Random Thoughts (Political Edition)

So, a final gear top tip: pay attention the next time you'll say "Darling, I'll love you till the end of time..."
 
Heathrow said:
BBC News scuttlebutt has it that former PM Tony Bliar has been invited to the US Senate hearings over the release of the Pan Am 103 Lockerbie bomber (al-Megrahi) and the alleged links to BP.
I suspect the Tony will be busy until further notice, if not longer. :lol:

The Scottish Justice Secretary and other officials north of the border, have already declined. BBC News link
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Just to point this out.

The UK Government of the time are coming in for a lot of criticism. Good. Tony Blair (and his Libyan Prisoner Transfer Agreement, a negotiated agreement regarding the movement of Libyan prisoners when there was only one Libyan prisoner in the UK) deserves it. They are the ones who have spoken lots to BP.

The Scottish Government are the ones who actually released the Lockerbie bomber. You can criticise them for that all you want (I have), but they had no contact whatsoever with BP.

The one flaw with the BP conspiracies at the moment is that it involves the UK (Labour) Government talking to, or persuading, the Scottish (SNP) Government, and that will never, ever have happened, for the simple reason they are completely opposed to each other. They're Scotland's Republicans and Democrats, essentially.
 
Firecat said:
Syria bans "Islamic veil" at universities

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100720/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_syria_islamic_veils_20
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I have been meaning to talk about the bans in France and Spain and whatnot for a while but this is better as it's a muslim country. Gets rid of the easy "racist europeans lalala won't listen to what you say lalala"-argument.

Hiding behind a veil is offensive, plain and simple, and have no place in a modern public enviroment. Wear a scarf all you want, but covering your face and observing me while not allowing me to observe you is not acceptable.

Also, let's have some Rosling to brighten our day.

 
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Even if it was caused by the use of DU rounds (which I doubt) I still do not see that as a reason to stop using the material.
 
This is seriously an ad that runs on Oklahoma TV advertising a siding and windows company...just odd ending.

 
So? I am failing to see what is so odd about it.
 
Saying "secular socialist" about the America of today is a bit like saying "fundamentalist conservative christian" about Norway. It's just not true.
 
Not only is it completely irrelevant to the product, and strange in the context of the commercial itself (no transition at all) it's more tea-partier bullshit talk. Talking about how you're a conservative christian, than talking about liberty and freedom, and than talking about some kind of "secular socialism" will take that all away from people is just plain fuckin' stupid. :p Present a coherent argument rather than throwing out a bunch of vaguely related, scary-sounding buzzwords and than it won't be so strange.

nomix said:
Saying "secular socialist" about the America of today is a bit like saying "fundamentalist conservative christian" about Norway. It's just not true.
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True, true.
 
Not to mention that it's.. supposedly a commercial about windows.

I know, I'll start an advertising firm and make commercials for lard.

"Hello, I sell lard. I am a marxist leninist maoist, and religious nuts are taking over Norway. Buy my lard, comrades!"

Doesn't sound that silly, eh?
 
jetsetter said:
So? I am failing to see what is so odd about it.
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It is incredibly bad business. Even in OK there have to be more then a few people who aren't going to use your company because you pissed them off by insulting their political views.

The owner of our dealership has a long standing policy.

He stays out of publicly declaring support or opposition to just about any political candidate or party.

That means no political signs on any property he owns no appearing in any political ads no mention of anything like that. I am sure he donates to some campaigns but he doesn't advertise it.
 
Politics is politics, business is business and religion is religion - none of these should directly impinge upon any other. Of course you values may be informed by you religious convictions which may make you a better/worse honest businessman, and your political views too but I feel you should keep quiet about them if you are in business.

I am fairly sure that the ad in the UK would be rejected by the TV Advertising Standards people any how.
 
Politics is politics, business is business and religion is religion - none of these should directly impinge upon any other.
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But they do, all the time, and have for a long time. Saying that they should not directly impinge upon each other is meaningless because it will never happen.

I am fairly sure that the ad in the UK would be rejected by the TV Advertising Standards people any how.
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That is unfortunate.

The man is attempting to appeal to a certain clientele that shares his beliefs. Not the craziest idea out there and as I mentioned earlier nothing new. I am sure he is well aware that he will be alienating some with his commercial and that is his choice.
 
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I just thought is was an odd time to talk about politics, makes him sound crazy.

Also I'm moving to Tennessee so I can vote for Basil Macreaux! :lol:

[video=youtube;_zCY99-Y540]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zCY99-Y540&feature=player_embedded[/video]
 
I'd like to move to Tennessee to see Tennessee, that chap is lovely but crazy.
 
jetsetter said:
But they do, all the time, and have for a long time. Saying that they should not directly impinge upon each other is meaningless because it will never happen.



That is unfortunate.

The man is attempting to appeal to a certain clientele that shares his beliefs. Not the craziest idea out there and as I mentioned earlier nothing new. I am sure he is well aware that he will be alienating some with his commercial and that is his choice.
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And it is still bad business. People shouldn't let their personal views on politics, religion, race, etc. influence their business decisions.

Business is business.

Everyone's money is green, at least in the US, and I want to have the best opportunity to sell the most of mount of product to the greatest number of people.

Short quick story.

Few years ago we have this younger guy early 20s or so coming in to look at cars and he is pretty obviously gay. He is out and very proud and gladly wears in his own words, "a flaming halo around his head."

He doesn't car that is who he is and if you have a problem with that too bad.


Doesn't matter to us like I said our motto is everyone's money is green.


We go through the regular drill find out what kind of car he wants, how much he can spend does he have cash or finance and find him a nice four year old convertible. He has good credit considering how young he is and a large down payment. Finances the car for a short term and plans to pay it off early to build up his credit.


After the deal is all done and he has signed all the paperwork he gets kind of quiet. I wasn't involved in this deal directly so I am just watching from outside the office but he kind of asks for the salesman and our other sales manager to come into the office with him and our F&I guy.


I am paraphrasing here since I was outside earshot and only saw what he said but it went something like this.


I just want to thank you guys for helping me buy a car. I have been to five different dealerships and everyone gave me the run around and wouldn't help me. I know how I am and that I am gay and look a bit out there but you guys didn't care about that you helped me by my first car and I am just really, really thankful.

Five different businesses essentially turned him away because they didn't like the way he looked. Ignoring the fact that it is just wrong to do something like that on moral, ethical and probably legal grounds it is just bad business.


We got his money and earned him as a customer for life. We have sold him two other cars since then and have gotten more then a half dozen plus referrals. We get all his service business and all the service business from his referrals too. Just doing the right thing for this kid probably earned the company close to a $40,000 in gross profits over the past five or so years. Just going by the average on what we make on every used car plus 10 or so different cars being serviced I figure it has to be at least $40,000.
 
No need for a story. As I said, I suspect he is well aware that he will be alienating some and he seems to be alright with that. It is his choice to loose potential revenue. I am attempting to defend his right to say what he said and to loose money.
 
Sure. As far as I care, he has the right to say "Here at Jihad Cars, we praise Allah and the Jihad against the Great Satan. Buy our cars, and support the moral supremacy of Sharia", but it's still fucking daft.
 
New tool being rolled out for law enforcement called the "dazer laser"

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xASD_eNE4VU[/youtube]
 
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