Molotov Softball

Storytelling & My Masterful Audience Skills

Pecha Kucha (pronounced “peh chak cha”) is Japanese meaning “chit chat.” Pecha Kucha  has a simply said, but probably harder to do, rule: each speaker gets 20 slides and 20 seconds of each slide for their story. 20X20 = 400 seconds, end of story. Period. Pecha Kucha is like a cross between storytelling and TED talks (ted.com) -at least the Pecha Kucha Night of Philadelphia #9 reminded me of this cross combo. Their Pecha Kucha consisted of, what I would consider, soaring above average...

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Moral Compass

I saw an ad for a moral compass the other day. I was saddened by the fact that they were only available in specialized versions and at a very high price. I comforted myself with the thought that those who really need them could afford them.
I did wonder though how sales were. I pondered that in this economy they might be quite brisk - in the same sort of way escapist entertainment product sales tend to increase when things are, well bad. My thinking is that the morally correct...

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Holiday from Hell: Two Weeks of Times News

We had planned on spending the Holiday cleansing ourselves of New York media—an OTR detox—and getting reacquainted with the hometown daily (while it lasts), maybe bickering with our family a bit. But the news coming out of The New York Times proved too compelling a saga, brimming with more affection and resentment than our family could offer up.
‘Twas the night before the night before Christmas when the union representing Times reporters quietly published an open letter to company...

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SOPA, Santorum and Seal

Old friends at their umpteenth reunion these past few months.

If you’re feeling withdrawal symptoms from reduced doses of Occupy Wall Street rabble-rousing (we hear they’re just hibernating), the success of last week’s SOPA blackout ought to cheer you up.
Without going into the nitty-gritty of what this Stop Online Piracy Act was all about, let’s just say that the idea of blocking IP addresses and enforcing criminal laws for streaming...

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Liberal Scientist Concludes Liberals Are Smart, Conservatives Dumb.

An endless supply of Professor Frinks seek name recognition, and what better way is there to do that then to conclusively prove conservatives are dumb. Mmmhideum-hey.

Every few months a story pops up that claims to empirically demonstrate that liberals (coincidentally) have the pole position when it comes to the world’s intelligence-race.  Usually these studies cover their tracks with a multitude of qualifiers tucked away where only their peers will...

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A Call For Unity at CPAC 2012; We All Must Find Common Ground

The year 2011 was one of turmoil for the conservative movement, as we celebrated the success of 2010 but faced a divisive counter-revolution by the Democrats and the media.
The Republican establishment, together with social conservatives, libertarians and the Tea Party, waged war against the Obama administration, the public sector unions, the mainstream media, the Occupy Wall Street Movement and the Progressive movement, writ large. And simultaneously, in these terrible...

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NYC now an economic laggard

So what’s the mayor going to say now?
In virtually every speech Mayor Michael Bloomberg gives on the economy, he makes sure to point out how much better than New York economy has performed than the nation.
Unfortunately, last year the city did not outpace the rest of the country in creating jobs—the best measure of economic growth. Preliminary numbers show the city gained 36,500 jobs, or 1.0%, while the United States overall added 1.3%.

It’s the same story...

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