All the FBI's Men

I remember Watergate well. I recall watching some of the hearings on TV as a kid, although I mainly remember that they pushed everything else I might have wanted to watch off the air. Years later I read everyone's book on the whole affair - and there is no shortage, as everyone involved wrote a book.

But nothing I read was as interesting or tells the real story better than this article. And this version is only a few pages long.

Funny how a news story gets better once it becomes history and you know all of it.

It's the Product, Stupid

Via MacDailyNews comes this excellent article about the recession-proof nature of Apple. Quote (bold mine):

Consumers perceive less differentiation among Windows hardware, thus they are more likely to select whichever brand offers the best price for the desired configuration. Consumers are not necessarily shifting to cheaper PCs solely based on price. Consumers trade down because there isn’t sufficient value-added to justify paying a higher price.

Conversely, there is a stark difference between spending less for a Windows PC (or any amount) as opposed to buying the higher-priced Mac. Mac OS X and the associated user experience are significantly different from Windows. Hardware isn’t the differentiating factor; it’s the OS.

PCs are not substitutes for Macs. People who desire Macs have to spend more, but those who don’t care for Macs don’t have to pay the high prices due to the availability of less expensive Windows machines. Consumers desiring Windows OS don’t purchase Macs to exclusively run Windows since it would be a waste of money. Consumers purchase Macs for the value-added benefits supplied.

The robust growth in Mac sales demonstrates that consumers are willing to pay more for Macs. Mac’s 70% share of the premium segment suggests that Macs are essentially the only computers for which consumers are willing to pay up. Windows PCs can’t compete in the premium segment against Apple. Premium Windows PCs can’t even compete against lower-priced Windows PCs.

There's an important point I need to make here aside from my own personal preference for Mac computers, and it's this: Apple is succeeding where the rest of the industry is not, because of a relentless devotion to their product and their user's experience.

You can think of the business relationship as a triangle with three points - the business, the customer and the product. Some businesses (for example, GM) put themselves at the top. Others make customer relationships - or just the acquisition of more customers (Microsoft) the top priority. But Apple serves their products. The product, its design, and its relationship to the customer are the primary focus of their activity. That's the point at the top of their triangle

Apple is smart enough to understand that an excellent product will please the customer (and attract more) and bring success to the business. They've created a market where people WANT to pay more to get their products, even when money is tight. They've also proven that you don't need or want EVERYONE as your customer, just the ones who will appreciate what you do.

That is not to say that marketing and customer relationship management does not play a part. Again, from the article:

Apple believes its Macintosh provides a superior computing experience. There is evidence supporting that claim as Apple earns the highest satisfaction ratings and gets the best reviews from industry pundits. So, it’s more about informing consumers that its product is the best than it is making its product the best.

True, although I think the author has missed the obvious point here - you have to have the best product before you try to convince people that it is, or you're going to look very stupid when they discover the truth. But he's got a point that once you achieve the excellent product, you then have to educate your customers, and that can be a involved a process as product creation in the first place.

There's a lesson in here for those who can hear it. Focus on the product. Do less, but do it extremely well. Sell it for what its worth, without apology. Protect the brand at all costs. Never push bad product out the door with your name on it. Educate potential customers as to why they should buy your product - making darned sure your customer will agree 110% with you after they spend the money to get it.

Apple gets it. As a result, they've got a golden brand, no debt and billions in the bank. Few others get it. This economy will reveal just how few.

PS: here's how NOT to do it...

Whirlwinds

For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind...
- Hosea 8:7

Consequences. Wonderful things, consequences. Part of God's plan, without them, we have no ability to learn. Unfortunately, we have, right here and now in the United States, done the best we can to remove consequences from our lives. If there is anything that brings down the American Experiment and reduces us to a second rate nation, this will be the thing that does it.

Our largest and most important manufacturing business, the auto industry, has spent decades living large and looking out only for themselves - management and unions both. The product, and the customer they sold it to, were always way down on the priority list. They assumed that no matter what they did, American buyers would purchase their products, having no choice to do otherwise. And for a long time this was true, which kept them from seeing that once people had a choice to go elsewhere, they would, in droves. The US auto industry was an empty shell, ready to fall over with the slightest push, and the recession has more than provided the push. Having created a perfect storm of consequences by their previous choices, they now run towards a shelter constructed of taxpayer dollars rather than pay the cost for their past choices.

We've paid poor people to stay home and have children out of wedlock for generations, rewarding the worst arrangement possible for bringing up the next generation of American kids, and then rather than try to address the problems - mainly moral problems - we throw money at the symptoms.

States and cities in some parts of the country tax business owners into the poor house and then get bent out of shape when the productive people leave and go somewhere else, leaving only the open mouths and hands of the non-self-sufficient behind. And what happens after this? Usually tax increases on the unfortunates left behind. What consequences?

We built an entire housing and financial industry around the concept of lending money to people who had no business borrowing. Of course they were going to default on those loans and mortgages - could we have expected anything else? But it's no problem - the taxpayers are good for it.

We looked the other way while Microsoft used illegal monopoly behavior and playground bully marketing, and now the world's standard PC operating system and web browser are inferior products that host a wide variety of infectious security pathogens and deliver second rate functionality, security and stability. Yet we still buy their products.

For two generations we've allowed radicals to fundamentally change the way our society views religion and morality, removing the cultural frameworks that held America together for 200 years, expecting that social programs, laws and welfare could control people's behavior and promote right actions. Instead, the trust and ethics that are part of the Judeo-Christian culture are almost driven out of our society, with predictable results.

I could go on, but won't.

Ignoring small consequences allows the problem to continue, with larger consequences to follow. So have we reached the Day of Reckoning, or is there an even bigger one ahead?

Update: how about some links?

- Belmont Club on the mortgage issue and the cultural decline and voluntary depopulation of the West.

- The Truth About Cars on the self-destruction of GM.

- Consumerist has an article full of links on the recent credit card rule changes. This one contains a shocking comment from an industry spokesperson: "Pulling credit at a time when job losses are increasing by over 50 percent year on year in most key states is a dangerous and unprecedented combination." I'm sorry, but WHAT? How is unemployed people running up their credit card debt a good thing? I guess they're all planning on a bailout for them, too. Where's mine? Bonus quote: "We view the credit card as the second key source of consumer liquidity, the first being their jobs". Ever heard of savings?

- Finally, a post from Dr. Bob that takes on the culture. Here's a key section, to close with some hope.

The revolution which started in the 60s with the “me” generation is bearing its bitter fruit — though its aging proponents will never admit it. And sadly, there’s no going back: the changes which have infiltrated and infected the culture, inoculated through education, media, entertainment, scientific rationalism, and a relentless and highly successful assault on reason and tradition, are permanent, and their consequences will only grow in magnitude.

So it’s time for a counter-revolution.

There is an alternative to our current cultural narcissism with its corrosive, calloused, destructive bent. It is not a new government program, nor a political movement; no demonstrations in the street, no marches on Washington. Its core ideology is over 2000 years old, and the foot soldiers of the revolution are already widely dispersed throughout the culture.

This revolutionary force is called Christianity, and it’s long past time to raise the banner and spring into action.

More than Coincidence?

Consider - St. Paul

So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate.

and Beavis

You are a bunghole! And so am I.

I've wanted to put together a Beavis and Butthead Bible study for a while. I'll have to do better than this...

(looks up for lightning strike)

Rhymes

Teaching children's Bible studies is a good way to learn things. A while back I noticed this little piece of scriptural symmmetry (I'm sure I'm not the first):

First, Genesis 22:2:

“Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom you love so much—and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.”

And John 3:16:

For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

The author of Hebrews goes out of his way to point out that, long before the Law of Moses, Abraham was considered the bearer of the Old Covenant because of his faith. In this case, the faith to be willing to offer his son as a sacrifice.

It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham, who had received God’s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac

The old covenant prominently features a father willing to offer a son as a sacrifice - as does the new. It's the pivotal theme of both, in a lot of ways.

And this just jumped into my head while teaching 7-9 year old kids.

Intervention, interrupted

And so it has come to this:

"Because Congress failed to act, we will stand ready to prevent an imminent failure until Congress reconvenes and acts to address the long-term viability of the industry," Treasury spokeswoman Brookly McLaughlin said.

And White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the administration is considering using the Wall Street rescue fund to prevent the USA's strapped carmakers from failing.

Perino, speaking aboard Air Force One as President Bush flew to Texas for a commencement speech, said it would be "irresponsible" to further erode the economy by allowing failure in Detroit.

I think Ms. Perino has used the wrong verb. Instead of "allowing" in the previous sentence, the word should have been "enabling". Let's try it that way:

it would be "irresponsible" to further erode the economy by enabling failure in Detroit.

See how much more accurate that would be? Giving cash to GM and its unions in its current condition would be like giving the keys to a liquor store to an alcoholic.

Last night the GOP senators tried to stage an intervention. It looks like the GOP president is about to offer GM/UAW an open door to escape from the reality of the situation.

Their mouths are full of cursing, lies and threats...

King David was onto something important in Psalm 10 (go read it). The recent indictment of Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich certainly brings this scripture to mind.

If you read the text of the indictment, you'll see the governor and his wife speaking of their political deals and corruption in a manner that sounds more like something you'd hear from Tony Soprano and his henchmen than what you'd expect from a public servant.

This guy is a democrat, and the trail of cronies likely leads all the way up to the White House and the President-elect and his Chief of Staff. But for symmetry's sake, the prior governor is a Republican and is currently in prison for corruption. Maybe they can share a cell after this is all over. Corruption appears to be the only bi-partisan accomplishment of our politicians.

Perhaps the real problem is that politics has become such a septic tank that truly good people stay away, wanting no part of it. Look at what we're left with.

I'm certainly not perfect (see Romans 2:1), but I know that people like this are on the opposite side of a moral and ethical chasm that is so wide and deep that I can't even see across it. Perhaps this is where the Psalmist was when he penned Psalm 10.

Sitting this one out

I'm not in the market for a car and won't be for a while. Mine are old but they still run just fine. But it occurs to me that for all of the auto bailout and reorganization stuff to work, someone's going to have to buy those Chevys, Chryslers and Fords.

I wonder who is going to think that buying wheels from a sinking company is a good idea? Not me.

I propose that congress and their families should be forced to make their next vehicle selections from the Big 3 receiving the bailout money.

NLT online

For those who prefer the New Living Translation of the Bible (like me), there are now two good resources.

First, Youversion now features the NLT as one of the available translations. Way to go, guys.

Second, the NLT Study Bible is available online - and you can access it for free if you purchase the hardcopy. Highly recommended.

The NLT removes the Biblespeak so you can read what's really being said. Grab one.

Random College Football thoughts

1. The season is over except for the bowl games. It feels like it just started.
   
2. It was a tough year for us LSU Tiger fans/alums. What a meltdown after a BCS championship. I blame the defense. Despite their faults, the offense managed to score enough points to win throughout the season. They simply could not stop anyone. I predict significant defensive coaching changes. Fortunately...
3. My adopted college team, the Sooners, look pretty hard to beat. They'll play for the National Championship but they have to play Florida. That's nobody's idea of a good time.
   
4. Now that Penn State is back in the upper ranks, I'm reminded of how ugly their uniforms are. I guess the home uniforms with the blue jerseys look OK, but the unadorned all-white road gear is ugly. Can't they afford to get those boys a STRIPE at least? How about getting them Nittany Lion decals for the helmets?
5. If you're not playing in the SEC or Big 12, you better run the table. A PAC 10 or Big 10 schedule with a loss or two isn't going to cut it. Teams in other conferences are going to need to beef up their non-conference schedules because winning your way through your conference with a couple of added patsies isn't going to compare with what Florida, OU, Alabama or Texas managed to do. See here.
6. We can still dream of a playoff. OU, Bama, Florida, Texas, Penn State, USC and a couple of others. That would be a lot of fun. Too bad we won't see it.
   

Testing the iGoogle interface

Here's a post from the Google homepage Blogger widget. This seems like a good way to make random and meaningless comments.