Conservative Musings

Chic-Fil-A founder shows mercy with consequences

Chic-Fil-A's founder's home was vandalized by three female teenagers causing over $30,000 in damages.  He did not want them to have to go through the court system because he felt this would not make them better citizens but possibly make them worse.  So, he devised a punishment for them so they will not end up with a record.  Truett Cathy has spent many years with youth from being a Sunday School teacher and helping young people through a foundation called Winshape.  Winshape supports programs that help young people succeed and influences their lives in positive ways.

For these young truants, the punishment was "a 1000 sentences of “I will not vandalize other people’s property”, no TV and video games for six months, reading a “good book” for three hours a day and submitting weekly written book reports to him for 13 weeks."

I applaud Truett Cathy for this approach and for his many accomplishments in remaining faithful to his calling.  Truett Cathy's business, Chic-Fil-A still remains closed on Sunday so that employees can spend time in church and with their families.  Two things he feels are very important. 

-Lady Colonel

Netflix Listens!

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how Netflix was dropping it's profile queues.  I sent a message to them and closed it by saying, "I am deeply disappointed in you."

I received the following note from Netflix today:

You spoke, and we listened. We are keeping Profiles. Thank you for all the calls and emails telling us how important Profiles are.

We are sorry for any inconvenience we may have caused. We hope the next time you hear from us we will delight, and not disappoint, you.

Let's hear it for a business that listens to its customers!

--Red

Netflix Dropping Profile Queues

I received the following message from Netflix this evening:

We wanted to let you know we will be eliminating Profiles, the feature that allowed you to set up separate DVD Queues under one account, effective September 1, 2008.

Each additional Profile Queue will be unavailable after September 1, 2008. Before then, we recommend you consolidate any of your Profile Queues to your main account Queue or print them out.

While it may be disappointing to see Profiles go away, this change will help us continue to improve the Netflix website for all our customers.

I don't know why they're doing this, but I fail to see how it will "improve the Netflix website." 

We use two queues, one for family and children's shows, and the other for my tastes in science fiction and westerns.  Managing that with one queue will be a nightmare.  I expect we'll be reducing our level of Netflix service, if we keep it at all.

It wouldn't surprise me if this was the beginning of the end for Netflix.

--Red

 

Where Gas Prices Really Do Hurt

With all the talk of high gas prices in places like California, one would think that these would be the places hardest hit by the run up in fuel costs.  However, it's the rural areas that are being hit the worst.  That for several reasons:

• Little to no public transit.
• Distances to get to work are further.
• More use of trucks and bigger vehicles, with worse gas mileage.

Typically, Americans as a whole are spending 4 percent of their incomes on fuel (up from 1998 at 1.9 percent).  Compare that to some rural areas.

The survey showed that of the 13 counties where people spent 13 percent or more of their family income on gasoline, 5 were located in Mississippi, 4 were in Alabama, 3 were in Kentucky and 1 was in West Virginia. While people here in Holmes County (Mississippi) spent an average of 15.6 percent of their income on gasoline, people in Nassau County, N.Y., spent barely more than 2 percent, according to the survey.

Compare that also to the high cost Northeast, where most areas show being the least affected by the oil prices due to shorter distances to work.

I consider myself lucky, only having to travel 25 miles round trip to work.  That travel is in a vehicle that gets 25+ miles to the gallon.  This will be something to watch, since some of the areas affected the most are right here in Kentucky.

-Colonel Steve

Ted Kennedy and Socialized Medicine

Robert M. Goldberg makes the great point that Ted Kennedy's recent medical conditions would have not been solved so quickly had socialized medicine been the norm in America.

One day after an MRI detected a tumor, Kennedy was quickly diagnosed with a malignant glioma - a rare and often-fatal form of brain cancer. Less than two weeks later, his tumor was being removed by one of the world's experts in brain cancer at Duke Univeristy Medical Center. He'll follow up with chemo and radiation therapy tailored to the genetic makeup of his cancer to keep the cancer from spreading.

He'll likely take Avastin, a drug that in experiments with brain cancer has extended survival by months. A new cancer vaccine being developed in partnership with Pfizer could extend his life by six years.

Of course, with his wealth and power, Kennedy would get good treatment anywhere. But the same care is available to every American.

Not so - if we make the health "reforms" called for by Kennedy and other liberals.

Filmmaker Michael Moore gives their standard line when he says: "There are problems in all health-care systems, but at least Europeans and Canadians have a health-care system that covers everyone."

Problem is, governments that promise to "cover everyone" always wind up cutting corners simply to save money. People with Kennedy's condition are dying or dead as a result.

Thank God we haven't socialized medicine here in the United States.  Yet.

-Colonel Steve

Background Check problems

Lot's of people have had issues with getting credit due to problems beyond their control.  Like maybe identity theft.  Or, in some cases, mistakes on their credit reports that the credit agencies had to fix.

Along those same line comes a newer problem of getting things off of background records.  The guy referred to here had issues with getting things off of his background check that he was found innocent of.  Didn't mean much to prospective new employers.

Credit reporting agencies are well on their way to being less of a problem, if any.  Now maybe we need to consider companies that do background checks.

-Colonel Steve

Web 2.0 In The Business

Business First of Louisville recently wrote on Best Buy's use of Web 2.0 technology within their business.  Their site, www.blueshirtnation.com, has had attributed to it a) lowering of in-store turnover from double digits to just slightly more than 8 percent, and b) increasing enrollment of their 401k by 30 percent.

It has fostered in-store and across-store connections within its employees ranks.  Best practices have been shared across all the stores.  Product ordering issues have been tracked down within stores.

Blueshirtnation type setups aren't going to go over well at places that have a top-down control management style.  Places like that have been successful in the past, that's for sure.  The debate will be about what will be successful in the future.  Top-down control management?  Peer-to-peer openness like a blueshirtnation?  Combination of both?

-Colonel Steve

Times They Are A Changing

It doesn't take a stock market analyst to know that the newspaper business has been going downhill financially for awhile.  Probably because most of us, outside of the bastions of liberalness (like newspapers) actually know a thing or 2 about capitalism.

Capitalism hinges on one principle: one has to have a product that people will pay money to get.  Even then, it may only last a season, before the product isn't as financially successful as it once was.  Think of the old buggies attached to horses.  They're still around, just not like they used to be.

So goes places like the New York Times.  Seventy folks have accepted buyouts to shrink the Time's staff.  But sadly, thirty more will be chosen shortly to leave for the last time.

It will be interesting to see if this will be the end of their financial problems.  I doubt it.  As the New York Post article states, things move slow at the Times.  I'm not sure they've figured out what their next product is, besides newsprint.  I'm afraid they'll still be holding their buggy whip when everyone else is holding their car keys.

-Colonel Steve

A Plug for Lexmark

The Courier-Journal is reporting that Best Buy is dropping Lexmark from their product offerings.  I was disappointed to hear that, and not just because Lexmark is a Kentucky company.  I recently purchased a Lexmark E250dn laser printer through Best Buy Business.  This was a bit of a risky move on my part because I've always been happy with HP -- but that may be because my company was footing the bill.  When it came to spending my own limited bucks I couldn't pay top dollar for HP and I had a specific feature set in mind:

• laser -- I have an HP ink-jet but it's slow and I don't need to print color all that much
• network-ready -- I need to print from multiple machines on the network
• duplex-capable -- Saves paper (obligatory Earth-Day mention)

The Lexmark E250dn fit the bill and it seemed more home-office friendly (and cheaper) than the nearest HP, so I bought it.  The printer has been all that it was advertised to be.  It is fast and the print quality is good.  There are drivers for both linux and windows.  I am a very happy customer. 

It's a shame Best Buy is turning its back on a quality product.  If the printer industry does consolidate around HP and Canon, as the article suggests, that will be bad for consumers.  HP prices are already high -- what will they be with limited competition?

--Red