Making Ripples: post-corporate adventures in Floyd County Virginia

TV without Letterman?

David Letterman has lost all value as an entertainer.

He has made the long descent from his early wise-cracking humor to making lewd remarks about 14-year Willow Palin.

This was not an off-the-cuff remark. It was a carefully scripted and rehearsed part of the Letterman show on CBS.

His degraded attempts to throw up a smokescreen afterward show his lack of human decency.

Firms like Olive Garden, Mars Candy, and Kelloggs have no place supporting the leering comments from this long past sell-date TV figure. Great positioning guys!  Corporate America has enough on its hands without supporting sexual assault on minors.

CBS must be looking at new ways to boost ratings. What will they think of next?

Sebastian Gray suggests how to communicate viewer displeasure to Letterman's advertisers.

Look for Sarah Palin interview with Charles Gibson

Veteran newscaster and blogger Charles Gibson will be interviewing Sarah Palin on ABC’s World News Tonight later this week.

Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has agreed to sit down with Gibson later this week for her first television interview since the Republican Convention.

According to McCain adviser Mark Salter, Palin will sit down for multiple interviews with Gibson in Alaska over two days, most likely Thursday and Friday.

The interview is a coup for Gibson, who also had the only sit-down with McCain during the Republican National Convention.

I and a few million other voters will be watching this one. It should be entertaining and hopefully will give us more understanding of what motivates Sarah. Both interviewer and interviewee are a pleasure to watch anytime. Seeing them interacting will be enjoyable.

(image credits: Palin, Gibson)

CNN presents McCain Revealed and Obama Revealed

I spent two hours tonight riveted in place watching these back to back presentations from CNN. There was a lot that I learned about both men and their wives. I feel as if I understand both men better now and I certainly have more empathy for both of them.

Both have overcome long odds to arrive at where they are now. I feel that either will do the best they can to serve the country, but only one can win.

If winning is the result of underhanded tactics on either side, it can severely reduce the effectiveness of those who are elected. With the intense scrutiny afforded by the internet, hopefully there will be a major effort by all concerned to run extremely clean campaigns. Dead people voting more than once, or at all, should be severely frowned upon. I think that those who plan to fudge results in any way will get far more publicity than they expect. Let us hope that the election is relatively free of equipment malfunctions and mistakes.

In the event that Barack wins, I feel that John McCain will take it in stride and continue working as before to reduce pork and corruption.

If John McCain wins, I feel that Barack will have a really hard time accepting it. He has lost only once before and it almost devastated him.

In either event, I think we have to make a choice between two entirely different futures. The only way to make that choice intelligently is to watch and listen carefully to both sets of candidates, not the talking heads who would interpret what they think you should hear.

We don't have much time left. Get all of the information you can.

The latest Sarah Palin rumors

The nicest thing about the Internet is that there are thousands of people doing research for you on almost every possible subject.

Bloggers and journalists need not embarrass themselves by spreading old and discredited rumors about the top political candidates of the day. Any poliitian seems to be fair game, but John McCain's running mate stands head and shoulders among the rest.

Sarah Palin has singlehandedly created a cottage industry for rumor mongers so it was only a matter of time until someone established "rumor central" for Sarah Palin rumors. Traffic has been so heavy that the servers went into "meltdown" on more than one occasion.

You too can contribut to Global Warming by checking out the latest tidbits on Sarah Palin Rumors. 

Watching C-Span clears up misconceptions

Watching the Republican National Convention on C-Span last night was an interesting experience. I got to see unadulterated subject matter without distracting and biased comments!

It hit me hard that my past rejection of most things political came from having to endure the second-guessing of wanna-be pundits and aging talking heads with anger management problems.

In the past I would watch Obama and McCain and would tune out quickly after the usual barrage of fawning or disparaging comments from the talking head TV personalities.

Unadulterated speeches are far more interesting to me because I can actually take in the content, the body language, and the emotions accompanying the delivery.

Last night I got to hear for the first time how John McCain experienced a transformation from a hotshot pilot to a dedicated patriot, from a focus on self to a focus on service, through the care and support he received from fellow American prisoners of war. As he put it, "He fell in love with his country" as a result of his experiences in prison.

Though still crippled from his experience, he is not bitter nor is he stuck in the past regarding his torture. He seems to have learned to be a better person which is one of the best possible outcomes from such a travail.

I would not have had the pleasure of getting the whole story from John McCain's viewpoint if I had not watched his convention speech on C-Span.

Getting information straight from the source is a liberating experience.

Watching Sarah Palin the night before was a similar revelation. From the very first sentences she made it plain that she is a force to be reckoned with. Her pointed observations about Barack Obama's experience and the media started at the very beginning of her speech and increased in intensity throughout her 36 minute speech.

According to my neighbor, James Carville said Sarah was making nice for the first part of her speech and then they flipped the switch and she started hitting the Republican talking points.

Sarah Barracuda is evidently more than Carville can confront. She was in high gear from the moment she started speaking, like a pit bull with lipstick. What she said made a lot of sense to voters who are tired of the leftward tilt in American politics.

If you want to make up your mind about Sarah Palin, John McCain, Barack Obama, or Joe Biden, you need to see what they say and how they say it. Listening to a media "political expert" is an absolute waste of time, unless you want a biased viewpoint.

Watch events on a channel that gives you the news, not one that "interprets" and "shapes" the news.

(The above is my own opinion, based on my personal observations. Your mileage and reactions may be quite different.)

Like a waiter with his thumb in your soup....

The talking head model of news broadcasting and newspaper editorializing / reporting leaves a lot to be desired. Secondhand news that is pre-digested by someone who "knows what you should hear" is no substitute for first-hand exposure to the source.

I watched the Democratic National Convention on CNN while Nancy Pelosi was speaking. Did CNN give coverage of Nancy's speech? Not when I was watching. The talking heads were busy interviewing Governor Tim Kaine, who could have been given airtime at another time.

Nancy Pelosi may have had something vitally important to say and I only got to hear a meaningless talking head interview. I may or may not agree with her, but I can decide for myself if I hear what she has to say.

I watched another talking head interview the Olympic Volleyball champions after their victory and all the interviewer could ask about was how one of the girls had disposed of her mother's ashes. It was so satisfying to see one of the girls take the microphone from the interviewer's hand and use it to give a heartfelt thanks to President Bush for his support.

After watching Sarah Palin last night on C-Span, I realized that we need fewer talking heads sticking their faces in front of important news. I was fascinated with the uninterrupted coverage of the speakers who preceded her on stage.

Good. bad, indifferent or smashing, we got to hear it all on C-Span. No Blitzer, Geraldo, or Cooper adulteration or spin. Just a straight feed from the Republican National Convention to our living room.

We could see and hear what was said and could make up our own minds as to what it all meant.

I will be watching the rest of the campaign on C-Span and on the Internet.
I like news without the added ingredients and opinions hidden as news.

What a candidate says and how they say it conveys more to me than hours of post speech "analysis" by journalists who each have an axe to grind and airtime to sell.

(The preceeding is my personal opinion and is based on my personal observations. Your experience and mileage may vary.)

Sarah Palin will make the next few months very interesting

Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin, John McCain's running mate.

Down to earth, executive experience and a hockey mom.

The American Presidential race will be a thriller
and the Republican Party may never be the same.

How her experience compares with Barack Obama's.

(Top photo courtesy of No Looking Backwards)

More information about drilling in Alaska please

I am sure that there are reasons for caution in exploiting natural resources anywhere but scare tactics based on political expediency are still unpersuasive.

One of the main points of opposition to drilling at ANWR seems to be the concerns about the effect on the local wildlife. So, let's see how wildlife is being affected at Prudhoe Bay, about 100 miles west of ANWR. The bear is strolling along a Prudhoe Bay pipeline. It would appear that he is taking advantage of the pipeline, not avoiding it.

Notice these well-fed Caribou. They are grazing and generally hanging out next to a Prudhoe Bay facility. Does it look like they are being subjected to undue stress? We should all be so laid back.

From these images, one might conclude that caribou and bears have adapted to the presence of oil wells and pipelines in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. Perhaps the same will be true for ANWR. Maybe we should do some actual research instead of generating rumors.

Who benefits financially from extending our dependency on foreign oil?

Could it be the same people who benefit from promoting the threat of global warming?

Inquiring minds want to know.

And for those who claim that these bears are Photoshopped, here are a few more images to admire. Bear and pipelines, you can't seem to keep them apart. What is the world coming to?

Read more about these images here, here, and here.

This is the most bizarre scenario...

This is a direct quote from a really helpful person in the Medicare organization who was trying to help me sort out something that has happened to my Medicare insurance coverage.

First of all, I would like to express my appreciation for the nine employees of the Veterans Administration and the Medicare Agency of the US Government who attempted to assist me during my two and a half hours of phone calls today. Every one of them was unfailingly polite, even if they did not have information that would help sort out my problem.

I am relating this story in the hopes that it will amuse and also that someone else may have encountered this and resolved it somehow.

I have been receiving Medicare payments against my medical bills for several years. I am very happy with the coverage that I have received up to a few months ago. I am thankful to the elected officials whose efforts made this all possible. I don't need medical coverage very often, but it's nice to know that Medicare is there when needed.

Until a few months ago...when I received a call from one medical provider that my treatment was not being covered by Medicare because I had other Primary Insurance Coverage. Hello?? I have not had any other medical insurance for years! Where was this coming from?

I called the medical provider and said I had no other insurance. They gave me a Medicare number to call and I did. I was told they would look into it and get back to me.

I took my attention off this because Medicare was still paying claims from other medical practitioners I was using. It seemed as if it had somethng to do with this particular medical practice and I thought no more about it.

Fast forward a few months and I receive bills from my favorite local medical practice that show that Medicare is no longer paying toward my medical expenses because of an existing "Other Insurance Primary".

I make a few calls and find that this other Primary Insurance Coverage is supposedly provided by the VA! I am sure I don't have any VA insurance because my military service from 1957-1963 was spent mainly in the Active and Inactive Reserves.

I call Medicare and get no relief because the first few people I contact say they can do nothing and that I have to talk to the Veterans Administration. I call four or five people in the VA until I get someone who actually looks me up in the system and says, "I can find no record of you at all. You are not in our system."

So, back to Medicare again and I call a couple of people until I find a woman named Tammy who actually looks up my Medicare records and asks lots of detailed questions. Then she goes off and asks someone else for help and asks me more questions. She tells me that this Primary Insurance Coverage started in 2003, so I ask why hasn't it shown up before this? She doesn't know.

I ask, "If I have this other insurance coverage from some unknown source, how do I contact them to get them to pay up? Also, how come Medicare is paying on my other medical claims? Why only this provider?"

She looks at my Medicare records some more and laughs. "This is the most bizarre scenario I have ever seen!"

She is sending the report to the Medicare Benefits Coordination group and I should hear from them in two business days.

It will be most interesting to see what turns up. I will keep you posted.

Has anyone else encountered this situation?

Urgent Warning for Bank of Floyd Online Customers

(scroll to bottom for latest updates)

Bank of Floyd Online Customers are being sent phishing emails by someone calling himself Ted Kaczynski. I fell for it this morning and now have had to close my account and debit card and reopen new ones. Ouch! This is not how I planned to spend Monday morning!

If you have a Bank of Floyd Online Account, you probably received a Phishing email this morning that told you that your online account was suspended and to log in and resubmit your information. Here is a copy of the email we received this morning:

Mon, Jun 9, 2008 at 9:50 AM

Dear Bank of Floyd Customer,
 
      This is your official notification from Bank of Floyd, your online account has expired.     If you want to   continue using our service you have to renew your online account. If not, your online account  will be deactivated and deleted.  

  To continue  click here, complete the renew form   with your current
information.

    Many Thanks and Kind Regards - Bank of Floyd - Update Department

This is the fake site you were directed to at BANKOFLOYD.COM:

(click to enlarge the following images)

Note that the fake site URL is bankofloyd.com.
The REAL Bank of Floyd site is bankoffloyd.com and it looks like this:

This is the Phishing page that  asks you to submit your debit card information:

Here is the information on the registration of bankofloyd.com.
It was created this very morning.

UPDATE:

I called the Bank of Floyd Online Accounts department and they told me that the emails were fake and to just delete the email.

When I explained that there was a fake site that was collecting customer data, she went online and verified for herself that there was, indeed, a site using BANKOFLOYD.COM as its URL. She agreed to lock my account until I could get down there and reopen it with new passwords and security data.

This is a really clever scam that took advantage of the fact that the real BOF did not register many different variations of bankoffloyd.com. Usually companies will register hyphenated versons and commonly misspelled versions of their domain name to prevent others from stealing traffic or phishing for customer information.

If you have a Bank of Floyd online account, you should not fall for this phishing email. Call the Bank of Floyd and ask before submitting any data.

If you fell for it as I did, your debit card information is probably on its way to several different continents and you will need to close out that debit card and start over. What a way to begin a week!

UPDATE 2:

Gretchen and I went into the bank and were given great service by Carolyn Reed, Assistant Vice President Customer Service. We were issued new debit cards and new passwords for the account.

The bank had received the first calls from customers early in the morning and held a management meeting to deal with the problem.

According to Leon Moore, President of the Bank of Floyd, the FBI has been notified and the bank will be sending an email notice to all bank customers to ignore the earlier fake email.

Leon also said that he had received calls from people who received the emails and were not BOF customers.

Leon made the point that the Bank of Floyd does not inform customers of changes by email. They send notices by regular mail.