What’d think?  Personally, I feel that everyone needs a good laugh some times and this video definitely did it for me.  I also think it was really pretty cool that so many big names were willing to be in on the joke and do a cameo spot.  And I must say that I sympathize with you, Jennifer Garner, my husband’s bromance can get to be too much at times too…

Now I am not at all opposed to the concept of going green for the most part but what I find really annoying is the fact that there really is no agreed upon definition for what is or is not green. If you talk to one person, a product is not green unless every aspect of it is environmentally friendly. On the other hand, a lot of people consider products, let’s say shampoo, that themselves are environmentally friendly but may not be packaged the same, still to be green. And what about products that the contents really aren’t that great but the packaging is fully biodegradeable? And what is environmentally friendly – methane from cows…I will assume at this point that you get the picture. If you want to introduce me to new terminology, please be sure that there is actually a definition for that term first.

Bailout. As with several million other Americans, my frustration with this word is endless so I won’t even start. You can get a general idea of my thoughts if desired by reading my post “For $700 Million, the Answer is…”It’s Not My Problem.”

But I do have a suggestion for a word that it seems has unfortunately become useless. Common sense. Apparently, looking around at the world today – the politicians, the executives, the influencers, etc. – common sense is not something that is used with any regularity. So often, I wind up dumbfounded when listening to those who are purported to be “experts” in their fields. I often think to myself “Does this person actually believe the things coming out of his or her mouth?” I mean, regardless of your particular education or experience in life, if you just take a moment to step back and apply common sense to a lot of the scenarios playing out around us and be honest enough to acknowledge the results even if you don’t agree with them, one couldn’t help but ask them, “Are you serious?”

So with this reasoning, I woefully submit to the list the now useless term, common sense. RIP.

The big story this week is once again coming out of Chicago. People nationwide are talking about the corruption charges facing Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. One discussion point in particular that has arisen from this scandal caught my attention – where is the line between business as usual and corruption? Pondering this question, it occurred to me that the answer directly relates to communication and, well, common sense.

Most of the quotes attributed to Gov. Blagojevich, and even one from his wife, that are being pulled from the complaint contain some form of the “F-word”. For example, when referring to the Chicago Tribune, he states, “our recommendation is fire all those f*****g people, get ‘em the f**k out of there and get us some editorial support.” Later he speaks of President-Elect Obama saying, “motherf****r [the President-elect] his senator. F**k him. For nothing? F**k him.” A quote from the Governor’s wife also contains the word, “to hold up that f*****g Cubs shit. . . f**k them.” These statements have infuriated people across the United States. But are we angrier about the content of the above statements or about the way in which the statements were made?

Consider this. If the above statements were made without the cursing and in a gentler manner, would there even be a corruption complaint with these statements included? I’ll revise the above quotes to allow us to better assess the impact of the cursing in comparison to speaking, as many of our mothers told us to for years, with a polite, firm tone without it.

When talking about the Tribune, “Our recommendation is that those individual’s that we have identified be disciplined and possibly terminated from their current positions. We hope in the future to have more support stemming from your editorials.”

In reference to Obama, “I’m very upset about President-Elect Obama wanting us to select his choice for senator without being willing to help us with our current situation as a sign of his appreciation.”

His wife’s quote, “It may upset them but we need to consider putting a hold on the Cubs deal.”

All of a sudden, the statements don’t look or feel so bad to us when we hear or read them. So is the line between business as usual and corruption found in the manner in which a statement is spoken? Apparently, it very well could be.

Let’s quickly look at another, more personal, example. How many of us have become really pissed off at our partners because of something that they said? How many of those partners, when confronted, have looked completely confused about what they did wrong? Has the ensuing argument ever contained the words “the way you said it…”

This is a classic argument in my household usually occurring after comments like “Do this…” or “What the hell were you thinking…” Had the comment been altered a bit and presented “Would you mind doing…” or “I didn’t understand why you chose to…” oftentimes the argument would be avoided completely.

Another scenario that the way in which we speak is frequently an issue is with children. I often find myself attempting to explain to them that it is okay to feel angry, hurt, or upset but it is not okay to scream at me or throw tantrums. Instead a better way to handle would be to simply talk to me and say, “Mom, it really made me angry when…” Sound familiar?

Faced with this scenario, more than 250 employees at Republic Window and Doors in Chicago decided to stage a sit-in to demand their vacation and severance pay. Their sit-in has become national news and has drawn the attention of numerous figures including the Rev. Jesse Jackson who attempted to act as an intermediary between the workers and Bank of America, the institution who owns Republics line of credit. He attempted to persuade BofA to extend Republic’s line of credit to allow these workers to keep their jobs or at the very least, extend it enough to allow the employees to all receive the pay they expect.

It has been reported that Bank of America’s response was something along the lines of the employees pay wasn’t their problem.

I have a problem with this. Not just with the callousness in the attitudes of some of those involved, it goes further than that. My understanding of the principles of economics in our country is that jobs and employment are essential for recovery. And no one should know that better than a member of the industry that (a) started this mess in the first place and (b) is the beneficiary of a $700 billion bailout financed in part by the very same employees that “aren’t their problem”. So it seems that this situation is very much BofA’s problem and that this is exactly the type of situation that a portion of the bailout should be used for. The last thing that I expect is that anyone of the “brilliant” minds out their in the banking industry will recognize this and make it their problem so Bush…Obama…members of Congress…Senators? Stand up and step in here – you passed the bailout, you handle the issues.

Let me offer you another perspective.  America is founded on the right to vote.  If the majority of Americans decide that they vote doesn’t really matter anyway and no longer vote, our very foundation collapses.  Our system only works if people vote.  Regardless whether or not my vote is a “deciding” vote in an election, it is important.  And our collective vote is the deciding factor in all elections.

The way we communicate information is almost more important than the information that we communicate.  Had the story I read provided the individual statistic alongside what the impact of a collective group of voters impact, the story would have been a positive article that may have led even more to their polling place today.  Instead, as I heard  one of my acquaintances remark, it worked to reinforce the argument that most of us I am sure have heard many times…”Look, my vote didn’t matter anyway so why bother?”

One of the most thrilling aspects of this years election is the excitement that it generated in so many Americans that has already this morning resulted in huge voter turnouts.  If you haven’t gone out yet, stop reading and GO VOTE!