At one point in time every credit card application made was recorded with a credit bureau. I don't know if that is still a common practice but it came up when we were looking to re-mortgage our house. The bank knew how many times we applied for credit and how many credit cards we had. I'm confident that the credit card issuers, typically a bank, also have access to your credit records and know how many cards you have or had. There is no law about how many cards you can have, but as an issuer of credit I'd want to know how much debt, or potential debt, the applicant has on file. I also would be very hesitant to issue another card to somebody who has a dozen already. But, then, I'm not a bank. LOL
Yet, the stories about credit card abuse are abundant. It would be easy enough for banks to tighten their requirements and reduce bad debt and losses significantly. But, at least in the distant past, they did no such thing. It has to do with insurance. The CC issuer has insurance to cover their losses. Apparently they are making enough from all the transaction fees to pay the premiums and have tons of profit left over.
The Rest Of The Story
Re: The Rest Of The Story
I have two judgments against me for credit cards I never owned, sorta.
My late wife Ruth had two credit cards, in both of our names.
Knowing the condition of her health, we bought insurance on those cards, that is she died, they would be paid for.
They had a very low limit anyhow, and only had like 300 bucks on one and 500 on another. Never a late payment either.
Knowing we had paid for the insurance on those cards, and it showed on the statements each month too.
After she passed away I didn't make payments on them and mailed in her death certificate to them.
Turns out, the insurance don't pay the balance as we thought, all they do is make an interest free minimum payment until the cards are paid off. Hoping I would use one which would cause me to become liable for the balances.
I never used the cards. However, Ruth had pre-ordered Christmas gifts for certain family members using those cards.
Now the charges for those items do not appear until the store ships them. She died in November, and they Didn't ship until late December. This caused charges to appear on those cards after the date of her death.
I appeared in court twice over the first lawsuit they filed against me, but the judge is on the side of the credit card companies. And said I was liable for the charges since they occurred after her death date. It didn't matter the reason why, the credit card company never loses.
I refused to pay them and got slapped with a judgement because of it. I didn't bother to go to court on the second one and just waited for them to slap me with another judgement.
Since they did get the judgments against me, the court could not hold me in contempt of court for not paying them, hi hi.
They haven't caused me any problems with getting new 0% interest, no annual fee, credit cards.
Or anything else that I know of. They are probably expired by now too!
As far as the credit reporting agencies go. We caught them in numerous mistakes over the years. And filed complaints and explanations which have to be retained on our files. They showed all kinds of things which were proved to be false, such as I had a car repossessed. Ironically, it was one I never would have owned in the first place. My attorney found out who the owner of that car was somehow, and they included his letter on my credit report too.
During a period of time when my bank was bought out by Regions. Those who had a judgment against me decided to slip a withdrawal in on my business account. Regions caught this and put the money back into my account, and then had to fight the lawyers to get it back. I would have liked to have seen them charged with fraud!
They also attacked my new wife's account also and had to put that back as well.
I'm sure the credit card company spent more on attorneys fees than the meager 800 dollars was worth to try and get back.
My late wife Ruth had two credit cards, in both of our names.
Knowing the condition of her health, we bought insurance on those cards, that is she died, they would be paid for.
They had a very low limit anyhow, and only had like 300 bucks on one and 500 on another. Never a late payment either.
Knowing we had paid for the insurance on those cards, and it showed on the statements each month too.
After she passed away I didn't make payments on them and mailed in her death certificate to them.
Turns out, the insurance don't pay the balance as we thought, all they do is make an interest free minimum payment until the cards are paid off. Hoping I would use one which would cause me to become liable for the balances.
I never used the cards. However, Ruth had pre-ordered Christmas gifts for certain family members using those cards.
Now the charges for those items do not appear until the store ships them. She died in November, and they Didn't ship until late December. This caused charges to appear on those cards after the date of her death.
I appeared in court twice over the first lawsuit they filed against me, but the judge is on the side of the credit card companies. And said I was liable for the charges since they occurred after her death date. It didn't matter the reason why, the credit card company never loses.
I refused to pay them and got slapped with a judgement because of it. I didn't bother to go to court on the second one and just waited for them to slap me with another judgement.
Since they did get the judgments against me, the court could not hold me in contempt of court for not paying them, hi hi.
They haven't caused me any problems with getting new 0% interest, no annual fee, credit cards.
Or anything else that I know of. They are probably expired by now too!
As far as the credit reporting agencies go. We caught them in numerous mistakes over the years. And filed complaints and explanations which have to be retained on our files. They showed all kinds of things which were proved to be false, such as I had a car repossessed. Ironically, it was one I never would have owned in the first place. My attorney found out who the owner of that car was somehow, and they included his letter on my credit report too.
During a period of time when my bank was bought out by Regions. Those who had a judgment against me decided to slip a withdrawal in on my business account. Regions caught this and put the money back into my account, and then had to fight the lawyers to get it back. I would have liked to have seen them charged with fraud!
They also attacked my new wife's account also and had to put that back as well.
I'm sure the credit card company spent more on attorneys fees than the meager 800 dollars was worth to try and get back.
Re: The Rest Of The Story
It's hard to understand the reasoning used by collections people. I've heard stories similar to yours several times. The expense and effort put into going after peanuts seems extravagant at times and not worth it financially. You could even suspect the reason it's done is to make an example out of what happens when you default, but who would know what happened in your case outside your immediate family? What good does it do to make said example then?
Spire, the natural gas provider around here, seems to have a reputation for screwing people who are late payers. If you don't pay up one week after the due date, they send a tech out to turn off your gas supply. There apparently is no warning or attempt to collect what is past due. They simply shut you off. If you overlooked the payment for some legitimate reason and went on line to pay your past due debt the same day they cut you off, well that's nice. But, the people who re-connect you are hired hands from some other company. The stories suggest it takes those third party folks weeks to come out and restore things, PLUS they charge an arm and a leg to do the re-connection. You pay that in advance or you don't get your service back. Back in Chicago the natural gas people would contact you and offer financial assistance or other arrangements. They didn't cut you off unless you were several months behind, and if I recall correctly they could not cut you off at all during the winter months. I've always managed to pay Spire on time so that I don't know if any stories about them are true. Most likely they are.
I don't know what kind of lies the credit report people have in their files with regard to my financial status. There could be a lot of misinformation in there, but I never had reason to look it up. One day somebody broke into the system our bank uses and stole some data. Apparently nothing sensitive about us was involved, but since we are customers and they are nice guys, they decided to give all their customers free credit protection and monitoring for two years. I've had opportunities to look at my records because I have this service and it's pretty boring. They do have a lot of information that goes back quite a few years, but it's not the same information a lender has access to. For example, the mortgage companies know how long it takes for me to pay my utility bills; there is an average number of days on record for each company. None of that kind of information shows up on what I was able to retrieve. There are two separate systems of record keeping: one for commerce and one for personal. The commerce records are the juicy ones.
Spire, the natural gas provider around here, seems to have a reputation for screwing people who are late payers. If you don't pay up one week after the due date, they send a tech out to turn off your gas supply. There apparently is no warning or attempt to collect what is past due. They simply shut you off. If you overlooked the payment for some legitimate reason and went on line to pay your past due debt the same day they cut you off, well that's nice. But, the people who re-connect you are hired hands from some other company. The stories suggest it takes those third party folks weeks to come out and restore things, PLUS they charge an arm and a leg to do the re-connection. You pay that in advance or you don't get your service back. Back in Chicago the natural gas people would contact you and offer financial assistance or other arrangements. They didn't cut you off unless you were several months behind, and if I recall correctly they could not cut you off at all during the winter months. I've always managed to pay Spire on time so that I don't know if any stories about them are true. Most likely they are.
I don't know what kind of lies the credit report people have in their files with regard to my financial status. There could be a lot of misinformation in there, but I never had reason to look it up. One day somebody broke into the system our bank uses and stole some data. Apparently nothing sensitive about us was involved, but since we are customers and they are nice guys, they decided to give all their customers free credit protection and monitoring for two years. I've had opportunities to look at my records because I have this service and it's pretty boring. They do have a lot of information that goes back quite a few years, but it's not the same information a lender has access to. For example, the mortgage companies know how long it takes for me to pay my utility bills; there is an average number of days on record for each company. None of that kind of information shows up on what I was able to retrieve. There are two separate systems of record keeping: one for commerce and one for personal. The commerce records are the juicy ones.
Re: The Rest Of The Story
The sad thing is, you know they got their money from the insurance company.
Why they made a big deal out of it was crazy beyond belief!
Our gas company back home would not turn you off for 90 days.
However, if you were a business, they often gave you six months before turning you off.
Some businesses, actually got a couple of years of not making payments before they finally got cut off.
I knew one business who owed the water company over 15 thousand dollars and they never got shut off.
The water company eventually sued them and ended up getting like 5 grand is all.
Everyone wonders why they play favorites and turn some people off right away, and others they let slide for years.
I had a friend who owned a furniture store. And you are 100% correct. The file they got on me was not even close to the one they sent to me when I requested it. I actually got three of them, one from each agency.
I think what I had to laugh at most was my credit score.
I was in the real estate business at the time, and had 21 houses.
For every home mortgage over 5, your credit score goes down by 100 points.
So mine was showing ZERO, they don't use negative numbers, hi hi.
At the time I was closing on a 6 home purchase on the same day.
Each of the lenders said they look at my assets and payment records since the credit score is meaningless for those in the real estate industry. One of them said I had made over 230 monthly payments early and no late pays on 20 current mortgages, and I had paid off 11 mortgages with never a late pay. Therefore I was an excellent credit risk!
Right after that a car dealer's bank turned me down to buy a used van, hi hi.
They only look at your credit score and nothing else.
This doesn't happen so much anymore these days but I used to have tons of credit cards.
The reason being is nearly every place had their own credit card, not associated with Visa or Master Card.
I had at least 5 or 6 Gasoline credit cards. A Famous Barr, J.C. Penney's, Sears, and a few other department stores I don't even remember anymore. Had a credit card from nearly every hardware store, drywall store, lumber yard, etc.
Don't know if you remember Builders Square or not. They increased my credit limit to 20 grand. I never let it get that high of course, and each time I sold a house I finished renovating, I paid all of those cards up in full.
I'm going to mention the drywall credit card again, because it was unlike any other credit card I've ever had. There was NO minimum monthly payment, no monthly payment at all in fact. I was limited to 5 grand on it though.
How they worked was simple. They supplied the drywall for the home you were renovating, when you sold the home is when your balance became due in 7 days after closing. To cover their arses, they would place a mechanics lien on the next house you would be working on, if one was available, otherwise they put it on your own house. In my case, they never did place a lien on any of my properties, simply because they held a letter of credit from my bank.
They were the first company to ever request same, and once I found out how that works, I started using letters of credit for a lot of major purchases. The amount of time and trouble it saved was worth the banks small fee for issuing one.
Why they made a big deal out of it was crazy beyond belief!
Our gas company back home would not turn you off for 90 days.
However, if you were a business, they often gave you six months before turning you off.
Some businesses, actually got a couple of years of not making payments before they finally got cut off.
I knew one business who owed the water company over 15 thousand dollars and they never got shut off.
The water company eventually sued them and ended up getting like 5 grand is all.
Everyone wonders why they play favorites and turn some people off right away, and others they let slide for years.
I had a friend who owned a furniture store. And you are 100% correct. The file they got on me was not even close to the one they sent to me when I requested it. I actually got three of them, one from each agency.
I think what I had to laugh at most was my credit score.
I was in the real estate business at the time, and had 21 houses.
For every home mortgage over 5, your credit score goes down by 100 points.
So mine was showing ZERO, they don't use negative numbers, hi hi.
At the time I was closing on a 6 home purchase on the same day.
Each of the lenders said they look at my assets and payment records since the credit score is meaningless for those in the real estate industry. One of them said I had made over 230 monthly payments early and no late pays on 20 current mortgages, and I had paid off 11 mortgages with never a late pay. Therefore I was an excellent credit risk!
Right after that a car dealer's bank turned me down to buy a used van, hi hi.
They only look at your credit score and nothing else.
This doesn't happen so much anymore these days but I used to have tons of credit cards.
The reason being is nearly every place had their own credit card, not associated with Visa or Master Card.
I had at least 5 or 6 Gasoline credit cards. A Famous Barr, J.C. Penney's, Sears, and a few other department stores I don't even remember anymore. Had a credit card from nearly every hardware store, drywall store, lumber yard, etc.
Don't know if you remember Builders Square or not. They increased my credit limit to 20 grand. I never let it get that high of course, and each time I sold a house I finished renovating, I paid all of those cards up in full.
I'm going to mention the drywall credit card again, because it was unlike any other credit card I've ever had. There was NO minimum monthly payment, no monthly payment at all in fact. I was limited to 5 grand on it though.
How they worked was simple. They supplied the drywall for the home you were renovating, when you sold the home is when your balance became due in 7 days after closing. To cover their arses, they would place a mechanics lien on the next house you would be working on, if one was available, otherwise they put it on your own house. In my case, they never did place a lien on any of my properties, simply because they held a letter of credit from my bank.
They were the first company to ever request same, and once I found out how that works, I started using letters of credit for a lot of major purchases. The amount of time and trouble it saved was worth the banks small fee for issuing one.
Re: The Rest Of The Story
I agree that the credit score we see is next to meaningless, but it might be an indication of something wrongly placed in your file. Regardless, a lot of lenders go by that score.
Somewhere in my dark past I recall having to get a letter of credit from a bank. It might have been related to when we were building our house, but maybe not. A general contractor was in charge of that project. They are convenient vehicles for payment but often involve a need to have an escrow account or other type of collateral on deposit with the issuing bank. That's the down side even if you are liquid enough to do it. A credit card just relies on your good faith. Either way the money involved is borrowed at least for a short period of time.
I thought about you the other day when I got a call from Walgreens. They said they have a program wherein they can synchronize the delivery of all my prescriptions. This is the program you told me you are on. I didn't have a good reason not to accept, nor a good reason to take them up on it for that matter, but I told her OK. Do it. Then I got to wondering how they go about it with the insurance companies. One of my drugs is supplied directly from the pharmaceutical company and comes in a 30 day supply. That means they can't break up that 30 day supply bottle like they do with some of the generic drubs. Plus, the insurance pays on a schedule. If they sync everything I need, something will be early or something will be late depending on when they decide to do it. She said they would message me when it's ready. I have about a month to go before I run out of one and then I'll see what they are up to. I really don't mind going in on separate dates. I have nothing better to do anyway.
The neighbor I see out my office window apparently took the family on vacation. Last weekend they loaded the kayak on top of the station wagon and the next day they were gone. Later in the day mom and pop showed up in two separate cars. This has happened before and I didn't think anything of it. The next day a whole bunch of cars were parked in the cul du sac. Moms with kids were getting in and out and they all were carrying some kind of tote bags. So the house sitters must have been having a party while the kids are out of town. That neighbor had an in ground swimming pool installed and I'm guessing that's what all the kids came to do. The second day the same thing happened only few kids and it was later in the day. Everybody went home when the sun set. I hear of kids trashing the house when the parents go out of town, but these people are not kids. They are my age. I think I need to get to know them better so that I can find out what is going on.
Somewhere in my dark past I recall having to get a letter of credit from a bank. It might have been related to when we were building our house, but maybe not. A general contractor was in charge of that project. They are convenient vehicles for payment but often involve a need to have an escrow account or other type of collateral on deposit with the issuing bank. That's the down side even if you are liquid enough to do it. A credit card just relies on your good faith. Either way the money involved is borrowed at least for a short period of time.
I thought about you the other day when I got a call from Walgreens. They said they have a program wherein they can synchronize the delivery of all my prescriptions. This is the program you told me you are on. I didn't have a good reason not to accept, nor a good reason to take them up on it for that matter, but I told her OK. Do it. Then I got to wondering how they go about it with the insurance companies. One of my drugs is supplied directly from the pharmaceutical company and comes in a 30 day supply. That means they can't break up that 30 day supply bottle like they do with some of the generic drubs. Plus, the insurance pays on a schedule. If they sync everything I need, something will be early or something will be late depending on when they decide to do it. She said they would message me when it's ready. I have about a month to go before I run out of one and then I'll see what they are up to. I really don't mind going in on separate dates. I have nothing better to do anyway.
The neighbor I see out my office window apparently took the family on vacation. Last weekend they loaded the kayak on top of the station wagon and the next day they were gone. Later in the day mom and pop showed up in two separate cars. This has happened before and I didn't think anything of it. The next day a whole bunch of cars were parked in the cul du sac. Moms with kids were getting in and out and they all were carrying some kind of tote bags. So the house sitters must have been having a party while the kids are out of town. That neighbor had an in ground swimming pool installed and I'm guessing that's what all the kids came to do. The second day the same thing happened only few kids and it was later in the day. Everybody went home when the sun set. I hear of kids trashing the house when the parents go out of town, but these people are not kids. They are my age. I think I need to get to know them better so that I can find out what is going on.
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In my case, I took out a 35k loan from the bank but the bank held it and issued a letters of credit for the amounts I requested. Back when I was doing this to buy houses and renovation materials, I only paid interest on the amount paid out, not on what was not yet used. However, I still had to pay the points to get the loan.
To get things in balance, I think what they do is HOLD part of your prescription. So out of a 90 day supply they may only give me ten to 20 pills until the next cycle. I figure they must be showing they supplied the whole 90 days to get their payment, but might be holding 65 to 70 pills in escrow for me, hi hi.
They did get the cycle close to right, but then messed it up again temporarily, because the doc didn't call in the renewal in time for my normal pickup.
I think what irks me most, is the pills I need most, they run me down until I only have 3 left before they will refill it for me. But other pills I end up with a whole bottle of 30 extra on my shelf until I use up the ones I have. I tried to skip one so I didn't have too many on hand, and they said I couldn't do that. I could by just not picking it up until they put it back on the shelf, but then I would run short by the next 90 day cycle.
Back when I lived in Creve Coeur, when we first moved in, our next door neighbor was Terry Steith(sp) the football player.
He held a lot of parties. And when he went out of town to play a game, the parties still went on at his house.
I guess he got bought out by another team, because the parties stopped and the house got sold.
The new neighbors had three young kids under 10 years old, and one kid that was like 15 or 16.
I think he must have got an apartment somewhere, because I only saw him like every other Sunday around dinner time.
But we watched those three younger ones grow up. And as each one turned 18 to 20 they too moved out.
Mom and Dad were still living there when I sold my house and moved south. Never saw them though.
To get things in balance, I think what they do is HOLD part of your prescription. So out of a 90 day supply they may only give me ten to 20 pills until the next cycle. I figure they must be showing they supplied the whole 90 days to get their payment, but might be holding 65 to 70 pills in escrow for me, hi hi.
They did get the cycle close to right, but then messed it up again temporarily, because the doc didn't call in the renewal in time for my normal pickup.
I think what irks me most, is the pills I need most, they run me down until I only have 3 left before they will refill it for me. But other pills I end up with a whole bottle of 30 extra on my shelf until I use up the ones I have. I tried to skip one so I didn't have too many on hand, and they said I couldn't do that. I could by just not picking it up until they put it back on the shelf, but then I would run short by the next 90 day cycle.
Back when I lived in Creve Coeur, when we first moved in, our next door neighbor was Terry Steith(sp) the football player.
He held a lot of parties. And when he went out of town to play a game, the parties still went on at his house.
I guess he got bought out by another team, because the parties stopped and the house got sold.
The new neighbors had three young kids under 10 years old, and one kid that was like 15 or 16.
I think he must have got an apartment somewhere, because I only saw him like every other Sunday around dinner time.
But we watched those three younger ones grow up. And as each one turned 18 to 20 they too moved out.
Mom and Dad were still living there when I sold my house and moved south. Never saw them though.
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Building the new house required getting a "construction" loan. This might have been the letter of credit I was talking about. The construction loan was a line of credit that was good for 18 months; could have been 12 months. Like your loan we only paid the interest on the actual amount drawn. Since this loan was only good for a short time we had to get a conventional mortgage after the residency permit was approved. It was a lot easier getting the mortgage because the value of the completed house increased over what the construction cost was. I now have a line of credit with the bank that had my mortgage. This time it is to cover any overdrafts on my checking account. I'm approved for $1500, I think, and only had to use it once. They charge an arm and a leg for interest and it was only a dollar or two cheaper than paying the conventional fee for insufficient funds.
We dealt with Walgreens for many years. When website pharmacies became popular I was enthralled. Unfortunately the Walgreens website never matched records with the store. I'm not sure how it is supposed to work internally, but the pharmacist rarely knew that I ordered something online. Thus when I got to the store to pick it up I had to wait for them to fill it which made the website activity pointless. I switched to CVS when we arrived here in O'Fallon. I went to both sites to get my prescriptions transferred to the new pharmacy. To my chagrin the same thing happened. The brick and mortar store people were totally unaware of what went on at the website. As I discovered, they could in fact get the information from the website. Apparently it's a manual process. If the pharmacist knew to look at what I ordered, it would be ready and waiting for me to pick up at the assigned time. Likewise with auto-refills. I turned them all off but continued to get notices that I should come in and pick up something I didn't order. It took more than one personal confrontation with the store people to straighten that out. After dealing with CVS for a few years, my wife of many years decided she didn't like CVS and changed our insurance coverage to a company that only deals with Walgreens. After nearly a year they finally got all my drugs transferred and actually know in advance I will be there to pick them up. I have no illusions about this synchronization program of theirs. I fully expect to have to order things manually.
We were out and about today and decided to stop for lunch at the local sports bar. Very few other places were open yet. There was a notice on the door about limiting the number of people in the bar and that the tables were separated the recommended distance. If we had any symptoms of flu, they advised us to stay out. No mention of masks, which makes sense given it would be hard to eat a hamburger with a face mask in place. Not many people were in the joint and the tables were at least 6 feet apart. The wait staff was not equipped with face masks and they didn't seem to do anything unusual when clearing off a table. They might have sprayed disinfectant on it, but maybe not. It wasn't obvious. So, aside from the social distancing, it was business as usual at the bar. You know ... I actually felt a bit uncomfortable with them being so lax. Odd.
We dealt with Walgreens for many years. When website pharmacies became popular I was enthralled. Unfortunately the Walgreens website never matched records with the store. I'm not sure how it is supposed to work internally, but the pharmacist rarely knew that I ordered something online. Thus when I got to the store to pick it up I had to wait for them to fill it which made the website activity pointless. I switched to CVS when we arrived here in O'Fallon. I went to both sites to get my prescriptions transferred to the new pharmacy. To my chagrin the same thing happened. The brick and mortar store people were totally unaware of what went on at the website. As I discovered, they could in fact get the information from the website. Apparently it's a manual process. If the pharmacist knew to look at what I ordered, it would be ready and waiting for me to pick up at the assigned time. Likewise with auto-refills. I turned them all off but continued to get notices that I should come in and pick up something I didn't order. It took more than one personal confrontation with the store people to straighten that out. After dealing with CVS for a few years, my wife of many years decided she didn't like CVS and changed our insurance coverage to a company that only deals with Walgreens. After nearly a year they finally got all my drugs transferred and actually know in advance I will be there to pick them up. I have no illusions about this synchronization program of theirs. I fully expect to have to order things manually.
We were out and about today and decided to stop for lunch at the local sports bar. Very few other places were open yet. There was a notice on the door about limiting the number of people in the bar and that the tables were separated the recommended distance. If we had any symptoms of flu, they advised us to stay out. No mention of masks, which makes sense given it would be hard to eat a hamburger with a face mask in place. Not many people were in the joint and the tables were at least 6 feet apart. The wait staff was not equipped with face masks and they didn't seem to do anything unusual when clearing off a table. They might have sprayed disinfectant on it, but maybe not. It wasn't obvious. So, aside from the social distancing, it was business as usual at the bar. You know ... I actually felt a bit uncomfortable with them being so lax. Odd.
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When I was shipping some of my aquarium products overseas. To ensure I shipped the product, and for me to be guaranteed of being paid. I would get a Letter of Credit from Hang Seng bank. I was to let them know when I shipped the product order and send them a copy of the shipping receipt. This was a little tricky to do, because used and international shipping company, Clear Freight, who were actually just shipping brokers. But I didn't really have to worry if I didn't send in a receipt, because the a receiver also had to notify the bank they received the order. Along with the letter of credit was a guaranteed contract for release of funds to my bank, of which only I could deny if I didn't make the shipment. Meaning more or less the person ordering could not cancel the letter of credit after I sent the shipment out without my saying the order was cancelled in time to not have been shipped. Luckily everything worked out well.
I was actually scared when I made the first shipment, because it took all of my funds and then some I borrowed to put that order together for them.
I was first on the AARPWalMart drug plan. Nothing wrong with it, except WalMart is a good distance from us now. So after they closed their local store and moved even further south, on the anniversary date we changed to AARPWalgreens, which is only a few blocks away, once you are out of the subdivision that is.
Prior to going with an AARP drug plan, we had to use a Mail Order Pharmacy in Texas for everything except one-time scrips, of which we had to get from either CVS or Kroger, and right before we got the AARPWalMart plan, they had added Walgreens to the list, and a small place privately owned pharmacy named Bedfords.
It was a mess getting my scripts changed from WalMart to Walgreens, plus dealing with the insurance company not wanting to pay because they said I still had some available at WalMart. It took almost a year for the refills to run out at WalMart and then Walgreens could use the ones my docs had sent to them.
A couple of the drugs I'm on, the insurance company will only pay for 30 days at at time, which defeats the 90 day cycle. So I still have to go up there once a month anyhow.
The frau has switched to Walgreens now too, but still has some drugs that she can only get from Walmart, because she buys the Walmart brand which is much cheaper than what Walgreens has to offer.
That little Bedford's pharmacy I mentioned said they would price match Walmart's price, but when they found out what it was she was buying, their brand of one of her Insulin's, they couldn't even come close.
She is hoping the expensive Insulin's she's on will come down in price since the President is pushing for it so heavily.
Here, all the restaurant staff has masks, and the tables are only half of what used to be in there.
One restaurant we ate had even had plastic walls up on the booths and some had a surround like an office cubicle, but still no one could sit in adjoining booths. Even at the diner which is pretty lax about everything, they all had masks and gloves, and the whole place smelled like disinfectant, hi hi. When we finished eating, they did wipe down the table and the seats like usual, but then popped out a spray bottle and sprayed down the table, seats, back of seats, wall and edge of the table and wiped all of that down with a clean towel they discarded. Almost seemed like overkill.
I was actually scared when I made the first shipment, because it took all of my funds and then some I borrowed to put that order together for them.
I was first on the AARPWalMart drug plan. Nothing wrong with it, except WalMart is a good distance from us now. So after they closed their local store and moved even further south, on the anniversary date we changed to AARPWalgreens, which is only a few blocks away, once you are out of the subdivision that is.
Prior to going with an AARP drug plan, we had to use a Mail Order Pharmacy in Texas for everything except one-time scrips, of which we had to get from either CVS or Kroger, and right before we got the AARPWalMart plan, they had added Walgreens to the list, and a small place privately owned pharmacy named Bedfords.
It was a mess getting my scripts changed from WalMart to Walgreens, plus dealing with the insurance company not wanting to pay because they said I still had some available at WalMart. It took almost a year for the refills to run out at WalMart and then Walgreens could use the ones my docs had sent to them.
A couple of the drugs I'm on, the insurance company will only pay for 30 days at at time, which defeats the 90 day cycle. So I still have to go up there once a month anyhow.
The frau has switched to Walgreens now too, but still has some drugs that she can only get from Walmart, because she buys the Walmart brand which is much cheaper than what Walgreens has to offer.
That little Bedford's pharmacy I mentioned said they would price match Walmart's price, but when they found out what it was she was buying, their brand of one of her Insulin's, they couldn't even come close.
She is hoping the expensive Insulin's she's on will come down in price since the President is pushing for it so heavily.
Here, all the restaurant staff has masks, and the tables are only half of what used to be in there.
One restaurant we ate had even had plastic walls up on the booths and some had a surround like an office cubicle, but still no one could sit in adjoining booths. Even at the diner which is pretty lax about everything, they all had masks and gloves, and the whole place smelled like disinfectant, hi hi. When we finished eating, they did wipe down the table and the seats like usual, but then popped out a spray bottle and sprayed down the table, seats, back of seats, wall and edge of the table and wiped all of that down with a clean towel they discarded. Almost seemed like overkill.
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I think the letter of credit vehicle was invented specifically for international business dealings. At least that's the impression I got when reading up on it. What you did is a pretty common way to conduct business internationally. I bought something from Taiwan several years ago and they only accepted PayPal. I didn't like that idea because the funds could be moved before they actually ship the product. It took an exceptionally long time to receive my order, but the financial transaction was flawless. I'm guessing the only other way I could have done it was with a letter of credit. I now avoid paying via PayPal because that's a tip off the vendor probably is off shore. They might be legit but the delivery cycle is obnoxious.
Probably every business in the world has a website but not all of them work very well. You read my story about Walgreens and recently I ordered some service for my air conditioner. The people who installed it came out the first year. I think I called them on the land line. Last year when I called them they didn't answer the phone. I went to the website where they had a service request form. I filled it out but never got a call back. So I called a different company and they came in from St Louis a few days later. This year I went again to the website of the original installer. Now they have a live chat feature, which I'm 98% positive is a robot. Anyway they took my contact information and said they would call me to arrange for the service. It's been nearly two weeks and I've not heard from them again. It all makes me wonder why the heck businesses have web sites at all if they don't know how to use them.
Apparently the risk level for the virus is past its peak and a lot of folks think is safe out there. It's not. I know it would be a great inconvenience and added expense, but, I'd like to see them sanitize the seating all the time. Wiping things down after every customer is the only way to keep the risks low. It's my understanding that some places are adding a surcharge to compensate for all this cleanliness. I would not mind that at all. I'd just cut down on the gratuity for the wait staff.
Probably every business in the world has a website but not all of them work very well. You read my story about Walgreens and recently I ordered some service for my air conditioner. The people who installed it came out the first year. I think I called them on the land line. Last year when I called them they didn't answer the phone. I went to the website where they had a service request form. I filled it out but never got a call back. So I called a different company and they came in from St Louis a few days later. This year I went again to the website of the original installer. Now they have a live chat feature, which I'm 98% positive is a robot. Anyway they took my contact information and said they would call me to arrange for the service. It's been nearly two weeks and I've not heard from them again. It all makes me wonder why the heck businesses have web sites at all if they don't know how to use them.
Apparently the risk level for the virus is past its peak and a lot of folks think is safe out there. It's not. I know it would be a great inconvenience and added expense, but, I'd like to see them sanitize the seating all the time. Wiping things down after every customer is the only way to keep the risks low. It's my understanding that some places are adding a surcharge to compensate for all this cleanliness. I would not mind that at all. I'd just cut down on the gratuity for the wait staff.
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What I loved about the feature was I could not act on the letter of credit without showing the shipping receipt, or them releasing it after having received the product.
In later years had a business merchant account and credit card that worked in a similar fashion.
They could pay by credit card, and the CC issuer would put a hold on the funds to ensure they were available.
Didn't need to send in receipts, the funds would be released to me after 15 business days (3 weeks), or less if the receiver said they received the products. It still had insurance on the transaction as well.
I've hit websites which were still up and running 6 months after a company was out of business.
Fortunately, the shopping cart service refunded my payment after ten days.
I had no idea they were out of business, so was surprised I got a refund to my CC account instead of the product.
Looked them up on line and read some of the comments. This was the only way I knew they were out of business.
The guy who installed my whole house AC unit was quick to come the first couple of times.
I called him again to replace my office AC and he never called back.
I eventually got someone else to do it for me.
Need my whole house unit cleaned and called and they came right out the next day.
He has a website, but it is only for advertising purposes. No forms or anything.
Our local restaurant raised all of his Entree prices by a dollar to cover the added costs incurred.
But kept all the prices for side items and desserts the same price.
Wouldn't it be interesting if all the looters ended up with Covid-19, and the peaceful protesters didn't.
In later years had a business merchant account and credit card that worked in a similar fashion.
They could pay by credit card, and the CC issuer would put a hold on the funds to ensure they were available.
Didn't need to send in receipts, the funds would be released to me after 15 business days (3 weeks), or less if the receiver said they received the products. It still had insurance on the transaction as well.
I've hit websites which were still up and running 6 months after a company was out of business.
Fortunately, the shopping cart service refunded my payment after ten days.
I had no idea they were out of business, so was surprised I got a refund to my CC account instead of the product.
Looked them up on line and read some of the comments. This was the only way I knew they were out of business.
The guy who installed my whole house AC unit was quick to come the first couple of times.
I called him again to replace my office AC and he never called back.
I eventually got someone else to do it for me.
Need my whole house unit cleaned and called and they came right out the next day.
He has a website, but it is only for advertising purposes. No forms or anything.
Our local restaurant raised all of his Entree prices by a dollar to cover the added costs incurred.
But kept all the prices for side items and desserts the same price.
Wouldn't it be interesting if all the looters ended up with Covid-19, and the peaceful protesters didn't.
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I like to complain about the less than superior service delivered down here in Missouri. I guess I was spoiled by my experiences up in the Chicago area. However, I lived up there all my life and in that last house 25+ years. The good service providers took that long to find. I'm not sure I'll be alive to celebrate 25 years in Missouri, unfortunately. LOL
Quite a few years ago I hired a guy to work on the Brainformation website. I wanted the databases merged and all the posts older than a certain date removed from the currently active site. I think it was $100, or something in that range to which the guy agreed. He worked for a company in the UK that directed me to him, but the payment went to the technician and not the company. I thought it to be odd but didn't question it. PayPal processed the transaction and that was the last I heard from the guy. I've been scammed. I waited about a month before I got ticked off enough to see if I could get my money back. I contacted the company and they insisted the work was performed as requested. Obviously the tech said he did it but it never happened. So I then sent the company a copy of the e-mail correspondence, which for all they knew I could have made up. Fortunately, I described what I wanted done in detail and pointed out to the company that those old posts I wanted moved are still on the board. I gave them the link to look/see for themselves. I crossed my fingers but didn't expect to recover the money. After waiting several days I got a notice from PayPal that my money was refunded by the company. This was totally unexpected because I figured the tech took the cash and ran. Why would the company reimburse me out of pocket? They did, and it seemed to be just a case of good will. I did think they were being fair and went out of their way, but I never asked them again to do any work for me. A letter of credit would have solved this problem before it happened.
The protesters and the looters as well as the cops and the army are not practicing social distancing. I'd say the odds for them to catch something are about equal among them. However, I read just today how there is a spike in new cases to the tune of 20,000 per day mostly in Confederate states. I guess that means down south.
Quite a few years ago I hired a guy to work on the Brainformation website. I wanted the databases merged and all the posts older than a certain date removed from the currently active site. I think it was $100, or something in that range to which the guy agreed. He worked for a company in the UK that directed me to him, but the payment went to the technician and not the company. I thought it to be odd but didn't question it. PayPal processed the transaction and that was the last I heard from the guy. I've been scammed. I waited about a month before I got ticked off enough to see if I could get my money back. I contacted the company and they insisted the work was performed as requested. Obviously the tech said he did it but it never happened. So I then sent the company a copy of the e-mail correspondence, which for all they knew I could have made up. Fortunately, I described what I wanted done in detail and pointed out to the company that those old posts I wanted moved are still on the board. I gave them the link to look/see for themselves. I crossed my fingers but didn't expect to recover the money. After waiting several days I got a notice from PayPal that my money was refunded by the company. This was totally unexpected because I figured the tech took the cash and ran. Why would the company reimburse me out of pocket? They did, and it seemed to be just a case of good will. I did think they were being fair and went out of their way, but I never asked them again to do any work for me. A letter of credit would have solved this problem before it happened.
The protesters and the looters as well as the cops and the army are not practicing social distancing. I'd say the odds for them to catch something are about equal among them. However, I read just today how there is a spike in new cases to the tune of 20,000 per day mostly in Confederate states. I guess that means down south.
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It took a lifetime to get all the contacts I enjoyed when I lived in Missouri.
I really did hate parting with them too when I moved south.
I still use some St. Louis companies for my products, because, let me use an example here.
The company I buy my bottles and caps from does have a plant here in this state, in Memphis, which is at the other end of the state. The price for the bottle and caps is the same. However, the shipping cost from Memphis to here, about 300 miles, cost a lot more than them shipping to me from St. Louis for about 127 dollars. Plus, in-state purchases have an additional tax that I don't have to pay on materials from out-state sources. In this case a use tax and an in-state cartage tax.
The first church I belonged to after moving down here, when it was taken over by the yo-yo.
He made way to many changes to start with, but he hired a programmer for like 1,500 bucks to completely rebuild a website he used at his former church, just for this one. It was a simple WordPress Cookie Cutter website that could have been done for next to nothing. A member of the church could have probably done it for free in under an hour.
I'm not going to get into what this yo-yo has done since then, but there are no members left that were original members before he came along.
When I was starting Wonder Plants, we hired all kinds of people associated with our advertising materials and campaign.
One of the printing companies we hired to do the large posters that fit into the metal stands that were popular at that time, messed up three times in a row. Don't know what their problem was, but the first batch the colors were all messed up. The second batch had the colors right, but were trimmed down too small to fit in the metal stands, and THEY measured them themselves. The third batch they had the panels reversed, so the one glued to the board on the back side was reversed (upside down too on some) from the front side.
I'm sure they were out of a lot of money already making all those mistakes, so we were more than surprised when they refunded our money and told us to go elsewhere, they don't have the equipment or manpower to do the job right.
I know the Coronavirus is climbing within the cities of Democratically run states, but have not heard of any increases in southern states other than Florida where all the kids congregated for their annual parties.
My son and his family were on their way to Florida, with a plan to stay here one night on the way home. Then after hearing the news, they decided to come here first for a visit. While here they got more reports and decided to stay here a few days and use our lakes for a couple of days. He just left for home this morning. Said Florida coastlines are too risky to go there right now.
I imagine a lot of those kids went home to southern states and brought the virus with them.
Our restaurants here in town are probably as clean a surgical operating room. No contact with anyone, and we all sit in our own little cubicles with no one next to us in the next dining area. Blocked off or the tables removed.
Most of them are back open here, and no new cases reported that I've heard of.
I really did hate parting with them too when I moved south.
I still use some St. Louis companies for my products, because, let me use an example here.
The company I buy my bottles and caps from does have a plant here in this state, in Memphis, which is at the other end of the state. The price for the bottle and caps is the same. However, the shipping cost from Memphis to here, about 300 miles, cost a lot more than them shipping to me from St. Louis for about 127 dollars. Plus, in-state purchases have an additional tax that I don't have to pay on materials from out-state sources. In this case a use tax and an in-state cartage tax.
The first church I belonged to after moving down here, when it was taken over by the yo-yo.
He made way to many changes to start with, but he hired a programmer for like 1,500 bucks to completely rebuild a website he used at his former church, just for this one. It was a simple WordPress Cookie Cutter website that could have been done for next to nothing. A member of the church could have probably done it for free in under an hour.
I'm not going to get into what this yo-yo has done since then, but there are no members left that were original members before he came along.
When I was starting Wonder Plants, we hired all kinds of people associated with our advertising materials and campaign.
One of the printing companies we hired to do the large posters that fit into the metal stands that were popular at that time, messed up three times in a row. Don't know what their problem was, but the first batch the colors were all messed up. The second batch had the colors right, but were trimmed down too small to fit in the metal stands, and THEY measured them themselves. The third batch they had the panels reversed, so the one glued to the board on the back side was reversed (upside down too on some) from the front side.
I'm sure they were out of a lot of money already making all those mistakes, so we were more than surprised when they refunded our money and told us to go elsewhere, they don't have the equipment or manpower to do the job right.
I know the Coronavirus is climbing within the cities of Democratically run states, but have not heard of any increases in southern states other than Florida where all the kids congregated for their annual parties.
My son and his family were on their way to Florida, with a plan to stay here one night on the way home. Then after hearing the news, they decided to come here first for a visit. While here they got more reports and decided to stay here a few days and use our lakes for a couple of days. He just left for home this morning. Said Florida coastlines are too risky to go there right now.
I imagine a lot of those kids went home to southern states and brought the virus with them.
Our restaurants here in town are probably as clean a surgical operating room. No contact with anyone, and we all sit in our own little cubicles with no one next to us in the next dining area. Blocked off or the tables removed.
Most of them are back open here, and no new cases reported that I've heard of.
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One of the reasons why I haven't found the top notch service providers here in Missouri is that virtually everything here is new. The outer basement wall didn't have any plasterboard on it and I thought it would be great to have somebody do the work. The electrician did his job well enough but the handyman doing the wall did a terrible job. I dismissed him after he got all the wallboard up and I did the mudding myself. It was a disappointment but a lesson learned. That and the routine furnace maintenance is all I needed done. It will take a decade or two for this house to deteriorate to the point that it needs repair and maintenance. I'll be too freaking old to do it then assuming I'd still be alive. So, I think I am in the clear for everything but incidental projects. Oh, I also hired a guy to cut the grass one season. My legs were bothering me at that time and I thought it was best to outsource the cutting. He was a decent gentleman that used to be a farmer but now works for a jobber. I tried to get him to do some work for me independently, but he said he was under contract and couldn't do it. He did a fair job, but not like I do on my own. It seems that a lot of people are independent contractors working for some other company. The few people I've contacted were not owners of the business nor did they have a vested interest in it. I think that is what makes the greatest difference in the quality of work.
I'm not a church goer as you might have gathered by now. When I did belong to a congregation it was a Catholic Church. They did a tremendous job of turning me against organized religion, but that's a whole different story. At Motorola many of the people I worked with belonged to a Willow Creek church which put on some kind of themed theatrical production every Sunday. It was an interesting way to get people involved. It started out as a store front but ended up on what must have been 100 acres of beautiful meadow land complete with pond water for baptisms. The building itself was ultra modern and must have cost several millions of dollars to build. The pastor was a genius. He started out with a handful of like minded people in a strip mall and grew that into the most beautiful church I've seen in the whole of Chicago. They got into a lot of community focused activity too. I met more than a few folks who went to that church for what I can only describe as group therapy. It was a bit more than the typical Sunday School in that they offered family counseling.
The last trip we made back home involved passing by the Willow Creek Church. It was shut down and blocked from access. I later found out that this genius pastor was involved with some kind of sex scandal. I'm pretty sure it involved minors, but can't be positive. To be honest I was shocked, although I should not have been coming from a Catholic Church background. I don't know what causes people of the cloth to become so perverted. It's truly a shame. Almost as bad as those goddamed Democrats deliberately causing people to suffer and die from a virus.
I'm not a church goer as you might have gathered by now. When I did belong to a congregation it was a Catholic Church. They did a tremendous job of turning me against organized religion, but that's a whole different story. At Motorola many of the people I worked with belonged to a Willow Creek church which put on some kind of themed theatrical production every Sunday. It was an interesting way to get people involved. It started out as a store front but ended up on what must have been 100 acres of beautiful meadow land complete with pond water for baptisms. The building itself was ultra modern and must have cost several millions of dollars to build. The pastor was a genius. He started out with a handful of like minded people in a strip mall and grew that into the most beautiful church I've seen in the whole of Chicago. They got into a lot of community focused activity too. I met more than a few folks who went to that church for what I can only describe as group therapy. It was a bit more than the typical Sunday School in that they offered family counseling.
The last trip we made back home involved passing by the Willow Creek Church. It was shut down and blocked from access. I later found out that this genius pastor was involved with some kind of sex scandal. I'm pretty sure it involved minors, but can't be positive. To be honest I was shocked, although I should not have been coming from a Catholic Church background. I don't know what causes people of the cloth to become so perverted. It's truly a shame. Almost as bad as those goddamed Democrats deliberately causing people to suffer and die from a virus.
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I worked for a jobber for a couple of years while my wife was so sick. I couldn't take appointments on my own, because I never knew if I could keep them. I didn't like working for a jobber because he soaked the people. But in my case, being able to call for a job off the board at the time I had available to go do one, worked out well for me. Also got me out of the house for a couple of hours while a nurse was there doing her thing.
I wish I had a lawn boy like I had taking care of a few of my houses. That guy was meticulous to a fault, and kept his eye on everything and just took care of it before it got out of control. He also worked fairly cheap compared to lawn services. However, that being said, I had him hired full-time, so he knew if he got too caught up I might have to cut his hours, hi hi.
I was born and raised Katholik, and found so many discrepancies in their religion I had to get out. Not easy to do when you are under your parents thumb.
Many churches have turned into nothing more than entertainment centers. We have a few Mega-Churches down here, and that's all they are.
The People are supposed to BE the Church, not some building somewhere.
I wish I had a lawn boy like I had taking care of a few of my houses. That guy was meticulous to a fault, and kept his eye on everything and just took care of it before it got out of control. He also worked fairly cheap compared to lawn services. However, that being said, I had him hired full-time, so he knew if he got too caught up I might have to cut his hours, hi hi.
I was born and raised Katholik, and found so many discrepancies in their religion I had to get out. Not easy to do when you are under your parents thumb.
Many churches have turned into nothing more than entertainment centers. We have a few Mega-Churches down here, and that's all they are.
The People are supposed to BE the Church, not some building somewhere.
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As I see it the world is composed of believers and non-believers. There are some concepts that can be applied to the general population, but because religion by definition involves a system of beliefs it cannot be universally applied to everybody. That's the major flaw. There is no room to personalize any given sect. You either are or are not whatever they call themselves. Even then I don't think any two Christians, for example, believe and act identically. That would be contrary to being a member of the flock wherein all the congregation walks in lock-step. Then, as you point out, there are the contradictions and inconsistencies. It's not possible for mere mortals to know the absolute truth; it's all relative. We all believe in something, even the non-believers, but some of us need a shepherd and some of of don't. Personally I think it's harder to be independent, but it's infinitely more rewarding.
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As far as the Catholics go. There are many things their own Douay Bible says NOT TO DO, yet they do it as a matter of ritual. Chanting was not allowed, but most obvious when the mass was in Latin. It still sounds like chanting in English.
I caused one of my cousin's who became a priest to eventually leave the church.
I would ask him questions, not all at once, but a couple every time I saw him.
But he didn't have to answer right away, he could research my question before answering.
It started out simple at first with simple questions of which I expected exactly how he would respond.
But then after he did respond to that question, I would counter with the bible verses that said they shouldn't do that, but he had to look them up himself to see what they said.
Joseph Smith's schtick when talking about religions was "None of them are right."
So he started his own. But a little ways down the line he too went off the beaten path and began making up things.
Had he not deviated from the correct path, his church would be much bigger than it is today, and not have had so many splits.
Being married to a gal who was raised in the Jewish faith, and her daughter could read, write, and speak Hebrew fluently. We used to sit sometimes for hours where she would show me how many different ways a verse when translated to English could be reformed out of context, especially if someone didn't understand the entire article.
Their Hebrew bible is basically no different than our old testament part of the bible.
However, there are MAJOR differences, especially in the names and locations.
The letter "J" was not invented until the mid-17th century.
It is not found in the Hebrew, Greek, or Aramaic languages at all.
The KJV bible we use was rewritten and published in 1769 to make heavy use of this newly invented letter "J."
In order to do that, they had to use what is called naming equivalents, which are erroneous to start with.
And for the most part, translated from the Greek, which compounds the translation problems even more so.
Even so, the KJV is still the closest bible we have to being accurate almost to a fault.
I was non-denominational for many years, but then non-denom essentially became a religion of its own.
So our Home Church group started using the term un-denominational.
As the church grew larger we found it getting more and more difficult to keep the individual teachers from going down the wrong teaching paths. Human beliefs and things they were previously taught can really toss a can of worms into their teachings fast. So we had several points they had to be well seated in before they could be teaching in the individual homes. It is very hard for some folks to unlearn that which they have heard their whole life as correct, when it wasn't.
And sadly, even the companies who write the dictionaries have changed also. The definition of several words that at one time were clearly defined, it got watered down with each new version of the dictionary, until now two words that meant totally opposite things, now have the same definition for both words.
They say the dictionary is based on the common usage of the words, and defined based on common usage.
They LIE. If they truly went by common usage, then the words Less and Fewer would have been reversed years ago.
I caused one of my cousin's who became a priest to eventually leave the church.
I would ask him questions, not all at once, but a couple every time I saw him.
But he didn't have to answer right away, he could research my question before answering.
It started out simple at first with simple questions of which I expected exactly how he would respond.
But then after he did respond to that question, I would counter with the bible verses that said they shouldn't do that, but he had to look them up himself to see what they said.
Joseph Smith's schtick when talking about religions was "None of them are right."
So he started his own. But a little ways down the line he too went off the beaten path and began making up things.
Had he not deviated from the correct path, his church would be much bigger than it is today, and not have had so many splits.
Being married to a gal who was raised in the Jewish faith, and her daughter could read, write, and speak Hebrew fluently. We used to sit sometimes for hours where she would show me how many different ways a verse when translated to English could be reformed out of context, especially if someone didn't understand the entire article.
Their Hebrew bible is basically no different than our old testament part of the bible.
However, there are MAJOR differences, especially in the names and locations.
The letter "J" was not invented until the mid-17th century.
It is not found in the Hebrew, Greek, or Aramaic languages at all.
The KJV bible we use was rewritten and published in 1769 to make heavy use of this newly invented letter "J."
In order to do that, they had to use what is called naming equivalents, which are erroneous to start with.
And for the most part, translated from the Greek, which compounds the translation problems even more so.
Even so, the KJV is still the closest bible we have to being accurate almost to a fault.
I was non-denominational for many years, but then non-denom essentially became a religion of its own.
So our Home Church group started using the term un-denominational.
As the church grew larger we found it getting more and more difficult to keep the individual teachers from going down the wrong teaching paths. Human beliefs and things they were previously taught can really toss a can of worms into their teachings fast. So we had several points they had to be well seated in before they could be teaching in the individual homes. It is very hard for some folks to unlearn that which they have heard their whole life as correct, when it wasn't.
And sadly, even the companies who write the dictionaries have changed also. The definition of several words that at one time were clearly defined, it got watered down with each new version of the dictionary, until now two words that meant totally opposite things, now have the same definition for both words.
They say the dictionary is based on the common usage of the words, and defined based on common usage.
They LIE. If they truly went by common usage, then the words Less and Fewer would have been reversed years ago.
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After I no longer had to take English classes in some school, I began to see how the language is actually more fluid than those teachers were telling me. Words need to be defined, and there are situations where it's mandatory to have an exact definition. I'm thinking arguing legal matters here. But, as any lawyer can tell you, the intent is what the argument is all about. The wording of that intent might not be correct, but intent clearly takes precedence over the definition when communications are involved. The discussions we have had regarding "bandwidth" is a perfect example of why the definition was corrupted to indicate intent. The bottom line in all of this is that people do not think in as rigid terms as the dictionary would require.
Carrying that subjective interpretation of words over to weighty subjects such as religion is a disaster. I doubt that even the KJV Bible is translated as it was intentionally written. Crossing language barriers involves such things as concepts which may not exist in both languages. How does one overcome that obstacle when they may not even be aware it exists? Christianity is the only religion I have any in depth exposure to and it clearly suffers from subjective interpretation of words that try to convey concepts unknown to modern man. Yet, the Bible is The Bible. I simply can't take the matter seriously when the source is so corrupt.
Certain concepts are universally applicable, of course. One such concept would be to "Love thy neighbor." Yes, but don't get caught.
Carrying that subjective interpretation of words over to weighty subjects such as religion is a disaster. I doubt that even the KJV Bible is translated as it was intentionally written. Crossing language barriers involves such things as concepts which may not exist in both languages. How does one overcome that obstacle when they may not even be aware it exists? Christianity is the only religion I have any in depth exposure to and it clearly suffers from subjective interpretation of words that try to convey concepts unknown to modern man. Yet, the Bible is The Bible. I simply can't take the matter seriously when the source is so corrupt.
Certain concepts are universally applicable, of course. One such concept would be to "Love thy neighbor." Yes, but don't get caught.
Re: The Rest Of The Story
The only way to get a clear understanding of what the bible says, is to let the bible define itself.
All passages concerning a topic must be considered together against each other in order to understand the full meaning.
A single passage is usually used out of context. Sometimes whole chapters too.
Genesis 1 and 2 are most confusing to many, which is why we have those who think the earth is only 6000 years old.
Or why so many loonies try to predict when biblical events will occur. They are always wrong of course, hi hi.
If you want to have some phun sometime, take an English phrase that contains plays on words, or even one that doesn't.
Have it translated to German, then from the German to French, from the French to Spanish, and from the Spanish back to English again. It will not come out anywhere close to the meaning of the original English phrase.
Heck, just going from English to French and back again really messes up some phrases big time, hi hi.
I had an advantage by having a wife and two kids who were fluent in Hebrew and understood their idioms.
Without knowing the context in which a phrase was used and why, it is almost impossible to get an accurate translation.
I know a few folks who point out what they think are errors in the bible when they are not at all, because they forgot to consider the time frame of when each event was described.
Let's say you drove by a car accident and saw one of the cars teetering on a cliff and all three passengers were already out, but one was still reaching into the car for something, perhaps their purse.
Your brother drives by about ten minutes later and now the car is at the bottom of the cliff, and that one passenger who was reaching into the car was now smashed under the car at the bottom of the cliff.
When each of you told the story, although it was of the same accident, you both would give different accounts of what you saw.
The same is such in the bible:
If you read Matthew 27.5 it says Judas hanged himself.
If you read Acts 1.18 it says he burst open and his entrails gushed out.
By putting the two accounts of Judas' death together we get a clearer idea of what happened. Both events are true, but they did not happen at the same time.
Matthew writes that Judas "hanged himself." Luke explains what happened later, after Judas' body began to decompose. The corpse slipped from the rope, "falling headlong, . . . burst open in the middle and all his entrails gushed out"—the ignominious, yet deserved end of "the son of perdition."
If one takes Genesis 1 literally, then there were major populations before Adam was created.
The order of events as they took place are different in Genesis 1 than in Genesis 2 also.
Genesis 2 should be taken literally because the rest of scripture is based on the facts contained therein.
But what about Genesis 1?
If Genesis 1 is taken literally, it would explain why Adam of Genesis 2 knew about mothers, fathers, children and families.
It would also explain WHO Cain was afraid of, and why he said anyone who finds me will kill me.
Then he moved to NOD and built a city there. Where did he get all the workers from, and how did he know it was named NOD?
Consider also all the main rivers, their names, and the lands to which they flowed all had names too.
Just food for thought, hi hi.
All passages concerning a topic must be considered together against each other in order to understand the full meaning.
A single passage is usually used out of context. Sometimes whole chapters too.
Genesis 1 and 2 are most confusing to many, which is why we have those who think the earth is only 6000 years old.
Or why so many loonies try to predict when biblical events will occur. They are always wrong of course, hi hi.
If you want to have some phun sometime, take an English phrase that contains plays on words, or even one that doesn't.
Have it translated to German, then from the German to French, from the French to Spanish, and from the Spanish back to English again. It will not come out anywhere close to the meaning of the original English phrase.
Heck, just going from English to French and back again really messes up some phrases big time, hi hi.
I had an advantage by having a wife and two kids who were fluent in Hebrew and understood their idioms.
Without knowing the context in which a phrase was used and why, it is almost impossible to get an accurate translation.
I know a few folks who point out what they think are errors in the bible when they are not at all, because they forgot to consider the time frame of when each event was described.
Let's say you drove by a car accident and saw one of the cars teetering on a cliff and all three passengers were already out, but one was still reaching into the car for something, perhaps their purse.
Your brother drives by about ten minutes later and now the car is at the bottom of the cliff, and that one passenger who was reaching into the car was now smashed under the car at the bottom of the cliff.
When each of you told the story, although it was of the same accident, you both would give different accounts of what you saw.
The same is such in the bible:
If you read Matthew 27.5 it says Judas hanged himself.
If you read Acts 1.18 it says he burst open and his entrails gushed out.
By putting the two accounts of Judas' death together we get a clearer idea of what happened. Both events are true, but they did not happen at the same time.
Matthew writes that Judas "hanged himself." Luke explains what happened later, after Judas' body began to decompose. The corpse slipped from the rope, "falling headlong, . . . burst open in the middle and all his entrails gushed out"—the ignominious, yet deserved end of "the son of perdition."
If one takes Genesis 1 literally, then there were major populations before Adam was created.
The order of events as they took place are different in Genesis 1 than in Genesis 2 also.
Genesis 2 should be taken literally because the rest of scripture is based on the facts contained therein.
But what about Genesis 1?
If Genesis 1 is taken literally, it would explain why Adam of Genesis 2 knew about mothers, fathers, children and families.
It would also explain WHO Cain was afraid of, and why he said anyone who finds me will kill me.
Then he moved to NOD and built a city there. Where did he get all the workers from, and how did he know it was named NOD?
Consider also all the main rivers, their names, and the lands to which they flowed all had names too.
Just food for thought, hi hi.
Re: The Rest Of The Story
That translation exercise is a pretty good example of what happens when you cross cultural and language boundaries. In fact I did that very experiment using Google Translate and always blamed Google in part for the errors. It turns out Google was more accurate than I suspected and the languages themselves contain the vagaries. I believe I commented somewhere on this board that I have a friend with whom I correspond in the Czech Republic. She speaks several languages an is in fact an author. About the only major problem I have with her is when it comes to humor and sarcasm. She just doesn't get it. She is not dumb, but some of the concepts contained in my humor don't exist in the Czech language. This is not unusual, and I have no doubt in my mind that the Bible as we know it today is nothing like what it was intended to be when written by its original authors.
I happen to know you take great pleasure in learning about historical events. We talked about that before. Because of your interest in life as it occurred many years ago, I am not surprised at all that you would be fascinated by the Bible. It's among the oldest writings to survive. To me that historical depiction of life is priceless. It's a shame some of the facts and details didn't make it through the translations, but the gist of what was going on three thousand years ago is pretty clear. I'm fascinated that any narrative at all could survive that amount of time, and I think that fascination is what lends the Bible to being the foundation of religions. Something that old can't be wrong, eh? Maybe not, but ancient knowledge isn't relevant in the year 2020. It certainly isn't what I'd want to use as a basis for moral judgement, although there is some universal truth in the Good Book. My point is that those truths can be learned elsewhere and on a less mystical level. I think that's how I became un-Christian. I found a better way.
You are not the first person I've known who put a lot of time into studying the Bible. Every one of the people I know recognizes the inaccuracies to be pretty much what you state here. That's ok with them because their way is the right way. LOL I could buy into that if it were not for the fact that several people claim that their way is the right way in spite of it contradicting somebody else's right way. Thus the Bible appears to be a source of knowledge that is not easy to understand, if not outright inaccurate. I guess the thing that turns me away more than anything else is the claim that the Bible is the word of God. Really? God doesn't know how to write clearly so that there is no room for misinterpretation? Amazing.
I'll just remain an existential curmudgeon where everything in my world is clear as mud. Thank you.
I happen to know you take great pleasure in learning about historical events. We talked about that before. Because of your interest in life as it occurred many years ago, I am not surprised at all that you would be fascinated by the Bible. It's among the oldest writings to survive. To me that historical depiction of life is priceless. It's a shame some of the facts and details didn't make it through the translations, but the gist of what was going on three thousand years ago is pretty clear. I'm fascinated that any narrative at all could survive that amount of time, and I think that fascination is what lends the Bible to being the foundation of religions. Something that old can't be wrong, eh? Maybe not, but ancient knowledge isn't relevant in the year 2020. It certainly isn't what I'd want to use as a basis for moral judgement, although there is some universal truth in the Good Book. My point is that those truths can be learned elsewhere and on a less mystical level. I think that's how I became un-Christian. I found a better way.
You are not the first person I've known who put a lot of time into studying the Bible. Every one of the people I know recognizes the inaccuracies to be pretty much what you state here. That's ok with them because their way is the right way. LOL I could buy into that if it were not for the fact that several people claim that their way is the right way in spite of it contradicting somebody else's right way. Thus the Bible appears to be a source of knowledge that is not easy to understand, if not outright inaccurate. I guess the thing that turns me away more than anything else is the claim that the Bible is the word of God. Really? God doesn't know how to write clearly so that there is no room for misinterpretation? Amazing.
I'll just remain an existential curmudgeon where everything in my world is clear as mud. Thank you.
Re: The Rest Of The Story
Not all bibles are based on the same records. Some of the most popular new age bibles of today are based only on fragments, and many of those were more satire than truth.
Although languages change, and some meanings cannot fully be known in today's languages, especially the translations.
If one studies history of an event, and reads everything about that event.
It soon becomes clear which writers told the truth, and which ones were trying to alter the facts to suit their agenda.
Sorta like today's conspiracy theorists, hi hi.
Being raised Katholik and going to Katholik skews, Latin was always taught but not as a language course, it was part of religion class. Although I remember none of it anymore, at the time, it helped me to understand some of the words we use today much better.
Although many bible appear to say the same thing, they don't.
The KJV is about as close to perfectly accurate as you can get, as long as you realize many names in it were changed in the 1769 version to make heavy use of the newly invented letter "J" that never existed before in any language.
It is not found in the Hebrew, Greek, or Aramaic languages, and nothing in those languages even sounds like it.
Then we have the grossly PERVERTED bibles, such as the NIV, which sadly many Christians use and think it is great.
It has more errors and false claims in it, it should be banned.
It is copyrighted by the same person who deals in witchcraft and pornography and is run on the some presses.
They changed the meaning of many verses in the NIV to mean just the opposite of what is intended.
They have Christ and Lucifer as being the same person. Joseph as Jesus real father, etc.
The NIV is a dangerous book to be using!
Although languages change, and some meanings cannot fully be known in today's languages, especially the translations.
If one studies history of an event, and reads everything about that event.
It soon becomes clear which writers told the truth, and which ones were trying to alter the facts to suit their agenda.
Sorta like today's conspiracy theorists, hi hi.
Being raised Katholik and going to Katholik skews, Latin was always taught but not as a language course, it was part of religion class. Although I remember none of it anymore, at the time, it helped me to understand some of the words we use today much better.
Although many bible appear to say the same thing, they don't.
The KJV is about as close to perfectly accurate as you can get, as long as you realize many names in it were changed in the 1769 version to make heavy use of the newly invented letter "J" that never existed before in any language.
It is not found in the Hebrew, Greek, or Aramaic languages, and nothing in those languages even sounds like it.
Then we have the grossly PERVERTED bibles, such as the NIV, which sadly many Christians use and think it is great.
It has more errors and false claims in it, it should be banned.
It is copyrighted by the same person who deals in witchcraft and pornography and is run on the some presses.
They changed the meaning of many verses in the NIV to mean just the opposite of what is intended.
They have Christ and Lucifer as being the same person. Joseph as Jesus real father, etc.
The NIV is a dangerous book to be using!