Ideas Are Good…

Archive for the ‘The Truth About’ Category

There have been 2,929 terrorism-related deaths around the world since the attacks on New York and Washington. (Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5889435/). There are also 45,000 American deaths each year associated with the lack of insurance (Source: http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/09/18/deaths.health.insurance). Why do we spend BILLIONS in a war that kills so few? How does a fiscally suffering country find the money to fund such a war?

I have had this post for some time and never posted it but after seeing this article on Fast Company, I felt compelled to put it up.

It is February 2010 and we are still at war against “Terrorism”. Not a country, an evil dictator or alien invasion… terrorism. We are at war against terrorism because there is a very small group of people that scare us with their means of destruction but honestly, they are not very good at killing people. These small groups have been called terrorist because that is the tactic that they employ. Terror. A war against a tactic can never be won. When at war, there will always be the tactic of terror with which to cope. That is why a tactic, rather than a country, has been selected to fight. We will fight terror forever!

A war against anything intangible (like a tactic) will never be won and is not supposed to be won. That is why there has not been a war against anything but “situations and symptoms” in our country’s most recent history (i.e., war on drugs, war on obesity, war or illiteracy). A war against a person, a country or entity of some kind may be fought and even won. Such a war can be won by the removal of the person(s) in power, by killing them, assimilation of culture or other means that removes the ENTITY from being the cause of some threat. Terrorism has been deemed the enemy of our time because the people that profit from war understand that there is no other entity with which to go to war on earth. America will be at war against the tactic of terror until the last day there is an America.

If we are going to be terrorized by anything, be terrorized that while we fight a war against a tactic, we are held in its very grip. The American dollar is weak amongst sovereign nations and yet we find BILLIONS to fight against a small band of renegades in countries without running water and paved roads. American privacy and civil liberties are being eroded away to nearly nothing for the sake of banishing low-tech fanatics in places of the world our school children can not find on a globe. We have become the victims of the mere threat of terror and not entirely of terror itself.

If terror as a tactic is worthy of fighting because of the harm it can cause, there are far more scary things to think about when considering death and harm. Consider that most people die in America by way of our diet that our Government subsidizes and legalizes. Consider that more people die by heart disease, cancers and any number of illnesses than tactics of small extremist groups. Allergies, autism, cellular mutations and various forms of rampant disease are affecting more lives every day than terror ever will. Consider that symptoms are fought in America and never the cause. Consider that more people die in America as a result of insufficient health care than any number of terrorist attacks in the history of the world. Problems are always profitable for those that can perpetuate them. Consider for a moment that this perpetuation of the war on terror is done for the sake of profit and economic control by the richest people in the world.

If anything should scare the living daylights out of you it should be the greed that drives leaders to use fear against free people as a means to divert attention and accountability from positions of power and authority. If we are truly at war, why are laws enacted against the people of America? Should not our way of life and liberty remain intact while under attack from these “terrorist”? I am sorry to tell you this, but they are not. If America is worth protecting, why dismantle our way of life one new law and amendment at a time? Why are more laws and bigger Government needed to fight a small number of extremist in desolate places of the globe? If there really is a war, where is the tally of lives that represent even a fraction of a single-digit-percent of the lives taken by disease, abortion, accidents and the misuse of resources and technology for the sake of human beings? Take a moment and Google death statistics and you will be amazed how small of a problem terrorism is as a cause of death amongst human beings.

Killing people to stop people from killing is so primitive and backwards, words escape me in conveying my frustration. And isn’t that why we fight terror, because they might hurt someone? Wars are tools for profit and building governments, not taking care of the actual causes of human suffering. There is no terrorism beyond the fear we have that someone is going to hurt us or our family. The good news is, terrorism is the least of our worries. You will most likely die of heart disease or cancer.

A small lesson in radio buying because who has money to throw away?
When one buys radio advertising, they are buying a chance to run during a specified time of a day. That’s right, A CHANCE to run. This “package” was purchased by a friend/client recently and we will use it as an example here.

Inventory (in the form of commercials) on the radio is “fixed”, meaning there is only so many commercials that can run per hour. Otherwise, the entire hour would be commercials (and believe me, GMs wish they could have just that) but then no one would listen. The selling of radio spots however, is not “fixed”. They will sell as many SPOTS as they can. Why? Because the more demand there is for the FIXED number of spots, the more they can charge for each spot in their PRIME. The highest paying advertisers in any given daypart will run and those that have CHANCES (at lower prices) to run WILL NOT. As a rule of thumb, the smaller the daypart the higher the rate. In other words, to run between 6-7am cost more then running 6a-6a. Get it? Reps can not tell you this as they earn commissions on what RUNS and is COLLECTED through billing. Run up the rates with inexpensive packages is one such tactic Sales Managers employ.

This package is ALL rotating spots with very broad dayparts and WITHOUT any PRIME. Before I saw this package, the rep expressed to me that this flight was 70% prime. Very few of these spots will run from 6A to 9A or 4p-7P, which is by definition “prime” because supposedly people are in their car listening to radio at those times. If these commercials do run during PRIME, it will be because no one else was paying more then my friend WOULD PAY for these spots.

While working at a radio group years ago, the market’s number one station was 170% over sold. WTF?! Their morning drive was $300+ per spot. many people could not get their spots to run at all because their buys were being used to run up the rates. This is called being “BUMPED”. It is also an example of how perceived scarcity feeds the greed of people who seek to control the resource, in this case radio.

If radio has listeners, why the lottery of ad buying to be there? Because greed says, “get as much as I can right now”. Those days are coming to a close. It is like we have all woken up and said, give me more than you take and we can do business!

Solutions: Let someone you trust that knows the game place your buy. Know your target audience and purchase the most prime you can for your budget where your customer may be listening. The cheap spots are cheap because few are listening. Also, compare actual run times (LOGS) with your “package” and watch the invoice when it comes time to pay up. OH! Try not to pre-pay for commercials! Remember, you don’t know when they will run.

FEAR STINKS!
Let there be no issuance of judgment upon the observation that people who are afraid are found behind the vale of “belief”. And with that, there is paradox for not the fearful believe in anything. Truth is far greater a burden then is fear. Observe the emotions that emerge to protect the ego. Can I get an Amen? Fear pervades truth in actions of the human mind because of our relationship with the past and lack thereof of the future. What does that mean? It means, if one sees no way, there is none. It means organizations built around beliefs of miracles ultimately fall to illusions of perception because the eternal has no need for money, resources, charts and protocol. The shrine is in one’s attitude towards things not understood and uncertain for God provides all that is needed when necessary and without prompting. Organizations become parodies when limits emerge and comfort is established. Miracles are at hand and the “faithful” see them the least. If anyone believes in the unseen force that binds creation together, then precious few trust it.

You’ve taken a nightmare pill, if you continue to buy the economy hype. If you’re waiting for a someone else to do something, it’s time to wake up! You are the economy and the rest of the country is waiting on you too. I’ve been hearing it for months and it is pitiful that people I once thought to be champions of intellect and vision cowering and whining about change and a little struggle. If you’re afraid? If you’re scared you are going to loose? If you can’t think of anything but the economy and how bad things are for you? Than you’ve OD’ed on fear. (George Carlin Voice) I know, because I’ve been there, man!

The truth is, we are going to have to see ourselves out of this mess a little at a time. I mean that literally. The first step is seeing clearly in our minds, where it is that we want to go. We have to see our businesses growing. We have to see our bills covered. We have to see our families taken care of. We have to see our lives for the abundant gift that it has been and will always be. We have to accept our part in the perceived lack and turn our focus to having plenty again. I’m not about talking greed, but the knowledge that there is plenty to go around for everyone. We don’t need the money in order to believe. Many people have never had enough of anything to be happy for very long. For them, it’s always a loosing game. Weak.

When the numbness of the downer you’ve choke down wears off, mediocrity surely waits for you along with all the other people waiting for someone to do something. Be the one to try something new. Invest in your people with your time, words and resources starting right now. Get up and try, every day! Any real doctor will tell you that pills only cover the symptoms anyway.