Usual caveat... not necessarily the opinions of my employer, etc.
There are a select group of public organizations I hate with a passion. But none get my dander up as much as the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
These folks want to be the country's food police. Previously their modus operandi was through guilt and bad publicity. Take a slow news period of the year, get your press release out to the media. News staffs, who often find it easier to retype a press release than do real journalism, would regurgitate the CSPI spin on things and it would be on the news for 24-36 hours before it would fade away. Whether it was Chinese food or Big Macs, CSPI warned us that it was bad food. No **** Sherlock--nobody eats every meal of the day at McDonald's or the Mom & Pop Chinese place down the street. We suspect that these meals are nutritionally wanting and we only stop by to eat there once in a while when it is convenient. It is our choice. The ever-expanding quantity of dunlops and dickidoos extending past America's belts is proof at how effective the CPSI's past campaigns have been.
They have advocated for the taxing of soft drinks and junk foods to pay for health care. Seeing the level of consumption of alcohol and tobacco in the US, it is obvious as to exactly how effective Nanny Taxes are. So lets add another one. Blame the item not the person who's consuming it.
Their website claims any number of wondrous things that they have done. The list is flimsy and they certainly claim a lot of credit for things other people have also claimed to accomplish (often being in positions of power where they can actually do these things). I did chuckle about the caffeine infused malt beverages and the fact that they bullyed the Budweiser people into stepping out of the arena but there are approach over 100 other brands and varieties of those beverages on the market today, often without the long standing experience of the Busch organization of how to make a safe beverage. And besides, most bars still stock regular energy drinks--mix it with vodka and you have a stronger beverage on both ends of the equation. Great move, folks.
Well, the old MO is no longer effective. We were ineffective trying to educate, so now it's time to litigate. They have filed a class-action lawsuit against Denny's for having too much salt in their food. And they've done so in New Jersey, no less. YHGTBFKM.
Anybody with half a brain knows that Denny's food is far from being the healthiest fare around. Anybody who's eaten their food can taste all the salt in it. It's not on my top ten list of restaurants but in a pinch it will do.
Certain populations should absolutely watch their salt intake. But of late salt has been getting both negative and positive reviews. Guidelines are present for "safe" levels of salt intake, but much like the infamous "Drink 8 cups of water a day" guidance, there is very little good science to go along with what should be the daily intake.
But beyond all of that, CPSI get the hell off of my plate. I am a healthy, average sized (BMI under 25) adult male with an outstanding cholestrol number and textbook 120/70 blood pressure. I know what food is good for me and what food is not. I am smart enough to know what is getting on my fork and making it to my mouth. I have the Internet that is full of places where I can look up nutritional information. Let me make my food choices and go somewhere else.
CPSI you're wasting this country's oxygen. Pay attention to your own eating habits and leave the rest of us alone.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Rant #1: My experience with an enlisted consolidated club
Standard caveat: These are my opinions and not necessarily those of my employer. In this case, I think I can go out on a limb and say that they are not the opinions of my employer.
First, some background for my non-military friends...
Each Air Force Base has an enlisted club. From the service's inception and through the 1980's, enlisted clubs were the hub of social activity after hours on a base. A place to drink, a place to hang out, a place to have a good meal at a great price, and a place to play Bingo and occasionally gamble in more active ways. With many changes to the service, societal norms, drinking ages, and any number of other reasons, membership in clubs have diminished significantly. Clubs still are the home to ceremonies, banquets, and other similar large population events. Clubs are non-appropriated funds facilities, that is tax dollars do not directly fund the operation of the club. It is funded through monthly membership fees and the profits made by the club.
More background: Most clubs are struggling. Much fewer enlisted people live on-base, so the traditional captive walk-in customer of the clubs are no longer present. Off-base entertainment and dining is comparable in price. Many Airmen (and by Airmen I mean all who are in the Air Force) hesitate to drink in military clubs for fear that there might be negative career repercussions. And clubs have done a poor job of keeping up with the times in terms of providing those things that Airmen want to do.
Okay, long lead-up to my rant...
I moved from Goodfellow AFB to an unnamed base (though if you know me, you know what that unnamed base is). Upon arrival we received a briefing from the Services division of the Force Support Squadron--the organization that runs the club and many other morale and recreational activities in the Air Force's current structure. Possibly as bad of a briefing as I have seen in the last five years. Not a good showing from an organization that needs to excel at marketing.
I have been a member of Air Force Enlisted Clubs or their equivalents for the last almost 10 years. I became a member again when we were in Turkey because membership was good value for the money. I kept my membership when we were at another overseas location even though there was no club because I went TDY often and to get membership rights cost $15 a year for people in my situation. And I was a member of both the club and then the events center at Goodfellow when they changed their designation (complicated story).
As many of you know, my family is still at Goodfellow while we sort out travel orders. Another long story, but it comes with having a complicated family situation. And with me in school, the highlight of my social life has been a single movie that one of my classmates had to drag me to. And I've eaten somewhere other than my house once in two months. So let me think--pay for membership here that I don't use or support Goodfellow's club that my wife does use. Easy choice. I decided not to move my membership.
Last week I get an e-mail from the club management with an attached document that reads, in part, "
Welcome! We're glad to have you in the Members First Plus! Program at [BASE REMOVED] AFB [STATE]... (Punctuation errors left in, but base name and state removed)
After reviewing our records regarding your account, we have noticed that you have not moved your account. As of Monday, July 6, 2009, you have an active account that has not been transferred from your last base to [BASE REMOVED] Air Force Base. (Poor grammar and no unity of use of Air Force Base vice AFB in the same document)
--SNIPPED with further blah blah blah regarding the cost of membership (over 3 times that of Goodfellow's event center) and numerous other spelling, capitalization, and punctuation errors. This went on for another couple of paragraphs.
If you have any questions, or special circumstance that would exempt you from automatic transfer, be sure to give us a call at [Phone Number] or stop by the Members First Plus! customer service office at [Address].
***ALL ACCOUNTS WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY TRANSFERRED BY July 17, 2009. THE SOONER YOU REPLY THE SOONER YOU CAN BE ENJOYING YOUR ENTIRE PREFERRED PLUS BENEFITS.
Once again Welcome! To [Base] (no ending punctuation)
Signature block of the club's general manager.
First... if one of my subordinates sent an e-mail that looked like this and it went out of my organization to numerous commissioned officers and senior NCO's, that individual would be looking at paperwork and I would be insisting that they enroll in the next available college English class because it's obvious that they didn't capture the essence of the language in high school. If it were an attached document that was meant to look almost formal, there would have been a lengthy counseling session for making me look like an idiot.
But aside from this, I send an e-mail explaining my circumstances (family is still at my last base, I have zero leisure time right now, etc). It was pointed, but polite and with a call back number. And the final line was if this is not possible, close my membership account. A week plus goes by and I get no response.
So today, I call them. Yes, they got my e-mail. No, I have to be a member of the club here if I want to be a member at all. Okay, I understand that. "Then cancel my membership immediately." We can't do that. You're going to have to call your old base and have them cancel it.
YHGTBFKM. You can move my membership without my permission yet you cannot cancel my membership on my request. But okay, I'll play the silly game. I've been in long enough to know that sometimes these battles are not worth fighting. So I call Goodfellow and of course the person I need to speak with is gone. I'll have to take care of it tomorrow.
But as I get off the phone I realize, "Wait... I'm not really a member of a club. I'm a member of an events center. I'm a member of an appropriated funds organization." So I call them back. Of course, their membership support hours are between 8 AM and 4 PM so I leave a pointed voice message stating this case (which admittedly is splitting hairs) as well as the fact that I am very disappointed with the level of customer service that I have received.
The club system has a place and if collectively they could get back in sync with their primary audience, it could prosper again. But this is an example of why the club system is such a non-entity in today's Air Force life.
My rants...
- If you're in a customer service organization, you should not rely on the customer to have to call back to get a response to an e-mail.
- If you have the power to take my money, you certainly have the power to stop taking my money.
- I'm loyal to the Air Force club system, but not blindly loyal. If you have failed to give me a reason to join, expect that I won't.
- Members First? My ---. My family members are members, too, and to increase their costs so you can get me into your column is a very poor way to do business.
Ultimately, my family will end up paying more until we can our travel orders situation resolved. Great way to show support to the family...
First, some background for my non-military friends...
Each Air Force Base has an enlisted club. From the service's inception and through the 1980's, enlisted clubs were the hub of social activity after hours on a base. A place to drink, a place to hang out, a place to have a good meal at a great price, and a place to play Bingo and occasionally gamble in more active ways. With many changes to the service, societal norms, drinking ages, and any number of other reasons, membership in clubs have diminished significantly. Clubs still are the home to ceremonies, banquets, and other similar large population events. Clubs are non-appropriated funds facilities, that is tax dollars do not directly fund the operation of the club. It is funded through monthly membership fees and the profits made by the club.
More background: Most clubs are struggling. Much fewer enlisted people live on-base, so the traditional captive walk-in customer of the clubs are no longer present. Off-base entertainment and dining is comparable in price. Many Airmen (and by Airmen I mean all who are in the Air Force) hesitate to drink in military clubs for fear that there might be negative career repercussions. And clubs have done a poor job of keeping up with the times in terms of providing those things that Airmen want to do.
Okay, long lead-up to my rant...
I moved from Goodfellow AFB to an unnamed base (though if you know me, you know what that unnamed base is). Upon arrival we received a briefing from the Services division of the Force Support Squadron--the organization that runs the club and many other morale and recreational activities in the Air Force's current structure. Possibly as bad of a briefing as I have seen in the last five years. Not a good showing from an organization that needs to excel at marketing.
I have been a member of Air Force Enlisted Clubs or their equivalents for the last almost 10 years. I became a member again when we were in Turkey because membership was good value for the money. I kept my membership when we were at another overseas location even though there was no club because I went TDY often and to get membership rights cost $15 a year for people in my situation. And I was a member of both the club and then the events center at Goodfellow when they changed their designation (complicated story).
As many of you know, my family is still at Goodfellow while we sort out travel orders. Another long story, but it comes with having a complicated family situation. And with me in school, the highlight of my social life has been a single movie that one of my classmates had to drag me to. And I've eaten somewhere other than my house once in two months. So let me think--pay for membership here that I don't use or support Goodfellow's club that my wife does use. Easy choice. I decided not to move my membership.
Last week I get an e-mail from the club management with an attached document that reads, in part, "
Welcome! We're glad to have you in the Members First Plus! Program at [BASE REMOVED] AFB [STATE]... (Punctuation errors left in, but base name and state removed)
After reviewing our records regarding your account, we have noticed that you have not moved your account. As of Monday, July 6, 2009, you have an active account that has not been transferred from your last base to [BASE REMOVED] Air Force Base. (Poor grammar and no unity of use of Air Force Base vice AFB in the same document)
--SNIPPED with further blah blah blah regarding the cost of membership (over 3 times that of Goodfellow's event center) and numerous other spelling, capitalization, and punctuation errors. This went on for another couple of paragraphs.
If you have any questions, or special circumstance that would exempt you from automatic transfer, be sure to give us a call at [Phone Number] or stop by the Members First Plus! customer service office at [Address].
***ALL ACCOUNTS WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY TRANSFERRED BY July 17, 2009. THE SOONER YOU REPLY THE SOONER YOU CAN BE ENJOYING YOUR ENTIRE PREFERRED PLUS BENEFITS.
Once again Welcome! To [Base] (no ending punctuation)
Signature block of the club's general manager.
First... if one of my subordinates sent an e-mail that looked like this and it went out of my organization to numerous commissioned officers and senior NCO's, that individual would be looking at paperwork and I would be insisting that they enroll in the next available college English class because it's obvious that they didn't capture the essence of the language in high school. If it were an attached document that was meant to look almost formal, there would have been a lengthy counseling session for making me look like an idiot.
But aside from this, I send an e-mail explaining my circumstances (family is still at my last base, I have zero leisure time right now, etc). It was pointed, but polite and with a call back number. And the final line was if this is not possible, close my membership account. A week plus goes by and I get no response.
So today, I call them. Yes, they got my e-mail. No, I have to be a member of the club here if I want to be a member at all. Okay, I understand that. "Then cancel my membership immediately." We can't do that. You're going to have to call your old base and have them cancel it.
YHGTBFKM. You can move my membership without my permission yet you cannot cancel my membership on my request. But okay, I'll play the silly game. I've been in long enough to know that sometimes these battles are not worth fighting. So I call Goodfellow and of course the person I need to speak with is gone. I'll have to take care of it tomorrow.
But as I get off the phone I realize, "Wait... I'm not really a member of a club. I'm a member of an events center. I'm a member of an appropriated funds organization." So I call them back. Of course, their membership support hours are between 8 AM and 4 PM so I leave a pointed voice message stating this case (which admittedly is splitting hairs) as well as the fact that I am very disappointed with the level of customer service that I have received.
The club system has a place and if collectively they could get back in sync with their primary audience, it could prosper again. But this is an example of why the club system is such a non-entity in today's Air Force life.
My rants...
- If you're in a customer service organization, you should not rely on the customer to have to call back to get a response to an e-mail.
- If you have the power to take my money, you certainly have the power to stop taking my money.
- I'm loyal to the Air Force club system, but not blindly loyal. If you have failed to give me a reason to join, expect that I won't.
- Members First? My ---. My family members are members, too, and to increase their costs so you can get me into your column is a very poor way to do business.
Ultimately, my family will end up paying more until we can our travel orders situation resolved. Great way to show support to the family...
Jim Is Ranting Again
As most of you know, I'm pretty calm, cool, collected, etc. I do not get excited easily. But once in a while, something happens that really chafes my backside.
I used to internalize it. But now I figured it was just easier to let it fly and let the world know, hoping that it would make me feel a little better and maybe keep somebody else from falling into the same issues.
So it begins...
I used to internalize it. But now I figured it was just easier to let it fly and let the world know, hoping that it would make me feel a little better and maybe keep somebody else from falling into the same issues.
So it begins...
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