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Hillary Clinton for President?

So the Clinton Foundation is now accepting donations from foreign countries.  They had stopped doing so while she was Secretary of State.  And look who has already donated – the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman.  Those countries have such horrible records on human rights – they still allow stoning to death of women accused of adultery or people accused of being gay.

Another thing – Hillary has been amazingly quiet and in hiding to avoid commenting on the Islamic terror threat.  She apparently is locked away “working on her messaging” for her run for Presidency.  WAIT!?! WHAT?!?  Does she not have an opinion, a stance on the beheading, burning and shooting of innocent people?!?  She has to “work on her message”!

Okay, just one more thing – so is it just me or does anyone else see a little help from Hollywood for Hillary’s potential run for President.  Two TV series: Madame Secretary featuring a strong-willed, blond woman as Secretary of State and State of Affairs featuring a strong-willed, blond woman advising a woman President.

Really, just one more thing – and Hollywood trying to help Rahm Emanuel and the city of Chicago out by having 2 TV series: Chicago Fire and Chicago PD to show Chicago public service doing good work.  How about fixing the city and reducing the murder rate rather than having a glitzy TV show to cover up that the city is broken?

Definition of Political Correctness

Sent to me by a FOCM Member in good standing; the veracity of the source cannot be verified, but who cares, it’s good:

An annual contest (allegedly) at Bond University, Australia, calls for the most appropriate definition of a popular term.

This year’s chosen term was “Political Correctness”.

The winner wrote:

“Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and promoted by mainstream media which holds forth the premise that it is entirely possible to pick up a piece of shit by the clean end.”

Funny friends

So, FOCM Member Bob Arnesen, now President at eClinical Solutions was quoted in a press release about their new data analytics/business intelligence tool called elluminate and I copied his quote:  “We have a unique perspective on industry needs to support clinical drug development,” and sent it to him and to our mutual friend Chris Dapolite with Oracle.  Chris is one funny hombre and he replies with this:

That’s my boy!!!!  Only a few of us have this unique perspective.  It comes from many years of unique experiences.  You all do realize that in such a boring industry with such boring people, we are obligated to perform duty’s that very few would ever dare……  We breath life into clinical research and drug development……  It is an important role we have and thus gives us a unique perspective.

The clinical research industry, like any other, I am sure, has some cleverly funny people.  Having fun while working is key to enjoying life.

 

 

 

New Members Joined at DIA

There were a few FOCM membership card ceremonies at the Drug Information Association (DIA) Annual meeting in June 2014 in San Diego.  Spotted in the photos below are:

Lance Nickens of The Patient Recruitment Agency, Ashley Parish from Covance, Carter Vincent from World Wide Clinical Trials, a team of Oracle attendees inducted into FOCM via Chris Dapolite; they are from left to right (not yet identified, Rashmi Goel, Catherine Ginzer and Kristin Forrest).  Former coworkers of mine from my time at Quintiles were able to catch up with each other: Steve MacDonald of Omnicomm and Brian Langin (we’re co-workers again) of YPrime.

Oracle Employees
Oracle Employees
Carter Vincent
Carter Vincent
Steve MacDonald & Brian Langin
Steve MacDonald & Brian Langin
Ashley Parish
Ashley Parish
Lance Nickens
Lance Nickens

Freedom of Speech or Freedom of Religion

I thought this was a good perspective on the issues raised by the Charlie Hebdo attacks:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/11348033/This-isnt-about-free-speech-its-about-the-freedom-to-live-in-a-secular-society.html

If you don’t like images of the Prophet Muhammad, fine. Don’t draw them. But don’t tell me I can’t draw them. If you don’t want to marry someone of the same sex, don’t. But don’t try and tell me who I can and can’t marry. If you don’t think shops should open on a Sunday, don’t go to the shops. But don’t tell me I have to sit at home and make peace with your god.

This is the line that needs to be drawn. Not around free speech, but around our right to have our own set of beliefs, rather than have them imposed as part of a de-facto theocracy.

Howard Kurtz on media coverage of terrorism events

Howard Kurtz writes eloquently about the media coverage of the terrorism events pointing out that the media should stop mentioning their names, stop giving the terrorists attention and focus on the victims and mock and criticize the terrorists.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/01/12/saturation-coverage-are-media-playing-into-terrorists-hands/

Quotes out of context

Another set of quotes from a particularly great meeting for quotes taken out of context:

Sucked in the backdraft
– Elizabeth Thiele

Selling ice cubes to an eskimo.
– Elizabeth Thiele

Slow that mustang down.
– Elizabeth Thiele

We gather up our foo foo nuts.
– Elizabeth Thiele

I’m a corn cob from the Midwest.
– Elizabeth Thiele

If you hear something, say it.
– Elizabeth Thiele

People need to follow what they need to do.
– Elizabeth Thiele

Bob.
– Fred Naids

It’s Jonathan.
– Jonathan Goldman

Charles.
– Fred Naids

Ask Sherwood Williams.
– Unattributed

To go into places we’ve never been before.
– Deb Nichols, channeling Captain James T. Kirk of the Starship Enterprise

Grabbing all these balls and moving forward with them.
– Adrian Pencak

Shrink wrap that.
– Elizabeth Thiele

Paul is from Buffalo, he doesn’t know what the Super Bowl is either.
– Provided by a contributing editor

Check back for more postings. If your name is mentioned and you’d like it removed, please email me at chris@focmnetworking.com and I’ll give your request strong consideration and may even might possibly act on it. Seriously, though I will remove it if you want me to.

Background: This all started at a US Sales meeting and in order to stay focused on what was being said, I started writing down the business cliches, like “let’s circle the wagons”, “let’s table that”, “always be closing” and then count how many times they were said. As I began paying attention, I would hear a phrase that was appropriate for the context in which it was said, but wow, it sure was amusing to see the phrase just sitting there by itself. That lead me to put them into a slide show show so the phrase was seen in its purest form along with the person who said it.  As this practice became known, the slide set became the unofficial and humorous wrap-up presentation, kind of a summary of the things stated over the course of the meeting.