Loyalty cards--invasive and expensive

A friend and I had a "discussion" about loyalty cards today. Actually, it was pretty darn close to an argument. I don't use loyalty cards or coupons at the grocery store; I don't play games with my food. And that's what it is--a game to convince the consumer she's getting something for nothing, that retailers are just in business to please you and give their products away. Whether it's the wooden nickle, the green stamp, the sweepstakes game, the paper coupons in the size of a dollar, or the plastic loyalty card that looks like a credit card, the intent is to get you to buy. What I find so insidious about the loyalty card is not just that they can find out what you buy--they could do that without your personal information. It's that your personal information is sold, and that's more lucrative than knowing 1500 boxes of Betty Crocker 14 oz. mashed potato flakes sold on Nov. 20 in the Main St. store (except to Mrs. Bruce who bought 5 lbs of real potatoes for the same price) or 700 cans of Stokley's green beans without salt. Kroger is part owner of a data mining company. I don't even like it when the register at Meijer's (which doesn't use a loyalty card) spits out coupons for competing products based on what I just bought. I pass them to the person behind me. If you think you are being "rewarded" for loyalty or for purchsing brand x, you need to go back to home economics class or psych class and read up on behavior modification. All that nonsense about it being just like the personal service you used to get 40 years ago at the corner grocery is just that--nonsense. Loyalty plans are a huge industry with its own press releases, and that's most of the sources you'll find on the internet, or in newspapers, which are quite dependent on the advertising revenue from the stores using the loyalty plans. I am not in any way saying this is a bad business--but it is a business and their bottom line, not your feeling warm and fuzzy, is what matters.

Obviously, my friend who will travel around to various stores to take advantage of the coupons sent to her based her buying habits or specials and loss leaders, didn't see it my way. We just changed the subject. Here's a recent item from another blog.

"Today’s loyalty card programs are not designed to reward the faithful — they are designed to help retailers gather incredible amounts of data about their customers. They use the data for supply chain management, for marketing and to figure out ways to change customer behavior. A loyalty card program is expensive to run. It requires a lot of storage for all that data and sophisticated data mining tools to pour through the raw data and turn it into useful information." IT Knowledge

It must be terribly hard for a new product to make its way onto the shelves, even if it is fabulous. For now, I'll continue to shop at stores that don't want to follow me home and peek in my pantry.

Midwest Birding Symposium

What an eventful week-end. We left Thursday for Lakeside and returned on Sunday. We had a great time volunteering and were thrilled to attend some of the lectures by top birding experts. I know a whole lot more than I knew before, and will be blogging about it--after I catch up on groceries, sleep and unpacking.

As we were leaving the grounds this morning Mary said, "What's that?" And we said in unison, "A buzzard!" Now that was unexpected!

Valerie Jarrett, Obama's BFF

Both the left and right acknowledge her role. But this story lays it out and connects all the dots. She's affluent, well connected, far left and a slum lord. Her parents were friends with Bill Ayers' parents and her family tree is very--way out. Her mentor and buddy is Marilyn Katz, part of the 1968 SDS group and what they evolved to. No one gets to Obama without going through Valerie.

Don't miss Scott Baker and Liz Stephans interview with the author which will peel off the layers of Obama's tight circle of Communist friends, pampered radicals, racist and elistist advisers.

HT G & B

PJTV: The Power & Danger of Iconography

HT Murray

Performing a Mitzvah

There were some interesting letters to the WSJ in response to the opinion piece (Norman Podhoretz) on 9-11 which urged liberal Jews to "break free of the liberalism to which they have remained in thrall long past the point where it has served either their interests or their ideals." The writers responded about God's command for good works or mitzvah. Liberal Christians as well as Jews need to listen up here, because oddly enough, some Christians seem to think Jesus invented "good works" as the sum total of his ministry when in fact, nothing he said about how you treat your fellow man was new--he was reciting his religion--Judaism. As Podhoretz points out in his article

"Most American Jews sincerely believe that their liberalism, together with their commitment to the Democratic Party as its main political vehicle, stems from the teachings of Judaism and reflects the heritage of "Jewish values." But if this theory were valid, the Orthodox would be the most liberal sector of the Jewish community. After all, it is they who are most familiar with the Jewish religious tradition and who shape their lives around its commandments.

Yet the Orthodox enclaves are the only Jewish neighborhoods where Republican candidates get any votes to speak of. Even more telling is that on every single cultural issue, the Orthodox oppose the politically correct liberal positions taken by most other American Jews precisely because these positions conflict with Jewish law. To cite just a few examples: Jewish law permits abortion only to protect the life of the mother; it forbids sex between men; and it prohibits suicide (except when the only alternatives are forced conversion or incest)."

Yes, liberal Christians have the same viewpoint--they see the Democratic party as their vehicle to achieve their goals. (And to be fair, conservatives often see the Republican party that way although they are much more suspicious of government.) The readers wrote

"One cannot perform a mitzvah by having the government take one person's property and give it to another."

"There is no argument in the Torah that requires all people to be materially equal."

"The Torah demands personal responsibility from all Jews at whatever station they hold in life."

"The highest form of charity is giving a person independence (work) so that he or she will not have to depend on charity."

"Over the past 150 years classical liberalism and free-market capitalism revolutionized economies and did more to improve the conditions of the poor than any other competing system."

"No where does the Bible instruct us to tax others and rely on government to feed the hungry and clothe the naked."

Amen and amen.

Murray reports on 9/12, pt. 3

Observations on visiting Washington D.C.--trash and restrooms

1. The city of Washington provided very little aid to accommodate the marchers. For instance, there were no trash cans anywhere all the way up Pennsylvania Ave. I didn't see any until we got to the park area at the National Mall. In spite of this, it was reported that the Marchers, to their credit, left the city pretty much the way they found it. By comparison, at Obama's inauguration, the city was pretty well trashed. From what I could tell the only thing the city provided was police attention. Of course they could always explain it away with budget problems. LOL

2. There were no signs or indication of restrooms not even in the Metro terminals. Now I know that the sponsors of the March should have had a plan for this but still I would think the city has encountered this type of activity enough times to in being prepared. There were reports of 30 port-a-potties stationed at the National Mall area but I didn't see them. It's part of the reason this old man left when he did! If you ever take the Metro in Washington DC, prepare yourself as there are no restrooms at the terminals.

Mary Travers dies

Two years ago I said I hoped the remark Mary Travers of Peter Paul and Mary had made about a Republican bone marrow donor was an urban legend. But according to the USAToday, it wasn't. Let's assume it was her disease speaking; or a very wry sense of humor intended to please her faithful fans.

My, hasn't it been a tough year for entertainers?

Who's lying?

"Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) says there is evidence the government is not truthful about publicly funded healthcare for illegal immigrants.

Read the document

Since Joe Wilson's outburst, they've been scrambling to get this clarified and downplayed. I don't trust them. Hispanic groups of US citizens (and some not citizens) want them included. Let them create a foundation and provide aid.

Democrats don't want an apology. They want a side show

A message from Michael Steele:

"In another stunning example of hypocrisy, congressional Democrats wasted taxpayers' time and resources on a legislative measure to censure Congressman Joe Wilson so they don't have to talk about their exceedingly unpopular health care plan.

If we are going to march Members down to the well of the House to apologize, Joe Wilson is going to have to get in line behind Nancy Pelosi, who attacked the intelligence community who protects us, Charlie Rangel who cheated on his taxes, Jack Murtha - a walking scandal, and we all know how the Democratic leadership tried to protect convicted felon William Jefferson.

• First, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) accuses the CIA of lying though an intelligence report indicates that she was briefed on the use of harsh interrogation tactics in 2002; contradicting her previous statements.
  
• Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) is under investigation for misusing rent controlled properties, avoiding taxes, and using U.S. government letterhead to raise money.
  
• Reps. John Murtha (D-PA) and Peter Visclosky (D-IN) have been linked to lobbying firm PMA, which has been raided twice by FBI agents.
  
• Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-NY) has refused to subpoena Countrywide Mortgage documents to investigate possible sweetheart loans; Towns received two loans from Countrywide.
  
• Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) forced aides to perform personal tasks against ethics rules and had them work on "several local and state campaigns including his wife's failed bid for a seat in the state senate."
  
• Heard any apologies from these people? Where are the outcries of the Democrat leadership?"

Will Jimmy Carter call Michael Steele a racist because he's pointed out some crimes of black Democrats, or is he protected from the confusion and babble of the former President because he is an African American?

China in 1925

This summer at Lakeside I heard an excellent sports and religion lecture on the life of Eric Liddell (Chariots of Fire), who was born in China, educated in Scotland where he achieved Olympic fame, and who died in China in 1945 in a Japanese prison camp during WWII. This week I've been reading "Eric Liddell; something greater than gold" by Janet and Geoff Benge, part of a very well written series for middle school. I thought their brief summary of the China he returned to in 1925 was one of the better ones I've read. And since China now owns us (our debt) and their national memory may be better than ours, maybe we need a refresher.

"Eric's father had written that there were basically three groups involved in the struggle. There were the local warlords, the Nationalists, or the Kuomintang, as they called themselves, and a new group, the Communists, who patterned themselves after the Bolsheviks, who had seized power in Russia and transformed that country into the Soviet Union. The Kuomintang was the largest and most powerful group and found most of its support in the cities. It was also recognized as the rightful government of China, though it by no means controlled the country. The Communists were a small but growing group, and most of their support came from the rural areas in the south of China.

As these different factions fought for control in various regions, it was not uncommon for some villages to change hands between a warlord, the Communists, and the Nationalists five or six times a year. Each time an army passed through a village, the village's occupants had their homes robbed and their food supplies stolen. When an army marched through the countryside, it would steal crops from the field and trample those not ready to harvest so that the other groups couldn't get their hands on them. This in turn had led to famine.

Apart from the fighting itself, China's other enemy was foreign influence. The people of China had been humiliated by the British during the First Opium War of 1839-42. China had many goods that Great Britain wanted to trade for, but the Chinese wanted nothing except silver from the British in return. When the British tried to force opium on the Chinese instead of silver as payment for the goods they wanted, the emperor had refused. He ordered all opium destroyed. This in turn angered the British, who began a war with China. The British easily won, and China was forced to sign a treaty to end the war. Not only did the treaty allow the British to import opium into China, but it also opened up a number of coastal cities where foreigners could live and trade. The treaty left the Chinese people feeling weak, powerless, and very angry.

Once China had been weakened, its neighbor, Japan, saw a great opportunity to expand. In the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95, China had lost control of Taiwan completely as well as most of its influence over the Korean Peninsula.

In 1914, three years after the collapse of the Qing Dynasty, WWI began in Europe. China eventually sided with the Allies (Great Britain, France and Russia) against Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In joining with the Allies, China had hoped to be taken seriously as a nation and gain some respect as a country when the war was over. However, things did not work out that way.

At the Treaty of Versailles, which officially ended WWI, the Allies completely ignored China's demand that in return for fighting in the war, foreign powers should pull out of the country and leave China to govern herself.

The people of China were furious at this result. They felt they had been betrayed by the Allies. This in turn, led to even more bitterness towards foreigners than had existed before the war. To the Chinese, foreigners along with their ways of doing things were symbols of China's humiliation.

It was to this China that Eric Liddell, now 23, would be returning. . . "

And as always, because I'm a librarian, I remind you that to the victor belongs the archives.

Kos Kids turning on Obama

Call in Jimmy Carter to wag his finger (index) at them! The far left wing of blogdom has turned on the President of the United States! Read their comments.

Entertainers behaving badly

Kanye West at the MTV VMA awards insulted and flustered teenager Taylor Swift who'd just received an award--stealing her moment of glory. How she kept her composure and went on to perform live, shows she has a lot more class and talent than he has. After she appeared on The View, he apologized.

"More winners were revealed at the September 13 ceremony of the 26th Annual MTV Video Music Awards. This time, P. Diddy went onto the stage, announcing who was lucky to receive Best Male Video.

T.I. got the honor, thanks to his "Live Your Live" music video which guest stars Rihanna. There was no acceptance speech because the rapper is currently serving a 366-day prison sentence for felony weapons charges." (Aceshowbiz)

Then P. Diddy (Sean Combs, also a fashion designer and occasional actor), expecting everyone, including the NYPD to know who he is, or care that he is very rich and famous, forgot about his former arrests.

"Hip Hop mogul Diddy managed to avoid arrest after facing off with New York's "Hip Hop Police" recently.

Though all the details aren't immediately available, in a recent video posted by TMZ.com, Diddy is seen going back and forth with an NYPD officer after being asked to move.

"Lower your fucking voice when you're talking to me, I'm a man just like you" Diddy quipped at the aggressive officer.

"I gotta get everyone outta here [...] I don't give a fuck who you are," the unidentified officer screams at the rapper.

"I don't give a fuck who you are either motherfucker!" Diddy quickly retorted as he walked away.

Things quickly escalated when Diddy turn around to face off with the officer. Luckily for the rapper, his entourage held him back." Defsounds

President Obama called West a Jackass, and now ABC has apologized for letting it out. Obama didn't say if the NYPD acted stupidly.

All bets are off on who was the racist in these incidents. But Jimmy Carter will probably be called in to decide.

Maytag apologies for my corroded dishwasher racks

"Dear Ms Bruce:

Thank you for visiting the Maytag web site. We appreciate hearing from you.

We understand that you are interested in replacing the dishwasher racks.

The part numbers for the dishwasher racks are upper (W10269678) retails for $100.49 and lower part number (W10280784) retails for $143.25.

You may order by contacting Consumer Sales at 1800 442 9991, M-F, 8:00AM to 8:00PM EST.

The warranty for the racks covered Dura Guard nylon racks and the racks for this unit are vinyl.

Thank you for allowing us to assist you today.

You are a valued Maytag customer and we apologize for any inconvenience this concern may have caused."
--------------------------

So 3 months past the "platinum warranty" that cost $89, which apparently covered a different rack and wouldn't have been covered anyway, and all I get is this apology for a product they've known for years was corroding. DO NOT BUY MAYTAG!

Believing Ben

Justin Fox writes: "Yesterday afternoon, TIME.com's business editor, John Curran, recommended that I take a look at Ben Bernanke's speech at the Brookings Institution. I glanced at the text, saw that it was an exact repeat of the speech he'd given at Jackson Hole in August, and thought, naaaaah. A couple hours later I read online that in the Q&A after the speech Bernanke had said the recession was "very likely" over. Which is what everybody and his brother—including, I thought, Bernanke—has been saying for weeks. No news there, either, I figured.

So I when I picked up my NYT this morning I was a little surprised to see Bernanke's words highlighted on the front page (although at least the actual story was relegated to the front of the business section). Then I'm walking Curious Capitalist Jr. to school and I see the FT at a newsstand. The lead story: "Recession likely over in US, says Bernanke." When I got to work I checked the WaPo and WSJ. Front page of the WaPo: "Recovery Underway, Bernanke Suggests." Top of the "What's News" box in the WSJ (with the actual story at the top of A2): "Bernanke: Recession 'Likely Over.'"

Why on earth would all these newspapers, struggling to survive in straitened times, devote valuable space and reporting time to this non-news? It certainly can't be because of Ben "the impact ... of the problems in the subprime market seems likely to be contained" Bernanke's brilliant record as an economic forecaster. Bernanke's words also didn't mark any sort of major change in his outlook. If Peter Schiff announced that he thought happy days were here again, now that would be news. Bernanke's Fed, meanwhile, has been giving pretty clear signals over the past couple of months that it thinks the recession is ending but the recovery will be weak. Which is exactly what Bernanke said yesterday. So again, why all the coverage? I can think of three main reasons." See what they are at Curious Capitalist

Finally

He's a little slow when it's not his team, but better late than never. Seen at Catholic Exchange.

"President Obama issued a brief statement Sunday calling the Friday murder of Michigan pro-life veteran Jim Pouillon “deplorable.”


“Whichever side of a public debate you’re on, violence is never the right answer,” the president added."

Web of deception and corruption--ACORN

Today's Morning Bell has an item on the ACORN web--noting 174 entities. Which is why I say to John Fund, these folks aren't going anywhere!Poverty pimps just make way too much money to give up because of a few video tapes!

"Despite the swiftness with which the Senate acted, this is hardly the first time ACORN has been accused of illegality. Last fall when ACORN was investigated for vote fraud in a dozen states, the New York Times reported that an internal ACORN legal memo raised “questions about whether the web of relationships among its 174 affiliates may have led to violations of federal laws.”

The Times reporter who wrote that story, Stephanie Strom wanted to pursue the story further, but she was discouraged by her superiors at the Times and gave up after blistering phone conversation with then-candidate Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. Strom revealed in an email: “I’m calling a halt to my efforts. I just had two unpleasant calls with the Obama campaign, wherein the spokesman was screaming and yelling and cursing me, calling me a rightwing nut and a conspiracy theorist and everything else.” Explaining why she wanted to pursue the story further in another email Strom wrote:

"The real story to all this is how these myriad entities allow them to shuffle money around so much that no one really knows what’s getting spent on what — and for the charities like the housing orgs, that’s a problem. Charitable money cannot be spent on political activities. It’s a big no-no that can cost charitable organizations their exemptions."

Please read the entire article. I have no way of knowing to whom she talked in the campaign office of the President, but he does have the MO of Toes.

Jimmy Carter, one of the most maligned Democrat Presidents of modern times, calls our alarm about Obama’s direction and plans for our country, outlined by Saul Alinsky, racism. Last I looked, Jimmy is a white man, and the right didn’t have anything good to say about him or his one term presidency or his follow-up apology tours, so it is possible Mr. President, to dislike a politician’s policies regardless of gender, skin color, ethnicity, religion or amount of botox.

And from Catholic Exchange last October:

Obama trained ACORN activists. A 1995 Chicago Reader article on Obama stated “Obama continues his work largely through classes for future leaders identified by ACORN and the Centers for New Horizons.” Obama also ran Project Vote, known for widespread voter fraud, which Time magazine called “a non-partisan arm” of ACORN. In a speech to ACORN in 2007, cited by Newsmax, Obama gushed “I have been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career. Even before I was an elected official, when I ran Project Vote voter registration drive in Illinois. ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it and we appreciate your work.”

ACORN follows Saul Alinsky’s teachings to a tee. In Rules for Radicals (which was dedicated to Lucifer), Alinsky wrote “the morality of means depends on whether the means is being employed at a time of imminent defeat or imminent victory.” ACORN voter registration fraud is just shy of becoming epidemic. ACORN employees are facing investigation, indictment or prison time for voter fraud in at least a dozen states. During the Democrat primary, the Obama campaign paid Citizen Services Inc., a subsidiary of ACORN, more than $800,000.

Like Alinsky, who wrote “multiple issues mean constant action and life”, ACORN, through its “affiliates”, has its hands in numerous socialist projects in addition to voter fraud. ACORN Housing Corporation (AHC) was beyond knee-deep in the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac failures which have riveted our economy. Promoting an ACORN housing development in Texas on its website in 2006, ACORN boasted “in addition to providing access to AHP grants, ACORN’s lending partners provide low cost, easier to qualify for mortgage loans.”

And from James Lewis at American Thinker,

Alinsky's disciples -- including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama -- have a warlike political style. They learned politics as war from the Master. Obama is so well-trained in Alinsky tactics that he used to teach workshops on it. That is why Obama can knowingly violate Federal law against usurping the presidential power to negotiate with Iraq before ever getting elected. Actual election to head of state by the voters means nothing, just as it means nothing to Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, who have negotiated with Syria and the Muslim Brotherhood in clear violation of law while serving in Congress.

Teaching hatred for the normal majority is the key to power for radicals. But Alinsky taught that you can't easily hate millions of people. To do that effectively you need a one-person scapegoat to focus all your hatred on. "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it." That is the politics of personal destruction, and it doesn't matter if the target is black like Clarence Thomas, or a woman like Sarah Palin, or a severely wounded war veteran like John McCain."

Reducing health benefits

Avery Johnson reported today that "More companies are reducing health benefits or passing rising health care costs onto employees." (WSJ, 9-16-09, citing 2 surveys)

Isn't that a surprise? They knew they'd get either Hillarycare or Obamacare, they know they can't handle all the mandates, and the illegal, undocumented workers and their relatives, so they are passing along the costs.

How dumb are American employees? Don't they know how perks work? When I was employed at Ohio State, each year I received a benefits booklet. It showed two salary figures---what I was paid, and what it cost the university to employ me. The second figure was at least 25% higher than what I was paid--it added in the value of my vacation time, my sick leave, my health care, OSU's retirement contribution, plus all the other stuff I'd never use and didn't want--gymnasium use, tuition waivers, health care fairs, computer labs--so many I can't even remember them all. The advantage to "buying" your health care from your employer's plan is that it is one of those "tax loop holes" Obamacare will close in order to cover those 30 million. You'll probably soon be taxed for it off the top (because university employees had their own retirement system, we did pay into Medicare).

Corruption in the UN World Food Program

Now there's a shocker. UN contractors are corrupt--and in Somalia! Denise Brown, borrowing the Charlie Gibson line when she learned of the investigation, said she was unaware of the probe and is quite happy with the current system for tracking the food. Let's see, there are 3.5 million recipients, and the US alone donated $124 million in 2009 through USAID for food aid for Somalia. That doesn't even count what all the other European countries donating, who are investigating the corruption. I wonder how the farmers and small business people of Somalia compete against free food, or even corrupt food, distributed by family members of the most powerful business people, who are awarded the contracts?

I think I've received e-mail from some of those folks working for peace and stability in Somalia, if I'd just co-sign for $100,000 until they can get uncle the prince out of jail.

Daring and Eloquent

That's what Georgie Anne Geyer called Obama's speech to Congress on a "crucial and complicated theme."

She's really angry with big insurance. I read through her article, and everything insurance, either private or government, is supposed to do, it has done for her. But she's still very, very angry. Her cancer sounded just awful, and one has to sympathize with her on that.

She battled cancer, but with her excellent insurance and terrific medical care and probably the latest in drugs and technology, she survived (this with lack of innovation and investment will all shrink under Obamacare). So what's she mad about? Her insurance was then cancelled. Legally. No tricks. She says they claimed she was an independent contractor and therefore not eligible for her employer's benefits. It's just like your car insurance if you haven't reported a DUI and later make a claim. I don't really know how they could do that unless she's filed that way with the IRS--but she doesn't go into much detail, and didn't deny it, just that she'd paid her premiums. A quick check with her syndicate's HR could settle that one. But they did pay for her cancer treatment. How many private contractors (free lance writers) should your syndicate have to pay for? Just you? What do the other writers do?

Have you checked with Timothy Geithner? He seemed baffled by the independent contractor rules too, and he's head of the IRS, formerly big poo-bah with the fed--maybe he could offer some sympathy.

Then she lauds Medicare and COBRA, both government plans, and AARP, a lobbyist for private insurance companies, which is apparently her supplemental coverage for what the government plans don't cover.

Well, lady, what do you think the rest of us old people are complaining about? The elders in the USA, many of whom aren't quite clear that Medicare IS socialized medicine, don't want to lose what they have, they like it. And you, by supporting Obama's "daring and eloquent speech" on a "complicated theme" (which seems to evolve each time he speaks on it) are trying to trash it.

Let's eliminate the fraud and waste now

So writes Cameron Wiley, MD, in today's letters to the WSJ. If that's a problem in a government plan, why would making it bigger automatically eliminate the waste and fraud? Why didn't he start on that on Janaury 21 if he was in such a big rush to reduce costs, save lives, and make Americans healthier?

Because that isn't what this "reform" is all about. It's about power over an industry and control of our lives.

If it weren't, then he would have looked at the 30 million (noticed he reduced that from 47 million in his recent speeches, having apparently figured out the foreign element) and figured something out that didn't change it for the other 90%.