Over the past few weeks, it seems that our senior senator, Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) has been busily trying to ruin her political career.
Following all that hubbub over the health care debate, Lincoln's popularity has been steadily slipping here in Arkansas. A recent Rasmussen poll shows her losing to any Republican who bothers to run against her while a Daily Kos poll shows her slightly ahead of Republican challengers but struggling mightily against Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter in a primary challenge.
To make things worse, she's angered seniors by voting against a John McCain amendment that would reverse the Medicare cuts put in the health care bill. Here's the relevant portion of a press release I received yesterday from a group called 60 Plus from that group's president, Jim Martin:
I and the 5.5 million supporters of 60 Plus are disappointed Senator Lincoln chose to vote against the McCain Amendment and against restoring the $500 billion in cuts to Medicare made by the Senate health care reform legislation. Seniors have a long memory and we will not forget this betrayal.That's right -- she's angered another group out there. I don't care if you like, dislike or are just neutral on Lincoln. You've got to be wondering -- what the heck is she doing?
I was searching on the Internet for some local goods and services the other day and was getting annoyed.
Just go ahead and try to find something in your area. Open up your favorite search engine and just try searching for -- I don't know -- just about any product or service you can think of and Atlanta, GA or Buffalo, NY to the end of your search. Due to the fact that search engines don't concentrate heavily on localized results and a bunch of smartypants search engine optimized (SEO) stuff, the chances are good that you'll either come up with something worthwhile or a bunch of nonsense.
Try that same search for a smaller area like my beautiful hometown of Benton, AR and you'll probably come up with something more bizarre -- search engines might not concentrate on local results, but they do handle queries for large cities like St. Louis, MO much better than they do for my little town.
To get targeted, local results each and every time, you might try looking at a localized search engine such as JustClickLocal.com. It's free and useful -- just the kind of thing I like.
One of the finest scenes in which Sandler has been involved. You'll thrill as a tormented Sandler misses his girlfriend and agonizes along with a Beach Boys song.
PS: Because of spamming purposes, the linky will be closed on Thursday of each week at midnight, Malaysian Time. Thank you!
Once again, I'll mention that the Internet makes is possible for specialty stores to thrive and that's a great thing.
Few areas can support heavily specialized, "brick and mortar" stores because it's difficult to attract enough customers to stay in business. The Internet makes it possible to specialize to a ridiculous degree because stores operating online are reaching out to an almost unlimited market.
Planterixchange is one of those Internet specialty stores. The store features (believe it or not) about any size, shape and type of planter you can imagine. Indoor planters, outdoor planters, garden planters -- you name it and they've got it.
In addition to a massive selection, Planterixchange offers very competitive prices and is one of those Internet companies that actually provides a phone number to call so you can place orders or deal with a human being if you run into problems with your order. That's a nice touch.
Give the site a shot. Grab something for yourself or think of the place as a source for that unique Christmas gift you'll need to purchase soon.
My wife, the lovely Marci Kay, went and started up a new blog -- The Crazed Wife Blog.
Why would she call it that? Well, that's a long story. Years ago I made up a fictional publication called Crazed Wife Magazine.
"You got your column done yet?" I'd ask.
"What?" Marci would reply.
"You know -- your monthly column for Crazed Wife Magazine," I'd explain. "I'm sure I've done something lately you can write about..."
And we'd laugh and laugh. Actually, I'd laugh and she'd roll her eyes at me. Typical.
At any rate, click on that link up there and pay her blog a visit. Do it or I'll get in trouble...
I've mentioned more than a time or two how much I truly dislike cable television.
I won't go into the details as to why, but I do believe it's simply sufficient to mention that my wife and I got sick of the rotten customer service, annual boosts in fees and the fact our company acted like it ran a monopoly and didn't much care about what we wanted and needed. We've had satellite since about 2003 and wouldn't dream of going back to cable.
You might want to think about switching, too. Satellite -- in my experience -- costs less and delivers a heck of a lot more than cable. Direct TV is a fantastic company and you can see for yourself by checking out some Direct TV packages, Direct TV Offers or the latest Direct TV deals.
Click on one of those links up there and prepare to be amazed. Cable TV was great stuff in the 1980s, but there's something better available these days.
It seems that the kids are just wild about the Internet.
Yes, indeed. More and more people hit the Internet first when they get the notion to buy something -- houses, video games, computers, cars, etc. What are people looking for? Information -- scads and scads of the stuff. People want to do as much research as they can before committing their money to anything these days because the Internet makes the process so simple.
Just fire up that browser, hit a few sites, type in a few search terms and you're there in find-out-about-it heaven. The desire for solid information if particularly strong when we're talking about major purchases such as homes and cars, of course.
Frankly, I tend to do a lot of research before I buy just about anything and particularly appreciate aggregate sites -- places on the Internet that offer comprehensive information about just about anything I'm looking for in a particular category. I've got some of those aggregate sites bookmarked for video games, movies and music. I've also got a great free resource for finding out information about cars -- TheCarConnection.com.
You'll find comprehensive, information about more cars than you can shake a stick at. Expect reviews, technical data, price ranges and enough information about even the most minor details over there. If they don't list it at that site, it's just not important.
Try it out for yourself. Head on over to The Car Connection and read up on such great vehicles as the Mitsubishi Outlander, Mini Cooper or the Honda Accord (my mother's car of choice, by the way). If you're wanting to just research the history of automobiles, head on over to Wiki Cars.
Ah, the Internet. Isn't convenience great?
Some of the Black Friday lunacy seemed particularly bizarre this year.
It was so strange, in fact, that I took some time to write about the odder behavior around these parts.
Click here and read all about it!
A few years ago, I had a couple of great black Labradors in my yard -- Roxie and Broccoli (yes, you read that right).
The dogs were great. Unfortunately, they chewed through everything in my yard they could reach. They ate phone lines, the power line to the air conditioner unit, the cable running to my house so I could watch television, etc.
I had a running battle with those dogs -- I would make "cable protection" moves and they would try to defeat them. The question, then, is how can one protect cables conveniently and at a reasonable cost? The answer to that question might be to go out and buy a TrimmerGuard from the folks at RepairCable.
The TrimmerGuard, simply put, goes around whatever cables you've got running outside and provides years of protection. Pay those folks a visit, huh?
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.
As for me, I spent the week with my wife's family in northwest Arkansas and got to know my 13-month-old nieces -- Cornpone and Mud Flap -- a little better.
Click here and read all about the little tykes.
Awwww. Cute!
Yes, Christmas is the time a lot of people just shine -- while some are giving the typical gifts, some go that extra mile and get something truly unique and memorable.
You can find a ton of unique stuff right now by pointing your Internet browser to Lou Lou's Corner. What's over there? Top-notch items for everyone from babies to dogs to adults and then some.
We're talking about plush toys and activity books from Jellycat. Ultra-soft blankets, hoodies, throws and whatnot for children and adults from Barefoot Dreams. T-shirts and polos for kids from Appaman.
The selection is massive and the prices are reasonable. Pay the site a visit, huh?
Yes, I'm up in northwest Arkansas visiting my wife's family for Thanksgiving.
I was out at the Westwood Drive In of Springdale this afternoon to pick up one of the finest hamburgers to be found anywhere. While waiting for my order, I picked up a copy of the Star Shopper for the heck of it.
This place called Buddy's Home Furnishings bought a huge ad on the front of the Shopper that was just downright shocking. I'll not give them a link because I'd rather not publicize that place at all -- I'll just say Buddy's is one of those rent-to-own places operating in my home state (and I wish they'd leave Arkansas, frankly).
I'd heard about those rent-to-own things before but had no idea what a total rip-off they were until I scanned the Buddy's ad. For example, that place sells a Nintendo Wii for $13.99 a week for 52 weeks.
In other words, that Wii that you can buy almost anywhere right now for $199.99 costs $727.48 if you buy it at Buddy's. Shocking! How about a 42" HDTV plasma (that's right -- crummy plasma instead of LCD) for $2,598.96 ($24.99 per week for 104 weeks) or an Xbox 360 elite for a mere $1,039.48 ($19.99 for 52 weeks)?
Folks, that Xbox Elite retails for $299.99. How the hell can anyone justify charging over $1,000 for one of those things? How can they charge almost $2,600 for a television that costs around $800 at a store like Best Buy?
Buddy's, see, is simply exploiting the hell out of people. I'm stunned this kind of crap is legal. We all but exterminated all those terrible payday lenders in this state. Perhaps stores like Buddy's should be targeted by the Arkansas Attorney General's office next.
As I've mentioned a time or two on here, I'm a public relations guy in the real estate industry.
As such, I've learned a couple of things over the years. For one thing, robbers tend to hit the most convenient targets they can find (and that's doubly true around the holidays). Second, people get very concerned about home security systems after it's become obvious that they should have had one installed.
Here's the thing about home security -- if thieves look for the easiest target, then homeowners should do what they can to make their homes as difficult a target as possible. One of the easiest ways to do that is to install a home security system.
ADT is one of those home security companies that has been trusted for years. To find out where to get ADT home security monitoring nearest you, just click the link and find the local information you need.
If you've been blogging for awhile, you've undoubtedly asked one question -- how can I start blogging for money?
The chances are good that you've added Google AdSense to your blog and have been less than impressed with the revenue sharing set up through the service -- you just don't get enough ad clicks to come out ahead. There must be some "promote blog" techniques that will drive ad-clicking traffic to your site, right? Are there any sites out there that will show you how to make money blogging?
Well, there is a site set up specifically to help bloggers maximize their traffic -- and earnings -- through AdSense. It's called YouSayToo -- just click and pay the site a visit, huh?
