Town & Country Foods Inc: A Heads Up

Optimism staged a successful coup over instinct at a festival this month. Quickly... Town & Country Foods (townandcountryfoods.com) had the only food booth that was not pandering sugar-glazed substances. When I approached, I learned that the petite steak sandwiches were not for sale but for giveaway. If I entered my name and number, a sales person would deliver a no-obligation presentation along with a complimentary assortment of quality meats. I ignored the blinking "Yea Right" sign.

When the sales person called, I had the distinct feeling that I was not talking to an adult or perhaps the adult was mentally impaired to some degree. The opener is, "we forgot to give you your free meat." Next, in the prequalifying "grille-down," I was asked whether I had a credit card. Up went another blinking sign. It did not seem reasonable to blast the messenger, so I simply challenged the relevance of the question. "Well, I'm just supposed to ask you that", I prepared to hang up the phone. Before hanging up, the lad asked if I would wait while he confirmed the schedule with his supervisor. I'm curious now, so I listen in since their phone was not equipped with a hold button. In the background, I could hear him nagging the supervisor to come to the phone. Ultimately, she told him to put me on hold, but he wouldn't. I put myself on hold. After about two days, they called again...and again. Finally, I answered, and the same lad is present, seemingly without memory of our last conversation. "We forgot to give you your free meat," he says. Well...what would you say to that?

Needless to say, I did not want any Town & Country Foods. The business seemed more like a sham. I felt they were looking for prey, not customers. Moreover, employing the equivalent of a juvenile as the lead sales rep tells its own story. It seemed useless to lay all this on that young man, so I simply conveyed that I was not interested. The first time I said I was not interested, he countered, "No, ma'am, you don't understand." The second time I said it, his phone must have already been on its way to the carriage, because there wasn't a nanosecond between the "not interested" and the disconnect.

All sorts of characters do business in this economy. Some are serious, some are devious, and there are many in between. The jury is out on Town & Country Foods. I only know of one other dissatisfied customer, and BBB online reports that the company resolved the 16 complaints lodged this period. The Town & Country Foods website suggests they are based in Colorado, but they have a very Orem, Utah-ish* feel about them. Why are so many trying to bleed the public? The saddest part is that there is enough of an unsuspecting public to make it profitable. A good food delivery service would really be grand! But get real, stop attaching all the gimmicks and lures. It's only food, not a Senate Appropriations Bill. Note: if anyone wants groceries delivered, checkout Safeway Online. It's fabulous and gimmick-free.
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*No doubt there are fine businesses in Orem, but there are so many shams/scams based there, the town might consider a name change soon. I've attended at least one Orem-sponsored "seminar." Now, I get offers in the mail from Utah regularly, they are mostly from Orem and they use the same tactic: a free waste-your-day-get-rich-now-athon leading up to an outrageously expensive hook only available then and there.

Mahmoud and Hernandez Love to Exploit Freedoms They Won't Pursue For Their Own Countrymen

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Mexican-sometimes American Juan Hernandez love uniquely American freedoms when it comes to capitalizing on them personally, but not for their own countrymen. The people in Iran aren't free to express themselves on an international stage. They will not be free to see the uncut versions of the Columbia University fiasco or other world events as long as Mahmoud and his backers control the country. And the majority of Mexican workers will not be free to earn livable wages while any of Hernandez's homeboys have anything to do with it.

Hernandez has a book to be released, "The New American Pioneers." Can you believe it? "We don't need to close our borders," he rants. "Why are we afraid of Mexican immigrants?" He obviously thinks Americans are dumb? Is that it? Are we mindless drones who can't discern the delicate distinction between legal and illegal immigration? Are we so unwitting that we fail to see the consequence of a hostile foreign under-class. I wonder if Hernandez will publish his book in Mexico or the U.S.? Will Side1 be upside down in Spanish and Side2 upside down in English? Of course he won't allow that nonsense. Despite La Raza's best efforts, U.S. students are still taught American history. English-speaking consumers will know that his "new pioneers" aren't really new or American. I predict sluggish sales.

Both Hernandez and Mahmoud shamelessly dispense 1950's style propaganda targeted at the generation that perfected propaganda. But neither one spends half as much energy trying to improve the lot of their own countrymen. Iranians and Mexicans are suffering tremendous poverty and disenfranchisement. Hernandez's answer is to send them here. Mahmoud's answer is to blow up Israel. Their propaganda merely communicates their disdain for America and their unreasonable trust that we are all senseless and indiscriminately impressionable.

Moving Rainbow Time Lapse

This has got to be one of the most fantastic videos. It shows a rainbow forming. Be patient, it is time-lapsed.
Does it make you happy? Is it in anyway evidence of God in heaven?

Interstate Highways For Sale

"Nothing like public service; it's why we're paid the big dollars." That was a comment from a DOT official in Texas this week. They've been getting angry email about the proposal to convert Interstate roadways to private toll roads. I thought this was humorous comment, but it's really too serious to laugh. Civil servants along with elected officials operate with a very vague sense of accountability to the public. To them, American citizens have become the masses that need to be managed. We are not thinking, reasoning families and individuals. No... the arrogance in "public service" these days suggests that government officials think we are herds of cows waiting for the next crack of the whip to tell us where to go.

My longest stint with the Federal Government lasted seven years. If you have ever worked in a government office, you know that government employees receive a lot of training. Anything, sexual harassement, diversity awareness, retirement coaching, photo copier training. The problem is that most government employees never get any training on the function of government--what it is supposed to do and to whom it is accountable. They don't get it in our broken down public schools and they don't get it on the job. What we end up with is essential a corrupted system. Abusers and unwitting alike don't have a clue what to do with authority other than use it to their advantage. That's how you get the Federal Reserve Bank, Dubai-owned American ports, Dubai-owned New York Stock Exchange, and Dubai-owned London Stock Exchange.

Anytime you can figure out a way to tax American citizens each time they perform a routine activity--like driving down the road--you should look over your shoulder for a well-financed "private interest." Texas is only the proving ground. Lou Dobbs reported this phenomenon earlier this year, but it was too incredulous at the time for me to wrap my head around it.

I'm writing letters a lot these days and I'm teaching my children how to write letters too. We have a population of misguided and poorly-educated adults who are assuming leadership positions they don't always understand. It's time right now to get busy making noise. Loud noise, so that the ones who are not really interested in public service scram and make room for truly noble public servants.