Category: Featured

  • Political Promises

    Obama vs HillaryThe last weekend prior to the Indiana and North Carolina primaries have been particularly ridiculous. It seems that the new strategy of both the Clinton and Obama campaign has been to out-promise one another.

    It reminds me of 5th grade as people ran for student council. “If elected, I will give new uniforms to the basketball team and cheerleaders.” [insert applause] Of course, when that girl got elected no one got new uniforms. It turns out the student body president doesn’t get to decide stuff like that.

    It also reminds me of the countless stories I’ve heard from people joining the military. They will promise you whatever you want to hear so that you will sign on the dotted line. Of course, a recruiter has zero say in what you actually do once in the military. But their only job is to tell you what you want to hear so that you join.

    It’s the same with these political candidates.  They don’t care what they promise, they only care that you punch their name at the election. It’s impossible for them to say things like “I’d eliminate the gas tax.” or “I’d pull soldiers out of Iraq the day I get elected.” or “I’ll tax you less while giving you more.” One candidate tries to look presidential in front of flags while another drinks whiskey and pretends to like country music. It’s all just marketing. Of course, the thing is that the President of the United States can’t just pull soldiers out of Iraq or cancel a gas tax or cut taxes while increasing benefits. The President is not a supreme ruler as there are two other equal levels of government. Do you really think that Congress would allow the President to abandon a mission in Iraq? Do you really thing the Supreme Court would consider it lawful to force corporations to pay more taxes? 

    Ultimately, politicians only care about one thing. They care that you will walk into the voter booth and punch their name. They will tell you whatever fantasy you want to hear.

    Let’s hear them argue about something important! Which mac-n-cheese is the cheesiest? 

  • Aim lower.

    aim lowerStick with this video. It will make you angry and then it will teach you something. At Romeo, I think we are aiming lower, thinking smaller, giving up, and
    having cups of coffee.

    What about you? How are you doing?

    HT to Chris

  • Light Force Concert

    Light Force ConcertOn April 20th, 2008 Light Force is hosting a great concert. Jimmy and his band will be joined by local band, Nowhere Found.

    I’ve been thinking and dreaming about this event for a long time. We know that in Romeo 4% or less of 6-12 graders regularly attend a youth group… but we also know that some local music clubs are filled to capacity 3-4 nights per week! So our method here is really simple and really obvious. We want to introduce people to our student ministry in a very non-threatening way… so we’re simply doing what they already enjoy in our environment to introduce students to our student ministry.

    Here’s the official announcement. Here’s the myspace page. Here’s the facebook page.

  • The Pulitzer for Editorial Writing Goes To….

    PulitzerI was checking out the press release for this year’s Pulitzer Prize. You know, just to make sure I didn’t win anything.

    As I scanned through the winners I saw that one category didn’t have a winner, editorial writing. Check it out for yourself. It reads, “no award.”

    First I thought it was ironic because with blogs and websites all over the place editorial writing is probably more quantitatively available today than at any other time in human history.  Then I thought it was appropriate because with 250,000,000 editorial writers/bloggers out there I couldn’t say that any of them is the best.

    Now I’m wondering why no one was awarded a prize in that category? Because if no one else wants it, I’ll take it. I haven’t won a big award since I was awarded “Student of the Year” at 6th grade graduation and I think I’m due.  

  • Shutting Down missingmoney.com

    Shut DownThis morning on the Today Show they had a topic called, “Finding Lost Money.” During the segment they talked about a website where you can find out if you have unclaimed money. Being that I am an internet dork and I am poor, I grabbed my laptop and went to missingmoney.com.

    Of course, the site was basically shut down by the Today Show mention. The servers were probably ready to handle 10-100 queries per minute with no problem. But when the segment told millions of viewers they could find free money by simply putting their name and state into a database you can imagine this poor little server going… “OK, everyone form a line!” The only problem is that on the internet there is no line. As thousands of people hit “submit” to the database at the same time… it freaked out and shut down.

    Two lessons here.

    1. While this is an internet age, mass media is still quite powerful. While the internet is a fantastic way to spread a message about a product, service, church, or whatever… mass media is still mass media.
    2. Be careful what you wish for. Sometimes when you are small you think… “If I can just hit a homerun and get my name out there to the masses, it’ll be great.” Of course the real question for that scenario is… “Are you ready for the masses or will the masses shut you down?” Are you prepared to handle a massive response to your product, services, church, or whatever it is you are trying to get out to the masses?