I’m an ad guy, okay, so I’m expected to be upbeat about what is currently going on in our economy. Sure, I have an economic self interest in promoting the economy.  But I have to tell you we need to stop talking about the end of the world–the high price of a barrel of oil. (Does anyone really know how a barrel of oil converts to our local gas station?) I have a suggestion: buy oil company stock and stop whining.

There is such a thing as a self-fulfilling prophecy and what it does to us. Read this article (http://columbus.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2008/01/21/editorial2.html) and maybe you will begin to see what I’m talking about.

I make the new business calls here at the agency and I’m telling you there are some days when it appears I should slit my wrists because everything is so bad.

Wake up! It’s not all bad. Yes, the economy is sluggish. Yes, we owe too much of our debt to China. And yes, we have the Iraq War. But folks, unemployment is under control as is inflation. Rates for borrowing money are down and your President and Congress just sent you some money to play with.  So go play with it.

The economies of all major industrial countries are cyclical and this too shall pass…but maybe we could speed it up by being a little more positive today.

David Scannell (be prepared, I am now exercising my First Amendment Right) is an idiot! Yes, I said idiot. This is the guy, a state representative I might add, who voted to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana on Tuesday of last week. Then went to work for the Manchester School District on Wednesday where he is the school spokesperson and, get this, the head of the safe schools program! What was he thinking? Rather, not thinking? I’m not pandering to the Mayor; in fact during the last two elections for Mayor I supported his opponent with a big sign on my lawn. But Mayor Guinta is right here, Scannell was not thinking clearly.

Moving right along, lets talk about how fast a lawsuit was filed by some Concord Law Firm because Hannaford had a very sophisticated breach of it’s debit and credit card numbers. I concede that nobody wants to have his or her credit or debit card numbers stolen and that computer security is very important. I only ask that you tell me how much the folks who actually have had their numbers stolen been hurt? How many of the false charges are they liable for? I think the answer is zero. So this is just another case of legal greed.

Then my favorite of the week (which also involves lawyers) is the story of the lady who fell trying to get a good seat at an Oprah taping and who is now suing Oprah for not controlling the audience. Give me a break and get a life!

Hey I don’t make this stuff up–it just happens.

I don’t know about you, but as I look out my window and see 10 feet of snow I wonder what happened to good old global warming. I guess it skipped over us this year! As you can see from this article  it’s not the first time either.

It seems the discussion about global warming always gets more intense during a political season. I guess that’s good–or it’s at least better than Congress wanting to talk to has -been-athletes about steroids.  I have to admit that I forced myself to go see Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” and what I found was an inconvenient use of facts subject to various interpretations. Call it denial if you will, but most, if not all of the end of the world scenarios I read about relative to global warming are at the extreme edge of scientific believability.

If as a world we want to cut down on global warming and become more environmentally sound we have to make some difficult choices; choices a lot of folks won’t want to make. Here’s a big one! Why not build more nuclear power plants in this country? It’s not because they are unsafe nor is it because they pollute. It’s because we don’t have the political will that the French do (good heavens it hurts me to say that).

So if global warming is in the eye of the beholder, as I behold the 10 feet of snow outside my door I say I would like to behold a warmer globe.