Just a short note about the brou-ha-ha over the Scooter Libby trial, Valeria Plame et al, ad nauseum (too much Latin for you there?)
I know everyone will say I think what I'm about to say because I'm a republican (most of the time) but that is not it.
I just can't believe we are tying up government resources and spending who knows how much of our tax dollars to determine if and when Scooter Libby actually did leak the fact that Ms. Plame was a CIA operative of some sort. Who really cares? I don't know beans about Scooter Libby except that he worked for Dick Cheney. Well I don't really care for Mr. Cheney so I probably don't care for Mr. Libby. Just get it over with for crying out loud.
But I do have one curious question: I heard Tim Russert on Imus talking about his testimony. Now I happen to think Mr. Russert is a bright buy and if I were home on Sunday morns and could get NBC (the recent ice storm took down our antenna so we get only a snowy picture from our NBC affil) I would watch Meet the Press. but my question for him would be - if this were a high-level democratic staff person on trial, would he be testifying? Didn't Judith Miller go to jail for awhile for not revealing information? I know this had to do with sources but I always thought journos would not reveal who told them whatever. I'm sure there is some nuance I am missing and I repeat, I do not care what happens to Mr. Libby. Honestly if the GOP really cared about their future (another subject I've written on before), they'd ask him to take the fall anyway so this can move off the front page, Imus and NPR. If Fitzgerald keeps this up, we'll be wondering about this in 2008 and an election will be upon us.
To me the whole thing about Plame, Novak, Libby - is a tempest in a teapot. Or "a tale full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." (Shakespeare - Macbeth)
See. Read this and you get some Latin and some Shakespeare!
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Alphabet Soup
Went to get some boots fixed today. Pretty simple stuff really. My daughter needed some new heels on her dressy cowboy boots. I tried to fix them last night but ended up with a small mess on my hands an almost a fatal error. The moral – don’t mess around with super glue! Your skin will stick together and everything it touches turns to – well it gets stiff and scaly.
Moments after my mishap, I googled super glue to find out that it comes from (believe it or not) Rancho Cucamonga California. For anyone old enough to recall, I think that city was part of some Jack Benny routine. Who’s Jack Benny you ask? Nevermind.
Was I talking about alphabet soup? Not yet.
Super glue. I emailed them from the website and today got a response from a nice lady telling me what to do.
Please note for future super glue catastrophes: Acetone – otherwise known as nail polish remover is the weapon of choice against super glue.
Fortunately the heels are fixed, thanks to A-1 Boot Repair and $12.
Back to letters.
For most of my life, the prime source or at least a prime source of information would be the Yellow Pages. Now today I don’t even know if they are called that anymore and there must be several clones of similar content that arrive uninvited, at my door or mailbox.
In their heyday I seem to recall that one of the tricks of Yellow Pages marketing was to name your company something with the first word having the letter “A” in it. Note A-1 Boot Repair above. Acme whatever (see Road Runner cartoons – everything in a box was Acme something or other.) The reason of course is that when you flip to “Boot Repair” in said Yellow Book, if your business name started with A, you’d be first, no matter how much somebody else paid to get a display ad or to have theirs in bold – the A’s went first. (Note – technically in our Yellow Pages – A-1 Boot Repair is not even listed under Boot Repair – just one company – Tom’s Shoe Repair. I found A-1 under “Shoe Repair and yes indeedy, they are first. Now Tom is smart: he bought a large display ad just about one inch below but he’s still not first.
For awhile it got silly. How many times have you seen a truck go by that said AAA Tree Service or AAAA Plumbing. What do all those “A”’s have to do with tree or plumbing? Maybe, just maybe AAA Tree Service is owned by Alfred, Alvin and Alice but more than likely it is only about placement in the Yellow Pages. Which got me to thinking.
Today Google is on everyone’s lips or browsers I guess would be more appropriate. Quick aside here – do you hate or love the automatic spell-check in Microsoft Word? The thing where if you might be misspelling a word, it puts a squiggly little red line underneath the word to alert you that you are about to make a grave error? Guess what? Google gets a squiggly little red line. Is that part of a plot on Microsoft’s part? Dunno. But the word “Microsoft” which by the way, what does that mean? Anyway Microsoft does NOT have a squiggly red line underneath. Some someone writing code in Redmond decided that Microsoft is a real word and spelled properly but Google is not. If you use their built in spell-checker it suggests that instead of Google you try: Goggle, go ogle, goggles, gouge, goggled and googol as more appropriate options.
The big thing with almost every business on the Internet is how to get their Google rankings up. Everyone wants to be first on the list when a term, subject or some-such gets “Googled”. But the google-folks are very secretive about how they determine who gets at the top. In some ways they are very old fashioned. If you pay you can get at the top in a different color or be placed on the side next to all the search results. But I think the coveted spot is to be number one in the main list. When some results come back with numbers in the millions, being at the top or even on the first page is worth plenty. My understanding though is that you can not buy being #1. It just has to happen based on some algorithm developed by the Google-ites. This is based on a mix of criteria that is as secret as the Colonel’s recipe or the Coke formula.
If someone can come up with the simple plan that worked for businesses in the Yellow Pages for decades, they’ll have invented the newest and bestest mouse-trap.
Moments after my mishap, I googled super glue to find out that it comes from (believe it or not) Rancho Cucamonga California. For anyone old enough to recall, I think that city was part of some Jack Benny routine. Who’s Jack Benny you ask? Nevermind.
Was I talking about alphabet soup? Not yet.
Super glue. I emailed them from the website and today got a response from a nice lady telling me what to do.
Please note for future super glue catastrophes: Acetone – otherwise known as nail polish remover is the weapon of choice against super glue.
Fortunately the heels are fixed, thanks to A-1 Boot Repair and $12.
Back to letters.
For most of my life, the prime source or at least a prime source of information would be the Yellow Pages. Now today I don’t even know if they are called that anymore and there must be several clones of similar content that arrive uninvited, at my door or mailbox.
In their heyday I seem to recall that one of the tricks of Yellow Pages marketing was to name your company something with the first word having the letter “A” in it. Note A-1 Boot Repair above. Acme whatever (see Road Runner cartoons – everything in a box was Acme something or other.) The reason of course is that when you flip to “Boot Repair” in said Yellow Book, if your business name started with A, you’d be first, no matter how much somebody else paid to get a display ad or to have theirs in bold – the A’s went first. (Note – technically in our Yellow Pages – A-1 Boot Repair is not even listed under Boot Repair – just one company – Tom’s Shoe Repair. I found A-1 under “Shoe Repair and yes indeedy, they are first. Now Tom is smart: he bought a large display ad just about one inch below but he’s still not first.
For awhile it got silly. How many times have you seen a truck go by that said AAA Tree Service or AAAA Plumbing. What do all those “A”’s have to do with tree or plumbing? Maybe, just maybe AAA Tree Service is owned by Alfred, Alvin and Alice but more than likely it is only about placement in the Yellow Pages. Which got me to thinking.
Today Google is on everyone’s lips or browsers I guess would be more appropriate. Quick aside here – do you hate or love the automatic spell-check in Microsoft Word? The thing where if you might be misspelling a word, it puts a squiggly little red line underneath the word to alert you that you are about to make a grave error? Guess what? Google gets a squiggly little red line. Is that part of a plot on Microsoft’s part? Dunno. But the word “Microsoft” which by the way, what does that mean? Anyway Microsoft does NOT have a squiggly red line underneath. Some someone writing code in Redmond decided that Microsoft is a real word and spelled properly but Google is not. If you use their built in spell-checker it suggests that instead of Google you try: Goggle, go ogle, goggles, gouge, goggled and googol as more appropriate options.
The big thing with almost every business on the Internet is how to get their Google rankings up. Everyone wants to be first on the list when a term, subject or some-such gets “Googled”. But the google-folks are very secretive about how they determine who gets at the top. In some ways they are very old fashioned. If you pay you can get at the top in a different color or be placed on the side next to all the search results. But I think the coveted spot is to be number one in the main list. When some results come back with numbers in the millions, being at the top or even on the first page is worth plenty. My understanding though is that you can not buy being #1. It just has to happen based on some algorithm developed by the Google-ites. This is based on a mix of criteria that is as secret as the Colonel’s recipe or the Coke formula.
If someone can come up with the simple plan that worked for businesses in the Yellow Pages for decades, they’ll have invented the newest and bestest mouse-trap.
Monday, January 29, 2007
What is it? Really?
Much has been written on the debate over exactly what is Christian music. Some of the focus has been on artists who, while Christian in their faith, may not have an overt witness in their music.
I’ll not name names but you are undoubtedly familiar with many top contemporary Christian songs and artists whose lyrics may not mention God or Jesus or exhort listeners to do anything about their faith or spiritual life but simply have a hummable, singable tune.
But I have not come to bury Christian music or to praise it but to offer another perspective on a distant cousin of this genre.
What about artists who make no known or public profession of faith in their life but nonetheless their lyrics may offer up some ray of spiritual hope or a nugget of truth?
I keep running across these more and more. (Disclosure: I listen to lots of different types of music – not just Christian and at this point in my life the percentage of Christian music in my daily diet is dwindling. I should also point out that it comes in fits and starts.)
For the discerning listener I would like to offer up a couple of examples of music that comes from some unlikely sources. (A qualifier: only God can truly know the hearts and minds of men and women so I don’t mean to imply that any or all of these folks don’t have a real relationship with God and Jesus Christ. It is just not a known or at least public part of their life.
I think it was in the spring or summer of 2004 that I first heard Ollabelle. I was on my way to work listening to NPR. Yes, I do believe you can be a Christian AND listen to NPR. I can see their liberal perspective a mile away but I also appreciate their arts, music and movie coverage. It was in a story about some young folks in Greenwich Village that I heard the music of Ollabelle for the first time.
These six – four men, two women – have an unusual music pedigree and perhaps and even more eclectic style.
Ollabelle got their start in a Sunday evening singing at an East Village club called 9C. Seems singers and musicians gathered on Sunday nights and started having “gospel jam sessions.” Over time the six people who make up Ollabelle began to perform together and the patrons kept asking for more.
Ollabelle is a mix of spiritual (in the 19th century sense), folk, blues and some songs that might be called pop or rock. Think Robert Johnson with a little bit of …
Jesus On The Mainline could almost make it as a modern worship chorus in many churches. Simple but profound and true lyrics.
And in what has to be the oddest “gospel” song ever written or perhaps the one with the oddest origins is “I’ve been waiting” written by those stellar examples of the … oops I said I wouldn’t do this – written by none other than Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Draw your own conclusions. I checked out the original version on the Rolling Stones project Aftermath and Ollabelle does it better. (By the way what are we supposed to call “albums” these days? For obvious reasons, Album doesn’t work. With the proliferation of downloading, iPods and MP3s; CD almost seems out-of-date. I like the term project. We speak often of an artist’s work, so why not for a recording artist, their project? Food for thought and you probably didn’t hear it here first.)
Andrae Crouch gets a dusting off with his old tune “Ain’t nobody, do me like Jesus.”
Can I say this without being castigated and never permitted to write for this publication again? I am a southern born white male. If GRITS can be short for Girls Raised in the South, then I am a BRITS: Boy Raised in the South. With that said I think some of the best Christian or Gospel music and musicians are African-American in origin. Listen to Ollabelle and tell me you don’t expect to see some people of color on their CD jacket. Keep on looking because they are all Caucasian. Not all American – one is from Australia.
Talent not-with-standing we owe some thanks to T. Bone Burnett for bringing Ollabelle to our attention. Mr. Burnett is largely responsible for the resurgence of so-called “roots music” that characterized the rather unusual movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” and the subsequent “Down From The Mountain” tour and numerous other attempts to take us back in musical time.
Seems Mr. Burnett heard Ollabelle in the rough, flew to New York, signed them to his label, invited them to his studio and the result is their self-titled debut project “Ollabelle”.
Amy Helm provides some of the pedigree mentioned. Her father – who takes a turn or two on the drums – is Levon Helm, formerly of the Band, those lads that spent some time backing up a big name in folk music, Bob Dylan.
Noted archivist and folk music historian Alan Lomax is responsible for two of the tunes. The Carter clan (yes, those Carters!) contribute another. Many are traditional songs arranged by Ollabelle. It would be tempting to call their music traditional but for me it doesn’t quite fit the mold. I haven’t come up with a name for it. A read of several reviews finds the words - - - used frequently.
But if that label sticks, Ollabelle will be a one-project group that we won’t hear much about in the future. I doubt if they are getting any radio airplay with the homogenized Clear-Channel playlists so prevalent in secular (oops didn’t mean to use any more of those words!) and I can’t imagine my local Christian DJs giving it a spin. So the only way you might hear them is to visit one of their concerts or if you can listen to a community radio station. Note I said community, not public. I’ve found in my travels a few that I would call community that play an interesting mix of music. My guess is Ollabelle is heard here or there if they are heard at all.
I’ve strayed far from my point but which is I guess, that you can find your gospel in unlikely places.
With that segue I must mention Bruce Springsteen’s project “Devils and Dust”. Two words of caution before you rush out and buy this. One song (Reno) has some graphic references that involve prostitution and another drops one of those four-letter bombs. Be forewarned.
Without too much digression here. Mr. Springsteen must have seen the Passion of the Christ. "Jesus Was an Only Son" cut # 8 -This song conjures up (at least for me) so much imagery that must have been inspired by this movie. You can not listen to this song without wondering what is going on in the spiritual side of Mr. Springsteen’s life. Lyrics here. I began to wonder about him after repeated listenings to “The Rising”; his post-9/11 project that so vividly reminds us of the suffering of so many at that time. With the lyrics –written by the Boss himself – I can’t help but wonder, in spite of his obvious liberal positions on many social issues, exactly where he stands with his Maker.
Based on comments he made at a concert in 2005 – my daughter gifted me with a trip to St. Louis to see him at the Fox – I’d say he is struggling with exactly what he believes and about what. But I think down inside he knows something about the truth. I figure if he is at least talking about it – something’s going on.
An update about Ollabelle. They have a 2nd project out. Not as good for me as the first and probably less spiritual in lyrics and style but I’ve also found that with repeated listenings, it grows on me. Since this was originally written I’ve gotten XM Radio – a great buy at only $12.95 per month! And occasionally I’ll see there name pop on on channel 50 – the Loft or channel 45 XM Café – two places I spend a fair amount of my drive time.
I’ve strayed far and wide of any point about what exactly makes Christian music but maybe given some food for thought.
I’ll not name names but you are undoubtedly familiar with many top contemporary Christian songs and artists whose lyrics may not mention God or Jesus or exhort listeners to do anything about their faith or spiritual life but simply have a hummable, singable tune.
But I have not come to bury Christian music or to praise it but to offer another perspective on a distant cousin of this genre.
What about artists who make no known or public profession of faith in their life but nonetheless their lyrics may offer up some ray of spiritual hope or a nugget of truth?
I keep running across these more and more. (Disclosure: I listen to lots of different types of music – not just Christian and at this point in my life the percentage of Christian music in my daily diet is dwindling. I should also point out that it comes in fits and starts.)
For the discerning listener I would like to offer up a couple of examples of music that comes from some unlikely sources. (A qualifier: only God can truly know the hearts and minds of men and women so I don’t mean to imply that any or all of these folks don’t have a real relationship with God and Jesus Christ. It is just not a known or at least public part of their life.
I think it was in the spring or summer of 2004 that I first heard Ollabelle. I was on my way to work listening to NPR. Yes, I do believe you can be a Christian AND listen to NPR. I can see their liberal perspective a mile away but I also appreciate their arts, music and movie coverage. It was in a story about some young folks in Greenwich Village that I heard the music of Ollabelle for the first time.
These six – four men, two women – have an unusual music pedigree and perhaps and even more eclectic style.
Ollabelle got their start in a Sunday evening singing at an East Village club called 9C. Seems singers and musicians gathered on Sunday nights and started having “gospel jam sessions.” Over time the six people who make up Ollabelle began to perform together and the patrons kept asking for more.
Ollabelle is a mix of spiritual (in the 19th century sense), folk, blues and some songs that might be called pop or rock. Think Robert Johnson with a little bit of …
Jesus On The Mainline could almost make it as a modern worship chorus in many churches. Simple but profound and true lyrics.
And in what has to be the oddest “gospel” song ever written or perhaps the one with the oddest origins is “I’ve been waiting” written by those stellar examples of the … oops I said I wouldn’t do this – written by none other than Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Draw your own conclusions. I checked out the original version on the Rolling Stones project Aftermath and Ollabelle does it better. (By the way what are we supposed to call “albums” these days? For obvious reasons, Album doesn’t work. With the proliferation of downloading, iPods and MP3s; CD almost seems out-of-date. I like the term project. We speak often of an artist’s work, so why not for a recording artist, their project? Food for thought and you probably didn’t hear it here first.)
Andrae Crouch gets a dusting off with his old tune “Ain’t nobody, do me like Jesus.”
Can I say this without being castigated and never permitted to write for this publication again? I am a southern born white male. If GRITS can be short for Girls Raised in the South, then I am a BRITS: Boy Raised in the South. With that said I think some of the best Christian or Gospel music and musicians are African-American in origin. Listen to Ollabelle and tell me you don’t expect to see some people of color on their CD jacket. Keep on looking because they are all Caucasian. Not all American – one is from Australia.
Talent not-with-standing we owe some thanks to T. Bone Burnett for bringing Ollabelle to our attention. Mr. Burnett is largely responsible for the resurgence of so-called “roots music” that characterized the rather unusual movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” and the subsequent “Down From The Mountain” tour and numerous other attempts to take us back in musical time.
Seems Mr. Burnett heard Ollabelle in the rough, flew to New York, signed them to his label, invited them to his studio and the result is their self-titled debut project “Ollabelle”.
Amy Helm provides some of the pedigree mentioned. Her father – who takes a turn or two on the drums – is Levon Helm, formerly of the Band, those lads that spent some time backing up a big name in folk music, Bob Dylan.
Noted archivist and folk music historian Alan Lomax is responsible for two of the tunes. The Carter clan (yes, those Carters!) contribute another. Many are traditional songs arranged by Ollabelle. It would be tempting to call their music traditional but for me it doesn’t quite fit the mold. I haven’t come up with a name for it. A read of several reviews finds the words - - - used frequently.
But if that label sticks, Ollabelle will be a one-project group that we won’t hear much about in the future. I doubt if they are getting any radio airplay with the homogenized Clear-Channel playlists so prevalent in secular (oops didn’t mean to use any more of those words!) and I can’t imagine my local Christian DJs giving it a spin. So the only way you might hear them is to visit one of their concerts or if you can listen to a community radio station. Note I said community, not public. I’ve found in my travels a few that I would call community that play an interesting mix of music. My guess is Ollabelle is heard here or there if they are heard at all.
I’ve strayed far from my point but which is I guess, that you can find your gospel in unlikely places.
With that segue I must mention Bruce Springsteen’s project “Devils and Dust”. Two words of caution before you rush out and buy this. One song (Reno) has some graphic references that involve prostitution and another drops one of those four-letter bombs. Be forewarned.
Without too much digression here. Mr. Springsteen must have seen the Passion of the Christ. "Jesus Was an Only Son" cut # 8 -This song conjures up (at least for me) so much imagery that must have been inspired by this movie. You can not listen to this song without wondering what is going on in the spiritual side of Mr. Springsteen’s life. Lyrics here. I began to wonder about him after repeated listenings to “The Rising”; his post-9/11 project that so vividly reminds us of the suffering of so many at that time. With the lyrics –written by the Boss himself – I can’t help but wonder, in spite of his obvious liberal positions on many social issues, exactly where he stands with his Maker.
Based on comments he made at a concert in 2005 – my daughter gifted me with a trip to St. Louis to see him at the Fox – I’d say he is struggling with exactly what he believes and about what. But I think down inside he knows something about the truth. I figure if he is at least talking about it – something’s going on.
An update about Ollabelle. They have a 2nd project out. Not as good for me as the first and probably less spiritual in lyrics and style but I’ve also found that with repeated listenings, it grows on me. Since this was originally written I’ve gotten XM Radio – a great buy at only $12.95 per month! And occasionally I’ll see there name pop on on channel 50 – the Loft or channel 45 XM Café – two places I spend a fair amount of my drive time.
I’ve strayed far and wide of any point about what exactly makes Christian music but maybe given some food for thought.
Friday, January 26, 2007
2012; a look ahead
I’ve always been one to plan ahead and yet I like spontaneity as much as the next person. But this is about something much bigger than me. It is about the future of the party (G.O.P. in this case) and our country (U.S.A. in this case.)
I give up on 2008. Hillary can have it. She is going to win so why bother. Yes Ginsburg will retire sometime in 2009 or 2010 and Hillary can have her one Supreme Court appointment. Unless Breyer or Kennedy decides that there is no time like the future (2009-2013) present to give it up.
Why give up when it is only 2007? Take a look around. What do you see? Quick, name one Republican who has great national name recognition? Bona-fide conservative creds? Millions of dollars in the bank? No skeletons in the closet?
Pretty short list huh?
What about Rudy you ask? See above.
What about McCain? Well he probably meets the criteria listed above but somehow McCain is so yesterday’s news for me. He can’t run on being the patriotic voice of a tortured Vietnam-vet anymore. Plus he’ll be like how old in 2008? Reagan pushed the age thing but somehow got away with it. Not sure about McCain.
Romney? Handsome guy. Like McCain above but the Mormon thing? This is not intended to be about religious preference but … Al Smith paved the way in 1928 for the first Catholic president who was elected in … 1960. Wait how many years did that take?
Last year I would have said Rick Santorum should be on the short list but come on – if he can’t get elected in his home state, what chance does he have on a national scale?
I have a really far-fetched idea. Pass a time-limited provisional Constitutional amendment that allows foreign-born citizens to run for President (but only in 2008). Then Ah-nold can run against Hillary in 2008 and get it out of his system and we can move on to 2012.
I’ll take a really big aside here and remind Karl Rove that I wrote him a letter urging him to take at look at the future of the Republican party back in 2003 BEFORE Dick Cheney was announced as the running mate for the 2004 election. I begged him to ask Cheney to step aside into some sort of advisory role so the G.O.P. could use the V.P. slot to prepare someone for the big time in 2008. I recommended he find a minority – preferably of the female gender. But instead of listening to me he spent his time worrying about Valerie Plame or some such thing. Now look where we are!?
So why 2012? I think the G.O.P. will waste a lot of resources trying to defeat Hillary. Unless there is a miracle in Iraq. Unless the economy recovers and … you get the picture. There is just enough baggage that is going to stick to Republicans like so much Mississippi mud.
Surely in the next few years or so, we can find someone who has true conservative bona-fides, moderately young and winsome, with broad appeal to women and minorities and who maybe between now and then can become Governor or Senator of a state large enough to have double-digit electoral votes.
It’s going to take someone like this to give Hillary a run for her money after her first term. Just as people eventually tired of her husband’s antics after 8 years, I think Red State America and even perhaps a few of those blue states will realize they need a shift back-to-center after four years.
I spent some time thinking about this while on the way to work this morning and couldn’t come up with any other names. Condi? Apart from her being loyal to Bush, I really have no idea where she stands on domestic or social issues and she’s never held any type of elected office.
Roy Blunt? Popular in this home state because he manages to bring home the bacon quite regularly. But now that he’s not even majority whip, I think his platform has been reduced.
One part of my letter to Rove years ago was to suggest establishing a program to recruit and train minorities – women, Hispanics, African-Americans to the G.O.P. Just like the Major Leagues have a farm system to groom players not ready for “the show”, the Republicans need a system to find, nurture and promote the best and brightest of the younger minority generation.
P.S. This just for Hillary. You’d better either make a deal with Barack now OR line up someone like Harold Ford for your ticket in 2008 or you may be in as much trouble in the primaries next year as the Republicans are likely to be.
I give up on 2008. Hillary can have it. She is going to win so why bother. Yes Ginsburg will retire sometime in 2009 or 2010 and Hillary can have her one Supreme Court appointment. Unless Breyer or Kennedy decides that there is no time like the future (2009-2013) present to give it up.
Why give up when it is only 2007? Take a look around. What do you see? Quick, name one Republican who has great national name recognition? Bona-fide conservative creds? Millions of dollars in the bank? No skeletons in the closet?
Pretty short list huh?
What about Rudy you ask? See above.
What about McCain? Well he probably meets the criteria listed above but somehow McCain is so yesterday’s news for me. He can’t run on being the patriotic voice of a tortured Vietnam-vet anymore. Plus he’ll be like how old in 2008? Reagan pushed the age thing but somehow got away with it. Not sure about McCain.
Romney? Handsome guy. Like McCain above but the Mormon thing? This is not intended to be about religious preference but … Al Smith paved the way in 1928 for the first Catholic president who was elected in … 1960. Wait how many years did that take?
Last year I would have said Rick Santorum should be on the short list but come on – if he can’t get elected in his home state, what chance does he have on a national scale?
I have a really far-fetched idea. Pass a time-limited provisional Constitutional amendment that allows foreign-born citizens to run for President (but only in 2008). Then Ah-nold can run against Hillary in 2008 and get it out of his system and we can move on to 2012.
I’ll take a really big aside here and remind Karl Rove that I wrote him a letter urging him to take at look at the future of the Republican party back in 2003 BEFORE Dick Cheney was announced as the running mate for the 2004 election. I begged him to ask Cheney to step aside into some sort of advisory role so the G.O.P. could use the V.P. slot to prepare someone for the big time in 2008. I recommended he find a minority – preferably of the female gender. But instead of listening to me he spent his time worrying about Valerie Plame or some such thing. Now look where we are!?
So why 2012? I think the G.O.P. will waste a lot of resources trying to defeat Hillary. Unless there is a miracle in Iraq. Unless the economy recovers and … you get the picture. There is just enough baggage that is going to stick to Republicans like so much Mississippi mud.
Surely in the next few years or so, we can find someone who has true conservative bona-fides, moderately young and winsome, with broad appeal to women and minorities and who maybe between now and then can become Governor or Senator of a state large enough to have double-digit electoral votes.
It’s going to take someone like this to give Hillary a run for her money after her first term. Just as people eventually tired of her husband’s antics after 8 years, I think Red State America and even perhaps a few of those blue states will realize they need a shift back-to-center after four years.
I spent some time thinking about this while on the way to work this morning and couldn’t come up with any other names. Condi? Apart from her being loyal to Bush, I really have no idea where she stands on domestic or social issues and she’s never held any type of elected office.
Roy Blunt? Popular in this home state because he manages to bring home the bacon quite regularly. But now that he’s not even majority whip, I think his platform has been reduced.
One part of my letter to Rove years ago was to suggest establishing a program to recruit and train minorities – women, Hispanics, African-Americans to the G.O.P. Just like the Major Leagues have a farm system to groom players not ready for “the show”, the Republicans need a system to find, nurture and promote the best and brightest of the younger minority generation.
P.S. This just for Hillary. You’d better either make a deal with Barack now OR line up someone like Harold Ford for your ticket in 2008 or you may be in as much trouble in the primaries next year as the Republicans are likely to be.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Ice is (not) nice & will suffice
This old line comes from (I think) an Yvon Chouinard article years ago about ice climbing in the Patagonias or somewhere and has absolutely NOTHING to do with what I am about to write. I just remembered it. I used to read a lot about mountain climbing but apart from a couple of 14'ers in Colorado as a kid with my dad ....
Yesterday (OK by now a few days ago) power was restored to our home after being in the dark and without heat for 4 days. I am not simply another BMW. (If you don't know what that means - ask anyone who text messages a lot!)
Those who know me probably know that our home was hit by the March 12, 2006 tornado. That was a devastating experience and one I don't want to repeat. I think parts of my life will always be measured in a sort of twisted B.T. and A.T. We still talk about it a lot. We have only lived in our newer home since the end of March and occasionally we will unpack a box of clothes or something and find insulation that was blown in by the tornado. It is hard to forget and yet I have a bit of that amnesia that comes from anesthetic where you aren't sure what you recall. But my point here was to NOT talk about the tornado.
I think that ice trumps a tornado.
Beginning on Jan. 11 a major ice storm moved into the Ozarks and left layer upon layer of ice on everything - trees, power lines. I guess there were actually three waves of the storm. Since that Friday people begin to lose power as lines sagged and eventually broke under the weight of the ice. Or lines came down when trees fell from the ice. Our turn came on Sunday.
Day one wasn't too bad because we were actually prepared - somewhat. Living in a rural area means our water comes from a well which needs electricity to pump the water out of the ground. Our heat (at least some of it) comes from a wood burning furnace in our garage. It has a blower (electric) which feeds the heat into our regular electric furnace ducts to circulate hot air into our house. Day one temps were in the 20s or so and most people probably don't realize it but walls, furniture and things hold some heat. So our first night started to get cold but it was sort of like camping. My wife and oldest daughter thought to fill pots, jars, the bathtub etc. with water ahead of time so we were also ready with some supply of water for drinking and flushing toilets, etc.
Day two - which was Martin Luther King holiday - began the drop in temps. By that evening we were in single digits. Hard under normal circumstances but almost unbearable when there is no place to get warm. We have animals - 40+ sheep and way too many dogs that need feeding and water so for three or so days I spent maybe 3 to 5 hours hauling water, cleaning out pens, putting straw in dog houses. One fortunate thing is our above ground swimming pool. We have a small one but it still holds several thousand gallons of water. So two or three times a day I'd break the ice (by now 2 - 3 inches thick) with a sledgehammer and scoop out water in buckets. I'd fill these and bring them into our garage and set them by our wood burning furnace. My wife would fill a few metal pots and kept these warm on top of the furnace. Occasionally she warmed or even cooked our food on top of the furnace.
Night #2 was miserable. The following day I spent a great deal of time looking for more propane tanks, D-cell batteries and a generator. I found one locally and bought it. By 2 a.m. the next morning it was up and running (see another blog entry for that story!) It allowed us to make coffee and run a microwave the next morning. But as for heat - it did allow using the blower on the wood furnace but that only blew warm air into the duct work of the house. But there was nothing to push the air around. It made only a few degrees difference in temp. Probably just enough to keep our pipes from freezing. This made night #3 not much better.
Day 4 - hallelujah! Power was restored. My wife was ecstatic and life began to return to normal. No more "if it's yellow, let it mellow."
But the saddest thing, some things may never return to normal. It is as if the Ice-gods (no such thing I know) decreed that no trees should be over a certain height. After our tornado experience, one of the sadder things were the trees that had been toppled. But the tornado path - while plenty big for anyone in it - did not cover a huge area. I've heard that this ice storm was perhaps 100 miles wide from north to south and ran from Oklahoma (and probably beyond that to the west) all the way up to St. Louis moving northeast. It seems that few if any trees survived unscathed. Springfield, where I work, looks like a war zone still. Thousands of trees are down along with power poles and lines. Out in the country it is just as bad but more spread out so you don't notice the damage as much.
I remember as bad as the tornado was for us and many others, we just lost stuff. Stuff can be replaced. Now anyone who knows me, knows I am not a tree-hugger but it is sad to think that we and probably not our children either, will be able to see these trees come back. It is going to take decades and careful planning for any place to ever look as good as it once did.
I feel guilty that as I write this, many are still without power. We tried to do our part. Last weekend we invited one family over for some hot soup etc. to give them a hot meal and a place to warm up.
On Sunday a camo Jeep drove up in front of our house, backed up and pulled in the drive. It was the National Guard out checking on people and providing drinking water. I went out to tell them thanks but we were fine so they could go on to our neighbors who were still without power when my wife stepped out and hollered to ask if they wanted some hot chocolate. I repeated the offer and lo-and-behold they said OK. And one of the guys radioed a Humvee and pretty soon we had a group of 7 Guardsmen and two locals serving who were serving as guides. I had wondered how the guard knew where to go and how to get around.
They came in. Drank some hot chocolate and we talked a little. If I have it straight, three of them have been in Iraq already and three more are going soon. One of the young men looked too young to shave - let alone be in the guard. I think I embarrassed him. He was so young and small. And these are the guys that are thousands of miles away giving up their families, and (maybe some) their lives every day. We appreciated their stopping by and I hope they enjoyed some company and a warm place to be for awhile.
They did share that this experience in the Ozarks was much better than their last storm work in St. Louis. Apparently the folks up there were not nearly as appreciative of their help as Ozarkers have been.
I hope they never have to come back here. I hope they never have to go over there again either.
Yesterday (OK by now a few days ago) power was restored to our home after being in the dark and without heat for 4 days. I am not simply another BMW. (If you don't know what that means - ask anyone who text messages a lot!)
Those who know me probably know that our home was hit by the March 12, 2006 tornado. That was a devastating experience and one I don't want to repeat. I think parts of my life will always be measured in a sort of twisted B.T. and A.T. We still talk about it a lot. We have only lived in our newer home since the end of March and occasionally we will unpack a box of clothes or something and find insulation that was blown in by the tornado. It is hard to forget and yet I have a bit of that amnesia that comes from anesthetic where you aren't sure what you recall. But my point here was to NOT talk about the tornado.
I think that ice trumps a tornado.
Beginning on Jan. 11 a major ice storm moved into the Ozarks and left layer upon layer of ice on everything - trees, power lines. I guess there were actually three waves of the storm. Since that Friday people begin to lose power as lines sagged and eventually broke under the weight of the ice. Or lines came down when trees fell from the ice. Our turn came on Sunday.
Day one wasn't too bad because we were actually prepared - somewhat. Living in a rural area means our water comes from a well which needs electricity to pump the water out of the ground. Our heat (at least some of it) comes from a wood burning furnace in our garage. It has a blower (electric) which feeds the heat into our regular electric furnace ducts to circulate hot air into our house. Day one temps were in the 20s or so and most people probably don't realize it but walls, furniture and things hold some heat. So our first night started to get cold but it was sort of like camping. My wife and oldest daughter thought to fill pots, jars, the bathtub etc. with water ahead of time so we were also ready with some supply of water for drinking and flushing toilets, etc.
Day two - which was Martin Luther King holiday - began the drop in temps. By that evening we were in single digits. Hard under normal circumstances but almost unbearable when there is no place to get warm. We have animals - 40+ sheep and way too many dogs that need feeding and water so for three or so days I spent maybe 3 to 5 hours hauling water, cleaning out pens, putting straw in dog houses. One fortunate thing is our above ground swimming pool. We have a small one but it still holds several thousand gallons of water. So two or three times a day I'd break the ice (by now 2 - 3 inches thick) with a sledgehammer and scoop out water in buckets. I'd fill these and bring them into our garage and set them by our wood burning furnace. My wife would fill a few metal pots and kept these warm on top of the furnace. Occasionally she warmed or even cooked our food on top of the furnace.
Night #2 was miserable. The following day I spent a great deal of time looking for more propane tanks, D-cell batteries and a generator. I found one locally and bought it. By 2 a.m. the next morning it was up and running (see another blog entry for that story!) It allowed us to make coffee and run a microwave the next morning. But as for heat - it did allow using the blower on the wood furnace but that only blew warm air into the duct work of the house. But there was nothing to push the air around. It made only a few degrees difference in temp. Probably just enough to keep our pipes from freezing. This made night #3 not much better.
Day 4 - hallelujah! Power was restored. My wife was ecstatic and life began to return to normal. No more "if it's yellow, let it mellow."
But the saddest thing, some things may never return to normal. It is as if the Ice-gods (no such thing I know) decreed that no trees should be over a certain height. After our tornado experience, one of the sadder things were the trees that had been toppled. But the tornado path - while plenty big for anyone in it - did not cover a huge area. I've heard that this ice storm was perhaps 100 miles wide from north to south and ran from Oklahoma (and probably beyond that to the west) all the way up to St. Louis moving northeast. It seems that few if any trees survived unscathed. Springfield, where I work, looks like a war zone still. Thousands of trees are down along with power poles and lines. Out in the country it is just as bad but more spread out so you don't notice the damage as much.
I remember as bad as the tornado was for us and many others, we just lost stuff. Stuff can be replaced. Now anyone who knows me, knows I am not a tree-hugger but it is sad to think that we and probably not our children either, will be able to see these trees come back. It is going to take decades and careful planning for any place to ever look as good as it once did.
I feel guilty that as I write this, many are still without power. We tried to do our part. Last weekend we invited one family over for some hot soup etc. to give them a hot meal and a place to warm up.
On Sunday a camo Jeep drove up in front of our house, backed up and pulled in the drive. It was the National Guard out checking on people and providing drinking water. I went out to tell them thanks but we were fine so they could go on to our neighbors who were still without power when my wife stepped out and hollered to ask if they wanted some hot chocolate. I repeated the offer and lo-and-behold they said OK. And one of the guys radioed a Humvee and pretty soon we had a group of 7 Guardsmen and two locals serving who were serving as guides. I had wondered how the guard knew where to go and how to get around.
They came in. Drank some hot chocolate and we talked a little. If I have it straight, three of them have been in Iraq already and three more are going soon. One of the young men looked too young to shave - let alone be in the guard. I think I embarrassed him. He was so young and small. And these are the guys that are thousands of miles away giving up their families, and (maybe some) their lives every day. We appreciated their stopping by and I hope they enjoyed some company and a warm place to be for awhile.
They did share that this experience in the Ozarks was much better than their last storm work in St. Louis. Apparently the folks up there were not nearly as appreciative of their help as Ozarkers have been.
I hope they never have to come back here. I hope they never have to go over there again either.
Customer Service
Just a brief note about a recent experience - not a good one - with customer service.
During the recent ice storm that hit southwest Missouri, I bit the bullet (OK mastercard bit, I'll just nibble at it.) and bought a generator. Our home was without power for 4 long days - how long? They must be more than 24 hours long when you have no heat, no running water, no power, using water out of an above-ground swimming pool (after you break the thick ice) to flush toilets and water animals.
I got home one evening with the generator and after dinner by lantern light, chores in the dark, I began to put it all together. Normally - and my wife can attest to this - I don't spend a whole lot of time with directions. But on something that could be potentially life-threatening if I do it wrong, out come the reading glasses and I peruse the fine-print. In this case maybe I shouldn't have.
This is a Coleman Powermate 5000 which has a Briggs and Stratton engine. Basically a generator is like a lawnmower without any blades and it somehow takes that motor energy and turns it into electricity. I followed every step in the manual to the letter and I get to this part about oil. having made a mistake once with another piece of expensive power equipment (putting in too much oil) I paid VERY close attention. I wanted to see exactly how much oil to put in. Short version of this part - you fill it up until you can see oil in the throat of the pipe where you put oil in. Have you ever tried to measure exactly 21 ounces out of a 32 ounce black plastic bottle? But the rub here is that the instructions that come with the engine say if temperatures are below 40 degrees, use synthetic oil. Well folks, the temp about now is somewhere in single digits and dropping. It is also about 10 p.m. on a Monday night which in addition to being Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday (God rest his soul.) is day three of a terrific ice storm that has perhaps 100,000+ people without power, businesses, schools, even gas stations are closed - and did I mention this is 10 p.m.? I have lots of 10W-30 oil, some 5W-30 oil but synthetic? I'm from Texas, OK? Down there synthetic oil is a four-letter word. My daddy, who taught me everything I know about cars (which is not very much - my fault; not his) but one thing he drummed into me was never use synthetic oil.
Plastered on the side of generator and in the manual is the 24/7 - 800 # for customer service. So I call Coleman. After listening to a few ads and some bad music, a gentleman comes on the line. I ask him about the synthetic oil thing and he says basically to use any good 5W or 10W oil I have. I mention to him about what the manual says and he responds with "I'm won't argue with Briggs and Stratton, so you'd better ask them." Of course B&S only has people answering their phones from about 8 - 5 Mon-Fri as if they were a bank or something. I call a couple of friends with knowledge of such things AND generators to ask their opinions and can I please, pretty please borrow some synthetic oil. No one is familiar with the syth oil dilemma and no one has any to lend.
Fearing that use of the wrong oil could damage my generator - it says so in the manual - I decide not to use regular. I start calling around to find some. Did I mention that it was now past 11 p.m. and the temp is dropping and we have no power, no heat, etc.?
A Wal-Mart 45 miles away (God Bless Sam Walton) has some and they will put some aside for me. My wife and I climb into the van and head to town. She is THAT eager to get out of the house after 2 days at this point of no power. We drive 45 minutes, venture inside and yes, waiting for me at customer service are three quarts of synthetic oil. Man is that stuff expensive! The good-ole boys in Texas should have started selling this stuff years ago. 45 minutes back home and I'm ready to fire up the genny.
Not quite. I have one more question for the Coleman Powermate people. Ringy-dingy. I get a different voice and this time no ads, no bad music. Why? This is their after hours answering service. It is now after midnight. While unfailingly polite, the young man who answered the phone knows less than me about generators and he is simply supposed to take names and numbers for call-backs tomorrow morning. I decide to take my chances without further advice.
Now I have to ask: I always thought 24/7 meant - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Not 18/7 or some other such numerical acronym.
Trust me - as soon as I had my internet back, Coleman got a piece of my e-mail mind. One - for not knowing exactly precisely what their own cotton-picking manuals said for their products and two for advertising a 24/7 line for help that is NOT. To their credit they got back to me in a day or so and you know what? The guy still said using regular oil was OK. So why does the manual say otherwise?
One post-script: a friend and co-worker had offered me the use of a generator but had to rescind when someone else needed it more badly than me. But then a day later it had to go to the shop because it wasn't working. The culprit? Most likely using regular oil at low temperatures.
Second post-script. The genny worked just fine but until I get some sort of connection, switch etc. that allows me to feed my power back into my house, I can use only extension cords and power just a few things. It was almost enough and fortunately we got power back within two days.
During the recent ice storm that hit southwest Missouri, I bit the bullet (OK mastercard bit, I'll just nibble at it.) and bought a generator. Our home was without power for 4 long days - how long? They must be more than 24 hours long when you have no heat, no running water, no power, using water out of an above-ground swimming pool (after you break the thick ice) to flush toilets and water animals.
I got home one evening with the generator and after dinner by lantern light, chores in the dark, I began to put it all together. Normally - and my wife can attest to this - I don't spend a whole lot of time with directions. But on something that could be potentially life-threatening if I do it wrong, out come the reading glasses and I peruse the fine-print. In this case maybe I shouldn't have.
This is a Coleman Powermate 5000 which has a Briggs and Stratton engine. Basically a generator is like a lawnmower without any blades and it somehow takes that motor energy and turns it into electricity. I followed every step in the manual to the letter and I get to this part about oil. having made a mistake once with another piece of expensive power equipment (putting in too much oil) I paid VERY close attention. I wanted to see exactly how much oil to put in. Short version of this part - you fill it up until you can see oil in the throat of the pipe where you put oil in. Have you ever tried to measure exactly 21 ounces out of a 32 ounce black plastic bottle? But the rub here is that the instructions that come with the engine say if temperatures are below 40 degrees, use synthetic oil. Well folks, the temp about now is somewhere in single digits and dropping. It is also about 10 p.m. on a Monday night which in addition to being Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday (God rest his soul.) is day three of a terrific ice storm that has perhaps 100,000+ people without power, businesses, schools, even gas stations are closed - and did I mention this is 10 p.m.? I have lots of 10W-30 oil, some 5W-30 oil but synthetic? I'm from Texas, OK? Down there synthetic oil is a four-letter word. My daddy, who taught me everything I know about cars (which is not very much - my fault; not his) but one thing he drummed into me was never use synthetic oil.
Plastered on the side of generator and in the manual is the 24/7 - 800 # for customer service. So I call Coleman. After listening to a few ads and some bad music, a gentleman comes on the line. I ask him about the synthetic oil thing and he says basically to use any good 5W or 10W oil I have. I mention to him about what the manual says and he responds with "I'm won't argue with Briggs and Stratton, so you'd better ask them." Of course B&S only has people answering their phones from about 8 - 5 Mon-Fri as if they were a bank or something. I call a couple of friends with knowledge of such things AND generators to ask their opinions and can I please, pretty please borrow some synthetic oil. No one is familiar with the syth oil dilemma and no one has any to lend.
Fearing that use of the wrong oil could damage my generator - it says so in the manual - I decide not to use regular. I start calling around to find some. Did I mention that it was now past 11 p.m. and the temp is dropping and we have no power, no heat, etc.?
A Wal-Mart 45 miles away (God Bless Sam Walton) has some and they will put some aside for me. My wife and I climb into the van and head to town. She is THAT eager to get out of the house after 2 days at this point of no power. We drive 45 minutes, venture inside and yes, waiting for me at customer service are three quarts of synthetic oil. Man is that stuff expensive! The good-ole boys in Texas should have started selling this stuff years ago. 45 minutes back home and I'm ready to fire up the genny.
Not quite. I have one more question for the Coleman Powermate people. Ringy-dingy. I get a different voice and this time no ads, no bad music. Why? This is their after hours answering service. It is now after midnight. While unfailingly polite, the young man who answered the phone knows less than me about generators and he is simply supposed to take names and numbers for call-backs tomorrow morning. I decide to take my chances without further advice.
Now I have to ask: I always thought 24/7 meant - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Not 18/7 or some other such numerical acronym.
Trust me - as soon as I had my internet back, Coleman got a piece of my e-mail mind. One - for not knowing exactly precisely what their own cotton-picking manuals said for their products and two for advertising a 24/7 line for help that is NOT. To their credit they got back to me in a day or so and you know what? The guy still said using regular oil was OK. So why does the manual say otherwise?
One post-script: a friend and co-worker had offered me the use of a generator but had to rescind when someone else needed it more badly than me. But then a day later it had to go to the shop because it wasn't working. The culprit? Most likely using regular oil at low temperatures.
Second post-script. The genny worked just fine but until I get some sort of connection, switch etc. that allows me to feed my power back into my house, I can use only extension cords and power just a few things. It was almost enough and fortunately we got power back within two days.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
The World May be Flat, and Always on but …
In the summer of 2005 I heard of a credit card company losing some computer back-up tapes (back-up tapes; that sounds sooo ‘80s!) which contained (as usual) the credit information for thousands or more consumers. I mentally checked-out and promptly forgot about it. Until…
In late July I received an e-mail from a major-credit-card-company company asking me to call them right away due to an urgent matter regarding my account. I take these types of messages in about the same way that young men in the late ‘60s took letters that started “Greetings …” I immediately thought the worst – I was late on a payment and here comes the major late charge. But I also thought that if it was urgent; wouldn’t they call me?”
I called them to be informed that my credit card data had been lost and possibly compromised in some mishap (see paragraph one above) and the company needed to close my account. New cards with new numbers would be issued while they monitored my account for possible fraudulent activity.
Permit me to take an aside here: how, in this world of identity theft, banking scams from Nigeria and ubiquitous e-mails asking me to please, please send my password so someone, somewhere can verify their information about me, can we be sure who we are talking to or hearing from? Maybe I was wrong to even call but what choice did I have?
Several weeks passed after the initial conversation with major-credit-card-company and no new cards. But I did have some problems with charges incurred BEFORE the change of account but that must have been posted AFTER the old account was closed. How, without sounding like every deadbeat on the planet, can I explain that major-credit-card-company closed my account and I am waiting on new cards? That sounds suspiciously like I just might have some bad-credit issues?
Another phone call to major-credit-card-company to ask about the long-awaited new cards. I was politely told they would be sent the third week in August. I was also politely told they would be coming in just a couple of days. I did indeed receive two brand-spanking new credit cards with new account numbers later that same week. However these would expire in less than one month.
On August 15 I received two more brand-spanking new credit cards but ooops! These were for my old AND NOW CANCELLED account number. Apparently the left-hand-side of major-credit-card-company that handles issuing cards didn’t get the message from the right-hand-side that my account may be having some issues. Another call to major-credit-card-company to find out what is going on. I’m still told that my cards should be coming in the 3rd week of August and oh by the way we made a mistake in sending you those first new cards.
If I make a mistake in sending my payment or God forbid go over my credit limit, I am immediately slapped with some sort of onerous charge for my slip-up. But let the major-credit-card-company make one mistake (how they handle data for thousands of customers) then make at least one other (assuming I am the ONLY account that got old-number-cards by mistake) and what do I get?
That leads me to The World Is Flat reference. In Mr. Friedman’s lengthy and informative tome, we are told that one of the great world-flatteners is the ubiquitous fiber-in-the-ground that has led to the outsourcing of customer service to companies in India. That may be all well and good to save money for the major-credit-card-company but what about me the consumer/customer? Once I get past the heavily accented English (and I confess I don’t always understand everything the cheerful person on the other end of the line is saying) how does one begin to explain the nuances of why having your credit card account closed and not having any new cards or account numbers is a real problem? How do you explain that a trip to someone’s office is required to further explain that I really DO pay my bills on time and that this whole mess was created because major-credit-card-company lost my credit information? Everyone is unfailingly polite but I get the impression they have a database of FAQs to consult and can only pull answers off this list. When something doesn’t fit they consult a supervisor. Every time I asked a non-standard question I was put on hold – often for several minutes. They were likely calling the U.S. to get some help. Why can’t they simply patch me through to the U.S. person at major-credit-card-company so we could work things out?
Mr. Friedman also gives an example of a McDonalds that has outsourced the ordering at drive-up windows in much the same way. I don’t have a problem with that if it speeds up my order. But what happens when I order “off-menu”? What if I asked for my Big Mac, well-done? My daughter paid her dues at a local McDonalds and a regular customer would order a hamburger but with no bun, nothing but meat – for her dog. Imagine trying to handle that with an outsourced-order-taker?
By September I still had no cards. Another call to major-credit-card-company started well. The accent on the line actually sounded familiar. But once we were past the “How may I help you today” and similar boiler-plate-pleasantries, I realized I was once again consigned to an “out-source-ee”. I was again told my account was still under review. I somewhat sarcastically commented on how amazing it was that my account was still under review, no new cards had been issued etc. but somehow major-credit-card-company managed to get my bill for previous charges to me on time with the usual due dates etc. and no acknowledgement that there was any problem or concern whatsoever about my account.
Here’s the latest. One more try with major-credit-card-company. Another phone call gets me someone with a southern accent (I can say that; I’m from the south). Is it for real? Are language classes in India getting regional now? Glory be! The young man actually understands me and I, him! No less that one week later I find a small envelope on my front porch (Now why major-international-freight-company left such an important package on my porch without getting so much as a signature from someone in my house or at least handing it to a real-live person is another story altogether – see paragraph one again re: missing data tapes.) which containing two shiny new credit cards. The system can work after all!
In late July I received an e-mail from a major-credit-card-company company asking me to call them right away due to an urgent matter regarding my account. I take these types of messages in about the same way that young men in the late ‘60s took letters that started “Greetings …” I immediately thought the worst – I was late on a payment and here comes the major late charge. But I also thought that if it was urgent; wouldn’t they call me?”
I called them to be informed that my credit card data had been lost and possibly compromised in some mishap (see paragraph one above) and the company needed to close my account. New cards with new numbers would be issued while they monitored my account for possible fraudulent activity.
Permit me to take an aside here: how, in this world of identity theft, banking scams from Nigeria and ubiquitous e-mails asking me to please, please send my password so someone, somewhere can verify their information about me, can we be sure who we are talking to or hearing from? Maybe I was wrong to even call but what choice did I have?
Several weeks passed after the initial conversation with major-credit-card-company and no new cards. But I did have some problems with charges incurred BEFORE the change of account but that must have been posted AFTER the old account was closed. How, without sounding like every deadbeat on the planet, can I explain that major-credit-card-company closed my account and I am waiting on new cards? That sounds suspiciously like I just might have some bad-credit issues?
Another phone call to major-credit-card-company to ask about the long-awaited new cards. I was politely told they would be sent the third week in August. I was also politely told they would be coming in just a couple of days. I did indeed receive two brand-spanking new credit cards with new account numbers later that same week. However these would expire in less than one month.
On August 15 I received two more brand-spanking new credit cards but ooops! These were for my old AND NOW CANCELLED account number. Apparently the left-hand-side of major-credit-card-company that handles issuing cards didn’t get the message from the right-hand-side that my account may be having some issues. Another call to major-credit-card-company to find out what is going on. I’m still told that my cards should be coming in the 3rd week of August and oh by the way we made a mistake in sending you those first new cards.
If I make a mistake in sending my payment or God forbid go over my credit limit, I am immediately slapped with some sort of onerous charge for my slip-up. But let the major-credit-card-company make one mistake (how they handle data for thousands of customers) then make at least one other (assuming I am the ONLY account that got old-number-cards by mistake) and what do I get?
That leads me to The World Is Flat reference. In Mr. Friedman’s lengthy and informative tome, we are told that one of the great world-flatteners is the ubiquitous fiber-in-the-ground that has led to the outsourcing of customer service to companies in India. That may be all well and good to save money for the major-credit-card-company but what about me the consumer/customer? Once I get past the heavily accented English (and I confess I don’t always understand everything the cheerful person on the other end of the line is saying) how does one begin to explain the nuances of why having your credit card account closed and not having any new cards or account numbers is a real problem? How do you explain that a trip to someone’s office is required to further explain that I really DO pay my bills on time and that this whole mess was created because major-credit-card-company lost my credit information? Everyone is unfailingly polite but I get the impression they have a database of FAQs to consult and can only pull answers off this list. When something doesn’t fit they consult a supervisor. Every time I asked a non-standard question I was put on hold – often for several minutes. They were likely calling the U.S. to get some help. Why can’t they simply patch me through to the U.S. person at major-credit-card-company so we could work things out?
Mr. Friedman also gives an example of a McDonalds that has outsourced the ordering at drive-up windows in much the same way. I don’t have a problem with that if it speeds up my order. But what happens when I order “off-menu”? What if I asked for my Big Mac, well-done? My daughter paid her dues at a local McDonalds and a regular customer would order a hamburger but with no bun, nothing but meat – for her dog. Imagine trying to handle that with an outsourced-order-taker?
By September I still had no cards. Another call to major-credit-card-company started well. The accent on the line actually sounded familiar. But once we were past the “How may I help you today” and similar boiler-plate-pleasantries, I realized I was once again consigned to an “out-source-ee”. I was again told my account was still under review. I somewhat sarcastically commented on how amazing it was that my account was still under review, no new cards had been issued etc. but somehow major-credit-card-company managed to get my bill for previous charges to me on time with the usual due dates etc. and no acknowledgement that there was any problem or concern whatsoever about my account.
Here’s the latest. One more try with major-credit-card-company. Another phone call gets me someone with a southern accent (I can say that; I’m from the south). Is it for real? Are language classes in India getting regional now? Glory be! The young man actually understands me and I, him! No less that one week later I find a small envelope on my front porch (Now why major-international-freight-company left such an important package on my porch without getting so much as a signature from someone in my house or at least handing it to a real-live person is another story altogether – see paragraph one again re: missing data tapes.) which containing two shiny new credit cards. The system can work after all!
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