by listening to WMCA Radio when it was a real station run by a real man, R. Peter Straus.
They don’t make station owners like this guy any more. And they don’t make families like his, either.
But radio is only the tip of the Straus family history. R. Peter died this week at 89. And those of us in the broadcasting business owe him plenty of gratitude.
In his WMCA days, you had the “Good Guys.” Joe O’Brian, Harry Harrison, B. Mitchell Reed, Murray Kaufman (before he became Murray the K) and others.
How’s this for family ties: Married at one time to a Sulzberger (of the New York Times Sulzbergers.) Years after she passed away, he married Marcia Lewis, mother of Monica Lewinsky. His father was FDR’s Director of Housing. His grandfather was co-owner of Macy’s and was the “Straus” in the Abraham & Straus stores. A great uncle, Isador, also a big time retailer died on the Titanic. Another one was U.S. ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.
But it’s WMCA that we radio geeks have to thank him for. No one did editorials. Then Straus did editorials. And he put his money and his lawyers where his mouth was. You have this guy to thank in part for “one person one vote” Supreme Court decision.
WMCA had a real news department that ownership created and took seriously. It covered New York and the rest of the world when other music stations went only lightly in that direction.
They stopped the music each weeknight for two hours so Barry Gray could hold forth. Barry was the grandfather of talk radio and at the time a (shudder) liberal whom Walter Winchell called “Barry Pink.” (Gray, a friend, got more conservative over time, but never was a right winger.)
When they no longer could hold their own against WABC, Straus converted to a talk format. What kind of talk? Uh oh! Liberal.
WMCA no longer is “first on your dial,” because the dial has expanded both upward and downward. But it’s still there at 570. These days it’s owned by Salem, the religious and conservative talk broadcaster.
If Straus had any opinion about the present state of the station his family owned starting in the 1940s, we can’t find it. But we can imagine.
And even though his family name was a household word for millions, he probably had to spend a good deal of time telling people that the letter “s” appears in his name twice, not three times.
Shrapnel:
--For the astrology followers among you... R. Peter Straus’ birthday was February 15th (1923) and Mike Bloomberg’s is February 14 (1942.) So maybe there’s a connection between rich Aquarians and radio. Or not.
--Only two days until the end of the Freak Show in London. It was so exciting to watch the Irish girl beat the Russian girl in lightweight boxing, and the American girl dancing rings around the other Russian girl in the middleweight division, I almost woke up. Next up: the eagerly awaited Bowling With Marbles, with top seeded China expected to roll over former world champion Peru.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com.
© WJR 2012
Quick... what’s this?
If you’re a New Yorker of a certain age, you will know instantly. If you aren’t, all you need to know is that you could win one of these by listening to WMCA Radio when it was a real station run by a real man, R. Peter Straus.
They don’t make station owners like this guy any more. And they don’t make families like his, either.
But radio is only the tip of the Straus family history. R. Peter died this week at 89. And those of us in the broadcasting business owe him plenty of gratitude.
In his WMCA days, you had the “Good Guys.” Joe O’Brian, Harry Harrison, B. Mitchell Reed, Murray Kaufman (before he became Murray the K) and others.
How’s this for family ties: Married at one time to a Sulzberger (of the New York Times Sulzbergers.) Years after she passed away, he married Marcia Lewis, mother of Monica Lewinsky. His father was FDR’s Director of Housing. His grandfather was co-owner of Macy’s and was the “Straus” in the Abraham & Straus stores. A great uncle, Isador, also a big time retailer died on the Titanic. Another one was U.S. ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.
But it’s WMCA that we radio geeks have to thank him for. No one did editorials. Then Straus did editorials. And he put his money and his lawyers where his mouth was. You have this guy to thank in part for “one person one vote” Supreme Court decision.
WMCA had a real news department that ownership created and took seriously. It covered New York and the rest of the world when other music stations went only lightly in that direction.
They stopped the music each weeknight for two hours so Barry Gray could hold forth. Barry was the grandfather of talk radio and at the time a (shudder) liberal whom Walter Winchell called “Barry Pink.” (Gray, a friend, got more conservative over time, but never was a right winger.)
When they no longer could hold their own against WABC, Straus converted to a talk format. What kind of talk? Uh oh! Liberal.
WMCA no longer is “first on your dial,” because the dial has expanded both upward and downward. But it’s still there at 570. These days it’s owned by Salem, the religious and conservative talk broadcaster.
If Straus had any opinion about the present state of the station his family owned starting in the 1940s, we can’t find it. But we can imagine.
And even though his family name was a household word for millions, he probably had to spend a good deal of time telling people that the letter “s” appears in his name twice, not three times.
Shrapnel:
--For the astrology followers among you... R. Peter Straus’ birthday was February 15th (1923) and Mike Bloomberg’s is February 14 (1942.) So maybe there’s a connection between rich Aquarians and radio. Or not.
--Only two days until the end of the Freak Show in London. It was so exciting to watch the Irish girl beat the Russian girl in lightweight boxing, and the American girl dancing rings around the other Russian girl in the middleweight division, I almost woke up. Next up: the eagerly awaited Bowling With Marbles, with top seeded China expected to roll over former world champion Peru.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com.
© WJR 2012
Wednesday, August 08, 2012
1054 This Little Light of Mine
1054 This Little Light of Mine
It’s around noon and the doorbell rings. Two guys in cheap checked polyester sport coats. Out of date ties made short because they don’t fully fit over their beer bellies.
Not the Romney campaign or the Jehovah’s Witnesses, I gather.
“Mr. Richards?” asks Sport Belly #1.
Yep.
Sport Belly #2 glowers. Gotta be cops.
Number 1 flashes a badge a little too quickly and asks if they can come in and talk.
Sure, have a seat. Number 1 sits. Number 2 stands there and glowers some more.
Get you guys something to drink? Number one says “no thank you.” Number 2 continues practicing his bad cop look. I tell him he can’t be the official bad cop if he doesn’t add a dead eye look to the glower. He replies by adding a dead eye look.
So, I’m wondering what this is all about and I ask #1 “what is this all about?”
Finally, #2 speaks. “We have you on video.”
Oh? Okay.
Number 1: “Yes, I’m afraid while you were quizzing the clerk at Lowe’s yesterday, you were on camera.”
Yes, I was asking him where I could get a 100 watt incandescent light bulb.
Number 2: “Yeah, right, bud. You know they’re illegal. And here you are soliciting for an illegal substance. The Lowe’s guy already has confessed. You’re in big trouble, bud. He’s going to testify against you.”
Illegal?
Number 1: “Would you mind if we took a look around for your stash?”
I don’t have a stash.
Number 2: “Forget the sweet talk. We have a warrant. Let’s tear this place apart. We’re gonna add possession with intent to distribute to that soliciting charge. You’re gonna do time, bud.”
Number 1 pulls out the warrant and passes it over. The local court has authorized the Energy Police to search the premises.
“We don’t really want to disturb the whole house,” says #1. “If you have a stash, you can show it to us and we’ll just confiscate it and book it into evidence.”
I lead them to the basement, to a storage box that is labeled “lightbulbs.”
Number 2 digs in. “60s. 40s. 25s, a few corkscrew bulbs.” And then “AHAH! I got ‘em!”
He pulls three 100 watt bulbs from the box. “Just as I thought,” he says, “a stash.”
I ask him to consider that I bought those since long before they were criminalized. He is unmoved. He scowls. Looks at me with a dead eye.
Number 1: “It’s only three bulbs. Maybe he DID buy them before the law changed.”
Number 2: “Yeah, right. You got receipts?”
For a few lightbulbs that have been sitting here for years?
Number 1: “I’m not sure how many constitute a stash. I seem to remember it was 160. Too few here for ‘intent to distribute.’”
Number 2: “Maybe yes, maybe no. Let’s just take his computer.”
Why the computer?
Number 2: “There are overseas sources for 100 watters, d*ckhead. Just like there used to be for cigarettes.”
About a week later, I was allowed to retrieve the computer. No charges have been filed.
Now I’m going to log into “Cheapbulbsinternational.ru.co. Get me some of those overseas 100 watters.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments -- and orders -- to wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2012
It’s around noon and the doorbell rings. Two guys in cheap checked polyester sport coats. Out of date ties made short because they don’t fully fit over their beer bellies.
Not the Romney campaign or the Jehovah’s Witnesses, I gather.
“Mr. Richards?” asks Sport Belly #1.
Yep.
Sport Belly #2 glowers. Gotta be cops.
Number 1 flashes a badge a little too quickly and asks if they can come in and talk.
Sure, have a seat. Number 1 sits. Number 2 stands there and glowers some more.
Get you guys something to drink? Number one says “no thank you.” Number 2 continues practicing his bad cop look. I tell him he can’t be the official bad cop if he doesn’t add a dead eye look to the glower. He replies by adding a dead eye look.
So, I’m wondering what this is all about and I ask #1 “what is this all about?”
Finally, #2 speaks. “We have you on video.”
Oh? Okay.
Number 1: “Yes, I’m afraid while you were quizzing the clerk at Lowe’s yesterday, you were on camera.”
Yes, I was asking him where I could get a 100 watt incandescent light bulb.
Number 2: “Yeah, right, bud. You know they’re illegal. And here you are soliciting for an illegal substance. The Lowe’s guy already has confessed. You’re in big trouble, bud. He’s going to testify against you.”
Illegal?
Number 1: “Would you mind if we took a look around for your stash?”
I don’t have a stash.
Number 2: “Forget the sweet talk. We have a warrant. Let’s tear this place apart. We’re gonna add possession with intent to distribute to that soliciting charge. You’re gonna do time, bud.”
Number 1 pulls out the warrant and passes it over. The local court has authorized the Energy Police to search the premises.
“We don’t really want to disturb the whole house,” says #1. “If you have a stash, you can show it to us and we’ll just confiscate it and book it into evidence.”
I lead them to the basement, to a storage box that is labeled “lightbulbs.”
Number 2 digs in. “60s. 40s. 25s, a few corkscrew bulbs.” And then “AHAH! I got ‘em!”
He pulls three 100 watt bulbs from the box. “Just as I thought,” he says, “a stash.”
I ask him to consider that I bought those since long before they were criminalized. He is unmoved. He scowls. Looks at me with a dead eye.
Number 1: “It’s only three bulbs. Maybe he DID buy them before the law changed.”
Number 2: “Yeah, right. You got receipts?”
For a few lightbulbs that have been sitting here for years?
Number 1: “I’m not sure how many constitute a stash. I seem to remember it was 160. Too few here for ‘intent to distribute.’”
Number 2: “Maybe yes, maybe no. Let’s just take his computer.”
Why the computer?
Number 2: “There are overseas sources for 100 watters, d*ckhead. Just like there used to be for cigarettes.”
About a week later, I was allowed to retrieve the computer. No charges have been filed.
Now I’m going to log into “Cheapbulbsinternational.ru.co. Get me some of those overseas 100 watters.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments -- and orders -- to wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2012
Monday, August 06, 2012
1053 The Dark Knight Falls
1053 The Dark Knight Falls
No worries. It’s not about the latest Batman movie. This Dark Knight isn’t rising any time soon.
Knight Capital Group. Rebels without an off switch. The company that single handedly threw the markets into chaos and put itself in peril, and maybe a lot of investors -- job creators, if you will -- in danger. Not the kind of danger you get by going to a midnight movie in Aurora, Colorado, or a Sikh temple in suburban Milwaukee. But danger, nonetheless.
Here’s what happened: Knight made a new computer program to speed trading. They put it on line as of the opening of the markets on Wednesday, August first. The software went bananas and resulted in what the company website calls “numerous” erroneous trades.
There’s no firm figure on “numerous.” But selling back the numerouses their software erroneously bought for them has cost them in the neighborhood of US$400 million in losses. And Knight is no pipsqueak. They account for 17% of all the trading on the NYSE and almost as big a percentage on NASDAQ. That’s more than 85 million shares a day! They are -- or were -- the biggest of the bigs, even though we peasants may never have heard of them.
So, let’s say you go to the supermarket and buy a week’s worth of stuff. When you get home, you notice that everything -- EVERYTHING -- is spoiled or beyond the sell-by date.
You could return it all and scream for your money back, which you might or might not get. Or you could simply find another grocery store.
Well, that’s exactly what lots of Knight’s customers have done.
The software malfunction, which lasted all of half an hour, cost them a lifetime of good will. Amazing how much damage you can do in just a few minutes.
Knight immediately set out to find a “White Knight” to bail them out of this mess and by the time you read this, the Blackstone Group will have extended a 400 million dollar helping hand. But the brand is tainted. So, Blackstone and its partners (TD Ameritrade, Getco and Stifel Nicolaus) get to buy in cheap. For you stockies, Knight (NYSE: KCG) had been trading at about 15 most of the year. It closed at about 4 on Friday. The paper securing the bailout will let these buyers in at $1.50 a share.
In a completely unrelated news item on fashion and software, Marissa Mayer, the new CEO of Yahoo, quoted in the New York Times, says “Designing software... isn’t all that different from designing clothes.” Yeah it is. And even at today’s high prices, no dress ever caused the loss of 400 million dollars (and counting.)
Shrapnel:
--While on this topic, there are a lot of folks out there who still confuse the Dow Jones “Industrial” Average with the general health of the market. That never was true, and it’s less true now than ever. Especially in an era where 30 minutes of stupid trades can skew the whole thing and in an era where “long term” is measured in minutes, hours and days and not years or decades.
--Industrial is in quotes because only 13 out of the 30 components are actually industrials and to reach that number, you have to count oil and chemicals. There are five companies in food or retail, four banks or other financials, three in pharmaceuticals, two in software, two in telephone service, and one in entertainment/broadcasting.
--The Romney Robots Remind: “you lib-rulz don’t mind voting for a rich guy if his name is Kennedy.” Right. But old Joe and his sons knew you had to give back, something lost on Bain. So when you vote for a Kennedy you’re voting for a good fifth of Scotch and people whose decades of legislation and public service actually DID create American jobs without sending them overseas, and for a family that pays its taxes instead of hiding its money in the Caymans.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2012
No worries. It’s not about the latest Batman movie. This Dark Knight isn’t rising any time soon.
Knight Capital Group. Rebels without an off switch. The company that single handedly threw the markets into chaos and put itself in peril, and maybe a lot of investors -- job creators, if you will -- in danger. Not the kind of danger you get by going to a midnight movie in Aurora, Colorado, or a Sikh temple in suburban Milwaukee. But danger, nonetheless.
Here’s what happened: Knight made a new computer program to speed trading. They put it on line as of the opening of the markets on Wednesday, August first. The software went bananas and resulted in what the company website calls “numerous” erroneous trades.
There’s no firm figure on “numerous.” But selling back the numerouses their software erroneously bought for them has cost them in the neighborhood of US$400 million in losses. And Knight is no pipsqueak. They account for 17% of all the trading on the NYSE and almost as big a percentage on NASDAQ. That’s more than 85 million shares a day! They are -- or were -- the biggest of the bigs, even though we peasants may never have heard of them.
So, let’s say you go to the supermarket and buy a week’s worth of stuff. When you get home, you notice that everything -- EVERYTHING -- is spoiled or beyond the sell-by date.
You could return it all and scream for your money back, which you might or might not get. Or you could simply find another grocery store.
Well, that’s exactly what lots of Knight’s customers have done.
The software malfunction, which lasted all of half an hour, cost them a lifetime of good will. Amazing how much damage you can do in just a few minutes.
Knight immediately set out to find a “White Knight” to bail them out of this mess and by the time you read this, the Blackstone Group will have extended a 400 million dollar helping hand. But the brand is tainted. So, Blackstone and its partners (TD Ameritrade, Getco and Stifel Nicolaus) get to buy in cheap. For you stockies, Knight (NYSE: KCG) had been trading at about 15 most of the year. It closed at about 4 on Friday. The paper securing the bailout will let these buyers in at $1.50 a share.
In a completely unrelated news item on fashion and software, Marissa Mayer, the new CEO of Yahoo, quoted in the New York Times, says “Designing software... isn’t all that different from designing clothes.” Yeah it is. And even at today’s high prices, no dress ever caused the loss of 400 million dollars (and counting.)
Shrapnel:
--While on this topic, there are a lot of folks out there who still confuse the Dow Jones “Industrial” Average with the general health of the market. That never was true, and it’s less true now than ever. Especially in an era where 30 minutes of stupid trades can skew the whole thing and in an era where “long term” is measured in minutes, hours and days and not years or decades.
--Industrial is in quotes because only 13 out of the 30 components are actually industrials and to reach that number, you have to count oil and chemicals. There are five companies in food or retail, four banks or other financials, three in pharmaceuticals, two in software, two in telephone service, and one in entertainment/broadcasting.
--The Romney Robots Remind: “you lib-rulz don’t mind voting for a rich guy if his name is Kennedy.” Right. But old Joe and his sons knew you had to give back, something lost on Bain. So when you vote for a Kennedy you’re voting for a good fifth of Scotch and people whose decades of legislation and public service actually DID create American jobs without sending them overseas, and for a family that pays its taxes instead of hiding its money in the Caymans.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2012
Friday, August 03, 2012
1052 Calling Dr. Brent
1052 Calling Dr. Brent
You may feel neglected because no exiled prince from Nairobi or Lagos has written to you lately telling you how to collect the millions he wants to give you in return for your banking information.
No worries. There’s been a brief hiatus in this scam while all the exiled princes have moved from Nairobi and Lagos to Hong Kong, earned medical degrees and died leaving you their heirs.
An e-mail pops into the inbox the other day from a guy identifying himself as a representative of a Hong Kong bank. He informs the reader that he has an important and confidential matter to discuss. The recipient returns the e-mail with a single character reply. The character is “?”
Then comes e-mail #2 in which the gentleman from “Hong Kong” apologizes for being unclear the first time and then tells this story:
It seems that a doctor, Mark Brent, died while on a mission of some kind in Africa. (Can’t lose that African connection.) His bank, he says, is about to declare the account dormant because an heir can’t be found. If it does, the funds, US $2.5 million, will have to be turned over to the government of (shudder) China.
So would the e-mail recipient be kind enough to open a secret numbered account into which the money can be deposited. He goes on:
This brings us to the big question; WHY YOU? why would i (sic) choose a total stranger? well i have planned this operation for a while now and the only way to go about it is to use a total stranger to avoid troubles from my bank because they monitor all our activities and the Chinese government has very strict laws against corruption. You may also wonder where i got your email from. I got it from an online directory.
Oh.
Just give me your name, address, phone number, occupation, date of birth, and a photocopy of your valid photo i.d.
Oh.
Ever polite, Mr. Hong Kong banker signs off with
If you feel you can't continue, please notify me so i (sic) can find someone else. I will completely understand.
It’s nice to be understood.
Shrapnel:
--Another Megabus accident, this one with at least one death. Anyone can blow a tire, hit a bridge abutment and crumple one of those high speed tin cans. But bad things seem to follow this outfit.
--On its face, the inmate “Success Bonds” program that rewards reduced recidivism sounds good and seems to be working well in England. But it’s hard to believe that Goldman Sachs would put its own money into something like that without finding a way to profit regardless of the outcome. Still, with the incarceration rate in this country, something has to be done and maybe this is the something.
--A lot of news types have panned “The Newsroom,” HBO’s series set at a TV network. It has elements of extreme fiction, for sure -- but also elements of extreme authenticity. And anything with Sam Waterston in it is worth watching, even though he plays a drunk unconvincingly.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them.
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2012
You may feel neglected because no exiled prince from Nairobi or Lagos has written to you lately telling you how to collect the millions he wants to give you in return for your banking information.
No worries. There’s been a brief hiatus in this scam while all the exiled princes have moved from Nairobi and Lagos to Hong Kong, earned medical degrees and died leaving you their heirs.
An e-mail pops into the inbox the other day from a guy identifying himself as a representative of a Hong Kong bank. He informs the reader that he has an important and confidential matter to discuss. The recipient returns the e-mail with a single character reply. The character is “?”
Then comes e-mail #2 in which the gentleman from “Hong Kong” apologizes for being unclear the first time and then tells this story:
It seems that a doctor, Mark Brent, died while on a mission of some kind in Africa. (Can’t lose that African connection.) His bank, he says, is about to declare the account dormant because an heir can’t be found. If it does, the funds, US $2.5 million, will have to be turned over to the government of (shudder) China.
So would the e-mail recipient be kind enough to open a secret numbered account into which the money can be deposited. He goes on:
This brings us to the big question; WHY YOU? why would i (sic) choose a total stranger? well i have planned this operation for a while now and the only way to go about it is to use a total stranger to avoid troubles from my bank because they monitor all our activities and the Chinese government has very strict laws against corruption. You may also wonder where i got your email from. I got it from an online directory.
Oh.
Just give me your name, address, phone number, occupation, date of birth, and a photocopy of your valid photo i.d.
Oh.
Ever polite, Mr. Hong Kong banker signs off with
If you feel you can't continue, please notify me so i (sic) can find someone else. I will completely understand.
It’s nice to be understood.
Shrapnel:
--Another Megabus accident, this one with at least one death. Anyone can blow a tire, hit a bridge abutment and crumple one of those high speed tin cans. But bad things seem to follow this outfit.
--On its face, the inmate “Success Bonds” program that rewards reduced recidivism sounds good and seems to be working well in England. But it’s hard to believe that Goldman Sachs would put its own money into something like that without finding a way to profit regardless of the outcome. Still, with the incarceration rate in this country, something has to be done and maybe this is the something.
--A lot of news types have panned “The Newsroom,” HBO’s series set at a TV network. It has elements of extreme fiction, for sure -- but also elements of extreme authenticity. And anything with Sam Waterston in it is worth watching, even though he plays a drunk unconvincingly.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them.
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2012
Wednesday, August 01, 2012
1051 Not in MY Church
1051 Not in MY Church
Let’s get the statistics out of the way first. Crystal Springs, Mississippi is five square miles of nothing that’s about half an hour out of Jackson, which is about 100 square miles of not much.
The Robert Johnson Blues Museum is in Crystal Springs. And Johnson likely would understand what’s going on there today. Today, he would be in the majority... Crystal Springs’ population is mostly black. Not mostly by much. But in a town of about 5,000, anything over 2,500 is “mostly.”
Then, there’s the First Baptist Church of Crystal Springs and this is the place where the preacher, in fear of losing his job, refused to marry Charles and Te’Andrea Wilson because they are black. The Wilsons attend this church but aren’t members. The preacher, Stan Weatherford, did conduct the ceremony, but not within the hallowed walls of the FBC.
Pressure from congregants is what he claimed. But not from all of them. There’s a line of members and attendees waiting to apologize. Pressure from congregants could mean anything from “y’all don’ wanna be marryin’ none a those folks in our church,” to that same sentence with the words “or I might have to rethink my annual contribution of 48% of the budget” tacked on.
So a little church in the middle of nowhere performs a racist error for reasons more complicated than race. And the deacons came out with a statement that says in more flowery words “we’ll minister to anyone, regardless...” blah blah blah.
Is that a change of policy? Will the preacher man now be thrown out for NOT marrying the Wilsons?
What’s easily as important as the marriage is that a discussion like this is still going on in 21st Century America, almost 150 years since the issue was supposedly settled and never should have had to been a big deal to begin with.
Keep the Stars and Bars flying, guys. It’s nice to be open about what you stand for.
And to the right thinking, right feeling members of the First Baptist Church: apologies are nice. But find another source of income and send Mr. Big Contributor packing.
Shrapnel:
--Only 12 days to go and the Olympics freak show will be over, less than two little weeks. Then Romney can find somewhere else to put his foot in his mouth. Anyone know who won the gold medal in speed-texting?
--On his foreign tour, Romney insulted the Brits, offered paternalistic praise to Israel while insulting the Palestinians and pandered to laborites in Poland. Three stops in the countries of three staunch US allies. Just think of how that will translate when he addresses our enemies.
--What ultimately will kill the Romney campaign is not the telling of tall tales he’s famous for -- his role at Bain, traditional marriage and the like -- nor his shipping jobs overseas, his ham-handed reverse-diplomacy, nor his arrogant richguy lifestyle. It’s the dog.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© 2012 WJR
Let’s get the statistics out of the way first. Crystal Springs, Mississippi is five square miles of nothing that’s about half an hour out of Jackson, which is about 100 square miles of not much.
The Robert Johnson Blues Museum is in Crystal Springs. And Johnson likely would understand what’s going on there today. Today, he would be in the majority... Crystal Springs’ population is mostly black. Not mostly by much. But in a town of about 5,000, anything over 2,500 is “mostly.”
Then, there’s the First Baptist Church of Crystal Springs and this is the place where the preacher, in fear of losing his job, refused to marry Charles and Te’Andrea Wilson because they are black. The Wilsons attend this church but aren’t members. The preacher, Stan Weatherford, did conduct the ceremony, but not within the hallowed walls of the FBC.
Pressure from congregants is what he claimed. But not from all of them. There’s a line of members and attendees waiting to apologize. Pressure from congregants could mean anything from “y’all don’ wanna be marryin’ none a those folks in our church,” to that same sentence with the words “or I might have to rethink my annual contribution of 48% of the budget” tacked on.
So a little church in the middle of nowhere performs a racist error for reasons more complicated than race. And the deacons came out with a statement that says in more flowery words “we’ll minister to anyone, regardless...” blah blah blah.
Is that a change of policy? Will the preacher man now be thrown out for NOT marrying the Wilsons?
What’s easily as important as the marriage is that a discussion like this is still going on in 21st Century America, almost 150 years since the issue was supposedly settled and never should have had to been a big deal to begin with.
Keep the Stars and Bars flying, guys. It’s nice to be open about what you stand for.
And to the right thinking, right feeling members of the First Baptist Church: apologies are nice. But find another source of income and send Mr. Big Contributor packing.
Shrapnel:
--Only 12 days to go and the Olympics freak show will be over, less than two little weeks. Then Romney can find somewhere else to put his foot in his mouth. Anyone know who won the gold medal in speed-texting?
--On his foreign tour, Romney insulted the Brits, offered paternalistic praise to Israel while insulting the Palestinians and pandered to laborites in Poland. Three stops in the countries of three staunch US allies. Just think of how that will translate when he addresses our enemies.
--What ultimately will kill the Romney campaign is not the telling of tall tales he’s famous for -- his role at Bain, traditional marriage and the like -- nor his shipping jobs overseas, his ham-handed reverse-diplomacy, nor his arrogant richguy lifestyle. It’s the dog.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© 2012 WJR
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