Displaying 451 To 480 Of 1,384 Comments ghsts – no, they really weren’t…. LOL It is common practise that once the pol/questionnaire is over for a certain amount of time, any left over product is simply allowed to be taken by the people in the office. Diapers, tissues, food, candy bars, whatever. The company I worked for tested everything, from politics to feminine hygiene products to commercials. We did nothing wrong, and all the samples were used in all the tests, the customer just forgot one instruction… oooops! 8) » Posted By PocketWatch On February 15, 2011 @ 12:46 pm ghsts – There are methods in designing questionnaires which can detect what you describe. Anticipation and perception of the purpose of the poll can be masked. One famous poll we had at work was a perfume “sniff test” for a famous cosmetics company. We had 10 different bottles of perfume that were sniffed and graded by the respondents. 25 different locations around the country were used, with a serious mix of demographics. The subject of the test: The bottles. Each bottle was subtly different and only 25 sets of 10 were made. The reason I remember it is that the customer forgot to tell us to return the samples (the bottles), and some diappeared, taken home by interviewers after the poll was done. Each bottle was worth several thousand dollars! There was a little flap over that I had to get involved in… LOL 8) » Posted By PocketWatch On February 15, 2011 @ 12:39 pm Truth-Interestingly, it’s not the research company, who is just a hired gun in the end, it is the “customer.” If I wanted to hire a company to administer a skewed set of poll questions, they WILL take my money and do it. They generally will not allow their name to be associated with it, however. That’s how you get crazy polls and push-polls. 8) » Posted By PocketWatch On February 15, 2011 @ 11:45 am I know that “Over There” any time a poll is cited, the mere fact of polling is bashed from all sides. I want to say something about polling in general, since I worked for a large market research company for 10 years and know how they are put together and work, as well as what the rationale behind sampling is all about. This info may be useful to anyone wondering about that. First, what is a ‘poll?’ Typically, and in its best form, a poll is a demographically balanced and unbiased look at a particular question. How is that achieved? The demographics are based on statistical governmental reports, i.e., the census. If you want to know what people think about, say, the color blue, you would need a sample in the same proportions as the US population in general… so many rural, so many from populated areas, so many men, women, age brackets in each category, people of color in proper proportions, and so on. It sounds hard, and it is, but that’s what research companies do. In the end, you may need a sample that’s say, 1,200 people. That sets the parameters. Then you need to ask the right questions. The order of the questions is important. You need qualifiers that test previous questions. You need to ask the same question in different ways to weed out conflicting responses. This is as much an art as a science, but there are people that are expert at it. Ideally, the questionnaires need to be administered face-to-face, for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is to ensure that you ARE talking to a man or a person of color or whatever, verifying the validity of the demographic. Once you get the 1,200 questionnaires, you need to validate them. A random sample is called on the phone and certain key questions are asked again. If the answer comes back differently, the quesionnaire is thrown out and needs to be replaced with another one from the same demographic. Once validation is complete, the questionnaires are then tabulated and compiled into the statistics we are all familiar with. My point in going through all this is to say that very few polls we see in the news or that are cited go through all this. Phone polls are what’s known as ‘self-selecting’ meaning the person had to answer the phone and agree to the survey. Same with online polling. No demographic validity, no validation. Plus, you eliminate anyone without a phone or a computer. In the end, not all polls are equal. Detailed and validated polls are VERY ACCURATE. Others…. not so much. 8) » Posted By PocketWatch On February 15, 2011 @ 11:28 am The Deficit of Truth About Obama’s Budget @CAdawn: Great to see you! I think you’ll like it here. ➡ Coffee’s over there… 8) » Posted By PocketWatch On February 14, 2011 @ 5:04 pm @zip: Me too! Great place! Roll up a log and take a seat by the fire… 8) » Posted By PocketWatch On February 14, 2011 @ 5:02 pm I’m sure the Admins will get to you, but here’s a good place to start: ➡ https://planetpov.com/2011/02/09/tips-for-newcomers-and-regulars-alike/ Welcome! 8) » Posted By PocketWatch On February 14, 2011 @ 4:47 pm @ Abby: What pains me is that the very institutions we have come to depend on are being demonized and turned against us. That is just plain evil to me., » Posted By PocketWatch On February 14, 2011 @ 2:42 pm From an old rant…
Fire, ice, asteroids, volcanoes, global climate change, pole shifts, war, gay rights, race, religious disputes, oil disasters, financial collapses, American Idol, political parties, Jersey Shore, riots in Greece… they are all bogeymen with which we distract ourselves from the real threat of our time. In an age when everyone invents his own truth, there is no community, no commons, only factions and fractures. Without community, without a sense of commons, there can be no consensus to resist the greedy, the envious, the cynical, the solipsistic and power-mad narcisists who sieze control and turn the institutions of civilization into a series of doom machines, real or imagined. The question each of us needs to ask ourselves is, which side of this very real conflict are we on? Do you honestly believe that “every man for himself” and “I’ve got mine” are real answers, and that the civilization that allows you to operate that way is actually beneficial and will be self-sustaining if everyone thinks and behaves that way? Or, do you believe that we ARE our brothers’ keepers, and that by fostering that belief, and by building a true commons we can all share in order to prosper, we will all end up in a better world? To me, this is the fight, this is what is really underlying all the details we scrap over every day. » Posted By PocketWatch On February 14, 2011 @ 2:04 pm Budget, Deficits, the Debt and the lies from the right Smirnonn – Thanks. It actually goes deeper than I said.. The owner should look long and hard at each salesman and make sure he’s getting his money worth and maybe upgrading to better salesmen when he sees a deficiency. In other words, you have to eake out a return on every dollar spent on sales. In government, that means reducing waste and fraud, eliminate anything that isn’t working, and spend every dollar you can to stimulate the economy in the right way. UI returns 170% to the economy in activity (call it productivity to keep the analogy going). Infrastucture spending ALWAYS pays back more than it costs. Tax cuts to wealthy individuals and subsidies to large corporations? Only 80% …. maybe. How to choose? It’s so hard! 8) » Posted By PocketWatch On February 15, 2011 @ 2:06 pm This whole notion of cutting spending when the economy clearly needs a boost (and it is always the federal government that is the ‘spender of last resort’ in these situations), reminds me of the businessman, who, when times are tough and sales are down, looks at his sales staff and fires half of them to cut costs, and eliminates the advertising budget. Say what?!?!?!? I’ve seen it a dozen times. Then the guy sits in his office and wonders why sales shrink even further. Crazy thinking… just crazy! That is the exact circumstance to BOOST the advertising budget and to make sure he’s getting everything he can out of the sales staff. Even if he has to cut costs somewhere else to do it. Sometimes I have no idea what goes through peoples’ heads! 8) » Posted By PocketWatch On February 14, 2011 @ 6:16 pm @BDM: You COULD try posting the link: https://planetpov.com/2011/02/14/budget-deficits-the-debt-and-the-lies-from-the-right But I have the feeling… I wonder if it can be masked somehow? 8) » Posted By PocketWatch On February 14, 2011 @ 2:46 pm @ bito: Gotta get in the habit. » Posted By PocketWatch On February 14, 2011 @ 2:35 pm @ Abby: That’s because you are one of those dreaded elitists, sweetie! » Posted By PocketWatch On February 14, 2011 @ 2:23 pm @ zoot: No, I haven’t. I had really good teachers, though. The nuns were murder in grade school (think Sr. Mary Elephant for 8 years) and really good English and Composition teachers in HS. Plus I am a voracious reader. That helps. I can burn through 2 or 3 books a week. 8) » Posted By PocketWatch On February 14, 2011 @ 1:33 pm Welcome to it, zoot. Government runs via contracts. Only 2mm people are directly employed by the government, not counting military. Every dollar goes into SOMEONE’s paycheck at some point to pay rent, buy food, etc. The federal government is financially a zero-sum game. 8) » Posted By PocketWatch On February 14, 2011 @ 1:15 pm Every time this comes up I always ask the same question… Where the hell do you think the money goes when you give it to the government (as in taxes)?!?!?!? Do you think it goes into a vault somewhere? No! It gets spent, just like any other dollar, in restaraunts and shopping malls and grocery stores. There is no ‘special’ dollar that says it’s gubbmint money and is treated special somehow. Allah, this gets me going! Yikes! 8) » Posted By PocketWatch On February 14, 2011 @ 1:01 pm And I know what they are really trying to say… balanced budget and all that. The reality is, even in business, that having debt is not a bad thing. It just needs proper managing. 8) » Posted By PocketWatch On February 14, 2011 @ 12:57 pm This goes back to a thing I have said for 30 years, ever since I started hearing “government needs to be run like a business.” Hell no, it doesn’t and shouldn’t. It also points up the mistaken and oft repeated idea that high-powered business people are qualified to be in high office. Running government like a business (and a business person has those business ideas locked in their psyche) will run a government right into the dirt, and not gently. 8) » Posted By PocketWatch On February 14, 2011 @ 12:41 pm Bill Maher’s Big Lie Contribution? KevenSeven – I, for one, never question anyone’s declaration of belief or lack thereof. Means nothing to me one way or the other, frankly. As long as they don’t try to prozletize, I couldn’t care less. Having said that, it does bother me that politicians have to pander to religious ideologies. Imagine if we had a really, really great candidate for high office on either side of the “great divide” who was an avowed atheist… Can we all hear the screaming and commentary that would ensue? That’s a problem to me. 8) » Posted By PocketWatch On February 15, 2011 @ 9:41 am Khirad – If one looks at much of what Jesus said, and then look at the Black Sea scrolls and a lot of what was left out of the Bible, you come away with something very interesting, IMO. I see that quote as a sort of allegory. Jesus, in many ways, and according writers very close to his time, was trying to say that the Kingdom was internal, not someplace else. If you read John 14:6 in that light, couldn’t he be saying, you can’t attain enlightenment – the Kingdom or the Father – except by listening to what I am saying? That’s the way I read most of Scripture… deeper meaning. » Posted By PocketWatch On February 15, 2011 @ 9:30 am I love Einstein’s “thought experiments.” Imagine you are a two dimensional creature. You can go left or right or diagonally, but that’s it. You would have no concept of, nor could you even understand “up” or “down.” We are three dimensional creatures in a multidimensional universe. Our brains and science can hardly conceive of what the universe really is, let alone what it may mean. Either that, or we are a really bad HS science project run amok. 8) » Posted By PocketWatch On February 14, 2011 @ 3:32 pm @ KT: I just don’t see how we are somehow separated from “nature.” We are as immersed in the universe as any other species or planet or star. And the amazing thing is, there is physics to back it up. » Posted By PocketWatch On February 14, 2011 @ 3:17 pm Since this thread seems to be about religion and social justice, here’s something I wrote shortly after the BP disaster:
I rarely get into my metaphysical beliefs, but I am this time. I believe that the concept of “god” as a singular entity is wrong. The universe is “god” IMO. We are a part of it, probably one of millions of species throughout the universe that are self-aware. Therefore, we are the concsious thoughts of “god.” When we damage any part of the universe, our world, we literally damage ourselves. When we weep for others, we weep for ourselves, whether we realize it or not. “God” notices every sparrow that falls, because “god” IS the sparrow, the grass, the fish, and US, as well. Our disconnect with “nature” (god) is artificial. There is actually scientific evidence that all the elements and atoms throughout the universe are interconnected, and I believe that to be true. I also think the only way out of our delusions about species superiority and “managing” nature (god) is to stop working against it and start working with it, therefore working with ourselves. I don’t know what form that will take, or even if it will happen, but that’s what I believe. This disaster is a warning and a challenge. We either heed the warning and take up the challenge, or slide down the path of becoming another failed species. » Posted By PocketWatch On February 14, 2011 @ 2:57 pm Doing Business – The Right Way (Part 4) Nope. I probably won’t for a couple of reasons, but mostly because I want to do the day-to-day stuff, and also I am not an expert in investments and taxes. If you are talking about capital expenditures to improve the business and what the criteria are for that, I have some ideas and a guiding principle. I consider the most imprtant thing to think about when making capital improvments to the business is to compare the cost of what you are doing now versus the cost of the improvement (all on an annualized basis). For example, a manufacturing company is cramped for shop space, and spends an inordicate amount of time moving partial assemblies around to just get things done. A time study is needed. If you can show that the cost of the labor just to move stuff around per month or year is less than the monthy or yearly payment of the expansion, you need to spend the money to expand. It’s pretty simple. I see many small businesses take bad advice and buy stuff they don’t need to enlarge their expenses and therefore pay fewer taxes. Bad move. The other thing to consider is to never spend capital money on anything that won’t enhance the business. Is that kind of what you were referring to? 8) » Posted By PocketWatch On February 14, 2011 @ 12:24 pm Thanks. As a consultant, what you describe in one form or another is what I usually have to deal with. It’s why I am taking my time and building up one or two concepts at a time, and pointing out how they tie together. Miss a step or leave something out, and you weaken the foundations for making rational decisions. I had to laugh when you described the man’s reaction to the Balance Sheet. I learned a long time ago when I was dealing with megacorps know-nothing VP’s who had their positions due to patronage or whatever, that it was not wise to give them any information that they could either misconstrue or would not understand. All it does is rile up the playground that is their mind. As you will see down the road, I deal almost exclusively with two documents, both based on the Profit & Loss Statement. One is an Annual Plan, and the other is a Variance Report, which shows how the company is doing against that plan. I’m big on plans and planning. » Posted By PocketWatch On February 14, 2011 @ 10:06 am Your Valentine’s Day open thread LOL She mostly either yawns and walks away, tail at full mast, or caterwauls at the door for her daily walkies. 8) » Posted By PocketWatch On February 14, 2011 @ 10:14 am I’m not much of a holiday guy. I spent 30-plus years on the road year ’round and sort of just got out of the habit. To me, a day is a day, just like any other. The sun comes up, the sun goes down, repeat and rinse, as they say. Having said that, I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the staff and members here at PPOV for their warm and gracious welcome and hard work. I, personally, would not have wanted to be trying to handle a new server, an apparently huge influx of refugees wandering around looking for directions and trying to find the bathroom, posting tips and tricks, handling a larger than normal VoxPopuli on Friday night, manning (or womanning) the Help Desk, and just generally keeping the place up and running smoothly. Many thanks, and your efforts are not unnoticed. To all my old friends and acquaintances, it means a lot to me not to lose you in the shuffle of events. While I can live without a place to engage in political and other esoterics, why would I want to? On a personal note, thanks to PPOV in general for giving my inner teacher and writer a place to cut loose. It’s been a while, and I sure missed it. (That’s about as gushy as I get… :)) » Posted By PocketWatch On February 14, 2011 @ 9:42 am “How did the Democrats take a decisive victory in 2008 with broad cross party support and lose considerable popular support in 2010 with no change in agenda?” I think that, as I have posted elsewhere here, the economic crash that occurred between the election and the inaugural was not mere happenstance. The timing is too suspicious. Given the fact the people in the White House and in the government KNEW that a crash was coming for months, if not years, the only question was really WHEN it would happen. How better to hamstring a new, charismatic, articulate, smart, and energetic Democratic President than to sneak out of town leaving a large bag of economic dogshit in flames on the White House steps? I think someone rang a bell, and let the whole thing collapse. There is no political downside to it. The new Dem President and Congress now have to focus on that exclusively, and the right gets to beat the crap out of all of them for four years, providing memes and sound bites galore for 2010 and 2012. More standard agenda items get buried, whether they succeed or not. No one will pay attention. “It’s the economy, stupid,” is true. That trumps everything in American politics, and the “news-tainment” industry. – IMO, superior organization and “Bush fatigue.” – I’m not really sure they HAVE been marginalized, but it feels that way due to the strategy of obstruction the right has engaged in over every issue imaginable (see my anwser for the first question). I imagine that President Obama would have LOVED to engage in sweeping Progressive change, given a chance, but he has been hamstrung along with Congess. I do not believe that President Obama is radically left, but it would have easy to get more of Progrssive agenda and message to the country if he had had full rein to do it, but he has not. The right’s strategy has worked well so far. The cost is to have lost those people who are most fervent and energetic to work hard for the election of treu Progressives, and may stay home in frustration during the next election cycle. This is the ultimate goal of the right anyway, voter suppression. – The second, IMO. – I know what I want, and that is intelligence and attention to details, not bumper stickers and instant gratification. Long term planning and follow through, not pandering for the next election cycle. Boring stuff, I know, but that is governing. What we have in this country is continual electioneering. – I do not believe that “making us just like the other guy” is a good idea. The best ‘marketing’ strategy, IMO, is differentiation. Having said that, we need a good marketing firm to generate those bumper sticker phrases that resonate. Good public policy and long term planning makes it hard, I know, but we have to try. – It does both. There is no replacement for introspection and criticism. What needs to be remembered is that CONSTRUCTIVE criticism is what is useful. I’ll use an example in my business seminars: I can say to an employee “You are too quiet.” Is that useful? No. Instead, if I say “I’d really love to see you speak in staff meetings, I bet you have great ideas.” And couple that with “Tell you what, why don’t you think about an idea you may have, and I’ll call on you next week? Write it down, and come see me in private this week if you want to work on it.” What has happened? You gave a critique, announced an action plan, and gave some tools to get the result. We need to remember that when confronting our politicians. Don’t just show up complaining. Identify the problem, AND offer a solution. » Posted By PocketWatch On February 18, 2011 @ 11:30 am The American people have Spoken … Maybe smit9187 – be careful there… I have a strong suspicion that many of the so-called “disgruntled Progressives” are anything but. My belief is that there is a determined effort by the right to suppress voting by any means. And part of the toolchest is to inject memes into the culture, one of which “it doesn’t matter who you vote for, they’re all bad!” This meme causes well-intentioned but non-political potential voters to throw up thier hands and stay home. If that meme even affects 1% of the potential Dem voters, that’s a lot! Most people pay no attention to issues until about two weeks before an election. However, they hear a meme like this for months. 8) » Posted By PocketWatch On February 13, 2011 @ 8:46 pmComments Posted By PocketWatch
“Considering that Democratic Party endured the same epic division in ideology, agenda and critique in 06/07 how did they secure a monumental success with the election of President Obama and the coat tail Congressmen?
“What is the cost of marginalizing Liberal/Progressive voters who helped secure Democratic victory in 2010?”
“If you slide a fixed measure to the right on a scale do you gain anything or simply move the measure to the right?”
“What do the American people want from their elected officials (apart from undefinable single word issues “solutions” or “civility”)?”
“Should the successful GOP strategies; repetition talking points, abject disconnect, focus on centrist messaging and pragmatism be emulated for DNC success in 2012?”
“Is critique a useful tool for achieving excellence or does it merely provide the gop with agitators?”
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