Circuit City Blows A Slow Burning Fuse

From the AP wire, via WTOP.com via Fark.com comes the news that Circuit City's are all closing. You can read the WTOP article by clicking the above headline, or you can go here:

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=111&sid=1514456

Seriously, does this news comes as a surprise to anyone who has followed the news over the last few years, and can you REALLY blame "The Economy" for this happening? I'm sure you'll see over the course of the current news cycle about how Circuit City going under thrusts an estimated 30,000 new unemployed folks out into the streets, but honestly whose fault is it really? This article mentions the fact that their execs didn't take the "threat of Best Buy seriously", but their problems started way before this year when they decided it was a great cost saving move to layoff 3400 of the mid-range waged employees, employees who had worked for the chain for a number of years and who, being rewarded for their hard work and service to their stores, had earned themselves systematic raises, or promotional raises (again based upon their loyal service to the company). When they had announced that boneheaded move at the end of March 2007 I knew they were slitting their own throats and encouraging their customer base to be as loyal to them as they were to their employees. Employees who, by the way, were deep within their primary marketing demographic.

This is much more an example of horrible corporate strategy than bad economic times. Once all those initial layoffs started word of mouth began to spread. Disgruntled employees started disclosing the many flaws in their stores marketing and retailing money grubbing scams. Negativity ran through their sales demographic as those who did their research began to realize the many flaws and schemes that are prevalent in the retailing system. A second round of layoffs a few months after the first was really the icing on the cake, leaving CC with little if any mid range employees (those employees that would be experienced and in the trenches sort of speak) to watch out over their business, let alone give a rip about it.

My point is made by this story earlier in the week where two guys walked right into a CC in Salisbury North Carolina and walked straight out with a 67 inch flat screen (retail value around $3200), only to have an employee chase them out of the store to ask them if they needed something to help tie the set to the roof of their small car. The thieves told the sales rep that they did need some rope and the boneheaded under-payed (I assume he was probably not caught in the rounds of layoffs at least if her was still working there)clerk went back into the store to get them some. By the time he returned he thought it was odd they didn't wait for him as he watched them leave the parking lot securing the set to the roof of their car just by hanging onto it. That article is here (and I recommend reading it because it IS rather funny!):

http://www.salisburypost.com/Area/011309-Circuit-City-television-theft

The CC execs idea of cost cutting was indeed short sighted when in the long term salesmanship comes mainly from loyalty and word of mouth.

Certainly the economic downturn did factor into their bankruptcy, but in truth once this Corporate decided to cut out its middle, its HEART, they were destined to eventually bleed to death anyway. Another example of sad corporate greed eroding the middle class. Now you wonder why I don't care for Wal-Mart?

WAKE UP!!

Atlas Shrugged As Relevant as Ever

A recent Wall Street Journal article covers the relevancy of Ayn Rand's novel ATLAS SHRUGGED, as well as an over view of the book and a note on its influence to many in today's society. I attached a link to the above headline, or you can go here to read the WSJ article:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123146363567166677.html

Atlas Shrugged is one of my favorite books, not only for the viewpoint it serves, as much as the sociological discussion it encourages. Though this article is almost a Cliff Notes version of why the book is more relevant today that ever, and why it would be so important to get a message like this out into modern media. there has been talk of a movie (Angelina Jolie attached at that), as well as a miniseries for HBO at one time or another, but given the powerful message and points raised I would say it would be a small miracle for such a project to actually be done, let alone left faithful to the book.

If you have not read Atlas Shrugged, believe me when I tell you that it is well worth your time and money to do so, even in "Books On Tape" form.

I close out today with a small clip from another important Rand work that did make it to the silver screen (with Gary Cooper no less) The Fountainhead, which emphasises the important of the individual over the collective, again well worth the read, as well as Rand's other fiction work Anthem (In which a man i9n future society rediscovers the word "I"). Here, via You Tube is Gary Cooper from The Fountainhead. Enjoy and WAKE UP!

WTF: Another Week, Another Bitch or Five

What can I tell ya? Some stupidity just makes you "Hulk Out". Here's a short list of bitches that have me a little fired up lately...

The ECONOMY.

As you saw in my last post The Economy has me bitching, but I'm still doing a little research on that so you lucky readers here won't be subjected to that little slice of heaven just yet. Still mad, but still prepping. Onward...

GM AND SATURN.

Because of their money troubles, GM is making plans to dump or sell off the Saturn brand name. Who the boneheaded idiot up in the big silver tower in Detroit came up with that wonderful idea ought to be either fired for being an asshole idiot, or at best have their year end bonus (corporate bonuses will from now on be refer ed to as "boned-us")taken away and given to the Saturn marketing department. wait, actually, honestly both that idiot AND the Saturn marketing department deserve to go, and go quickly.
Saturn is one of the few bright spots out there in the GM stable, it's just that SO few folks realize this (apparently even their corporate heads refuse to realize this as well). Saturn, though they have had their defective design problems, and sad auto lines, was able to do one or two things totally right: 1) they stayed making the same car (the SL-1) for many, many years until they refined it and made it a quality product, and 2) Since they stupidly stopped making the SL-1 they have designed as good, or better products at a lower than average price structure, especially for a GM product.

Ask anyone who owned, or still owns an SL-1, you still see them on the road, they are quality cars, and frankly my little SL-1 is a TANK. I don't know of anyone who's owned one within the last three years of it's manufacture that does not love their car. A good portion of those people have actually gone on to purchase another Saturn based solely upon their love of the SL-1, and they will probably be faithful to the brand for a few more years to come. My second car is an Ion, and it is NOT designed nearly as well as the SL-1, I have had to pour a grand into it's upkeep within the last six months and need to take it into the shop again in fact, but I am already looking at buying an Astra as soon as a few more of my debts are gone.

Saturn's problem is that they stopped making the SL-1, PLUS they have yet to successfully market ANY of their cars to the public. Their marketing STINKS. I honestly cannot remember a single TV ad for Saturn that I liked- NONE. I bought my first SL-1 because a friend of mine swore by them. I bought it and have ran it into the found over a period of seven years now and have yet to do any kind of serious maintenance on it. It was a showroom sampler when I bought it, and loaded with options, easily affordable, and I think the only major thing that ever went wrong on the sucker so far is the electronic window switch went bad (but that was from me playing with it too much I'm sure). My Ion, on the other hand has had front wheel structural problems, a plastic window clip bust and have to be replaced, a circuit switch in the steering column replaced, my windshield wiper assembly totally replaced, and one or two other things done to it, all with about half the actual millage that my SL-1 has had. Still, it's been almost 5 years owned and I has not spoiled my taste for the Saturn brand a wit.

So, if you ask me, DON'T sell off the brand, REDEFINE it with the rep it;s earned from it's drivers who LOVE it. It fits a market (low end, practical users and first time buyers) and needs to be catered to it. There are SO many other makes and models you can trim before shitcanning the entire company. Oh, and you can stop making the Vue if you have to, either that or make it look a hell of a lot cooler. that MIGHT get me to buy one if it looked cooler. i would have bought the Astra by now if it looked a little sleeker. The wife likes it at least.

McSCREWED.

That double cheeseburger DID get jacked up around here, it only took them a couple of days to do it. McD's entire menu has been jacked up, all this AFTER the price of transporting their products has dropped, AND the fact that they've received a sales jump due to the economy and folks wanting to eat out and not spend- well, if they hit the McD's they'll be spending a little more than they did last week. Now all the other fast food chains are expected to follow, AGAIN after the cost of moving their products have hit a new low. For once i kind of agree with the sad Wal-Mart philosophy of keeping the price structure manageable- pound the supplier to pound their supplier to give them a cheaper price. McD's is officially the LAST place I'm buying fast food from now on. They join Wal-Mart and Circuit City for places I'd rather be dead than to walk into. McScew 'em!

COMICS.

There's an entire blog's weight in problems from this shoe sized industry that I just don't want to approach right now, but eventually will. There hasn't been any good reading out there in months, but on the plus side I have found a few books well worth my time. I'll tell you all about those as soon as possible.



MY BITCHY BLOG

Hey, sorry if you think I should 'lighten up" here in my blog. I speak my opinionated mind and TRY to have my opinions backed up by a little fact every once in awhile. I KNOW some of you would rather I speak about comics 24/7, and for that I have to admit that I write about what I give a shit about, and more and more lately it just doesn't include today's funny books. I stopped buying most of that crap, even though I love the art form, there's only so much shit you can put in the barn before you drive out the animals. I'm still trying to get up the energy to tell you about the Heroes I Miss, but I'll TRY to get more comic commentary here asap.

This whole political thing has had me in a tizzy, followed by our bungled economy and the fact that we as Middle Class Americans have been the primary ones screwed out of all this just pisses me off a lot, and as more and more of the Obama administration is revealed as the old Clinton administration my thought about my country and my livelihood are dimming in their cheeriness.

I hope Obama at least tries to live up to his promise of "change" without screwing us any more. After looking around this area I honestly don't know how much more we can take.

On the plus side my interest rates on my credit card(s) and the evil equity loan has dropped considerably, allowing me to keep paying the same and yet pay off more of the principle. I want to say it helps me see the light at the end of the debt tunnel a little clearer, but I'm a cynical monkey and know that that exit has a tendency to move farther away at times. Enough bitching I have work to do. More here when I can- till then...

WAKE UP!

WTF FRIDAYS: STILL A DOLLAR SHORT!!

This lateness keeps up and I'll start calling it WTF Saturdays!

More odd thoughts from this monkey mind:

So, what exactly causes an economic depression? Someone tell me ‘cause I’m pretty sure my local area has been depressed now for about the last three years. Gotta LOVE Flint! At least the local political soap opera stays humorous. You count the insane federal government wheelin’ and dealin’, the states constant B.S., and the locals arguing over a constantly shrinking pie, you got a real three ring circus around here at times.

I’ll tell you more about Flint when the subject comes up-which should be about any time now. We JUST got the GM Volt engine plant, which won’t ADD anything to our economy, just MAYBE keep most of the money here from all the attrition the shrinking auto industry is currently going through, Maybe a little construction work, if that stays local at all, but frankly we’ll be getting more noticeable economic benefits from our new bio-fuel plant they’re talking about making. “Shit to energy” that sure smells like Flint to me!



On the personal front, this week has been a little light, or at least in the latter half of the week, but I intentionally pushed back some work a few days to try to concentrate on doing something a little more creative. Weighing options and searching out opportunities in the comic market in a system SO broken I’m no longer sure I even want to try to make a mark in it.

I did put Spank The Monkey #2 online at Literate Machine .com (http://www.literatemachine.com) for folks to buy and electronically download. If I sell any up there them issue #1 is about 90% ready to go up there as well, we’ll see. Arrow Comics has pulled their material from wowio.com, and I was SO looking forward to planting some original material up there- but most of the creators currently up there have yet to be paid for their second quarter, so it’s turning out to be a good thing after all. Kind of had that impression when they stalled so long paying Arrow for the first quarter, but at least they DID eventually pay. I’ll keep you all posted and let you know if they ever pay me for the second quarter. I’m not counting on that money at all.

I’ve been looking at submitting to Zuda.com, just to do something creative. Problem is I won’t really “own” the property, and it has to be more “General Audience” oriented. Not that I don’t have properties I can spare for them to look over and possibly own and run for awhile, I just haven’t decided if I should create something “new” just for them and just what it would be.

Also on the DC news front, DC announced this week that they are canceling their MINX line, which to me called to mind a headline that one would find on Fark.com (also a great site btw), “DC cancels their MINX line, a line of manga style comics aimed at girls, IN OTHER NEWS; DC had a MINX line”. There are SO many other ways for DC to cater to a female audience than to try to copy a few female oriented manga things. Man, would I love to have that kind of opportunity. Look for a female oriented edition of Comics My Way coming SOON, I have a LOT of suggestions for them.

Cutting today’s column a little short because I need to get a few things done, so a bigger column on something tomorrow, till then…

WAKE UP!!

RETHINKING SCIENCE: GeoThermal Energy

It's long past time for us to begin thinking outside the box as far as energy goes. In what little research I've done (and remember the old cliche' that "a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing"), and presented to you is that our very belief in what we've been taught of science needs to at least be questioned if not proven outright WRONG. Our petroleum dependence seems to be driven more by economy and profit than practicality and science.

Previously I showed you the abiotic theory of petroleum, how oil is theorised to be a totally renewable resource, and the imposed "scarcity" of it to be driven by profit mongers. Now I have ran across a renewable, safer than most, energy source that our current science is aware of, but the government refuses to properly fund to totally develop as a primary source of electricity into our homes. I bring you, via YouTube and CalEnergy (that actually has a couple of these plants up and operating, and have for about 20 years now, GEO-THERMAL ENERGY:



Like I said, there are a couple of plants of this type already running in California, and Governor Arnold has recently stepped up the care and upkeep of these plants realizing their potential. The federal government has steadily decreased all funding and research into this field for the simple reason that it is cheap, available to us at our current technology level, safe, renewable, and UNPROFITABLE compared to petroleum use. They already expect us to swallow the old science that oil is a fossil fuel and will eventually run out, now we see that, like GM and their electric car, they have developed technology for cheap (MUCH cheaper than our current) energy use and have stifled it in order for a few fat cats, countries, and corporations to rape some jing out of our pockets.

I know what you're thinking "Oh, you're just some crazy monkey- what the hell do you know?"- only what I see with an open mind folks. Now, here's the REAL rub, there is ANOTHER form of geo-thermal energy that the US developed (in Los Alamos no less) TWENTY YEARS AGO, that has been available to us, at an eventually cheaper rate that our current energy availability, started under the Carter administration, that has had its funding castrated ever since the Reagan administration, that they all knew about BACK THEN would give us ample cheap energy, on a renewable basis, environmentally safe, already developed and proven. Here's a film clip documentary on the DRY ROCK GEO-THERMAL SYSTEM, easily explained, easily exploited, if only we had a government that cared enough to fund it. I apologize in advance for the dry presentation of this documentary- it was obviously done some time ago, apparently back during the Clinton administration, but it IS worth your while to watch it:



Water is still mostly free folks, this system would only recycle itself over and over, and I have yet to find ANY reason (other than corporate greed) that would keep us from popping up plants like this all over the country. I JUST heard Sarah Palin mention Geo-Thermal energy in her acceptance speech last night- that's the first mention I've heard of it during this whole campaign, but like I said before- I've been trying to avoid all the rhetoric, and my mentioning this is NOT any kind of endorsement for Palin- I'm still mulling about doing yet another political post tomorrow that would focus on Palin, but I'm really trying not to.

in the meantime, THINK about Geo-Thermal- do your own snooping and let me know if I'm off base here (okay, you can tell me if I'm full of shit- I'm a big monkey and I can take it!)and most importantly:

WAKE UP!

Today's word is "Abiotic"

File this under the "everything you know is wrong" department. Unlike the previous look at Alien visitation this "theory" is backed up by fact, and if you REALLY think about it simple common sense. Take a look:



So, if you think about it this explaination of oil is much more sensible than calling petrolium a "fossil fuel", so why hasn't this theory been explored to more detail? Well, it should would disrupt our economic balance if petrolium was plentiful and all we had to do was drill down enough to find plenty (though the Russian and other economies- like the MidEast) sure are glad we haven't bothered with it. Oil companies are SOOOO happy this isn't out much either or else the price per barrel would be about the same as water (okay maybe tap water), and with refining and taxes (of course, the government MUST have their "taste") could easily make a gallon of gas on today's market about a buck fifty. In TODAY'S market!! WITH TAXES!!!

Like I said, "common sense" folks, everything you "know" you only THINK you know.

WAKE UP!!