I was reading the BTW section in BusinessWeek about the fact that JC Penney’s “American Made” t-shirts are actually made in Mexico, and this is causing a bit of a stir.

I think we all know that the American flags, cups and t-shirts we’re buying at Wal-Mart and the corner store are often being made in China and elsewhere, so on one level, should we be surprised?

I was however, taken aback by a couple of things the JC Penny spokesperson had to say:

1) “[The line is] intended to evoke our American lifestyle and pride in being American.”

But apparently not in our pride in American workmanship.

2) “‘American Made’ refers to “the actual person wearing the shirt, not to the manufacturing of the merchandise.”

No word on whether JC Penny would seek legal action if they found any Mexicans wearing the shirt, or God forbid, Canadians.

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Now that's motherly love

So I’m watching this mother seagull on the rooftop across from my window, as I’ve been doing day in and day out since she built her nest. In the past two weeks it’s be rainging almost every day but I never see her get off that nest. It’s amazing, but I guess the kind of things mothers do all the time.

I was thinking that what happens when she has to stretch her legs or relieve herself? Does the father seagull (I see him hanging around sometimes, reading the sports page and such), take her place? Is that embarassing for the male seagull? Is it like the seagull equivalent of my wife asking me to hold her purse?

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Your Moment of Zen

Take the time to read a piece of spam today. If not this one, find one in your inbox. Variations on the Nigerian scam are my favorite, but go with what speaks to you.

Dear Trusted Friend,

Compliment of season,I know that this mail may be strange to you.But if you do not remember me,you might have receive an email from me in the past regarding fund transaction business proposal which we never concluded.Iam using this opportunity to inform you that the transaction has been concluded with the assistance of another partner from Canada  who financed the transaction to a logical conclusion.

I apreciate your great effort to assist me despite that we stoped on the way due to one reason or the other best known to you.Due to your sincere,courage and trustworthy You showed me during the course of the transaction,I want to show my apreciation to you with the sum of $800.000.00.which I kept in the custody of my secretary on your behalf for onward delivery immediately you contact him.

Therefore,Contact My secretary MR. ROY MOOR  for the collection of the Bank Draft. his Email;(roymoor29@aim.com)

I am very busy at the moment,due to investment projects,which I and the new partner are having at hand.

Meanwhile, you have to contact him immediately you receive this mail for more information because he  is the only person instruct on how to deliver the fund to you,moreover,Do not forget to send your full contact address to him to avoid any misplacement on delivery such as.

Your full names…………………..

Acopy of your picture

Your direct phone number…………………

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It’s amazing what you can do with clip art.

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Dear Random Company on Facebook Who Is Trying to Friend Me,

Call me a humanist, but I make it a habit of friending only people. (You’re actually not supposed to create a profile of a business or organization, but your secret’s safe with me.)

If any of your employees are on FB I’d be happy to be friends with them, and if you create a fan page you can count me among your fans.

Rich

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I have been experiencing problems with my 120GB iPod that I purchased about six months ago. It started a couple of months ago when in the middle of an audiobook it would skip ahead to the next audiobook, as if it had finished the first. Clicking back or going to the previous audiobook would just start the first book at the beginning.

More recently it started happening on songs, and got to the point where I was lucky if I got two songs in before it skipped or gave me a frozen Apple logo with a banded blue background.

Through iTunes I restored the iPod to the factory settings but the problems continued. I also drained the batteries completely and then fully recharged the iPod. Still, no change.

Since I life not too far from the Apple Store in the Maine Mall, and since I had business there anyway, I brought my iPod in. Turns out that the iTunes restore will only take you so far. You need to go into Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility and reformat the iPod from there.

Does it work? Well, I haven’t had the chance to reload my song collection and test it out, but hope to have an answer by tomorrow!

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This is a test to see how well Gabcast will work for a client who wants to call in to update their site.

Hmmm…could be slicker.

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You have a beautiful mouth or eyes or set of gams. - Photo Credit Peasap

I received this thoughtful email today through our contact form:

EMAIL: affiliates.militaryfriends@gmail.com
WEBSITE: http://www.militaryFriends.com
COMMENTS: 
I really like your blog or website or group……

I wonder if you are interested in having your own military dating site.  We can set it up for you at no cost if you have strong interest.  You can pick the name for your site, and own the domain and brand. We take care of all the backend and engineering work.

You don’t have to worry that no one exists at your site at the beginning.  It will have hundreds of thousands of members shared with other sites we have already set up.  Your users can immediately contact hundreds of thousands of other users once they register.

If you are interested, let me know.

That feels really heartfelt. Especially the part where she tells me she likes my “blog or website or group.” Feels like she really did her homework.

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Thanks to Bill Diehl, and who ever forwarded this email to him, and whoever forwarded it to….

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Remember that bone-headed idea floated during the election season that both John McCain and Hilary Clinton floated, about removing the tax on gasoline when it spiked to $4 a gallon?

That idea would have caused gas prices to continue to rise (because demand wouldn’t have softened as much) while at the same time deprived America of much needed revenues to fix our failing infrastructure. Minnesota bridge collapse, anyone?

Well, here’s a wacky idea. Now that prices have plummeted to about $2 or less a gallon, let’s have a temporary tax increase on gasoline.

Please, hear me out.

First, I do mean temporary. We could tie it into the price of gasoline; let’s say the when the national average shoots up again to $3 (or whatever number we could agree upon) the tax goes away, or it could be more of a rolling target that abates as the average goes up.

In the meantime, we would get a surge of new revenues that should be split two ways. Half would go to rebuilding America’s infrastructure; that would lead to better, safer roads and bridges, while putting more people to work, and hopefully taking a nibble out of the depression unemployment numbers.

The other half would go to offset tax breaks on fuel efficient, American-built cars. I’m not talking about cars made by the big 3 necessarily, I’m talking about any car manufactured in the US by tax paying Americans. Toyota, Honda, or any “US” company as well.

It’s my strong belief that we need to get off of our addiction to foreign oil asap for the safety and security of our nation. It’s not (just) a tree-hugging idea; it’s a matter of national security. You don’t put the future of your energy needs in the hands of people who genuinely don’t like you.

OK, well, that’s my .02. Fire away.

Rich Brooks
Yes, I Realize the Hypocrisy That I Drive an SUV

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