TRAVEL
Highlining in Venezuela’s Lost World. Must watch Vimeo video!!! Found at the Adventure Blog.
15 Images of What Morning Looks Like Around the World.
Landlopers review three airliners’ coach class: South African (yes!), Scandinavian (avoid for your sake) and Austrian ( so improved!). 15 hours in coach is a bit excessive me thinks:-)
A visit to Varosha, the abandoned ghost city of Cyprus. By Vagabondish. I got chills reading this story. 40 years now this city has been just sitting there slowly rotting. What a surreal site! I have many Cypriot friends and all of them expect one day to return. My brother served in the glorious (haha) Greek Armed Forces in the Cyprus capital, Nicosia. I visited him in 1986. Nicosia is still divided; instead of a wall, they still have barrels separating the Greek and Turkish sides.
Embraer sells its luxury jets by sending a book that flies to potential customers. Watch the video how they did it.
What is the most profitable airline? Spirit Air you say? (that would have been my guess). Nope. How about Allegiant Air. Interesting article at the Gate. I am so glad I have not flown both of these airlines yet but the trend is on their side…
MILES/POINTS
Looks like some hackers broke into the accounts of some Marriott Guest Rewards members. By USA Today.
Points Summary was up for the Friday interview at Million Mile Secrets. Best part of it was this tres cool pic:-)
INK BOLD/PLUS MADNESS
Thank God Boarding Area was down otherwise I don’t think I would be able to make it intact the whole day!
Some stuff that made me shake my head…
Points Miles and Martinis at least tried to offer something…more details on how to sign up for the LOUNGE membership. And bang, take six (3 of each, why even bother with the others!) Ink links!
Million Mile Secrets headline: “The Difference Between Ink Bold and Ink Plus Cards”. Please somebody shoot me!
Frugal Travel Guy headline: “5 Reader Questions about the 60,000 point Ink Bold”. Yep folks these are the same questions all these salespeople have been answering ever since they signed up for this gig! Please spare us the BS that this info is for the new readers lol. Oh Ariana…
The Points Guy: “Reminder: Chase Ink 60,000 Point Offer Ends Tomorrow”. Just because you have not heard it enough. Oh by the way “You earn 5 points per dollar at office supply stores and on cellular phone, landline, internet and cable TV services.” Reeeeeeeeally, wow!!!! At the end we get another 10 TEN non Ink credit card affiliate links. If this is not too much selling I don’t know what is!!! Welcome to my Bottom 10 11 list of blogs. Sorry Brian. Just.Too.Much.Selling. Yes I will publish one day that list when I get around to it! These blogs don’t stop coming!!!
Noob Traveler: “Tomorrow is the last day: 60,000 Ink Plus and Ink Bold Offers”. Yeah dude like we haven’t noticed!
Million Mile Secrets: “60,000 Points Chase Ink Ends Saturday – 55,000 Miles Delta Platinum, 50,000 American Airlines Miles & 40,000 Frontier Miles” – And you thought we were done….working hard for Jamie! A hilarious comment was left by a John: “Can you please put up a ticking countdown to when the ink offers will end. That will help me with my decision process.” Lol!
Roms Deals: “Chase Ink Bold 60K Sign Up Bonus Ends Tomorrow” – Just in case you missed it!
BLOG BUZZ
It looks like there was a massive “Account Now” account closure last week according to Jason Steele at The Points Guy. So I wonder how many Frugal Travel Guy readers signed up yesterday…for charity! Oh, what a pain! I hope the blog post is taken down or a huge warning is placed on top of it!
ON MY MIND
Another day gone by and nada done to recover my costs. Well, putting together the blog post has become like a sacred duty to me, I do not want to let you down:-) I hope I inspire, educate or, downright entertain some of you and bring some smiles to your faces!
Some dude on the internet made a parody twitter account of me and fooled some people. Heck, it would have fooled me too. Quite clever and convincing…I am shaking my head and am honored by the whole thing:-)
ODDZ & ENDZ
These are funny. There are too many apps for that. By Seriously For Real?
Awesome Russian Tampon commercial I would buy this brand if I was a woman after I watched this commercial!
Thanks George for the mention! Glad you liked the MMS interview
You beat me RAWR
Again Jeff is not first, becoming a slacker indeed!
Great post – as always! The CC stuff does get to be a bit much. I find myself a) not wanting to appty for one EVER or b) making sure I find a link from the bank directly. Whew! Only one day to go… wonder what the next mega frenzy will be.
You really wonder????? I rather not see it coming.
I hear you Susan!
I think the next frenzy will be by Chase…or a one day special from Amex:-)
For the Vagabondish post it seemed that all the photos were taken from the net – perhaps implying that the author hadn’t been there themselves. But the copy was coming from a “i’m here” position… I wonder about that…
You can not actually go to that town…you will be shot. Things have gotten easier in the past several years going across but for 30 plus years you dared going over that dividing it you kissed your butt goodbye. It will be even more surreal to have someone go and take pics of the houses and apartments and businesses left as the people abandoned the place. And yes, there are reports that are still some lights that flicker, must have been GE light bulbs lol.
Thanks for the email. I added them to the list:-) The techie side of things is really overwhelming…
In that case its written from a slightly weird perspective, perhaps I got it wrong though… Still interesting.
No worries on the tech stuff, those two are actually very easy… honest!
My greatest fear is apply something and all goes to hell…Tech downtime is something I clearly I ain’t got time for dat:-)
I added them to the list…I am getting there….very very slowly.
Let’s play a guessing game on how many signed up for the Ink-a-palooza using each of the well known blogging outfits.
VFTW -> 10000 + (too high?)
OMAT -> 5000+
FM -> 1000+
MommyP -> ~1000
MMS -> 1000+
FTG -> 1000+
TPG -> 1000
Heavy payday @ ~$300+ per approval. They couldn’t care less that they are being called pimps etc with the dough rolling in.
You’re just jealous. By now there can’t be that many with a “business” that doesn’t have at least one of these. I think you have to remove at least one zero.
Yeah I think the numbers are probably on the high side! And this goes to show you that the lifeline and blood of these businesses are the newbies. All of us who have been doing this for a while have had the Ink cards and there is only so many new businesses we can “manufacture” lol. So, the bloggers positioned to tend to the newbies best makes more money.
I think I should start a guide for Newbies lol.
@TBB
Yes it may be on the higher side. I just wanted to take a guess. But we also need to keep in mind that the approval rate is probably not that high, maybe 50% of the applications are approved. The bloggers get the mullah only on approvals.
Stop being a retard. No one is jealous of anyone. Or Angry. Just discussing economics. I could go on and attack but not worth my time.
But if you did, wouldn’t an “attack” prove you were “angry”? Just sayin’.
Quite likely. I know I signed up 2500 last week for the DiscoverIT card.
Are you saying that you had 2,500 applications for a credit card on your website last week? And they signed up for a Discover card???
No way it was that many. I’m thinking the big guys might have brought in around 400 or so. There are not that many people with businesses that had held out for a bigger Chase bonus. These cards have been out for a long time.
And they been promoted by bloggers for years.
I think Matt was kidding. If not, I am contacting Discover tomorrow lol.
Kidding…
Can’t do that to my readers hehe
Damn, if they actually even did 100 applications, that means they made $30k just off one week of pimping Ink cards. I’m in the wrong line of business, I tell you.
I need to start my blog and then if you apply through my link, I’ll come over to your house, hit you with a rubber mallet, and then I’ll do the reconsideration call for you. At least then I’d provide some value rather than sputtering on like a drone and waving my hands in front of your face until you apply for an ink card. It’s seriously gotten out of control. There was probably a blog post like 2 years ago that covered every single thing you ever needed to know about the Ink Card (especially since the details are really straight forward), and yet we still have like 1000 posts per week by these bloggers “helping us out”. Listen, if your readers are that dense that they can’t find the one million other blog posts and diatribes about the Ink Cards and their benefits, then they probably can’t be trusted to have a flipping credit card. So no, you’re not helping. You’re pimping and making money off people that don’t know how to do a google search.
Majikow: Great comment, I may make it MVP comment of the weekend:-)
I agree 100%
I only want to add this to the end of this sentence:
“I need to start my blog and then if you apply through my link, I’ll come over to your house, hit you with a rubber mallet, and then I’ll do the reconsideration call for you. At least then I’d provide some value…”
While there please do the dishes & vacuum:-)
This gave me an idea actually. I wonder if bloggers are allowed to offer real value in exchange for promises by readers to obtain credit cards through their links. Of course the blatant offer of kickbacks is expressly prohibited. How about a phone or email consultation? Maybe I can combine my other passion with this thing AND provide even MORE value than what I am doing right now….which is heavy on the entertainment side, maybe a little educational too.
I have always and will always say “From the non stop pimping going on…there is a certain faction of new credit card owners who get in over their heads and the banks maul them…which alllows them to continue offering 50k to 75k signing bonuses which, undoubtedly as we have recently seen, lead to devastating program devaluations”
The big dinero in this space is in the newbies. Feed them enough to keep them occupied and then hit them up again when they get get a little more hungry.
This has gotten out of control for a while. This blog just brought it up to surface. The thing that disgusts me the most is the NON transparency of the whole system. You know someone is paying and it is the idiot who gets a credit card to travel for “free” who is the last person on earth to have a new credit card.
Like I said…don’t get me started in this subject…they may think I am angry or something lol.
I think we are seriously underestimating the return customers and overestimating the newbie market, especially for business cards. There is a great amount of hesitation for fake business owners to apply for business cards in general. We have all been there.
Having said that both wife and I got approved 🙂 Did not link any affiliate whores of course.
You may be right. I spent an hour with my web designer explaining all the angles about the Ink cards. She said she was going to do it. But I can see she has mental block about it. It IS very common. Some are just not cut out for this. If she complains about her Delta Amex again I am going to shoot her then:-)
Yeah, repeat customers. Not so “smooth” with Chase cards as in all the others…
You may be right. Unless you are married to one…we’ll just never know for sure. These numbers are sacred!
Chase must have felt bad that BA was down for a day, they extended the offer until Monday.
Oh the humanity!
I need to catch up on so much I am not going through my Google Reader feeds at all today….I need a break, too much Ink!!!!
Hello TBB,
I enjoy reading your blog everyday religiously… its funny and enlightening 🙂
Just a small suggestion… I now get it that many of the blogs that you refer pimp the affiliate CC’s. I used to fall for these when i was a extreme noob. Thanks to your blog not anymore! My suggestion is to give us noobs your insight on the best available CC’s links out there (even if its an affiliate).. I know one can find that on flyertalk and other websites too but, i come to your website as i have only limited time for this hobby and your blog gives the best snapshot for the day 🙂
Keep up the great work!
Thank you very much for the kind words!
It took me about a year before I “got it” too. FTG owes me a lot lol.
There is SO MUCH I want to do that there is not enough time in the day. I need to keep a perspective before this thing totally takes over my life:-)
I have a full time job that as long as the stock market is doing well and keep my current client base I am doing fine. If any of these two “breaks” I am toning down TBB pronto
My “To Do List” is enormous and many things are added to it all the time (which brings the “learn more specifics on affiliates” to do item down the list all the time, despite some friends who have been encouraging me to put it on top of the list!).
The one thing that irks me the MOST in the blog landscape is promoting inferior offers! By far this is the big NO NO and bloggers who do that should be permanently relegated to the Junk bin! Best thing about MMS is he does promote the best offers.
Heads up on the ongoing Citi AA saga….A reader discovered a 50k link, it is first on the top of the wiki here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credit-card-programs/1475783-citi-aa-credit-cards-best-offers-now-40k-read-wikipost-first-20.html
And read post #300…the “current” churning gap may have come down again with Citi. Good to see. As always with Citi, it is always a moving target.
I do my best. I will not take time away from reviewing blogs to produce quality blog content, this function will remain priority number 1 with TBB. If not, I could not live with myself cutting corners and focusing my time/energy on affiliate links stuff. One day I will likely have a separate tab and do it the way Frequent Miler does so I can look at myself in the mirror and still feel good about it:-)
No rush to get there…
Any questions you can always email me.
Thanks for reading again and taking the time to comment!
Can’t wait until you join the circus. You know you want to!
Just imagine TBB channeling his powers with the dark side.
Will it be okay when I do if I tell you 50% will go to charity?
Lol.
Maybe I can light up the dark side with my methods, you know, fight the system from within:-)
no problems with my account now. what r all you guys doing wrong? money packs? shame on you
Yeah, we need to watch that Jason guy lol
seriously, I’ve had no problems with AccountNow. but then again I didn’t follow the pack with MoneyPacks. I liked RI much better 😉 And still do.
There you go George and thank you for all the personal affiliate crack you gave me in the past.
My pleasure:-)
I would just like to take and moment and thank you Buzz for the fine editing of your blog. You are the Ben Bradley of the internet. Especially thankful that you have never mentioned Samba For Miles or even acknowledged the existence of a person that calls themselves such. Well played.
Thank you for the compliment. Comparing TBB to Ben Bradley is indeed an honor:-)
I know Samba exists. But I only see the Professor writing. Samba just does some trips once in a while. TBB looks for posts that can: Entertain, Educate or Inspire. Trip reports almost never cut it. Unless they are mine LOL.
Man, even Frequent Miler just served up a link post that solely consisted of 4 Chase Ink links. The dark side is very powerful. I think I’ll give him a pass this time since he still does deliver by far the best original content of anyone, but still. That one hurt.
People can’t enough of that Chase Ink affiliate link money. It’s like your finest black tar heroin. People can’t get it off their mind and will do anything to get it.
Yep, even more powerful than crack!!
Yeah I saw FM’s quick post w/ the 4 links. At least he did not tel us we can get 5x in office supply stores and we can transfer the points to United:-)
LOL. Thanks for giving me a pass on this one 🙂
A number of readers said that they wanted to use my links, but my site was down so it was the only way I could think of to make those links available to those who wanted to use them. Sorry if anyone found it offensive.
Google cache?
I was just ribbing you.
It’s funny that you only had to post them once though and hopefully got way more clicks than the rest of the bloggers who just bludgeon us with links. I really hope your model wins in the marketplace of ideas, because I’m not sure how much longer I can take it. Maybe Google Reader shut down because they feel the same way.
>>>>>>>I really hope your model wins in the marketplace of ideas
Yes
>>>>>>>>because I’m not sure how much longer I can take it.
i am about to voluntarily commit myself to a mental health institution, I see Bold and Ink all around me and I hear voices telling me “60,000 get it now”
I’m wondering how to deal with this awful situation where experienced travel folk are angry that a post isn’t giving them something for free, such as great advice on a completely new topic (let’s be honest there isn’t that much of that if you have been around the scene for 2 years or so now).
Maybe we could have a splash screen at the start with a 1 question survey – are you an experienced travel boffin – if yes it redirects you to FT, if no it redirects you to the Ink Bold and how to travel like a rockstar for free!
Seriously – If I gave away the keys to the castle, and blogged about things that the experienced guys didn’t know about (those little manufactured spend tricks that net me 20K+ in spend without any carrying costs every month) then people would hate it, because the 5 year guys would be made at the 2 year guys getting in on their game.
So all we are left with is trip reports (which apparently are boring) and newbie tips that don’t cause harm (which apparently are boring and pimping)
Genuine question – what would the angries like to see more of in a blog, (hopefully something sustainable to keep content flowing for years). TBB works in this model, because a site that collates the good and the bad (mainly the bad) is always a good grumbling ground for the angries.
Personally I enjoy this blog, and some of my favorite things are the pics from Twisted sister etc, but in someways they are closest to a ‘trip report’ style blog.
Just looking for a little more direction folks.
I think you nailed a huge BIG picture subject with this comment!
First of all, let’s clear something up if we may. I never liked the term “angry” and doing my best to make it not stick:-)
The meat of your question goes to defining your reader. Who is your target reader?
GL appeals to a wide audience interested in travel and miles/points; his asset is his experience and his commentary. Ben appeals to flying fanatics and those interested in the luxury travel aspect of it. TPG has managed to go mainstream the most due to his amazing PR machine; strangely he appeals to both (experienced and newbies); I think he caters to the experienced crowd only to enhance his credibility, his business certainly does not need them. MMS has managed to cater to the newbie crowd very nicely and I always said the big dinero is in the newbie crowd (SO many of them out there). FM has filled a niche and is pounding at it; fits like a glove! FTG just hammers out affiliate and referral links appealing the newbiest of the noobs:-) (even BIGGER market!).
I appeal to all who like an escape from the madness lol. A short journey through the blogosphere and always looking to either educate, inspire or entertain. I like to focus more on the entertainment part:-) Definitely on the more experienced crowd and also welcoming the newbies for the travel educational/inspirational stuff. I aim to be different and hopefully deliver an entertaining read you won’t read anywhere else. I was always different and liked to create some noise and change the system, what can I say, I am a rebel lol. Actually Matt, I have no idea what I am doing, I just make it up as I go along! I see this as a journey and a way to express myself. Deep down I always had some artistic brain cells but I was never talented enough to translate them to the music stage so this blogging thing acts as a way to do so.
Ok, long tangent, back on topic.
Your blog appears to be TOO broad. Maybe you need to focus a bit more? When I think of Saveocity here is what comes to MY mind:
A guy who knows his stuff, write long thorough posts, can go from esoteric financial topics to trip reports with amazing pictures to miles/points advice. Too many subjects? And somehow you “feel” like an outsider to the whole Flyer Talk community (which can be a good thing).I don’t know. I look at your Alexa numbers and they are something I aspire my blog to get to so I guess it is working for you.
I have the trip reports mostly to facilitate/excuse my tax deductions. And I also like to make them a bit different and showcase my refined expertise on the subject lol. My readers do not come to my blog to read my trip reports. I hope they come to be entertained mostly. So, what do you readers come to your blog for? What is the mission?
The over 5 year experienced miles/points crowed is much smaller than the newbie or less than 2 year experience crowd. I see publishing tricks for over 5 yr experienced crowd will only create more noise (which, sadly, usually leads to more hits) but it may not be good for the long term as this crowd can be “flaky” always searching for the next bang:-)
I am rambling. I am just typing stuff as it comes to my head on a Sunday afternoon…dangerous!
I also wonder how many readers I lose when I add affiliate links and how much doing this will affect my incendiary commentary lol.
If I knew how much time this blogging thing takes I would have NEVER started it.
Can’tget your feeds to add to my Google Reader so I will try again when I move to Feedly…tomorrow:-)
Thanks for the input George, I am still ‘finding my voice’ in many ways, but think ultimately I don’t want to be just another one of these bloggers, I really do think of the entire travel hacking game as such a small part of my own personal hobbies and interests that limiting it to that wouldn’t be appealing to me.
That said, perhaps I could spin off one or more blogs from my site into a pure travel or pure personal finance site and continue to muse on things but with more specific audience content.
Saverocity is currently structured as a multisite blog, so I can add or deduct from it as seems fitting, that is why I updated the front page recently (and why the RSS may be haywire)
Thanks for your input as ever, I am trying to be more cautious about length of post and also diversity of topic, I just think sometimes the self indulgent in me wants to write about what matters to me, whether it is on topic or not…
I really liked your posts about valuation, mixing points-earning with cash back-earning, and about reducing one’s carbon footprint. For just two of those posts, I added you to my feed.
I have no objection to the occasional credit-card-pimping post. I have objections to blogs that are nothing but credit card posts and the re-posting of PR releases.
Only reprinting that there’s a sale at Penny’s or a limited-time offer to buy points from US Airways, plus credit-card pimping posts, doesn’t really contribute to the hobby.
On the biggies: I recently dropped Daraius from my feed because I didn’t feel he was offering any new content. I read Miler because he does. I read GLeff mainly for his editorials, not all of which I agree with or even like, and I have no use for Lucky. I don’t feel anyone should read FTG and TPG because they neither add to the hobby nor give their readers the best deal.
One off-topic aside in case anyone at F2B is reading: I think Stacy and I are in different tax brackets, and I scratch my head at her idea of what makes a great deal. But to each their own.
Advice for what I’d like to see:
1. What are your top personal finance blogs? I got into this hobby because I like saving money, and you seem to have a good view of personal finance for those who are both young and not terribly overwhelmed with student debt (i.e., readers of The Billfold). I’d be curious to know what about your projects in that area.
2. I think there’s a niche for explaining and detailing how you use travel/points to fulfill your other hobbies. I like what Miles to the Wild has done. I think this hobby needs more pictures of coral reefs and fish before the externalities of travel make them disappear. I’d like to know more about apps that could teach me a language before I travel, or let me read the local newspapers of the countries I’ll visit.
Oh, and by the way, there’s an ongoing nationwide boycott of Hyatt led by UNITE HERE, but you’d never know it. Almost no one in this hobby, and definitely not Hyatt’s fanboys, gives a sh.t about ordinary workers.
tl:dr: What George said. Find a niche and an audience.
Thanks Harvson3, I do always appreciate your comments on my posts too. The Carbon Footprint was written by Allison, who until then we had agreed would write the trip reports, but we talked and decided that it was a matter very important to her (and me) and as such started changing how we dealt with posting on the blog. I am encouraging her to write more as I think her work is better than mine.
Weirdly, I have found myself not checking blogs recently, either in Personal Finance or in Travel Hacking realms, I used to read dilligently but now am not so fussed, I am not worried about what the ‘competition’ is doing and don’t use a RSS feed myself.
I find myself on here checking in to see what is annoying people so I can tweak that and I use the ‘myflyertalk’ link to keep up with threads that I have been vocal in. Shamelessly I also try to offer advice in the Miles & Points section of FT to complete newbs to add a little credibility to my Travel Hacking status (back links..)
For finance and deals I enjoy Fatwallet, for more highbrow I enjoy Bogleheads. Generally speaking I am getting most of my external info from more formal sources such as books which help me frame thoughts that have been with me for some time, such as investing etc.
I think ultimately my voice is ‘finding intrinsic value in a world filled with BS’ but I am not sure if I can claim ownership of such a broad title, or if my work justifies it. I think that this viewpoint straddles many areas of Travel Hacking and Personal Finance.
Oh, and as for your travel fulfills other hobbies… yep that is a big one for me, and something I’ll be writing about soon…
The only thing my wife will ever write in my blog is to share some of her recipes, she makes some mean curry stuff!
All I do is check blogs all day:-)
My top 3 passions are: Personal finance, miles/points for travel, and soccer. My original thought was to combine the first two here but decided against it. Then a thought came to me just recently. To differentiate myself, if/when I add affiliate links (ONLY the way FM does it, I am no Jehova’s Witness persistent sales type!) I thought about offering a half hour consultation about personal finance (NO stock tips of course lol) when readers click to get a credit card from my site. They help me out and I love to give back by helping them out and I LOVE to talk about personal finance & this miles/points stuff ALL DAY long anyway! Then again, I would have no idea if they in fact got it through my blog…Hmm, any thoughts?
I like Slickdeals. I love John Bogle and what he stands for. I have trouble considering myself a Boglehead, I just do not like the label. I am a big fan of passive investment management in general.
One day I can throw out the list of personal finance blogs I follow. But most appeal to a professional and not to a consumer audience. My favorite is “The Big Picture”.
Then there are the aggregator websites, such as Boarding Area, First2Board, Upgdr. And also “Business Insider”. Did you see the rise in the numbers of First2Board? I guess there is a huge value in pounding content out constantly.
Ok…I had no idea what my original thoughts were when I first started writing this:-) I need to wrap it and go for a bike ride:-)
I read blogs all day too. 🙂
Still trying to find my niche as well …
I wouldn’t mind a good Thai recepie. Ritholtz used to be much better (1-6 years ago). Last year has been less analytical and more daily links to (often interesting) articles. Perhaps he doesn’t have much time sharing his opinion any more (sure his WP articles can be interesting). Calculated risk is pretty good to. Nice plots (best form of p0rn).
“Oh, and by the way, there’s an ongoing nationwide boycott of Hyatt led by UNITE HERE, but you’d never know it.”
Both Loyalty Traveler and View from the Wing have covered it.
I beg your pardon, and I’m very often wrong and happy to be wrong (and perhaps Matt shouldn’t take advice from me), but could you post a link to either? I searched, but my copy of Google couldn’t find anything.
@Matt, I actually like the fact that your blog is so wide ranging. I am sure that George and Harvson3 are more qualified to give you advice if your goal is indeed to gain more and more readers, but the variety is refreshing.
Not that I stay at Hyatts, but I am off to check out Unite Here. Harvson3 is right – never heard a peep about it til now.
http://www.hyatthurts.org/about-the-boycott/
In the spirit of transparency, I have no relationship whatsoever with Hyatt – I am not even a member of their club! I think I may keep it that way.
Paula Deen has never been one of my favorites, but after reading the transcript of her testimony, I feel bad for her. She is getting portrayed as an extreme racist and her career is over. But read what she actually said, http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2013/06/entertainment/deen-deposition/?hpt=hp_t1 and try and find me human beings on this planet that have never done the same or worst. Ridiculous. I am wondering if the whole trial is about playing the race card for compensation.
Looking forward to the FTG deposition. Actually, I’m surprised IB hasn’t fired him for his slur about greeks on FT.
I got no problem with it HikerT. Lots of things are said in the heat of the moment. Most of the time Rick is a really nice guy.
Honestly, I had never heard of Paula Deen until now. I do not have a good relationship with anything that has to do with the kitchen!
why thank you George. most of the time, you are a really nice guy too. just remember to stay on your medication 😉
You too Rick. Medicine is much cheaper in Canada. And we all know you are still frugal;-)
make sure you keep track of those roads into banff. it was a major event with the trans Canada highway literally washed away. I hope things are back to normal before u go
I know you didn’t take it personally, but it was a clear attempt to chip away at your credibility based on your race. I’m actually shocked that IB would want to be associated anyone making such remarks in a public forum under a name representing the brand. . BTW, nothing in the water here Rick that I’m aware of that one more socially aware or tolerant.
in short order hiker, I’ll get my old handle back. I can’t wait to defend bloggers and other capitalistic members of our community to “go for it” ” you can do this”.
just look at all the negative energy that could be better put to use writing your own blogs. it is obvious from the constant criticism you all can do better. I say “go for it”
I think “Greek” is a nationality if I’m not mistaken. could be wrong though and know you will have a Left Coast response 🙂
huh? I thought being Greek was a nationality issue. I never realized they were a race?
It is an issue where an old fucktard has gone angry and nuts.
you crack me up. must be something in the Seattle water huh?
HikerT: I think Rick is just jealous of the Greeks, it is obvious:-)
“go for it” and “you can do this” —->scary
Seth had a blog post how much energy was spent on the 60k Ink/Bold deal. Something like 80+ posts AND counting. If that is NOT negative energy, I don’t know what is:-)
And yes I will link to it in my next blog post!
I would love to feature FTG (the blog) in my blog as always! Ariana was going to make it I think but she turned to, drum roll please, credit card posts too.
And now time to take the kids to a movie. Free!
See ya tomorrow.
Let me guess… you’re a white male?
She sounds like your typical privileged white person, except she manages to go a little above and beyond that when dropping N bombs and talking about “Southern” style weddings during the pre- and post- Civil War era with nicely dressed black slaves waiting on white people.
She might not be an extreme racist, but that to me is pretty offensive and heartless, and I’m Polish. It’s easy for white people to deem stuff not offensive and claim people are playing the “race card”. You don’t have to worry about discrimination during a job search or in the admissions process. You don’t have to worry about a cop shooting you for “reaching towards your waistband” and then having the majority of society think you “probably deserved it”. That’s the privilege of being white in this country. It’s “easy”, which I think is actually a detriment to white people, because it often leads them to have a total lack of compassion towards and human understanding of those who suffer arounds us on a daily basis and have been doing so since the founding of our nation built on the principles of “freedom” (here’s your cue to laugh).
Anyway, I think I’m off the topic of miles and points, but for one last point, let’s hope that the possibility of her cooking show being taken off the air will lead to a decrease in the waistbands (measured in miles) of the American populace.
I think Cosby may have said, not sure who…something to the effect…”the best thing to do to erase racism is to stop talking about racism”. I look at my kids’ classes and I see a giant melting pot. And then having Obama as President is a game changer in this country.
The Republican party must change because demographics is blowing it away imho.
Yeah, this discussion took a turn from miles/points, didn’t it?
I better post a new blog post soon so we can migrate talking about stuff there lol.
If Obama just wasn’t GWB 2.0, especially in foreign policy. Here are two presidents in a row, that had golden opportunities (few presidents have that opportunity) to take the country in a new direction. GWB had the country united after 911, and took the country in a very sad direction, filled with fear. BHO had the opportunity to clean up the banks and financial sector in 2008 (and take the foreign policy in a new direction). Neither of them were man enough for the job. Sadly, the biggest “game changer” with Obama is that he is not purely white. If he could only change the game by (i) ending the Iraqi quagmire, (ii) mess in Afghanistan (Soviet 2.0-> don’t learn from history), (iii) Guantanamo bay (as a lawyer, let people stand trial on US soil for their crimes, worked in WWII), (iV) have a middle east policy, how about finally broker peace between Israel and Palestine). In reality Game changer=more of the same, just a different skin color.
“The Republican party must change because demographics is blowing it away imho.” Sadly they’ll change because of the demographic numbers, not because the believe in the necessary changes.
Well, I must say I agree with everything you said! Time will show how both of these Presidents did. And I think history will not be too kind on GWB.
I don’t want to get into politics here and it is my fault I brought it up! Debating about politics, religion and abortion can be….endless:-)
Obombya.
@Majicow, As a fellow Pole,let me ask you, are you perfect? I think not. Did you ever have bad feelings or say something bad about the Germans? Probably, if you lost loved ones like most of us years ago. So I say forgive and forget, You sound angry.
@Artur Szastic: I’d be the first to admit I’m not perfect. And you didn’t see me saying she was an “extreme racist” or a horrible person or any of that. I just said what she said was offensive. Can we agree that’s true? And I’m not getting your comparison. You’re saying her dropping racial epithets and saying she wants a good ol’ Southern wedding with black slaves (so basically continuing to pile on a people that are already treated pretty bad in this country and were often lynched and treated as property) is the same as a Polish person disparaging a German (for the past transgressions of the Germans against the Poles)? I think you have it mixed up there my friend. The Germans did do some pretty bad stuff to the Poles/Jews/gays/Roma/etc. What did blacks do to Paula Deen?
Anyway, my point was that too often the melanin deficient majority (soon to be majority-minority, or maybe it already is, I forget) brushes stuff like this under the rug. And sorry George, but I entirely disagree with you and Cosby about not talking about racism. Not talking about racism only serves the interests of the privileged by reinforcing the commonly held belief in this country that minorities are mostly at the bottom of the totem pole because of some inherent trait of theirs, not because of a systematic institution of white privilege that has existed since the founding of this country (and before even, when the term “white” was invented to keep european sharecroppers and black slaves from coalescing and increasing the chance of rebellion against their masters). Now sure, you can’t trace everything back to racism, but to pretend if we stop talking about it the fact that black people were property up until the mid to late 1800s and were then systematically denied the right to vote and equal treatment under the law during my parents lifetime (and I’m 31) will just disappear is Ludacris (and should definitely Roll Out!). We can’t whitewash the history of our country. We have to teach our children (and sometimes the adults, here’s looking at you Rick Perry) our real history (maybe make them read Zinn?) so that when they see the state of our nation, they understand how we got here. Only then do we have a shot at fixing anything. Racism is real and continues to this day. Ignoring it just ensures that it will continue to have a negative effect on our society.
And as far as people saying dumb racist crap, I’m not saying we just write them off as bad people. Often they learned these beliefs from society at large, so it’s our job to teach them why it’s wrong.
One thing for sure boys….TBB is NOT perfect:-)
I think we have come far enough to envision a country and a world with no racism. Why am I saying that? I see my kids in school and who their classmates and friends are and I am seeing no racism at all. Yes my kids go to public schools. I refuse to send them to all whitey (lol) or Catholic schools, I want them to blen in with real America.
Disclosure: I have no issues with all whitey and all Catholic schools either and I support your right to do whatever you deem necessary for your own children.
I need to finish my post for tomorrow now. I think I have a scoop on something!
Man George, you really are an optimist. 🙂
I don’t think we’ll ever see a world without racism (it is too often used as a political tool to appeal to the least common denominator, look at the rise of the Golden Dawn in Greece), but I do agree that the younger generations don’t seem to have the baggage that our parents and their parents did. It does give me some hope. But at the same time, I think the reason for that is the efforts of those out there fighting day in and day out to point out the ugly racism not just in the system (the “war on drugs”, mandatory sentencing for crack vs cocaine, stop and frisk, etc etc) but also in society. Years ago, if Paula Deen would have said some nonsense like this people would have either applauded her or at least let it slide. Now she gets called out on it, which I think is great. Freedom of speech is a beautiful thing, but it doesn’t mean you have the freedom to say whatever you want and not get criticized for it.
Thanks George for at least ending this convo on a good note. Faith in the youth. I’m certainly pulling for them and it sounds like you are too.
One more thing: I hate them Golden Dawn motherf*ckers, total scum dirtbags!!