Adventures in Canceling a Phone Service

In a week full of challenges my greatest triumph was yesterday. I succeeded in canceling most of those extra services I had foolishly signed up for with SBC (formerly Southwestern Bell). I retained my caller ID but I canceled the long list of other services such as call forwarding, call back, etc, etc. I was paying a monthly fee for a long list of extra services I never used. The last straw came when the SBC voice mail service screwed up my online computer connection. As you would have discovered if you've ever tried to cancel a service with SBC, it is not an easy task.

I called the number for SBC residence service and after a few selections on an automatic caller routing menu I found a person to talk to. I told him I wanted to cancel everything but the caller ID. He wanted to know why. I explained but he thought I should try to work out my problems with the computer. I insisted that I wanted just caller ID. He questioned my reasoning. I asked how much it would cost to drop my superduper all-services package and just pay for caller ID. He answered by asking if I had their DSL service and told me if I added it I could lower the price I was paying on the superduper package. No, I don't want that, I said. Then he gave me some other options of combining this and that and somehow paying less while paying more. This went on for several minutes. I was so confused I almost fell for it. It was like one of those cup shuffling game scams you see on the streets of New York. My head was spinning but I marshaled my synaptic resources and ultimately said no, I just want caller ID and NOTHING ELSE! How much will that cost me? Reluctantly, he gave me the cost, processed the order and I now save enough each month to buy a large pepperoni pizza to celebrate my triumph.

After I hung up however, I thought wow! How could someone with a feeble mind ever survive that? The SBC guy was a master at selling by overwhelming the customer with confusion. He wouldn't give up! While I admire his cognitive abilities I do not admire SBC for using such tactics. It may add to their bottom line this quarter but over the long term it creates deep dissatisfaction among customers and a bad reputation for the company. SBC is no longer a monopoly in local phone service - others, such as Birch, now compete with them. If SBC hopes to hang on to customers it needs to treat them as customers to be served rather than bamboozled.

The Gospel of John

I saw this movie at the big screen today. It was quite excellent because it followed the written gospel with precision and kept one's interest throughout the three-hour long movie. It's a relief to see a religious movie that wasn't "over the top" like those done in the 1930 - 1970 period. Now I'd like to see something on the Gospel of Thomas and the other gospels left out of the Bible by the early Christian church.

What I've come to appreciate in recent years is the different viewpoints the various apostles had and the role that early power brokers in the church played in manipulating the teachings by leaving out huge chunks of the early writings and gospels. 1800 years later most Christians have no idea how the early church officials filtered and limited the knowledge passed on. Some of the early writings were destroyed (by the Church) and lost forever but many were found hidden in jars in Egypt in 1945.

Today, you have access to the Gospel of Thomas, but not through your church. They don't want you to know about it. The latest book on the subject is "Beyond Belief" by Elaine Pagels. This is a readable book that will open your eyes.

Extremists of the Left and Right in Control

My take on the upcoming presidential election is that it isn't looking too good at this point. The Democrats seem intent on choosing career politicians beholden to labor and the Republicans continue their descent into a neocon hell fought over by the fundamentalist Christian right and business interests. Centrists and independents have nowhere to go.

As for OkiePundit, the only way I would vote for Bush is if Al Sharpton is the Democratic nominee. Well, to tell you the truth, if Gephardt or Lieberman are the nominee I might just set the election out. I'm not sure about Howard Dean. I'm excited about Wesley Clark - the political neophyte. I could really get excited about the election if he was the nominee. But labor and the left are too self-interested and short-sighted to back a centrist like Clark I guess. But unless something strange happens, I'll be voting for Clark - but I'll have to register as a Democrat to do that. After I vote I'll re-register as an independent unless the Democrats come to their senses by going with Clark.

What America needs is a centrist political party. Let the extremists have their Democratic, Republican and Libertarian Parties - give us the pragmatic golden mean. What shall we call this centrist party? Your suggestions are welcome.

Got Life?

Last week Bush signed into law a bill outlawing "partial birth abortion" and courts immediately stepped in with injunctions. This particular form of abortion I will not even describe to you as the details are quite horrid. Abortion is an issue I've changed my mind on. I used to lean towards the "pro-choice" side, partly I think, out of a desire not to be associated with religious fundamentalists and right wing extremists. I still want nothing to do with these folks but I decided some time ago that my aversion to them on most issues was not a valid reason to oppose them on all issues.

Fact is, I do believe that abortion really is murder. I think life is something special, if not sacred, and snuffing out a person, no matter their age, is not right. I find it hard to believe that people can abort a life because it is somehow inconvenient for them. A woman's right to choose is trumped by the baby's right to live.

It is a mystery to me why this would be a partisan issue or an issue owned by the extreme right. I don't understand why liberals are anti-war and pro-abortion. It's also a mystery to me why many religious fundamentalists and conservatives are so pro-life in this regard and so comfortable with war, guns, and inhumane treatment of animals. Compassion should transcend politics and even religion.

This is absolutely horrible:

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Authorities identified a 1-year-old boy Monday who died after police say his aunt tossed him in front of a passing pickup truck.
The baby's aunt, 18-year-old Tiesha Michelle Ealey, was being held in jail on a first-degree murder complaint. A witness told police he saw a woman holding a child and walking back and forth near a city street about 1 a.m. Sunday. The woman appeared to be trying to flag down a passing motorist and then tossed the toddler into the street, the witness said.

But get this; the family says that the 18-year old aunt was "just in the wrong place at the wrong time" and blamed the tragedy on the aunt falling in with a bad crowd. I feel very sorry for the family (more so for the little boy who lost his life) but come on - this penchant in our culture to refuse to put responsibility where it belongs is out of hand.

Lupica who?

Who is Lupica? I never heard of him before but I saw an anti-OU diatribe by this ESPN sports mouth on TV tonight that just made me laugh. He was complaining about OU scoring 77 points against Texas A&M this weekend - the claim being that OU was unsportsman-like because they scored so many points. I'm not a sports junkie but even I know that when you put your second and third-string players in for the entire last half of the game (like Stoops did) you are not trying to "run up the score". This ESPN goofball's line of reasoning was that because backup quarterback Thompson passed the ball and actually tried his best (and did great) that OU was guilty of trying to humiliate hapless A&M. Where does ESPN get blabbering idiots like Lupica and why do they put them on TV? There's got to be some good sportscasters needing jobs - aren't there?

Laura Ingram Delivers Sought-after Consumers

I spent a few minutes tonight listening to the commercials run during the Laura Ingram radio talk show. I was curious what type of companies would sponsor or be associated with her extreme right talk show. Turns out the advertisers willing to associate with Laura Ingram are marketers of "miracle" herb elixers and law firms seeking "victims" wanting to sue stock brokers, etc. These types of advertisers are looking for uneducated people that believe "miracle" pills will solve their problems and naive enough to think lawyers will actually let them keep more than a token amount of the money they squeeze out of businesses. These types of slimy advertisers are finding their target audience through the Ingram show.

John Sullivan Fears Dangerous Canadian Drugs


So US Rep. John Sullivan of Tulsa believes Canadian drugs can be dangerous and Americans should be denied the opportunity to buy them and save hundreds, if not thousands of dollars a year? Yea, sure. Canadian drugs are no more dangerous than "American" drugs. Canadians are not stupid people. Why are we so stupid that we put up with hypocritical Congressmen and a pharmaceutical industry willing and able to buy them?

Millions of Americans are tired of paying the highest prices in the world for drugs. But does Congressman Sullivan care? Apparently not enough. I wonder how much money his campaign gets from pharmaceutical interests?

Cockfighters Caught Breaking the Law - Again.

This week the cockfighters, er..."gamefowl breeders" of Oklahoma were caught red-handed using illegal traps to kill protected hawks and owls. The US Fish and Wildlife Service issued citations to 31 of these characters for putting steel-jaw traps on top of poles to catch hawks and owls - something that they all knew was illegal. These, as you may remember, are the folk that told us they were law-abiding, upstanding patriotic Americans that just want to be left alone to care for their chickens - you know, the ones that they don't fight.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service explained that the hawks and owls are trapped by their talons and hang upside down until they die or are killed.

According to the Associated Press, the investigation, which included about a dozen agents who set up surveillance in rural Oklahoma, netted more violators of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act than any other in recent years. Richard McDonald, who oversees Wildlife Service law enforcement in the Southwest, said the investigation revealed "a callous disregard of the law and the birds
it protects."

The really "funny" part is that James Tally, president of the Oklahoma Game Fowl Breeders Association (cockfighters) was quoted as saying "It is a little unfair that you cannot protect your own property," he said. "Some of these roosters are worth as much as calves." Umh... I thought the cockfighters raised their birds just because they loved them. How could a gamecock be worth as much as a calf? Unless of course they fight them for illegal gambling purposes. But surely these nice people wouldn't break the law AND lie to us, would they?

Kudos to the federal agents and the USFWS! Now, judiciary, do your duty and give the offenders jail time and the maximum fine of $15,000. If these destructive meanass lawbreakers can afford dozens or hundreds of chickens that are worth as much as cows then they can afford the penalty.

A Perfectly Good Night


It's a beautiful midnight in Oklahoma. Sunday night in the city and its so quiet I can hear the crickets, tree frogs or whatever creature is making the soothing white noise outside. No traffic, no sirens, just natural background sound. The temperature is a comfortable 68 degrees. The TV is off - no Bill O'Rielly or Hannady and Combs (sp?) to interfere with a perfectly good midnight in Oklahoma.

Pres. Bush Skips Soldiers Funerals

Veterans are beginning to take notice that President Bush has not attended a single one of the funerals being held for the deceased soldiers coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan.

As AlterNet notes:

Increasingly, this proclivity on the part of President Bush to avoid the normal duty of a commander-in-chief to honor dead soldiers is causing rising irritation among some veterans and their families who have noticed what appears to be a historically anomalous slight.

The President certainly can't attend all or most of the funerals simply because there are too darn many of them. He has honored soldiers in his remarks but it bothers me that the commander-in-chief is spending so much time raising millions for his campaign while families bury their dead in silence.

What Happened to Halloween?

I grew up in a small Oklahoma town where Halloween was serious business. Kids trick-or-treated all over the town and came home loaded with great candy and the occasional unwanted apple. There was no hesitence to go to strangers' houses. There was talk, always unfounded, of razorblades or pins hidden in the goodies in some far away place like Ohio or Texas but that was not something we worried about in the safety of Our Town. Every house (except the "holy roller" homes) was open to the children of the town and every porch had a light burning. This was a night that the adults worked to make good for the kids and we kids loved it!

Now I live in a city and a time where children must go to shopping malls to queue for tiny bits of candy handed out by the mall stores. We are relegated to malls because parents don't trust strangers to give their children unadulterated candy and most homeowners either don't want to be bothered or are afraid to open the door to masked strangers. My doorbell rang a few times tonight because I live in a friendly neighborhood with lots of children.

I know a lot of neighborhoods in my city that are not welcoming. The porchlights are turned off and children are unwelcome. What's wrong with these people? Last year I took my daughter out to trick-or-treat and we had a hard time finding anyplace to go. We ultimately ended up at the mall with thousands of children in one long mall-length line that shuffled from store to store. The children, not knowing what they were missing, enjoyed it nonetheless. The kids didn't even notice the jerk parents that shoved their kids into the middle of the lines so they wouldn't have to wait. This year my daughter said she didn't want to go trick-or-treating. "It's too much of a hassle," she said. I didn't let on how sad this makes me.

K Street

US Senator Don Nickles had a role on the new HBO series "K Street" tonight. While I havn't figured out this series yet it seems to be about the "exciting" world of Capitol Hill lobbyists. Senator Don did well in his scene - a long one-on-one discussion with a lobbyist. Could this be his next career?

Mayor Upset Over Jerk Site

As Flyover Country tells us Mayor Kirk Humphries of OKC is upset about a website called Kirk is a Jerk.com A peek at the site would suggest that it is the work of a long-time Democratic Party "operative" that has done similar hatchet job e-mails and websites about other Republican candidates in the past. The best you can say about this work is that it doesn't exactly raise the level of political discussion. It is quite tasteless and if the Democratic Party has any connection with it at all they should repudiate its content. Lampooning politicians is a great tradition but to be funny it can't be mean-spirited. But as Flyover Country noted the mayor has overreacted.

Last night there was, as usual, nothing at all on radio except bad music, Dr Laura Schlesinger (sp?) and "the Savage Nation". So I tuned in to Savage to see if he was still as looney as usual and sure enough, he was already worked up into a vein-popping frenzy over criticism of General Boykin's religious statements. I don't listen to Savage enough to know whether he is a religious fanatic or not - the way he talks I would have guessed him to be on the heathen / fascist end of the spectrum - but last night he sounded like an extremist far right Christian fundamentalist. His "point" seemed to be that the General loves America and therefore criticizing him for talking religious intolerance while in uniform was great. Savage aimed his comments at "liberal Jews" - appealing to them to support Boykin because the General had pointed out that this "Christian nation" was founded on "Judeo-Christian principles".

I have no doubt the General is a good and loyal American. I don't want him fired. I think he should be taken off the terrorist-hunting job and all Generals ought to maintain a degree of professionalism in uniform. In other words, keep their public mouths shut on politics and religion WHILE IN UNIFORM - REPRESENTING US ALL.

Racists with outstretched hands

I was walking out of an Arby's restaurant today when I was accosted by a panhandler that started off with one of those "hey, can I talk to you a minute?" sales pitches that lets you know you look like an easy mark. This strategy never works with me. I resent being taken for a fool. Nevertheless, I dismissed him with a "no thanks". That's when I heard the muttered racial slur aimed at my little daughter and I. I wheeled around and grabbed the guy by his collar and demanded that he clarify what he had said. Unfortunately, he obliged. In white-hot anger I knocked the cigarette out of his mouth and whispered some unkind things in his ear. Then I remembered my daughter was with me and I backed off - not wanting to set a bad example for her and not wanting to be arrested. The guy was yelling for his buddies to help out. It was time to get in the car and go.

This is not the first time this scenario has happened in the last year. Panhandlers seem to be shooting off their mouths a lot lately - even when you politely brush them off. This really pisses me off, especially when my daughter is there to hear it - and I react badly. I'm glad I don't carry lethal weapons.

On top of all this the panhandler didn't even get our race right.

Goofballs in High Places

This was the week that Malaysia's soon-to-retire Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad declared that "The Europeans killed 6 million Jews out of 12 million, but today the Jews rule the world by proxy. They got others to fight and die for them." This was also the week that the the Bush Administration denounced Mahathir's statements while simultaneously defending Army Lt. General William G. "Jerry" Boykin's statements about a war between Christiandom and the Muslims.

When criticised for his anti-Jewish statements Mahathir complained that everyone attacks Islam with impunity but when someone says something against the Jews they are accused of anti-Semitism. Mahathir, whose son attended the University of Tulsa, frequently says outrageous things. There's a kernal of truth in what he says but not much more than that. To his credit Mahathir took on Muslims for turning their backs on science and modernity.

For the story on what our General Boykin said about the terrorists hating us because we are a "Christian nation" and the Muslim God being a false God look at NBC. Too many Americans think this way but to have one of our Generals saying these things in public while IN UNIFORM is unacceptable. Especially because Boykin is in the lead on the anti-terrorism effort. Not only is he just plain wrong, but his statements play right into the hands of the terrorists who are trying to convince Muslims that the US war is on Islam, not on terrorism. The General might as well be arming the terrorists with WMD.

Mahathir and Boykin both suffer from what seems like deep-seated religious intolerance. Fortunately Mahathir is retiring. President Bush should have denounced Boykin for his "intolerance while in uniform" and put him at a desk job in a remote area.

Inhofe Endorses Humphries

US Senator Jim Inhofe wasted no time in holding a press conference to endorse OKC mayor Kirk Humphries to fill the US Senate seat being vacated by Don Nickles. Inhofe will apparently play a very major role in Humphries campaign. I have no doubt that Inhofe and the Daily Oklahoman have been working on the Humphries deal for a long time.

Congressman Istook anounced a couple of days ago that he had decided not to run for Nickles' seat afterall. Word in Republican circles is that after Inhofe told Istook he would be supporting Humphries, Istook bowed out. Istook is reportedly very peeved at the heavyhanded and early endorsement by Inhofe. In his un-announcement speech Istook repeatedly stated that the Republican Party should not be deciding "for the people" who the Republican nominee will be. He made it quite clear he was upset with the old boy network in the Republican Party (Jim Inhofe et al) that has apparently annointed Kirk Humphries and is dead set against having a contest in the Republican primary.

I was sitting with a group of Republicans watching the news coverage of the Inhofe press conference today and was interested to hear them all say that an endorsement by Inhofe was, to them, the kiss-o-death for whatever or whomever Inhofe was endorsing. "If Inhofe is for him I'm against him," said one. There's a surprising number of Republicans that are uncomfortable with Jim Inhofe representing them - but so far, not enough to defeat the man.

I'll look forward to learning more about Humphries stands on issues. All I know so far is that he is ultra-conservative and controversial (according to Cam Edwards). I have some personal experiences with Humphries that I'll go into later.

Meanwhile, on the Democratic side we wait to find out if Drew Edmondson or Brad Carson will throw their hats in.

Bill O'Reilly, Unfair and Imbalanced

I know this is not surprising either, but if you happened to be listening to the program "Fresh Air" on NPR yesterday you heard the host, Terry Gross, interview Bill O'Reilly and you heard him cut off the interview. Seems Bill wasn't happy that Terry was not limiting 100% of her questions to the topic of his new book. He got angry and hung up on her.

I listen to Fresh Air all the time and Terry Gross is one of the best interviewers around. She asks intelligent questions in a calm and rational manner. During the interview yesterday I thought she was giving O'Reilly an opportunity to answer some of the accusations thrown at him by Al Franken and others. I thought he was doing a good job of answering those accusations and he was winning some points with me. He was typically humorless and cocksure of himself but all-in-all he was proving himself to be human. Terry was doing him a favor I thought - because she had interviewed Al Franken earlier and this was O'Reilly's chance to set the record straight. I saw nothing wrong with Gross' interview but suddenly O'Reilly became quite nasty and a little abusive and then hung up. That night he went on to further derogatory statements about Gross and NPR on his TV program.

O'Reilly has a few good ideas but I gave up listening to his program because he is so mean-spirited and abusive to his guests. I just won't support that kind of programming or behavior. To her credit, Gross ran the interview with O'Reilly even though O'Reilly said she wouldn't have the guts to do so. She did. She's a class act. He's behaves like an obnoxious bully.

Pat Robertson Says Something Stupid

I know this is not surprising, but he is entertaining. His latest foolish statement came in an interview on his 700 Club program on CBN. Robertson interviewed Joel Mowbray about Mowbray's new book, "Dangerous Diplomacy." The book concludes with the assertion that if Mowbray could just set off a nuclear device in Foggy Bottom, the world would be a better place.

Robertson, TV evangelist that he is, agrees with Mowbray. Here's the
transcript of the conversation. I'm sure Robertson doesn't really advocate blowing up the State Department but he doesn't appreciate their work. But thank goodness they are handling diplomacy and Robertson isn't.

I have some problems with the insular and elitist culture within the State Department but I believe there is increasing evidence that if the professionals at State had been listened to that we would not have half the problems we are having in Iraq now. If you watched the PBS program Frontline last night you'd know what I mean. More on that soon.