Carmichael's Position

For Those of You Just Tuning in... The Pinedale Shopping Mall Has Just Been Bombed With Live Turkeys... Film at 11:00!

Below is probably one of the greatest comedy bits relating to Thanksgiving.

WKRP in Cincinnati: Thanksgiving Turkey Bomb! @ Yahoo! Video

The great quote from the Station Manager following this promotional stunt gone wrong... ""As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!!!"

Many of my readership is too young to remember WKRP in Cincinnati... Too bad this was one very well written and entertaining show!

Happy Thanks................giving.

The Future of Screen Interaction Technology

Computer,TV, HDDVD, what ever your poison, this is the next technological step in the process.

http://www.perceptivepixel.com/

Video:

We are already seeing advanced touch screen technology in Apple iPhones and iPods and Microsoft's Surface.  But expect the explosion over the next coupla!  Find your investments where you can!

Burger King Neglects the US Market Males!

So I learn today that there is a Brew-ha-ha down under about some Burger King Ads on Television.  I figure, yeah... New Zealanders are just as creeped out by "The King" as many of us here in the States are...

Wow! How wrong I was!

Nope it turns out they're a bit disturbed by this and ads like this! 

WHAT!? Are you kidding me!

If my options are between some creepy "Mister Rodger's, King Friday nightmare gone awry!"... or "Burger's Maxim style!"  Uh!  I'll take option "B"!  Hold the Pickle!

But evidently the Gratuity Police in New Zealand do not appreciate the complete Non-sequitor nature of selling burgers using babes in bikinis.  Go Figure!

The Advertising Standards Complaints Board, in decisions issued yesterday, found both commercials breached an industry code of practice forbidding the use of sex appeal simply to draw attention to a product.

Its decisions were in contrast to a board ruling last year that dismissed complaints against a Burger King advert featuring three young women on horses at a beach, and the food chain intends to appeal.

Burger King's management was unavailable but its Auckland advertising agency, Y&R, said it hoped to win support from the Advertising Standards Complaints Appeals Board for resumed screenings.

In one advertisement the women are depicted as wearing bikinis in professional jobs, and then dropping everything they are doing to ride to the nearest Burger King.

The other shows the women wearing bikinis while a voiceover tells viewers: "The BK girls share everything - their bed, their clothes, exercise equipment and a love of ice-sculpture and horses."

Ah well... Guess you New Zealanders will have to be content with This Guy!  Have It Your Way!

Burger King Football Ads... Creepy!

What a great weekend of Football!  I had the fun of enjoying the Bronco game with a great bunch of friends most of whom were pulling for the Denver Broncos to upset the (according to the homers of CBS) Dynasty Bound New England Patriots.  (Sorry Pete and Matt... and Tom, for that other thing...)

Despite the outcome of the game, there was one thing we all agreed on.  Those Damn Burger King ads are really creeping us out!  Is there anyone out there that finds these ads, uh... enticing?  Why is BK paying this ad agency still?  Sure we're all talking about "The Burger King Ad Campaign" but is it really driving business through the doors?

Turns out this is creeping a bunch of folks out, and many have illustrated the sublime nature of this guy over on a Farked Forum [link]. 

There were a couple of other ads that were a bit freaky, the guy shaking the cow to get a milk shake was a bit bizarre.  And... well Matt obviously had an "incident" at a Subway sandwich shop once, judging by his reaction to that Jarred guy.

Did Cindy Sheehan Get a Job at CNN?

Wow!  I bet this was excruciating for the supervisor at CNN to pull the plug on this one...

According to the Drudge Report:  Apparently an annoyed caller phoned into CNN to complain about the "X" that was placed over Vice President, Dick Cheney's face during a live speech they were broadcasting.  And amazingly enough I believe it was (almost) entirely inadvertent, although I bet a few socialists at CNN had a good laugh at it even knowing full well there would be some fallout for it.

Well apparently a certain switchboard operator couldn't contain himself when confronted by (in his mind) a "warmongering-simple-minded-flag-toting-neo-con" who found CNN's error a bit offensive and chose to voice her concern.

The operator is quoted as saying,

"We did it just to make a point. Tell them to stop lying, Bush and Cheney," the CNN operator said to a caller. "Bring our soldiers home."

"Was it not freedom of speech? Yes or No?" the CNN operator explained.

"If you don't like it, don't watch."

"Obviously this particular (Not Representative of CNN or their Employees-- wink-wink-nudge-nudge Cindy Sheehan impersonating) operator suffers from mental dysentery!" Should have been the response from CNN.  But a much more semi-politically correct response was issued by Laurie Goldberg, Senior Vice President for Public Relations with CNN:

"A Turner switchboard operator was fired today after we were alerted to a conversation the operator had with a caller in which the operator lost his temper and expressed his personal views -- behavior that was totally inappropriate. His comments did not reflect the views of CNN. We are reaching out to the caller and expressing our deep regret to her and apologizing that she did not get the courtesy entitled to her."

I'm curious...  "Lost his temper" over what?  A viewer trying to hold the network's feet to the fire?  Granted it is highly possible that the caller expressed herself from a characteristically suspicious point of view taken by "Right-Winged" individuals about CNN's reported bias, and are possessed enough to pick up a phone and call into CNN... But hey! Comes with the territory fella!

I bet they agonized for hours about having to fire their comrade.

CBS... the more things change... The more they stay the same!

You have to love CBS chief Leslie Moonves.  Have you ever seen someone try to steer an ocean liner without a rudder, on one engine, and the entire crew sitting in front of the TV watching “The Real World?”  Advice for you captain!  If you are encountering icebergs off the cost of Newfoundland… Don’t turn north!

In an AP interview  “CBS May Use Multi-Anchor Format,” today Moonvies was asked about the future of CBS News and what will become of the (long overdue) soon to be vacated anchor seat once warmed by the hot air balloon fueler, Dan Rather.  He had some very interesting if not woefully misguided ideas by way of response.  Here are a few for your entertainment…

…Moonves, who will ultimately select Rather's replacement, said he believes many young viewers are turned off by a single "voice of God" anchor in the Internet age.

Please do not begin to tell me he is associating the “voice of God” with Dan Rather… or any of the other talking heads for that matter.  “Young viewers turned off by…” wouldn’t they have to watch the program in the first place to be “turned off”?  Young viewers are not watching the news period!  That’s part of our problem, if they are watching the news they’re receiving the tainted tidbits from MTV News or worse the Daily Show with Jon Stewart…  Which brings me to the next asinine idea, not denied, by Leslie:

…Asked twice, Moonves wouldn't rule out a role on the evening news for Comedy Central's Jon Stewart, whose "The Daily Show" skewers politicians and the news media each night. Moonves is co-chief executive of Viacom, which owns both CBS and Comedy Central.

God knows you sure want to distance yourself from a perceived “Lefty” like Dan Rather with the extreme “Righty” like Stewart!  (Well, Righty when compared to Rather).  PLEASE! Like Dan’s axe to grind with the sitting administration wasn’t dull enough!  Jon can be humorous, and at times right on the point.  But he is a sarcastic humorist, news is no place for sarcasm.  On the editorial page sure!  Not on the news… oops forgot CBS (and NYT) Editorial = News.  Muh Bad!

And here is one of the more damaging remarks, but notice how it is left to hang there without follow-up, the AP just goes on to the surprise that someone else didn’t lose their job.

…Rather, 73, timed his departure for the March 9 anniversary that will mark 24 years since he took over from Walter Cronkite. In November, he said that his exit had nothing to do with the independent report that criticized the Bush story, which he anchored.

But Moonves said Tuesday that "I have to believe that it probably did. He had to believe that the report would come out and it would not be good."

Moonves statement clearly implies prior knowledge on Rather’s part…  That’s the NEWS of this story!  Can anyone else (everyone else) see why there is no faith in the Mainstream Media any more?  Sure they are all celebrated for being tough on public figures and elected officials, but when it comes to challenging their own on issues that form the foundation of their profession… Point the finger elsewhere and change the subject.

Faced with a barrage of questions about last week's report, Moonves gave CBS News President Andrew Heyward another vote of confidence. Some critics were surprised that Heyward kept his job after the embarrassing National Guard story when four underlings were fired.

"It's been a wake-up call for us and probably everybody in the news business," Moonves said.

Heh… I had to laugh at the irony of this statement…  “Wake-up call..”  yeah they woke up to see a keyboard fingering, pajama clad weblogger, staring back at them daring them to blink!  I know who blinked, and still has something stuck in their eyes…  Don’t we all!

NBC's 'Fear Factor' Sued for Rat-Eating Episode...

Well it’s about time this happened!  I have been wondering how long it would take before reading about some poor traumatized soul came forth and sued Fear Factor for duress.  But this one caught me completely off guard!  And it should not have.

In the review of the Apollo 1 fire that killed Astronauts Gus Grissom, Roger Chaffee, and Ed White, it was stated that one of the underlying failures contributing to the accident, was “Failure of the Imagination.”  No one ever thought that in a high pressure oxygen environment test on the launch pad at Kennedy Space Flight Center, something would go terribly wrong and kill 3 of America’s finest aviators.

Well, I just suffered a failure of my imagination.  When I first read this Reuters headline, NBC's 'Fear Factor' Sued for Rat-Eating Episode, I thought, “Duh! Some dumbass contestant didn’t read the fine print in the liability release they no doubt have to sign in sextuplet!”  Boy was I wrong!  And when you read the following, I’m sure you’ll think the very same thing…

NBC's 'Fear Factor' Sued for Rat-Eating Episode

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Watching contestants eat dead rats on NBC's gross-out stunt show "Fear Factor" so disgusted a Cleveland man that he has sued NBC for $2.5 million, saying he could not stomach what he saw.

In a handwritten four-page lawsuit filed in federal court in Cleveland on Tuesday, paralegal Austin Aitken said, "To have the individuals on the show eat (yes) and drink dead rats was crazy and from a viewer's point of view made me throw-up as well an another (sic sic) in the house at the same time."

His suit added, "NBC is sending the wrong message to its TV watchers that cash can make or have people do just about anything beyond reasoning (sic) and in most cases against their will."

He said the show caused his blood pressure to rise so high that he became dizzy and light-headed, and when he ran away to his room, he bumped his head into the doorway.

In a brief telephone interview with Reuters, Aitken said, "I am not at liberty to discuss the complaint unless it is a paid-interview situation."

A spokesman for "Fear Factor" said the show would have no comment until it sees a copy of the complaint. The spokesman said the program did feature an rat-eating scene in New York's Times Square on Nov. 8.

Over the years, contestants on the program have eaten some weird things, including ground-up spiders and live worms.

Reuters/VNU

Everyday I lose just that much more faith in the competency of the American psyche.  PLEASE! Judge, whoever you are, throw this so far out of court that it can sustain its own orbit around the earth.  This type of contrived “Victimization” is bringing all of us down, and the fact that a complaint like this might even begin to see the florescent light of a courtroom is, in its own right, contemptuous.

Fear Factor isn’t Austin’s problem, the list of what apparently is… is so amazingly long, Steven Hawkins would have trouble contemplating it.  But high on that list would have to be that he’s watching too much Jerry Springer!

Fear Factor is no worse than any survival school attended by US military personnel to condition them for the brutal reality of living off the land with what is available.  And our armed forces do not get paid an additional $50,000 dollars for completing this training.  I’ll admit to watching an episode or two and even being somewhat amazed at what the producers could come up with to titillate and yes disgust the viewer, not to mention the participant.

But this complaint is so ludicrous and flagrantly frivolous it tends toward surreal.  Look at the major points of the complaint (my comments alpha-noted):

1.       To have the individuals on the show eat (yes) and drink dead rats was crazy and from a viewer's point of view made me throw-up as well an another in the house at the same time.

a.       Change the Damn Channel!

b.       It’s what this show is all about!

c.       Not “Crazy”… Disgusting? maybe… Delicacy!...in many parts of the world.

d.       To justify this complaint would be to justify a member of PETA filing a similar complaint after having watched a McDonalds commercial!  Hell I might even have some empathy for the PETA member (not much mind you!)

2.       NBC is sending the wrong message to its TV watchers that cash can make or have people do just about anything beyond reasoning (sic) and in most cases against their will.

a.       If they’re doing it for money it is certainly not “Against their will.”

b.       NBC sending the message…Cash can make or have people do just about anything beyond reasoning.  Wow accuracy in the media finally!

c.       “Against their will?”—in every episode I have viewed it is clear to me, and I assume the contestants that they can opt out of any “event” by simply saying “Nope, not gunna do it.”

3.       …the show caused his blood pressure to rise so high that he became dizzy and light-headed, and when he ran away to his room, he bumped his head into the doorway

a.       God please don’t ever watch “Girls Gone Wild!” if this is your response to rat eating!

b.       So if you ran to your room… do we even want to know where you “Threw-up?”

c.       Bumped your head huh?  No Dain Brammage suffered obviously! Klutz!

4.       “I am not at liberty to discuss the complaint unless it is a paid-interview situation.”

a.       Well that says it all, now doesn’t it!

The smartest statement made in this article came from the spokesman for Fear Factor, “No Comment.”

The scariest statement made in this article is, “In a handwritten four-page lawsuit filed in federal court in Cleveland on Tuesday, paralegal Austin Aitken said…”

The American Legal Education System at its finest!