We Got Another Census

This was in our mailbox yesterday:

Looking at it at first glace, two things stand out:

The first thought that went through our mind was that we already filled out the U.S. Census, but upon further inspection (the “SPECIAL NOTICE” section), it turns out it’s just something sent out to Republican or potential Republican voters, which is interesting, because WifeGeeding has informed me that she’s a Democrat, after all she chose not to have a child until W was out of office¹.

And of course, when we open it up, it’s all sorts of questions the GOP wants to ask and a request to send money.

But when you actually open it up, you see something in the upper right hand corner that can mislead someone into thinking that it’s the U.S. Census, and sure enough, some folks are upset about it.  At least one GOP lawmaker isn’t happy with this mailing.

Click to biggiefy

¹OK, that whole “until W was out of office” part isn’t true, just an attempt at humor.

Posted in Personal, Political | 5 Comments

We Have Met the Enemy and He Is PowerPoint

WASHINGTON — Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the leader of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan, was shown a PowerPoint slide in Kabul last summer that was meant to portray the complexity of American military strategy, but looked more like a bowl of spaghetti.

“When we understand that slide, we’ll have won the war,” General McChrystal dryly remarked, one of his advisers recalled, as the room erupted in laughter.

The slide has since bounced around the Internet as an example of a military tool that has spun out of control. Like an insurgency, PowerPoint has crept into the daily lives of military commanders and reached the level of near obsession. The amount of time expended on PowerPoint, the Microsoft presentation program of computer-generated charts, graphs and bullet points, has made it a running joke in the Pentagon and in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Perhaps the best point made in the article: “It’s dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control,” General McMaster said in a telephone interview afterward. “Some problems in the world are not bullet-izable.”

Posted in Interesting | 3 Comments