Don't Touch That Dial, It's The Friday Follies!!

Happy Friday EVERYONE!

Much more this week that seems worthy of note, so Ill plunge right in.

1) Good Luck With That!: In what has to be one of the most controversial and utterly puzzling business decisions ever made in a while, the recently gone private (by way of Cerberus Capital Management) Chrysler Corporation has decided to put in the CEO driver's seat, none other than Bob Nardelli!!!!??????? That's right folks, the guy who nearly expanded and just about wrecked Home Depot is being entrusted with Chrysler at a rather fragile juncture in its existence. Isn't this kind of like trusting a fox in the hen house? Yeah, I know, some argue that Bob has a lot of Mr Fix-It skills (he did do a pretty good job at GE in their transportation wing) and all. However, there are major red flags that it looks like Chrysler's turning a blind eye to:

A) His abrasive micro-managing style

B) His unabashed "I DESERVE IT ALL" mentality when it comes to his rather odious sense of entitlement in the compensation realm. Simply put, at Home Depot, he was getting paid big bucks to screw up (and he sure did, between killing employee morale, sending HD's stock price plummeting, not showing up at a stockholder's meeting and disallowing dissent of any type before getting himself canned and despite that, getting one of the most outrageously UNDESERVED severance packages in modern corporate history).

C) A COMPLETE lack of experience in the automobile industry. He must be thinking, "I didn't have any retail experience before Home Depot hired me, why should it matter here?' I hope someone gets the compunction to tell him, WRONG 'EM BOYO, it DOES matter!

Chrysler has made clear though, that Nardelli's salary is dependent on his performance (so they say), but we'll see. Who knows, he might actually help Chrysler in certain respects, I just hope the damage is minimal (of course, that's a relative term). Read more HERE

With all this going for him, could a White House run in 2012 be impossible (hey, it worked for George Dubbaya)?

2) I'm Not Alone #618: Syndicated columnist Richard Reeves is definitely echoing my feelings about who our enemies and friends really are. More and more, I personally have come to the belief that Saudi Arabia is really our WORST enemy in many ways, not the least of which is the fact they have and continue to actively support terrorist organizations and principles all the while trying to convince us they're our friends (and George Dubbaya is predictably stupid and brainless enough to fall for it). It doesn't help that Howdy-Doody and The Penguin gave these duplicitous turban-crowned pirates and murderers a free pass after 9/11 happened (personally, I think we should've declared all out war on Saudi Arabia in short order if we had any sense or cajones). This pointless incursion into Iraq, which had ZERO to do with any real terrorist threat was merely a distraction to hide the real facts about Saudi involvement and complicity in terrorism, and of course to keep the oil flowing at high prices. In any case, Richard Reeves hits the major points HERE.

3) Customer Service Inaction: Laughing hysterically at the irony of this one! A German supermodel known as Dora signed on with Deutsche Telekom to be their high-profile spokesperson in their ad campaigns. And dang it, Dora did EVERYTHING within reason to hold up her end of the bargain. And what does this dear woman get for her trouble? A THREE MONTH DELAY IN GETTING DEUTSCHE TELEKOM SERVICE AT HER APARTMENT, that's what! She's now at the point of threatening to go with another provider if it isn't resolved quickly. The story HERE

4) They'll Turn ANYTHING Into A Musical Nowadays: As if musicals about menopause and the oft-recycled "Bat Boy" story in the National Enquirer aren't odious enough (yes, I absolutely CANNOT STAND Broadway musicals, no thanks to one Carol Channing and her obnoxious signature show "Hello Dolly"), some moron in London HAS to go and produce a corny pointless and TASTELESS musical about Osama Bin Laden, one that doesn't exactly have critics raving either, more HERE

5) Panhandling, Where DO You Draw The Line?: A thorny issue to be sure. I'm all for helping those in need through unfortunate circumstances and do it as much as I can, as should any decent human being with a heart. However, the other side is that some unscrupulous people who, through a series of inexcusably STUPID, criminal and destructive life-choices and/or just plain LAZINESS feel that the rest of us who work for a living in some manner have to just hand over what they never earned. The stories are endless on both sides of the issue, but today, one in particular grabbed my attention. Portland Oregonian columnist Margie Boule' wrote a very compelling article on the 10 year plus saga of one panhandler (referred to as "David") who somehow has bamboozled many with a recycled story of his truck breaking down and needing $10 to get back home. One Portland resident had enough after extensive investigation of his own and at one point decided to bring a class-action lawsuit against "David" after being conned himself. Eventually, this rightfully angry citizen dropped the suit, only because of the immense difficulty of proving criminal intent under current laws (it would've been easier if this guy had been selling shoplifted goods or something like that) and that this "David" would NEVER have been able to pay restitution to his victims to start with. However, the fact that this man kept a blog and was on several news stories by itself should serve as a public service/warning to be on the lookout for unscrupulous scam artists like "David". Click HERE for the full story and HERE for the outraged citizen's blog

Here in Atlanta, it's near epidemic unfortunately. There is an anti-panhandling law but the enforcement is LAX at best. I personally witnessed some joker panhandling on the MARTA train, and the second he got off, pulled out wads of $20 bills, and then only to be BUSTED by the MARTA police right there and then (a rare instance of actual enforcement). There was another instance where a pair of panhandlers gave this one commuter at a MARTA station the mega-sob story. He gave them some money, and much to his dismay, not even 30 seconds later, these 2 jokers pull out of the station parking lot in A LATE MODEL SUV!!! And dear readers, DO NOT EVER fall for the story of someone having just gotten a job and needing some money. One incident that really got me tweaked was some MORON having the nerve to ask me for cash and blatantly admitting that he lost his wallet after getting drunk at a strip club (good going there genius!), it took a lot of willpower and inner strength for me to not punch out this dumbass. Sorry folks, but I AM NOT in the business of rewarding bad/stupid behavior.

All this is why nowadays, with rare exceptions, I WILL NOT give out cash to panhandlers, but rather I will give money to organizations and such that can actually give long-term help/counseling/treatment for this malaise. I WILL NOT unwittingly support destructive addictions or criminal activity, PERIOD! Giving money to a panhandler is at best only a band-aid and in some case could do more harm than good. There has to be a better way.

6) Well Blow Me Down!: Amazing, a rather important part of my early childhood that I never stopped liking has been lovingly restored to DVD (BIG kudos to Warner Video for great picture and sound, PLUS lots of good bonus material), namely the Popeye cartoons that were produced from 1933-1938, the ORIGINAL, and STILL THE BEST! Max and Dave Fleischer created a definitive piece of Americana based on the Thimble Theatre comic strips of the early part of the 20th Century. Between the hilariously improbable action, the screamingly funny mumbling and muttering you could actually understand, the crazy story lines, the sometimes 3-dimensional scenery, the wisecracking Bluto, the perpetually broke and hamburger addicted Wimpy and the highly dysfunctional and co-dependent relationship between the loyal anvil-armed sailor and the shallow, reckless and fickle Olive Oyl (psychologists could have a field day with these cartoons), how could you NOT be entertained? How could you not convulse with side-splitting laughter? Check out the Amazon page, this thing got MAJOR rave reviews.

HAPPY FRIDAY FROM THE OWL'S NEST