ndmckinney|net

A painfully funny commentary about McCain supporters.

I love that Sarah Palin not only cannot backup her foreign policy experience with Russia. It shows a level of evasiveness we haven’t seen in politics in a long, long time. Commentators have tried to call her out on this, late-night humorists have mocked her. Now, she has gained a new enemy: Russia.

Turns out, the Russians aren’t buying this claim, either. They are attacking not only this claim, but her entire qualifications to serve in office. One outlet has even dubbed her “Mrs. Nobody Know-it-All”.

If she thinks the NY Times hates her, wait until she feels the wrath of media outlets who could care less about winning her approval. She’s losing credibility at home; abroad, it seems, it’s already gone.

[From SAIS Next Europe: PostGlobal on washingtonpost.com]

The media and John McCain’s staff seems to have come down with a case of foot-in-mouth disease. The gestation period seems to vary from a period of days to a few months.

The folks over at Slate magazine have created a list of the 33 “syrupy words” that NBC commentators constantly overuse during their Olympic coverage:

adversity, battled, cancer, challenges, courage, cry, death, dedication, determination, dream, emotion, glory, golden, hardship, heart, hero, inspiration, inspire, journey, magic, memory, miracle, mom, mother, Olympic-sized, overcome, passion, proud, sacrifice, spirit, tears, tragedy, triumph

If I were creating the list, I would probably include the number of cliché references to China (I’m tired of things being described as “dragon-like” or “the Great Wall of something”.

[From The Olympics Sap-o-Meter. - By Josh Levin, Derek Thompson, and Chris Wilson - Slate Magazine]

Celebrex, the NSAID pain reliever that was vilified in media years ago, is back with a new ad campaign.  It’s been on the air for a while, but I’m finally irritated enough to comment on the ad.

There are three major problems with this ad:

1. The outlines of the drawings are made from disclaimers and warnings.  Nothing says “take this drug” like
2. The overall message of the advert seems to be “don’t blame us.  If you didn’t have such bad joints, you wouldn’t need to take a risky drug in the first place.”
3. The other theme of the advert seems to be “everyone else has side effects, too, so why not take Celebrex?”

I know the major pharmeceuticals are hurting for revenue, but this advert just makes no sense.