J.W. Lengel's Web Log

J.W. Lengel's Blog

Read on for the thoughts and opinions of the author.
Every few days or so he will post a brief entry about
whatever is on his mind.

March 29, 2008 Down With Amazon!

My publisher, Publish America, sent me an email today to describe
a dispute they are having with Amazon.com. Apparently Amazon
owns its own printing houses and wants Publish America to allow it
to print the books that it sells and take a larger share of the profits.
In retaliation for their refusal, Amazon is threatening to disconnect
the Buy buttons for the Publish America books on its site.

So, instead of trying to increase their printing business by offering
publishers a better deal, they try to use their position as the largest
online book retailer to force publishers to take a deal that would
leave them and their authors with a smaller share of the pie. This
almost smacks of an anti-trust situation, kind of like the way
Microsoft used to use the dominance of its operating system to
push its other products before the courts intervened.

Anyway, all I have to say is that BarnesandNoble.com is a perfectly
good alternative. In the long run I think it will be Amazon that loses.
They hold themselves up to be the definitive place to find a book,
but their customers will be disappointed to find out that there are
books on the site that they cannot buy.

October 7, 2007 Mourning for the Cornhuskers

Those of us who occupy the Husker Nation were hoping that this
year would be a new morning for the Huskers, but no, sorry, it’s
mourning with a ‘u’. Okay, nobody realistically expected them to
beat USC, although we weren’t expecting them to get trounced the
way they did. But to get thoroughly dominated on both sides of the
ball by Missouri? Face it, they’re still a mediocre team at best.

We knew from the start that the defense was weak, as they’ve
proven every Saturday, because Callahan has been neglecting
them to recruit for his “west coast offense.’ But where is this
vaunted offense we’ve been promised for the past four years?
Keller and his crew have been sporadic, sometimes they look
infallible and other times they look utterly incompetent.
Unfortunately it seems to be running about 70-30 in favor of the
latter. We have all of this alleged talent on offense, so why can’t
they consistently perform? My guess is that it must be the coaching.

I was always 100% opposed to the decision to fire Solich and hire
Callahan. The Athletic Director said he saw the program “sliding
toward mediocrity” so he dived right in. He fired Solich after a 9-3
season and under Callahan we can only dream about a 9-3
season. And they just signed him to a new five-year contract. I’m
starting to wonder if Nebraska will ever reclaim it’s place among
college football’s perennial powerhouses.

October 1, 2007 A Caveman Series?

I know I've been neglecting my blog, but I'm going to start posting
entries at least a couple of times a week even if I don't have
anything new to say. That's what blogging is all about, right?

For example, I can't believe that a network is turning those stupid
caveman commercials for Geico Insurance into a TV series. What I
don't get about the cavemen is this--they live in modern times, they
seem to dwell in apartments, not caves, they speak perfect English,
so what makes them cavemen except that they're exceptionally
ugly? In the commercials the whole joke is about them being
insulted about the slogan "so easy a caveman can do it." So if you
take away that joke what do you have left for thirty minutes?

Anyway, if anybody's interested I'm trying to start a pool to bet on
how many shows they air before the series is cancelled. I just want
to cover 1-3.

March 20, 2007 Washington Scandals

So the latest big scandal in Washington is the firing of U.S. Attorneys
for the crime of not toeing the party line. I've always registered as an
Independent, but I generally consider the Democrats to be the lesser
of two evils, and this illustrates why. Generally, Democrats seem to
show a little more concern for doing what's best for the country, while
Republicans seem more concerned about what's good for their party
and it's moneyed supporters.

It kind of makes you wonder how many more scandals are going to
be dug up over the next year and half, now that the Democrats have
control of Congress and the investigative powers that go with it. After
all, the last Congress pretty much let this administration do what it
pleased and, as we all know, power corrupts.

Of course, being the lesser of two evils doesn't make the Democrats
good. That's why we're better off with a split of power in the executive
and legislative branches. At least with stagnation we know the
politicians can't do too much damage. But I'm sure that the
Democratic Congress will want to save a couple of bombshells to
drop in the middle of 2008 so they're still fresh in the voters' minds
on election day.

March 14, 2007 Accountability

It's about time to hold this Bush regime accountable for their actions.
Where are the congressional hearings? They need to investigate the
intentional lies that were told to sell America on this disastrous war.
They also need to investigate the way our money was given away to
Halliburton and other favored companies.

The sad thing is, many of the people who are now holding Bush's feet
to the fire over Iraq didn't have the balls to oppose it until it became
unpopular, namely Democrats in congress and members of the
mainstream media. They knew before the war that Saddam wasn't
involved in 9/11 or international terrorism, but you never heard them
say as much. Bush and his cronies just kept making their claims every
time they spoke in public and nobody spoke up against them.

They can claim that they assumed that the administration knew
something that they didn't, but deep down they know that's crap. Even
if Saddam was working on WMDs he wouldn't have thought about
using them against the U.S. like Bush implied. That would have been
suicide, and Saddam wasn't suicidal. If anybody had reason to worry
about those it was Israel, but during the buildup to the war officials
there stated that they weren't overly concerned about Iraq. Even they
knew this war was a bad idea, they just couldn't come out and say it
because they didn't want to alienate the president of the country that
provides them with so much foreign aid.

February 25, 2007 Does Cheney Even Believe His Own BS?

I sure can't. He was quoted in the paper today calling the Iraq war a
"remarkable achievement" and dismissing suggestions his influence in
Washington is waning. This goes beyond stubbornly holding on to
your position. He has clearly lost touch with reality.

He also ominously warned that "all options" are on the table if Iran
continues to defy efforts to end their nuclear ambitions. In a different
article on the same page Iran's foreign minister replies to the threat,
saying that the United States was in no position for another war and
maintaining that negotiation--not threats--were the only way to resolve
the standoff.

Which demonstrates one of the many reasons that the invasion of Iraq
was a big mistake--our enemies are emboldened because they know
that most of our military is already tied up in an endless quagmire.

February 22, 2007 Idol Text

I can't help but notice the proliferation of the American Idol type shows
that let viewers participate by calling in or "texting" their vote, usually
with a 99 cent "premium" charge. Not just for singers but for the lead
role in a musical, a modeling gig or the lead singer of a heavy metal
band. They even have a show where you compete to be a butler for
the idle rich.

Then there's the game shows where you can try to win some quick
cash by texting in the correct answer at the commercial breaks
(premium charges will apply). Obviously this is a successful strategy
with so many copying it.

I think the political parties should consider taking advantage of the
trend. They could try it out in the '08 primaries; text your candidate's
name to VOTE. The premium charge could be applied to the national
debt.

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