For The Blank Page

The latest icon to join the ranks of the sex scandals elite is none other than The Late Show’s David Letterman, surprised ? I was.  Sex scandals have always been popular in the media with possibly the most memorable involving  former president Bill Clinton, now synonymous with the quote "I did not have sexual relations with that woman" and it still makes me smirk when i hear it.  In spite of my amusement i also understand the dissatisfaction of the general public when a person elected to a position of power and responsibility is involved in reckless and immoral behaviour as it contradicts the reason they hold the position.

 

The catalyst for Letterman’s confession on his show last thursday night was the $2million extortion attempt by a producer at CBS show 48hrs, Robert Halderman.  Reportedly former intern from The Late Show, Stephanie Birkitt unknowingly rendered information to Halderman from which he formulated this blackmail attempt.

 

Halderman was charged with grand larceny on friday afternoon, punishable by 5 – 15 years jail time.  To birkett’s credit, since leaving The Late Show she attended the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York City and passed the Connecticut bar exam in February 2009.

 

His live confession consisted of him recounting the attempt at blackmail using his comedic manner, sometimes drawing inappropriate laughs from the confused crowd as i’m sure many did not know what to make of his admission at first. He then declared he had multiple sexual relationships with women employed on his show.  He did not falter during this declaration, stating the facts and not asking for forgiveness for his actions.  I found this to be an admirable way of dealing with his situation, one that many could learn from.

 

The way which these situations are commonly dealt with involves denial and then tearful regret if the truth cannot be contained.  This makes the way in which Letterman has handled his own so called "sextortion" so refreshing.  I don’t believe that Letterman should be condemned the way a political figure would be for his on the job shenanigans, after all we look to him for laughs, not for political guidance.  However it is good to see someone claiming direct responsibility for what they were involved, which as i understand were consensual adult relationships with the only fault being Letterman possibly having a girlfriend at the time.  As far as i am concerned this has not compromised his ability to perform his job and CBS would be fools to pull his show from the air.  This incident will fade into obscurity soon enough, unfortunately i doubt Regina Lasko, his new wife & long-time girlfriend will ever forget this…

With evident technological advances made in communications with every passing moment our dependence on these communications grows accordingly.  From the simplest connection that is my cellphone or the ADSL connection im currently using, to the incomprehensibly large number of networked devices required for a government to function.  With such a large reliance placed on technology and communications by governments all over the world, necessary defensive measures need to be taken by said government to protect their communication infrastructure.  As a hostile government or more likely a terrorist organization would soon look too exploit this weakness.

To quote The Art Of War by Sun Tzu -
To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.

Thus the highest form of generalship is to balk the enemy’s plans. The next best is to prevent the junction of the enemy’s forces. The next in order is to attack the enemy’s army in the field. The worst policy of all is to besiege walled cities.

In a response to recent animosity Kraft have announced that they will drop the unanimously abhorred name of iSnack 2.0.  Though i have to wonder how this colossal mistake came to pass.  Now i don’t pretend to have any marketing qualifications but i do know that were i one of the drones analyzing the 48,000+ entries to this naming competition and i came across ‘iSnack 2.0′ i would laugh and put it with its friends on the wall of idiocy.  How it found its way into the winners position i cant begin to understand.

 

And the origin of this marketing embarrassment ? 27 year old Dean Robbins from Western Australia now know as the iSnack idiot.  With the general consensus being "we like the taste, we just dont like the name" Dean has attracted a lot of the blame.  And i’ve really got to feel for him, first he wins the name competition and perhaps some money (not sure of the details) so he’s got to be happy about that, then Australia hates you, unfortunate.  Most likely he now regrets ever entering the competition.

 

"Unfortunately he’s received a few complaints over this whole thing", "Our sympathy is definitely with him and we’re supporting him because he’s copped a bit" said Australia and New Zealand head of corporate affairs Simon Talbot.

 

"In the end, I think it was just too out-there, too innovative, too quirky" Talbot said.  Oh Really?! It was just plain lame and everyone knows it.

 

Personally id like to see the marketing team made example of for this error, it?s not Dean?s fault that the entire marketing division of a major corporation didn?t have the brains to reject his fairly bad idea.

 

Consumers did support the new combination of cheese and vegemite while it was in the "name me" phase and Kraft is now compiling a list of possible names which will be featured in a public poll to determine the new name.

 

Ill be voting for iSnack 2.0 again, just to fuck with them.