MY OPINION COLUMN

The opinion column is where I share some of my comments and opinions. It is different from my belief article in that these are items which I think either need to change or be shown for what they are. If you are not tolerant of others point of view or simply not interested in what I have to say, then you might consider going to the Main Menu and picking a different spot to visit.

In the article on beliefs, there is a section about tolerance. While I am tolerant of a lot of things, the majority of opinions shared here fall into the category of negative impact to society. Whether by the example they show or the concepts they encourage.

The listed opinions are only a small portion of the total I have. To list them all would require more space or time than I have available to me. Consider these as just examples of the principals.

During some of the time while I was a young adult just trying to figure out lots of things, my Grandmother was in a nursing home seemingly out of reality. I loved my grandmother dearly and kept praying for an answer to why God would allow this. On the day we got the news that she had passed away, I remembered something she said long ago. It went something like, Celebrate life while you have it, celebrate death because you go to be with God! Grandma was just happy to be here for whatever time she got.

Over the years I still can't comprehend what a very special miracle it is to be ME. Out of all of the people on the earth (past, current, and future), I am me. Nobody else is me and I am nobody else. Just the fact that I get to exist, to be me, is truly overwhelming. I do believe that Grandma got it right, this IS worth celebrating!

Without going into the debate of how it got to be, think about the fact that the human body provides us with the ability to exist, to be here. We are born with many basic functions built in and the ability to learn more as we go. The body even maintains itself pretty good without us even having to think about breathing, beating our hearts, or all the many tasks needed to keep us going.

The package isn't perfect though. There are so many complicated things that must work right in order for the body to exist, it really should not be surprising that something can go wrong. In fact, I am truly amazed that it can even operate at all. This could be why there is suffering, a result of the flaws of the human body rather than some punishment from God. A sad price to pay for the otherwise wonderful gift of the miracle of getting to exist. But not existing wouldn't be much of an option either, at least not to me.

Perhaps the best plan would be to use what we have during the time that we have it. The human body isn't perfect. Any number of physical, chemical, and mental conditions can occur if even minor things are out of place. I have never met anybody who asked for a diseased or damaged body to live their life in. In fact, people seem to desire a cure or solution to these conditions. This brings me to the opinion part of this topic.

I have a great deal of compassion for people who must deal with huge obstacles in life. A lot of times it is hard to deal with my own situation, but I have witnessed others with far worse than what I must face. I don't know that I would handle some of the issues that others do. However, people have said the same to me about my vision problems.

I have even more feelings of sorrow for people who look down on others who have any of these conditions. Whether they be school children that pick on classmates, adults that avoid contact, or businesses that don't see beyond the outward signs during the hiring stage. Not all of the flaws of the human body show themselves on the outside. I'd rather have vision problems than a cold attitude toward my fellow human. Some of the most caring people I've met in life are those who have had the biggest hurdles to cross also.

What most people want is to be accepted and treated as a normal, living, human being. Just to exist with everybody else in a civil manner rather than being set aside due to something completely out of their control. It looks right in print, it sounds right when we hear it, but it is so often denied in reality. A waste of a miracle.

There are some people so caught up in perfection that they don't have a kind attitude toward others. Nobody is worth much to them unless wearing pressed clothes, styled hair, manicured nails, or loaded with makeup and perfume. Teenagers worry their boy/girlfriend might not like them anymore because they have a pimple, as if true love revolves around a slight blemish on the face. I truly feel blessed. I can't see whether somebody's hair is combed or not and I wouldn't care about a pimple even if I could see it. I do recognize attitude though, and consider myself fortunate to be able to focus on that when considering others.

I also have feelings of sorrow for people who look down on others for what aren't even flaws in the human body but differences from their own set of standards. Different skin color or place of origin seems to matter more than the fact that the miracle of life is still at work. Americans consider others as foreigners, yet I learned in school that America was discovered in 1492. Seems to me that many of our ancestors came here from elsewhere at one time. Pretty strange to now feel that others are different. Stranger still to find fault with them for things they can't change, where they were born, what language they were taught, and what color their skin is.

I feel sorrow for people who don't seem to realize that things beside flaws of the body play an important role in this life. Life situations create a whole set of circumstances that effect us. Parents that fight more over who gets the family car in the divorce than what happens to the kids. Siblings that disown each other because of something as trivial as a $100 loan that never got fully paid off. Hit and run drivers cause accidents and leave without the courtesy to see if the other people might need medical attention. Shootings occur over such trivial things as somebody being cut off in traffic. More sorrow is felt for the victims who don't deserve the result of the actions of others.

In a small town where we lived, my mother took a small group of kids into her world of love. She visited these kids, baked them cookies and brought them presents. Talked with them, laughed with them, cried with them, and eventually brought them to church in a kids group. These kids lived at poverty or below conditions with broken families and homes. Sunday morning kids church was the one bright spot to their entire troubled week. So they sang with joy and they sang loud because of so much joy. And the adults in the church were mad because they made too much joyful noise unto the Lord. If ever I saw a good reason for kids to make noise, that was it! I believe that God was more comfortable in that church basement than in the adult sanctuary upstairs. The miracle of life celebration should not be surpressed.

I also have sorrow for those who don't realize what a wonderful gift this miracle of life is to them. Some throw away the life by using substances to feel good which actually hurt the bodies ability to survive. Some focus so hard on what bad things happen that they can't enjoy the good things when they occur. Others seem too intend on doing harm rather than putting their efforts into doing good. Many gather up as many material items as they can and neglect the life they already possess.

For me, there is a great feeling of satisfaction that exists when I get to help somebody else to have a better time in their life. There are a lot of good people in this world. They come in all sorts of different packages. Get to know the person inside of the body instead of just looking at the outside presentation for judgement.

The word disseminate is used during each copyright announcement of baseball games I watch. One day I got curious and looked up the meaning, to spread abroad. However, the word dissemble just above caught my attention. It means to put on a false appearance: conceal facts, intentions, or feelings under some pretense.

People often use bias and even dissemble tactics to inflate the value of whatever they are promoting. Media and product examples are discussed later in this document. With email and website forums being available to the masses, it sadly opens up a new world to spread such deception. Even if it is done unknowingly.

Direct email spam (unsolicited bulk email) is usually pretty silly, but when you add in forwarded messages that tell you to send this to everybody you know it is only made worse. Most of these emails are warning people of some injustice the original author is against or some cause they are fighting for. Sadly almost all of these have been proven to be inaccurate over the years, yet they still come around in some form pretty regularly. It is my policy not to forward any of these no matter how legitimate they look. And if I did want to send it to people I know, you can bet that I will do my best to make sure it is a truthful message before I do.

Unfortunately, most people see stuff and react without considering that it might not be valid. Most of these look real or deal with an emotionally based issue that people would care deeply about. So they send it to many people, who in turn send it to others, who do the same, etc. What we end up with is false appearances being spread abroad.

Sadly this happens with websites as well. People see a website they like and for whatever reason have to tell the world about it. Some of that might be good IF the contents of the website were really worthy of being promoted like that AND all of the people being told about it had a chance of being at least remotely interested in it. I am highly appreciative to get a message telling me about something valid and useful. But the bulk of these announcements don't qualify for either. Pretty much anybody can generate a website.

These are not just opinions. These are actual proven facts that for whatever reason people just can't seem to accept and do something about. Maybe people really ARE stupid.

Cigarette smoking is banned in many public places due to the health hazard of second hand smoke. My mom smoked for many years and the cause of death is related to it. Smoking affects the person doing it much more than the people around them. However, I can accept the bans because there are many people with breathing problems who would be affected by the smoke. Also, there are many of us who choose not to smoke and should have the right to NOT smell the odor everywhere. As long as cigarettes are legal, I respect the right of others to do it as long as they respect the rights of people who don't want to be negatively impacted by their choice.

With that said, people under the influence of alcohol injure or kill more innocent victims then cigarettes do. Alcohol is proven to impair judgment and inhibitions. Therefore, alcohol should be banned from public events too. If you want to drink or smoke, go home and (if the family accepts it) do it there.

Please don't just believe my word. Ask your local police about the facts of alcohol related police calls and the statistics at DUI checkpoints. Get informed about how many marriages have been broken up by alcohol. Ask colleges about their experience with massive student parties and protests that turn to riots fueled by alcohol consumption. If you think I'm wrong, prove it to me.

This isn't to say that the consumption of alcohol should be illegal. Personally I think it should be, as should tobacco. But while it is legal, I can accept the person who does either activity if they do it without impacting others rights. I have no problem with those who consume alcohol in moderation, like a glass of beer with dinner and such. Each person knows (or should) how much is too much. If they can't control the limits, then it is obvious that the alcohol controls them and that is where a problem occurs.

I personally think that fines for drunk driving should be raised much higher than already exist. It is a serious concern and it is also long since been stated that certain limits are in effect. Anybody who doesn't know the rules shouldn't be driving a motor vehicle, even if sober. So if they know the rules and still drive drunk, the penalty should be high enough to really impact their life. After all, they have a great chance of impacting others lives when drunk. Fines for being drunk in public (even not driving) should be raised also because there really is no good excuse for it.

In my world, drunk drivers should lose their motor vehicle. They have proven they can't handle the responsibility and the money from the auction sales of these vehicles can pay salaries for more police officers on the street dealing with drunks. Community service should be the alternative to jail time. Make these people serve time in hospitals around people injured by others and witness what families go through when loved ones are hurt or lost to drunk drivers. Jail does little or nothing to teach about the real effects on others that is done on an all too frequent basis.

You don't have to tell me that if I don't like commercials (called ads here on out) that I can either go away during them, mute them, or tape shows and fast forward over them. Usually if there is something I want to watch, it gets taped and viewed later with the ads in high speed.

So why am I writing this section? Because I have the right to voice my opinion on stuff that I truly dislike and here is where I list some of my least favorite ads and why I think they should go away forever, never to return.

Actually, I don't hate commercials. They are a valuable tool to inform us of something that we might be interested in. Those that tell us about sales or products that a store carries are probably the most beneficial and the least annoying to me. That is, if they stick to just telling the product description, price, and location of the store. Other ads tell us of upcoming events or entertainments we might want to attend. There are also ads which tell us about products that we might want to use. These are good if they remain truthful (sadly, a rarity) and speak to the product itself.

The ads that I dislike are those that say little or nothing about the product, exaggerate the products usefulness, or outright lie to us. It seems to me that ads are supposed to make me respect the product or it's company. The ads listed below are the ones that stand out to me of doing the opposite, they make me avoid products and companies.

The focus of this section is mainly TV ads, but the concepts apply to radio, magazine, newspaper, and mail ads as well. TV ads are just the worst because they combine audio and video. I'll be as quick to the point as possible. Sadly, there is a lot of ground to cover here.

The wrong people:

The very top of this list is the use of thin models used to promote diet items and physically fit models to promote fitness products. If you really believe that the models went through the diet or fitness routine, you'll believe anything. Don't show me the pretty models, show me the solid medical proof of why the product is the right choice.

Animals as spokespeople:

Do animals really speak English? Excepting a few birds that have been trained to mimic, I don't think so. Even if animals did speak English, that alone would not qualify them to sell me on many products they are used to promote. People tell me they think many of these ads are cute or entertaining. Cute and entertaining doesn't inform us of the product. If anything, it shows me the lack of confidence the company has that its product can sell itself based on simple fact of use. I have not decided which is worse, the companies that use stupid ads to sell things or the people who buy these items based upon the ads that are cute and entertaining instead of being informative.

Budweiser beer has been running ads featuring a talking donkey and the Clidesdale horse. Wasn't one of the companys slogans just a short time ago the word TRUE? I've never seen a true beer ad, and a talking donkey certainly doesn't qualify either. Run ads showing fatal car wrecks caused by drunk drivers or domestic disturbances, that would be TRUE. I wish beer ads would go away much like the end of the smoking Joe Camel.

Apparently, animals also drive motor vehicles. One in particular is driving a little car in a big car parking lot. I'd think that would be dangerous, but the insurance company (Geico) which features the activity seems to think it is a good thing. Sadly, Geico seems to have more focus on animals than on the business of good driving practices. Send this critter off to wherever the Taco Bell spokesdog went to.

Non-life forms as spokespeople:

If by some stretch of my imagination I could accept a talking animal, it is beyond my limits to accept a talking oven mitt. This one doesn't even qualify as cute. Arbys' oven mitt has been rude to potential customers, argues with other employees, and is very self centered. I guess that is the image Arbys' really wants to show. Personally, I used to enjoy the Turkey Subs from Arbys. Arbys discontinued the subs, but oven mitt lives on. What a shame.

Pizza Hut probably didn't consider that Muppets do not eat food. Yet here they are promoting pizza. If Muppets did eat pizza, they would probably also notice the clever way that Pizza Hut fails to point out that the 4-For-All has twice as much crust and half the volume of toppings as a normal pizza the same size. Maybe that's why they use the Muppets?

Although not as painful to watch as the other ads, I have put Jack in this category because I haven't figured out if this is supposed to be a real person or whatever else. I think Jack In The Box would be better off letting the real owner or entree creators speak for themselves.

It isn't an animal and it doesn't talk, but it is still silly. It is AT&Ts' & ads. The AND campaign is designed to show how things work together to make life better. Considering that AT&T stands for American Telephone And Telegraph, it's probably not the wisest campaign for the modern age. I think the ads are really stupid AND don't speak to the actual service.

Unfair or biased comparisons:

You really have to be alert to catch some ads as they use comparisons in creative, yet very biased, ways. They probably feel that they have to do this because on an even comparison there would be no real differences.

Some ads compare their extra strength product to a competitors regular strength product. Gee, I wonder who wins. If the competitor only offers one strength, the ad doesn't even have to note this difference. Checking labels on products at the store reveals these comparison biases.

The ad for Total cereal shows how many bowls of other cereals you would have to consume to get the same nutrition level as one bowl of Total. Notice that each comparison is based upon only one particular value, being the least offered in that cereal. Notice also that milk (often used with cereal) and other breakfast foods will add plenty of calcium and other nutrients which may not be artificially added to these other cereals as they are to Total. Most doctors as well as the FDA strongly suggest a balanced diet of many healthy foods during the coarse of each day. Nobody expects to only eat one bowl of cereal in the morning for their entire days food supply.

Cox Communications and the two leading satellite providers (DirecTV and Dish Network) have all been running ads bragging about what they do better and what the others don't offer. Bad news folks, all of these are deceptive and often outright untrue. Both styles of delivering a signal to the house are subject to outages, problems from the points of origin, and programming features.

False claims and images:

Have you ever gone to a restaurant or fast food place and had your meal look like those pictured on the ads? It's rare for this to occur. The presentation quality in the ad looks good, but not your meal. Fast food and delivery are the worst for this. Too many places to name here.

QWest (telephone service) proved to me they are better at double talk than good service. They brag that part of their Spirit Of Service is phone number portability. They don't tell you that they were the biggest opponent of number portability, but could not stop it. Those of us who know the real story aren't buying the ads.

Display of bad or illegal activity:

How can we respect a company or product when the ad tells us to do what everything we know tells us we shouldn't. That is what this group of comments focuses on.

At the top is Chasers. The ads for this hangover medicine have recently changed, but not much for the better. They used to feature two people talking about the fact that one has to be at work in a few hours but he drank too much hours earlier and now feels bad. The ad implies if he would have taken Chasers, he'd be in perfect shape to go to work. Both good judgment and science show that to be wrong. First off, I believe a person should not drink alcohol to excess, but certainly not on the night before work! Also, science tells us that even if this guy took Chasers and felt better, he still would likely not be able to provide his employer with a quality day of work. THAT is not a good thing for an ad to promote. How about an ad that tells us we won't need Chasers if we just act responsibly?

We have multiple automobile ads which show bad driving practices, just plain illegal incidents, or things people would (hopefully) be unlikely to do with a vehicle. During the ad, we see the disclaimer say either, Closed course or Professional or stunt drivers. Do they think I'd buy a car based upon what laws it can break? Maybe that is the type of customers they want, count me out of that group.

Automobile ads aren't the only ones showing dangerous behavior. New 7-up spots feature violence in going after the last can and other cola ads show wild or senseless activity. Way too many examples to list here. All of this while only showing the container and never speaking to the worthiness of the product itself. These do more to convince me NOT to buy the product rather than the intended goal of selling them.

While trying to promote how fresh their salads are, Taco Bell shows a customer intentionally delaying his order and making the employee stop and start a process. Does Taco Bell want people to harass their employees? Do they want the other customers to wait while this type of senseless activity goes on? It sure looks like it.

Burger King is promoting a chicken fight to attempt proving which of their chicken sandwiches is better. I'll settle the dispute right here, I'm not buying either.

Bad sponsorship ideas:

Why is it that seemingly every sporting event is somehow sponsored by a beer or soda? Athletes are seen chugging down a whole bottle of soda and fans are shown to be chugging beer. In real life, the athletes drink water or sports drinks, at least those who want to be in decent shape to play. While it is true that fans consume a lot of beer during sporting events, how many folks DRIVE home after attending a game? Doesn't that tell us something. If the game is a championship event, the chance of alcohol fueled riot is becoming more common. These things just don't go together well.

Promotion outweighs content:

TV and radio stations are spending more time telling you what you already know. Quite some time back, many TV stations started placing their logo near the bottom of the screen during programs. This was said to stop people from copying programs and distributing them for sale. I can understand that, although I don't know why anybody would buy most of these shows.

Somebody apparently figured out they can use more space at the bottom of the screen to run promotions of upcoming shows during a show. So that came to be and some of them take up a lot of space. This makes enjoying the current show more difficult.

In between advertizer commercials, there are more ads for upcoming shows and promotion of the channel itself. These include telling us what channel we are watching and why we should watch it. Are we really THAT stupid?

At the end of a show, the credits are often pushed aside for yet more ads of upcoming shows or station identification. Theme songs are all but blocked out in favor of the promotion audio. And if you decide to watch the show(s) being promoted in all of this, you are again interrupted by ads for yet other shows.

If there are any TV executives out there reading this, please note that this is extremely disliked. If you really think the shows you carry are so great, stop inhibiting them. The logo is an evil we will have to live with, but the rest is just plain disruptive. And stop constantly telling us we are watching your station. If you think we are so dumb that we can't figure it out ourselves, maybe you need to increase educational programming instead of the junk that fills the airways now. The more time spent telling us how great the station or its shows are, the less time actually spent on the shows themselves.

Radio stations are as bad or worse with the shameless self promotion spots. Yes, I know where I'm tuned. Play the music instead. Don't they know commercial free satellite radio is a growing competition? Give us content rather than promotion.

Consider this example. I arrive at work and tell everybody that I am going to do certain things that day. After I clock in, I walk to my desk stating what I will do first. I do it, it takes five minutes. Then I tell everybody again about the other things I still have to do that day and go on break. When I come back from break, I spend another five minutes on the second task. Then I tell people again about the other things I will do during the day and go on break. In the event that something happens, like a coworker spills coffee, I hold up a sign that says ALERT and make sure all of the office knows about it. Then I go on break.

I think my coworkers would be pretty annoyed and I might even get fired for lack of production. Yet that is a pretty close example of the TV newscasts. Sadly, the spots for what is coming up are often deceptive about the actual story. I have done the math and figured out that a few more news stories could be done if they weren't always telling me what is coming up.

I am told that this tactic is used to keep me from switching to another channel during the ads. I might find something else more worthwhile unless I stick around for whatever. Guess what, I do switch anyway. I will loop through all of the local news showing at the same time and watch whatever is not in commercial or a story I have no interest in. I wouldn't do that if one newscast was really worthy in content from start to finish. That hasn't happened yet though. Sadly, even the stories that I do want to watch are shown with so much bias it is hard to figure out the real story.

Summary of ads:

To summarize my feelings on ads, I guess I would have to say that those companies who don't feel their product is worth a decent ad also don't respect me as a potential customer to make an INFORMED decision. I used emphasis on the word informed because that is what is missing in every ad which I feel is annoying. When a company steers the focus of the ad away from the product or service itself, it misses out on the time to provide useful information. It makes me feel like the reason they can't speak to the product itself is either due to the product being of no use or the real truthful information is a negative.

The reason why I feel so strongly about ads is because they are telling us what (they think) we need while usually really sending the opposite message instead. There is an increasing number of people who don't believe much anything they hear in ads as being truthful. It's time to stop just feeling that way and start the voicing of opinion for truth and real information. Share comments (good and bad alike) with businesses you visit. Call or write the companies that make the products you use and share your thoughts. If everybody individually does this at least somewhat, companies will get a message.

At the very top of this list is those TV courtroom shows that are geared to solve small claims court cases in about fifteen minutes each. The concept is good, but the presentation is really bad. Yes, I know that small claims court is going to handle a lot of petty disputes that any reasonable adults should be able to deal with themselves, but that isn't the real issue here (although it should be). What gets to me more is the behavior of the participants and the fact that the judges ALLOW it. Most likely that is there for added attraction and therefore ratings appeal. However, proper courtroom ettiquette in the real world is more civilized. The judge controls the proceedings and if the parties start a shouting match between themselves (or the judge) they are likely to be thrown out of the courtroom and have their case dismissed in about one complete heartbeat. I've been to many courtrooms in many capacities: juror, witness, and as part of the prosecution. I have never heard a judge telling jokes or using witty/snappy comebacks in any of these. Therefore, displaying the improper way to act in a courtroom does a disservice to anybody who might end up in a REAL courtroom. Please entertain us with the weird disputes that people get into rather than the bad actions during the silly court case.

Court TV (the cable network) airs live criminal trial proceedings. The differences in atmosphere over the small claims TV shows is like night and day. Sadly though, most trials move slowly. So you might want to have a book or something handy to fill the large amount of dead air time. Court TV is about as close to the real world trial as you'll get on TV, but in my opinion the best court experience IS the real world courtroom. Go to the courthouse and look for the dockets with several (ten or more) agendas for the day. These are likely the pretrial hearings or the sentencing hearings. The docket will state what the cases involve. Sit in on some pretrial hearings and those TV judges will look mighty silly to you too. Another interesting court to watch is traffic court. But the problem with traffic court is these idiots are actually driving motor vehicles.

At least the TV court shows limit the bad behavior to verbal garbage exchanges. Daytime TV counseling shows includes shows like Jerry Springer with all out brawls, profanity and nudity. These shows claim to attempt helping people sort out or solve their problems, but this type of method can only fuel the flames more. That is unless beating the tar out of somebody somehow improves their respect for your opinion. Again, this activity likely improves ratings appeal. However, physical assault is a crime in pretty much all states and should NOT be condoned on TV like it is there. Domestic disputes are already way too common (ask any police officer) and need to be limited rather than encouraged.

Most shows are for entertainment only and not meant to be suggestive of how we should really live.

There is now a show on MTV called Wildboyz which features the activities of some cast members of an earlier MTV show. Activities on the former show included what they called stunts mostly involving violence, nudity, or stupid behavior with shopping carts, skateboards, and bicycles. Of course they display the disclaimers that you should not attempt these things yourself, but there have been several reported incidents of injury and property damage from those who do. Why someone would WANT to try that stuff is way beyond my comprehension. And it seems to me that if a show has to carry such a warning with it, this should be a good clue to them that the show shouldn't be aired in the first place.

Even so, what the show doesn't disclaim (nor mention) is that there is no compensation offered as a result of the damages caused by the activity. Shopping carts are expensive and stores must absorb the cost of those lost due to their destruction or removal from the property, a cost passed on to shoppers in the form of higher prices. Shateboard and bike caused damage to railings, steps, and other property is also a real problem. Kids don't seem to realize that the tricks they do often result in the scratching or other wear on property. I wish more was done to recover this cost from the parents instead of the police simply (and repeatedly) chasing off the offenders.

Presorted mail and bulk rate postage have opened up a big business game called mass mailing. Now it seems that everything you do and everywhere you go gets you on a mailing list. These lists are sold and traded for large sums of money. Many businesses feel this is still a cheaper way to reach their audience than television or radio ads. With mailings, they can also target certain regions based upon ZIP codes or street addresses.

Not all mailed ads are bad. Small businesses often use these mailings to market in their local area only and avoid the costs and coverage that a radio or TV ad would bring. Many grocery stores send weekly ads this way. What makes these practices bad is when it is not controlled or the mailing itself is a problem. These are the ones that I list below.

Some mass mailings state you are the perfect candidate for whatever they are pushing. My all time most hated (yes, hated) are the auto insurance mailings that tell me (a legally blind person) that I am at the top of their list of people we want to insure (Auto Insurance Group). If that is true, I have no respect for the company. Then again, I have no respect for them if it isn't a true statement they have mailed me.

I've also been getting mailings from 21st Century insurance every other month saying they will pay $10 if they can't save me money on my auto insurance. They can't because I don't have auto insurance, yet they have never made good on that and they won't stop sending the mailings even after several demands for such to occur.

CITI bank has apparently no concept of what database control is or how to manage duplicate address records. I have been getting from one to two mailings a week (yes, really!) from them to sign up for an unwanted credit card. For those of you who are CITIbank customers already, now you know why your savings account interest earnings are so low, they are wasting your money on multiple mailings to disinterested people and will not stop, though I've requested they do so many times.

Bank One (or Banc One or whatever name they choose next week) has also been sending me multiple mailings, up to one a week. Same story here, I have requested removal with the promise it will be done, but the mailing battle continues still.

As much as these mailings sound like they are directed to the addressee personally, there seems to be no controls in place to know who they are being sent to. I get things for veterans only, while I have never been (nor would be allowed to be) in any branch of the service. We hear the news stories about family pets qualifying for credit cards and loans. My mom gets quite a bit of junk mail and she has been deceased for about two years now. So it seems clear they have no clue who they are mailing to. But for whatever reason, when informed of an address they could easily not mail to, they seem reluctant to save the money and persons time by actually stopping it. Guess that is the business world of today.

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