AGodthing's Blog

Forget Washington. Forget the TV show with that name. We all know who Big Brother really is. He's on our desktop in at least one place. I for one have found ways around him, but he sure has a lot of people fooled.

EU Goes To War With Search Engines

Search engine and other IT companies seem to be heading on a collision course with the EU over a proposed new law requiring them to dispose of their stored-up personal data.

The European Commission's Article 29 Data Protection Working Party has recommended that personal search data be discarded after six months, despite the fact most search companies are retaining data for much longer periods. The collection of data by search engines has considerable privacy implications, according to the report.

The report has recommended that all the personal data should deleted after it no longer serves a purpose, in other words, within a period not exceeding six months.  And after that period, search engines "must demonstrate comprehensively that it is strictly necessary for the service," the report said.

The data collected by search engines includes a vast array of details, including IP address, search terms, data and time of the search, brand of browser, operating system and the language used.

Without mentioning any names, the report squarely takes aim at online players such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, since all three companies are known to retain some search data longer than six months, which would eventually put them at odds with the EU.

HE'S WATCHING YOU!

The U.S. Constitution and everything that it says about “separation of church and state”

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

THAT’S IT. FIN. NOTHING MORE.

The rub: Two camps of thinking on this say:

(1) Making no law RESPECTING AN ESTABLISHMENT means the government cannot ALLOW ANY RELIGION. Those who subscribe to this school are faced with constantly fighting Christians, simply because we are a nation founded by Christians and today is still mostly Christian or at least those who CONSIDER themselves Christian. Christ established witnessing and leading people to him, and expects Christians to “recruit”. Many religions have no formal “recruiting” because there is simply no free will. (You are born, therefore you are Muslim.)

(2) Making no law RESPECTING AN ESTABLISHMENT means not respecting ONE RELIGION OVER ANOTHER. This seems to fit with the rest of the constitution and the preamble. People who claim this thought may find themselves, as Christians, constantly on the wrong end of the stick. Like so many things we approach these days, we take the shortcut by simply overcompensating. (If we persecute Christians and leave everyone else alone, we automatically erase any wrongs we have committed to any other religion. This will make us truly homogenous.)

And then there’s that next part: “Or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”

That means “Or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”. I don’t think we are quite as free in that area as those Masons and Quakers who wrote that.

Let the onslaught begin.

Thank you, Fox-4 bloggers, for voting in the first annual

DFW Worst Commercials of The Year Awards!

The results are in, and we are pleased to announce the winners.

Several Nominations ended up being for spots that are not from local campaigns, so we have just included all of them in the competition.

First, we have several commercials that made it into the runners-up position. They are (in no particular order):

·         Life With Satellite, by Time Warner

·         Oxy Clean

·         GEICO insurance (Cavemen)

·         Head-On

·         J.G. Wentworth

And we have a three-way tie for first-place!

      •    Southwest Kia

      •   Rodeo Ford (“Just Get Here”)

      •   “A Certain Mortgage Lender” (As Presented by commenter’s

            nominations)

Honorable Mentions go to:

      •  The car commercial that says “$49.00 down, pay the payment on

           the window.”

      •   “It’s the mirrors (High-Def spot.)

      •    “The Hammering Lawyer”

      •     Jack In the Box (Hot Tub spot)

      •     ALL male enhancement spots

      •     Herpes spots

      •    Red Bull

      •   TXU (“Welcome Back”)

            AND, SOME WANTED TO NOMINATE SOME COMMERCIALS IN A

            GOOD SPOT CATEGORY:

      •  Trail Blazer Cereal

      •  Jeep

      •  Stanley Steamer (The Scooting Dog)

      •  Pedigree

      •  Liberty Mutual (“Pay It Forward”)

      •  Apple Air (“New Soul”)

      •  Cesar Dog Food

AGAIN, THANKS FOR MAKING THIS A FUN POST!

For those who were born too late to remember where that phrase got started, there was a western movie by that title; I think it was about the turn of the century. (Okay, 1966). Anyway, I have been wanting to encourage my fellow Fox-4 bloggers by relating my first experience to you. Like some bloggers, I was compelled to write on Fox blogs out of an urge to right a wrong. There are several blog venues for this purpose; one of which, as it turns out, is You Tube. I plodded away, filling page after page of facts, exposing every communication I had with the offending organization. I contacted state representatives and followed up on every lead. It was tedious and very non-rewarding in some ways.

HOWEVER, in the end, I accomplished just what I set out to do. I won't get into details, but when everything was laid out there for the world to see, things began to happen in a way that could not have been accomplished any other way. I was David up against Goliath. My stone was this blog.

I have had, and I believe I will continue to have, a very positive experience. You can take on social injustices and prevail. And you will meet people who may end up being a wonderful cyber-buddy. All this is not to say that you will have days when you will want to hang up the old blog and hide under the computer desk. You will. But please don't let those days dictate your overall attitude.

BLOG ON!

Thursday night, Donald Trump; himself not known as a moral barometer, allowed Piers to hear it from two lesser evil contestants. The other contestants, Trace Atkins and Steven Baldwin, a born-again Christian, were allowed to challenge Piers on his ruthless behavior. Piers has been considered a "good business person" because of his disdain of people and love of money.

One of the things that didn't surprise me but still disturbs me is the laughter in the "live" audience when the team spoke of Baldwin’s Christian testimony. I was kinda hoping that even an audience whose primary interest is large sums of money would have some idea of where wealth comes from.

TRUMPS BOTTOM LINE:

$

Some trumps, er things don’t change.

Piers won.

There will be commenter’s who will say that this post belongs under the "Faith" section of the blogs, but this post addresses morals and treatment of Christians in the media.  I dare say that if the celebrity lineup included a Muslim, all conversation and behavior would have been steered in the other direction.

Okay, I've said my peace. Let the onslaught begin.

There will be a lot of people weighing in on this. This is just my 2 cents worth.

When I was a kid (Admittedly, that was a few years ago), every school had a P.E. program and they managed to include the program in days that weren't any longer.

I want to hear what YOU think about the state’s decision to force each school to include a 20 minute physical education period in the schedule.  

My thinking: We ran out of time for P.E. when we started requiring all of these stupid state required "qualification" tests that have nothing at all to do with an individual student's education.

We accidentally released this post at the same time as another, so very few noticed it. We are re-releasing it in the hope that more will be able to make nominations before they close. We have transferred existing comments so that you may see who has been nominated so far. Feel free to 2nd a nomination to give it more votes.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

welcome

to the first annual DFW Worst Commercials of The Year Awards!

Right now you are thinking of that one special commercial that brings you ever so close to throwing the proverbial brick at your television. For our first awards, we are not going to consider any particular cartagories, but please feel free to nominate your "favorite" by way of catagory. (Worst jingle, worst copy, worst voices, worst art, worst camera work, worst characters or simply "THE WORST".)

You may submit your nominations "You-Tube" style, but simple comment nominations are are encouraged.

To get the nominations started, our broadcast experts have chosen one of their favorites:

***"Life With Satellite", by Time-Warner***

(We wish to apologize in advance to Fox-4 and affiliates for any comments about commercials booked on your stations, but this is an equal opportunity forum.)

Winners will receive

the

Golden Brick Award

One of the things that sets this country apart from many is the perceived separation of our tax money and our free-will offerings to organizations. I say "perceived" because this really isn't the case at all. Our tax dollars go to directly support all kinds of organizations that also receive private donations. Some of it has hit the fan and resulted in some major changes within organizations like PBS. But for the most part, it just slides right on by, fueled by the thought that if people blindly give to The United Way without knowing who they are supporting with their contributions, they won't bother to check out the same sort of thing in Washington. 

I was kinda wanting to know if we have any whistle blowers here who would like to expose a few of these "orginazations".  Fire away.

My daughter is a P.R. Person and as you know I was in the broadcasting and advertising businesses for many years, so I am aware of all the clever ways you can get "free advertising". But for far too many small business owners, the simple news release is ALWAYS ignored by the "news media", because the business isn't trendy enough. Not so for businesses like Starbucks. For the last several weeks, this trendy place has gotten the freebies by simply forwarding a news release. There was nothing Earth-shattering about any of them, but the media types just couldn't resist.

Now, this issue in itself is not a huge story, but I would like to see your thoughts on the subject. There may be people who could lend some wisdom to small businesses who could use some field-leveling. I know how politicians and Hollywood types get publicity, so please don't suggest they follow suit.

Thanks, bloggers!

I mused about the recent blog entry regarding the sled wipeout. It reminded me about one of my recoveries. I was working at a radio station in Colorado. We get used to the timing of things; perhaps a little too used to it. The network news was on, so I used it as an opportunity to make time with the receptionist, across the reception area from the control room. (This was before I met my wife. Really.)

There I was, thoroughly involved with being cool, when I hear "...And that's the news..." I start off running from the reception desk, down the hall and around the automation side. By the time I reach the sound lock at the control room, I'm running at full speed, and I would have made it if it weren't for the steel-reinforced inside corner of the sound lock. It was only a very slight miscalculation, but my forehead hit the corner with such force you could hear it upstairs-- in the General Manager's office.

Recovery?  Of course. In spite of searing pain and large amounts of blood, I managed to open the mike, and with my usual cheery voice say "Today's forecast calls for..." It was only later that I realized I had a concussion.

The things we do for the love of the job.

I've been away for a while. What's goin' on, bloggies?

I don’t like crowds. How about you?  I read the last census bureau report and just kinda zoned when hit with all those statistics. But it just hit me, as I saw the stats again, while reading in that room where I catch up on most of my reading…Oh, quit laughing! You read in there, too!

Anyway, it hit me that the American population has exactly DOUBLED since I was born. (Oops, I just hinted at my age. Well, you knew I was no spring chicken.) That’s 307 MILLION LIFE FORMS! Now, I don’t know how many are carbon based or whatever, but I need to buy that island right away.