You’ve likely already heard about the shooting in a Tennessee church where a lone gunman walked in during a children’s production of Annie and began shooting, “killing two people, including a man who witnesses called a hero for shielding others from a shotgun blast.” The shooting, however, did not end with a lengthy stand-off.  Instead, the “gunman was tackled by congregants and eventually taken into police custody.“  Wouldn’t you like to know more about those people — the man who died shielding others, and the men who tackled the gunman?  I would.

I know that they’re the same kind of people who leap into flooding rivers to rescue people trapped under debris.  I know they’re the same people who leap in front of subway trains to rescue someone who has fallen onto the tracks.  I know they’re the same type of people who fall onto grenades.  And every time I read about people like this, I wonder who are they?  What special thing do they have inside of them that enables them to display such courage and unselfish heroism?

These are profound examples of heroism — heroism in its simplest, ordinary form, not splashed onto the latest comic-book action movie screen at the local cineplex.  I thank God for the men and women who possess that quiet courage and heroism.

Now I am not a supporter of Mr. Obama, as you can probably surmise from my previous blog. But in all fairness, another matter has come up that appears to have been simply a “damage control” problem.

I am still waiting to hear a fair or better answer to why Mr. Obama did not visit Landstuhl Hospital, because I think a better answer is in the mix, good or bad. It could have been just poor handling of a bad situation.

There is an email floating around that indicates a “Cpt. Potter” is complaining that when Mr. Obama went to see the troops in Afghanistan, he simply ignored them. Now it seems that Cpt. Potter has issued another email, retracting his comments and asking that everyone remove the previous email. It seems Mr. Obama did indeed visit the troops, had a meal with them and not only did he visit with them, he over-stayed his schedule so the troops could take pictures. Cool, I think that is great. [You can check this on www.snopes.com. Just search under Obama.]

Now, as I mentioned, I am not a supporter of Mr. Obama. But I do not say that for the wrong reasons. My support goes to the individual who I think can handle the tough jobs and make the US come out smelling like a rose. The one who can take a crisis and turn it into a bonus for the US. Get the idea?

Well, I am not convinced that when something as simple as a scheduling problem can not be handled efficiently, including something like a press release saying why, beforehand, then I become concerned about national crisis handling.

Anyone who knows me also knows I am not a firm Democrat or Republican or Independent, or whatever. They also know that I am not convinced we have any good choice for President this year.

Except maybe Maxine…………

Well, there are a lot of reasons floating around about why Mr. Obama changed his schedule and decided not to visit the US Troops in the Landstuhl Hospital. Instead, he managed to go visit the French, where there were cameras.

The possible Commander-in-Chief ignoring his troops? Especially the wounded ones? I’m glad I have retired…..

In these days of economic crisis, (not my words), you would think that the big retail companies would go out of their way to see that Customer Service was more than outstanding. Not So! They are more concerned about the bottom line, as usual.

Think you dislike calling and getting a voice tree that starts out with “Press 1 for English, Press 2 for Spanish”, etc.? Try calling a major department store and get a real person on the phone who will listen to your concerns and actually try to help you, right then and there. Sorry, will not happen. They listen, (I think), and then either tell you they do not handle that because it belongs to a different department. Okay.

The focus of my speaking today is Sears.  Between my wife and I, we have been a customer since 1984. Twenty four years and counting. I say that because you would think we would have learned by now.

Last year, I ordered two work tables online. The purpose of this was to actually get my “clean up the garage” project started after we have been in this old house for 10 years. Believe it or not.

Well, I received two work benches about 3 weeks after I ordered them. Course, these were in stock, but it took the “slumbering giant” that long to wake up, pull the two boxes out of their warehouse, and ship them to me.  The drawers for the two benches were bent and damaged. The rollers were missing. They are still sitting in my garage.

Late last year, my wife and I decided to open a home-based business to create websites. I went through the traditional “clean out the extra bedroom for a home office” routine. I was pleased as it only took me 2 days to move everything to the other extra bedroom.

Since Sears was having their sales in mid-December, 2007, (I think it had something to do with black Friday, or blue Monday, or something),  we decided to order a computer desk and hutch, lamps, and a phone system during this sale. We got the lamps and phone system with no problems. Okay, so far so good, but I am still holding my breath - are we going to get 3 out of 3? I wondered.

Nope, no such luck.  On January 4th, I started calling an emailing to find out about our order for the desk. Why? Because they had already posted the order, charged us for it, and charging us finance charges, before they had even shipped it. When Customer Service, (term used very loosely), told me that the order seemed to have been lost, he said he would cancel it and reorder for us, send it priority shipment without additional cost to us and we would have it within days. And he would credit our account for the cancelled order. Okay, so maybe they have gotten better.

Lo, and behold, there was a 180 pound desk sitting in my driveway the next day. I was impressed…..until I found that the shipment number on the box was for the cancelled order! I immediately called the great Customer Service guru in the pond and told them and said they needed to cancel the second order if there was one.

“Oh, he should not have told you he could cancel it because once an order is placed, we can not cancel it. That is the only way we can get the order to shipping. You have to either 1) Ship the desk back at your expense; 2)Refuse the other desk when you get it; 3) Take either desk back to the store for “instant” credit.”

Now, this is a 180 pound package and i am a disabled vet. No way is this big herkin’ package going into my little Lumina. Okay, so now we have a sign on our front door and garage door saying “Do not deliver desk - already received - Refusing shipment”. For two weeks.

Oh yeah, andthey charged our account for the second desk, and$280 for the priority shipping, for the second desk! In the meantime, we have gotten our December statment. Yes, you are right, they charged us finance charges for the first desk. Andthen the January statement charged us finance charges for the second desk.

After two months, they finally credited back the finance charges, the shipping charges and the cost of the second desk - after we refused the shipment of the second desk we got.

Think that is all and we have learned? Nope.

Being the dutiful homeowner in our HOA (ugh!), and because the stupid mutt is eating grass after we cut the lawn, I decided I would order a lawnmower bag for the lawnmower we have that came without one and a new blade. Course, wifey has been harassing me about a goat for the back yard.

Went online with Sears Parts Direct and ordered the bag and the blade. Looking online, and clicking on the frame for the bag, it goes to the same bag, so stupid me assumed the frame came with the bag. Nope. Got a box about 10 days later, (they had to apprently weave the bag). Opened the box - no blade, and no frame. The Pick Ticket shows all three items were shipped at a weight of 6.238 pounds. Box shipping wieght shows 3.314 pounds. Hmmm….missing a few pounds.

So I called. And was told that, “No, the bag is shipped separately, you have to order the frame. We will go ahead and ship the missing blade”. Now, before I complete this saga, let me tell you. I bought this lawnmower brand new for $139.00.

The shipment with bag only cost me $80. And the guy tells me the frame comes in TWO pieces, each which have to be ordered. The cost alone for these 2 pieces is $90, not counting shipping. I mentioned something about this whole thing being absolutely obscene and hung up. Note: Same bag with frame online at another store was $29.99. But for just the bag and a blade, they wanted $170 total.

Haven’t gotten back with them yet. Still figuring out how to send this useless bag back and seeing how long it will take to get my $80 back. Just resting up for the big event. Oh yeah, still no blade.

Maybe a pygmy goat would have been cheaper.

Oh yeah, in an article I read recently:
“Yet the mega retailer does need a boost from somewhere as it has endured a string of obstacles since the merger in 2005.  According to Beemer, hedge fund financier and Sears Chairman Edward S. Lampert is the root of the corporation’s dwindling profits.

“The person who owns Sears doesn’t know a thing about retail.  I think he’s done a great job to ruin the company,” Beemer said during a phone interview.

And according to only TWO websites dealing with consumer complaints, there have been over 2,000 complaints against Sears alone posted. http://www.complaintsboard.com/search/sears/page/71, http://www.my3cents.com/search.cgi?criteria=SEARS.

Parable of this story: Do not order online if you can help it - you will be charged and interest on top of that even before they send you half of what you ordered. And do not count on thier online status - it doesn’t work.

I’ve read many blogs that refer to the Democrats the Party of Evil, and the Republicans as the Stupid Party. Well, the Republicans are certainly trying to live up to the moniker.

Don’t mess with their elephant.

Or at least, don’t infringe on what the Republican National Committee refers to as the Official Elephant Logo (Federal Trademark Registration 1908397). The phrase appears in a letter demanding that a Web-based t-shirt company “cease and desist” from putting a version of the iconic Republican symbol on shirts and other merchandise. …

In its cease and desist letter, the committee cited four trademarks: the elephant, “GOP,” “Grand Old Party” and “Republican National Committee.” The committee licenses the trademarks for use to allies who request them.

The Republican Party does have a right to protect its copyright (which it apparently obtained in the mid 1990s), which means that those shirts which say “I’m proud to be GOP” and stuff like that may fall under this copyright, but this is a dumb move, especially during an election year.

Why?  Because satire is thoroughly protected by the First Amendment, especially political satire. And that license even allows the use of copyrighted material if it is used in satire and used to make a political statement.

So, the Republican Party may actually be successful in removing the pro-Republican shirts that simply display the three-star elephant or such phrases as “Proud to be GOP” - while failing to remove the anti-Republican shirts that display the three-starred elephant or the letters GOP.

Stupid Party seems about right.

Because I can’t think of anything witty or newsworthy or interesting to write about, I give you ….

The Rabbit Letter Opener

Back from a week’s vacation on the Oregon coast, where the weather was glorious, and the time much too short

But after paying for gas as we drove down and back, this seems appropriate. Not that our elected leaders are going to do anything about it.

We managed to avoid this during our celebration of the 4th … even with small children and adult pyromaniacs involved! Pictures later.

I work as the office administrator for a small non-profit company here in Washington State. Our revenue comes from three sources — donations, speaking honorariums, and product sales.

We have a bookkeeper, but I am the one that gives her all the data she needs to prepare the necessary reports, and keep us square with the various governmental agencies. Today she and I spent over an hour on the phone with the Dept. of Revenue. Why?

Because, in an effort to get their share of lost revenue (out-of-state companies did not have to charge WA residents sales tax), prepare us for the eventual Internet wide tax and to make our selling lives even more confusing, the DOR has decided we have to start charging sales tax based on where, within Washington, we are shipping product. In other words,

Under the new rules, if a retailer delivers or ships merchandise to a buyer in Washington State, the sales tax is collected based on the rate at the location where the buyer receives or takes possession of the merchandise.

This is beyond a pain in the neck. Even though DOR has thoughtfully provided a tax rate lookup tool (yeah, that was sarcastic), it will be nearly impossible to comply, especially for a small organization that will somehow have to come up with the manpower necessary to type in the destination address to get the tax rate for EACH ORDER. The problem is that Washington uses multiple sales tax rates (between 7.5% and 9%), even within the same zip codes.

To top it all off, none of the online tools I’ve come across (and believe me, I’ve looked at dozens of them) accommodate this, not even the ubiquitous PayPal.

So thank you, Governor Gregoire, and Senators Regala, Zarelli, Eide, Shin, Franklin, Keiser, Rockefeller, Weinstein, Pridemore, Marr, Hobbs, Rasmussen, Murray, Prentice, Fairley, Fraswer, Spanel, Berkey, Tom, Kohl-Welles, McAuliffe and Kline. They all sponsored SB 5089, the “Streamlined Sales Tax”. Not sure what’s streamlined about it, but hey, it’s politics, words can mean anything the powers that be decide they mean.

P.S. As an added bonus, our state tax on gasoline went up 1.5 cents per gallon today, too. Thanks guys! (yeah, that was sarcasm, too.)