WTF happened to Rolling Stone?

I have been reading Rolling Stone magazine on and off for over a decade. Roughly 10 years ago, it was great and I really enjoyed reading it. Since then I lost some interest in the magazine. I canceled my subscription but I'd pick up a copy every now and then.

Several months back, I started receiving copies in the mail again. I never paid for a subscription and never got the "Happy Birthday, here's a subscription" card from anybody. Nonetheless, I'm still getting the magazine every two weeks. The quality certainly has deteriorated but there's this other thing that's really starting to annoy me.

In March, Barack Obama dominated the front page. At the time he was ahead in the primaries and everybody was talking about him. I disregarded Rolling Stone's liberal stance chalking it up to the fact that the rag is about current events, and Obama certainly was a current event.

Then I noticed a similar trend on the cover of nearly every issue in my mailbox. "Sarah Palin's history of lies"; "McCain's track record of failure"; "Why John McCain will sink this country". Those headlines aren't exact but you get the idea.

I'm not saying I agree or disagree with Rolling Stone's political agenda. Personally, I'm registered independent and haven't made my decision yet. But I'd rather make the decision on my own terms without having Rolling Stone try to make it for me. I really don't need Pro-Obama/Anti-McCain propoganda shoved down my throat.

I don't remember Rolling Stone always having been like this. Even just 10 years ago, I don't remember politics being anywhere near the cover (except when the Clinton/Lewinsky thing happened but then what magazine wasn't talking about that?).

Fuck it, I'll just buy Penthouse and Hustler.

The liability of playing God

I received this story via email which I found to be very interesting:

Parents sue after child inherits hemophilia

The words new mother Fiona least expected or wanted to hear when she gave birth were "It's a boy."

The 30-year-old and her husband Paul used in-vitro fertilization, known as IVF, with the specific aim of producing a daughter and expected a girl for the entire pregnancy.

A family history of an incurable blood disorder, which strikes only males, was behind their decision to opt for the controversial sex selection procedure.

By taking the extreme step of asking doctors to discard all male embryos and implant only a female, they hoped their child would avoid the life-threatening condition that Fiona has watched her wheelchair-bound older brother battle his entire life.

But soon after baby Jess was born in June, 2005, doctors confirmed he has a severe form of hemophilia, the condition his family was so desperate to avoid.

The couple, from regional Victoria, has launched a Supreme Court action against Melbourne IVF, Ballarat Health Services, their obstetrician and Bendigo Radiology.

Fiona claims that at no time during her pregnancy — even after two ultrasounds — did anyone tell her the child she was carrying was a boy. The couple say they would have considered terminating the pregnancy had they known.

The rest of the story at http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,340737,00.html

So on the one hand, this couple took extremely costly measures to ensure that they would bring a child into the world, without subjecting that child to a life time of disease and painful medical treatments. On the other hand, nature intervened and now they want to sue because they were unsuccesful playing God.

It's a tough call and any parent would agree that they want the best for their child(ren). But a lawsuit?

Do you think the lawsuit is without merit? I don't want to turn this into a conservative vs. liberal discussion but the fact remains that the advances in medicine make it possible to take such extreme measures. If the ultrasound techs had mentioned that it's going to be a boy, this couple was not adverse to terminating the pregnancy - but again, is it really worth suing over?

We have some pretty sensible people on the site (as well as some not so sensible!) and I'd really like to hear your thoughts.

Finest restaurant in Milwaukee?

I posted a blog about 2 months ago asking for your advice in a day trip for next month, when I have a conference in Milwaukee. We decided to go to Chicago for the day trip, and then at some point during the week checking out the Miller Brewery tour in Milwaukee.

The next challenge is this: one of our very loyal clients is the chair of the conference committee so she will be in town when we are there. On the Saturday night when we all fly in, we are going to take her and her coworkers out to dinner as a "thank you" for her business and her loyalty. I've researched a few different restaurants online but I am sure I'm missing at least one. I'm not exactly a high cuisine kind of guy so my efforts online could potentially have been a bit misguided.

This is where I need you, the current or former Milwaukeeans of 2old2play, to give me a recommendation. The conference is at the Midwest Airlines Center and all our hotels are in the same vicinity. Where are the finest restaurants in that part of town? We don't want to hold back (and the company is paying for it, not me ) and this client really is very valued to us, so a $200-per-bottle-wine type of place is what we're looking for.

If anybody has any suggestions, let's hear 'em!

RIP Otis - 1990-2008

I know my blog is generally reserved for dumb internet videos and toungue-in-cheek rants so I must apologize for a more depressing change in tone.

I got a call yesterday from my parents in Connecticut, with the news that they had to put down Otis, their miniature dachsund. He has been blind and deaf the last few years but it didn't seem to bother him - I've seen him get lost in a corner of the kitchen, bumping into walls, but his tail still wagging. Turns out that Saturday night he had a seizure that lasted for hours and appeared to be in a world of pain so early Sunday they brought him to the vet and pulled the plug, so to speak.

Otis turned 18 years old on Wednesday, and on Friday they even had a birthday party for him. I was in sixth grade, 11 years old when we got him. He was always the perfect pooch - very rarely barked, very loyal, and while he wasn't a lap dog he was always happy to see everybody who came through the door.

In 2002 I moved out of my parents' house, and then to New Hampshire almost five years ago. The last few years every time I'd drive to Connecticut to see my parents my dad would joke to say good bye to Otis, as this may be my last time seeing him. But my dad also said not long ago that they have struggled with the choice to put him down, and always decided not to because regardless of his old-age health issues, he still appeared to be a happy dog.

When my sister started planning his birthday party the question hanging over everyone's head was "will he make it to his 18th birthday?" He did, and just long enough for a party where some close friends came over and got to see him one last time. Needless to say when I got the call yesterday afternoon, as much as we've been expecting this - for at least 2-3 years now - I was upset to have lost an old friend.

Oh no you di'int!

I'm in the early stages of designing new marketing materials and an exhibit booth for a conference coming up in 2 months. I have worked exhibit booths for many conferences in the past and they've all been fairly straightforward. But in the past I've only had to market one half of the business, as the company is already fairly well-established. That second half of the business, in fact, was THE big player in the market for the services that we offered. A couple years ago, another company emerged from the darkness and quickly built themselves up to #2.

A bit of competition never really hurt anybody, or so I thought. We are still #1 and we still have all the big clients that are really worth a damn. But within the last couple months I've realized why some of our smaller clients have left us for #2.

The other guys are fighting dirty. And I don't mean they've been undercutting our prices - I mean DIRTY. There are a number of examples but the most obvious is this: they have been lying to our clients, saying that my company buys from their company, and that we are not performing half the work that we say we're doing. In fact, their exhibit booth from another conference even says "Let us solve your __________ problem!" (the ____ being the service that we provide, an obvious stab at my company)

Fortunately our larger clients are very loyal and can see through all the bullcrap. But there are new clients out there every week, and as our industry grows more and more of them will need our services. I'm not going to sink to the same level as that shithead, nor am I going to try to get all caught up in "he said/she said" drama while trying to clear up the facts.

But what I would love is to expose this fucking fraud for the lying piece of pigeon crap that he is. And here's where I need your help, sadistic casual blog readers: HOW? Anybody been in similar competition with a real shithead, or have any ideas how I can discredit him without starting drama? Personally I'd love to call him a fat c_nt to his face but I don't think that would fare well.

I know some of you are much more creative than I. I await your suggestions