amazon vs Amazon

Hanh Takoszja! We received an order dated May 12, 2012 after the mail had gone out. That being a Saturday & there being no mail movement on Sunday, we shipped - with Delivery Confirmation - by USPS First Class Pkg service on May 14, 2012.  It was scanned in as delivered on May 16, 2012 - light speed!, from ND to FL!  And it wasn't even snowbird season.  !QQ!

We heard nothing until July 23, 2012 when the buyer emailed us, "where's my stuff?"  We emailed back immediately that we were horrified, the pkg was delivered according to the tracking data, and since it was in his local PO area, he would have to contact his PO to find out where it was delivered.  We asked him to keep us posted.

We heard nothing until August 27, 2012 when he again asked "where's my stuff?"  We emailed immediately asking what his PO said.  No response.  But a couple of days later, if I recall right, we had an A-Z Guarantee claim from him!  Amazon ignored our response & refunded his money, taking everything we had in our account & leaving a -$90++ balance.  They refunded shipping to him, which we do not charge, taking his refund to $197++! 

We told our Postmaster & he reminded me that back in July he said, "Turn it in to the Postal Inspectors Fraud Division.  This smacks of fraud."  This is why we all hate "I told you..."  So we turned it in 'now'.

There's information we're not including here about the buyer, but there is definitely fraud & we have ample proof of that.  The Postmaster, the Carrier Supervisor in FL, & the Postal Inspector all chuckle at Amazon's stance, which is: (1) 'it is Amazon's policy to never take the Sellers word for anything'; and (2) it is Amazon's policy not to take the USPS' word for having delivered, either!  Recently, Amazon added that "if you had gotten signature confirmation" we would refund your money.

My reply was, "Idiot - your village misses you.  Go report in there.  Since you don't take the Sellers word OR the USPS word for delivery, then you would claim a signature was forged.  This is a tails you win, heads we lose proposition & we're not suckering for it."

Takoszja, the USPS is a federal agency.  Or quasi-agency.  No matter.  It gets its funding from Congress & that makes it "some kind of federal agency".  Therefore, all of its employees are automatically taken by the courts to be unimpeachable sources of truth.  Besides, the carrier scanned the package as delivered.  Electronically whizzed to the USPS computers somewhere - so, better than a signature.

We are blogging this 'everywhere'.  We have spent our lives fighting abuse & taking abusers down.  Amazon is a bully; it is bullying & slandering the Sellers who make money for it.  NO ONE 'HAS' TO TOLERATE - LET ALONE ENABLE - ABUSE OF THEMSELVES! 

Please pass the word!  Boycott Amazon & tell them why.  & If you want to buy from us, look for Indian Maid Don Croft Zapper on the Internet & you will find us on Addoway, Bonanza, ebay, & ecrater, to name a few.  NO BULLYING ALLOWED! 

My ancestors are some of those who gave Custer what he so richly deserved.  Amazon is putting itself in the same leaky canoe.  Take Amazon down!  Pilamiyaye / Thank you!

WE STILL NEED USPS

From a strictly economic standpoint, it appears to make sense to eliminate the USPS - BUT from a practical one, it makes no sense at all.

Contrary to popular myth, there are millions more than 'a few' people who depend on the USPS - for their living (I do; the micro-corporations I head do (1 a for-profit; 1 a non-profit which is supported by.... the for-profit). People in cities depend on the USPS for packages & for bills (not everyone 'loves' online bill-pay - which is less secure than physical mail, generally speaking; & which can be extremely expensive because of the need for secure Internet service).

People in rural areas find it vital - dish networks are not universally affordable or available, again contrary to popular myth - & we again have the security concerns relative to the Internet. Unlike city people, rural mail is something we depend on daily - for packages; for bills; for communication. Contrary to popular myth again, people do still write letters; use catalogs; and have working relationships with their postal carriers. I & friends all have driveways that are miles long - the mailbox "is out at the road" - 4 - 5 miles is not uncommon.

We who have PO boxes have them for good reason. People move; boxes do not. Those of us who have a need to keep distance between us & stalkers definitely need PO Boxes. Having been in the 'wonderful' position of walking out my door into the barrel of a loaded gun 3 times, I can guarantee you I will never put my physical address anywhere, any more. No, the stalker is not some former 'lover'. I stumbled across a network of crooked cops & I turned them in. My attorney advised that I 'would be guaranteed anonymity for life'. The IA cops 'guaranteed' the same thing. I should have listened to myself - 'guaranteed anonymity for life' lasted exactly 36 hours; at which time I answered the phone at the Church I head & heard, "This is Detective T K; & I'm going to kill you, you bitch".

We discussed it - I recorded the conversation; copied the tape; took it to the DA - & found that the Detective was accurate - "Unless or until he puts you in the hospital with a serious injury, state law does not allow us to act". He did not ever succeed in hospitalizing me, but he sure raised hob with my peace of mind for some years.. have you ever had to dive out of the way of a car that's trying to run you down? I have. Have you ever watched the front end of said car deform around your feet as you stood at the top of a set of cement steps? I have. And there are those 3 incidents with the gun. I am unique in that I dated military men who taught me hand-to-hand combat tactics & made sure I became skilled. My problem has not been how to defend myself; it has been how to do it without killing some slime who really needs to be dead, because said slime are not worth jail time waiting for trial, or standing in front of a judge over.

I am hardly the only person this has happened to - it's why there's a federal witness protection program. It's why many men & women live on "elevated alert" - because of stalkers. Yes, women stalk, too. Insanity affects both sexes.

And then there's - our government owes us this service. Contrary to popular myth, our government is still "of us People, by us People, & for us People". And you cannot put a price on the need of all of us for equalization in some areas - which means, we keep the USPS.

Does it need reorganizatio? Yes. It needs far fewer 'managers' than it has. The Postal Service has always been top-heavy in this regard. It probably needs some reorganization in every area of it. But no matter what, we need to get rid of the myth that the private sector can solve all problems in a cost-effective manner. Having been in business nearly all of my life, I know this for fact. We need to keep the USPS. Mitakuye oiasin - All, my relatives.

Sanitizing Mascot Language

Hanh mitakuyapi / Hello my relatives. We're currently battling once again over mascotting in North Dakota, where the House Majority Leader has introduced a bill to - in it's words - "force the University of North Dakota to retain the 'fighting sioux' nickname and logo'. Among other actions. Now that the word 'mascot' has come to be known for its toxicity, bigots and other ignorant people have gone to the old 'divide and conquer' strategy to try to muck up the view of 'what's really going on here' by using the phrase 'nickname and logo'. Sounds much better than 'mascot', doesn't it? But it's the same song on a different day, in reality.

I always hope that people in positions such as Majority Leader will behave in more dignified ways than to promote mascotting, but once again, I am much disappointed.

Still, after fighting through the House, where the Chair of the ND House Education Committee was obviously biased in favor of this stupid bill, and where it passed by something like 65 - 28, we have gotten a "Do Not Pass" recommendation from the Senate Education Committee. Now our prayer is that the full Senate will concur when it votes on this bill tomorrow.

I plan to be there to hear the floor debate and see what kind of ludicrous arguments may be made for spending at least $1 million - not to find a more suitable mascot for the UND & take it out of the dark ages HB1263 would shove it further into - but to try to bring a lawsuit to 'force' the UND to retain living people & our living cultures as pets &/or cartoons - the definition of 'mascot' in the OED. A repeat of a lawsuit which was dismissed by the ND Supreme Court 'with prejudice', we have been told; and which the ND Attorney General says is UnConstitutional!

I never fail to be amazed by the depths to which bigots will stoop to try to retain the status quo. We got the Civil Rights Act passed in what, the 1970s? for blacks.. and it was later extended to cover women and Hispanics, without much question. Yet for us IndigenUs People of this Turtle Island, there continues to be effort on effort made to treat us as mindless and valueless - except when it comes to making money from our images. Dis-gust-ing!

I proposed several respectful alternatives to HB1263, including hoghouse the bill (scrap the original wording) & replace it with: with the blessing of the involved tribes, put the beautiful artwork on the state's website & letterheads - the state is named for my People, after all; and on the 'Pride of Dakota' labels that go on thousands of products shipped through that program - retaining the words "Pride of Dakota" of course; and put the beautiful artwork on license plates. This last suggestion came from a friend who is a German-from-Russia, & everyone I've asked about it has liked this idea as well as the previous 2. Said "it's logical!" "it's common sense!"
Which probably means it won't go anywhere, in part because it came from me. Isn't it odd that a woman described by the current governor as being "nothing! nobody! She has no money, no votes, no power!" can have such impact? Duwahleh! Mongye.

Well, let's pray on that tomorrow's vote kills HB1263 once and for all, and the state of North Dakota can hold its collective head up high for this nod to human dignity - instead of continuing as it currently is & has been for far too long. Mitakuye oiasin.

Boycott Discovery Channel & Tell Them

You are adamantly against their nutty idea to have a show featuring that all-time overwhelmingly disgusting bimbo, Sarah Palin. She is anti-environmental on every level - trees, oil, polar bears, caribou; doesn't know the meaning of the word "respect" or the term "show respect"; has made some of the most demeaning remarks about grassroots people of every race ("joe sixpack" & such YUCK!); and is about as anti-IndigenUs as is to be found.

In the way of my People, she would be called a "nothing woman". The majority culture being what it is, however, few members of it will stand up & say "pipe down!"

If you who read this blog feel similarly, then by all means, email Discovery Channel or complain via their website. The time is now! Tell them you will not watch Discovery Channel at all, nor will you let your children/grandchildren watch. There is no excuse for featuring someone as disgusting & offensive as Sarah-the-bimbo. Tell them you've had enough. Mitakuye oiasin.

Kick A Hole in the Wind & Jump Through

Hanh mitakuyapi. Sometimes you just have to kick a hole in the wind & jump through if you're going to achieve a goal. I've been living in dire soul-grinding poverty for a number of years, despite a huge number of skills at a very high level, plenty of tenacity & determination, flexibility, & creativity - so say my many friends, not merely me. Admittedly, I say it too - if you diss yourself, you burden yourself, so while I poke fun at myself & my sense of humor runs to satire & irony (& puns! let us have puns!), I don't have a poor self-image.

I come from a blue-collar background, but I've been in business since I was 5. That's right, takoszja - 5 years walking on the earth. I got expelled from kindergarten for showing too much initiative for an Indn kid. I had a business, & did a land-office business for awhile.. as a scribe.

I could read & write when I was 3-1/2 years on the earth, so I put together a booklet with 6 different hand-writing styles in it, went to the other kids in my kindergarten class, & pointed out that while anyone could have the teacher sign their pictures, it was way cool to have another little kid do it.. And that for a mere 10 cents a week each, I would sign all the pictures each one wanted, changing hand-writing styles if s/he wanted.

At the tender age of 5, I was making $2.60 a week! I was a millionaire! Well, I was going to be..

Then the kindergarten teacher found out about my business & she insisted that I (a) stop & (b) apologize to the rest of the class( ! ) Knowing in my heart of hearts that I had done nothing wrong, I refused. She expelled me. The first of many times, you can be sure. Eventually, by the time I graduated high school, I had been expelled so many times for such "excessively creative" activities, my shoes pretty much knew the way home without me in them. Tch, tch!

My birther thought it was kind of amusing. My foster father did not. He told me he appreciated my initiative & creativity, but that I was going to have to apologize 'because that's how things are done". This after teaching me that that is about the poorest reason on earth for continuing any practice. Boy, did he get a wrong number! I refused. We discussed. He insisted. I refused. We went round n round this way for several days.

Finally, he told me that if I didn't apologize, he was going to tan my behind with his belt. I told him this was child abuse. He agreed ( ! ). He started removing his belt & I told him I was going to tell the world.. he replied that no one would do anything; that's how much freedom had to discipline their children. I replied that belting a kid's backside was not discipline, it was outrageous & abuse. He argued outrageous, but agreed with abuse & finished it with, "so what?!?"

Being quick, I thought, "but you didn't tell me what to say & I'll bet you won't ask", so I said, "I would be doing it under coercion". I spoke that way, even then, takoszja.. He responded, "I don't care if you do it under an umbrella, just so you do it." So the next morning, he & I & the birther went to the school so I could apologize to the class.

The adults stood along the west side of the room - kindergarten teacher, principal, birther, & foster father - all with their arms crossed over their chests & looking stern. (As iff stern looks would cow one like me. HAH!) My classmates sat in front of them, glaring at me.

I looked them over & said, "200 years ago, everyone was like you. They could not read or write, so they took things to people who could. Such people were well-respected & well-paid; they were called 'scribes'. Ben Franklin spoke highly of them. Today, busy executives use them & call them 'secretaries'. Until the adults convinced you that I had done something wrong, you thought that having me sign your pictures was pretty nifty. You were right. So I'm sorry you let the adults pull the wool over your eyes in this matter - but I'm not sorry for anything I did, because I didn't do anything wrong."

Then I looked at the adults, whose expressions ranged from hidden amusement to stunned, crossed my arms over my chest, & said, "and that's as good as it gets." The foster father bit off a smile & said, "I should have asked what you were going to say." I replied, "Yeah, but you didn't. You said apologize, & I have. Subject was never mentioned, nor were specific words or perspective." He bit off another grin & said, "Kid, you're going to be a lawyer." I replied, "Uh-uh! Lawyering's dirty! I'm going to be in business! business is fun!" And so it has been, the great majority of the time.

Now, after some scum sabotaged my Leather Restoration Service web site, terrorized my web master, & sabotaged my work room (after they battered down a door to get in), I have built a new site - for my custom handmade moose & buffalo leather mocassins. I have listed it on Google's business listings. And I have told you. You can see my work at www.Dogmocassins.DevHub.com . Eventually, there will be other parts of Indian Maid Products Inc's product line on sites there. We're baaaack.. Whee! I rattle my tongue for this.

I don't claim to be a webmaster. I used a template & filled in the blanks. I'm still learning things like SEO. But my shingle is back out & I'm back in business. Mitakuye oiasin. Thanks for listening.

Congrats to the Haitian Voodoo Association

Hanh mitakuyapi. Whether you know it by now or not, I absolutely hate, detest, & abhor 'missionaries'. They are responsible for more misery among Indigenous Peoples around the world than any other cultural aspect.

On NPR this morning, there was a piece about a dozen or so Baptist missionaries having been jailed in Haiti for trying to take a large number of children - age 2 - 12 - out of Haiti illegally. The missionaries claim they were "only" taking the children to a brand new orphanage their group had just had built in another country.
After all, it needs occupants, right? So how better to get them than by stealing children from Haitians, who are in need of 'help' of all kinds, they figured. And in the process, they would convert these children from their Native Spiritual Way (wonderfully Pagan) to Baptist Christianity.

The parents of many of these children have been found, & were in the process of collecting their children from whatever camps they were already in, when the missionaries swooped down on the scene & tried to make off with the children. Luckily, the people of the Haiti Voodo Association were on the watch for just this kind of outrageous behavior, and they stopped the missionaries.

I rattle my tongue for the HVA people! I send my strongest prayers to aid them. As a Sun Dancer with a most public Prayer, I am therefore a Pipe Carrier. I know full well, up close & personal, about the outrages committed by missionaries against Indigenous People of Turtle Island these past 500+ years. You haven't lived until you've been accosted by one of these low-lifes - with their superiority complex - & had the distinct non-pleasure of being told that you - a grandmother, college-educated, speaker of 9 languages, with a lifetime of accomplishments - are "misguided", 'misinformed', 'duped', & ' a devil-worshipper' or 'in league with devils'.

While I am a rabid supporter of the Constitution & Bill of Rights, I have no doubt whatsoever that this applies first & foremost to my & my Peoples' Right - not privilege - to worship as we please, without any interference, or efforts at interference - from anyone, any time, anywhere, in any way. That definitely includes Indigenous People the world over as well.

For anyone who has an axe to grind with Voodoo - I know almost nothing about it. It is not my place to attack a spiritual Way that has been seen as valid by thousands of people for years uncountable - and it is no one else's place to do so, either, particularly by stealing children on the pretext of helping them. We IndigenUs People of Turtle Island are still seeing the terrible effects of the soul-collection efforts of missionaries, from the Boarding School Days, to the entire Reservation Period (which is still going on), on & off our Rezs. It's up to us and our Traditional Spiritual leaders to stop these outrages against our Ways - especially via our children.

The single most intimate thing any of us ever does is commune & connect with our individual, personal vision of All That Is Holy; there fore, it is the single most important thing we ever do, either. I hope the Haitian government slaps the Baptists hard for this outrageous assault on their Traditional Spiritual Ways.
Mitakuye oiasin - All, my relatives.

Magnets n Me

Hanh mitakuyapi / Hello my relatives.

Back in the early 1980s, I developed, marketed, & patented a product that relieved pain & muscle spasms using little "pressure pointers" & elastic straps to stimulate / relax acupressure points. It made a profit both years I marketed it.

I had way too many irons in the fire at the time & couldn't give it the time & attention it deserved, so I put it on the shelf "for a couple of years".

Recently, I was hounding the Spirits (ie, strong prayers) for something that I could put in the market that would support me & the church I head, since we have both been staring starvation & death thereby closely in the face. It must be: effective; cheap to make; easy to make, therefore fast to make; & have a strong market already bcs it takes lots of time to build a market demand, & don't have time to squander.

(I "lived" on $9,000 total income for 2008, & unless there's a miracle, so far in 2009, I've garnered a total of $8,370. No unemployment compensation, no welfare (gack! hiss! even the thought of it should go 'way! fast!!), & very little (obviously) in the way of jobs.)

Anyway, the Spirits popped the memory of my TheraPressure System into my consciousness!

It meets all of the requirements. Acupuncture / acupressure are systems with a 4,000+-year history of effectiveness. "Barefoot doctors" successfully treat all manner of conditions with them & have for thousands of years. The parts are inexpensive, & easy to make. And the U.S. pain market alone is something like $35 Billion / year. Duwahleh! Better yet, we now have The Internet & the World Wide Web for marketing, & sites like Amazon & eBay. My heart leapt as these realizations dawned.

That was in something like late July or early August of this year. Since then, I have participated in "webinars" on selling on sites like Amazon & eBay; made / bought the tools needed to make the parts, & kept praying. After all, if you don't speak up, you won't be heard.. the Spirits are no different in this regard than any other part of the world.

Then a couple of weeks ago, I was visiting with a friend on the Internet & she asked about the system, so of course I was delighted to tell her about it.

In the course of all of this, the Spirits blessed me with another Thought of Note - magnets work wonders on pain & other conditions, so I should update the System to include them. Which I did, so now we have the TheraPressure System, & the MagneTheraPressure System, & I'm within $250, at this writing, of getting them on the Internet. I prayed for "a suitable shear to cut the sheet metal needed for these Systems' clips", & found more than one on eBay.

When I couldn't participate in the auctions because they always seem to end when I can't get to a WiFi site or other Internet access, a friend said, "I can do it for you, & you can pay me back when we win one. How much do you want to pay?" I told him "As close to $100.00 as possible without going over, but use your best judgement. I'd hate to lose out for a measly couple of bucks." He got it for me for $102.10 including shipping! When I opened the box, I found a well-made piece of equipment, probably worth 2-3X what I paid. Heaven forbid it doesn't cut the metal for the clips used in my System, but "if" that should happen, I can sell it for what I have in it, easily.

Today, I went to a sheet-metal shop to see about something better for our needs than what I had been using, & the shop foreman gifted me with a piece big enough to build over a dozen kits.

Looks like a winner! OK - I blush a bit about the "couple of years" actually being more like 11 couples of years, but I counter it with, I've always been 15-20 years ahead of the curve, so I should now be about at the top of it. Way to go!

I'll keep you posted. I have no great objection to not eating 'whenever".. I do have a great objection to not being able to, for simple lack of money. That's just not the Indn Way.

Mitakuye oiasin. All (are) my relatives.