Blogcritics Author: Rick Vassar

How Do You Survive a 47 Story Fall? You Don't

Rick Vassar — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 16:02:32 EST

For commercial properties, safety is essential, and attainable.
You’ve seen those guys. They’re the ones who are hanging from the side of a building washing windows. You probably pay them very little mind, unless they have cordoned off the area below you where you usually go down and grab a smoke.More often than not, you probably look up and wonder how anyone can wake up each morning and hang off...

Joe Gibbs Resigns - Now What?

Rick Vassar — Tue, 8 Jan 2008 13:46:43 EST

The Washington Redskins will never right the ship until Dan Snyder sells the team.
It always seems like it’s one step forward and two steps back for the Washington Redskins. With the departure of Joe Gibbs today, there is only one thing left to say:"Dan Snyder, please sell this team!"If you are the loyal Redskins fan that you profess to be, Mr. Snyder, you must know that all the attributes that make you a...

Blogcritics Way Out Front on Bayh Story

Rick Vassar — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 11:20:54 EST

National Press Club president six months behind bloggers with her "breaking" story.
Over the past few years, the mainstream media has tried to dismiss bloggers and other emerging media outlets as rank amateurs. It's claimed that our sources are unreliable, our investigation methods are shaky, and all in all, bloggers are considered to be an unprofessional lot who serve no useful purpose in the reporting process. ...

My Favorite Clean Jokes

Rick Vassar — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 11:38:13 EST

Normal people are just people you don't know very well.
Sometimes, I hear a joke or read a funny story that makes me laugh out loud. It can be a funny greeting card, a comedian on the TV, or perhaps a comment from one of my many editors.This being said, I have decided to spend the day telling you some of my favorite jokes, and to encourage readers to send in their favorites. I say some, because I have a...

The Washington Redskins: A Franchise's Downward Spiral

Rick Vassar — Tue, 4 Dec 2007 22:16:27 EST

Dan Snyder has got to go.
I know about losing teams. I root for a lot of them. In 49 years, I have seen the San Francisco Giants in the World Series twice (that I remember). The first was 1989, when they were swept by the Oakland A’s in the earthquake series. I watched every out. They never led. And 2002, in Game 6, up by five and needing six outs and couldn’t...

The Vioxx Settlement - A Lesson in Corporate Risk Management

Rick Vassar — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 20:21:02 EST

Merck shows how NOT to handle lawsuits.
On November 9, 2007, Merck announced that it was settling approximately 27,000 lawsuits arising from the sale and distribution of Vioxx. At the time it was approved by the FDA in May 1999, Vioxx, a Cox-2 inhibitor, was hailed as a breakthrough in pain management. The data that indicated that Vioxx led to an increased chance of heart attack and...

Satire: I Don't Care Who You Are - That's Funny!

Rick Vassar — Wed, 7 Nov 2007 12:43:37 EST

Police across the nation are reporting an upswing in this type of violence, as more and more pets fight for constitutional protections.
Stolen Painting Found by Tree According to published reports, the tree was the infamous Ethell, wife of Billy. You see, Billy was a mountain and Ethell was a tree growing off of his shoulder. Billy was just minding his own business one day in 1971 when a man drove up and dropped a bunch of cash by his foot. This was his royalty payments for all the...

How Would You Know? House Holds Hearings on Drug Safety

Rick Vassar — Thu, 1 Nov 2007 18:27:36 EDT

The House is looking into foreign drug safety. Will anything change?
Today, the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held hearings entitled FDA Foreign Drug Inspection Program: A System at Risk. These hearings should serve as a warning to the world that the dangers of drug safety are widespread, systemic, and uncontrollable by any government agency, especially the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)....

The Wild Wild West: Blogging Gone Bad

Rick Vassar — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 13:59:11 EDT

If it's not yours, don't take it. If you do take it, give credit where credit is due.
pla•gia•rism -[pley-juh-riz-uh m, -jee-uh-riz-] –noun - the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work. Three years ago, I received an email for articles for a risk management trade magazine, a profession to which I am proud to...

Who Cares? Casualties of the 24-Hour News Cycle

Rick Vassar — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 12:14:24 EDT

We no longer have cable at our house because the kids found it magically delicious. Ah, but I liked it, too.
We don’t have cable anymore at my house, or satellite TV. The reason: my kids. They would turn on the television and watch Hannah Montana, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, Drake and Josh, Zoey 101 and all the rest for hours and hours and days upon days on end. One day when I asked my youngest to turn off the TV, she said, “But Daddy,...