Craig's Corner

July 1, 1980 I watched the first hours of what was known as Cable News Network. The sets were tacky, lighting bad, but real news was being reported. For a current-events junkie, it was nirvana. The 3 network newscasts were a joke in comparison. Today those newscasts continue to provide the majority of Americans with their news – 65% according to Pew Research .  Cable watchers are just 38% and most of it is recycled press releases and who can yell louder at the opposing viewpoint. I haven’t watched cable news regularly in nearly a decade, frustrated by the lack of depth and inquisitiveness in the coverage and the overreliance on opinion – whether it be CNN, Fox or MSNBC. The recently launched Al Jazeera America in a rare bright spot in the landscape. Last week CNN returned to its roots, albeit for a moment. CNN spent weeks covering the disappearance of flight 370, including putting reporters in flight simulators and having anchors use toy airplanes to tell the story. R...

I’m a car aficionado. Every three years I upgrade to a new vehicle. In my younger days (working in for-profit) I was able to do so every 18 to 24 months. Leasing enables my habit. Only in the past decade have I become brand loyal and consistent.  Before these Honda days I’d go from a Chevy to a sporty Z to a Jeep. Negotiating a car deal never intimidated me. I remember my Dad and I co-negotiating a Datsun back in the 1970’s when I was a pre-teen. I think I’ve helped on every car buy my folks had since then – mortifying my mother when I suggested a better deal could be had with the dealer who happened to be the Church Warden that she served with. Needless to say, Mom was right and a fair deal ensued and that car has served her well for nearly a decade. Neither George W. Bush nor Barak Obama negotiated a good deal in “saving” GM. A TARP report came out this week stating that U.S. taxpayers lost $11.2 billion on the deal. How is that possible? Didn’t GM pay back the U.S. in ...

Once upon a time I was married. Sort of. We were young, in love and crazy for each other. We complemented each other – where he was gregarious and outgoing I was more introverted and shy socially. I couldn’t (and still can’t) find my way around without navigational assistance, and he’s the human GPS – even in places we had never visited before. Our interests were not identical – giving us the ability to learn from each other while still being able to live our own lives. We formalized our partnership in the only way that was permissible then: we had a commitment ceremony with our nearest and dearest. It was an incredible day and a special time. It ended abruptly and painfully. For us there were no rules, no laws – we made it all up to suit our needs: the commitment and the un-commitment. It all happened a lifetime ago – ten years before Gay Marriage became an “Issue.” Would things have been different if the gay community (let alone the wider community) been conditioned to same sex co...

I’m the son of East Coast liberal parents. I grew up in a home which respected people’s differences – whether they be economic, social, racial or any other defining characteristic. I was around idealism of how an activist government could make the world a better place. The fact that my own political beliefs do not parrot my parents world view is a testament to how I was raised: to think for myself and to be an individual. Political correctness is the antithesis of that: it’s a set of terms and language that’s used to define groups based on a set of criteria (such as gender, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, etc.). How I talk to and about others could be construed as politically correct – it so happens that’s the byproduct of treating people as you want to be treated.  Recent events underscore the conflict between free speech and what large segments of society find acceptable. Fred Phelps died last month. He rose to prominence in the U.S. through...

I joined America Online back in the dark ages when you were assigned a number for your membership. I remember listening to the grinding of the 2,400 baud modem connecting over telephone lines...thrilled when the high pitched electronic sound sync’d. My AOL member number was under the 6 digit mark, so it was early days for what became a behemoth (before it became extinct). I delighted in the “You’ve Got Mail” announcement until I began getting these strange messages from people I didn’t know for things I didn’t want. Back then you would reply to such oddities and politely explain that the mail must have been intended for somebody else. We all quickly learned that by responding to spam messages only unleashed the floodgates since we had inadvertently validated that the messages were reaching real people who actually looked at them. More than once I’ve succumbed to a rogue message and gotten my system infected with some nasty virus or other. The tech industry innovated an entire new ...