Budget ceiling prediction

The Obama Admin has very successfully rammed through crazy legislation (most popularly Obamacare) under the auspices of 'this needs to happen now or else...'. Well, today is July 9 and I believe August 2 is the deadline for the US defaulting and therefore the end of the world as we know it. I've heard on cable news that legislation will take three weeks to draft, revise, vote, reconcile and ultimately pass - accurate or not, I don't know. I'm guessing however that after the weekend we will start hearing ramped up rhetoric by Obama and his handlers about how we must forgo our principals and due diligence and sign something, quickly!, before reading it.

If the Republicans fall for it again, Obama wins, Americans lose, again.

Handling of Usama Bin Laden's carcass

So the US Government disposes of his body within 24 hours and respects all Muslim traditions. Why? I doubt I'm alone when I say I want that damned carcass to cross the country on display. I want to see photos of the dead body in every magazine and across the internet. I want see the proof myself!

The US Government disposed of the body in this manner to honor all Muslim traditions and not offend anyone. Here's the thing - on the surface that might make sense despite the fact that we frequently see Muslims on television beheading Americans and dragging their bodies around town but never mind that. The disconnect for me is that the prominent Muslims that I see on television claim Bin Laden and other non-peacefull Muslims aren't really Muslims. So why then should we need to worry about upsetting the 'real' Muslims' by how we treat the carcass of a 'fake' Muslim who is obviously going straight to hell anyway?

Donald Trump

Today Donald Trump diminished the Presidency. So did President Obama by acknowleging Trump and responding to the Birthers. Don't get me wrong - I believe it should be a Constitutional requirement for any Political Candidate to provide proof that they meet the Constitutional Requirements for the Office for which they are running. However, Obama was dragged into the mud and responded to something that should be above the attention of any American President.

As for Trump, my prediction of his, "you will be very surprised when I make my announcement" statement is that it has absolutely nothing to do with Political Office but rather an announcement about a commercial venture Trump is undertaking. This has all been well orchestrated and is a Trump-driven P.R. stunt.

On a personal note - being a marketing professional - NEVER should the FACE//PRESIDENT/CEO of a BRAND put him or herself in a position to alienate roughly half of the population. Especially when they have shareholders. This is where Trump overplayed himself. His businesses will be negatively effected by this entire fiasco albeit a very interesting study.

Dire emergency

A classic, and frankly effective strategy for creating radical change as it relates to just about anything is to create an emergency. An emergency, be it real or perceived creates urgency. Urgency causes people (namely lawmakers) to compromise their principles. Don't believe me? Just look at how the health care heist was pulled off.

Obama transferring American wealth to Muslims

I am convinced the Obama Administration is intent on bankrupting America. Although he has a multi-pronged approach, the most obvious is that he is not allowing American businesses to harvest our abundance of domestic oil. As turmoil surges worldwide (partly due to lack of American leadership), oil prices are skyrocketing and guess who consumes a lot of oil. And guess where that weekly charge at the pump goes ultimately.

What about the First Amendment for Christians?

I was driving to work this morning and listening to the radio when I looked at some issues a slightly different way than I have previously considered.

If you are a Christian, you are not afforded your First Amendment Rights to say the word God in school much less pray to God.

There are many in America who are working hard to remove the word God from our currency and the framework of our society.

If you are a convicted criminal or detained enemy of America (ie. you have knowledge and plans or have attempted to kill Americans), you are provided with meals that are representative of your religious beliefs, you are given time daily to look toward Mecca, you are provided with copies of the Koran and you can openly say any words you want.

Why do we give criminals and people who want to destroy us and everything we believe in the rights all free people deserve yet we withhold them from our citizens?

Defense of Marriage Act

How in the world does it make sense to publicly take the position that they (the Administration) will continue to enforce the law, they just won't defend it.? So let's get this straight, they will enforce the law and claim that a 'union' in invalid. The people involved them sue and claim it is valid. The Obama Admin won't show up for court (since that's their new position) and then all union becomes valid.

Seriously? This is our Administrations position? Where am I?

States rights

Why is Obama injecting himself and therefor the Federal Government into state issues? There is no Federal jurisdiction in the Wisconsin budget issues. Period.

Muslims

I'm wondering if there is anyone in the world who can say with a straight face that there is no correlation between the current US Administration and the uprise in Radical Islam across the Middle East. Anyone?

TSA screening

I recently went through a couple of airports and must compliment the very professional TSA screeners. They were polite, efficient and thorough. Not sure what else anyone hopes they will be but I had no problems or complaints in Minneapolis or Orlando.

Snow wimps

So tiring to hear from both coasts, the south and now even Chicago how much snow they're getting. Just because its snowing in NY, doesn't mean its national news. Get over it you pansy's.

Video of the Metrodome/MOA Stadium collape from inside

Energy Savings

How many times do you hear, see or read about the savings you will realize on your energy bill if you buy a new energy efficient appliance? I declare bullshit. I have purchased many energy-efficient appliances over the years including those damned curly lightbulbs that blow up in cold weather and blink during the blasted 5-second start-up time indoors and have never noticed the supposed hundreds of dollars of savings I was 'supposed to notice." TV - no. Washer - no. Dryer - no. Water softener - no. Refrigerator - no. Stupid little programable thermostat - NO!

Am I wrong?

Anyone?

Elections

I loved watching Barack Obama choking on the taste of humble pie during his press conference today. Although I'm doubtful he will remember the taste in a week.

I'm obviously extremely pleased that the Republicans had such a huge sweep of the house. My wish however was to take the Senate as well. I would have liked the following people to lose, not so much because I liked their opponents, mostly just because I dislike these people so much:

Harry Reid
Barney Frank
Chuck Schumer (I know this one was never on the table but a boy can dream, can't he?)
Barbara Boxer

Outstanding customer service

So several of my posts are about extraordinarily poor customer service, out of the ordinary events, politics or just plain 'ol stupid people. Yesterday I had an experience that was a good one and although I wouldn't normally write about something like this, I felt compelled to share my experience in the interest of being fair since I think business owners deserve word of mouth for when they exceed their customers expectations as well as when they fail them.

My eight year old son, baseball player who absolutely hates playing catcher because he gets nailed with the ball in the pads, where there's gaps between the pads and occasionally in the head. Not to mention the sand getting kicked into his face on every ball he doesn't catch. I've played catcher during practices and I can assure you, the sand in your eyes on every pitch is quite unpleasant.

Anyway, he wants to be Joe Mauer for Halloween this year. And I'm very happy that he's moving past the Star Wars phase but he wants to don the full catchers gear. So I went online and the total cost for all the gear is slightly above $200. So I check Craigslist and the pickins' is slim. I don't and won't spend that much on a Halloween costume that gets worn once a year (unless it's the Naughty Nurse Costume from 3Wishes but even that is only $42.99).

So I convince my son that he should be Joe Mauer at bat. He already has the Twins/Mauer jersey, a bat, batting gloves, pants, etc. but needs new eye black, the Joe Mauer sideburns and a batting helmet. I agree to buy him a batting helmet since many of the kids now already have their own and he has a younger brother so we'll get some mileage out of it beyond just Halooween.

We go to Sports Authority and pick up the necessary equipment. $19.99 for the helmet, $5.49 for the eye black, $3.99 for a strap to keep the helmet on (don't really know why we need this but we buy it anyway because he wanted it).

My boy is happy and we're pretty well set for Halloween. Next stop, Target. To find a gift for his little brother to give him after his first Scouts meeting next week. Since we're so close to the baseball section at Target, I decide I want to see what equipment they have. Sure enough, there's the very same batting helmet we just paid $19.99 for listed at $9.99. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not going to go cheap on a key protective piece of equipment but they are they exact same helmet. Nearby is eye black for $3.99. We grab both and decide we'll be returning those items to Sports Authority to get our "margin" back.

To the counter we go and when she rings the helmet, it comes up listed at $19.99. I inform her the tag on the display indicated it was $9.99 and that I'm only buying it because I'm going to return the one I just paid double that for at Sports Authority. She calls someone on her walkie-talkie to check the price and after a  minute, the voice comes back and says it's listed at $19.99. BEFORE I could say anything, she says, "I'm going to give it to you for $9.99 since I think there's a chance the pricing might have been confusing."

"Thank you, I really appreciate that," I say.

"Oh, you're welcome," she replies.

'Nough said (although there was more).

MORALE of the story: Target is onto something. A retailer has finally realized that just about everyone from Minnesota spends probably $1,000 or more in their stores each year and it is wise to leave a customer pleased with their experience rather than disappointed.

So to Target I say: Thank you. You did the right thing and as a customer who spends a lot more than $1,000 annually with you, I very much appreciate that you have recognized and acted in a way that treats your customers well. Perhaps the smartest thing any business can do is give competent employees the authority to make a customer happy or sole a problem. Home run on this one.

I only wish I would have paid attention to the womans name to give her praise also.

Audi: A nice ride with a hefty price tag

I own a 2004 Audi A6 Quattro with a 3.0 liter engine. I've had it for about 2.5 years. I like the car, it looks nice, drives well and is comfortable. But it is also expensive. It now has 72,000 miles on it and when I purchased it, the mileage was around 40,000. It has been into the dealership numerous times since then with expensive repairs. The most recent was last January when I blew a valve cover gasket. I had it towed to the dealership and for around $2,000, they replaced the valve covers. I felt as though I dodged a bullet since I thought I was lucky to have not completely seized the motor.

A few months later, I'm at the dealer getting recall work performed. The sales guy comes out and tells me that my valve covers are leaking. After informing him that I recently spent $2,000 having them repaired, he agreed to do the job over, correctly this time.

Since that time, I've had intermittent problems. The engine light comes on and stays on for sometimes days or weeks at a time, then mysteriously goes out like everything is normal. But more recently, it has been misfiring when cold. The misfire goes away after 10-15 seconds and everything seems fine again. Well, a few months ago I had to add anti-freeze to its 'sealed' cooling system. That's not supposed to happen. Ive added coolant three times since then and even had to add a half quart of oil although it was 9,000 miles since my last oil change. I've never had to add oil either.

So I finally broke down and brought it back to Carousel Audi in Minneapolis. The sales guy cals me and tells me that either my head gasket is leaking or the engine block is cracked and anti-freeze can be seen dripping into a cylinder when they inserted a camera. Head gasket estimate is just a hair under $2,000. The engine block estimate is $10,300! The car is probably only worth about $14,000! The sales guy doesn't want to make a recommendation because if I do the less expensive head gasket repair, it might not solve the problem and then I'm still on the hook for another $10,300 to replace the block.

I pick the car up in disgust and don't know what I'm going to do yet. Then I call an independent repair shop that I had been referred to months earlier. We talk and after explaining the diagnosis, he tells me that particular motor is terrible and not designed to last more than 100,000 miles. There is a design flaw where Audi inserted screws into the heads and they will eventually give out. Audi only used that motor for 18 months before scrapping it but he can do a permanent fix for about $1,500. If the problem is not the head gaskets, he can weld the block crack if it exists.

I'm talking with my brother the next day telling him about it and he says that his mechanic told him the exact same thing about the motor. He has a similar car with the same engine and is currently in the process of dumping it.

I bring my car to the mechanic to have the motor fixed and decided to ask, "Would simply adding radiator sealant ruin anything?"

"No, and it might stop the leak and solve your leaking problem but you still have a motor that is going to break in about 20,000 miles."

I told him to add the sealant, tighten the screws on the heads and change the oil. $240 later it appears that the leak has been stopped and the car is operating as designed.

Time to put it up for sale.

Yahoo Mail failure

My Yahoo Mail inbox suddenly became empty a couple of weeks ago. I lost between one and two hundred unfiled emails in my inbox. I had read everything (I think) but had appointments with people I hadn't met that I didn't have contact info for other than in the email exchanges.

When I realized my inbox was gone, I went into Yahoo help. There was a message re-assuring me their engineers were working on the problem. Whew! But I dug deeper and found an email restore option to go back up to 24 hours. I did this. Then waited. Either my restore request would come through or their engineers would make the world normal again.

Anyway, after numerous Live Chats and emails with their CSR's, Techs and engineers, I'm out an Inbox with no chance of ever getting it back. Once I accept this horrible reality, I start to ask questions to determine if I need to move to gmail to be assured of this problem never negatively affecting me again.

I ask: "Was this widespread? What caused it? What are you doing to ensure it doesn't happen again?"

The only partial answer was, "No, it was not widespread."

I then followed up with, "What do you consider 'widespread'? Only me? A few hundred? Thousands or more?"

No answer.

Then the Live Chat stops. I keep my window open and still nothing. After a few minutes I type, "Are you still there?"

No response.

Several more minutes pass and I type, "Hello?"

Still nothing.


The I get a follow up email. We go through the situation from the beginning and fairly quickly determine there is no hope of me getting my messages back so I start asking questions again. I re-iterated my three questions and received a diversionary question in response. I answer and ask the three questions again with a note indicating that I would tell everyone I know if they are unwilling or unable to address my questions.

I never received a response.

Since that time, I subsequently lost all of my Yahoo email contacts BUT was able to retrieve some.  Not sure how that happened either.

My advice: If you want reliable email, DO NOT USE YAHOO! MAIL.

Thought of the day

Did we get a gift receipt with the stimulus? I'd like to return it for a full refund.

Unemployment

Unemployment is high, very high. As someone who's been affected personally by the poor economy, I can tell you that almost everyone I meet is either unemployed, their spouse is unemployed, their sibling or neighbor or good friend is unemployed. Those who aren't are seemingly unhappy because they've been forced to do 1.5 peoples jobs in order to keep theirs. And no, they're not getting paid more for it.

I don't feel sorry for these people, I am one of them. What I've learned is that I'm going to be done being unemployed after I once again become employed. What I mean is that I have taken a long hard look at my career and how I need to position myself so that I'm not dependent upon other people, the economy and/or client and business issues to keep my job. Of course its unrealistic to think that you can completely insulate yourself from those things but here's how I plan to protect myself as best I can.

Start or purchase a business. Then I control who if anyone gets laid off and rest assured, I'd be the last one to go and I like this option a lot for many reasons. Although it is much easier said than done, poor job markets and economies typically produce more new businesses. Taking risk is much easier when you're not walking away from a good job already.

Make a career adjustment into something that positions me as the person with the client relationships. That translates to an asset that I can bring to my next employer. Forget about non-compete's, they're hard to enforce.

Build a business that pays residuals and have people selling something that you can earn an override on. I like this idea a lot also. Eventually you're earning money for the work of others and you suddenly control much more of your schedule. Additionally, you can make a later career change while maintaining   key accounts or clients.

So what are you doing to secure your future?

2010 Election ad for Obama voters