Meatstick News: Keith Olbermann 4 More Years

Keith announced on his show last night that he has been signed to 4 more years at MSNBC. To him that means he will receive a reported $1 million / year; to us that means he will continue to host the only news show on TV that is worth a damn.

Although he still falls short of the 2 million nutjobs that watch Bill Orally every night (Keith averages over 600,000), Keith has put MSNBC on the map. His ratings have gone up over 80% in just one year and because of him MSNBC has been able to battle with CNN each night.

Keith is on at 8pm EST and 5pm PST each night on MSNBC.

Meatstick Presidential Fun Fact: July 4th

Everyone knows that the Declaration was adopted on July 4th, 1776.

But...did you know that only 2 Presidents signed the Declaration? They are:

1. John Adams (2nd)
   
2. Thomas Jefferson (3rd)
   

That isn't really all that interesting...but what is interesting is that both Adams and Jefferson died on JULY 4th, 1826!

Meatstick Quiz: Who Said This?

I give you a quote, you try to tell me who said it:

"The weakest must come to the conference table with the same confidence as do we, protected as we are by our moral, economic, and military strength. That table, though scarred by many past frustrations, cannot be abandoned for the certain agony of the battlefield.

Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative. Together we must learn how to compose difference, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose."

You are probably thinking...it has to be either Al Gore, John Edwards, Nancy Pelosi, or Barack Obama.

Well, those are all wrong. Those words came from President Dwight Eisenhower during his farewell address on Jan 17th, 1961. Yes, that same retired 5 star general and Republican President.

This is why you study history.

Meatstick Race: Valentine's 5k - Love 'em or Leave 'em.

The sun broke through just long enough to shine on the 1,400 people gathered at Greenlake in Seattle today for the 2nd annual Love 'em or Leave 'em 5k.
This is an interesting race b/c they hold it on Sunday morning at one of the most overcrowded parks the Jet City has to offer. Greenlake is the mecca for every jogger, walker, yuppie, and babysitter on their weekly workout hajj. There are more iPods, cell phones, and Nike Zooms at this place than in New York City at Christmas. This makes it interesting for the runners as you attempt to navigate your way around the 3 mile lake on the narrow path that encircles the lake. You get around the lady with the stroller and the two King Charles Cavaliers not on leashes and you think you have some daylight , only to run smack into the line of people formed by the guy selling mocha choca lattes at a converted hot dog stand.

I ended up running 1:20 faster than I did last year (17:20 down from 18:40) so I was pretty happy with the actual results of the race (15th out of about 1,400). Another stat that former competitve runners, like myself, like to use is "how many girls beat me?" Three females beat me last year and only 1 beat me this year so I also improved in this ever important category! Next year I'm hoping the lady that beat me puts on some weight and gets up to about 88 pounds so that she slows down and I can blow by her, and sleep better at night.

Meatstick Opinion: Why are we still in Iraq?

I tried to come up with a simple explanation as to why we are still in Iraq.
Bear with me here for a minute.
Here is my hypothesis: We are still in Iraq b/c the general public doesn't care enough to pressure the administration and their elected officials to get us out of Iraq.

Here is my data and assumptions:
1st Point:

• The average daily circulation of the newspapers in America is 45.4 million/day.
• That means that 45.4 million are printed and either delivered to homes, bought at various locations, or go unsold and never read.
• I am making an assumption that of those 45.4 million, only 30 million are actually read. The rest go unsold or delivered to a home and not read.
  
• Last Tuesday 33.7 million people watched American Idol

Based on my data and assumption above, 3.7 million more people watched American Idol than read a newspaper last Tuesday. It follows that the majority of Americans are uneducated; therefore, they have no idea what is going on in Iraq.

2nd Point:
Educated Americans see what is going on in Iraq but b/c it doesn't directly effect them, their outrage over the war only goes so far. As evidenced by Vietnam, if there was a draft, the outrage would grow in numbers and intensity.

Summary:
Uneducated Americans + No Draft = Continuation of the war in Iraq

Meatstick Idea: Ostracizing

America is only 229 years old. In that short amount of time we have been able to create one of the greatest forms of goverment the world has ever seen. When planning our new nation the Founding Fathers had a few major advantages on their side that allowed them to create the wonderful system (for the most part) that we enjoy today. First, they were able to start from scratch. An opportunity to form a government from scratch does not happen very often in the history of the world and the few times that it has things have usually worked out pretty well (I don't count Iraq or Afghanistan b/c those revolutions didn't come from within). France seems to be enjoying their ruling ways after they beheaded their king during the French Revolution and although Russia picked the wrong type of government after they overthrew their tsar in 1917, they at least managed to have an interesting run for over 65 years with communism.
Secondly, our Founding Fathers had the benefit of knowing what type of governments they liked and which types they think worked well. As such, they borrowed different aspects of many forms of goverments (mainly from Greece, Rome, and England) to come up with the ingenious three branch system and balance of power. They also decided it should be a democracy and allowed the people to vote for their chosen leaders to represent them in the Executive and Legislative branches.

With all the great ideas they had, I'm sorry to say that there is one idea that they completely missed out on. The idea I am talking about is something the Greeks came up with called OSTRACIZING. This word is used in our vocabulary today but it got its origin from an ancient Greek practice known as ostrakizein, meaning "to banish by voting with potsherds." This practice was done in order to remove somebody that they felt had too much power. The leaders simply got together and placed their vote on a piece of pottery known as the ostrakon. Whoever received the most votes was then legally banished from Greece, normally for up to ten years and most of them never came back (see: Themosticles).

You can take what you want from this, but man those Greeks were really onto something!

Meatstick Book Review: Big Box Swindle

Big Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for Americas Independent Businesses
by Stacy Mitchell

Stacy Mitchell hates Wal-Mart. But she doesn't stop there, she also hates: Starbucks, Target, Costco, Lowe's, Home Depot, Best Buy, Circuit City, Borders, Barnes and Noble, Hollywood Video, Blockbuster, and pretty much every other chain that has 9 stores off of every highway exit in America. Her main premise is that big box stores are bad for any town b/c they are actually worse for a town than any benefit they may bring. Her arguments include the fact that city councils often give these big box stores huge tax breaks to build in their city but the city never really sees the benefit of the store b/c the majority of the money the store makes gets shipped back to corporate headquarters and is never recycled in the community among the local mom and pop stores. Also, the big box stores are promised tax breaks that are not afforded the local, small businesses which creates uneven competition that the local stores can't keep up with. She also has plenty of examples of how the big box stores are terrible for the environment; whether it be in the form of air pollution from the store and the thousands of cars that drive to them every day or by building 15 acre parking lots on top of wetlands and other environmentally sensitive areas. The other beef she has with big box stores are the common thing that most people see on a daily basis; like terrible customer service, horrible return policies, and a general lack of knowledge from the workers about the products they are selling.
What I really liked about the book is that she doesn't just bitch and moan about big box stores and not give the reader any hope or suggestions of her own. She actually spends the last 25% of the book explaining how small towns have risen up and beaten the big box stores using a variety of methods.
I really liked the book and have begun to make a concious effort to support local businesses whenever I can. It's really hard for people to get away from the big box stores but it can be done if you are willing to pay a little bit more (not much though, you would be suprised how much big box stores make you think you are paying a lot less when most of the time you aren't) and search out the local businesses in your area. I know I feel kind of dirty when I go into big box stores from now on.
Two ironic experiences I had when buying this book: 1) I bought it at a big box Barnes and Noble and 2) The guy at the store said the author was in that very Barnes and Noble a week before giving a lecture about the book and the impacts big boxes are having in America (see EDIT at bottom). I thought it was funny Barnes and Noble was dumb enough to have the lady come in and basically bash their way of doing business. Which also proves her point that the big box stores have no idea what they are selling.

EDIT: Stacy Mitchell, the author, left me a comment to let me know that she has never been part of an author appearance at a Barnes and Noble as I stated at the end of my post. I could have sworn the guy at the store told me she was there but I am obviously taking her word over his! I would like to thank Stacy for pointing this out and I look forward to reading any books she writes in the future. Also, I bought two books this week. I purchased both of them at the local, independent Elliot Bay Book Company here in Seattle. Check them out, they deliver! Elliot Bay Book Company