National Hijab Day Shows Support

In the StarTribune yesterday, there was a big, wet kiss for National Hijab Day, where non-Muslim women are expected to don the hijab to show their "support."

What wasn't covered (sorry for the pun) in the article is what these women are truly supporting.  If Christians forced their women cover their bodies with a hijab, there'd be a Burn the Hijab Day.  But since we're talking Islam, the subjugation and second-class-citizenry of women is to be relished and celebrated.

“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.” 

― George Orwell, Animal Farm

Super Bowl Ads 2016 - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

In 2016, the cost for a Super Bowl ad was $4.5 million.  Who got their money's worth, and who just flat out blew it last night?  Let's go to the video tape:

The Good

Audi Starman - On brand, and taking advantage of the popularity of the recently deceased David Bowie.  Perfect for its target market.  Incredibly well done:
 


Dollar Shave Club - Really effective ad that was long on benefits.  Disruptive, memorable, and money well spent:


Heinz - Bad song, great commercial


The Bad

Mountain Dew - The Puppy, Monkey, Baby ad was simply terrible.  One simple question: Why?



Budweiser - When the cusp of the ad reflects that your customer is wrong liking all of those craft beers, and they need to get back to liking your crap, you just wasted nearly $5MM



The Ugly

Doritos Baby - This is just simply too much, and in bad taste.



Editor's note - this was originally supposed to be a much thorough post.  I had many more offerings.  Unfortunately, Blogger is having some significant technical issues.  Their HTML editor is changing content without my interactions, and after spending over two hours to just get this, I need to bail.

Sorry for the crappy post.

Rubio Wrecked

Last night's debate was as entertaining as it was informative.  This late in the race, it's do or die for many candidates, and they needed a stellar showing to improve their chances in New Hampshire.  For others, they just needed to keep up their momentum and not trip up.

Here's a take on the performances last night:

Got Better

• Jeb Bush - This was his best debate yet.  Still, his persona is wooden, and there was not enough delivered to put off the inevitable:  Bush is toast.
• John Kasich - He finally delivered some construct to his debate arguments, and is definitely trying to position himself as the most moderate candidate in the field.  He's invested a huge amount of time and dollars in NH, and we'll see if that, combined with the debate performance, gets him anywhere.
• Ted Cruz - He looked the most presidential last night.  He was human in delivering the story of his drug-addicted sister, was genuine and sincere on his explanation (and apology) for the Ben Carson situation, and laced the "gotcha" question about the North Korean missile to the gap for a double.  His performance was pretty much flawless.

Trended Sideways

• Donald Trump - Again, he was bereft of details, but it doesn't seem to matter to anyone.  Those that were already Trump fans likely enjoyed it, and those that were not weren't swayed
• Ben Carson - There just wasn't anything of substance to move his campaign off to a different trajectory.  

Got Worse

• Marco Rubio - The early exchange between him and Christie was difficult to watch.  Rubio wasn't prepared, and needed to be as the attack was obviously going to come (perhaps not from Christie, but it was going to come).  Was it brutal enough to scuttle a campaign?  Boy, that's a good question.  His responses were that awkward and that bad.  Time will tell, but Marco had a terrible night.
• Chris Christie - Many are stating that Christie won last night's debate, and he very well may have done so.  However, he do so by appearing to come off as a blowhard and a bully.  I think the net effect is that he'll pay for it.  He may have won the battle but lost the war because of it.

 

Saturday Song Share: Ike Reilly - The Boat Song (We're Getting Loaded)

TV in Finland Teach Women How to Avoid Being Raped

With the rapid influx of Muslim immigrants, followed by an immediate influx of rapes committed by said immigrants, the women of Finland are marked for prey.  One could expect such a situation, since many in the faith view women not covered by the burka to be "uncovered meat."

Context?  Here's the most famous quote from an influential Aussie imam:

If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats' or the uncovered meat? The uncovered meat is the problem. If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred.  - Taj El-Din Hilaly

While there's work to do to educate rapists Muslim immigrants, in the meantime women need to feel safe.  Hence, Finnish TV has developed the following game plan for women to be protected:



This is where political correctness leads, folks.  It ain't pretty.  Not at all.

Bad Lip Reading - New NFL Edition

This is really good, but the end is pure gold:


That Drew Brees huddle cracks me up every time...

Hunting With Kin - A Recap

I just returned from our annual trip to Louisiana to finish off the duck season.  As usual, we had an incredible time, although this year the ducks chose not to cooperate.  Regardless, the weather was gorgeous, the food outstanding, and the laughs plentiful.

Here are some moments captured during the trip:

 Sunrise in the bayou does't get much more beautiful

 A nice decoy spread doesn't matter if there are no birds out there to see it

When we weren't hunting, we were outside because it was so damn nice out there

Three boys in flooded timber

More action (or lack thereof) in flooded timber

Someone was the butt of the joke at the truck stop...

...and it was pretty damned funny

I'm very, very lucky to have the family and the friends that I have.

Lessons from Iowa

The election process finally kicked into third gear last night with the Iowa caucus, and now we're off and running.  It feels like it took forever to get here, but get here we did, and with some impressive results.

Here are some interpretations from what transpired last night:

• Jeb, Christie, and Huckabee are over.  In fact, Huckabee took the formal step of "suspending" his campaign.  It will be interesting to see where supporters of these candidates (admittedly small, but supporters nonetheless) land.
• Trump is vulnerable.  The candidate that appeared to have the most wind in his sails was bested by Cruz, and darn near got beat by Rubio as well.  Did his refusal to participate in the Fox News debate backfire?  And more than that, how does he react to getting beat?  
• It is astonishing to me that in the United States a self-avowed Socialist can basically tie for the Democrat nomination in Iowa.  It only goes to show how much that party, and our society, has changed.  Scary.

Iowa is hardly the entire election, and we have a lot more to go from here, however it's a start of the end of what should prove to be a very interesting election season.