Here's a newsflash..

Attention Barack Obama, Eric Massa, Rick Dollinger and countless other Democrat candidates for various offices across the nation..

George W. Bush is not running for office in November.

You'd never know it by watching campaign commercials though.

I'm not here to tell these socialists how to run their campaign, but here's some free advice, you don't win by running against something, you win by running for something.

Didn't you learn that from Al Gore and John Kerry?

Maybe it's just me, but you aren't going to get my vote simply by telling me what the other guys said. That doesn't prove that you are better qualified for the position. Just because the other guy isn't right for the job, doesn't mean that you are.

Tell me why you are the better choice, not why the other guy is not the right choice.

Rochester, We're close to cool things!

If you are in the Rochester, NY area, you may have heard a series of ads that are designed to show that Rochester is a pretty cool place to live.

I heard one in particular the other day that piqued my interest. In a nutshell, a guy on a plane is trying to convince the guy next to him that Rochester isn't such a bad place to live.

Before I go any further, let me say, Rochester isn't such a bad place to live. Are there shortcomings? sure, you'd be hard pressed to find a city that didn't have shortcomings. The key is to find a place whose shortcomings are outweighed by the positives.

Any way.. back to the ad..

The guy lists 6 things that are cool about living in Rochester. The problem is, only one of the 6 things is in Rochester (Strong Museum, I'm assuming he is referring to the Strong Museum of Play). Another one could be considered the 'Rochester area' (Letchworth Park). The others are more than an hour away (Riche Stadium, The Carrier Dome, both 75 minutes, Toronto is a 3 hr drive, and NY is an hour flight).

Nothing against the other venues, but if you are trying to say what's good about Rochester, how about keeping it to Rochester, or at least Monroe County. If you want to stretch it, include the 6 county 'Rochester Area'.

Things like:
- Charlotte (walk the pier, ride the carousel, have a picnic, etc...)
- A burger at Bill Grays or Tom Whals
- Catch a game from one of the teams that have one a championship in the last couple of years (Knighthawks, Rattlers, Razorsharks, Raiders)? Granted, only 2 of the leagues are at the top of that sport, but a championship is a championship
- Walk a canal trail in any number of communities along the Canal
- In the winter, go ice skating at Manhattan Square Park
- Catch a play in one of several venues (and I'm not talking about Renaissance square..)
- Hungry? Pretty much any type of food can be found nearby
- Golf at one of the countless golf courses, including world class Oak Hill

And the list goes on.

Do you have anything that you like to do in the Rochester Area? What do you do when friends and family come in from out of town?

What's the Statute of Limitations on a Business Decision?

How long does a company have to be held responsible for associations?

It happens all of the time. A company makes an unpopular decision in the name of business. Someone gets bent out of shape over it, and calls for boycotts and protests.

Often, it is relatively insignificant, and blows over quickly. Many times, those who are offended have little to no impact on the bottom line for the company, so nothing really changes, except for a few chose to shop elsewhere. Which is our rights as consumers in a capitalist economy.

But every now and then, a decision is made that has lasting repercussions.

Recently, one such instance came to light. Allianz, a German-based insurance company that opperates globally, was bidding for the naming rights for the new football stadium being built in the Meadowlands, NJ. This stadium will be the new home for the NY Football Giants, and the J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets starting in 2010. This deal was to be worth an estimated $30b annually.

The problem lies in Allianz's history. It seems that their client list included several Nazis as well as concentration camps, including Auschwitz. Reports also indicate that they refused to pay claims to Jewish customers.

The decision was made to end the negotiations when the company's history was made public by the New York Times, out of fear of offending the many Jews and Holocaust survivors in the NYC market.

I am in no way endorsing the practice of withholding claim payment based on anything other than legitimate business reasons, but when is enough enough?

Decisions made 50+ years ago don't necessarily reflect the company today. It's unlikely that there are many, if any, employees still employed by Allianz when the Auschwitz account was written.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, people need to be a little less easily offended, especially when no offense is intended.

It's like Deja Vu all over again.

It seems to be in the news every couple of weeks. A laptop turns up missing. The missing laptop just happens to contain personal information.

It happened again this week at the NTID, a branch of RIT. The laptop in question contained information from 12,700 people who have applied to enroll at NTID since 1968. (If you think you may be affected, you can call the hotline that was set up, 866-624-8330.)

I don't run a college, and wouldn't know the first way to start doing it, but how relevant is student information from 40 years ago? Why is this information on a laptop?

For that matter, why is any of this information on a laptop? It seems that it is taking a risk.

I understand that they need to be able to be mobile, but with the technology that exists today, it seems like an unnecessary gamble.

Here's an idea, keep all of the personal information on central servers back at the office, and connect via a secure connection if you need to be off-site to conduct business.

Here's another example of technology advancing faster than the law. When a laptop with personal information is stolen, it should be 2 crimes, one for the person that stole it, and one for the one person who was responsible for it when it went missing. Maybe then, organizations who are stewards of our personal information would take their charge more seriously, and take the appropriate steps to protect it.

Don't you Just Love the Smell of Hypocracy in the Morning?

Do you remember when the Crown Prince Barack was asked questions about his wife, (who was out campaigning for him) he said "Lay off my wife".

On the other hand, the story broke this weekend that Bristol Palin, the 17 year old daughter of the GOP VP candidate is 5 months pregnant.

Not only that, but there are several reports that the infant in the arms of the candidate is not in fact hers, but her daughters'.

Oh yea, remember back in the early 90's when there was another teenaged daughter being taken for a ride on the campaign with her parents? Anytime someone said anything off about her, they were lambasted for it? I guess that's another of the double-standards that the 'progressives' expect us to live by.

To his credit, His Highness was quoted as saying:

"Let me be as clear as possible, I think people's families are off-limits, and people's children are especially off-limits. This shouldn't be part of our politics. It has no relevance to Gov. Palin's performance as governor or her potential performance as
a vice president."

Let's see if his minions will listen to him.

On the other hand, this is also the guy that said if his daughters got pregnant, he doesn't want them "punished with a baby".