Truth About Credit Cards: So, In Conclusion...

So, as we sum up this look at the credit card industry, what have we learned?

There are no laws in existence today that limit how high your credit card interest rate can go. There are no laws in existence that limit the number of fees that the credit card companies can charge you, nor the dollar amount of those fees. Even though you can avoid fees by paying your credit card bill on time, all the credit card company needs to do to raise your rate is declare that you are in Universal Default and once that happens, they can amend their agreement with you however they wish.

If you feel that you are being ripped off, the only place you can turn to is an inept federal agency that isn’t going to do anything. We have learned, that in essence, the credit card companies can do whatever they want, when they want, and there is nothing that consumers can do about it.

So, why then, do millions of Americans keep running up credit card debt? Why do we all refuse to learn the knowledge that we need in order to make the right financial decisions when it comes to credit, especially these evil monsters known as credit cards?

It is because it is so easy. A piece of plastic you carry around with you that allows you to buy things that you don’t have the money to buy. It is instant gratification without any concern for the long-term effects of that instant gratification. If that does not define humanity, then I do not know what does.

There is an industry in this country that has perfected its methodology of legally extorting more and more money from the consumer over the course of the past 40 years that is working against us and we refuse to even be bothered with such chores as reading a credit card agreement from start to finish.

We all know smoking is bad for us, but there are still smokers out there. We all know that credit card debt is bad for us, but 90 million of us are Revolvers. 90 million of us at one point had $0 in credit card debt and knew long before we charged dollar one that credit card debt was a bad idea and was going to cost us in some cases over 100% more than the actual purchase price of whatever it was that we could not live without, yet we still handed that piece of plastic over to the cashier.

They get us with late payment fees, over-limit fees, minimum payment fees, cash advance fees and interest rates that are completely ridiculous, especially when compared to deposit interest rates, yet we keep begging for more.

7 million bankrupt families worth of it over the past 5 years alone.

If you owned a 1979 Honda and a 2005 Ferrari and I bought the Honda from you for $300, then came back after the fact and told you I thought I paid $300 for the Ferrari then took you to court, we all know I’d be laughed out of there by the judge.

Yet, we “sign” open-ended credit card loan agreements that allow the credit card companies to change the deal after the fact however and whenever they want, and we keep screaming for more.

Everyone is up in arms about those damned evil cigarette companies that knowingly sold us poison for years, but how many of us are calling our government representatives about the credit card companies and the lack of laws and regulations that govern what they do to us?

How can a FICO score determine the home we get, the car we are able to drive, the very interest rates on everything that we borrow, yet be something that is a complete and total mystery to us?

How can we be surprised that a multi-billion-dollar-a-year industry has no concern for us on an individual level and be surprised when after making ten years worth of on-time payments, turn around and raise our interest rate and penalize us after just one late payment?

Whether we learned that fire could burn because our parents told us, or we found out the hard way, we only had to learn once that fire could burn and you can bet that we stay the hell away from it.

Why, if we all know that credit cards burn, do we all keep touching the flame? 

Let me close with some final words...a quote from my Bank of America credit card agreement:

“If at any time during any rolling consecutive twelve billing cycle period you fail to make two Minimum Payments on a timely basis or exceed your Credit Limit twice, we may elect to increase your Purchase, Cash Advance and/or Balance Transfer APRs to the Penalty APRs.”

For my purchases on that particular card, that means going from an interest rate of 13.24% to 29.24%.

And that, is why the credit card companies love Revolvers so much...

Truth About Credit Cards: Universal Default

Universal Default. Sounds scary, doesn’t it? Well, it is.

When you apply for a loan for a car or a home, there is an agreement between you and the bank over the interest rate. In some cases, the rate is fixed for the life of the loan and in other cases, the interest rate may fluctuate as the prime interest rate fluctuates.

Either way, you do know what your interest rate is and there is an agreement between you and the bank that spells out what it is and how it is figured. Not with credit cards, though.

You may even have a fixed rate credit card, but even the interest rate on that card can change. A credit card is a short term loan, designed to be paid off each and every month. A credit card limit and a credit card interest rate are assigned to you based on what your credit score is at the time that you apply, just like with any other loan.

The difference between a credit card loan and other types of loans is that a credit card company views their terms with you as short terms and can re-evaluate you each and every month if they wish.

How do they evaluate you? They run your credit and look at what your score is doing. Say you applied for a card and had a 750 and landed a 12.9% fixed rate. Pay your payments on time and in full and keep your 750 and there is no problem, but if your score goes down, you have made a change in the terms and the credit card company can raise your rate based on that.

Also, if they give you credit based on a good payment history and find that a year later, even though you have been paying them on time, you have been making late payments elsewhere, they can find that you no longer have a good payment history and raise your rates.

This change in your credit score and payment history is the concept called, Universal Default. You have not made a late payment on your credit card, but a late payment on anything anywhere else, or a drop in your credit score can put you in Universal Default.

All credit card agreements site Universal Default as a justified reason for raising your interest rate, even on a fixed rate credit card. All they have to do is give you 15 days notice before they change your rate and they can raise your rate to whatever they want.

Truth About Credit Cards: Watch Your Due Dates

So, they can do whatever they want to? Why yes, they can. Take a look at your due dates.

You might find that some of your cards have due dates that change each month.

There is not a wide fluctuation, like say from the 3rd to the 23rd, but it may move a day or two here and there.

So, what this allows the credit card companies to do is put your due date on a Sunday or a holiday here and there in the hopes that you might get a little too busy and forget to make your payment on time.

It might sound a little trivial, but they make millions in extra revenue each year by doing this and it is all perfectly legal...

Truth About Credit Cards: No Laws On Fees, Either

Just like there once was a limit to how much the banks could charge in interest on credit card loans, there once was a limit to the fees that they could charge you as well.

Then, a court decision, Smiley vs. CitiBank went in CitiBank’s favor and it removed all of the limits on fees.

Back in the 1970s and 1980s, a late payment fee was usually around $5 and all that happened when you reached your limit was that your card stopped working.

Today, the high late payment fees hover around $39 per occurrence and are expected to creep up to $49 pretty soon. Today, your card still works past the limit for a little bit so that when your statement cycles, you can be charged an over-limit charge.

All fees and charges go on your balance and can result in even more fees and charges. All of this is perfectly legal because thanks to Smiley vs. CitiBank, there are no limits to dollar amount of fees and the number of fees you can be charged.

Today, compared to twenty years ago, fee income for credit card companies has more than doubled. This is where the credit card companies really make their money today.

Thanks to Smiley vs. CitiBank, there have been no aspects of the credit card loan interest and fee rates that have been regulated by law since 1986.

This means that these credit card companies can charge us whatever they want to, when they want to and it is all nice and legal...

Truth About Credit Cards: Minimum Payment Scam

Now, let’s talk about minimum payments. Back in the 1970s when banks wanted you to pay your credit card balances down to get their money back because they really didn’t make that much from the capped interest rates, it was the norm to expect no less than 5%, and even sometimes more, as a minimum monthly payment on your credit card balance.

This average of a 5% minimum payment each month was the norm for many years, that was until the credit card companies turned to a man named Andrew Kahr, who today very rarely grants interviews, and will only do interviews if reporters promise not to reveal what part of the country he lives in and who his clients are and were.

The big banks that were turning into credit card companies brought Andrew Kahr in to see how they could squeeze even more money out of the consumers they were now charging 20% interest.

Andrew looked at the psychology behind America’s emerging lack of financial responsibility in the 1980s and came up with a theory. Andrew felt that the 5% minimum payment was requiring the debtor to properly manage and worry about the amount of debt they took on, but that if the credit card companies lowered that minimum to a mere 2%, the debtor would have a much smaller minimum payment to worry about and would feel free to become relaxed about their debt management.

Not only was Andrew’s theory correct, it resulted in a fringe benefit for the credit card companies. See, at a 5% minimum, it would take you much less than half the time to pay off the debt that it would at a 2% minimum, and on top of it, the people making the 2% minimum still would think they were being financially responsible because they were not missing payments.

Today, the 2% minimum is industry wide and consumers take on a larger amount of debt because their monthly minimum payments are lower and all the while, it is taking them more than twice as long to pay off their debt, giving the credit card companies more chances at late payment fees and over-limit fees.

Truth About Credit Cards: Are You Friend Or Foe?

Some of this may be hard to hear, but believe me, it is important for consumers to know and understand this information. I've explained how the banks became credit card companies and I hope that we can all agree that someone who would borrow a dollar from you at 0.25% interest, then turn around and loan you that same dollar at over 20% interest, is not a friend.

So now, let me ask you if you are a friend or a foe of the credit card companies?

Don’t answer just yet...let me give you some more info first.

55 million Americans pay off their credit card balances down to $0 each and every month. The credit card industry calls those people “Deadbeats.” 90 million Americans do not pay off their credit card balances down to $0 each and every month. The credit card industry calls those people “Revolvers.”

Deadbeats are foes of the credit card industry and Revolvers are friends of the credit card industry. So, now, answer...are you a friend or a foe of the credit card industry?

Deadbeats are foes because the credit card company does not make any monthly interest off of them and does not make any fee income off of them with over-limit fees and late payments fees.

Though credit card companies make a small percentage from the merchants that the Deadbeats purchase from, that is all they ever get from Deadbeats.

Revolvers are wonderful friends of the credit card companies because they are able to make monthly finance charge income that, in turn, goes on top of the credit card balance, compounding to a point at which even the interest can result in over-limit and late fees. Revolvers are much more prone to miss payments or not make minimum payments, generating late payment fee income, again, which also compounds on top of the credit card balances.

So, now, answer...are you a friend or a foe of the credit card industry?

Truth About Credit Cards: Interest Rates

I have always considered myself in-the-know when it comes to credit and pride myself on what my little three-digit number is, but I just learned some very, very interesting things about credit cards that I am anxious to share.

First and foremost, today, we are going to take a look at credit card interest rates and how they became the monsters that they are today.

I don’t know if this stuff is new to all of you, but it was to me. Though it is hard to imagine in today’s world where the average American family has $8,000 worth of credit card debt at average interest rates that tower over 20%, there was once a day when credit card companies were real banks and were regulated like banks.

Let me take you back to the early 1970s for a picture of the credit card industry that is unimaginable today. See, back then, your bank and the bank that issued your credit cards made money from loaning money out at a higher interest rate than it paid on deposits.

Just like today, right? Well, not exactly.

Back then, there were state laws in place called Usury Laws that, in order to protect consumers, capped the interest rates that people could be charged on loans from banks. There was a limit for the rate for a new car loan, a limit for the rate for a used car loan, a limit for the rate for a mortgage, and yes, a limit for the rate for credit card loans.

Though we tend to forget today, that credit card balance is a loan. Credit cards were a small business back then and the credit card powerhouses of today were just banks that offered credit cards as one form of a loan.

So, what in the world happened? Well, in the late 1970s and early 1980s interest rates were skyrocketing. Credit card issuers, like CitiBank, were being forced to pay nearly 20% on its deposits to keep competitive with the market, but the New York State Usury Laws capped credit card interest at 12%.

Do the math and you’ll see that CitiBank was going to run out of money and run itself out of business with high interest rates on deposits and low interest rate caps on loans. With conditions like this, capitalism did what it is supposed to do and created an opportunity.

With Usury Laws capping loan interest rates in all 50 states, what if you were the one state that turned things upside down by eliminating the caps on interest rates, allowing banks to charge higher interest rates on loans?

Bill Janklow was elected governor of South Dakota and immediately asked that question. He, in a matter of mere weeks, pushed through legislation that revoked all Usury Laws in the state of South Dakota. So, long story short, CitiBank moves its credit card division to South Dakota and begins charging a rate higher than the going interest rate being paid on deposits in South Dakota. Shortly thereafter, other banks moved their credit card divisions to South Dakota, and then, seeing South Dakota’s new-found success, a few other states dropped their Usury Laws.

As bad as this was for consumers in these states who were once protected by Usury Laws, the final nail in the coffin on Usury Laws that capped loan interest rates came in the early 1980s with a court decision called the Marquette Decision that allowed all U.S. banks to export the non-capped rates of their home state to all other 50 states, thus, in essence, rendering all the Usury Laws in all the states null and void as long as a bank’s credit card headquarters was in a state without credit card Usury Laws.

So, in essence, following the Marquette Decision, there were no more caps on what banks could charge their customers for loans through credit cards. 

Needless to say, that as interest rates on deposits deflated and came down over the years, the banks never adjusted their credit card loan rates back down and today, while you get a 40-year low of 0.25% on a savings account from a bank, that same bank will charge you over 20% on the credit card you have with them.

With the Usury Laws null and void, it is perfectly legal for the bank to do this. 

The mass of income that this has generated over time as Americans became less and less responsible with their credit and personal finances turned those banks like CitiBank into credit card companies with credit card interest being their main money-maker.

How Wal-Mart Pricing Works...

The CEO of Wal-Mart will tell you (and I’ve seen the interviews, folks) that the giant chain does not get discounts from their vendors because they purchase from them in such large volumes.

Though he’s not telling the truth entirely, he’s not lying entirely, either. Here is how the big chain’s pricing edge works.

A local mom and pop tire store will purchase a tire for $18 from Goodyear. Wal-Mart will buy a very very similar tire from Goodyear for $6. Naturally, the final price the consumer pays at Wal-Mart is much lower than the price they will pay at the mom and pop tire store.

First, Goodyear can get away with charging Wal-Mart so much less for the tire because Wal-Mart buys a large volume of tires. Also, large chain stores like Wal-Mart do their own advertising, so Goodyear has absolutely $0 in promotional and marketing costs in order to sell the large number of tires that are purchased by Wal-Mart to be re-sold to the end consumer.

Now, you ask in your 1930s draw, “ain’t there laws a’gain’ it?” Yes, there is, but here is how they work.

The competition pricing laws, most passed during the 1930s, were designed to protect the end consumer from price fixing. The laws state that a company like Goodyear cannot sell the exact same tire at grossly different prices to different customers unless they can justify the cost difference as a saving to their own bottom line.

The lack of promotional and marketing costs are the justification for the price difference and what companies like Goodyear do is add a number or two to their model number or maybe a different notch in the tread pattern and they are now no longer selling the same exact tire to the mom and pops as they are to Wal-Mart.

So, between the “different” tire and the “justification” of the price difference, the mom and pops do not have a leg to stand on.

To seal the deal, all of the 1930s competition laws state that in all cases, the consumer must be the end beneficiary of any intervention, so when the consumer can save 2/3 of their money by buying from the chain, there aren’t many lawmakers out there who are going to want to force the consumer to buy from the mom and pops.

Remember Where It Started...

As reports are being released and the quality of the intelligence that led us to war in Iraq is coming under fire, it is important for us to remember a few important things.

Most notably, President Bush did not undertake the gathering of intelligence himself, nor did he misinterpret the intelligence. Though we may all be in agreement that the intelligence was bad, it was not the President’s fault that he received bad intelligence.

The President was right to rely on the intelligence provided to him from the CIA, intelligence from the world community, and yes, even intelligence from the UN.

Also, it is important to remember that despite what the media is trying to throw at us everyday, many elements of the intelligence were, in fact, quite true. Also, it is important to remember that the US policy prior to President Bush coming into office was one of containment when it came to Saddam Hussein.

The problem with just holding him at bay was that he was in the midst of beefing up his long-range missile development program and developing long-range missiles with chemical and possibly nuclear warheads. The only thing keeping the Iraqi regime from being nuclear capable was purchasing the material at a time when Pakistan was selling nuclear material left and right.

These were missiles that could have hit Turkey, Israel, Greece, Saudi Arabia and other Mediterranean and Middle Eastern nations. Intelligence on the missile program came from the UN, so this is not a Bush-led conspiracy, folks.

Another key point to remember as the Democrats in Congress moan about the quality of intelligence that came from the CIA is that it was many of those very same Democrats that supported the Clinton administration and it was the Clinton administration that cut back military and intelligence spending in the years before 9/11.

It was the Clinton administration who continually robbed the CIA of the hands-on intelligence gathering methods of the Cold War that kept us safe. It was the Clinton administration that put us in a position where we were relying on satellite passes instead of boots on the ground.

And lastly, we still cannot ever forget that it was the Clinton administration that sat back in 1993 and in 1997 and in 1998 when U.S. targets at home and abroad were attacked by Al-Qaeda terrorists.

Michael Moore will point out that the Taliban sent an envoy to the U.S. that was welcomed in Texas, even though they were harboring Osama Bin Laden, but he doesn’t mention that his buddy Willy Jeff refused time and time again to capture or kill Bin Laden himself when the CIA had him in their sights.

Michael Moore will even go as far as to claim that he’s not pro-Democrat, too, but rather an independent, trying to show both sides of the story. Instead of calling our President a liar over botched intelligence, people like Michael Moore should be looking into why the intelligence sucked in the first place...the military cutbacks that Democrats demanded.

Constitutional Crisis in 1876

If you think the presidential election of 2000 was ugly, you should have been around for the election of 1876.

Waged against the backdrop of Reconstruction, the race pitted Democrat Samuel J. Tilden, a reform-minded New York governor, against Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, a three-term governor of Ohio.

Amid vote-buying, intimidation and political skullduggery of the most blatant sort, three states, Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina, submitted two sets of electoral votes, one for Hayes and one for Tilden.

A constitutional crisis ensued, and Congress appointed a special election commission to sort out the disputed votes.

Then, in a backroom deal, the Republican-controlled commission asked Southern Democrats to award all 19 disputed votes to Hayes, and in return, once president, Hayes would withdraw all federal troops from the South.

The bribe was accepted by the Democrats and Hayes ended up with 185 electoral votes to Tilden’s 184. For the next four years, bitter Democrats called the new president “Rutherfraud” and Tilden “President Tilden.” Tilden called the debacle “the greatest political crime of our history.”

Let's Blame Correctly...

We are none of us perfect, but I believe one of the greatest strengths of a man is to know himself.

To know himself, what he is capable of and what his weaknesses are and to ensure that on every occasion throughout the course of his life, he does whatever is necessary to ensure that his weaknesses do not result in harm to others.

This is why, ultimately, I do not think Willy Jeff Clinton should have been President.

I think he should have known that he was unfit to lead this nation because of his lack of character in a very specific area, but the glowing prize was too valuable to him to have the foresight to see the damage he would do to this nation and the disappointment it would bring to people like myself who at one point in our lives, supported him.

We are today, a nation divided.

Reagan brought this country together like never before. George 41 didn’t split it and despite the fact that most liberals will blame it on George 43, I believe the rift that sent so many people either to the far left or the far right was created during term #2 of ol’ #42, Willy “Moist Cigar” Clinton.

The greatest insight into the mentality of the man and his character can most clearly bee seen in his final explanation that he did all of this simply because he knew he could get away with it because he was the President.

Unchecked School Administrators

Well, here we go again with school...

Shiba Pillai-Diaz is a middle school teacher in New Jersey. She decided to decorate her classroom’s bulletin board with an American theme. So, she put up an American flag, a poster of the Declaration of Independence and portraits of several U.S. Presidents. Wanna hear why she had to take the bulletin board down?

There were enough parents and spineless school administrators who listened to those parents, that’s why!

What was their complaint? Well, one of the pictures of the U.S. Presidents was George W. Bush, the current sitting President, and whiny parents said that if this teacher was going to have a picture of George W. Bush up, she should have a picture of John Kerry up too, to be fair.

She was given a choice...put John Kerry up on the bulletin board, or take the whole thing down. So, when we put up pictures of the Presidents of the United States of America, do we now need to include the current Presidential Candidates as well?

According to these parents and this teacher’s bosses, we do. So, is this where we are at in America? Our teachers cannot put up a picture of a sitting President during his re-election without putting up pictures of the people running against him?

Now, hold on a second...understand what you just read? I said “people,” didn’t I? Yes, there is more than one person running against George W. Bush in this election, but there was only an outcry for John Kerry’s picture, not an outcry for pictures of each of the Presidential Candidates. What do we call that, boys and girls? We call that hypocrisy.

Parents claimed it was unfair for the teacher to put up just Bush’s picture and whined for Kerry’s picture. They did not, however, whine for pictures of all of the candidates...just their candidate. Why did they want Kerry up on the bulletin board? They said it was to be fair, but I must call them on the fact that it is just because it’s their candidate, not because they are looking for something to be fair.

“Damn Right I’m Paranoid!”

At times, I have been accused of being paranoid. Maybe it is because I love to watch documentaries on crime so that I can stay informed on the criminal mind that is constantly working against us, the people who work for a living.

If always keeping in mind that there are dangerous people out there and being wary of placing myself in situations where they can get at me and my loved ones is paranoia, then I welcome being called paranoid.

Did you grow up in a neighborhood where gunfire broke the night silence at least once a week? I did. It may sound like an after-school special, or a sub-plot from Boyz N' The Hood, but by the time I graduated from high school, I’d been to five funerals of murder victims that I had known personally...and I grew up in Orange County, California.

Maybe that’s why I have an understanding that there are people and places in the country that are dangerous. Why, just last Friday, there was a shooting in Newport Beach and the suspect fled down the 73 South, the same toll road Teresa and I use everyday. Did I see the suspect? No, but I did almost get hit by a Newport Beach Patrol Car that passed me on Pacific Park in the bike lane, racing to catch up with the chase without his siren or lights on.

This guy’s sworn duty is to protect me and he almost killed me with his pursuit-induced bad driving, so can you image the capability of doing damage of someone who is intending to hurt me?

Now, I am not endorsing that we all live in fear, and I do not consider how I live living in fear, but it cannot hurt to be cautious of our surroundings and to watch for warning signs.

Last Friday, in Kansas City...why is it that when a meat-packing plant worker has walked into the plant and murdered five people, it seems like everyone saw it coming, but did nothing about it other than to stand around afterwards and say, “I knew it was going to happen.” Were they afraid of being accused of paranoia?

We live in an America where you can be at work and have a co-worker standing in front of you, gun in hand, and literally passing judgement by saying, “You haven’t done anything to me, so you can go,” then moving on to the next co-worker.

You’d better hope you didn’t accidentally spill coffee on this guy yesterday, or have taken too long in the bathroom when he needed to use it, because today is the day that he is going to walk in and end your life for it.

Oh, but I’m paranoid...

Is Democracy Temporary?

You may recall hearing a quote from Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at The University of Edinburgh, about “The Fall of The Athenian Republic” some 2,000 years prior. It was written about the time our original 13 states adopted their new constitution in the year 1787.

Here’s what he had to say: “A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship.”

The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence: From Bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to complacency; From complacency to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage.

More recently, Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning our 2000 Presidential election:

Population of counties won by:
Gore = 127 million
Bush = 143 million

Square miles of land won by:
Gore = 580,000
Bush = 2,427,000

States Won By
Gore = 19
Bush = 29

Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by:
Gore = 13.2
Bush = 2.1

Professor Olson adds: “In aggregate, the map of the territory Bush won was mostly the land owned by the tax-paying citizens of this great country. Gore’s territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in government-owned tenements and living off government welfare...”

Olson believes the U.S. is now somewhere between the “complacency and “apathy” phase of Professor Tyler’s definition of democracy; with some 40 percent of the nation’s population already having reached the “governmental dependency” phase. It comes as no surprise that the team of Kerry/Edwards is appealing to the same electorate. There’s a lot at stake in this Election Year and apathy is the greatest danger to our freedom.

Thomas H. Moorer: A Story That Must Be Shared...

Thomas H. Moorer, died in February 2004. I am saddened that I did not know who he was until I read his obituary.

Thomas H. Moorer was most well-known for his appointment to chief of naval operations by Lyndon Johnson in 1967 and for his service on the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Vietnam War. Moorer’s story is a very fascinating one.

Moorer was a Navy lieutenant pilot stationed at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. He was one of the few pilots who actually got airborne that morning and fought in the air against attacking Japanese fighters.

A year later, while leading a push back against Japanese forces moving towards Australia, Moorer and his crew were shot down by a swarm of nine Japanese fighters. Moorer bounced his plane off the water three times, slowing it and finally making a successful water landing. After being adrift, Moorer and his crew were rescued by a Philippine freighter.

Amazingly, just minutes after they were pulled from the water, the Philippine freighter was attacked by Japanese dive bombers and sunk. Moorer led the ship’s evacuation into two life boats and successfully guided the survivors to a deserted island, where, finally, two days later, Australian fliers saw the large S.O.S. that Moorer and his men had made on the sand from beach debris.

Moorer would go on to become the navy’s youngest rear admiral in history at age 45 in 1958. Moorer would later be appointed to the Joint Chiefs and serve as Chairman from 1972 to 1974. Upon his passing, I felt it only right to tell his amazing story and to thank him for his service.

Why Ethics Are In Decline...

There are two reasons that I am writing about business and ethics again today. 

Reason #1: At the end of May, I began receiving emails from Strong Financial, my former investment company that became my former investment company after it’s founder and captain, Dick Strong was caught using time zones and different closing times of international markets to pad his own personal stake in the company. These emails were talking about how exciting it was for Strong Financial customers that Strong Financial was going to be “merged” into Wells Fargo, thus resulting in access to new Wells Fargo investments. I must admit that I had a very difficult time getting excited about this because I knew that the only reason these Wells Fargo investments were being made available to me was because Dick Strong acted in an unethical manner, was caught, and forced out of his leadership positions, resulting in the fail of Strong Financial and the necessity for it to be picked up by Wells Fargo in order to survive. Could you imagine spending your life building a company, then losing it just because you got a little greedy? This time-zone play was wrong and Dick Strong knew that it was wrong, and now his life’s work is going to end up as part of a division of Wells Fargo.

Reason #2: Teresa was at traffic school this past Saturday and re-told to me a story that the class’s instructor told her. When this instructor was a young girl, her family was involved in a car accident while on a road trip. The evening of the accident, the instructor and her sister found themselves in a strange town with nowhere to stay the night while their parents were in the hospital being treated for their injuries. The instructor’s mother called for a priest and the priest found a family for the girls to spend the night with that lived in the same town that the hospital was in. As the instructor was telling the story to Teresa’s traffic school class, she commented on how things were different back then and how people could be trusted.

We all know that things were different back then, but then this led me to ponder the question of why we have accepted this decline in ethics over time.

There is no question that, on the whole, American society grows more and more unethical every year. American business can do little but follow that trend because American business is made up of the same individuals that make up American society.

Ethics do not decline overnight, so there is not a clear-cut morning where we wake up and things are suddenly unethical, but even though this slide of ethics has occurred over decades, I cannot help but ponder why there are so many people out there in the business world that tolerate loose ethics, or a lack of ethics altogether, from the people they do business with and the people that they employ.

Why does an 18 year-old kid in the work place today think it is perfectly all right to sit in the company bathroom and text message his friends while on the clock? Is it technology’s fault? Is it how children are raised now as opposed to then?

It may be part of the reason, but what I am coming to believe is that the largest portion of blame for this slide in ethics lies with people out there in the business world who tolerate it.

Ethics thrive when unethical behavior is not tolerated, therefore, naturally, ethics decline when unethical behavior is tolerated. The text messaging kid’s managers know what he is doing, but they continue to let it happen. If the company’s owner knew what the kid was doing, he would be fired, but why do the managers tolerate this unethical behavior? Their tolerance of it not only allows his unethical behavior to continue, but contributes to the rise of unethical behavior from others at the company as well.

So, what can we as business owners and professionals do to ensure that ethics stop declining? Never tolerate unethical behavior from those we do business with and those that work for us.

To Spend Your Days In Castles...

There is not a single day that goes by that I am not thankful for the job I have, running and growing my own business by helping other business owners run and grow their companies. I truly have a dream job.

That being said, it is very rare for me to read about someone who is doing a job that results in a bit of a smile and just a little bit of envy or wonderment.

In a recent issue of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance a quote caught my eye. “I don’t do very much other than write about, talk about and drink Scotch.” Believe it or not, there is a Scotsman who actually makes his living doing this. His name is Charles MacLean, a 52 year-old native of Scotland who went to law school, but is today the foremost writer and critic of whiskey in the world.

Charles MacLean knows the Latin name for all of the different trees that aging barrels are made out of and can even quote just about every line that has ever been written about whiskey in famous literature the world over.

To MacLean, a whiskey as old as him is still young compared to the century-old tastes that he is used to. A new whiskey drinker might think Glenfiddich goes down a little rough, but MacLean has been known to call Glenfiddich “sort of girly.”

Respected, envied and sought-after top whiskey critic...if that’s not living, then I don’t know what is...

Las Vegas Casino Security

If you’ve ever stepped foot into a Las Vegas casino, let alone had the opportunity to meet some of the security personnel, you know that a Las Vegas casino is an “expert” when it comes to security.

The average start-up cost for casino security is $56.5 million dollars. Las Vegas casino security is at such a level of expertise that the Department of Homeland Security is currently looking to Las Vegas casinos to help them in keeping America safe through training DHS officers on security.

We all know that security is pretty tight at a Las Vegas casino, but there are some interesting things that I just learned.

If a suspicious character is picked up in the lobby or gaming area of one casino in Las Vegas, his image and profile is sent to virtually every other casino in town to alert security personnel.

In many casinos, there are little cameras in the table, right underneath the dealer, watching their every move.

Bell captains are checking all luggage that is checked at the casino to ensure that the guest who left the bags is staying in the hotel and remains registered at the hotel.

When you use your key card to enter your room, IT and camera equipment is logging when you entered your room and recording video of the hallway to create a record of who is coming in and out of your room when a key card is used.

Cameras in the hallways are fitted with special software that send an alert to security staff if any large objects are brought in or moved out.

There are video cameras rolling and recording license plates at the valet and in driveways, recording numbers into a database.

Try not to be too paranoid next time you're at a Las Vegas casino, but believe me, they are watching your every move...

Move Over Nevada, Here Comes California and Lee Baca...

As you may recall, a few years back, Californians voted to allow California’s Native American tribes to use gambling in order to pull their people out of poverty.

I will be the first to admit that usually gambling and the theory behind it generating revenue sounds wonderful at first, but then later leads to an array of negative social impacts.

I think, however, that for the most part, legalized gambling on California’s reservations has had a positive impact. Today, however, I’m not bringing up legalized gambling for Native Americans because of the moral issues. The side-effect of legalized gambling in California that I am talking about is the side-effect of politician after politician then using legalized gambling as a solve-all for the entire society’s economic problems.

We voted to give gambling to the Native American tribes because they were impoverished. We obviously felt bad for this entire sub-group of Americans because other than the land we took from the Spanish, bought from the French or the Russians (of course, after those folks took it from the Native Americans), our government directly took all of the land that makes up the U.S. from this group of people’s ancestors.

I, myself, am descended from a line of the Blackfoot people who had their land taken away. So, I think Californians did a good thing by giving the Native American tribes a way out of poverty.

For the most part, this has worked and has had a positive impact.

Now that it has worked, though, the California politicians, like LA County Sheriff Lee Baca, want their share of the money. Is Lee Baca and his cohorts blaming Gray Davis for the financial state of California’s Sheriff Departments? No, of course not, they are blaming it on the successful Native American gambling tribes because they are not paying taxes.

These people do not pay taxes because they are considered to be a sovereign nation within the borders of the U.S. This is due to the treaties that the U.S. Government made with their forefathers.

Not like it has never been done before, but Lee Baca wants us to tear up that treaty and get these Native American tribes paying 25% of their gambling revenue to the State of California.

You may soon see folks outside your grocery store with petitions trying to get this on the ballot. You may even receive a petition in the mail like I did with a letter from Lee Baca explaining how these Native Americans and their lack of paying taxes are going to contribute to the death of California’s Sheriff Deputies and result in tax increases for all hard-working Californians.

Nowhere in this letter does Baca address the financial debacle of Davis and his cohorts, but he is sure ready to blame the state’s money problems on people who are not required by law to pay taxes, and a 25% tax at that.

Now, are you ready for an even better one? This petition that Lee Baca is supporting and asking you to sign is going to also increase state revenue by adding 30,000 slot machines to the already legal card clubs and race tracks in California.

If this one passes, how far are we from completely legalizing gambling in the state of California? Well, we would sure be a hell of a lot closer than we were five years ago.

Baca claims to be worried about the number of Deputies that he is going to have to cut from patrols, but how many more criminals are we inviting to our state by further legalizing gambling?

Please do all of California a favor and do not sign this petition. It is going to bring another 30,000 slot machines to California and not to reservation casinos, but to neighborhoods where people live and are raising their children.

Lee Baca and his cohorts say that the Native American tribes owe Californians because we have “given them” a monopoly on gambling. Hey, not too bad...they got gambling and we got to destroy their entire civilization because it fit our national interest best and got to steal an entire nation’s worth of land from their great-grandparents so the government could turn around and sell it to us at $50,000 an acre.

Our government destroyed their way of life, so the least they can do is pay us 25% of their gambling earnings, right?

Did They Just Tell Me "No"?

Why do you hire an expert?

Well, it is because of the expertise that they have that you do not.

So, what do you do when you don’t agree with what the expert you have hired has recommended?

Take a minute to pause and think back to what Edmund Burke once said. “Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment, and he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion.”

That’s a mouthful, but read it a couple of times. What it is saying is that the expert you hired has a duty to tell you “no” when that expert knows that his opinion is correct and yours is not.

The expert that you hired is not trying to push you around, not trying to get you going, not trying to do anything but to serve you in the capacity in which you hired them to serve you.

The expert is speaking from experiences that you do not have...the lack of experience which is the very reason that you hired that expert.

So don’t get upset when you are told “no” by your expert, but instead, take the time to understand where the “no” is coming from...the experience and expertise of the expert.

Giving Thanks When It’s Due...

I always try to remember to give credit where credit is due and I just ran across an article that made me feel the need to sound off with some thanks.

The new mayor of Hartford, Connecticut is a guy named Eddie Perez. Growing up in the bad part of Hartford with his single mom and eight siblings, Mayor Perez was once known on the streets as “The Professor” and ran with a gang he co-founded with some other young male family members.

Perez gives credit to getting involved in the community as to the reason that he turned his life around and started doing some good.

I grew up in the bad part of town and I grew up around guys just like Eddie Perez. One of the things that Perez commented on in an interview was that as he learns about the kids he grew up with, he finds that about 90% of them died from drugs or a life of crime, ended up in jail, or have no measure of success in their life whatsoever.

Hearing that 90% figure and seeing what Eddie Perez did with his life led me to think back on the loving family that I had around me and the wonderful friends that I made that not only accepted the kid from the poor side of town as their friend, but those friends and their families that, without even knowing it, showed me that there was a better life for me out there than the one my fellow neighborhood kids were choosing.

It was, in fact, for me, my family and friends and their belief in me that showed me the way. I must thank you all, my friends, and I must thank my family for this wonderful gift of a better life...Each moment spent with you and each lesson learned was a stroke on a canvas that would materialize into my American dream...

America Back On The Moon?

It almost seems trivial to be discussing space exploration at this point in American history, but I guess I must agree that we must keep on reaching for the America of tomorrow.

How else are we going to one day unite the world under the People’s Democratic Republic of the United States of the World? How many stars are on that flag?

I’m OK at looking towards space again as long as enough government is still working to keep us safe from terrorism before we are forced to divert those resources into figuring out how to defend ourselves from the subterranean Martians that we are going to piss off one day by landing on their planet.

First and foremost, despite the tragedies of 1986 and 2003, a push back to the moon, then on to Mars will most-likely result in the retiring of our space shuttles. As someone who grew up and aged with them, I will be sad to see the shuttles go, but we all know that they have outlived their mission.

The shuttles represent so much of the America that I grew up in...the America that finally defeated the Soviets and won the Cold War. As we bid farewell to our old work-horses, we will then need to decide if we launch our next round of moon missions direct from Earth or from the International Space Station. Will we see a new shuttle-like craft for transporting people and cargo to the space station? Will we see a new generation of Saturn 5-style rockets, or will we see both?

Either way, the best experts agree that for the sheer sake of technological advancements and the continually falling cost of that technology, man will be back on the moon within 15 years.

They say we will build a moon colony this time around and will have the technology for permanent residence on the moon. Yet another pristine, virtually untouched planet for us to litter with empty potato chip bags!

Once we have established our moon base, it will be time then to look to Mars, which these same experts say man will step foot on in about 25 to 30 years. I truly would love to see man on Mars before the end of my lifetime, but I must admit that I wonder how it will fit into our ever-changing lives here on Earth and which of man’s weaknesses and political and ethical quandaries will follow us up into the stars...who am I kidding? We all know that it will be all of them.

So, here is to empty Doritos bags littering the Martian countryside because, at least, as William Burrows pointed out in the WSJ, we will have spare humans on other worlds so that humans will survive when we finally destroy the Earth.

So, now that we have the pipe dream in place and can rest assured that we will not need to divvy up the surface of the moon with the evil Soviet empire this time around, how in the world are we going to pay for all of this? Well, that’s what they said before we went to the moon the first time and we managed to pay that bill off.

We’ll just have to sit back, keep paying our taxes, and see what happens.

Saving At Its Worst...

At this point in the economic game, any American who actually manages to save some money should be praised, but there’s a right way and a wrong way to do it.

A Pennsylvania man that was not named by The Week Magazine, most likely so he wouldn’t be bombarded with calls from financial planners, recently walked into a bank with 37 4 1/2 gallon buckets filled with pennies he had accumulated over 40 years.

The pennies totaled $10,060. Putting $10K away over 40 years is not extraordinary, but with more Americans not saving anything at all, it’s not too bad.

My problem, however, is that if this guy had started putting the $251.50 he was averaging per year in pennies into an investment that returned even 5% per year, he’d have $20,252 instead of $10,060, even after paying taxes.

Putting these pennies in buckets instead of investing them was a monumental mistake.

“Some people don’t think pennies add up to anything,” this man’s wife was quoted as saying.

I’d love to have seen the look on her proud face when she found out that an annual trip to the bank with these pennies could have doubled their money.

What Is Insider Trading?

Sure it looks fun in the movies and it is basically what started this whole Martha Stewart mess, but how many of us understand insider trading?

Well, there are a good deal of gray areas when it comes to the insider trading laws, much like how traffic laws are open to interpretation but can still land you in jail based on how they are interpreted.

Insider trading laws were enacted in a five-year period following the 1929 crash to combat some common abuses of the era.

Basically, it is illegal for you buy or sell shares of a company based on information that you receive from an officer or key employee of that company.

If this individual tells you, or in some other way, provides information to you that they believe will, or is commonly known to, effect share price and you then go and buy or sell shares in that company, you have then committed a crime.

Here’s the kicker. If the person telling you this information is not an employee of that company nor discloses to you that they heard this information from an employee of the company, you can buy and sell all that you want to with this information, completely legally.

If you are walking down the street and find a memo that says Microsoft is going to stop selling software and develop a new line of oven mitts, you can legally act on that information. More so, if you break into Bill Gates’s house and see this memo on his desk, you can be prosecuted for breaking into his house, but you can buy, buy, buy and sell, sell, sell, fully legally with the information that you saw while you were illegally in his home.

But, if you hear it from a Microsoft employee and you act on it before it becomes public knowledge, you can end up in jail for insider trading.

Back In 1904...

Back in 1904...

...the average life expectancy in the U.S. was 47 years.
...only 14% of U.S. homes had a bathtub.
...only 8% of U.S. homes had a telephone.
...a 3-minute call from Denver to New York City cost $11.
...there were only 8,000 cars in the U.S., and only 144 miles of paved roads.
...the maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 miles per hour.
...Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California.
...California was only the 21st most populous state with a mere 1.4 million residents.
...the tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower.
...the average wage in the U.S. was 22 cents an hour.
...the average U.S. worker made between $200 and $400 per year.
...a competent accountant could expect to earn $2,000 per year, a dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.
...more than 95% of all births in the U.S. took place at home.
...90% of all U.S. physicians had no college education. Instead, they attended medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press and by the government as "substandard".
...sugar cost four cents a pound.
...eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.
...coffee was fifteen cents a pound.
...most women only washed their hair once a month, and used borax or egg yolks for shampoo.
...Canada passed a law prohibiting poor people from entering the country for any reason.
...the five leading causes of death in the U.S. were: 1. Pneumonia and influenza, 2. Tuberculosis, 3. Diarrhea, 4. Heart disease, 5. Stroke.
...the American flag had 45 stars.
...Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Alaska hadn’t been admitted to the Union yet.
...the population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was 30.
...crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea hadn’t been invented yet.
...there was no Mother’s Day or Father’s Day.
...20% of U.S. adults couldn’t read or write.
...only 6% of all Americans had graduated high school.
...marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at corner drugstores. According to one pharmacist, "Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health."
...18% of households in the U.S had at least one full-time servant or domestic.
...there were only about 230 reported murders in the entire U.S.
...letters could take months to travel the world. This information came to me in an "electronic" mail, "copied and pasted" by me into a "software program" on a "computer" and delivered to you via the World Wide Web that involves no paper, writing, or teamsters (who drove horses in 1904), in just a couple of seconds...try to imagine what it may be like in another 100 years...

Some Horrid Hiring Stories...

Let’s face it...good people are hard to find. It is important for us to make sure that our hiring processes are not costing us extremely talented and dedicated personnel.

Whether we conduct the interviews ourselves, or delegate that responsibility to one of our managers, I think it is important for all of us to continually monitor our hiring practices to ensure quality. Let me share with you some of the situations that I have recently heard of prospective employees enduring.

First, be sure that the person doing the hiring knows the ins and outs of the company’s policies and procedures. Imagine that you go on an interview, let the person doing the hiring know that your main focus for taking the job is not necessarily the pay rate, but the hours and the health benefits offered by the company. Later, after accepting the job, you come to find out that your training is during hours you said you would be unavailable and the health insurance benefits that you were told started in two months, actually do not start for six months.

How many times have we all been on job interviews where we were told that a decision would be made by the end of the day and that if we did not hear from the person doing the hiring by the end of that day, we could assume that we did not get the job? I had my share of interviews back in the day and folks back then got back to you right away, but what I am hearing is that now-a-days, prospective employers are telling prospective employees this, not getting back to them at the end of the day, taking a few days to consider applicants without contacting them, then calling to offer jobs two to three days later.

Naturally, a prospective employee has other interviews and in each case, the prospective employee had taken another job by the time the person who told them to assume they did not get the job without a call by the end of the day called them back. In each case, the prospective employer lost the candidate that they felt was most qualified, simply because they did not follow through.

Keep in mind that even if you have not made a decision, if you have told prospective employees to assume they did not get the job if they do not hear from you by the end of the day, you should call and let them know you are still considering the candidates. Why would they do anything other than assume they did not get the job if they have not heard from you? All we are talking about here is professional courtesy. Make the calls in your last hour at the office, or on the way home, but do not leave people hanging...that’s just rude and translates into bad business.

Lastly, though it is important to take the time necessary to consider candidates for a position, we must also consider and understand that in many cases, the candidates are interviewing with other companies so though decisions should be thorough, we must take care not to drag out the interview process too long.

For example, one prospective employee went on a job interview on August 12th and was told that the employer was interested in hiring her, but that a second interview was required. Then, there is no word from the prospective employer until two weeks later, when on August 26th, the prospective employee is asked to come in for a second interview on August 28th, a full 16 days after the first interview. Naturally, the prospective employee had already been hired by someone else, again, a loss to the employer.

Does Quality Suffer When Business Is Booming?

On a trip to the Fashion Island Daily Grill on Sunday for breakfast, the extremely slow service gave us time to talk about the nature of why we were receiving slow service.

Why is it that I could walk into the restaurant on Saturday at 11:00 a.m. and get perfectly wonderful service, yet when I walked into that same restaurant on Sunday at 11:00 a.m., I received absolutely horrible service?

Now, before you think immediately to factoring in church, the golf course, and any other things that drive more people to the restaurant on Sunday, I would like to propose a point...Whether the restaurant is more crowded on Sunday or not, should I not expect the same level of service on a Sunday?

I think it is up to the manager of the restaurant to ensure that there is enough staff on hand on a busier day, not to just expect that the customers will allow a lower level service because the restaurant is busier. Believe it or not, I was told by the waiter that the bad service I received was because there were just so many tables today...I found it funny because it didn’t look like they brought in more tables...yes, ha, ha, I know what he meant, but why was the service level lower because it was more crowded?

I think the answer is because management did not take the proper steps to ensure that the same high quality of service can be provided, whether the restaurant is half full or completely full.

My point here is that I think each of us need to look at how we provide service to our customers when times are slow and compare it to the service we provide when things are busy. Is the customer suffering because you are busy? They shouldn’t be. It is up to us to take the steps necessary to ensure consistency of service no matter how slow or busy things are for us.

Online Ads...On The Rise?

Even more evidence that the dot-com black hole may have reached infinite zero and is again expanding can be found in the latest numbers for Internet advertising.

C’mon, you remember when there were salesmen who wanted to sell you banner ad space on their web site? They were the guys that would take shares of stock instead of money as payment.

Anyway, enough of the history lesson...Believe it or not, spending for online advertisements is expected to be higher in 2003 than 2002, the first increase since 1999.

If that doesn’t shock you, how about what that figure for 2003 will be...$6.3 billion. Still not surprised? Online advertising will increase for 2003, but other media such as radio, TV and print will not.

Why Is Ben On The C-Note?

Have you ever wondered why Benjamin Franklin is the only person featured on American paper currency who is not a former President of the United States? To find the answer, we must travel back to Ben Franklin’s day, but make a quick stop in an America on the brink of civil war.

When Abraham Lincoln took over the presidency, despite nearly one hundred years of existence, our fine country still did not have a federal, nation-wide currency. Realizing that war was eminent, and that a federal currency would be needed to fund and control war-time spending in the North, Mr. Lincoln ordered the first printing of the US federal dollar.

So, what did America do for money for the first hundred years? Would you believe that local banks printed currency notes themselves? You went to your bank, withdrew a note for a pre-designated amount and traded it with a store owner for goods on the pretense that the store owner could go to your bank and draw on the bank’s funds or have money put in his account to cover the amount of your purchase.

Bank notes back then worked much like a check works today. One of the main problems with this bank note system was that at any given time in pre-Lincoln America, up to 2/3 of the bank notes being passed around were counterfeit. In fact, one of the major British war efforts in the 1770s was to flood the American colonies with fake bank notes to destabilize our new, independent economy.

Some of the bank notes were easily forged by the monarchy, while others were very difficult to copy. And whose were the most difficult to copy? Why, the ones designed and printed by Mr. Benjamin Franklin of Philadelphia, or course. Hence, the well-deserved honor of gracing the $100 bill.

My “Fellow” “Americans”...

So, I’m flipping channels the other night and come across a little TV show called “Are You Hot?”. Now, maybe I don’t see a yellow-tinted-glasses-wearing Lorenzo Llamas or a badly-aging Rachael Hunter judging the looks and sex appeal of the common idiot masses as entertainment, but apparently there are millions out there who do.

Please note that when I talk about America, it’s usually, “us,” but when it comes to reality television and the dramas we all just have to watch, folks, there’s usually me and everybody else. I’ve never watched a single episode of The Sopranos. Do I totally love real-life mobster stories? You bet. Do I totally love an intriguing mystery/action novel? You bet. Do I enjoy being the only one in the room that hasn’t seen a single episode of Survivor, Fear Factor, or Who Wants To Marry Some Dumbass Who Wants To Marry Someone On Live TV? See the pattern? You bet!

There was a time when I enjoyed going to a little Italian Restaurant/Irish Bar called BirraPoretti’s at South Coast Plaza. The law aside, I started going there when I was 15 and spent countless hours upon hours enjoying their wonderful Italian food, Guinness on tap, and conversation with the well-dressed, properly-mannered clientele that made up the crowd there for many-a-year. I actually wrote some of my best stuff at one of the tables in the back corner of the bar there.

Then, about four years ago, after decades of a prosperous business model, some dumbass decided to move the tables out of the corners and put big screen TVs in their place. I can call on over twenty witnesses that will tell you, when they put those TVs in, William said, “I give them five years, tops, then they’ll be out of business.” TVs led to the dress code, the dress code led to football jerseys and a slip in food quality, which led to the menu changing, which led to no where. Guess whose doors are closed forever? Thanks, TV! You ruined Birra’s for me!

Now, just when you thought reali-shitty TV could not get any worse, Fox is proud to bring you, “Married By America.” On this one, single folks who haven’t been able to find their significant other are going to be paired up in matrimony by their fellow idiots...sorry, I mean peers. So, these morons are going to let “America” pick their soul mate and then they are going to get married before even meeting each other while “America” watches.

No matter what we’re arguing about and no matter what position you are in during the argument, there seems to be two “Americas.” There’s a 98% and a 2% that used to be a 97% and a 3%. There’s a something-% and a something-% when it comes to every aspect of America. So, while there’s 98% who enjoy reality TV, there’s the 2% of us who do not. So, what’s wrong with those of us who think MTV should show some god-damned music videos once in a while and force those f-ing Real World kids to get lives and jobs? What’s wrong with those of us who aren’t shocked and amazed that some construction worker is experiencing guilt over lying to a group of gold-diggers who are after his fictitious money? Nothing, really, it’s just that we’ve made the choice to experience life ourselves, instead of relishing in other people’s triumphs and defeats (if you can even all them that) while we sit in front of an appliance.

There is so much wonder going on in my romantic life that I don’t need to worry about who J-Lo is screwing this month, even though whenever I watch a 24-hour news channel, I have to turn off the last 15 minutes of every hour because they want to tell me. There are so many wonderful and intriguing people around me that I’ve never had to watch “Friends.” There are too many wonderful things out there in the world to be learned and enjoyed and there is so much to be done in the short time we own this wonderful gift of life. Am I the only one whose life is so full that I don’t have time, nor care enough, to know who’s getting the rose and who’s getting booted of the island, or fjord, or whatever the hell it is this season?

All right, All right, now, I’m not just bashing reali-shitty TV for no reason here...I have a message. See, like I said, there is in America, always two “Americas,” and there is no exception here. How is it that I am able to recite the gist of these shows without every having watched a single one? Between advertising, the buzz, and the media, they’re bombarding the 98%. You don’t want to be the only one at the water cooler tomorrow who didn’t watch, do you?!

So, watch up, 98%, because that still leaves 2% of us that are going to look back and relish in our accomplishments. We’re going to smile, knowing we can’t tell you who won American Idol this year, but could tell you the socio-economic reasons Saudi Arabia backed the Taliban (both sets of information are coming from the same appliance, people). One group of kids will settle into couch-potato-ism and another set of kids will one day lead America. 2% is going to hand a generation’s worth of growth, industry, and prosperity over to the next generation, knowing that thanks to things like reali-shitty TV, they will have even less competition than we did. 98% is going to leave their next generation Yoga DVDs by actual Real World cast members and memories of Darvas, Richard Hatches, people who will put their heads in a box full of scorpions if the price is right, and sports fanatics who can’t turn the game off long enough to sing “Happy Birthday” to their wife or kids. And yes, I’ve even seen that. Grown men actually reading the closed captions on a game while they sang, one eye on their kid and one eye on the game!

The Lesson Of Columbia

The first time I saw the space shuttle Columbia, I was six years old, sitting on the floor of my grandmother’s den, watching the very first launch of a space shuttle into space in 1981. The very last time I saw Columbia, I was lying on the floor of my living room, talking on the phone with my brother who was not even born until over four years after Columbia made her maiden voyage into space. I had gone to sleep just a couple of hours before we lost Columbia on Saturday.

On the morning of January 28, 1986, I was on a whale watching field trip with my sixth grade class and I missed the launch of the Challenger. I was actually sitting on the beach in Newport, eating lunch when I heard what had happened that morning. 

I pride myself on my patriotism and being appreciative of the gifts I have been given by this nation, but I am afraid that I, too, was guilty of complacency when it came to our space program.

One of the first things I bring up whenever talk turns to 9/11 is my shock...not my shock at what happened, but my shock that our entire nation had its head so far in the sand that no one saw it coming.

I began to talk about an attack on New York even when I was in high school in 1990, and I definitely was talking about it in 1998 when I made the comparison of our state of the nation in 1998 to our state of the nation in 1941.

In 1981, I took great pride in the success of Columbia and in 1986, I grieved with the rest of our nation at the loss of the Challenger crew. Throughout my life, I have enjoyed reading about the space program, watching the launches and live interviews with the crews from space. I also still marvel at the progress of the International Space Station.

I am currently compiling pieces for decorating my bedroom which I am calling the “America” room, but even as I was putting together pieces reflecting the Civil War, World War II, our Cold War culture, 9/11, and the spirit of old New York, the thought never crossed my mind about including our space program.

I am forced to place myself in a category of Americans who had taken the dangers of our space program far too lightly. Saturday, I mourned with the rest of the nation at the loss of the Columbia crew, as well as the symbolism of the loss of the first space shuttle to venture into orbit.

If you watch Star Trek: The Motion Picture, there is a grouping of artwork on the recreation deck of the ship that shows the ships that bore the name Enterprise. One of them is the space shuttle Enterprise, the only of one the six shuttles never to actually fly in space.

It was a novelty in 1979 to show the space shuttle Enterprise in the movie, but as we sit here in 2003, this is now just one of the many small things in life that will remind us of our space shuttle tragedies for years to come.

Whenever I saw a space shuttle, I almost immediately remembered the Challenger. Now, I have two tragedies to remember. Science fiction attempts to teach us where we are going in the future, and also, what we need to do to get there. Remember back to 1979...who could have known then that by 2003, two of the six space shuttles would be gone, and who could have known that we would be stuck in a quandary on February 1, 2003, about how to get our long-term space explorers home from an International Space Station?

On top of it, who would have known in 1979 that in 2003, one of our options would be to rely on the help of our Russian friends? There is in all of this, a lesson to be learned. We lost Challenger in 1986, but we went back up. We lost Columbia in 2003, and we will go back up. We tamed a wild continent called America, even though it took 200 years. We will tame the final frontier, no matter how long it takes.

I am sorry that somewhere between 1986 and 2003, I took for granted the bravery and sacrifice of each person that straps on a space suit and then straps themselves to a controlled explosion to get into space. These people, just as much as any soldier on the battlefield, have helped make America what it is today through their bravery. These are the people who would climb into Discovery, Atlantis, or Endeavor today, despite everything, to go and do their job, whether it be research, defense, or bringing stranded astronauts home.

These are the people that died in a capsule fire, trying to get us to the moon...these are the people that spent the last seconds of their lives, some in 1986, and some in 2003, aboard a space shuttle. Such determination can be summed up in one small phrase...“We are Americans.” I have learned my lesson...I will not forget again...