Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Good News for O.J. Simpson!

He's almost twice as popular as BP!

According to the the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, Barack Obama's numbers are down but they're not as bad as the approval ratings for Congress and a number of other government agencies. But you know whose numbers are really down? BP has a favorable rating of 6%. That's six. Half a dozen. Two times three.

By contrast, O.J. Simpson has an approval rating of 11%. But here's the odd thing. I can almost understand Simpson's number. There are people in this world who think he didn't murder his ex-wife and Ron Goldman...that he was wronged, framed, ruined, whatever. I think they're either ninnies or largely unfamiliar with the details of the case, but I understand how there could be the 11%.

But the 6% who like BP...where are they coming from? Do they think Shell put all that oil into the gulf and arranged for Mark Fuhrman to plant a bloody glove so BP would take the blame? Maybe they're stockholders. If I were a stockholder in BP, I think I'd be royally pissed at its management but I'd probably say nice things about the company to pollsters.

Really, who are these people? I know they didn't poll Congress because the number there would be a lot higher than 6%.

I'm guessing the 6% are mostly people who think it was just one of those silly little mistakes that can happen to anybody who doesn't invest in minimal safety precautions. In a strange way, it's probably comforting to the BP execs. I mean, they don't have to worry about doing something foolish and hurting their reputation. Tomorrow, the members of the Board of Directors could all go out and molest nuns and their rating would only drop to like 5.5%.

The article says that the poll has only gotten a few lower ratings of anyone or anything. Saddam Hussein and Fidel Castro each clock in at 3%...which gives me a great idea for the new BP ad campaign: "As popular as Saddam Hussein and Fidel Castro combined!" If I were them, I'd spend a couple of billion on commercials and billboards spreading that slogan. It would be a much better investment than, say, actually cleaning up their mess.

• Posted at 11:12 PM · LINK

Great Photos of Buster Keaton

Number four in a series...

• Posted at 9:16 PM · LINK

Today's Video Link

This morn, I'm embedding five minutes out of the middle of the 1958 not-very-good science-fiction movie, Spacemaster X7. Why am I doing such a thing? Well, the whole thing's up on YouTube in pieces but you have much better things to do than watch it. Still, I thought you'd enjoy to see the great voice actor Paul Frees in one of his rare on-camera roles. Paul did thousands of movies, commercials and cartoon shows, the latter category including darn near everything Jay Ward ever did. He was Boris Badenov. He was Ludwig Von Drake. He was the Pillsbury Doughboy. He was the voice of the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. He was everybody.

And here he is in this movie playing a scientist opposite actress Lyn Thomas. If I'd been the director of this film, I would have had someone else come in and redub Paul's entire part. Just to show him what it felt like.

• Posted at 12:51 AM · LINK