I've Got a Finger For Ya, Indra

This bit of controversy got under the Bloody Nib Manor radar, but yours truly does not pay much attention to the business world because I hold the opinion that the problem with socialism is socialism and the problem with capitalism is capitalists. But the story got through the filter and it may make you want to reconsider guzzling Pepsi and switch to iced coffee or iced tea. The story is this: Indra Nooyi, a high level executive with PepsiCo, made a speech at the Columbia Business school in which she likened the US to the middle finger of a hand which is, or can be, unwisely flown alone. Here is a link to the actual speech:TED J . Miss Nooyi, on the PepsiCo website, has issued a backtracking explanation for her remarks. You can decide for yourself whether the explanation is sincere.

Meanwhile, Victor Davis Hanson has addressed this issue:Victor Davis Hanson on Anti-Americanism on National Review Online . Mr. Hanson is a professor of history in the University of California system and the author of several books ranging from the history of the wars of the ancient Greeks to the Mexican invasion of California. He is usually a rather calm, though sharp, voice of conservative values. Miss Nooyi's speech has managed to raise his blood pressure, and he has said something that I wish I had said. I only wish that he had brought up Benizar Bhutto, the former president of Pakistan. During her tenure as president she was pro-Western and wanted to bring Pakistan into the Western world. Now that she's out of power and that the madrassas have seemed to gained the ascendancy in Pakistan she's suddenly become a much more devout Muslim woman than she was ten years ago, albeit one yearning for the reins of power, with little good to say about the US.

And while I'm writing about commerce I might as well spout off about the Paris Hilton Carl's Jr. commercial. There has been a big ruckus raised over this bit of fluff. Some people call it soft core pornography and worse. The commercial, if anything, makes me lose my appetite, but I've always found Miss Hilton's celebrity a mystery in the same way I've found Donald Trump's a riddle. Miss Hilton is not particularly pretty. In fact, one could say that she is rather plain. She's not got a memorable figure unless one has a taste for twelve year old boys. She's not shown a great intellect or acting ability. And I don't find the commercial pornographic. I find it silly. It's like watching a fourteen year old girl trying to get the attention of the sixteen year old boy across the street. The same gag was pulled in Cool Hand Luke and it was much more effective then.

The point is, instead of pitching a bitch about the commercial why not just turn the channel and not buy anything from Carl's Jr?

It's money that talks to business. Not letters to the editor. It holds true for Carl's Jr., Pepsi or cricket.