COMMERCIALS I HAVE GROWN TO DESPISE

 

When you get to be my age and you suffer from some mobility challenges, you watch a lot of television. That's what I do. 

 

This column is going to be about commercials. Now, I understand that's how television is paid for but lately it has gotten a little silly.

 

I'm going to talk about some commercials that really have caught my eye. 

 

Have you ever wondered how much cheaper car insurance would be if the companies didn't spend so much on television ads? It seems to me that car insurance companies dominate the screen most of the time. I used to like Geico and their gecko spokes lizard, but he got old too. Then there is Progressive, who evidently thinks insurance is similar to a butcher shop, and Liberty Mutual, who uses a spokes emu. What any of this has to do with car insurance is beyond me. There are also Allstate, Farmers, State Farm, USAA and so many others that I cannot name. 

 

Their ads are so pervasive that they seem to run together. It is hard for me to believe that these commercials sell much car insurance. Maybe they do, but I wonder. The sellers of these ad spots would tell you they do. You be the judge. 

 

How ridiculous are ads for prescription medicine? You have to have a doctor write a prescription in order to get the medicine. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to go to a doctor who needed my opinion as to what medicine I should be taking. Again, the ad sellers claim that these ads are very effective and definitely increase the sales of the medicines in question. Seems pretty squirrely to me. 

 

I am old enough to remember when it was considered unethical for lawyers or doctors to advertise. Here in southern Georgia, these two professions dominate the airwaves. Apparently it is no longer considered unethical to advertise. 

 

We have a law firm named Farah and Farah who advertises heavily. You basically cannot turn on your TV without seeing their ads. 

 

We also have a chiropractor named Doc Tony who himself advertises constantly. Not long ago Doc Tony ran an ad in which he has with him his pet ferrets. He said their names were "Ferret and Ferret". He said in his ad that ferrets were members of the weasel family. Makes you wonder if Doc Tony was sued by Farah and Farah. Now, I don't know if he had a beef with Farah and Farah, but the ad didn't run very long. Makes you wonder. 

 

My least favorite advertising is political ads. In the last election Georgia was front and center because of the split in the Senate. Millions and millions were spent on ads. Of course the media outlets love it. That's where the money lands. 

 

My biggest problem with political ads is that they don't have to be truthful. The politicians exempted themselves from any "truth in advertising" rules. If you are a car dealer and you put an ad on television, it has to be true. Not so for politicians. They take full advantage of that. 

 

On occasion I watch public television. They claim to be paid for by donations. They don't sell commercial spots. I timed some of the programming. Just like regular television, they show about forty minutes of program and twenty minutes of commercials. The commercials are a bit different in that they say the advertisement is paid for by a grant rather than by an invoice. The result is the same.  

 

Some of you are probably saying I should get a real life. Okay. I agree. After all, I am watching these commercials on HD, big screen, high fidelity, etc. etc. It could be worse.

 

Ron Scarbro May 24, 2021

 

NOW IT'S TOO LATE

I was doing some research recently when I decided I would "google" an old high school buddy that I hadn't spoken to in several years. When I entered his name, up pops his obituary. He had died in January. 

 

We called him Mousie. In fact, everyone knew him by that name. In school we were great friends. He was smart and funny. We shared a love for most of the things teenagers enjoyed. We went hunting and fishing together and we loved the music of those days. I doubt that either of us ever thought about our old age.

 

But life, being what it is, has a way of getting in the way of plans. Right after graduation from high school, I joined the army and was sent all over the world. Mousie went on to college then to law school. He ultimately became a judge and served on the bench for over forty years. We 

never really connected for many years. 

 

One day, when my wife and I were traveling near my old home town, I decided to try and call him. Luckily he answered his phone and we met for a cup of coffee. We spent several hours catching up on all that had happened since we had last seen each other. Except for a few extra pounds and some gray hair, neither of us had changed a lot. It was a fun visit. Toward the end we promised to stay in touch and try to see each other more often. Then we went our separate ways. 

 

The purpose of this column is as a reminder. We all have friends from our past that we have lost contact with. Many of the readers of this blog are senior citizens and our old friends and acquaintances are up in years as well. We shouldn't be surprised that on occasion we might see an obituary of an old friend in the paper. George Burns once said that every morning he reads the newspaper, paying special interest to the obituaries. If his name wasn't there, he got up and went about his day. He lived to age one hundred.     

 

My plan is now to reach out more often to old friends. You never know when the time will come that the friend you are reaching out to will no longer be there. Most of us have busy lives that are already filled up with daily living. But, one of the greatest riches one has are friends. And when they are gone, all we have left are our memories. 

 

When you are young you think life goes on forever. When you get older, you come to realize we all have a "use by date". And, of course, we never know when that date is. Do yourself and your old friends a big favor. Reach out to them. Send a note or, if you can, give them a call. You both will be richer for it. 

 

Today, while I was never really close with Mousie in our later years, I have a sense of loss. At the same time I have a sense of the reality of my own "use by date". I wish I had connected again. Now it's too late. R.I.P. Mousie.

 

Ron Scarbro May 18, 2021

 

IS THIS WHAT BIDEN VOTERS WANTED?

When Biden cancelled the Keystone pipeline to satisfy the "environmentalist crazies", I wonder if he considered outside entities interfering with our other existing pipelines. 

 

Today lines of vehicles are building around the blocks of many cities in the southeastern part of this country due to a shortage of gasoline. All of this is because some group of criminals, probably Russian, decided to hack into one of the largest pipelines in this country and demand ransom. The pipeline owners must decide whether to pay the ransom and restart the flow of necessary fuel or refuse and suffer massive losses. 

 

To those of you who think we could just move the fuel by truck, you should be aware that there is a critical shortage of drivers willing to haul gasoline. I understand there is also a shortage of trucks. 

 

In other words, we are seriously unprepared for the hack to this pipeline. I will add that we are also suffering from an obvious shortage of pipelines. 

 

We have in this country a small but loud group of people who apparently don't like people. They also seem to hate this country. They bill themselves as environmentalists but a closer look at this bunch shows them to be something else. Rush Limbaugh once said this group was the new communist party in America. He was probably right. 

 

The next problem is that these radical fringe groups develop influence over politicians which results in radical fringe decisions from those politicians which ultimately hurts our country. Absolutely nothing positive was accomplished by the cancellation of Keystone. It was pure politics motivated by money. We, the people, are left to suffer. 

 

Here's a simple reality, we need more pipelines, not less. We are not ready to be without fossil fuels. Just ask the folks waiting in long lines to buy gasoline. Maybe someday in the future we might be but we are nowhere near that place today. We still need gasoline, oil, and coal.

 

Another reality is we need to find this group who is demanding this ransom and shut it down in any way necessary. If the group is State sponsored by, let's say Russia, that country should feel the pain of stupid decisions. We have, for far too long, allowed Russia to get away with attacks on our country. Whether they be cyber attacks or jet airplanes flying too close to our aircraft, they need to be punished. They need to understand there is a price to be paid for messing with us. Sadly, that seems very difficult with this bunch we have in charge of our government right now. You may recall that nothing like this happened under the previous administration. 

 

Think about this. All this is happening after just the first hundred days of Biden. Can you imagine what the next hundred days will look like? It scares me. 

 

We have a border crisis on our southern border, a ransom attack on the biggest pipeline in the country resulting in a massive increase in the cost of fuel, and a president who seems unaffected by it all. He's too busy blaming Trump for all of it. 

 

At the same time the Biden bunch are trying to sell the country on the need for huge tax increases which are guaranteed to ruin the economic growth that occurred under Trump. 

 

I ask again. Is this what you Biden voters voted for?

 

Ron Scarbro May 11, 2021

 

HATE SPEECH OR JUST FREE SPEECH

I have been an opinion writer for several years. In those years I have been published in quite a few newspapers. I have probably offended some people. I also have made some happy. Opinion writing is a classic example of the practice of free speech. Needless to say, I am a strong advocate of free speech. 

 

While I never intentionally tried to offend anybody sometimes it happens. After all, not everyone has the same opinion. But, at the same time, we are not guaranteed the right not to be offended. We seem to have in this country what I call, "The society of the perpetually offended." They look for ways to be offended. And they usually don't have to look far. 

 

Not being deterred by a little thing called the First Amendment to the Constitution, it was recently reported that a group from some liberal college wants the Biden Administration to put limits on free speech. They identify what they call "hate speech" as speech that needs to be eliminated. 

 

A reasonable question here is what exactly is hate speech? Well, it turns out that hate speech is any speech which they either don't like or just disagree with. They don't like any speech that refers to God, or religion, or traditional America, or law and order, or anything said by a conservative American. They prefer living their lives in a bubble. 

 

The state of Florida just passed a law which puts some serious limits on violent demonstrations. Well guess what, the perpetually offended say this new law limits their free speech. They apparently want to be free to destroy businesses and any public property they choose if those things get in the way of their free opportunity to destroy. This seems to be their definition of speech. 

 

Well, I've got some bad news for these "snowflakes". This is America. We are a free country governed by law and order. You have the right to swing your fist through the air, but that right ends just short of my nose. 

 

If I am broadcasting a speech that you don't like, you have the right to change the station, but you don't have the right to prevent someone else from hearing the speech. You don't have to listen, but you have no right to determine what any other free American can hear.  

 

It is difficult to understand where all this nonsense came from, but a reasonable guess is the college or university they attend. We are rapidly coming to the point where these overeducated, underproven, youngsters need to get a cram course in American history. In addition to history we might need to include a course in world geography. These snowflakes may need direction to another place to live. A place more compatible with their belief system. America is never going to satisfy them. 

 

Meanwhile, the rest of us traditional Americans will live our lives as we always have, enjoying the freedoms our military has fought for and continues to fight to keep. The youngsters will either grow up and join us, or they will live lives of dissatisfaction and disappointment. They should also remember that free choice of where to live is guaranteed. 

 

Ron Scarbro May 4, 2021