Marijuana Decision Prompts Slogan Revision

 

According to AP writer Devlin Barrett, the new medical marijuana policy issued by the Obama administration means that federal prosecutors "will not seek to arrest medical marijuana users and suppliers as long as they conform to state laws."

By an unexpected but logical turn of events, POA representatives (Potheads of America) have successfully lobbied to have the following state slogans amended to reflect the new laws.

 

 

STATE NAME	ORIGINAL SLOGAN	SMOKIN' HOT SLOGAN
Alaska	Beyond Your Dreams, Within Your Reach	Beyond Your Clip, Within Your Roach
California	Find Yourself Here	Find Your Buzz Here
Colorado	Rocky Mountain High	(No change was required. Mountain silhouettes now shaped more like Cannabis leaf)
Hawaii	The Islands of Aloha	The Islands of the Maui Wauie
Maine	Worth A Visit, Worth A Lifetime	Worth A Visit, Worth A Dime Bag
Maryland	Seize the Day Off	Toke the Day Off
Michigan	Getting The Upper Hand	Getting The Munchies
Montana	Big Sky Country	Big Joint Country
Nevada	Wide Open	Weed Open
New Mexico	Land of Enchantment	Land of Stoners
Oregon	We Love Dreamers	We Love Reefer
Rhode Island	Unwind	Unwind with a Joint
Vermont	Vermont, Naturally	Stoned, Naturally
Washington	SayWA!	SayWASTED!

Obama in the Schools

I've kept my mouth shut on this issue, mainly because we homeschool, making it a non-issue for our family. Let me explain.

We are living in a brave new mucho-divided world. Bush and Obama both are extreme opposites and have engendered great dispute with every decision they have made. That's the cultural climate.

Mommies and daddies can be pretty aggressive in protecting their children from "perceived" threats. That's the specific context.

So, when a so-called "radical" Govt official (conservative or liberal) tries to force children to sit at his or her feet, there's gonna be fireworks on the home front.

I think the Obama administration could have avoided every bit of this controversy by one simple change: Do the speech on TV in the evening, say 7pm or so. Doing the speech on TV in the evening would have made most of this controversy go away because he would have, theoretically, only been graded on content, not context or even motive because anyone could opt out and never be questioned about their decision. Of course we all know that kids would NOT have watched then, hence the need for a "captive" audience via the public schools -- government owned and operated institutions.

Personally, I think it's the "coercive" nature of this event that had so many people riled up. But I could be wrong...

MIT Labs Debuts "Sixth Sense" Technology

Imagine, for just a moment, how this kind of technology would forever change the world in which we live:



For example, let's use healthcare since it's saturating the news these days. This tech would create a healthcare setting in which caregivers always had instant access to all the pertinent information about every medical situation imaginable.

As a friend of mine so eloquently stated, this is either "way cool and/or the end of civilization as we know it."

I'll let you decide which is more accurate. :-)

Naked Surprise!

It's 9:27 a.m. The kids have all left for day camp. The house is quiet. The doorbell rings. When I open the door, I find a large white box sitting on my front porch. It's an early Christmas present from my friends at the Naked Juice headquarters in California!

Folks, this is how you make lifelong customer evangelists! Marketing guru Greg Steilstra calls it “touching [the driest tinder] with a match.” If you have a phenomenal product and you give your customers a first-hand experience with that product, you can be sure that they will do just what I'm doing now: They'll light up like a torch and tell the world! Let me tell you the story.

A couple of years ago, I stumbled on Naked Juice at a local health food store. I was immediately hooked. The drinks are beyond delicious. I started telling all my friends about these awesome, super-healthy juice smoothies. I've made more than a few converts along the way.

Then, in early 2009 I had an idea: I should start a fan club on Facebook. Surely there are more NJ-lovers out there I can share the bliss with. A few clicks later, the site was up and running.

As with most things, the initial build was slow. But within a few months, my little fan club had a couple hundred NJ fans and growing. Then I had another idea. Why not see if there were any NJ employees on Facebook and invite them to be part of the Page, even make them admins. I figured, getting news and insights straight from HQ would give me the best fan page on Facebook. After a bit of internet sleuthing, I found a couple of NJ staffers, made the invite and they enthusiastically accepted. We now have nearly 5,000 fans and it's an awesome experience. But the coolest part is that the folks at NJ have been super kind to me. When they have a new flavor, I know about it right away. When they launched the Acai Machine, they sent me a couple of samples. When they created the ball caps, they sent me one. And then today … well, you see what happened today. They have surprised me with this giant box of juice heaven, which includes samples of the new Chai Spiced Cider (which, as expected, is insanely delicious ... and I'm not really even an apple fan--the juice or the computer :-).

Question: Do you think there's any way on earth that I would ever switch from NJ to some wanna-be competitor? Not a chance. They have superior products, sure. But more importantly, they have superior brand management and customer relations. And I'm doing everything I can to help make sure they succeed in my little corner of the world.

Remember, they had me at “hello.” I was a rabid fan long before the fan club or the free samples. They didn't have to do any of those things. But they did. That's the mark of a great company.

Free

Seems Chris Anderson's book "Free" has even managed to get the heavyweights swinging at each other. The ruckus went something like this:

First, Malcolm Gladwell (an author I LOVE) threw a text-book combination (left-right-uppercut) critique at Free.

Then marketing guru Seth Godin (another author I LOVE) blasted a looping overhand right at Gladwell's critique. It wasn't pretty, but it was effective.

Finally, Lovecat extraordinaire Tim Sanders (a third author I LOVE) stepped in to play referee and wound up trying to choke out both Anderson and Godin with his own special arguments.

I had to rewind the action to make sure I understood it, but it was pretty intense. I'm not even in the right league, but I love a good scrap, so here's my two-cents (which I reworded as a comment on Sanders' blog).

I think Sanders' perspective is unfortunately predictable on this issue, and I also think it's causing him to miss the point. I believe that the model he describes is one that is on a collision course with culture. Godin said it this way: "Magazines and newspapers were perfect businesses for a moment of time, but they wouldn't have worked in 1784, and they're not going to work very soon in the future either." I think he's right, for purely anecdotal reasons. The abundance of data available to me for free poses equal value to the amount of data available at a price. I say equal because that data is still not easy to come by ... but that's changing every day. It's a whole lot easier to find what I'm looking for now than it was even five years ago. And I can find more of it.

Sure, the model is in place now, but for how much longer? The problem, as I see it, is that it's entirely based on the nebulous idea of intellectual property rights, an issue that grows more confusing with each passing day. The writing on the wall is clear: the complexity of the legal system + the overabundance of tools and channels for data redistribution = an unavoidable collapse is on the way. Whether it looks like Anderson's "Free" or not remains to be seen. But I think it's safe to say that it won't always look the way Sanders or even Gladwell has described it. I also think it's safe to say that those who don't find a way to adapt will be the real victims ... and it won't be culture that is to blame.

I personally have come to believe that the future is one in which data will be free and service and experience will cost a premium price. Of course, this is nothing new. It's actually how the world of commerce began. The thought of paying for "content" is fairly new in world history. And digital content, no matter how much we argue, is always going to be viewed the same way, simply because we cannot touch, taste, smell or feel it. (Of course, that could all change if the Scifi writers have it right.)

My advice (if it matters), is to give away some valuable content and use it as a marketing tool to draw buyers into your premium services and experiences. And if you want, save your very best content for those experiences only.

[For the record, I purchase my music via downloads mostly through Rhapsody and Amazon. And I rarely ever buy eBooks ... I still prefer the feel of a real book in one hand, and a red ink pen in the other.]

UFC 100

Mir vs Lesnar, GSP vs Alves, and Henderson vs Bisping: How do you call it?

Mir vs Lesnar: Personally, I hope Mir makes Lesnar look like the amateur he really is. As a matter of fact, I'd love to see Lesnar lose three straight and be forced to either start over or move on altogether. The ONLY thing Lesnar has is his size/strength. If Mir can manage that, Lesnar is toast. Maybe I'm being too hard on Lesnar. But if he had actually earned his right to fight by working his way up through the ranks, I'd be OK. Instead, he had it put in his lap because a bunch of WWE fans want to see him fight. I'm cheering for anyone and everyone to knock him back down to the minor leagues where he belongs.

GSP vs Alves: Alves is a tough kid, and his been pretty impressive in his last two fights. But I think the only way he can beat GSP is by brute strength. GSP is smarter, faster and has way too many tools. As long as GSP avoids Alves' power, it's gonna be a long night for the newcomer. Which, in my opinion, is a good thing. I think I good whooping by a superior opponent could help Alves get that champion heart and attitude that he seems to be missing.

Henderson vs Bisping: As for the TUF-match, Bisping is a good fighter, but I have not seen him demonstrate the same skill level and mental toughness that Henderson has. Honestly, I was pretty disappointed in Bisping's attitude throughout this season of TUF. He doesn't seem to have grown any in the mental category, and I think that will hurt him against guys like Dan Henderson. I see Hendo getting him down and pounding him out in the third.

Mir, GSP and Hendo, FTW.

Who are your picks and why?

Obama, Fatherhood and a Presidential "Break"

I saw this on Leonard Sweet's Twitter stream the other day (which he repeated on his Facebook profile):

Leonard Sweet M. Obama's 1line smash of stereotypes-"If he cares half as much about the country as he does about his own children, we're going to be fine"

Let me say, I love Sweet's writings and think he's one of the best minds in the body of Christ. But, in my usually snarky style, I posted a reply. I knew it would stir the pot a bit, but couldn't resist the urge to point out the obvious:

Eric Wilbanks at 5:11pm June 11

So does that mean he's driving up is own personal debt the way he's doing with America? Just sayin...

Surprisingly, Len replied to me (I say surprisingly because the guy has cazillions of followers):

Leonard Sweet at 10:10pm June 11

I tweated this partly as a Father's Day quote for preachers, as the whole stereotype of the absent black father is smashed by this one quote. You can be Republican or Democrat or Libertarian or Independent and still be able to say, "Thank God for this model of a caring, urbane, compassionate father in the White House." That's all. I didn't intend to frame the quote in political terms.

Then another FB'er chimed in:

Gail Wilson at 11:47pm June 11

Thank you Leonard for the quote.. It seems some can not give our president a break!!

If you know me, you know I couldn't let this one slide:

Eric Wilbanks at 11:43am June 12
Leonard...I understood completely what you were attempting to do. But let's be honest about a few things. First, I have no idea what kind of father Obama is, and neither do the rest of us. Those who know him personally can give thanks. The rest of us are better off not judging (yay or nay) what is not apparent. That said, I hope he's an exemplary dad. I am passionate about parenthood and can only hope he demonstrates over time that he is also. Second, one quote will not shatter any stereotypes. Stereotypes cannot be shattered...they erode slowly over the course of time with repeated examples that testify otherwise. When Obama starts proving by his actions that he honors the family, marriage and life and makes it part of his administration's legacy, then I'll give thanks.

As for giving "our president a break," I'd love to.The first decision he makes that shows he cares about the opinions and values of the 46% of Americans who did not vote for him, I'll be the first to clap.

Finally,as my wife so brilliantly pointed out, people love to say that the Obamas look like "such a happy family," but "looking" like a happy family means nothing. We've counseled with lots of families who look happy but who tear one another to shreds in private. I am not suggesting that the Obamas are not happy by any means. I sincerely hope they are a model family and hope it radiates into America and begins to erode the stereotypes which Len Sweet addressed. But for now, we can only judge Obama by his policies, not his fatherhood. And his policies are saying (in my very subjective opinion) that he doesn't really care a whole lot about the future of this country or the values and principles upon which it was founded...by our forefathers who literally gave their lives to make America what she is.