lostchick.com

I came across this little bit running around the message boards today about Advanta.  I too have been having issues with them. Those dividends were a little too good last quarter.

Anyone else noticing this? It takes three to make a conspiracy.
Anyone else getting money taken by Advanta?
Anyone else getting dicked over with chump change by Advanta?

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Dear Mr. David Goodman,  I have not been able to successfully resolve incorrect service and finance charges because of what I feel are unethical business policies supported by an inappropriately acting customer service department. A simple challenge and question regarding my statement stonewalled them into not only ignoring my calls, faxes and e-mails but falsely representing themselves various rankings within Advanta such as Vice President and representing themselves as your attorney in customer service matters.

 Additionally, I have serious financial concerns with a company so inflexible, that the company employees seem encouraged and supported by management to say whatever they like and have literally “run amok” in the quest for bonus quotas. I have used your company for years, without an incident and have been as surprised as you regarding this incident. My suggestion to you as an investor is that you shake things up, clean out your departments and get rid of some potential liabilities and dead weight. Earnings are over, time to clean house.

Christina Smiph

aka Lost Chick

Variations include Cranio-Rectal Syndrome and Cranial Rectosis, presumably for when the patient doesn’t have shit for brains but merely has his head up his ass.

I have no problem with meat eating. In fact, I have slaughtered chickens, pigs, a lamb, and watched a cow get cut.I do have a problem with the fact that the consumer has no idea where those things wrapped in cellophane at the grocer came from. Or even what protocols existed to ensure that it is even remotely safe.

A slaughter house is inspected by a USDA official once every 8 years. The USDA has a dual purpose: to promote and sell meat, and to ensure that that meat is safe. Often those goals run against one another and the consumer suffers.I’m pro-meat consumption

. I just wish consumers had more information or options at the supermarket so that they could make informed decisions about the best purchase. Unfortunately, the meat industry has totally warped any sense of free-market economy and again, the consumer suffers. And so you ask: Are tigers immoral?Tigers don’t have a concept of morality anymore than a human infant does. I’d be willing to excuse human immorality if the human is willing to admit that such things as standards, morality, and the law are meaningless and each human should be allowed to do what it wants, when it wants, in accordance with instinct. Non-human animals will often rape and murder in order to reproduce, for some reason, this seems to be a criminal offense in human society.
and I say:
This arguement is a circle jerk. You have an either/or standard for morality. Either: excuse immorality if the human admits standards, morality, and laws are meaningless…Or: not excuse immorality if the human admits standards, morality, and law do have meaning.

Do you think that a consumption-based for-profit economy is a sustainable model? I mean, resources aren’t unlimited; if we allow unrestricted hoarding and privatization of the means and materials of production, it only causes their cost to go up. It concentrates wealth in the hands of those that have the capital. And it is only to grow more disparate until we run out of resources; then we have a collapse. So we can have a proletarian revolution now and switch to a democratically-planned, just economy, or we can wait until we’re in a crisis state when we’re forced in to it. The “problems” with communism that have been pointed out (which are really problems with socialism, which, as defined the Manifesto, is a transitional stage of state control as we realign from a private, profit-based model to a communally-owned planned economy. There are varying degrees of statism within socialism, and Stalinism represents the worst version of those. Democratic socialism, on the other hand, with a forward look to transitioning to a fully communist form of government, makes a lot of sense when you really look at what it’s trying to accomplish — the people retain control of the means and materials of production, and the people democratically decide how best to use resources within the society. This frees man up from the necessity of struggle for basic goods, like homes, food, etc. and allows him to focus on things that will advance the cause of all humanity, such as medical or scientific research, cultural projects like art or literature, etc.The great lie of US education is that this represents totalitarianism. That’s just plain wrong. The “freedom” enjoyed under capitalism only exists if you can pay for it, and if you don’t have the money, good luck actually making it. It is in no one powerful’s interest to share wealth under a capitalist regime.

What the fark was this site hurting? Go have a mac attack and leave my newbie bunz alone.

People with PAPD externalize their focus and cannot accept blame for any of their shortcomings (Stone, 1993, p. 361). They deny or refuse awareness of their own provocative behavior, the serious negative consequences of their maladaptive responses, and responsibility for the behavioral choices they make. Instead, they focus on the many grievances they have toward others. They focus on the behavior of others and externalize responsibility for their destructive actions.

Individuals with PAPD frequently employ the strategy of opposition; they fortify their autonomy through devious opposition to authority figures while overtly seeking favor from them (Beck & Freeman, 1990, p. 46). They attempt to keep their rebellion covert enough to maintain a sense of safety and allow themselves to deny malicious intent.

Liberal or conservative, faith-based or secular, any group that sees its mission as families should have interest rate regulation and bankruptcy protection at the very top of its agenda. Predatory lending is a family issue. Usury is a family issue. Bankruptcy is a family issue. These laws affect families-people with children-more than anyone else. There is likely no other issue — divorce, welfare reform, child custody — that will directly touch more middle-class families than the mortgage and credit card interest rates that drain away their economic viability and sap the intimacy and joy from family life.

God is a white, male American, with dark hair (Blonde hair is for girls), a muscular build (Not legs though. He’s too busy to work on his legs. Doesn’t matter, only the chest and arms matter, in a fight!), he likes country music and classic rock. He hates homos, asians, blacks, injines, A-rabs, and hindus. He likes roast beef, and understands the hard life a workin’ man has to endure, so it’s okay when he sins just a lil’.

*ping!*

Years ago, when the earth was still an infant and the elements were first introduced to each other, The sun and the north wind would often get into grand arguments and who was the supreme element.

“I am far superior to you!” bellowed the North Wind. “Man cowers in my presence. All creatures from the smallest insect to the tallest tree kneels before me as I pass, lest they be destroyed by my awesome might! You can’t even begin to compare yourself to me!”

“I am life.” The sun smiled back. “The earth can exist without you, but if I were to leave, everything would perish in my absence.”

And so it went on. Their argument enveloped them more and more to the point where they both abandoned their duties. The earth seemed to freeze. Without light nor wind, the entire planet seemed halted.

During the height of one of their arguments, they both noticed a lone cloaked traveler trekking his way across the land.

The sun suggested, “Let us determine once and for all who is correct. He who would separate this man from his cloak shall be declared the most superior element. We shall finally put this silly debate to rest.”

“Easy,” said the North Wind. “It’s about time we both agreed I am the best, I shall go first to lessen your humiliation.”

Gathering up all his force for the attack, he came whirling furiously down upon the man, and caught up his cloak as though he would wrest it from him by one single effort: but the harder he blew, the more closely the man wrapped it round himself for protection.

The North wind blew the hardest it had ever blown that day. Across the globe, trees cracked apart, ships were destroyed at sea, and it seemed as the earth itself would soon split lest the wind relented. Still, the man clung onto his cloak, as it was the only protection he had from the savage element.

Eventually, the North wind decided that his task was an impossible one. He looked over at the sun. “Looks like our argument will never end. If I couldn’t separate the man from the cloak, nothing will.”

The Sun didn’t say a word, it just smiled a bright smile back at the wind. The earth slowly heated after months of frozen darkness. The traveler loosened his grip on his cloak. The north wind looked at the sun incredulously, but the sun only beamed a brighter smile. The traveler, now sweating, allowed the cloak to drop loosely around his shoulders. The sun simply grinned wider. The heat was unbearable and the man, before he had gone many steps further, was glad to throw his cloak right off and complete his journey more lightly clad.

Important Business Lessons from the Porn Industry as applied to Politics

I mean, that thing I said I said earlier about not celebrating the death of somebody you disagree with… that still counts for a bitter, uncompromising old fart like Falwell, right? We’re civilized people. We can celebrate him changing his mind, or even celebrate him being made to look like a fool in public.

But you start cheering his death, you’ve walked away from the one single baseline every remotely moral person has ever agreed on: the value of human life. And I know we all agree on that, because we can all think of people we could’ve otherwise stabbed and gotten away with it.

And sure, there may be a few of my atheists out there saying that what Falwell was spewing was so hateful, that it surely inspired some murders (of homosexuals or abortion doctors or whatever) and that he thus deserved death on those grounds.

But you don’t want to live by that rule; you’ll wind up in a world where gangsta rappers and video game programmers and political commentators and novelists are considered worthy of death just because some fans claimed their work inspired them to kill. That’s the sort of thing a nut from the other side would say. Right?

No, people got to have the right to express themselves, good, bad and ugly. Falwell had a family. Friends. He was a human being. You cheer over his corpse and you’re just acting like a pecker.
And that’s another thing both sides agree on, that we hate this modern trend toward peckerfication.

I wish people would stop conversing in non-sequitist mumbo jumbo imaginings, and listen to people who are actually educated and do not have stretched earlobes? I mean when you wake up at 35 and no one will hire you, you will regret all of those stupid tattoos. Smoking is bad for you. The end of the world is at stake, and you are worried about hooking up on Friday night. Only a strong, tricky democrat who can think on her feet and speak like someone who has read a book before can take on the republicans, are we forgetting who the real enemy is? Bill Clinton was as tricky as the Republicans and that is why he won. Global Warming, ever heard of it? The bees are dying, there will be no food unless something is done, wasting your vote on Nader or a republican loony like Ron Paul is not going to do anything. You have to stop worrying about being to cool for school. You have to stop criticizing people who are on the side of good, and realize that Obama is not perfect, that we need someone who can finish a sentence. Intelligence is more than a tone of voice. It is more than a sarcastic non-sequtiter that really doesn’t mean anything if you think about it. Sometimes Obama sounds like Martin Luther King, but more often he sounds like George W. Has anyone seen the debates? If you smoke, you are not smart enough to vote. The people who are critical of Hillary, what have they done that’s so special? They can make a design in someone’s cappuccino, big deal. Have they tried to implement universal health care? Smoking is bad for the environment, causes cancer. Obama smokes, he can’t be that smart. Not.  both of whom have repeatedly declared their bellicosity toward Iran, and their fierce insistence that all options, including the use of nuclear weapons, remain “on the table” – will no doubt continue its long inaction and avoidance of the subject, as Arthur Silber notes so powerfully here, while also providing active, practical steps that could be taken to head off another war — something no one else is bothering to do. We’ll let Silber have the last word here: So what is your choice? Do the world — and your life, and the lives of those you love — mean so little to you, that you will risk losing them all? Is that what you want? Do you still choose to do nothing? Do you?here are some hints for those who might want to take up the gauntlet: - Consider the source. (Don’t take anything at face value. Don’t be swayed automatically by an impressive name like “F. William Engdahl.” Trace the “facts” back to original sources & assess their credibility. If the initial statement came from, say, Art Bell, you might want to think twice about it.) - Verbs have meaning. (Operation Northwoods is the classic example the True Believers offer of a “false flag” operation. Briefly: Some U.S. generals wrote a paper in the ’60s outlining a plan to terrorize Cubans in America planes, setting off bombs, etc., then claiming the Cuban government committed the deeds. Yes, it was WRITTEN, but it was never IMPLEMENTED. Lots of things are written and never implemented. Yet the True Believers still wave Operation Northwoods like a bloody shirt, as an example of government perfidy. And it’s nonsense.) - Sharpen your critical-thinking skills. (The arguments of a True Believer will undoubtedly drift into deep rhetorical shoals. Watch out for Guilt by Association, the Slippery Slope Fallacy, the Appeal to Ignorance, Amphiboly, Red Herrings, and other logical faults. They matter. Conspiracy theories get a lot of mileage out of tricky rhetoric.) - Don’t be buffaloed. (True Believers will take their arguments into intriguing non sequiturs. For example, you’ll be discussing, say, phone communications from Flight 93 on Sept. 11, 2001, and suddenly you find yourself discussing Operation Northwoods. You are perfectly within your rights to demand that the argument get back on topic. If they ask you, “What about the buffalo?” and you feel forced to answer, you’ve lost.) “I can’t figure out the idiocy”: Me, neither.Years ago when I was first in therapy I learned and remembered the damage that was done to me in childhood and how that has effected my life. But I am 53 years old now and I am so past blaming my poor, ancient, 88 year old mom for my problems. I am responsible for making my life into what I want it to be. To the extent that I ruminate on my childhood as the cause of all my problems today I can not move forward. Responsibility, intention and determination are what I need to move forward.Here we are stuck in a decrepit throw-back system that crumbles even as it tries to provide meager services to a few in need. It doesn’t need fixing- it needs to be burned to the ground. In a recent meeting David Oaks used the term non-violent revolution. A revolution does not “tinker” with the old system.

AP) A woman who is seven months pregnant is accused of smashing a beer bottle against a bartender’s head after she was refused another drink. Police said Keisharra Abercrombie, 30, assaulted the female bartender on Saturday after being told she shouldn’t be drinking alcohol.Police say Abercrombie also smashed a glass over the bartender’s ear and head.

Authorities said the bartender’s ear was partially detached. A surgeon in Pittsburgh used two staples and 28 stitches to reattach the top of the ear.

Abercrombie was arraigned Wednesday on charges of aggravated assault, simple assault, harassment and reckless endangerment. She was in the Beaver County Jail on $25,000 bail.