Globe Reports Kalpoe Brothers “Ready To Crack”

While we do not put our full faith and confidence in the Globe Magazine, they do have an interesting article on the recent developments in the Natalee Holloway disappearance. The Globe reports that Gerald Dompig is claiming that the Deepak and Satish Kalpoe are “on the brink of cracking in the face of the testimony of a credible secret witness.”

The Globe also is reporting that Dompig said in an interview with Josse Mansur that the new investigative team from the Netherlands are “homing in on the Kalpoe Brothers.” He also goes on to state that they are now unable to withstand interrogation, declaring “If we put pressure on the two brothers, they will break.”

Josse Mansur was a guest on The Dana Pretzer Show and discussed some of these same topics. To listen to the podcast, use these links Play in Popup | Download

Tyranny of the Few – Bus Driver Threatened With Job Over Wearing Santa Hat

Another example of the tyranny of the few. A student in Commack, New York complained over their bus driver wearing a Santa hat, and the bus company threatened his job over it. The bus company relented when other parents complained that this was absurd.

But we are facing the uneviable conclusion that so as not to offend a few, we have to put out the many. The wonderful edicts of political correctness has taken over to such a degree that incidents like this can occur. 

With his long white beard and generous midriff, 65-year-old Kenneth Mott bears more than a passing resemblance to St. Nick. The Bayport resident says he has been wearing his furry red-and-white hat every December since he started working for the Baumann and Sons bus company, which transports students in the Commack School District, five years ago.

But after Mott completed his morning route on Thursday, shuttling kids to Rolling Hills Primary School and Commack Middle School, he said his supervisors at Baumann and Sons called and demanded that he take off his Santa hat.Mott said he was told that a parent of a child complained to the district about Mott’s headgear, saying that the child doesn’t believe in Santa Claus and was bothered by the hat.

“I said, ‘What, are you kidding me?,’” Mott recalled. “I thought it was a big joke.” He resolved to keep his hat on that afternoon.via Newsday.com

Imagine if the driver had been wearing a turben. Would the driver have been threatened with losing his job, or would the student have been sent to sensitivity training? Makes you think, doesn’t it.

Fred Goldman Sues OJ Over Book Profits

It looks like the OJ Simpson book “If I Did It” made 1 million dollars for a shell company that Simpson’s buddies helped set up, and the Goldman Family wants to make sure that Simpson does not profit from it. The Smoking Gun has a copy of the law suit here.

You knew that OJ was doing the book for the money, and it is good to see that the Goldman family has the fight in them to try to bar him from profiting from their son’s death. The family has an outstanding judgement of over 38 million dollars against Simpson allowing them to claim against any earnings from the book deal that Simpson could get directly or indirectly.

The father of Ron Goldman today sued O.J. Simpson, claiming that the disgraced athlete fraudulently profited from “If I Did It,” the canceled book that reportedly contained Simpson’s fictionalized account of how he could have killed Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson. In the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Fred Goldman alleges that Simpson pocketed about $1 million in the deal for “If I Did It,” which was to be published last month by ReganBooks, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. The title was scrubbed in the face of widespread public criticism. In his complaint, a copy of which you’ll find below, Goldman contends that Simpson has tried to hinder the collection of a $38 million judgment arising from a civil verdict that found the former football star liable for the wrongful deaths of Goldman and Brown, who were murdered in 1994 (a Los Angeles criminal jury acquitted Simpson of the killings in October 1995). The hefty judgment remains unsatisfied, the complaint notes, “other than nominal sums collected through various levies.” Along with Simpson, Goldman today named Lorraine Brook Associates as a defendant in the federal action. The Florida firm was incorporated in March by attorney Leonardo Starke, a Simpson golfing buddy. Goldman charges that Simpson fraudulently conveyed his intellectual property rights to the shell company, which then cut the book deal with Regan. The Smoking Gun.

Daily Commentary – Wednesday December 20th, 2006

Dana Pretzer in his morning update discusses

• Boy Returns 20,000 Dollars to Lady

The Fear Of Christmas Engulfs Retail This Year

Business Week  has an interesting article out on how retailers want all the income from Christmas but are afraid of the holiday. I think they nailed it. If a retailer went all out with a big CHRISTMAS sale instead of this Holiday malarky they probably would win on the public relations from and also make a boatload of money.

It used to be that people wrung their hands about the over-commercialization of Christmas. These days we have almost the opposite problem—Christmas is disappearing entirely. Advertisers still want the huge spike in sales that Christmas provides but they’re afraid to acknowledge the holiday itself.
It’s almost funny to watch them trip over themselves trying to find politically correct substitutions as they avoid saying the dreaded “C” word. But “happy holidays” and “season’s greetings” only go so far. They sound hollow and synthetic, and that kind of approach is no way to build a connection with your target audience.
It seems companies have become so afraid of offending some mythical person out there that they’re unwilling to express their true sentiments. After 20 years in the advertising business there’s one thing I’ve learned: Every ad is offensive to someone. Still, I find it a stretch to think that wishing your customers a “Merry Christmas” is going to set somebody off. And if it does, well, there’s a word for them: Scrooge. via BusinessWeek.