Super Bowl Cheers

Does everybody know your name? Not in the sports bar I visited on Super Bowl Sunday to watch the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts battle it out for the title. The place was empty despite 30% off the food prices, free T-shirts and big screen TVs. There was no hooting and hollering in this well known BBQ joint in Thousand Oaks, CA. Where were the guys? I hope they weren't at the malls shopping with their wives or girlfriends.


My guess is that football fans in my neck of the woods were at homes watching the game on their flatscreens or plasma TVs. I'm not a television affectionado, so I am pleased with a 17 inch TV screen without any hint of High-Def. I just don't see anything on television worth spending thousands of dollars so I am able to make out the zits on an actors face in full scale detail. Now people have their own home entertainment centers with theatre style seating and a TV screens that stretch 20 feet across the wall. My response? La-de-frickin'-da!

So here's this vacant bar. I sat with my son four feet from the actual bar, since he's underage, wanting to give him a Super Bowl Sunday experience. On other days I have visited this same sports eatery and the place was packed with screaming fans. Not on this day.

I contemplated that the day may be over when the cast of the TV hit show, Cheers would feel comfortable in a sports bar. The genius of Cheers is that everybody did know one another's name (as the Cheers theme song claimed). Today we don't know the names of our neighbors. Instead, we are too distracted by telephone texting and emailing. My son's cell phone rang about 15 times while I was with him. I asked, "Why aren't your friends watching the game? Why are they calling you during the Super Bowl? What a bunch of girlie men on their cell phones during the Super Bowl?" I made him turn off his technical distraction.

Hopefully, I raise some questions about today's culture. I think they are a bored generation and a boring one as well. They've been raised on video games and iPods which forces them more and more into their own universe. They lack any concept of the neighborhood bar or just a neighborhood. Instead, they have settled for wireless friendships. Having observed my son's male friends, I can see how easily bored they are. They must be entertained at all times by someone or something . . . even destructiveness and vandalism They retreat into their private world of gaming and iPoding and cut everyone else out.

Why go to a bar and grill to watch the Super Bowl? Because it's fun to watch a sports event with a bunch of guys who may be strangers at first, but by the second quarter, you're giving one another high fives as your team scores a touchdown. No, we'd rather watch the game at home or on a cell phone device that provides a TV feed.

Who needs people when you can put on your high tech haz-mat suit, shut everyone out and enjoy your own private Super Bowl. And you don't need to know anyone's name-just a username and password.

Super Bowl Cheers

Avatarred and Feathered

Not again! Another Hollywood producer - James Cameron - uses a blockbuster hit as a vehicle to broadcast Hollywood's left wing anti-American agenda. This time the vehicle is the much hyped film Avatar. This 2 hour and 45 minute 3D film epic is pure idyllic eye candy with the ability to put butts in the seats. But do we popcorn munchers have any idea of the propaganda being sold in the storyline?


The main plot of the Gospel According to Cameron goes like this: in the future the American military will stop at nothing to obtain a new energy source on another planet - even if it includes murder and destruction of innocent men, women, children and animals, the mutilation of the environment and the dismantling of a peaceful culture. According to Avatar Americans are nothing but invaders and oppressors, and the military is keen to comply with a no holds barred attack on another planet in order to maintain America's corporate need for more petrol. Welcome to the world of Hollywood's left wing political perspective only now it's in animated 3D.

Avatar unfolds by depicting the U.S. military as an interplanetary enemy of the peace loving inhabitants of a tranquil planet called Pandora. Due to the discovery of a new energy source on the planet, our troops or "people from the sky" encounter the planet's inhabitants - the Na'Vi - in their attempt to harness the resource. Unfortunately, this energy source is located beneath a giant Home Treelocated at the center of the Na'Vi culture and an object of Nature worship.

The Home Tree must be uprooted so we can get at this new "oil." The mission of one Marine is to compel the aliens to relocate from the area surrounding the tree so our troops can uproot the tree to tap this new resource. The aliens are not so quick to comply, and the military has no other resort than to destroy the tree and allow for devastating collateral damage.

Does Cameron think moviegoers are so dull that we cannot see Avatar's underlying message that the U.S. invades innocent countries in order to take over their energy resource even with the resulting loss of life. Sound familiar? The radical left wing accusation since the Gulf War to our present day invasion of Iraq is that America's wars are only a coverup for corporations seeking oil in these countries. In Cameron's mind there is no such thing as a war on terrorism. Our true motivation is merely to take over the oil fields of the world.

I wonder why Cameron chose American troops to be the alien invaders in the future? Why not the French, the Chinese, the Russians, British or the Spanish? Of course, we are the epitome of evil on this planet. Yet this Hollywood producer profits from the American free enterprise system and capitalism while he lives the "good life."

To Cameron America is everything the president of Iran says we are - "the great Satan." Avatar will be a major hit in Iran! Thanks Jim. Is it not odd that Cameron could not even imagine a futuristic Muslim military force conquering a foreign planet in order to possess their "oil." Only America is the kind of country capable of committing such a dastardly deed. If America is so evil, why does James Cameron choose to be a citizen of the "evil Empire"?

Avatar is also touted as one of the most influential movies of our time and will change how we will be viewing movies in the future. Cameron' script is predictable and daunting. If you're familiar with the radical message of the Left, then you'll already know scene-by-scene where this 3D feature is going. Along with Cameron, Michael Moore and Oliver Stone, haven't we seen enough of their proliferation of America hating cinema.

Had I known what Avatar was about, I never would have dished out nearly $30 for two tickets for a film that claims to made in revolutionary 3D, yet Cameron merely used 3D as a veneer for the larger message of exposing American imperialism and the United State's disregard for the environment. Actually, the 3D was more like viewing a children's pop-up book.

Oddly enough, Cameron never pulls off any 3D thrills. The Disney 3D short version of "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids," only seen at Disneyland, does a much better job showing us the marvels of 3D. Cameron has no idea what 3D films are supposed to look like. Despite an array of alien creatures on Pandora, not once did any of them pop out of the screen to send the audience scrambling to the concession stand out of fear of an alien creature on the loose. Who is Cameron kidding with his 3D antics? As my 14 year old son said, "the only thing that popped out were flowers and leaves." Perhaps a 3D version of Terminator II should have been done instead. Now we're talking . . . .

Should you see Avatar? Not if you care about how our troops are portrayed and how our country is dissed over and over by the Hollywood Left. I'm sorry I put any money in Cameron's pockets. Don't make the same mistake, but hit Hollywood where they hurt the most - their bank accounts. You're not going to miss some historic film that is going to change film history. Go see Blindside instead.

Stand up for our troops who put their lives on the line every day. Send a message to Hollywood that we're tired of their radical diatribes against America. Let the stars of the silver screen hear the voice of American people that we're not going to support their propaganda film making anymore. Instead of seeing Avatar, send your money to Wounded Warrior or Iraq Star or some other organization that supports the troops.

The result of boycotting Avatar? The next time James Cameron or any other leftist Hollywood mogul makes a film in which he assumes he is "King of the World," he will consider whether this time no one is going to show up to sit for nearly three hours of animated political brainwashing.

Avatarred and Feathered

Here Comes Vic

On November 30, 2009 my Dad passed away due to congestive heart failure. There's a lot I can say about my father as I think about his life. Most people at his funeral spoke about their memories of Victor Lapides during the golden years of his life. My brother Michael and I share the most vivid memories of Dad when he was in his 30s and 40s.

Dad always displayed a quick sense of humor and never missed an opportunity to make us laugh. He made up names for everyday objects that I never heard anyone else say. He sprinkled his speech with Yiddish terms but he never made it sound Yiddish. A meshuginah was the nut hanging out on the street corner not the Yiddish term for a crazy person. I loved to drive with Dad on his auto parts truck while he did his his route because he always had funny names for all the gas station owners and attendants. However, he always treated them with kindness and respect. I would wait all day helping Dad on his route until we visited the auto mechanic shop where someone like "Tony Tremendous" worked. In reality, Tony was just some short, overweight guy. But when Dad spoke about him, I couldn't wait to see him.

My father was often daring and fearless. He convinced me to sneak out of Ft. Dix, N.J. Army base on a Sunday morning so he could take me to Atlantic City. There I was with my head freshly shaven, hiding on the floorboard in the back of the car while my Dad calmly drove past of the MP guards. I was technically AWOL but my father made it worth it as we spent the day in Atlantic City enjoying the amusements on the boardwalk.

My most touching moment with Dad was the day he dropped me off at the Irvington, N.J. induction station at 4 a.m. I was drafted into the Army during the Vietnam war, and my father drove me to the Army recruiting office. We said goodbye and I noticed a tear in his eye as he pondered his son's future during a very conflicting time. Even more than my Bar Mitzvah I think that was the day I became a man. I truly left home. I was prepared to fight for my country and I knew my Dad was fully behind me. And I didn't even receive a fountain pen!

Friends always think my love for professional wrestling is bizarre. Yes, I am a fan of the WWE. Do I think it's fake? Let me throw you off a twenty foot ladder onto a card table below and when your back breaks the table in tow pieces, tell me how fake it seems to you. But it was Dad who took me to see professional wrestling at Laurel Gardens located in the Newark Armory. I was probably nine years old wen he started taking me. I loved going with him and my brother. I even brought tomatoes and eggs to the venue to throw at the wrestlers who were the "bad guys." Yes, my father encouraged me as I ran up next to the ring and tossed a raw egg at the Sheik.

My father made sure the family spent time at the Jersey shore each summer or we joined a swim club. Those were precious times that I got to spend with him and my mother. Thanks to my father and mother I have a great childhood growing up in Newark, N.J. I remember every place he took me-the circus, the Roy Rogers rodeo at Madison Square Garden in NY, July 4th fireworks displays, Times Square, Niagra Falls, the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. and Sunday evenings at Ming's Chinese restaurant or Jo Rae's Italian Pizzeria in Newark.

Even though Dad did a lot of wonderful things for me, I wasn't such an easy kid. I teased my little brother and hurt him badly on many occasions. This is when I found out what a strict disciplinarian my father could be. At age 11 I broke 21 windows in the neighborhood in honor of "Mischief Night." To me every day was mischief night. I got the whipping of my life for that stunt, and had to stay home on Halloween while my brother went out "trick or treating."

During my teenage years I gave my father more grief-hot wiring my friend's parents' car for a joyride around the streets of Millburn and Short Hills until the police stopped us, getting picked up by a stolen vehicle while hitchhiking and getting busted by the cops or ditching school and spending the day in New York. From the ages of 16 to 19 I spent my weekends at Greenwich Village exposing myself to beat music, art and poetry. I experimented with drugs and read everything I could about LSD experiments before I started using the hallucinogenic myself.

Despite my rebelliousness Dad always showed up with a lecture about how I was throwing my life away. He was right and it took me until the age 23 to learn the truth. And by truth, I mean accepting Jesus. Dad wasn't too happy with his messianic Jewish son. My brother Michael soon followed suit and became a Jewish follower of Jesus. Despite the rift Jesus caused in my family, I always knew that part of my maturity was making correct choices and living with the consequences.

Dad always stayed in touch. He loved it when I called and I tried to do that quite often. I could always make him laugh by reminding him of some funny times we enjoyed in Newark and all the strange people we knew. I would ask him about his odd vocabulary with words like manipretzel and pishocks. He gave my brother and I hours of tear jerking laughter. However, I think he probably thought these words were normal.

I miss my Dad a lot. I couldn't send him a Hanukkah card this year. I won't send him a Father's Day card. These emotions are new and unfamiliar to me. Upon reflecting on Dad's life, I always knew he loved me (even when he spanked my defiant butt when I was a kid). I kept a lot from Dad about my sins and wrongdoings. I also never told him about some horrible events that happened to me as a child. It's okay. I've survived. As he would often say, "Don't worry about it!"

I've been told I am a lot like my Dad. That's okay by me. He was always kind to people and everybody knew his name wherever he went. I hope I take after him when it comes to my treatment of people.

I thank the Lord I still have my mother in my life and my brother along with the rest of the family. My children, my sister-in-law, new daughter-in-law, and my niece and nephew and their families. But no one can ever replace Dad. I want to cry at times but soon I remember something funny he said and my tears turn to laughter. Thanks Dad. I love you and hope to see you on the other side . . . but not too soon.

Here Comes Vic

Obama: Citizen of the World or President of U.S.?

A president of the U.S. wearing a Chairman Mao jacket? How insensitive can Obama be? Chairman Mao was a mass murderer who slaughtered millions of dissidents who went against the communist take over. If Obama was president of the U.S. and visited Germany during Nazi Germany, would he don a Nazi uniform to connect with Hitler? Is Barak Obama committed to be a representative of the United States of the America?




When meeting the Emperor of Japan with many other world leaders, only Obama "the president of the United States" bowed to the emperor. In fact, he could not stop bowing. If anything Obama is doing in Asia, it assuring the North Koreans that we have a spineless wimp as president. Why did he choose to leave the country when he moved the court case of the 9/11 conspirators to N.Y. in a New York court instead of a military court. These terrorists committed a war crime against the U.S. not N.Y. They should be tried not as U.S. citizens with constitutional rights, but as war criminals facing a military tribunal just like the Nazis were tried at Nuremburg and hung for their horrid crimes. How is Barak Obama upholding the constitution of the U.S. as a president? I am not convinced he takes his citizenship of this country seriously.

Obama: Citizen of the World or President of U.S.?

Post 9/11 Traumatic Stress Disorder Hits America

After America was attacked by Islamic extremists on September 11, 2001 I thought we understood we are up to our necks in a war on terrorism. After the terrifying collapse of New York's twin Trade Center towers, I believed we understood Islamic extremists are out to destroy America and Americans. We were a pissed-off country and we wanted to do whatever we could to win the war on terrorism. Thanks to President George Bush.


Things have changed in eight years. We've become fearful of profiling Muslims living in the US as Islamic jihadists. We've even accommodated Muslims to allow them to have Saudi financed Muslim schools in the US. We're a country afraid to say anything negative about people from the Middle East lest we offend them or intimate they may be terrorists. We even elected a president of the United States who attended a Muslim school in Indonesia from the ages of 6 to 10. He's the first president to bow in reverence and respect before a Saudi misogynist prince who is in cahoots with Wahhabi Muslim extremists. Barak Obama-a man who took an oath or protect and preserve the national security of this country.

The fear and anger towards suspicious Islamic individuals have been diluted thanks to political correctness in this country. Liberals railed against the Patriot Act as an invasion of privacy even if a suspected terrorist was checking books out of the library on how to build a bomb or checking out blueprints of the New York subway system. We don't want to offend Muslims living in the US nor suspect them of being extremists and terrorists. Instead, we want to promote understanding with Islamic people who keep telling us their religion is peaceful while their Koran is filled with hatred and destruction towards Jewish people and Christians.

Our country has been struck with a virus more serious than N1H1. I cal it "Post 9/11 Traumatic Stress Disorder". The symptoms of this disorder are marked by an inability to call an act of terrorist for what it is. People with this disease would rather explain all acts of terrorism in psychological terms. We never really needed GITMO; we need a cadre of Dr. Phil's to speak to maniacal terrorists.

Barak Obama and his staff have seriously been stricken with this disorder. Chris Matthews, MSNBC's Hardball moderator can't see anything wrong with a Muslim (Major Nidal Hasan) who sends 20 emails to an Al-Qaeda imman in Yemen. What's wrng with that?

Our president warns us not to jump to conclusions about the terrorist attacked perpetrated on 43 US soldiers at Ft. Hood, Texas last week, killing 14 people. Even though the killer, Major Nidal Malik Hasan has given the Army every indication he is a full-on terrorist, Mr. Obama, wants US citizens to stay in a liberal induced coma believing all Muslims are peace-loving. Interestingly, he forgets all terrorists are Muslims though not all Muslims are terrorists though they read out of a book-the Koran-that promotes terrorism.

Here's another symptom of Post 9/11 Traumatic Stress Disorder-the inclination to call an act of terrorism an act of psychological disorder. Victims of this disease use words like "emotionally disturbed, twisted thinking, insane, mentally imbalanced and other psychologically based terms. No one in the Obama administration has yet to call Major Hasan a terrorist who has infiltrated the military. Rather, he's a victim of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder even though he's never been deployed to Iraq!

Why did Hasan kill troops getting ready to go over to Afghanistan and Iraq? So they could be prevented from going overseas to kill his (Hasan's) Muslim terrorist brothers who are attacking American troops. Connect the dots. Hasan was a martyr for the Islamo-fascst cause. He is guilty of treason for supporting and cohorting with the enemy.

As a Vietnam vet I can never imagine one of my fellow soldiers or an officer-medical or non-medical-saying favorable things about Ho Chi Minh or the Viet Cong. Such an individual would be locked up in the stockade and be tried for treason. Can you imagine an American soldier saying "Heil Hitler" to his fellow soldiers as they were invading Germany? What has happened to our country? A Major in the Army is asked to give a presentation on a medical subject in his field of psychiatric expertise, and instead he presents a 50 slide program on the Koran , , , even speaking of beheading the enemies of Islam and pouring hot oil down their throats. Yet a room of military men infected with Post 9/11 Traumatic Stress Disorder could not connect the dots and permitted Major Hasan ramble on with his Islamic dribble and return to his post of duty.

What about Ft. Hood, Texas? Do they know we're involved in a war on terrorism? Do they know there are Islamic terrorist operatives in the US and on US military bases? Are they so infected with Post 9/11 Traumatic Stress Disorder that they could not post armed guards on the base so that such a travesty could never have happened? Our military and citizenry are so clueless when it comes to terrorism in this country. We behave as though 9/11 never happened. We ignore the fact Al Qaeda cells are operating in this country according to US Intelligence reports. We are on red alert whether we believe it or not. Those who disagree will simply argue that what happened at Ft. Hood was an isolated criminal act performed by an disturbed individual. And the Muslim extremists in Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Palestine and Iraq are laughing as they send more operatives to this beguiled country.

Major Hasan deserves to be tried as a traitor who in his right mind deliberately planned and schemed this suicide attack on US soldiers. Major Hasan on the morning of his terrorist slaughter dressed in Muslim garb, prayed before the slayings and shouted praises to Allah as he killed 14 people and wounded another 29. Our military needs to wake up. Americans need to wake up, Obama has us so caught up in the healthcare issue that we've been lulled to sleep and one Muslim terrorist took advantage of us napping.

At your next Tea Party or Town Hall meeting, the focus must be on terrorism at home. We need to wake the sleeping giant of America which has been seriously inflicted with Post 9/11 Traumatic Stress Disorder-the inability to remember the lessons of September 11, 2001, the failure to stay on watch against terrorism in America and the foolish decision to place political correctness over and above the need to protect our country.

Post 9/11 Traumatic Stress Disorder Hits America

Consumer Friendly Businesses in an Unfriendly Recession

Yesterday I shared an experience I had wit the banking conglomerate Bank of America. Now I wonder, "Will it cause Bank of America to change their policies? Will I get a call from a B of A executive apologizing for the way I was treated by one of their supervisors?" I doubt it. And that's my point. Consumers are feeling more and more powerless in the face of corporate giants.

Over and over I keep dealing with customer representatives who send out the same message: We don't care about our customers. We're here to ratchet up service fees, apply late charges, increase interest rates, provide lousy service and fail to return our customer's phone calls and emails.

How can certain business like Us Airways, Enterprise, Sprint telephone, Time Warner Cable and many others expect to stay in business treating customers this way at a time when the consumer needs some compassion - not government sponsored freebies.

Furthermore, I do not want the government to FORCE companies through legislation to show care for their clients. I would like to see companies do this on their own. No more government intervention.

Here's my latest example. On a recent trip to Florida to visit my parents I was scheduled on US Airways for a one hour layover in Charlotte, N.C. It turns out the flight was cancelled due to bad weather in N.C. I had to spend an entire day in an airport waiting for the next flight to Charlotte and then make one more connecting flight to Ft. Lauderdale.

The morning of the flight I received several call from US Airways telling me the flight was delayed 105 minutes. So I had some time to make it to the airport. Yet when I arrived at the airport ninety minutes before the delayed flight was slotted to take off, I was told by a ticket agent that I missed the flight. I was late. I responded, "But the flight departure time is not for another hour and a half. How can I be late?" She told me I was supposed to be at the airport an hour before the original flight time. "But the original flight time was changed according to all the voice mails I been receiving from US Airways," I continued. "Now I am here at the airport with an hour and a half to spare. I am not late!!" She finally admitted, "And the flight has been cancelled." Was I going crazy?

Upon arriving at Charlotte eight hours after the original flight was supposed to land, I went around to the various workers at new stands, Starbucks and ticket counters at other airlines. I asked, "Was the Charlotte airport closed this morning prohibiting flights from landing. The answer I kept hearing was negative. One cashier told me there was a fog bank early that morning but it cleared by 8 a.m. - two hours before my flight was scheduled to take off. What did US Airways do? Cancel a flight for no reason? I spent an entire day at an airport because of US Airways.

To the phone . . . I tried to contact US Airways when I returned to Los Angeles. I was instructed to register all complaints using their customer service support page on their website. I was assured I would hear from a US Airways representative within 72 hours. It's been two weeks and I haven't heard a peep. Then I called their corporate headquarters in Tempe, AZ (480 693 0800). I left two or three messages asking for a return call from their Customer Relations Department. I've heard nothing. I even wonder if this department even exists.

What gives with companies today? Even in a recession where the middle class is hurting and the poor are getting all kinds of government (tax paid) benefits, you would think companies would show some attentiveness to the consumer. How about a returned phone call for starters?

Two companies that stand out from the rest are Starbucks and Southwest Airlines. Read Howard Schultz' book Pour Your Heart Into It and the book Nuts, the story of Southwest Airlines. These two companies "get it" in the way they treat their employees and the consumer. They will ride out the recession. My advice is to only fly Southwest and let the others die a slow death. So what if we're stuck with one airline. Southwest would expand, add more flights and continue to treat the customer with care and wisdom.

Will I ever hear from US Airways? Probably not. They're just hoping I will go away after making repeated calls to their corporate Customer Relations Department. Not this time. Consumers must revolt by calling companies on the carpet and force them to treat us with class and concern.

Consumer Friendly Businesses in an Unfriendly Recession

Bank of America: Bank of Arrogance

Bank of America CEO and President Kenneth Lewis proudly claims, ""Bank of America helps build strong communities by creating opportunities for people — including customers, shareholders and associates — to fulfill their dreams." As an unemployed citizen of the U.S. and a longtime customer of Bank of America, I decided to see if my bank could help me get by during this tough time in my life. Rather than fulfill my dreams, Bank of America inspired a nightmare.



My credit card statement arrived in the mail this week. My balance reflects a debt I've been carrying over five years. Presently, I charge about $50 a month on the card - all Internet and email service charges. Other than that, I do not use the card. Even though I have been out of work since July 2009, I manage to make my required payment of $150 or more every month.

I've been with Bank of America since 1974, held several mortgages with them and have had numerous checking accounts. I imagined for a split second that my customer loyalty might mean something to Mr. Lewis and his employees. So I called their 800 number.

My goal? I wanted them to reduce my interest rate for a short period of time while I am unemployed. I am paying 10.9% and I was asking my bank of reduce the rate by a point or two to lower my monthly payments. After all, Bank of America received a hefty bailout courtesy of tax payers like myself. Couldn't they extend some help to a loyal customer? I wasn't asking for a bail out or a reduction of the principal I owe. I only needed a small reduction in my interest rate to lessen my monthly amount due,

When I called B of A, I asked for a supervisor. I explained my situation and he informed me I was receiving the lowest interest rate. I know that's not true. If I transferred my balance to another bank and then came back to Bank of America, they would offer me a very attractive lower rate as a lure. Liars!

The supervisor proceeded to ask me every possible question about my financial situation: how much I was receiving from unemployment insurance, my monthly rent, utilities, car payment, insurance cost, grocery expenditures and my meagre savings. He was trying to justify that I cold qualify for a hardship program provided by Bank of America.

After spending twenty minutes on my cell with this bank supervisor, he informed me I do not qualify for any help since I cannot guarantee them I would be able to make my monthly payments. I asked what guarantee did Bank of America give the taxpayers they could pay back the bailout money we gave them. I was shocked. Guarantee? In this age and economy?

My best guarantee is my track record of making hundreds of payments to Bank of America over several decades. I informed the supervisor that I cannot guarantee I would be alive tomorrow but if I am, I will make my credit card payment and it would truly help if he lowered my payment by $20-30 a month to lend a hand. This is the bank that wants to make my dreams come true.

The supervisor would not budge. He was robotic and read from a script. I was irate, "You really don't care about your customers, do you? Here we bail you out by giving you billions of our money, and you can't reduce my interest rate by a few points?" He kept repeating his "guarantee speech."

I kept pushing, "This is an interesting scenario. If I got to a place where I could not make my credit card payments, you would turn me over to a collection agency who in turn would pay someone's salary to harass me. Then your bank would be willing to hire attorneys to go after me to collect my debt. Right? You're willing to spend thousands of dollars in case I default on my payments, but you won't reduce my monthly payment by $20 to make sure that scenario never takes place. What kind of a bank are you?"

The bank official repeated his mantra about guarantees. I told him to stop reading his script. Quickly I mentioned the name Ann Minch, the woman who started Debtors Revolt and is going after Bank of America for hiking up her interest rate to over 30%. "Do you know who Ann Minch is?" He said he did. "Well," I continued, "there are more people like her who will tell the public what kind of bank you really are. You don't care about your customers." Ann Minch has hit a nerve with her YouTube video sharing her nightmare encounter with Bank of America.

When I mentioned Ann Minch, the supervisor slammed down the phone. The message is clear: Bank of America does not care about their clients and they're not happy that B of A customers are speaking out. I'm one of them. I am prepared to pull all my money and debt out of Bank of America and make my statement that this is one bank that is not "for the people" and they have no intention of making any of your dreams come true.

Bank of America: Bank of Arrogance