Thursday, April 28, 2011

Does this make me famous?

I'm on my way home from Budapest.  They have a brand new airport here.  It's beautiful.  I don't know if you have ever been to LAX international airport.  It's like a third world terminal without the unexploded ordinance laying around.

I will be in London right about the time the Royals are getting married.

CNN told me that the entire world will remember where they were at when this "Event of the Millennium" took place. (Millennium is a really hard word to spell).

I think I am more likely to remember what I have for a snack on the plane flying in.  I have nothing against royalty nor the big pep rally this wedding seems to be generating.  I just don't get it.  I'd think more people would watch the last episode of LOST than the wedding.

I must be an outlier data point.

I am not a basketball fan, but CNN made me watch some highlights.  I saw the Spurs were about to be eliminated when a guy drops in a 3-pointer from outside the building with no time left on the clock.  Wow!  The Spurs go on to win.

Ryan is pitching his budget plan all over his home state.  Getting lots of boos but I think this is actually helping him develop a strategy for responding to criticism.  For example:  His new catch phrase is "Broaden the base."  This mean that cutting taxes will create jobs and thus, more tax payers.

This is a great idea...almost.

Step 1: cut taxes to create jobs
Step 2: more jobs equals more tax payers
Step 3: more tax payers equals a balanced budget

Aside from the fact that Step 1 is a complete fantasy, I like this idea.  2 out of 3 ain't bad.

I see Mitt Rommneneneeny has really stepped up to the plate with the insightful comment of "Obama is on a spending spree."  He puts out this little sound bite and then steps away from the podium as if he's just solved something.  Blaming the other guy implies that he has the solution.

It's like when the GOP says "Gas prices are too high."  People look at them as if they've just created our nations first energy policy.

How come this only works for politicians.  If it worked in the real world, I could point out the window and say, "That plane is blue," and people would gather around to congratulate me as if I'd just invented air travel.

Bottom line: A sound bite is just a string of words that actually does - nothing.

Henry Ford said: "You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do."

My flight boards soon and thus far, I have avoided the giant bag of M&Ms.  I actually have a strategy for this.  I eat as much as I can hold before going to the airport in an attempt to muffle my M&M urge.   This actually works fairly well.

By the time you read this, I will be flying alongside my plane as it crosses the Atlantic.

Time to do something heroic.

Up, up and away...

jim


Time permitting, take a look at this video and see if you see what I see.   We get after the Muslim leaders for not standing up to their radicals and say, "Quit being stupid!"  And yet...