Military Muster on mall June 13, 2009

In the aftermath of hurricane Katrinia they disarmed American citizens. They locked American citizens into the Super Dome, blockaded the only bridge out of town and refused to allow victims (mostly black) to cross the bridge into a predominantly white neighborhood. They turned away truck loads of water, food and supplies. They simply obeyed orders most of them knew were wrong. And they didn't understand why.

Then, when President Obama recently announced that he thought veterans should have to pay for their own medical care, (while bailing out car companies and corrupt AIG, banks and others) and that both the military and the police would be expected to disarm Americans in a "national emergency," and that all military veterans were considered "potential terrorists" and a threat to America, and bills were introduced to forbid any veteran diagnosed with PTSD or brain damage (basically anyone returning from Iraq) to ever own a gun for life - including some veterans who are now police officers - this tribe of brothers rebelled.

They formed a new organization called "The Oath Keepers" and on June 13 of 2009 they will assemble in Washington, DC to protest. And THEIR brothers-in-arms - the standing U.S. Military, and police will be tasked with having to "control civil unrest." It will be band-of-brothers against band-of-brothers. One of the tightest, most loyal, fiercest and passionate tribes against their own protesting against their commander-in-chief - President Barack Obama.



Police and military are both waking up to the fact we STILL DO have a Constitution and they swore to defend it AND the Bill of rights when they swore their oath of office. Will they keep that oath? We'll see.

Blood bath is over for now

Rumor has it that Robert Benson is the new editor of The Danville Register and Bee. That's possibly the BEST thing that could have happened to the newspaper. Robert has toiled hard behind the scenes, kept his mouth shut when he was supposed to and opened when it was expedient. An award winning writer he knows Danville, has solid values and COULD quite possibly turn the newspaper around if Lynchburg doesn't hamstring him. Look for good things from Robert once things settle down. He's waited a long time for this. Congratulations Robert!!


Arnold Hendrix has obviously opted not to give up control and be demoted if Robert has moved up. And we hear that the last of the folks who laughed at the "girls gone wild" video reporter Mac McLean joked about making - are ALL gone. Someone at Media General pulled their head out of their nether regions long enough to recognize a great chance to get rid of some liabilities and did. However....there is ONE more wart on the hog - the employee who has been sending me the snotty, whiny emails remains. Media General? Are you sure you want to make that promotion? Or do I need to go after that too?

Bye bye Darren Sweeney. Now you REALLY CAN take that looooong vacation. Lesson? Never dip your pen in the company ink. It WILL come back to bite you.

Bye Bye Register & Bee.....Gone as of April 1, 2009

Circulation is being moved to Lynchburg, but the "semi-official" word that Arnold (On vacation in Florida....hmmm....) got via phone this week is that the Register & Bee newsroom will be GONE April 1, 2009. A poor April Fools Day joke....or just business as usual at The Register & Bee.

We'll see. The "rumor" from Richmond - that the ENTIRE NEWSROOM will be WITHOUT JOBS as of April 1.

Survey says???? What do you think?

Hey, even the Register & Bee can afford this!

Thanks to InSocial Media for this one!

All personnel will now be required to look happy while working, in order to combat the current recession. Company-approved supplies will be provided to each employee at little or no cost.

Workloads getting to you?
Feeling stressed?
Too many priorities and assignments?

Here is the new low-cost, company-approved solution to cope with multiple priorities & assignments.

Each employee will be supplied 2 paper clips and rubber bands.

(See Fig 1.)

Assemble as shown in Fig. 2

And apply as shown in Fig. 3










Enjoy your day. This new office equipment will help you to reach the end of a productive work day with a smile on your face!

The Management

Why isn't Media General enforcing its policies?

Gee, Media General HAS policies in place to supposedly prevent sexual harassment, but no one seems too worried about actually ENFORCING them. Why? Click on the photo to enlarge it.

A world stage

The voting isn't over until tomorrow, but it looks like I'm going to England on an all-expense paid trip to attend the 2009 TED conference, thanks to Seth Godin's endorsement today. He is an amazing marketer and an even more amazing man. I've been a member of Triiibes.com for more than six months now. Triiibes is a social media network Seth established this year just prior to the launch of his book, "Tribes" - which is an INCREDIBLE book and you should definitely go buy it (see it on the right of this blog and click on it for more info).

Anyway - I recently became a finalist in the Johnny Bunko writing contest (one of three out of hundreds of entries). The winner is selected by popular vote. Go here to vote. Vote for "Stay Hungry".... The race was tied at 40% 40% 20% last night. Then this morning I got up and checked and wow! At last count, thanks to Seth's blog post below - I'm at 64% and climbing!! Looks like I'll attend the all-expense paid trip to England to the TED conference in July!! I know a LOT of you guys have voted for me and I thank you!! So, just wanted to pass along the good news that "Things get BETTER when you LEAVE the Register & Bee." You won't read the news about my trip in the paper - they're pretty lousy that way...so spread the word!! You read it here first!! P.S. Download the FREE comic book I wrote and my friend Martin Whitmore illustrated to help win this thing! by going to Seth's blog.



Traffic magnets

Here's a trick that's as old as the web: Run a popularity contest with public voting. It could be anything from a listing of the top blogs to a creative contest for best tagline or ad.

The nominees run around like crazy, hoping to get their friends to vote. Which of course brings you more traffic. This is a large part of the strategy behind Threadless.

I get invited to vote in these all the time, to participate as a nominee regularly and most vexing, to post them here as a way of helping this person or that person achieve some sort of nirvana.

My feeling is that most of the time the cause is too thin and the prize is too lame. If your blog gets picked as the most popular woodworking blog by some other blog, it's really unlikely that you'll find many benefits other than a nice smile for your ego. On the other hand, if you can offer a great prize and/or be useful and relevant, this is a permanent tool in the web toolbox for you.

As I've said, I don't promote these. But, just this one time, I'm breaking my rule for Becky, who didn't even ask me to mention this, and for my friend Dan Pink, who has written another terrific book. If you'd be so kind to visit Dan's site and vote for "stay hungry," it's quite likely that Becky will win a paid for trip to TED UK, which she deserves and will benefit from.(She's only a hundred votes out of first place as I write this).

I promise to do something like this no more than once a year, so wait unto 2010 before you send me a note about your contest! Thanks.


Oh - late breaking...one of the members of Triiibes.com put together this video and posted it on YouTube.com. It's GREAT to get such support!! And the comic book made the FEATURE page of SLIDESHOWS last night too!



Amazing what is possible when people are positive, focused and CARE about people rather than simply wanting to exploit them, ridicule them or treat them with disrespect isn't it?

Begining of the end of the Register and Bee

What happens when one business can't deliver, treats its readers and advertisers poorly and runs roughshod over a town? People pull their ads and find some other business that will. Alan Lingerfelt, having been badgered by residents for months now to add news and events to his paper, is doing just that! The email below recently went out to residents all over Danville. The circulation of The Piedmont Shopper, Danville's most popular source for classified news, now exceeds that of The Danville Register & Bee. The free publication is packed with classified ads, jokes and business ads, but now Alan is pushing ahead with more. He appeared before Danville City Council several months ago to inform council. Now he's making his move. Once Alan is able to get news, sports and events and publish them on a weekly basis for at least six months, he'll be able to make the bid to become a paper of record. Being a paper of record will enable him to go after the "legal advertising."

For those of you not familiar with publishing, the cost of legal ads is a significant chunk of advertising revenue and is the life's blood of a newspaper - particularly when the car dealers have pulled their ads and the the realtors are seriously considering pulling theirs. So send your news and information, photos and things into Alan today!