Obama Channels Joe Biden

With his “wee-weed” line.  What is it with these men when they are off the teleprompter?  What kind of leader uses kindergarten language to describe, well, anyone?  Does he not realize he is held to a higher standard?  Next thing you know, he’ll be accusing us of having our panties in a wad or being doo-doo heads.  I expect to hear him say, “Liar, liar, pants on fire!”  He is so condescendingly supercilious, but at the same time, low-brow and banal.  “Wee-weed up.”  Are his kids writing his talking points now?

I Wonder If They Were Thinking of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals

When they melded Kafka with “Alien” and “Transformers.”  The resulting uproar certainly resembles the circus that is the 9th circuit (and makes about as much sense).  Queen2 and I loved “District 9,” which left our respective spouses befuddled.  I especially loved the Nigerians and their cat food scams.  Horus is a little worried about aliens stealing his cat chow now, but I assured him that they seem to prefer the wet food (our cats get only the dry, boring stuff).

Anyway, it was an interesting movie, full of irony and not-so-subtle social commentary, although one wonders why the humans didn’t talk to the aliens about getting back home to begin with.  And if the aliens had all this terrific weaponry, (so they obviously aren’t pacifists), why didn’t they just massacre all the humans when they landed, then get on with fixing their ship and going home?  It doesn’t bear up under too much scrutiny; you have to just enjoy the story.

That Pesky Aunt!

You try soaking her out; you try scrubbing her out…but up she pops again! You think the White House would have a better laundry:

 Obama’s Aunt Resurfaces in Boston Public Housing

President Obama’s Kenyan aunt has returned to public housing in South Boston as she awaits a deportation hearing early next year, the Boston Herald reported Friday.

Zeituni Polly Onyango, the half-sister of Obama’s father, been staying with relatives in Cleveland but moved back to Boston late last year. She moved into her current complex this month.

“Beggars can’t be choosers,” Onyango, 57, told the newspaper Thursday.

She wore a sleeveless dress she said her nephew bought her years before his rise to the most powerful office in the land.

“I’d like to live in a castle and have a limousine but I don’t,” she said. “My wealth is my health.”

What better example could one find of Obama’s ruling principle:  the state is responsible for the individual—not the individual, her family and her close community.  Obama’s partying on Martha’s Vineyard; Michelle is sporting $600 sneakers; Mama-in-Law is living the high life in the White House…but the rest of the family is OUR problem.

This really is a stellar example of the idea of anti-subsidiarity—writ large, socialism.  The state becomes the caretaker and controller, taking away every shred of liberty from the individual and relieving the citizen and her family of all responsibility.  Not only does it fail every time it is tried, it is immoral and an affront to human dignity.

So We Got A New Washer & Dryer...

They’re made by Samsung (now that took us by surprise; I don’t associate Samsung with major appliances).  But while we were weighing the pros and cons of models and brands, I asked what made the GE Profile set special.  Well!  It seems they talk to each other—so say you choose particular settings for the wash cycle of a load of clothes, the washer tells the dryer how to dry them with no input from you.  Now, I don’t know about you, but this raised my hackles just a tiny bit.  Would we install these in our utility room, only to wake up one morning being held hostage by an overly intelligent pair of major appliances?  Would Gozer the Gozarian be in my refrigerator moments later?  Would I hear HAL’s voice telling me to do as I’m told?  Or would this be the opening salvo from SkyNet?  So, we passed on the communicating washer & dryer.  I’ll let someone else boldly go where no laundress has gone before.

Building a Loyal Customer Base

With knowledgeable salespeople who offer pros and cons of each product without trying to steer you to the most expensive, hustle in their step, teamwork between departments AND just about the lowest prices around (and more DVDs than ten Blockbusters together)…Fry’s has won my business.

Poor Max was like a Delta Force trooper, braving not only half an hour at Home Depot while we talked to the Maytag guy, but then two hours at Fry’s while we actually purchased a new washer, dryer and (this is my husband’s pay-off) an LCD TV for the family room.  Since a stated purpose of the trip was to find a couple of movies for Max, which we did at Fry’s within the first five minutes, the rest of the excursion was just agonizing waiting for him.  And the Fry’s is STILL standing.  (There was a small interlude of me teaching Max to tango while the appliance guy played around on the computer.)  Now finally, here we are on the couch, watching (yet another) documentary on black holes.

But back to the customer loyalty riff.  The Maytag guy at Home Depot could barely give us a reason to buy his product instead of LG.  He acted as though he really didn’t care if we made a purchase or not.  The Fry’s guy was committed, interested, knowledgeable about all the brands, willing to go that little bit extra to help us make a decision.  He dragged the Samsung washer across the aisle to plug it in and show us how it self-balances.  He asked me what is important to me (for instance, I don’t really care about super-sterilizing my sheets; I’ve never gotten sick from my clothing, as far as I can tell).  He had advice on what to do with our old washer & dryer (donate the washer, which still works, to Salvation Army—they’ll pick it up; have the store haul away the dryer).  He covered every detail patiently.  He walked us up to his favorite cashier and then over to the TV guy he likes to work with.  The TV guy asked in-depth questions about our viewing environment and what we like to watch.  He told us all about Netflix and how our new TV can stream movies directly through the internet.  Between the two of them, I felt like we made informed decisions that will leave us happy with the products we purchased.

Now, THAT is how a store stays in business (and thrives) during a recession.