Welcome to the What-Were-They-Thinking-Blog.

You may be asking yourself, “What the hell are THESE GUYS thinking?

Another blog?  Is that really what the world needs now?  Technorati currently tracks about 112 million blogs.  Make that 112 million and one.   Well, yes, we do believe the world will be a better place with one more blog – specifically our wonderful new What-Were-They-Thinking-Blog.

The idea is very simple.

Jerry Johnson and Greg Schneiders have collectively spent about fifty years watching smart (OK, presumably smart) people and organizatons do or say incredibly stupid things.  Our heads are both sore from self-inflicted palm-slaps to the forehead as we track the latest stupidity from some prominent person or organization.

Here are some examples to give you the idea.  Rather than reaching back for the Greatest Boneheaded Hits of All Time, let’s just work from the Sunday, September 20th New York Times.

• Section One, Page One:  There’s a swine flu problem?  Let’s get rid of the swine!  Not so fast.  “When the government killed all the pigs in Egypt this spring – in what public heath experts say was a misguided attempt to combat swine flu – it was warned (Cairo) would be overwhelmed with garbage.”  Guess what.  Public health experts were right.  “Now the pigs are gone and the rotting food piles up on the streets of middle-class neighborhoods.”  As one community development expert noted, killing all the pigs all at once was the stupidest thing they ever did.”   Even Wikipedia knows that “transmission of the virus from pigs to humans is not common.”

• Section One, Page One:  John Edwards.  OK.  This is too easy.  The Times reports that, “(Edwards) is considering declaring that he is the father of (mistress) Rielle Hunter’s 19-month-old daughter, something he once flatly asserted in a television interview was not possible.”  The Times also reports that in a book proposal being circulated by Mr. Edwards’ former political aide and accomplice in the cover-up, the aide (Andrew Young) claims  that “Mr. Edwards once calmed an anxious Ms. Hunter by promising her that after his wife died, he would marry her in a rooftop ceremony in New York with an appearance by the Dave Mathews Band.”  This entry may require its own subsection – What-Was-He-Thinking-With?

• Business Section.  Page One.  T-Mobile, the #4 wireless carrier in the U.S., tried to lure customers to paperless bills by offering to plant a tree for every customer who made the switch.  When that oh-so-attractive “carrot” proved ineffective, T-Mobile picked up a stick and started charging $1.50 monthly fee for paper statements.  A class-action lawsuit alleging “material modification of contracts” put a quick end to that experiment.  T-Mobile has returned to the carrot approach which, at the current rate, will lead to a full conversion to paperless billing in just over 41 years.  Behavioral economics is great but a contract is a contract and a customer is a customer…until they aren’t.

• Sports section.  Page One.    Here’s a good one.  According to reports … “South Africa’s top track official apologized Saturday for denying knowledge of gender tests done on runner Caster Semenya in his country saying he had lied to protect her privacy.  O.K.  His privacy.  Fact is he new something wasn’t right but in his defense he said, ‘Tell me someone who has not lied to protect a child.’”  Of course this person is not a child and was competing for a gold medal.  But it must have seemed like the right excuse at the time.

Well, you get the idea, right?

Our goal is to entertain with true stories that often strain comprehension or belief and, on our good days, even draw a meaningful lesson in business, politics, communication, or – dare we say it – life itself.

Talk to you later.