Shirley Sherrod

by Ouida on August 3, 2010

Last week Bob Herbert, op ed columnist for the NY Times went on a rant about Shirley Sherrod.  Generally I believe Mr. Herbert to be a whiner, complaining about the world as he sees it without offering any clear solutions.  But how do you offer any credible solutions involving an incident in which edited video is taken as fact and lies as the truth?  Lies become actionable and not necessarily to punish the liar.

Now that we have a Black man in the White House, hurling the “R” word at someone causes even the most unlikely people to head for the exits, abandoning the supposed racist in the dust; and, sadly, no one fact checks.  President Obama gave an incredibly beautiful and on-point speech about racism during the 2008 campaign.  When I heard it, I could not believe my ears because he spoke honestly about the state of race-relations in America.  The mess surrounding Ms. Sherrod simply underscores that, racially speaking, things are worse than we thought.

The unedited speech is rife with irony.  At its beginning, she speaks of the pride she has serving in the administration of the first Black president. At its middle she speaks of the anniversary of the murder of her father, a Black farmer who was murdered at the hands of a white farmer who was never brought to justice even though there were witnesses to the crime.  The murder of Blacks in the South from the post Civil War days through the 1960’s was not uncommon.  Since the men who committed these crimes had no fear of prosecution, they often made no attempt to hide their identities.  Midway through her speech Ms. Sherrod mentions a white farmer who came to her for aid 24 years ago.  Did Ms. Sherrod really say what was depicted in the 2 and a half minute video posted on the Biggovernment.com website?  She sure did, that and so much more.  Her original speech was 43 minutes long.  Andrew Breitbart lifted 2 and a half minutes right out of the center of it.   When her father was murdered, Ms. Sherrod decided to remain in the South to work to change the status of Black people.  Her involvement with the Spooners, the white family who came to her for aid, taught her that she was there to help all people, people who lack access because of their socioeconomic status.  Ultimately for her, poverty became a larger issue than race. Ms. Sherrod talked about the need for unity among all races, she talked about the need for community development in Black communities and that our communities should foster education and economic empowerment through business ownership.  Ms. Sherrod helped the Spooners, now in their 80s, remain on their farm and they have all remained life-long friends.  Ms. Sherrod is not the most gifted speaker in the world, but her speech is lovely and worth a listen to;  although, sadly, the NAACP did not remember enough of the speech to avoid condemning Ms. Sherrod, they have graciously provided the unedited version on their website.

Did Ms Sherrod initially attempt to limit the assistance she provided to the Spooners because of race?  Yes she did.  Did she then give more than her all and help the Spooners remain on their farm?  Yes she did.

Was her initial attitude so surprising?  Not really; it was the mid 80s.  Three Black men, including 16 year old Yusef Hawkins had been murdered by white mobs in New York City, it would be a few years before Rodney King would be beaten before our very eyes on national television and I and my brown-skinned classmates heard the “N” word more times in Manhattan uttered by our supposedly well-educated white medical school classmates than I ever heard growing up in the South.

The Sherrod affair is sad.  We’ve come a long way since the wholesale murder of Blacks was condoned by society.  We’ve come a long way even from the 1980’s, but Shirley Sherrod reminds us that in a sound-bite society in which the “R” word has become the new “N” word, we still have a ways to go.

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Is Being Cheap Ripping You Off?

by Ouida on July 23, 2010

Okay that is such a clumsy title for a post,  but there it is.  I am still reading Ellen Ruppel Shell’s Cheap:  The High Cost of Discount Culture.  Ms.  Ruppel Shell’s premise is simple, our quest for low prices is anything but harmless.  We pay for it in damage to the environment and the ultimate loss of craftsmanship and quality.  Cheap goods allow us to move toward a throw-away society.  Charles Fishman argues in The Walmart Effect that Walmart makes sells cheaply-made lawnmowers so cheaply that you’d never think of repairing one, you’d simply replace it when it breaks which it is likely to do each and every year.

The abundance of cheap goods has masked the very real problems of inflation and wage stagnation.

I love getting a good deal, but I love getting a good deal for a quality item.  The problem is that much of what we buy is low on quality.  The most enlightening chapter of Ruppel Schell’s book is the chapter entitled, “The Outlet Gambit.”  Premium outlets are designed to  get you to part with your money while connoting value.  The problem is that the reference prices on which the discounts are based are fiction and many brand leaders manufacture lower quality products specifically to sell in “premium outlet” malls.  Ruppel Schell and Dr. Gillian Naylor, marketing professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas College of Business, travel Las Vegas malls with Dr. Naylor distinguishing between quality and garbage merchandise and, more importantly, whether or not suggested retail price is truly reflective of a product’s quality.  More often than not the answer was no.  Rupel Schell writes, “Given this assiduous attention to value, Naylor’s opinion of outlets is worth noting:  She uses them, but sparingly. She prefers department stores which she said generally carry better quality merchandise at prices that are frequently lower than outlet levels.”

This book has merely confirmed something that I began to suspect long ago:  That manufacturers use the allure of outlets to unload inferior merchandise that they make specifically for the outlet. The Coach belt that I bought at the Premium Outlets mall outside Santa Fe, pulled apart within months of purchase and the Coach leather coat, that I paid a pretty penny for has loose stitching and the beautiful rich brown color that I found so attractive on the day of purchase is coming off after only one season of use.  I have vowed to never return.  Coach Premium Outlets is selling junk and if they are doing it in Santa Fe, they are doing it in your neck of the woods.  The implication in Cheap is chilling:  by shopping at an outlet store, you could end up paying $300 dollars for a suit that is really only worth $200 dollars at full retail.

Even online super discounter Amazon.com practices the reference price shell game to lead you to believe you are getting a deal.  I began to suspect something was up when product reviewers suggested in very direct language that Amazon was outright lying about the suggested retail prices on some of its products.  A few months ago I was in the market for a new coffee maker.  Amazon lists the suggested retail price on the Cuisinart DCC-1200 as $145 dollars and they offer it on sale for $69.95 a savings of 52%.  But what does Cuisinart sell it for? $79.95 and there is no suggested MSRP.  Macy’s has the same item listed for $79.95 with an MSRP of $99.95.  We have to conclude that the Amazon MSRP is simply a fantasy used to bolster the value of the perceived deal.  Amazon is really selling the item at $10 dollars off, a savings of 8.7%.  A pretty thorough Internet search has lead me to believe that this item’s retail price is $79.95 and that even the Macy’s MSRP is made up.  This item is easy to compare because Cuisinart only makes one model of the DCC-1200, but what if there are different models of the same item? Take the Buck 110 folding hunting knife.  The Amazon price is $41.36 with a suggested retail price of $66 dollars.  The implied discount is 38%.  Would that it were true.  LLBean sells the same knife for $34.95 and there is no suggested retail price.  Bass Pro sells the same knife for $44.95 and does not list a MSRP on their site.  Hunting Blades does list the MSRP as $66 dollars while selling the knife for $47.95.  What does Buck sell this knife for?  $45 dollars.  Buck actually sells two versions of this knife.  The knife with brass fasteners is $66 dollars and the one with nickle fasteners is $45 dollars. The image on each site appears to be of the higher-end knife, but none of the sites uses the Buck model number so it is virtually impossible to make direct price comparisons.

Provided that all 4 sites are actually selling the same knife, this exercise illustrates several things:

1) Whether the MSRP is real or not retailers use that number to provide context for the deal you think you are getting.

2) Without accurate model numbers, it is impossible to truly compare prices from store to store

3) It pays,  literally,  to shop around.  Provided we are talking about the same item, LLBean clearly offers the best deal on this knife.

4) It makes sense to go directly to the manufacturer to verify the MSRP.

5) Price is clearly relative.  Clearly all for sites want to sell this knife yet only one site offers substantial savings over the other three.

Amazon’s pre-order price guarantee is a zero-sum game.  The  guaranty only applies to prices in effect on the day an item ships.  The guaranty does not apply to rock-bottom price fluctuations that may have occurred before the item shipped.  Price fluctuations that some buyers will be able to take advantage of, but not you if you pre-ordered the item and expected Amazon to monitor the price for you.  The best thing to do is not participate in the pre-order program and watch prices yourself.   The other thing to do is place the item in your cart then remove it to buy later.  If you do that Amazon will watch the price for you.

I am reminded of the Donna Summer song, “she works hard for the money”.  The fact is that we all do, yet I do believe that we want quality and value not junk as we plop down our hard-earned cash for the products we desire.

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Birds, Brains and Personal Finance

by Ouida on July 17, 2010

I love encouraging things to grow.  My backyard garden is bigger and brighter this year than it was last year.  Each year it blooms and surprises me because it never looks the same from one year to the next.  I have been thinking about this post for over a year.  The idea for it came to me one day while I was watching the birds feeding outside my window.  Before I get into this post, though, let me tell you about my ants and aphids.  I hate them both.  A few years ago, I began spot spraying in my yard.  Aphids love fast growing plants.  They tend to congregate on new growth and literally suck the life out of that new growth, distorting the plant, injecting viruses and depending on the plant’s age and overall health, destroy a plant.  Ant’s help the aphids by transporting  them up the target plant and, together, they force the new growth to secrete the juices that both insects seem to love.  I see an aphid and I go into Rambo mode, get out the insecticide and scream “die, die, die” as I spray jets of poison onto the affected plant.  Looking for aphids is part of my daily routine.  Trouble is that spraying is a vicious cycle.  I spot spray because I know I have beneficial insects in my garden that I do not want to harm.  I have aphids, however, because they seem not to be doing their jobs.  There is a part of me that screams, “kill the lot of them, and start over,” then rationality takes over and I look for other ways to solve my pest problem.  When I spot spray, I will control the pests in one area of my yard for a month or so then the problem recurs.  Once you spray, you have to continue to spray and therein lies the problem.  Pesticide is cheap, though, and what I need to do to control the problem naturally is comparatively more expensive.

Turns out that birds and wasps love ants.  Lady bugs love aphids but will get swarmed by the ants if they are present on the same plant.  I have decided that every creature in my yard must have a job and do that job.  The birds are no exception.  In order to keep them around, I actually have to set multiple water stops and feeders around the yard. Funny thing is that when the feeders are full, the birds won’t eat the ants.  A couple of days ago, I watched a beautiful green oriole perch itself on the broad leaf of a sunflower plant.  Patiently it picked at the ants.  The feeders were empty.  I imagined that perching itself on a leaf while eating was hard for that bird.

When I put bird feed out, birds eat in a predictable pattern easiest to hardest.  First they eat the seed that fell on the ground when I filled the feeder, then they sit in the open feeder and feed, then they feed at the hanging feeders with perches on them.  To use these feeders the birds have to perch on a bar or small platform and pick their food.  Then and only then do the birds forage on the ground or perch on the plants for food.

What I realized is that when it comes to personal finance, we are like birds.  We do what is easiest first and we do the hard only when forced to.  So the easiest thing in the short term is not to have a financial plan at all.  The next step up is to start saving a portion of earnings each and every month.  The next step is to decide what to do with those savings by deciding the asset classes we want to invest in, analyze investments and make sound investments while simultaneously incurring, yet minimizing, the risk of loss.  Somewhere along the way we have to protect our income and assets through the proper use of disability and life insurance.

Not having a financial plan is like standing on the ground and eating the food that just happens to spill to the ground either when the feeder was filled or while the other birds feed from the feeder.  Setting up a savings plan is like hopping into the feeder.  It requires a bit more effort, but the long term rewards are significantly greater than just waiting around on the ground.  Analyzing and purchasing investments and protecting your income and assets is like foraging on the ground or perching on the plants and picking food.  It requires a great deal of effort and some risk, but the food is in abundance.  I have ants, worms and beetles galore in my yard but I also have predators.  One year I watched a bird and a bull snake tumble on the ground near a stand of trumpet honeysuckle.  The bird lost the good fight.

The next time you have trouble putting your financial plan into action, consider the next bird that you see and realize that your brain is so much bigger than his!

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State of the Union (With Humor)

by Ouida on July 15, 2010

I have not posted for almost 3 weeks.  I’ve been visiting and I’ve had a visitor.  That visitor was my mother.  It was wonderful to see her.  We spent several days in the Southern Colorado town of Durango, Colorado. I think it is one of my mom’s favorite places and I have a whole new appreciation for it.  Then my partner and I went to visit friends at a yurt in Northern Colorado.  Problem was that neither one of us checked a map before agreeing to the trip. The yurt was (and still is) in the northern part of the state about 35 miles from the Wyoming border, 600 miles from where I live.  Hummmmmmmm.  Bugs staked out the area well before we did.  I brought my fishing equipment and managed to catch some brook trout.  Most I threw back, but there was one that I felt good about keeping.  I pan-fried him in butter and spices.  We dragged slices of the baguette we brought through the pan drippings (because you always have a baguette on a camping trip).  My catch made for quite a tasty morsel.  He didn’t come cheap.  I was covered most of the time by bugs while I was fishing.  They seemed to really like my hands.  After a few hours on the stream, my left hand had swollen to 3 times normal size, my fingers were sausage like and the tips were cold.  I couldn’t make a fist. We left a full day early.  I am happy to report that I am much better, my hand is back to normal.

Why did we go?  Aside from the obvious: We made a commitment and decided to keep it.  As I get older, I have honestly realized that it is important to maintain life’s connections.  They are gifts and living things.  Like all living things they have to be nurtured.  There are people that I have lost track of over the years that I sorely miss and I am now scrambling to find.  So we drove 600 miles to maintain connections that are important to us and resolved to check a map next time.

Our trip was long and we made several stops along the way.  I was going to blog about our stops and the interpersonal encounters because they were downright scary.  I left those encounters feeling that as a nation we are in trouble and resolved to blog about them in detail, but my mother sent me some pretty darn funny e-mails that get the point across.

So here they are:

Clean can be funny..

One day, a man came home and was greeted by his wife dressed in a very Sexy nightie.
‘Tie me up,’ she purred, ‘and you can do anything you want.’
So he tied her up and went golfing.

*****************************************

A woman came home, screeching her car into the driveway, and ran into the house..
She slammed the door and shouted at the top of her lungs, ‘Honey, pack your bags. I won the lottery!’
The husband said, ‘Oh my God! What should I pack, beach stuff or mountain stuff?’
‘Doesn’t matter,’ she said. ‘Just get out.’

********************************************

Marriage is a relationship in which one person is always right, and the other is a husband.

*************************************

A Polish immigrant went to the DMV to apply for a driver’s license.
First, of course, he had to take an eye sight test.
The optician showed him a card with the letters

‘C Z W I X N O S T A C Z.’
‘Can you read this?’ the optician asked.
‘Read it?’ the Polish guy replied, ‘I know the guy.’

******************************************

Mother Superior called all the nuns together and said to them, ‘I must tell you all something. We have a case of gonorrhea in the convent.’
‘Thank God,’ said an elderly nun at the back. ‘I’m so tired of chardonnay..’

********************************************

A wife was making a breakfast of fried eggs for her husband.
Suddenly, her husband burst into the kitchen.
‘Careful,’ he said, ‘CAREFUL! Put in some more butter! Oh my gosh! You’re cooking too many at once. TOO MANY! Turn them! TURN THEM NOW! We need more butter. Oh my gosh! WHERE are we going to get MORE BUTTER? They’re going to STICK! Careful. CAREFUL! I said be CAREFUL! You NEVER listen to me when you’re cooking! Never! Turn them! Hurry up! Are you CRAZY? Have you LOST your mind? Don’t forget to salt them. You know you always forget to salt them Use the! salt. USE THE SALT! THE SALT!’
The wife stared at him.
‘What in the world is wrong with you? You think I don’t know how to fry a couple of eggs?’
The husband calmly replied, ‘I just wanted to show you what it feels like when I’m driving.’

********************************************************

Fifty-one years ago, Herman James, a North Carolina mountain man, was drafted by the Army.
On his first day in basic training, the Army issued him a comb.
That afternoon the Army barber sheared off all his hair.
On his second day, the Army issued Herman a toothbrush.
That afternoon the Army dentist yanked seven of his teeth.
On the third day, the Army issued him a jock strap.
The Army has been looking for Herman for 51 years.

*******************************************

Notes from a DC Airport Ticket Agent

God Bless America !
A DC airport ticket agent offers some examples of ‘why’ our country is in trouble:

1.  I had a New Hampshire Congresswoman (Carol Shea-Porter) ask for an aisle seat so that her hair wouldn’t get messed up by being near the window. (On an airplane!)

2.  I got a call from a Kansas Congressman’s (Moore) staffer (Howard Bauleke), who wanted to go to Capetown. I started to explain the length of the flight and the passport information, and then he interrupted me with, ”I’m not trying to make you look stupid, but Capetown is in Massachusetts ..”

Without trying to make him look stupid, I calmly explained, ”Cape Cod is in Massachusetts , Capetown is in Africa ”

his response — click.

3.  A senior Vermont Congressman (Bernie Sanders) called, furious about a Florida package we did. I asked what was wrong with the vacation in Orlando . He said he was expecting an ocean-view room. I tried to explain that’s not possible, since Orlando is in the middle of the state.

He replied, ‘don’t lie to me, I looked on the map and Florida is a very thin state!”

4.  I got a call from a lawmaker’s wife (Landra Reid) who asked, ”Is it possible to see England from Canada ?”

I said, ”No.”

She said, ”But they look so close on the map.”

5.  An aide for a cabinet member(Janet Napolitano) once called and asked if he could rent a car in Dallas . I pulled up the reservation and noticed he had only a 1-hour layover in Dallas . When I asked him why he wanted to rent a car, he said, ”I heard Dallas was a big airport, and we will need a car to drive between gates to save time.” (Aghhhh)

6.  An Illinois Congresswoman (Jan Schakowsky)  called last week. She needed to know how it was possible that her flight from Detroit left at 8:30 a.m., and got to Chicago at 8:33 a.m.

I explained that Michigan was an hour ahead of Illinois , but she couldn’t understand the concept of time zones. Finally, I told her the plane went fast, and she bought that.

7.  A New York lawmaker, (Jerrold Nadler) called and asked, ”Do airlines put your physical description on your bag so they know whose luggage belongs to whom?” I said, ‘No, why do you ask?’

He replied, ”Well, when I checked in with the airline, they put a tag on my luggage that said (FAT), and I’m overweight. I think that’s very rude!”

After putting him on hold for a minute, while I looked into it. (I was dying laughing). I came back and explained the city code for Fresno , Ca. is “FAT” (Fresno Air Terminal), and the airline was just putting a destination tag on his luggage.

8.  A Senator John Kerry aide (Lindsay Ross) called to inquire about a trip package to Hawaii . After going over all the cost info, she asked, ”Would it be cheaper to fly to California and then take the train to Hawaii ?”

9.  I just got off the phone with a freshman Congressman, Bobby Bright (D) from Ala who asked, ”How do I know which plane to get on?”

I asked him what exactly he meant, to which he replied, ”I was told my flight number is 823, but none of these planes have numbers on them.”

10.  Senator Dianne Feinstein (D)
called and said, ”I need to fly to Pepsi-Cola , Florida . Do I have to get on one of those little computer planes?”

I asked if she meant fly to Pensacola , FL on a commuter plane.

She said, ”Yeah, whatever, smarty!”

11. Mary Landrieu (D) LA Senator called and had a question about the documents she needed in order to fly to China .  After a lengthy discussion about passports, I reminded her that she needed a visa. ‘Oh, no I don’t. I’ve been to China many times and never had to have one of those.”

I double checked and sure enough, her stay required a visa. When I told her this she said, ”Look, I’ve been to China four times and every time they have accepted my American Express!”

12. A New Jersey Congressman (John Adler) called to make reservations, ”I want to go from Chicago to Rhino, New York .”

I was at a loss for words. Finally, I said, ”Are you sure that’s the name of the town?”

‘Yes, what flights do you have?” replied the man.

After some searching, I came back with, ”I’m sorry, sir, I’ve looked up every airport code in the country and can’t find a rhino anywhere.”

”The man retorted, ”Oh, don’t be silly! Everyone knows where it is. Check your map!”

So I scoured a map of the state of New York and finally offered, ”You don’t mean Buffalo , do you?”

The reply? ”Whatever! I knew it was a big animal.”

Now you know why the Government is in the shape that it’s in!

Could anyone be this DUMB?

YES, THEY WALK AMONG US, ARE IN POLITICS, AND THEY CONTINUE TO BREED..

The interpersonal encounters

were similar to the notes from a DC ticket agent.  Mamma Mia!

Please comment.  What has become important to you as you have gotten older?

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