I’m happy to announce that I am a new blogger at Blorge.com. Stop by and visit!

I’ve been known to briefly wear my bluetooth headset when I’m out and about, but only because California has a law against driving and using a cellphone without hands-free operation. But I have always thought that people sitting in restaurants or other places with those headsets looked pretty silly. I guess I was wrong - now it is considered chic!

The internet and modern telecommunications brings news to us instantly, frequently through email alerts and instant messaging. We can even choose which topics interest us. Why would anyone visit their daily newspaper’s website, just to be assaulted by pages filled with more advertising than news?

I’ve been subscribing to my local newspaper, a subsidiary of the New York Times, for many years. But now I find that I am spending more time browsing headlines than actually reading the stories. Why is that? It’s because between my news clipping services, and the evening television news, most of the “news” that appears in the morning newspaper is already stale by the time it hits my kitchen table. I’m reading headlines for those few stories that didn’t already get covered, or that contain more detail than was provided the day before. The sad truth is, if my paper went out of business, I wouldn’t lose much sleep over it. In fact, I have been considering discontinuing my subscription for some time now.

So what are small newspapers to do? I think they need to reevaluate their business model. They need to consider themselves as one of many different news sources, and figure out a way to make people want to subscribe to their service. The “Empire” section of my daily newspaper covers local news events, and that is the section that I spend the most time reading. I suspect the same holds true for many of the remaining newspaper subscribers. We flip through the front page section, toss aside sections that hold no interest for us, and read the local news in more detail. What local “news sources” need to figure out is how to tailor the news to the interests of their readers, and deliver breaking news as quickly as possible. Advertising is a must of course, because they pay for the majority of the services provided. But these ads can be targeted more specifically. If a subscriber elects to receive the business news, then target financial ads to them. Local news? Target local advertisements to them. 

Newspapers need to get over the idea that one package will fill the needs of their entire readership. Instead, they need to tailor their news to each individual subscriber, then target advertisements according to their interests and charge their sponsors accordingly.

I think these debates are simply becoming a media circus and waste of time. Here is what I would suggest. Gather a pool of non-partisan journalists together to draft 100 direct and to the point questions. Post these questions on the internet and let voters select the top 25-50 questions they would like the candidates to answer. Then give those top questions to each candidate and allow them to answer those questions in writing within a specified word count. Warn the candidates that their answers will be fact checked for accuracy. Then post their answers to the questions. I am far more interested in how the candidates intend to capture Bin Laden than I am in what they are wearing, who they look at while they are speaking, and how well they can wink into a camera.

Sure, my process would lack in entertainment value, and many voters probably wouldn’t take the time to participate, but it would at least give us a realistic idea of where the candidates stand on the issues that really matter. The issues facing our country are far too important to be relegated to a spot on Entertainment Tonight.

He wants to put this Friday’s debate on hold so that he can go back to Washington to deal with the financial services crisis. As if he could go back and single handedly resolve the problems. President Bush got us into this, let him work to get us out.

I think it is far more important that the people finally get to hear what kind of plans McCain has for this country should he be elected President. I find it extremely dismaying that McCain and Palin seem to be running a campaign of dodge ball instead of one of heads-up, direct to the point issues.

I applaud Senator Obama’s decision to have the debates continue as scheduled. I will be glued to my TV on Friday night!

Bin Laden remains free, while American families continue to grieve for their losses. I think Bin Laden and his cohorts won. They’ve terrorized us into giving up our own Constitutional rights. They encouraged us to elect a President who did nothing but use it as an excuse to go to war against the wrong country and spend billions (trillions?) of dollars, nearly crippling our economy. They didn’t need another attack - we’ve done it to ourselves.

The point to all of this is to question the practice and efficiency of background checks. In Sarah Palin’s case, I don’t think they did a thorough enough job on vetting her. Here is a woman who may become the next VP, and perhaps even President if McCain doesn’t make it through his entire term, yet her vetting barely scratched the surface. Has anyone done a psychological profile on McCain? Sure, he is a war hero and survived horrendous torture. But wouldn’t that leave some kind of psychological scarring? I had to go through lie detectors and psychological reviews during my unsuccessful attempt at becoming a police officer.

As important as it is to make sure a police candidate is stable and has no skeletons in their closet, shouldn’t the background of people with the power to start a war be even more thorough? From that perspective, it seems easier to become Commander in Chief than it is to become a police officer.

Now eBay has announced that it wants to do away with the auction format, and go more for the fixed price model, hoping to compete with Amazon. I think that is a huge mistake. I shop eBay looking for good deals and bargains. If I wanted to pay fixed price, I would simply go to Amazon, which in fact, is exactly what I already do.

I’ve been a fan of eBay since their earliest days and told a lot of people about it long before they went public. But if they turn to a fixed price format, then they have just lost a good customer. I’d much rather go with Amazon, who has always had good prices, great shipping practices, and dependability. But I am sure going to miss those bargains.