We saw this “Eritrean Cab” in San Diego.

Do you know where Eritria is?

I see this as evidence of what a great country the USA is.  Being made greater by immigrants.

Visit RadicalImmigration.com

Media, Pennsylvania claims in this sign to be “America’s First Fair Trade Town” which would be a more creditable claim if there wasn’t a Starbucks Coffee in the shopping center behind the sign.  Starbucks is the focus of the anti-globalization forces and is often accused of being a force against fair trade.  What a great country.

This has happened to all of us. We are driving along a freeway (Motorway or Expressway) and somebody near us is driving with their turn signal on. You know that they can’t hear the irritating clicking sound because of the radio, road noise or their bad hearing. Or perhaps all three. You would like to politely tell them but there isn’t a way to do it. So you let them continue along ignorant of their error.

We need a way to tell people in other cars: “you have accidentally left your turn signal on.” In a polite way that is universally understood.

For you statists out there No! We do not need a law!

Here is a business idea that is simple, almost virtual and has an exit strategy. People like to own inscribed books and will stand in line at bookstores to get them. Authors will gladly sign books to sell them. This idea will utilize these facts in the Amazon world.

This is the situation that made me aware of this need. Ben Wattenberg a brilliant Neo-con writer, who appeared in my documentary Beyond Borders, has a new book. I wanted to buy a twenty copies of Fighting Words and send them out to friends. I emailed Wattenberg and asked him if he would inscribe them for me. He agreed. Organizing the process of moving the books around creates a business opportunity for someone.

What I had to do was send a list to Wattenberg, order the books from Amazon, have them shipped to Wattenberg he will sign them and ships them to me and I then have to ship them out to my friends. The business InscribedbyAuthor.com would be a web site where for a small fee you would enter the information about the book, the inscriptions and the shipping instructions. InscribedbyAuthor.com would then drop ship the books from Amazon and ship the information along with labels and postage paid shipping boxes to the author. He or she would sign and send the books directly to the recipients. Much time and energy would be saved and many more books would be sold.

The exit strategy is that if InscribedbyAuthor.com started to work it would quickly become a very large customer of Amazon. They would notice and very quickly mimic the idea or buy your company. Brilliant!

BTW I just finished Fighting Words it is an excellent book. I’ll be posting a review in the next few days.

BTW 2 Beyond Borders is premiering in Pasadena on the 29 of July. if you haven’t seen it plan to attend.

This summer the favorite pass time of everybody who is the least bit political is speculating about who McCain and Obama will chose as there running mates.

In order to have even a chance of winning the election McCain has to win most of the battle ground states of Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana. To do that he has to win the votes of working class people in those states, so does Obama. How to win those votes is the critical issue confronting both campaigns.

I suggest that McCain chose a black running mate. This will probably not garner him much of the black vote. Obama has those votes. It will however allow those white voters who have sympathy for Obama as a symbol somewhere else to go. Many voters in the middle are concerned about Obama’s liberalism and Jimmy Carter like naivety. A black on the Republican ticket would allow these swing voters to choose McCain without guilt.

My candidate for VP on McCain’s ticket has been Condoleezza Rice because I think she will make a brilliant President. But since she is associated to much with the Bush doctrine I now propose Lynn Swann. Swann was a famous football player and after retiring ran for governor of Pennsylvania. He is articulate, experienced, has good name recognition and is black. His name recognition is particularly high in Pennsylvania and among football fans and they just happen to be the demographic where McCain needs to do well.

Brilliant.

It is easy to find stories in the press and on TV that tell us how terrible the economy is. This picture tells a different story. While the media has been reporting how bad things are we have progressed from the Model A Ford to the Smart Car.

How much progress? Air conditioning, tires that last 30,000 miles instead of 1000, automatic transmission, top speed 80 mph and fuel economy of 41 mpg to name a few.

Life is good and getting better. No matter what the media tell you.  There is the start of an advertising campaign for Smart Car here.

BTW  This story completes a trifecta of modernism.  A picture of a Smart Car (1) taken with an iPhone (2)  posted on a blog (3).

“A man is not finished when he is defeated.

He is finished when he quits.”

Richard Nixon

1913 – 1994

My friend is in the ice business and his business is way up this summer. When his wife told me about it I said “Ice is Hot.” Pretty clever. Then I had this idea for their new company slogan:

Fighting Global Warming

One Bag at a Time

Global Ice Company

It is the perfect mix of wry humor and definition and will help to sell even more ice.

Here is an idea that I had a few months ago and didn’t post on swcamborne. I recalled it when I was doing the piece on Salmonella the other day.

Cutting boards are a major source of contamination in the kitchen.

current unsanitary boards

The easiest way to avoid this problem is to use disposable cutting boards. What I found that works really well is the thick paper plates.

Simon’s sanitary disposable board

The ones that are made out of that pressed egg carton material with a white smooth top. They would be even better if they were flat or at least had a much lower lip. I’ll confess I had this idea to save having to wash another thing after lunch. They are made from recycled material so they’re green and they save water.

This was such a good idea that I kept it off the web site for a few weeks. Then I told Rebecca B about it and she suggested googling it to see if the product already exists. Sure enough it does. In fact on of the two most prominent one is owned by SC Johnson and called Disposable Cutting Sheets. The other is called Cut and Toss and is independently owned. Neither of them is available at the Ralphs Market down the hill and neither of them is as simple or elegant as the one I made out of a paper plate. But this is an idea whose time is coming.

I got a Smart for Two yesterday. It is made by Mercedes and is somewhere between a Mini Cooper and a Volkswagen Beetle.

Tiny

The best thing about this car and the main reason I bought it is that it is easy to park. What a wonderful improvement in my life.

easy to buy from Julio Aguilar

at Smart Center West Covina

I’ll let you know after driving it for a month or two how I like it. So far it makes me smile when I see it from the outside. On the inside it is like any other small car.

Life is good