George W. Millen

From the beginning there were questions about whether or not he deserved the job. Did he really earn it? And then very quickly there arose questions about how much time he spent away from the job, how hard he was willing to work.

Then disasters started happening, one after another. And over and over again, he showed incompetence attempting to deal with problems. His detractors began to find him personally loathsome. But it wasn't personality that drove his critics mad: it was his consistent bungling, his constant mismanagement, his frequent mistakes.

Soon he showed a stubborn character, an unwillingness to recognize a mistake, a persistence in continuing along the same plan again and again. "Stay the course" was the mantra. Even though it looked incredibly stupid, he vowed to continue following the same path, continuing the same mistakes, again and again.

Despite a questionable record, he got a job extension. For better or worse, he was going to have the job. And he continued to mismanage everything, badly. During his time as leader, the organization he led suffered through an intensely difficult period, a time fraught with failures and struggles. Things often went badly, and he showed no ability to actually deal with the problems that arose (in fact, many believed he was responsible for those problems). It was a bad time for the organization, and whether leadership was the cause, or whether leadership was simply unable to deal with circumstances, is up for debate. But without a doubt leadership was poor. It was a rough period characterized by an incompetent, stubborn, unlikeable, clueless, awful leader.

George W. Millen.

The Detroit Lions will be better off when he's not running things. So will America.

Note:
After writing this, I thought "There are surely others who have seen this connection and written this sort of thing before me (and done better)." Indeed, here are a few:

Daily Kos
KFAN message boarders
Fanhouse commenters

Consumerism in Conflict

I am perhaps a bit too obsessed with Subway. As a mostly vegan vegetarian, Subway's veggie sandwich is just the best meal I can have. Whenever I choose or am forced to spend money on something else, I set that in relation to Subway: for every five dollars I spend, I think "this could have got me a sub." If I ever manage to save money, or choose not to spend a certain amount of money, I divide that number by five and announce "I am now entitled to X subs."

And that's not a bad thing. While a cheap person doesn't want to pay five dollars for a meal too frequently, a healthy person can be very pleased with a veggie sub. It's a filling meal with few calories and loads of fresh vegetables: I'm pretty sure just writing that talked me into getting a sub today.

But now I have Caribou Coffee's soy latte's chasing after Subway as my consumer obsession. I'm afraid every day I will at some point think "When and how can I get Caribou Coffee today?" When my alarm goes off and I'm tired, I think "Caribou Coffee will rescue me from this exhaustion." I'm just chasing after that beautiful espresso. But as a cheapskate, I can't really have both Caribou Coffee and Subway that often.

From a frugality standpoint, I have to choose Subway. No matter what each day we must get meals, and a sandwich is itself one of those meals; if I have a soy latte, I still need to seek out (and pay for) a meal. But now I have two consumer obsessions trying to separate me from my money.

Restrooms around the Twin Cities

Welcome to a new feature in which we highlight good public restrooms.

In the Maplewood Mall, I like the men's room on the first floor of Kohl's. The fact that (a) it's tucked away in a far corner and (b) it's a men's room in Kohl's seems to mean it is used little, for it is very clean and empty.

That is all for now.

Are you scared? You should be: you're desperate.

Scare Tactics is the Sci Fi Channel hidden camera show in which people get the piss scared out of them. The target gets put into an isolated situation, then some sort of scary event occurs to scare the person. It's horrifyingly funny.

But here's what disturbs me. To get the target into a scary situation, the target is often given a job in some isolated location late at night. So, to be a target on this show, you have to be desperate enough to take a part-time job on short notice in an isolated place in the middle of the night. After scaring the hell out of the person (in the best episode, the target is usually convinced he/she is about to die), they tell the person that "You're on Scare Tactics." Of course, first the target stares around confused because he/she has probably never heard of Scare Tactics because it's on the Sci Fi channel. And then...that person that was so desperate for money, he/she agreed to short-term work at an isolated location in the middle of the night...realizes he/she doesn't have a job.

Ragstock, you magnificent bastard!

Chance found me in the Ragstock in the Mall of America today.  And lucky chance it was: nice sport coats for $6.  Six dollars!

So know this, college students.  Before you imagine your professors are living the swanky life, remember that they may be standing next to you in Ragstock shopping for clothes to wear to class because it's what they can afford.