31 March 2006 
George Mason Means Business and now Basketball
George Mason University A dozen years ago Your Business Blogger went school shopping.
To buy an MBA. Living in Northern Virginia, we were considering one of the three local Georges — Washington, ‘Town, Mason.
We were budgeting north of 40K. Self pay. So I was really, really interested in the cost.
So I ask GW, “How much?”
“Around $42,000 or so.”
“Or so? So what does that mean?” I wondered.
“It might be a bit more.” Said the major university big time recruiter smarty pants.
I was a sales manager at the time. I turned on the huffy sales manager voice, “Can you tell me the number it will cost me. The number I need to budget.”
“We don’t have the exact number,” says the GWU MBA seat seller.
I pause. Why would I buy an MBA from a business school that can’t even forecast their own costs? And they’re supposed to teach me this stuff?
I would have thought this unusual. But Georgetown said the same thing.
So I go visit Peggy at George Mason. She had the exact cost. No hidden charges. I like her. I bought a seat. Two years later, another consultant is set loose on the world.
George Mason had long been known for two things.
1) Favorable mentions by Tom Clancy in his books. And,
2) A university with a conservative flavor. Walter Williams et. al.
Now GMU is in the NCAA final four. Set to beat Florida Saturday nite.
Which creates a business opportunity. Alan Merten, the GMU president is scrambling to take advantage in the serge of applications that follow winning basketball teams.
“A target rich opportunity,” says Merten.
You can bet Mason will get the business branding of higher education right.
Mason can do the numbers. George Mason knows how to do business. Now basketball scores. Increased enrollment numbers are next.
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Thank you (foot)notes:
We should be hearing from Professor Starling Hunter, at The Business of America is Business. He teaches in the United Arab Emirates. George Mason has 31 students in an extension campus there. The UAE has Patriot fever, I understand.
My church pastor, David Wayne, the JollyBlogger, is a Gator guy. Can’t wait for Sunday’s sermon.
The Happy Booker has more.
Mudville Gazette has Open Post.
Jollyblogger is on the other side.
Continue reading…
Ted Turner is the Big Winner…
Brent Bozell
MRC’s Founder…at the Media Research Center’s DisHonor Awards. Your Business Blogger and Charmaine attended last night’s fund raising dinner with 960 of our closest DC friends.
Typical rubber chicken talk-a-thon? Nope. Steak at the Grand Hyatt Hotel. Humor and hand-held noise makers. Real Laughter.
Brent Bozell, with his master of ceremonies, Peabody Awarding winning Cal Thomas, had terrific material to work with.
Poking fun at the liberal media bias. With actual footage of the nincompoopheads that bring us the news. The Goliaths.
The Army of Davids was in the audience.
Media Research CenterThere were multiple categories. Nominees included Andrea Mitchell, Chris Matthews, Nina Totenberg, Jack Cafferty, Keith Obermann, Nancy Giles, Rick Kaplan, David Gergen, Ted Turner, Harry Smith, Mary Mapes, Kathy Griffin, Alec Baldwin, Rosie O’Donnell.
Oddly, none of the nominees were in attendance.
The presenters included Tony Blankley, Larry Kudlow, Mark Levin, Brent Bozell.
The winners were Chris Mathews, Rosie O’Donnell, Ted Turner.
The West’s Last ChanceHigh class swell swag was to be had. Courtesy MRC: copies of Tony Blankley’s new book.*
Ted Turner’s award winning interview was his political analysis. Critical of the USA, and fawning of North Korea and Kim Jong-il. Oppression, torture, starvation north of the 38th parallel? He didn’t see any. “I saw thin people…riding bikes,” lectured Turner.
Odd to hear an American hating southern accent. Well, his and Jimmy Carter’s.
Conservatives have a liberal sense of humor. Mark Levin said, “…Rosie O’Donnell went to charm school…on a football scholarship.”
Tony Blankley mused that CNN’s AAron Burr Brown believes all conservative policies and programs are delivered from “the anus of satan.”
Larry Kudlow comma Capitalist, as he always introduces himself on CNBC, rolled the Chris Matthews clip. This is where the host of Harball says, “We’ve got to get out of our American skin…the North Vietnamese were …objectively the good guys…” in the Vietnam War. This is what passes for journalism. And is failing.
Stan Evans bemoaned the lack of liberal’s grammar. “Brokeback Mountain?…It’s not Brokeback — it’s BROKENback Mountain…”
See the video at the Media Research Center.
The evening closed with A Tribute to the American Military. Some cried. Out loud.
Brent Bozell is a class act. Who loves America.
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Thank you (foot)notes:
* I picked up a few extra copies of the Blankley book. Leave me a comment on liberal bias and the benefit of blog reading and I’ll mail you a FREE copy. Include mailing address, will not be published. While supplies last.
The DisHonors Awards have been held since 1999. More at the jump.
Soldier’s Angel has more on the media bias.
Visit Pundit Review for real analysis.
Full Disclosure: Brent Brozell has said nice things about Your Business Blogger’s wife and one of her appearances on Bill Maher’s Politically Incorrect.
Continue reading…
30 March 2006
Harbour League Brings Out the Best for Baltimore
The West’s Last Chance
by Tony Blankley Your Business Blogger and Charmaine had dinner with Tony Blankley, and a few other couples. I ask him about his days as press secretary for Newt Gingrich.
How Newt did his speeches. Did Tony write them?
“No.” said Blankley, now the editorial page editor of The Washington Times. “Newt would sketch out ideas on a yellow pad in the back of the car on the drive to the event,” said Tony. “He would modify his remarks to fit the [tone of the] audience — but he always knew where he stood and what he would say.” And so did Tony.
Tony warmed to the topic,
My job was easy. I could go immediately to the mics on Capital Hill after session and review what Newt doing and thinking. [President] Clinton’s press people could never do that as fast, because they never knew where Clinton stood on any issue at any time. They didn’t know what Clinton would think or [how to] react to any of Newt’s proposals. [Clinton] was forever triangulating — whatever the [heck] that is — so his press people always had to wait for me to finish, then wait for Clinton to make up his mind on how he felt about an issue at any point in time….because his positions changed all the time.
Nobody on Clinton’s team, including Clinton, had an internal compass; standards; core beliefs.
Blankley was reviewing the Ronald Reagan dictum that Personnel is Policy.
The dinner was arranged courtesy of the Harbour League based in Baltimore. Past guests have included Michelle Malkin and Grover Norquist.
If you are in the Mid-Atlantic area, do get on their good-guy list for upcoming events.
Here’s the next gig.
The Harbour League Presents
From the Gulag to the Killing Fields
Featuring Dr. Paul Hollander, author of From the Gulag to the Killing Fields, — holds degrees from the London School of Economics and Princeton University and is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He is also an associate of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. A widely published author, his books include Political Pilgrims: Western Intellectuals in Search of the Good Society; Anti-Americanism: Critiques at Home and Abroad, 1965 — 1990; and Political Will and Personal Belief: The Decline and Fall of Soviet Communism.
Thursday, April 6th
7:00pm — 8:00pm (Reception to follow)
Doors open at 6:30pm
Hilton Pikesville
1726 Reisterstown Road
Pikesville, Maryland
There is no charge for this event; however, RSVP is a must. Seating is limited and Harbour League members have priority seating. To RSVP please visit www.TheHarbourLeague.org or call 410-206-3445.
The lecture is free. And well worth your time.
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Thank you (foot)notes:
John MacStansbury says that Your Business Blogger is an inveterate name dropper. I don’t know where he gets that. (He must have heard about my meeting Alan Greenspan and Andrea Mitchell — while they were dating! — in the Presidential Box in the Kennedy Center years ago.) John is a good-guy, anyway, even if prone to exaggeration. He has interesting observations on Democrats. May not be workplace safe.
More on Blankley and the Harbour League at the jump
Continue reading…
29 March 2006
Aslan’s On The Move
Chinese Snacks in Chengdu Your Business Blogger was looking for a bit to eat. Maybe some local flavor. In Chengdu, in the middle of China.
A traditional snack. I dropped into a small grocer and loaded up. Pringles, Oreos, washed down with a Coke. And Cheetos chaser.
Then I noticed something. As I looked down into my feed bag, I saw international brand names.
(Nothing escapes Your Business Blogger.)
Peter Drucker said that innovation and marketing were the only competitive advantages the USA needed.
The raw ingredients in Coke and Cheetos are commodities. Available anywhere. Cheap.
The real added value is in the marketing. From America.
Pepsi ad at The Temple of Heaven, Beijing
Wyeth formula ad in the Beijing subway
Starbucks at Beijing Airport
Coke bench ad in Chengdu, China
Narnia sidewalk poster, Chengdu Narnia? In the Middle Kingdom?
Narnia at a theater near you, Chongqing, China American marketing on the move.
Aslan’s on the move.
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Thank you (foot)notes:
Interested in Narnia? If you are near Glen Burnie, Maryland, be sure to come to the C S Lewis lecture Thursday nite.
More pics at The Travel Bug
Visit Basil’s Blog for his pick of good posts.
You’re Invited! Lecture on the Imaginative World of C. S. Lewis
Lifted shamelessly from the Jollyblogger.
This is a cat.
Aslan’s on the move
For all of you who live in the Baltimore and Washington DC area I want to invite you to an event at our church this Thursday night featuring author and C. S. Lewis Scholar Art Lindsley. Here’s the announcement from the church:
C. S. Lewis has found a new generation of fans with the overwhelming success of the movie adaptation of his book “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.”
You are invited to a lecture and a dessert discussing C. S. Lewis and the importance of the imagination in his life and writings.
Date: Thursday, March 30, 2006
Time: 7:00 — 9:00pm
Location: Glen Burnie Evangelical Presbyterian Church
710 Aquahart Rd, Glen Burnie, MD
For more info: 410-766-5363 or office@gbepc.org
Arthur Lindsley, Ph.DOur Speaker
Arthur W. Lindsley, Ph.D.
Senior Fellow — C. S. Lewis Institute
Art Lindsley has served at the C.S. Lewis Institute since 1987. Formerly, he was Director of Educational Ministries at the Ligonier Valley Study Center, and Staff Specialist with the Coalition for Christian Outreach. He is the author of the books True Truth and C. S. Lewis’s Case for Christ and is the co-author of the book Classical Apologetics along with R.C. Sproul and John Gerstner. He has written numerous articles on theology, apologetics, C.S. Lewis, and the lives and works of many other authors and teachers. Art earned his M.Div. from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from the University of Pittsburgh.
I hope you can come!
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Thank you (foot)notes:
Free Stuff at the C S Lewis Institute.
Visit the Jollyblogger.
28 March 2006
Army of Davids; Army of Blue Ants
Internet Cafe in Chongqing, ChinaYour Business Blogger just bought The Big Blogger, Glenn Reynolds’ new book An Army of Davids: How Markets and Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government, and Other Goliaths.
The Instapundit thesis is not, I think, limited to the US of A.
Technology; people; institutions face the same challenges the world over. Your Business Blogger has become, gasp! a globalist.
An Army of Davids
When working in China I was reminded of another army — an army of blue ants. Twenty years ago, foreign visitors noted, not unkindly, the ubiquitous blue Mao suits. A hard-working populous; one mind; one suit.
Fashion has changed in China.
Colors, style, trend. Pushed by teenagers and embraced by all.
And the teens are pushing, as they do the world over, in other directions.
Your Business Blogger visited an internet cafe on my last China trip. Etiquette hint: Don’t ask for the non-smoking terminals. A non-smoking section? Heh, as Reynolds would write. The whole country is, well, Marlboro country.
Directions to the cafe were complicated. It was hidden in a dimly lit smokey warehouse accessible thru a back alley — safety was never a concern — workstations as far as the eye could see. 100’s of them. An hour on a keyboard sets a hacker back one yuan. 12.5 cents.
The arena was filled with 20-somethings all gone gaming. Smoking and practicing English.
The kids looked like they were there for days. I was there a few hours myself.
And not a Mao suit in sight.
What’s the matter with kids these days? Beijing is wondering.
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that China is attempting to limit the Web’s influence on young people.
Goodness. Attempting to limit access to the web! Big Brother stopping freedom! Big Government controlling all behavior!
Except.
Except Beijing wants to limit kids under 18 to five hours — five hours of on-line gaming each day.
Maybe that’s not such a bad law after all.
Now if China could keep the kids from smoking…
Like our Government does.
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Thank you (foot)notes:
More on Mao suits at the jump.
Dana Blankenhorn has his limits. An excellent review.
Tim Wu, from the Columbia Law School has a white paper at The World Trade Law of Internet Filtering.
For the best in business in China, visit David Daniels at Global Market Development and Internet Adoption in China.
Median Sib has excellent review of Davids.
Don Surber has best of Thursday Posts. Bookmark him.
Mudville Gazette has Open Post.
See Feld’s Thoughts on A Different View on China.
Continue reading…
27 March 2006
Carnival of Marketing is Up for 27 March
This week’s carnival barker is Thomas Warfield at A Shareware Life.
And while there, be sure to click thru Business Pundit’s take on the wisdom of crowds. Synopsis: The Masses are *sses.
I agree. But, then, I don’t care much for people. Especially crowds.
Unless they are in my classes.
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Thank you (foot)notes:
More on from Thomas Warfield:
One-Line Bio: I’m the author of Pretty Good Solitaire and other shareware games.
Pretty Good Solitaire was originally released in 1995. I went full time as an independent game developer in 1998. Pretty Good Solitaire has been downloaded many tens of millions of times in the last 10 years. A retail version has been on the shelves continuously since 1998.
I live in Springfield IL with my wife Anne and 3 cats.
The Carnival of Marketing is the creation of Noah Kagan at OkDork.
25 March 2006
Your Business Blogger Interviewed by Small Business Trends
We talk about the
Top 10 Mistakes Business Owners Make and What to Do About Them
Let me know what you think.
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Thank you (foot)notes:
Small Business Trends is hosted by Anita Campbell. Visit for the best business in small businesses.
24 March 2006
Media Alert: Charmaine on CNBC
cross post from Reasoned Audacity
I’ll be on CNBC tonight, “On the Money” talking about Senator Baucus’ proposal to establish a XXX domain for porn. It’s a bad idea. Hit time is 7:30.
Saturday UPDATE:
As usual, they invite me to talk about porn, then, while I’m talking they run pictures. . . of porn. Don’t run this while your kids are around. I took the Dude with me to the studio for the taping and wished he hadn’t seen the segment.
The Original Site For Lobbyists
Charmaine Yoest with
Amy Bolthouse Shane
from ELI/China
at The Willard lobby
The English Language Institute/China recently held their 25th Anniversary in Washington, DC, staying at The Willard Hotel.
The hotel has a rich history.
The Willard is a social and political hub. President Lincoln probably stopped by a number of times while president. A few visits can be verified: with Mrs. Lincoln on July 6, 1861, to attend a concert by Meda Blanchard, and his review of troops with General Burnside on April 25, 1864.
In 1861 Willard’s also hosted Julia Ward Howe, who wrote the words for The Battle Hymn of the Republic in her hotel room early one morning.
General Tom Thumb and his bride, who visited the Lincolns at the White House, stayed at The Willard in 1863.
In 1864 General Ulysses S. Grant was a hotel guest. In his presidency, he passed thru Willard’s lobby where he coined the term “lobbyists.”
The Original Willard
Lobbying is the practice of private advocacy with the goal of influencing a governing body, in order to ensure that an individual’s or organization’s point of view is represented in the government. A lobbyist is a person who is paid to influence legislation as well as public opinion. A more tactful description might be said to be someone who is engaged in public affairs.
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Thank you (foot)notes:
The English Language Institute/China began in 1979 at the start of normalization of relations between the People’s Republic of China and the USA. The PRC’s move to modernization and market reform created demand for English language skills. The first teachers were sent to China in 1982 for the purpose of teaching English, building friendships, offering instruction on the teachings of Jesus Christ to university students and faculty.