I Want Your Money

There is supposed to be a new movie hitting theaters this fall. The timing places it in advance of the Congressional mid-term elections in November. It's called I Want Your Money and it's by film maker Ray Griggs. That is if Griggs can come up with the cash to finish production.

This movie depicts the national debt crisis through a combination of documentary interviews and animation. In it an animated Ronald Reagan tries to teach Barack Obama about economics and budgeting. The animation, as well as the logo, were done by an artist from Mad Magazine. Among those appearing in the movie are Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee and John Stoessel.

One little problem: It is inconceivable that a conservative look at the last two years like I Want Your Money could ever be produced and then screened in any multiplex controlled by the left-leaning entertainment industry. Just remember the difficulty that conservative comic Ben Stein had getting Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed made. Conservatives who long for the days of Thirty Seconds over Tokyo and Medal of Honor: The Audie Murphy Story know the drill. No liberal bent, no investors. No investors, no screens. No screens, no movie.

Nevertheless, take a look at the trailer below. Share it with a friend. It's almost as good as a movie. And it's cheaper than ten bucks and a bucket of popcorn. If by some quirk this thing gets made and screened, so much the better.

Just thought you might like to know.

Have It Your Way

President Obama's wife Michelle has raised the issue of obesity to the forefront as part of the national debate on American health and healthcare. The administration is spending millions of dollars on "public outreach" to educate people about eating in a more healthy manner.

The assumption is that the American people are ignorant about nutrition and the dangers of poor diet and--Heaven help us--fast food.

But are fast food consumers really ignorant? Do they really need Uncle to educate them about what they eat? Are the fast food shops preying on consumers who need to be saved? Who knows?

But a new survey just out by Scarborough Research pokes some holes in the stereotypical fast food consumer as a morbidly obese illiterate dropout with grease stains on his wife beater.

According to the survey more than a third of American adults will eat breakfast this month in a fast food restaurant. In addition, these consumers

• are 16% more likely to live in a household with an annual income of $100,000 or more
• more likely to have a college or advanced degree
• more likely to eat breakfast at a fast food restaurant than other consumers
• 18% more likely to spend 20 or more hours online each week
• more likely to obtain news and information from the Internet

Far from being obese drains on the nation's healthcare system, fast food breakfast consumers are more likely to live active lives, including belonging to a gym or health club. They're also more likely to be a jogger or play soccer, basketball or tennis.

It seems that these consumers are figuring out this healthy lifestyle thing just fine, with or without Uncle's help.

Just thought you might like to know.

Shocking Mindset

Every year at this time, since 1998, Beloit College in Wisconsin has published its Mindset List of incoming freshmen. For anyone old enough to have voted for or against Bill Clinton the mindset of the Class of 2014 is, well, scary. Hard to believe, but these 18-year olds:

• have never known TV that didn't have 500 channels
• can text the result of a basketball game in 160 characters, but can't write cursively
• know Clint Eastwood as the artistic director of films like Grand Torino-not the testosterone-fueled vigilante detective Harry Callahan
• listen to Kurt Cobain on an oldies channel-if they listen to radio at all
• know Russia as an ally of the U.S.
• have never known phones that have corded receivers
• have never had to study countries like Czechoslovakia or Yugoslavia in geography class
• don't wear wristwatches to tell time

To someone who grew up with 3 network TV stations, enjoyed both Dirty Harry and Grand Torino, who as a Boy Scout passed out flyers on the nearest local shelter from Russian nukes, remembers the pride of a first wristwatch, and who didn't hear of Kurt Cobain until I was 45, this all comes as a shock.

Just thought you might like to know!

On Holiday

This blog is on vacation till mid-August. The history of vacations in American is a curious one. The first recorded vacation in the colonies occurred in the 18th century when a Dr. Alexander Hamilton (presumably not that Alexander Hamilton) saddled his horse in Maryland and rode off seeking "health and recreation."

Since the good doc took some time off in 1744 until now, vacationing has become a multi-billion dollar industry. The psychology of vacationing is that you've worked like a field hand for 50 weeks, and you're entitled to spend anything you want. It's as if someone handed you a pile of Monopoly dollars when you jumped behind the wheel (or up on your horse, in the case of Dr. Hamilton). Things you wouldn't be caught dead with or spending a dollar on in real life somehow end up making their way home with you after vacation. Tee shirts with stupid sayings. Sombreros for the beach. Wet suits you'll never use again. $100 worth of fishing tackle. I know of people who have come home with new cars. People who won't wait at a traffic light will stand in line for an hour to get in to a seafood restaurant. There they'll spend for $40 for fish that spent the last 2 years of its life frozen in a box in some one's freezer.

Money has no value on vacation, and hence, is no object.

The term we use, "vacation," as opposed to "holiday," employed in much of the rest of the world, is an English term that originally referred to the break taken by King's courts and later the universities. The concept of vacation was brought to England from France by William the Conqueror. In France it was used to denote the period of time when life stopped so the grapes could be harvested.

Today, just under half of all Americans take a summer vacation. This year we'll spend on average about $1600 to relax. All in, that's about $7 billion more than we spend as a nation last year (seems like I spent that last week).

Where will we all go to relax? About 40% of us will head to an ocean or beach of some kind--by far the most popular place to go. About 20% will go to the mountains to chill, while the rest of us will head overseas or to grandma's house.

Me? Count me in that 40% for whom the fascination with rolling waves, sand beneath the feet, and catnaps on the beach never grow old.

Just thought you might like to know.