El Scott Harrell

United States Postal Service USPS Priority Mail Service: Voodoo on You!

It took 1 year and 11 days for a priority mail flat rate envelope I sent out to a private investigator continuing education client to be returned to me as "undeliverable; attempted unknown."

Yep.  The postal service put such a priority on my mail that it either took them 376 days to attempt to deliver the package in the first place or over a year to return it to me.

So I visited my local Postmaster in an attempt to find out what happened and perhaps get a refund on the $4.60 I spent for priority mail handling and delivery confirmation services and all I got was, "Wow! Something went really wrong there didn't it?"

He admitted that both the "to" and "from" addresses were valid and properly formatted and suggested that I call the post office in Corpus Christi, Texas as a follow up to my visit with him.  Of course, the delivery tracking number was too old to be of any use either.

As to the refund request:  "Priority Mail usually arrives in 2 to 3 business days but delivery times are not guaranteed.  Services have been rendered." there was nothing he could (would) do.

I found the entire experience fairly predictable really; the typical government employee deer in the headlights followed by the "I really don't give a crap about your business as long as I am still guaranteed my government pension" attitude is fairly cliche.

voodoo.  vooDOO.  VOODOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Voodoo on you U.S. Postal Service for potentially pissing my customers off, hurting my business and squandering the $4.60 I paid in postage when I could have put an entire gallon of gas in my Ford Expedition for the same amount and gotten the exact same thing: NOTHING and NOWHERE.

Hexpedited mail?  HAHAHAHAHAHA!  That's funny.

Domainers Suck! Voodoo on you.

I hate domainers.  They're like the asshole of the Internet.  I really, really hate them.

Cybersquatters really; they're taking up all the best URLs and clogging up the World Wide Web with crap. 

Take my experience today for example:  So I've decided to create a new blog about phishing and post each phishing email I get for content so I need to find a really good website address, something that kind of fits my character and sense of humor.  So I start the usual search by typing the URL I really want, gonephishing.com, into my web browser hoping to get an error message indicating that the website does not exist and then I could go and register it, but HELL NO- I get one of those typical domainer web pages that has all of the "related searches" links that take you to a Google ad sense page where they hope I'll click on another link and Google or Yahoo will pay them a few cents for the click.

At least this site didn't create a zillion pop-up and pop-under ads and redirect my browser to a penis enlargement or Adult Friend Finder site. 

Domainers typcially rely upon "type in traffic," meaning that they are betting on Internet users to type the exact URL into their web browser in order to land upon the site. 

There is no question about it- some Domainers make A LOT of money but they have to own thousands of premium names or typos (hoping that you'll mis-type or mis-spell a popular website address) but damn... gonephishing.com???

Who'd just type that in, except for maybe me?  I wouldn't be so pissed off if the domain owner at least had the courtesy to put a price tag on it or indicate that the domain is for sale.

So I moved on and have found all of the following URLs are also taken too:

gone-phishing.com
deepseaphishing.com
phishing101.com
flyphishing.com
phishingemail.com
smellsphishy.com
smellslikephish.com
somethingphishy.com
gophish.com
bigphish.com

I could go on and on but it appears useless...

So what's the f'n point of registering gonephishing.com if the owner couldn't hope for even a decent amount of type-in traffic and the domain is apparently not for sale?

Yes, Dear Reader, I'm quite sure that the point is simply to piss El Scott Harrell off and the owner of gonephishing.com, Gregg Ostrick of GNO, Inc. of Birmingham, AL has done just that today. 

Hence today's well-deserved voodoo hex of the moment on Mr. Ostrick, specifically, and other domainers, in general, who own URLs that I have wanted in the past or may want in the future.

voodoo.  vooDOO.  VOODOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Voodoo on you Gregg Ostrick for being a domainer.  Voodoo on you too domainers for registering millions of domain names and posting infinite amounts of useless garbage on web, all so you can make 2 or 3 cents from some moron who takes the bait and clicks on a Google ad sense link.

This search has left me hexausted so I've finally settled on SmellsPhishyToMe.com.  Check it out.

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Capital One Credit Card- Raising Rates, Predatory Lending Paractices, Terrible Customer Service

Today’s Voodoo Hex of the Moment goes out to Capital One Financial on behalf of the honest, hard-working card holders out there being flogged by rising interest rates on their Capital One credit card’s annual percentage rates (APR) for no other reason than an apparent bail out over their failed mortgage unit on the backs of their lowest risk customers.

If you are considering carrying a Capital One credit card, please read this story and do a little research before making a decision to apply.  You'll thank me later.

So, yesterday my wife calls and she is absolutely furious.  She rarely gets so pissed off that she can hardly put a few words together and form coherent thoughts, but yesterday my unflappable wife was "en fuego."

Understand that my wife’s part in the following conversation must be read in the context of anger and frustration.  My part should be read with mild and soothing tones- the kind of voice you might use while trying to calm a pack of rabid dogs that have you backed into a corner:

She called, I answered the phone. 

Wife:  She blurted out, “Those rotten bastards!”

El Scott:  “What’s wrong, Honey?”

Wife:  “Those assholes!”

El Scott:  “Who?”

Wife:  “Capital One.”

El Scott:  “What’s wrong with Capital One, Darlin’?”

Wife:  “They jacked my credit card interest rate to 19.9%!”

El Scott:  “Huh?  Why did they do that?  Did you miss a payment?”

Wife:  “Scott. I haven’t missed a payment in over a decade.”

El Scott:  “Then why…”

Wife:  “They just did and offered no explanation other than to say interest rates are rising and this is a company wide move.  They’re raising interest rates on everyone.”

El Scott:  “Did you call them and ask for a lower rate?”

Wife:  “That’s why I am so furious!  They didn’t give a rat’s ass about me, they wouldn’t let me speak to a supervisor, refused to take into account that I have been a customer for over 15 years, never missed a payment, never been over my limit and they simply acted like they don’t care.  There is NOTHING I can do, their decision has been made.”

El Scott:  “Wow, I’m really sorry to hear that.”

Wife:  “You just don’t understand.  You’d be really pissed off too and be blogging about it before you even got off of the phone with those bastards.  You’d unleash voodoo hexes and call the CEO of Capital One Financial (Rich D. Fairbank) at home tomorrow morning at 6 a.m.  What am I going to do?” 

“I have been a customer of theirs for probably 15 years and THEY DON’T CARE.  The customer service rep said that I could close my account with them if I did not like the new rate. I asked her how it was even possible for a rate to go up 10% without any derogatory credit history… how that was remotely in-line with the rising interest rates.  She had no answer except to say something to the effect that it was happening across the board to all Capital One card holders and that there was nothing to be done about it.”

“It pisses me off that I can work hard and have an almost perfect credit score (we take our credit scores very seriously) and be a loyal customer for almost 15 years then they would just shit on me like this.  This was my first credit card!”

El Scott:  “Are you carrying a balance with them?”

Wife:  “Maybe a hundred dollars. I’m gonna close my account!  “F” those people they’ll get what they deserve in the end when their customers start cutting up their credit cards.”

El Scott:  “I just can’t believe that they are doing that after this huge advertising splurge with the “What’s in your wallet?” campaign.  I wonder if any of this has to do with the fact that the Capital One Mortgage division is being shuttered and they’re having to sac a bunch of employees.”

Wife:  “Serves them right; they were probably predatory lenders writing subprime mortgages for people who bought way more house than they could afford.  But why the hell should their bad decisions and a bunch of people defaulting on Capital One home loans have to affect me and my credit card APR?  That’s bullshit.  Once again I am having to “feed the dolphins” (I’ll explain the euphemism later) and taking it in the ass to subsidize the rest of these morons.”

El Scott:  “Sooooo, are we going to the Yacht Club tonight?”

Wife:  “I told you that you wouldn’t understand.”

Click.  She hung up.

Please understand, my wife is a genteel Southern woman and a consummate business professional who would prefer to use “Bless their heart.” rather than “Those Assholes!” so you can kind of get an idea of the fury she was in over being dumped on by “C1.”

The reality here is that my wife rarely carries a balance on her credit card; while she is a low risk customer, she is not a valuable customer.  Credit card companies earn income off of the interest rates they are charging and they are making almost nothing on my wife’s account.  Since there are real costs associated with servicing and maintaining the account, paper billing, administration, customer service calls, postage, etc., they are probably losing money on my wife and hundreds of thousands of their other lowest risk customers.  Raising the APR on these customers, then taking an indifferent attitude towards the resulting account closures is probably a good financial move, though no one really wants to hear that when we all expect to be treated like royalty after years of loyalty and being a “good customer.”

This is where I lose all respect for Capital One.

If this is their strategy (“put up or shut up,” really) then why don’t they have the balls to just come out and close unprofitable accounts altogether like Sprint Wireless did a few months ago and then admit it?

I have more respect for those companies that make fiscally correct, but immensely unpopular, decisions and say, “Yeah, so what?” than those that hide behind a clearly thin and implausible pretext being espoused by customer service reps reading from a script.

The truth may be that they cannot close these accounts because they would be adversely affecting the credit ratings of its ex-customers; length of account history is a very important factor in the algorithm used to compute credit scores.  I know that if Capital One closed my wife’s account without cause and her credit rating was negatively affected as a result that there would be hell to pay.

What if it happened to a hundred thousand customers?

Can you say Class Action lawsuit?   

Things are not going to go well here in any event; for a taste of the general disgust of many many many other Capital One Credit Card customers out there who find themselves in the same situation all you need to do is Google “capital one credit cards raising rates” and you will definitely get an eye-full.

It is for them that I curse Capital One with this Voodoo hex, but most especially I hex them for my wife:

Voodoo on you Capital One Financial, Voodoo on you Rich Fairbank and Voodoo on you too Capital One Board of Directors for plying bait and switch games with your “fixed rates;” for raising my wife’s 9.9% fixed interest rate to a variable rate of 19.9% with no regard to her 15 years of loyalty and stellar credit rating and lastly, for hiding behind the pretext of “nationally rising interest rates.”

Voodoo, VooDOO, VOODOOOO!

I am going to throwing in an extra heaping of Voodoo on you for insulating yourselves from your genuinely upset (and vocal) customers by putting those poor customer service representatives in the line of fire.  They honestly do not get paid enough to have to endure the abuse that you are bringing upon them.  You all should get in touch with your customer’s growing resentment and answer the phones personally; perhaps you would rethink your current APR debacle if you couldn’t hide behind those poor souls. 

VOODOO!

I hexpect that corporate greed will be laid bare when the Fed lowers interest rates and Capital One does not follow.

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Mark S Fisher of GAP Ventures, LLC - Spamming Mortgage Superhero

Today’s Voodoo Hex of the Moment goes out to Mark Fisher of GAP Ventures, LLC in Thorntown, Indiana for spamming me 3 times in less than 2 hours and 21 minutes yesterday.

Great job Mark!

For those of you Dear Readers out there who may not be familiar with any other definition of SPAM (not the tasty canned mixed meat product kind of Spam), it is a colloquial term used for Unsolicited Commercial Email; you know… those really annoying emails you get from marketers hell bent on making your email account completely useless because it takes 30 minutes to wade through the muck just to get to the legitimate e-mail.

Apparently Mark Fisher decided to join the ranks of the Hexed Elite today as he crapped into my most important email account with unqualified marketing.  He’s hawking himself as some sort of real estate superhero out to save distressed property owners from the certain doom of mortgage foreclosure.  I envision that he comes complete with a blue leotard and red cape along with his “27 legal options that work!”

Sure thing.

Apparently, his superhuman hearing and powers of extrasensory perception are on the fritz or are grossly underdeveloped for a super-being as he has missed his advertising mark.  I’m not having any mortgage problems; I think one of my neighbors was, but he’s behind me and a couple of houses over.

Editor’s note: extrasensory perception, or ESP, is the ability to acquire information by paranormal means independent of any known physical senses or deduction from previous experience.  ESP is often associated with superheroes and parapsychology.

Mark “Foreclosing Mortgage Fighting Man” Fisher (MFMFMF) works for his own Justice League (of sorts) they however, prefer to call themselves Lender Mediation Services.  This larger group of Fearless Foreclosure Fighters even has a stated mission: “We are a group of companies and certified loss mitigation professionals with over 50 years of combined foreclosure prevention experience. We have only one mission - to help you with your situation through lender mediation and default resolution techniques.” 

Really, every group of superheroes needs to have a mission statement.  Don’t you think?

I wonder if the brass at the Justice League knows that Foreclosing Mortgage Fighting Man is bringing misery onto the group as he has been drawn to the dark powers of unethical marketing practices.  Dare I say… illegal marketing practices? (SPAM is illegal in some places you know.)

Oh the humanity!  A fallen superhero in need of help!

Being the kind of guy I am, a humble Superhero Helper-Hexer, I have decided to track down Foreclosing Mortgage Fighting Man and offer my assistance through this Voodoo Hex.

As a mere mortgage mortal, it’s all I have to offer.

Every superhero has an alter ego right?  Well his civilian identity is Mark S Fisher of Thorntown, Indiana.  Along with his sister, Jodi, they own GAP Ventures, LLC.  Past or present business names include Fisher Electric & Construction and GAP Resolutions. 

If you would like to wish Mark well and a quick recovery from his spamming, I urge you to call him and read him a copy of the CAN-SPAM act of 2003, verbatim, over the phone.  I understand that reading from your own state’s anti-spam laws may be just as effective.  While he may not be in violation of any such laws, it might get the point across that SPAM is NOT OK.

If you don't have a copy of his spam email, you can find additional contact information for him by simply Googling “Fisher Mark S Thorntown, Indiana” which returns the following result:

“Mark S Fisher   (765) 436-7364   8721 W 500 N,  Thorntown, IN 46071”

My Mom (yes… El Scott has a mother who insists that he was loved as a child) suggested the other day that I should consider doing a Public Service Announcement to help those on the Internet who are tired of receiving junk email.  It occurred to me that if I could just show several thousand people how to a) locate a spammer and b) show that spammer the error of their ways, that I could then in turn become a “force multiplier.”  Alone, I can only hex a few spammers at a time, but backed by a legion of Voodoo practitioners we could change the entire landscape of our electronic mail boxes! 

Together we can defeat the spammers! Unite!!!!!!

(I think force multiplication, as a super power, is cool.  Force Multiplier Man, anyone?)

So here is my PSA.  Today’s lesson really strikes on two fronts; the first being that if you choose to do business on the Internet then your information is publicly available for the whole Google-using world to collect.  Second, if you are going to SPAM me thrice expect that I am going to lay the Voodoo hand down on you and that I will come correct (that’s my favorite “urban” saying right now but you have to say it with attitude for it to make sense):

Dear Reader would you like to be a Superhero Helper-Hexer too? 

Let me show you how I found Mark Fisher and perhaps through study and experience you can help spammers everywhere just like me.  I warn you however, these are only the MOST BASIC Superhero Helper-Hexer techniques and after this brief lesson you may only know just enough to get yourself hurt… therefore use them sparingly:

First, I extracted a few pieces of information from the spam itself; we’ll call them “clues:”

1.  The email came from Mark Fisher [gapventuresllc@yahoo.com]
2.  We also have a URL to work with- Never Lost a Home .com
3.  The email indicated that his company’s name was GAP Ventures, LLC
4.  He included a telephone number to call- (765) 430-0527

Next, I googled “gapventuresllc@yahoo.com” and received very little additional information other than someone using that email address is trying to unload rental contracts through a free classified advertising service.

I visited the NeverLostaHome.com website and developed the GAP Resolutions name as well as its affiliate relationship with the quasi Justice League “Lender Mediation Services.” 

It is worth noting that the URL is a domain mask and that the actual domain gives away his affiliate relationship here (his affiliate identification number is Fisher_46071).  You can tell it is a domain mask because the URL in the browser address bar never changes despite the fact that you are navigating several pages.  You can see the underlying domain by right-clicking on any one of the navigation buttons and selecting “Properties” from the drop-down menu. 

Nothing else to report here.

I used the WHOIS function of Network Solutions to uncover the domain name’s ownership records but Foreclosing Mortgage Fighting Man tried to cover his tracks by using a private URL registration service; while he WAS smart enough not to include most of his contact details (thus obfuscating the whereabouts of his foreclosure fighting phone booth) he did include his full (alter ego) identity “Mark S Fisher.”  This turns out to be a BIG clue to the location of his current whereabouts as well.

Then I googled (in quotes) “GAP Ventures, LLC.” and received additional information!  Weeding through extraneous information I determined that GAP Ventures, LLC has its very own page hosted on the USLandCo real estate investing website.  This appears to be the genesis of Mark Fisher’s super powers.  Here, too, he espouses his super human abilities to fight foreclosure!  You can also communicate super sensitive secrets with Foreclosing Mortgage Fighting Man through his foreclosing mortgage fighting forms and feedback!

Did we learn anything more from this web page?  No not really, but for those of you with or without ESP, who went the “extra mortgage mile” and read USLandCO’s homepage you should have a much better understanding of the type of mindset we are dealing with here.  We call this intuitive guesswork “profiling.”

I returned to my previous Google results where I found “The Indianapolis Real Estate Buying & Investing Meetup Group” which provided a few more clues:

1.  The Meetup group profile is set up under “Mark,” which simply helps to confirm the relationship of Mark to GAP Ventures, LLC.
2.  He indicates that he owns the company with his sister Jodi. 
3.  His location is Thorntown, Indiana

This last clue turns about to be the lynchpin in our investigation; using this last bit of information we can actually zero in on his location but I will leave this cliffhanger for last!

Now we know what state his company is located so we can interrogate freely available public sources in our investigation.  Using the Indiana Secretary of State’s website a quick search of the company name reveals very little useful additional information.  We learn that GAP Ventures, LLC was created 11/15/2004, is currently in good standing and that the name and address of his registered agent is Royce K Ford located at 210 S West Street in Thorntown, Indiana.  Googling this address indicates that it belongs to the Thorntown Wesleyan Church, which I find curious but not so much so to lose focus here.

I’m an “extra helper-hexer miler” so I spent $2.04 for the “deluxe search” but only learned that Mark Fisher’s name is not listed as a manager or principal of the company; in fact, no one is.  Again, curious as I have to wonder about the veracity of the “corporate veil” here. 

No matter- let’s press on!

There really is no more useful information available through our “GAP Ventures, LLC” Google search so I moved on to my last original clue, the telephone number, (785) 430-0527, which was also provided on the NeverLostaHome.com website.

I always like to use fonefinder.net to see where this number belongs.  The results returned indicate that the number is allocated to AT&T Wireless Services with a Lafayette, Indiana prefix.  Lafayette is up the road from Thorntown a ways but that doesn’t really concern me as it most likely is Mark Fisher’s cell phone.  Also, keep in mind that due to number portability he may not be using AT&T’s wireless service.

How quaint- I have super spammer’s cell phone number.  Inbound cell phone calls and text messages cost money!  But I would never advocate turning the tables like this on an illicit marketer; I don’t advocate that you do either, Dear Reader; we would be stooping to his level.

Again using a Google search, I queried the provided number.  The first search result comes back to “Fisher Electric and Construction” at fisherelectricandconstruction.com.  Here we are generously given several new clues!

1.  An additional email address!  msfish@frontiernet.net
2.  A new company name!  Fisher Electric and Construction
3.  A fax number!  765-463-7364
4.  An address!  8721 West 500 North Thorntown, IN 46071

Unfortunately a WHOIS search using the new URL turns up nothing other than it has been registered through EveryContractor.com; this is a dead end.

I googled the email address which returned no additional information.  I did send an email to him there though and it did not “bounce” as undeliverable, so I can only assume that it is still working.  It bears noting here that the IP address (don’t ask, this is an advanced  Superhero Helper-Hexer technique) I received the spam from [74.38.51.138] is allocated to Frontiernet in Thortontown, IN (tntw.in.frontiernet.net).  This kind of information is important when calling out a super spammer in the event they whine, “But I didn’t send the email, a marketing company I hired did.  I didn’t knoooowwwww!” 

In FMFM’s case it really was too easy to point the finger in the right direction.

Nothing else turned up for "Fisher Electric and Construction" on Google, though a super sleuth would also run the name through Indiana state contractor licensing boards, county business license filings, etc. etc. for some guaranteed rock-solid information.  I don’t have the time right now however, and that really falls under intermediate Superhero Helper-Hexer techniques, which is outside of the scope of this lesson.

FoneFinder.net indicates that the fax line is allocated to Verizon of Indiana and that it is a land line with a prefix in Lafayette, IN.  Googling the telephone number indicates that it belongs to someoen entirely unrelated and without actually trying the number I cannot tell if it is still Mark Fisher’s fax number. 

I then Google the provided address… and find several hits- mostly contractor directories listing Fisher Electric and Construction as a telecommunication services provider. 

BUT WAIT!  The fax number on the fisherelectricandconstruction.com appears to be wrong!

Through my very own Superhero Helper-Hexer powers of observation I notice that the included telephone numbers in these directories all consistently provide a new telephone number, (765) 436-7364, which is very similar to the above fax number.  The 2nd and 3rd digits have been transposed.

Holy phony faxes that need fixing Batman!   

Knowing that I have to be close, I once again turn to my Google powers and search “(765) 436-7364)” and receive the following results at the very tippy-top of Google:

Mark S Fisher    (765) 436-7364   8721 W 500 N, Thorntown, IN 46071

I’d think that it’s safe to say that we have found Foreclosing Mortgage Fighting Man’s secret phone booth at this point and the lesson is pretty much over.

In conclusion, I have shown how the power of Google can quickly generate a lot of information.  This should be a warning out there to all who plan on doing business on the Internet or are beginning to take an active part in the new trend towards Social Media (see my hex on social bloggers): your personal information will be out there for the world to find and there is very little that you can do about it.  Be careful about what you put out there and think critically about the big picture.

Understanding this, don’t upset the apple cart and give anyone a reason to search you out; spam (and, again, I’m not necessarily talking about the tasty meat mixture in a can) and illicit marketing practices are jacking up the Internet much to everyone’s consternation.  Those who engage in these practices should expect backlash from an increasingly savvy public, for the REAL POWER of Google is that it can be used to shine a VERY bright light on those who don’t play by the rules of acceptable behavior.

The court of public opinion is seldom kind.

-End PSA

So let’s get this hex over and done with-

Voodoo on you Mark Fisher of GAP Ventures, LLC for spamming me thrice with unsolicited commercial email implicating that my mortgage is in jeopardy and a separate extra super-heaping of Voodoo curses on those other spammers who insist that they have a cure for my smaller than average manhood.

Voodoo, VooDOO, VOODOOOO! 

Please think twice before dumping hexcrement into anyone’s inbox next time.
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Karate Uniforms- Beware Oddessy Martial Arts Supply

True to my word I am going to post Ted's (from Oddessy Martial Arts) reply to my email.  I had orignially posted this in the comments section but I was afraid that it would not receive enough exposure for my readers to follow or find, so I created a new post.  If you are coming in late on this one, you'll need to read the previous post to catch up.  So here it is, Ted's responses:

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: Ted [mailto:info@oddessy.com]
Sent: Friday, October 06, 2006 11:40 AM
To: L. Scott Harrell
Subject: Re: White Heavyweight Gi Order

Mr. Harrell:

Although, you didn't order the Oddessy Brand Gi.
Simply return your uniform for a refund.
Your satisfaction is our primary concern.

Thanks:
Ted

Oddessy Martial Arts Supply
9101 E 40 Highway
Independence, Missouri 64055
Phone: 816-921-3085

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

uhhh... Yes I did... I remember specifically asking for the Oddessy Brand Heavy Weight Gi while ordering via the phone- I even gave the lady who took my order the number associated with the gi on the website, 04015-08, and she said that she knew of which uniform I was speaking.

Their website doesn't even include non Oddessy Brand traditional gis- how could I order anything else?

Notice how there is no apology for the possible bait and switch or even a possible misunderstanding and lack of updated information on their website.

Buyer beware!

Posted by: EL Scott Harrell | Friday, October 06, 2006 at 01:05 PM

In the next email from Ted he says:

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: Ted [mailto:info@oddessy.com]
Sent: Friday, October 06, 2006 12:45 PM
To: L. Scott Harrell
Subject: Re: White Heavyweight Gi Order

Mr. Harrell:

I reviewed the audio tape of your order and she told you we didn't have the
Oddessy Brand.
But we had an alternate uniform in the size you requested and you told her
you would try that one.
I record all orders to prevent any confusion and to maintain quality
control.
But as I said in my last reply, we will gladly refund your credit card.

Thanks:
Ted

Oddessy Martial Arts Supply
9101 E 40 Highway
Independence, Missouri 64055
Phone: 816-921-3085

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I've heard this one before so I have requested a copy of the audio tape or at least the audio...

If he sends it and I am mistaken, I will retract this entire post and post a sincere apology, if not it will just prove my point.  I'll keep you updated on my own odyssey for martial arts supplies.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: L. Scott Harrell [mailto:lscottharrell@bellsouth.net]
Sent: Friday, October 06, 2006 2:04 PM
To: 'Ted'
Subject: RE: White Heavyweight Gi Order

Please send me a copy of the audio...

Warmest Regards,

L. Scott Harrell
CompassPoint Investigations
In Relentless Pursuit of your Success!
www.CompassPointPI.com

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

This is precisely the answer I expected to receive...

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: Ted [mailto:info@oddessy.com]
Sent: Friday, October 06, 2006 2:22 PM
To: L. Scott Harrell
Subject: Re: White Heavyweight Gi Order

I'll be happy to.
Just send a check for 24.99 to cover copying and shipping costs.

Thanks:
Ted

Oddessy Martial Arts Supply
9101 E 40 Highway
Independence, Missouri 64055
Phone: 816-921-3085

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

We'll let the court of public opinion come to a decision on this one...

Oddessy Martial Arts Supply

It's been awhile, Dear Reader, since I have felt the need to conjure a hex against anyone or anything but this Voodoo Hex is most certainly well deserved.

The story begins last week when I ordered a martial arts uniform, traditionally called a "gi" from Oddessy Martial Arts Supply out of Independence, Missouri.  I was originally impressed (now I feel duped) by the style and quality of the gis they were advertising; their own web copy described the Oddessy Brand Heavy Weight Gi: "These uniforms are hand made, in Kansas City, MO, and are of the highest quality 10 to 12 ounce fabric. No other manufacturer..."

What a croc of crap!  The gi I received was not handmade in Missouri- they're made in Pakistan, they're not Oddessy brand, they're not heavy weight or 10 to 12 ounce material and in fact saveral other manufacturers do make them larger than a size 8, that's who they ordered mine from. 

I can best sum up the situation in my email to them this afternoon:

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: L. Scott Harrell [mailto:lscottharrell@redacted.net]
Sent: Thursday, October 05, 2006 1:13 PM
To: 'info@oddessy.com'
Subject: White Heavyweight Gi Order

To whom this may concern,

I ordered *what I thought* was going to be a Size 8 Oddessy Brand Heavy Weight White uniform on 9/30/06.  Instead I received a Bold Look gi.

1. Your website advertises that this would be an "Oddessy Brand" gi- "hand made in Kansas City, MO."  As a Pensacola martial arts school owner I have a wholesale account with Bold Look and own several Bold Look gis.  My cost on that gi is less than one-half of the cost of my order through you; if I another Bold Look gi, rest assured I would not have ordered through you at twice the cost.

2. Your website advertises that the gi I ordered is $69.99- instead I was charged $74.99 plus $10 shipping.

3. MOST IMPORTANTLY- Your website advertises (I attached a copy of your page) that I was going to receive a heavy weight gi, "highest quality 10 to 12 ounce fabric," instead I received a medium weight gi.  I just confirmed the order through Bold Look that the 55/45 material is the inferior 8.5 ounce medium weight fabric.  The lady who took my order sure didn't offer up this little nugget of information when I specifically ordered the heavy weight Oddessy uniform.  This is a HUGE discrepancy in product advertised/ordered versus product shipped and is about as close as it comes to false advertising.  Perhaps this one goes unnoticed by new students or hobbyists but I have the benefit of experience.

I called this morning to discuss the issue and hopefully find a resolution but the lady with whom I spoke was less than pleased to be of service; to say that I am an unhappy customer at this point would be understating the obvious. 

I am sending the gi back to you at my expense and despite what the package insert or the lady on the phone are indicating regarding not refunding the shipping costs I am requesting, and expect, a full refund of my purchase to include the $10 shipping.  Anything less will be charged back to you through my credit card as "Merchandise/Service Not as Described."  Reimbursement of my shipping costs would be a nice gesture of goodwill ($8.50 via USPS Priority Mail w/ Delivery Confirmation).

Warmest Regards,

L. Scott Harrell
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

What is so "hexolicious" here is that they are substituting inferior quality materials in the place of what they are advertising; I'd bet dollars to donuts that most people would never know or suspect the switch!

I feel swindled but I will prevail.

And before you all lambaste me for my spelling of 'Oddessy' yes, I know that it is actually spelled incorrectly.  Unless they were trying to be cute- it should be Odyssey. 

As of this writing, I still have not heard back from anyone at Oddessy, if they do decide to own up to this (at the very least I would characterize this as potentially false and misleading advertising) I will post their explanation here in the comments section. 

So without further ado, this Voodoo Hex goes out to all my homies at Oddessy Martial Arts Supply:

Voodoo, VooDOO, VOODOOOO!

Kids, just say NO to Hextra Large Uniforms from Oddessy Martial Arts

AOL Advertising- Will I Suffer from PTSD After I've Gone?

With America Online's new advertising space in my email read window, AOL has managed to add more advertising inventory into an already over-stuffed package- again, foisting more advertising upon its subscribers and reducing the number of exclusive ad-free member services provided for my $14.95 a month.

Why is it that I continue to PAY for AOL service but must continue to suffer through more and more advertising schemes?  I ponder this question (aloud) today in my Voodoo Hex of the Moment.

First off, I understand advertising and advertising inventory and generating revenue as a result of selling advertising.  I even understand affiliate marketing and how to use joint ventures to capitalize on advertising inventory.  I get it.  I am pro capitalism and do not begrudge anyone for trying to make money via advertising.  BUT... my understanding of the concept behind paying a subscription fee was so I either had access to exclusive content or not being subjected to a relentless advertising assault. 

I readily accept advertising when I use FREE services.

America Online has failed it's subscribers here and it would appear to me that they really don't care; by industry insider accounts, subscribers don't fit predominantly into their long-term plans.  Infoworld.com had this interesting nugget (pointing out the obvious really) in an article concerning AOL's newest attempt to expose more advertising space to its subscribers:

"AOL has in recent years been trying to shift its business away from its traditional "walled garden" model, where most revenue comes from fees subscribers pay to access proprietary content and services. Instead, AOL is moving towards a Web portal model, trying to attract as many Web surfers as possible to its sites with free content and services, and making money from online advertising."

Yes, I have ads in my email read window now...  And not just simple text ads or static banner ads but HUGE, GAUDY, ANNOYING and DISTRACTING advertisements.  I cannot read my email without catching these ads in some part of my vision and going into sensory overload. 

Looking back, I remember how truly irked I was when AOL started inserting ads before its video news clips; they were previously ad-free.  These ads are often 15 to 30 seconds long and precede the short news clips, which are sometimes less than a minute in length.  One day a few months ago I figured that I watched 4 minutes and 18 seconds of advertisements in exchange for 10 minutes and 23 seconds of video content.  Not a good trade-off for my time.  What I found most annoying was that I was presented with only 4 different advertising spots (being repeated as many as 5 times) during this test.  Things have not changed since I made this observation several months ago. 

I complained and received the canned answer subscribers most often get while leaving less than positive feedback for AOL, it goes something like, "I understand that you are not happy with __________ (fill in the complaint of your choice) and we appreciate your honest feedback; it helps us to understand and improve our service...  Currently there is no alternative to ___________ (reiterating the source of your complaint) but we are always trying to improve our service... (blah blah blah)."

I continued my subscription with AOL simply because I enjoyed having all of my national and world news in one place and several email boxes to send junk email.  From time to time, I need to look up AOL member profiles and or use an AOL email address as a pretext cover in my private investigation business- I can do all of that for free now.  In fact, I found out a few weeks ago that most of the America Online I use everyday is actually free! 

AOL:  With your news channels being offered on the 'Net for free , please remind me again, exactly, why I continue to pay you anything at all? 

Dear Reader:  Yes, I am a dumb-ass.  I admit it and perhaps the Voodoo Hex should be on me here.  In my defense, I failed to get the AOL memo indicating that I was paying $14.95 a month for FREE AOL services- hence the Voodoo Hex on them today.

Some members who are on the fence about whether to leave AOL have stated that they want to keep their email address.  I had long ago given up using AOL for my primary email service because there was a several month period where I could neither trust that I was receiving all email that was being sent to me nor believe that others were getting all of the email I was sending.  I had several clients upset with me over undelivered communication via AOL email.

Shortly afterwards came the "Roll-over Ads," the advertisements that roar to life with animation and sound the instant your mouse pointer moves across the advertisement’s banner space.  These things take up a large amount of computer screen "real estate" with just the slightest intrusion into the advertising space, obscuring everything underneath and interrupt anything I am doing at the moment.  After a while I have become a bit shell-shocked by the sudden explosion of advertising and have learned to keep my hand off of the mouse when I do not need to use it.  When I do use the mouse I am very careful to navigate my way precisely to the target- avoiding dragging the pointer across any suspect advertising territory. 

I may have some form of post traumatic stress disorder as a result; I break out into a cold sweat at the thought of moving the mouse pointer these days and just last night I dreamt I was a mouse pad. 

About the time this was fully ingrained into my Internet surfing habits (don't roll-over ads and everything will remain calm) I started getting new animated advertisements heaped on me via America Online which didn't even require any external action on my part at all accept to load a new page and BAM! a new advertisement- replete with animation, strobe effects and even sound.  Of course they are intrusive as well.  I got one from the US Army this morning in fact.  However, the ones that truly PISS ME OFF are the ads where the ad's designer obscures or hides the traditional "close" button (you know the box in the upper-right corner with the "X" in it) so that I am forced to either watch the commercial or be exposed to most of it while I hunt for the little "X."  Yep, that one gets me steamed every time.

But again, I persevered only because of the AOL news channels I believed were exclusive membership benefits.

Uhhhh... NO.  Not so exclusive.

With the appearance of advertising in the last ad-free safe haven I had on AOL, my email read window, I have taken a short inventory of the reasons why I continue to be a paying subscriber and have lost interest in maintaining my subscription.  I have been an AOL subscriber for a very long time (10+ years) but I am jumping ship as soon as I get all of my e-zine subscriptions and email notifications sorted out and transferred to another email address.  AOL has become obtrusive and its subscription is worthless to me.  If you read the blogs, it would appear that other subscribers feel the same way and AOL will continue to lose millions of members.

If you own stock in AOL... good luck with that.

A Voodoo hex on you, AOL, for giving me this facial twitch which acts up every time I anticipate using my mouse, and for exposing me to so much advertising that I choose to watch commercial-supported TV in order to take a break from so much advertising, and most of all- for failing to send me the memo that I was paying for FREE services. 

Voodoo, VooDOO, VOODOOOO!

So with that out of the way, AOL finds itself in a very exclusive membership community of its own:  "The El Scott Harrell Voodoo Hexed Club"

Sincerely,

An hex-AOL subscriber.

Warren Kremer Paino Advertising LLC- Quashing our right to free speech?

So it's come to this... Warren Kremer Paino Advertising LLC, a big New York City advertising agency, has decided to sue a small time blogger into fiscal submission after the defendant apparently hurt their delicate feelings.

Basically, Lance Dutson, owner of a blog critical of the Maine Department of Tourism has been sued for defamation, libel and copyright infringement by the advertising agency it hired to run its tourism campaign.  Dutson posted a mock-up of an advertisement created by Warren Kremer Paino Advertising LLC on his blog and mentioned a few times along the way that Maine was wasting its taxpayer's money with this advertisement (and indeed its current campaign) and this somehow constitutes libel and defamation.  Apparently Warren Kremer Paino believes that Mr. Dutson infringed on their intellectual property rights when he posted the ad too.  Boo f'n hoo.

After looking at the advertisement in question produced by Warren Kremer Paino, I'd be concerned too.  It looks like a fourth grader put it together... and I mean NO OFFENSE to fourth graders.

To think that Warren Kremer Paino included a telephone sex line number in the original mock-up of the ad makes me wonder (aloud) just what type of clients do they take on the down-low over there.

The most preposterous part of the lawsuit was the extraordinary action of its attorneys to sue Mr. Dutson for each of the six different images used in the montage advert (at $150,000 a pop) rather than treating the entire ad as one image.  One of the IP lawyers I work for laughed so hard he literally sounded like he fell out of his chair.  He and I both agreed that this move sounds more like "shock and awe" rather than "tort and law," which only goes to my hypothesis that this lawsuit is more akin to an "extort and gag" operation rather than a bona fide claim of the violation of specific intellectual property rights. 

Trust me, Dear Reader, if I even felt a tingle of the possibility of a copyright transgression in this case I would be putting the smack down on the violator instead.  (Who can forget my exposition on the Glenn Canady matter?) 

You can read about the lawsuit filed against Lance Dutson by Warren Kremer Paino Advertising LLC by referring to this Boston Globe article: http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2006/04/28/blogger_who_criticized_maine_tourism_office_faces_lawsuit/

Let's get to the meat of this Voodoo Hex of the Moment and why I am so worked up this morning:

We have the right to free speech but it has increasingly become a very expensive right to exercise...

Today it seems that if someone publicly expresses an opinion about another (business or entity) that is contradictory to their carefully crafted image or brand then the offended just sues the offender, regardless of any possible merit to the claim.  That'll shut 'em up, right?  I mean, who has to have a spine or thick skin these days when you can subjugate or obliterate your adversary with a legal summons?  This is typically referred to as a S.L.A.P.P. or Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation.  There is hope... ANTI-SLAPP!

Refer to my blog's most important precept- “Fraud and falsehood only dread examination. Truth invites it.”

Mr. Dutson, a self-proclaimed middle class guy from Maine (one of the poorest states in the United States of America) and father of three children may not be found liable, ultimately, for his trespasses but the financial toll his defense will take on his family will be nothing short of catastrophic.  In intellectual property cases it often costs a whole lot more scratch to defend a suit that it does to bring one.  He’s lucky he has some heavy hitters on his side; First Amendment lawsuits tend to rally champions to the cause.  This highlights our nations need for Federal SLAPP legislation; law firms and their clients who have been found by the court to have brought a SLAPP suit should not only have to reimburse the defendant but be subject to harsh penalties, too.

Subjugate or Obliterate.  In my most humble opinion, I am sure that this is exactly what Warren Kremer Paino Advertising, LLC has intended to accomplish: the ruin of an outspoken Maine small business man concerned with the mismanagement of Maine's number one domestic product- travel and tourism after he would not succumb to the yoke of their will. 

I applaud his efforts to stand up and fight for his right to criticize government and to question the handling of its resources and his tax dollars.  I implore you, Dear Reader, to visit his website, contribute to his cause in some way if you can, and personally encourage him to fight for what he believes.  I see a lot of bloggers posting the story but most of them don't have the balls or the ability to form or express an opinion and then follow up with a call to action.  I personally sent an email to the head of Maine's Department of Tourism, copied the Governor of Maine, the heads of the State Senate and State House of Representatives, WKPA and MDT's PR firm telling them I would NEVER visit Maine again, at least not as long as the department head was in place and WKPA remained under contract, and that he should be held personally responsible for the actions of his subcontractors.  It took me 5 minutes.

Support this uber-American.   

If you are as pissed off about this as I am, please send Warren Kremer Paino Advertising, LLC an email, better yet fax or call them, letting them know exactly how you feel about lawsuits whose primary aim is the wholesale extortion of our most sacred right- the unalienable right of free speech.  Let WKPA clients know that you will no longer support them because of their choice to retain Warren Kremer Paino Advertising, LLC.  Their clients include The New York Palace, the Maine Department of Tourism, the Alex Hotel, Helmsley Hotels, T. Anthony LTD, Delta Dental, Hershey Resorts, Sony, Cushman & Wakefield, The Four Seasons, Bulova, American Express Corporate Services and others. 

WKPA contact information:

Eml:  wcrandall@wkpadv.com
Ofc:  (212) 686-2914
Fax:  (212) 686-5652

If nothing else, create your own Voodoo Hexes and unleash them upon those who seek to quash American liberties through frivolous lawsuits.

A Voodoo hex on you and your litigation, Warren Kremer Paino Advertising, LLC. 

Voodoo, VooDOO, VOODOOOO!

Finally, I would like to give Mr. Dutson the biggest possible props for his description of Maine’s tourism, "it's being run like a trailer park daycare on its 3rd notice from the Human Services people."

Damn... I wish I would have thought of that one!  I hate it when people snap better than I do.  Voodoo on you too, Mr. Dutson.

Thank you for leading by Hexample.

Glenn Canady, will you be my valentine?

Well Dear Reader, Mr. Canady and I are at it again.  "Will the saga ever end?" you ask.  I don't really think so for 2 reasons: the first being "karma" and the second being Google's permanent cache of crawled web pages. 

You see, I have given Mr. Canady more leeway than any other person with whom I have ever had intellectual property rights and trademark infringement conversations.  I think that is where I went wrong.  I should have never acquiesced to his emotional appeals- I let him sweet talk me into being a big ol' softy which, as Mr. Canady later points out, is certainly incongruous with the Clint Eastwood picture at the top of my blog and this whole "I'm the new sheriff out to hang him" thing he says I have going on.

OK, I will admit right up front though that despite reaching an uneasy truce with Glenn Canady prior to my original blog post and his Voodoo Hex of the Moment, the following all really started because I screwed up and forgot to disable the post from auto-posting at a later date.  "Mia culpa, mia culpa, mea maxima culpa."

Let's discuss Karma, briefly.  In Hindu belief, where the term originated, it is the idea that the good and evil a person does will return either in this life or in a later one; it's similar to the saying "what goes around, comes around". Karma can be either good or bad. What you do in this life will determine whether you are rewarded or punished.   

A couple of weeks ago Earl, from the television show My Name is Earl, said something to the effect that he would not be karma's bitch but in the end he found that he could not escape its reach. 

How ironic though that it would be search engine optimization that would eventually precipitate the following email thread, after all, hasn't Glenn Canady been described as a preeminent SE expert fallen from Google's grace?

Glenn Canady even states in his article The Ten commandments of Linking, "But you might just get banned on Google and that’s almost worse than going to hell!"  (Ouch!)

As you will see, I did warn Glenn that this would all become fodder for my blog ahead of time but undeterred, he has a point to make.  Hence you are here today Dear Reader, embroiled in a drama so compelling that even now, I find myself thinking of Glenn Canady wondering what will happen next.  I must write to him but only to cherish this moment and the feelings I have for him. 

Breathless anticipation... will he accept this valentine?  Will he be happy that I have created this heart-felt epistle if only to honor this man and the glory that is his name?

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: Glenn Canady [mailto:glenn@glcventures.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 02, 2006 3:40 PM
To: lscottharrell@bellsouth.net
Subject: why?

Scott,

Why did you find it necessary to go on a rampage like this?
http://www.elscottharrell.com/

I thought we had worked things out like men.  I just don't understand why you had to to put all this time into something like this after you told me that everything was ok. 

Glenn

Glenn Canady
GLC Ventures Inc.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Actually, for a brief moment I felt badly.  But I realized that he probably did not understand the entirety of the situation, so I explained my situation and threw in an extra heaping of wit.  I know that it's not much of a consolation to him but it was the best I had in me at the time:

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: L. Scott Harrell [mailto:lscottharrell@bellsouth.net]
Sent: Saturday, February 04, 2006 9:54 AM
To: 'Glenn Canady'
Subject: RE: why?

I’ve been contemplating a response to your question, “Why?” and I was kind of vacillating between two replies:

A)  As the title of my blog would suggest- “Fraud and falsehood only dread examination. Truth invites it.”  How very appropriate.

Or…

B)  In the heyday of piracy, British colonies used to hang pirates, or those suspected of being one, from the gallows that lined the wharfs in what was more than likely a less than subtle warning to others, “Be a pirate… end up like this guy.”  Again, how very appropriate.

Then, I considered your use of the word “rampage” and chuckled- actually, this email exchange would be great material on my blog as a follow up too!  The post has very little in the way of anger or rage; from where I sit its really pretty funny.  I’m sorry that you do not see the satire there; a “voodoo hex” is funny and you should have been honored to receive one.  Instead, you are so sensitive that it almost pains me.  I’m not the cry baby here, Glenn.

In the end, the reason the post ended up on the blog boils down to a simple mistake, I wrote the blog entry while contemplating the sum of my experiences with you on Thursday evening and rather than posting it right away, I set the entry to publish the following Monday- intending to reconsider putting it up at all.  I got busy over the weekend and forgot about it.  Once I realized that it was up I thought I would just go ahead and leave it up.  It seemed to fit and I could really care less if you were going to be happy about it or not- its an accurate representation of the situation and how I feel about it. 

So what if I leave you swinging in the breeze?  I think of you as a bit of a pirate- hijacking mail servers to send pornography, spamming newsgroups, getting your website banned from Google for nefarious reasons, infringing on the intellectual property of others, etc, etc, in pursuit of dollars.

I received some life-changing (but very very good) news yesterday which has put me in a great mood today, so I am going to concede the post just so that I do not have to hear from you again or mess up this very good place I find myself. 

We really do not need to communicate with each other any longer; I would hate to have any additional material with which to work.

Warmest Regards,

L. Scott Harrell
CompassPoint Investigations
In Relentless Pursuit of your Success!
www.CompassPointPI.com
Ofc:  (877) 363-4887
Fax:  (877) 761-8264

Florida * Texas * Alabama * Mississippi * Tennessee
Texas PI # A-9853
Florida PI # A 2500251
Mississippi MPIA (1998)
Tennessee Act 40-11-401 Compliant

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I edited the post, shortened it considerably, and removed Mr. Canady's name entirely from the text of the post.  I was truly proud of myself though- because I had included this picture in the revised post.  It's an image of a pirate hanging in a manner I described to him.  Call it an inside joke; an intended jab in perpetuity and no one would be any the wiser.  Consider yourself fortunate Dear Reader, today you have been let in on this little secret and you too get to understand that which was originally only meant for Mr. Canady.

Sadly, I believed that again we had an accord and that the Gorilla Marketer would not have occasion to email me again- but apparently he just felt the need to reach out to me one more time.  Perhaps he was feeling lonely... or maybe he just needed to feel some more love from EL Scott Harrell, I'm not really sure but I've been told that I have this effect on people.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: Glenn Canady [mailto:glenn@glcventures.com]
Sent: Sunday, February 12, 2006 1:27 PM
To: L. Scott Harrell
Subject: Re: post

I thought you were going to take this down?

http://www.elscottharrell.com/2006/01/glenn_canady_ca.html

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Here is where the fun and irony came into it for me.  I Googled "Glenn Canady" (without quotes) and found that (as of this writing) my original blog post had actually made it all the way up to #10 and a first page search result as well! 

Either I am an SEO genius or someone at Google really has it out for this guy.  Little ol' me managed to hop-scotch 121,000 other search results for the self described king of search engine optimization in only 14 days.

How did I do it you might ask?  Well I can teach others about my own prowess in SEO but that is best left to another book I may write in the future.  You can read an article I wrote about writing for search engines in the meantime.  I am going to use this blog post and its search engine success as a case study in my forthcoming book- it will be an interesting read and maybe I'll have over 25,000 happy customers just like Mr. Canady!

Anyway.  I tried to explain to Glenn that I had changed the post (as described herein) but that I could not change the name of the file that my blog software assigned the original post; it happened to have his name embedded.  I certainly could not help the fact that Google had crawled and cached the post within 3 days of publishing it; it appeared that the lengthy chronicle that is "El Scott Harrell: Glenn Canady Called Me a Cry Baby- Now That's Funny" would live forever.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: L. Scott Harrell
To: 'Glenn Canady'
Sent: Sunday, February 12, 2006 5:46 PM
Subject: RE: post

The story as originally written has changed; the file name, 2006/01/glenn_canady_ca.html, is unfortunate and will not change.  Perhaps, you should read the post and you will notice that I removed your name completely from the “meat” of the article. 

Warmest Regards,

L. Scott Harrell
CompassPoint Investigations
In Relentless Pursuit of your Success!
www.CompassPointPI.com
Ofc:  (877) 363-4887
Fax:  (877) 761-8264

Florida * Texas * Alabama * Mississippi * Tennessee
Texas PI # A-9853
Florida PI # A 2500251
Mississippi MPIA (1998)
Tennessee Act 40-11-401 Compliant

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

To which he has made his last reply more personal.  He obviously thinks that my blog should be titled "El Glenn Canady" and quite frankly I am writing so much about him right now I am beginning to think it should be too.  Alas, the truth is never a simple matter to report.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: Glenn Canady [mailto:glenn@glcventures.com]
Sent: Sunday, February 12, 2006 6:47 PM
To: L. Scott Harrell
Subject: Re: post

I don't understand why you have to make a big deal about the issue.  We resolved it, I apologized for calling you a cry baby and you told me that that you were going to remove it because you got some really great news that made you really happy.  That was the last thing you told me until I found out that you weren't being a man of your word because the story was still posted with my name all over it.

To just spread negativity after the issue was resolved serves no purpose. 

To put up a big picture of Clint Eastwood and act like you're the new sherrif in town to hang me for this incredibly heinous act is just a wee bit over the top.  It wasn't even a site that I owned - it was a site that my friend owned and I took care of it for him.

And it wasn't something that was done intentionally to harm your business, the information came from an RSS feed that was pulled into the site automatically.  Nobody found your material and posted it to harm you in any way.

If you can honestly justify harming my reputation permanently on the search engines for this incident after I handled it immediately and apologized to you then I guess that you're just different than I am.  If the roles were reversed and you had taken care of the situation and apologized for calling me a "crybaby" then I would have dropped the issue entirely.  I certainly would not put something on the web that would harm your reputation permanently.

Glenn

Glenn Canady
GLC Ventures Inc.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Here's the part where I address Glenn directly since I am not going to e-mail him any longer:

I guess I am just different.  I am not harming you, Glenn- I am RESPONDING to you in the manner of my choosing.  I am speaking freely of a well defined set of facts.  Facts by their very definition are neither negative nor are they positive; they just are.  Negativity is the attribute that the reviewer of fact assigns them.  I am exercising my freedom of speech and I am reporting our entire communication which started as my concern over the violation of intellectual property rights.

My blog is a place where I decided that truth would prevail over falsehood waaaaay before you asserted yourself.  The truth is that you called me a name; I reported it and editorialized where I deemed appropriate so that any reasonable reader would be able to understand the basis for the discussion in its entirety.

I've decided to go ahead and repost the original article that started this drama simply because after reviewing the edited version I felt that it did not carry the full weight of the truth.  I did not want my readers to see your name in the page's URL and not understand what part you play in this story.

You exercised your freedom of speech when you called me a cry baby.  You exercised your freedom of choice when you chose to e-mail me, despite the fact that I had requested you not do so.  I did what I could to remove your name from the original post because I agreed to.  Unselfishly, I give you the unfettered ability to explain yourself and your side of the situation even now.

Yet your vanity would not let you leave this alone and again, you have found yourself to be the subject of another blog post.  The shame of this is that you actually believe that I even really cared about you or who you thought you were to begin with.  Instead you called me a name in a manner you thought would remain clandestine among your acquaintances.  Your true colors were laid bare.

I choose to make this conversation public because I have reached a point with you that I feel others now also need to review the facts and make their own judgments based upon our conversation.

Am I over the top?  Absolutely I am but... that is who I was before you came into my life and libeled me.  You did not know me, but to characterize me as a cry baby over a request to have my property removed from a website over which you obviously exert some control does constitute defamation.  If you want to talk about harming reputations let's discuss the legal definition of the term libel; a written defamation, to charge falsely or with malicious intent; attack the good name and reputation of someone.

You might want to consider that... I am.  You obviously just don’t get it.  This isn’t about copyrights- they are only an adjunct to the story.  This is about you and my questions about your poor judgment in defaming me only when you thought it would remain your secret.  You used the phrase “like men.”  My father taught me that to be a man, one has to be plain dealing with others- you were not.  You were only polite when you had to be.  You got caught.

Refer back to the topic of my blog.  This is about truth and examination.

P.S. Clint was up long before you were ever mentioned in my blog and you spelled “sheriff” incorrectly.

Have a great Valentine's Day, everyone!

Glenn CanadyCalled Me a Cry Baby- Now THAT's Funny!

Good stuff here, Dear Reader... but this is going to be a VERY long post out of necessity.  Is there a happy ending- sure Mr. Canady gets his very own Voodoo Hex of the Moment!

Let me fill you in on the back story, quickly.  I am always on the look out for the inappropriate use or theft of my copyrighted material; luckily so are my clients, friends, family members and Google.  The other day I was alerted that some of my material had made its way onto a website that is hawking "spy shop" types of items.  After a brief review I found an article I had specifically written for my website which will, when it is finished, help others to become a private investigator.  Someone running the offending website cut and pasted this article from my site into their own and added links behind key words in the article pointing to other websites to which they either own or are affiliated.  It was very obvious what had happened- the article which I had written and copyrighted was lifted and modified for their own use and benefit without my permission.

They were nice enough to leave my copyright notice intact but weren't even considerate enough to give me an all-important link back to where the material originated (even after pointing out to me that link-backs are an important SEO strategy).

In the world of search engine placement and trying to get noticed on the web- content is king!  Many web profiteers run websites about which they know very little or are simply too lazy to write quality articles of their own, so unethical webmasters are known to "borrow" copyrighted content from others without permission or knowledge in order to beef up their websites.  Of course this is tantamount to the theft of intellectual property and contrary to Federal Law. 

Believing this to be the case in this particular circumstance, I wrote them a letter asking them to remove it.  I redacted the infringing web's address so as not to distract you, Determined Reader, from the matter at hand.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: L. Scott Harrell [mailto:lscottharrell@bellsouth.net]
Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2006 6:57 PM
To: 'robert@glcventures.com'; 'rmichael@gorillamarketing.com'; 'info@apexmarketingincorporated.com'
Subject: Copyright Infringements on [redacted].com

Mr. Robert Michael or Owner/Webmaster of [redacted].com,

On your website, [redacted].com, you have included copyrighted material copied from my website, http://www.beaprivateeye.com/, without my permission- contrary to both US Copyright/Intellectual Property Law as well as the "Terms of Use" conspicuously posted on my website.

(Please see http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap5.html and http://www.beaprivateeye.com/legal.htm for reference)

Specifically I am referring to an entry located at [redacted].com/ posted on January 23, 2006 (as well as [redacted]) titled "Types of Private Investigation Assignments."

This article was written by me and is posted on my website at http://www.beaprivateeye.com/pages/types_of_pi_assignments.htm. Additionally, this is an excerpt of a book I wrote and have registered with the US Copyright Office.

While you have included my copyright notice, this does not insulate you from culpability for violating my intellectual property rights.  I have not given you or anyone else permission, in any fashion, to use this original literary work for any reason- especially in your own pursuit of commerce, nor have I given you or anyone else permission to alter this work using hyperlinks to other websites you either own or are an affiliate.  Furthermore, your use of this material does not fall within the scope of “fair use” or “common rights” often associated with work that have become public domain.

I mean no disrespect nor do I wish to be inflammatory, but because of your apparent affiliation with Glenn Canady through 5 Star Shine (whose “office” is a home in Navarre, FL on a golf course not 10 minutes from my office) and the negative press he has been receiving online, I consider your posting of my material as potentially damaging to my reputation and wish to avoid any future complications to my extensive and profitable online presence.

I am asking, politely, that you remove this infringing content from your website, permanently and immediately, and refrain from using any additional content you may find on any of my websites without my express written permission.  Of course, I have already taken the necessary steps to fully document your use of the material in question on the [redacted].com website for future comparison and determining your compliance with this request.

If you have any questions or concerns, do not hesitate to contact me at your convenience.  Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Warmest Regards,

L. Scott Harrell
CompassPoint Investigations
In Relentless Pursuit of your Success!
www.CompassPointPI.com 

Ofc:  (877) 363-4887
Fax:  (877) 761-8264

Florida * Texas * Alabama * Mississippi * Tennessee
Texas PI # A-9853
Florida PI # A 2500251
Mississippi MPIA (1998)
Tennessee Act 40-11-401 Compliant

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I received the following email from Glenn Canady that evening (Yes, the "Gorilla Web Marketing" guy):

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: Glenn Canady [mailto:glenn@glcventures.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2006 9:47 PM
To: lscottharrell@bellsouth.ne
Subject: Fw: Copyright Infringements on [redacted].com

Scott,

Don't believe everything you read.  I'm not a "bad" person or an "evil" person as a few people might
have said online.  Unfortunately a few people are very jealous as to what I have accomplished online and like to spread bad things about me. 

Most people like to spew negative stuff because they are just negative people.  I have never and will never be a bad person or rip anybody off, no matter what anybody else says.  My house on the golf course was paid thorugh hard work and honest dealings with over 25,000 happy customers that I've had over the last 5 years online.  Every testimonial on my websites comes from real people.  The very few complainers out there dealt with 3rd parties that I no longer work with and refused my efforts to help them because they would rather complain about something than work out a solution. I don't have time for such nonsense.

I'll be happy to take the article down from our site.  I've just informed my programmers to do so and it should be done in 24 hours.  Please let me know directly if you need anything else from me as we did not intend any harm by publishing yoru article and giving you full credit for your article.  We do that for thousands of authors on our network of websites.  You can reach me directly at
glenn@glcventures.com  if you have any other problems.

Thank you for letting us know about the situation.

Sincerely,

Glenn Canady
GLC Ventures Inc.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

GREAT!  Fair enough I thought- problem solved... until I received the following email chain from one of his webmasters (you have to read all the waaaay through to the bottom to find the little nugget of wisdom Canady shared with one of his associates):

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: admin@theinternetmarketingsecrets.com [mailto:admin@theinternetmarketingsecrets.com]
Sent: Thursday, January 26, 2006 8:58 AM
To: lscottharrell@bellsouth.ne
Subject: Fw: Copyright Infringements on [redacted].com

Just so you know, this came from an RSS Feed. We did not post it ourselves.
There is someone out there who has turned your information into an RSS feed.
That is your bigger problem.
Also, just FYI. I write hundreds of articles and allow people to use them as long as they include the link back to my site.
It is an incredibly effective way to generate traffic. You may want to consider that.

The item has been removed.

Gregg Hall

----- Original Message -----
From: "Glenn Canady" <glenn@glcventures.com>
To: "Gregg Hall" <gregg@wallstreetalternatives.net>
Sent: Thursday, January 26, 2006 8:44 AM
Subject: Fw: Copyright Infringements on [redacted].com

> Gregg,
>
> Can you see if you can delete this guys article from our wordpress blog
> and go ahead and de-activate rss2blog on that one if it's not already
> done...I didn't even remember us doing a blog on this...let me know if you
> have any problems because I told the guy it would be done this
> morning..thanks
>
> Glenn
>
> Glenn Canady
> GLC Ventures Inc.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Ryan Brown" <ryan@catalina.org>
> To: "Glenn Canady" <glenn@glcventures.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2006 9:59 PM
> Subject: Re: Copyright Infringements on [redacted].com
>
>
>> This is on one of your wordpress blogs.  Probably posted by your rss2blog
>> software.  I don't have the password for those.  You will need to log in
>> to wordpress and remove the article.
>>
>> You're lucky the guy asked first - statutory damages start at $750 per
>> violation.
>>
>> rAb
>>
>> Ryan Brown
>> Base 16 Consulting, Inc.
>> rbrown@base16consulting.com
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: "Glenn Canady" <glenn@glcventures.com>
>> Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2006 21:30:46
>> To:"Ryan Brown" <ryan@base16consulting.com>
>> Subject: Fw: Copyright Infringements on [redacted].com
>>
>> Ryan,
>>
>> Please remove this article as we have a crybaby apparently...thanks
>>
>>
>> Glenn
>>
>> Glenn Canady
>> GLC Ventures Inc.
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: L.
>> Scott Harrell: mailto:lscottharrell@bellsouth.ne
>> To: robert@glcventures.com: <mailto:robert@glcventures.com>  ;
>> rmichael@gorillamarketing.com: <mailto:rmichael@gorillamarketing.com>  ;
>> info@apexmarketingincorporated.com:
>> <mailto:info@apexmarketingincorporated.com>
>> Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2006 6:57 PM
>> Subject: Copyright Infringements on [redacted].com
>>
>> Mr. Robert Michael or Owner/Webmaster of [redacted].com,
>>
>> On your website, [redacted].com, you have included copyrighted
>> material copied from my website, http://www.beaprivateeye.com/:
>> <http://www.beaprivateeye.com/> , without my permission- contrary to both
>> US Copyright/Intellectual Property Law as well as the "Terms of Use"
>> conspicuously posted on my website.
>>
>> (Please see http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap5.html:
>> <http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap5.html>  and
>> http://www.beaprivateeye.com/legal.htm:
>> <http://www.beaprivateeye.com/legal.htm>  for reference)
>>
>> Specifically I am referring to an entry located at
>> [redacted]  posted on January 23, 2006 (as
>> well as
>> [redacted])
>> titled "Types of Private Investigation Assignments."
>>
>> This article was written by me and is posted on my website at
>> http://www.beaprivateeye.com/pages/types_of_pi_assignments.htm:
>> <http://www.beaprivateeye.com/pages/types_of_pi_assignments.htm> .
>> Additionally, this is an excerpt of a book I wrote and have registered
>> with the US Copyright Office.
>>
>> While you have included my copyright notice, this does not insulate you
>> from culpability for violating my intellectual property rights. I have
>> not given you or anyone else permission, in any fashion, to use this
>> original literary work for any reason- especially in your own pursuit of
>> commerce, nor have I given you or anyone else permission to alter this
>> work using hyperlinks to other websites you either own or are an
>> affiliate. Furthermore, your use of this material does not fall within
>> the scope of “fair use” or “common rights” often associated with work
>> that have become public domain.
>>
>> I am asking, politely, that you remove this infringing content from your
>> website, permanently and immediately, and refrain from using any
>> additional content you may find on any of my websites without my express
>> written permission. Of course, I have already taken the necessary steps
>> to fully document your use of the material in question on the
>> [redacted].com website for future comparison and determining
>> your compliance with this request.
>>
>> If you have any questions or concerns, do not hesitate to contact me at
>> your convenience. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
>>
>>
>> Warmest Regards,
>>
>> L. Scott Harrell
>> CompassPoint Investigations
>> In Relentless Pursuit of your Success!
>> <http://www.CompassPointPI.com> www.CompassPointPI.com
>>
>> Ofc: (877) 363-4887
>> Fax: (877) 761-8264
>>
>> Florida * Texas * Alabama * Mississippi * Tennessee
>> Texas PI # A-9853
>> Florida PI # A 2500251
>> Mississippi MPIA (1998)
>> Tennessee Act 40-11-401 Compliant

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

There you have it and if it's in print we all know it must be true!  Let me point out a few things in this email thread in case you did not catch it, faithful reader.

1.  Notice how when Glenn Canady forwarded my original email to his associate that he conveniently left out the paragraph where I indicated that he had some negative online press and I did not want my own reputation sullied- hmmmm.

The negative press to which I was referring was an extensive blog titled "The Glenn Canady Gorilla Website Marketing Course Review" as well as to an article I found in the Milwaukee Business Journal covering a lawsuit which alleged that Mr. Canady and some other associates affiliated with PORN and SPAM had broken into an email server (I believe that's also referred to as hacking) belonging to a mutual fund company to send "more than 288,000 asking people to visit a gambling site and several pornography sites."  The article went on to explain that Glenn Canady had settled the case: "Strong's settlement with Canady and Smith bars the two from ever using its server to send e-mail without permission. The two also acknowledged they purposefully used the server to send bulk e-mail for clients and paid Strong an undisclosed sum in financial compensation."

I'd call that negative press; I really didn't want my material associated with SPAM, PORNOGRAPHY or other illicit or illegal business practices.  Who could blame me???  Well, apparently Mr. Canady didn't see it that way and instead wanted to believe that I was somehow emotionally weak because I asked to have the issue resolved to my satisfaction.

2.  Notice that the first reply Glenn Canady gets is from a consultant who tells him, "You're lucky the guy asked first - statutory damages start at $750 per violation."

Well, it would have actually been $2,250 because this article was an excerpt from a book I wrote and is on file with the US Copyright Office; Federal copyright law provides for treble (that's "triple" in legalese) statutory damages as well as treble punitive damages if one proves that it was intentional. 

Whatever, I'm not exactly lawsuit-crazy.  CompassPoint Investigations services 25 or 30 of some of the better corporate and insurance-defense attorneys in the South and I honestly see enough legal action to choke a donkey.

3.  The webmaster who forwarded this thread to me (thanks) was trying to convey something about having articles on other websites is important and good for search engines- I understand that and it is true but as I indicated before there was no link back, which renders this drivel entirely useless.

4.  I personally could not find an RSS feed culling information from BeAPrivateEye.com and believe that he was referring to an article I have posted on an article submission site, Frequently Asked Questions About Becoming a Private Investigator, which they had posted as well.  I had no problem with them posting that particular article and had made no mention of it.  Again, however, they hadn't included a link back there either.  Someone really should tell them that outbound links (even if it is pointing to websites other than your own) are OK and encouraged by search engines.

Since I was sure that Mr. Canady was unaware that his name calling had come to my attention, and having absolutely nothing better to do with my time (yeah, right), I replied to Mr. Canady:

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 

From: L. Scott Harrell [mailto:lscottharrell@bellsouth.net]
Sent: Thursday, January 26, 2006 4:29 PM
To: 'glenn@glcventures.com'
Subject: FW: Copyright Infringements on [redacted].com

Glenn,

>> Ryan,
>>
>> Please remove this article as we have a crybaby apparently...thanks
>>
>>
>> Glenn
>>
>> Glenn Canady
>> GLC Ventures Inc.

Nice... very professional of you.  I am sorry that you feel my objection to your wholesale infringement upon my intellectual property rights is tantamount to whining.

>>I'm not a "bad" person or an "evil" person as a few people might have said >>online. 

Well, you certainly didn't make much of a case for yourself with me... and I own your e-book.  I would submit that perhaps you just need a primer on Ethics.

Thank you for seeing to it that my material was removed.

Warmest Regards,

L. Scott Harrell
CompassPoint Investigations
In Relentless Pursuit of your Success!
www.CompassPointPI.com 

Ofc:  (877) 363-4887
Fax:  (877) 761-8264

Florida * Texas * Alabama * Mississippi * Tennessee
Texas PI # A-9853
Florida PI # A 2500251
Mississippi MPIA (1998)
Tennessee Act 40-11-401 Compliant

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 

To which I received this rather emotional retort:

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 

From: Glenn Canady [mailto:glenn@glcventures.com]
Sent: Thursday, January 26, 2006 5:06 PM
To: L. Scott Harrell
Subject: Re: Copyright Infringements on [redacted].com

I'm sorry for calling you a crybaby...that was
totally uncalled for.  I think I did it out of anger
because you said I was a bad person w/o even
knowing me and I know that's untrue.  That's no
excuse though, I shouldn't have called you that
no matter what you said about my character.
That was wrong of me and I'm sorry.

I realize now that I can't please 100% of the people
100% of the time - nobody can!  No matter
how good you are, some very negative person is
going to try to tear you down in some way.  That's
just life and I'm not going to play their game by
even responding to it anymore.

All I can do is to do the very best I can do each day.

Take care and good luck with your online
business in 2006!

Sincerely,

Glenn

Glenn Canady
GLC Ventures Inc.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++   

Boo f'n-hoo.  Here's the thing, if you are going to call somebody a name, have the nerve to stick up for yourself and accept the consequences rather than go into this whole "You hurt my feelings first!" bit.

In the interest of complete reporting I'll share with you my reply, if only so that you get the full picture and realize that I am not a big poopy-head for saying such mean things about a guy I don't even know and hurting his feelings.  I'll even empathize with him a bit:

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: L. Scott Harrell [mailto:lscottharrell@bellsouth.net]
Sent: Thursday, January 26, 2006 7:35 PM
To: 'Glenn Canady'
Subject: RE: Copyright Infringements on [redacted].com

Make no mistake about it- I knew that you would be receiving that initial email; I had already followed the bread crumbs and quite frankly (right or wrong) I didn't believe that there was a Robert Michael (listed in the WHOIS database as the registrant of [redacted].com as well as the point of contact for several 5 Star Shine press releases).  When I called the 5 Star phone number to speak to Robert Michael, the lady on the phone didn't seem to know anything about him.  "Robert Michael, (pregnant pause) hmmm, I don't see anything here (lots of keyboard action in the background) Is he an affiliate???  Hmmm, well try emailing him at... and if you don't get a response, give me a call back. OK?"

It was a calculated decision to include that paragraph.

First, I was being provocative.  In the online world, as I am sure you are aware, it can be tough to get a response from someone regarding legal or other adverse issues.  Many people think that if they stick their heads under a rock that a problem will go away.  I received the response from you that I expected.  I appreciate your action.   

Lastly, in legal parlance, I was gaining leverage in this situation by demonstrating that an association with you could possibly cause my own business harm.  I did not call you a "bad person" nor did I impugn your character- I simply made a factual statement: you have some bad press online.  If I eventually needed to take legal action, I had set the tone for punitive damages in addition to statutory damages.

The $750 dollars to which Mr. Brown refers would have actually been $2,250 since that particular article is in a collection filed with the US Copyright Office; as such, any infringement would be subject to treble statutory damages and treble punitive damages too (where the big money is at) if one can prove harm was caused.  That fact did not escape me prior to writing you with my concerns.

I apologize that you took that paragraph as an attack on you; it wasn't meant that way- though in reading it again, I can see that if you had read that with emotion the tone could have been altogether different.  My work requires a VERY thick skin and little emotion; I am sure that this leaks into my communication when I am angry.  After all, I was miffed that this particular article was being hijacked for your own commercial benefit and that I wasn't even getting an inbound link as a result.  I called you out but should not have been so inflammatory in doing so- perhaps we could have put this behind us, gotten to know one another and accomplished some good things as a result without all of the drama. 

Glenn, I have my detractors as well- none of us are immune; as you have already said that's just part of being in business (especially an online business).  I enjoy responding to the negative people in my life- it makes me feel better standing up for myself and the good work I have accomplished.  If you have created an honest product and market it ethically you have no reason to not feel great about it no matter what others might say.  The tag line of my blog is “Fraud and falsehood only dread examination. Truth invites it.”

On a positive note- and to put this issue to rest (we've both invested too much time in silly stuff) I will say that there was some solid information and advice in your Gorilla Website Marketing book (3/2004), I especially liked your conversational writing style.  It made for a comfortable read and certainly allowed for better absorption/understanding of the material presented.

Best of luck to you; don't hesitate to let me know if I can ever do anything for you.

-Scott

Warmest Regards,

L. Scott Harrell
CompassPoint Investigations
In Relentless Pursuit of your Success!
www.CompassPointPI.com 

Ofc:  (877) 363-4887
Fax:  (877) 761-8264

Florida * Texas * Alabama * Mississippi * Tennessee
Texas PI # A-9853
Florida PI # A 2500251
Mississippi MPIA (1998)
Tennessee Act 40-11-401 Compliant

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Yes, it is true that I own his e-book- it took me maybe 20 minutes to read and was stuffed with 40+ pages about some software thingy called "Zeus" which if you did not own the product, half of the e-book made zero sense at all.  The remaining 60 some-odd pages were about additional services you needed to make a go of it online; most of these URLs were affiliate links.  The remaining material was grounded in well-worn and universally understood concepts. 

I did not however, buy the book.  It came with a free membership to an entirely useless "viral web traffic" service I signed up with specifically to get the free advertisement, errr...e-book.

Well, there you have it the long story of my interaction with Glenn Canady- unedited and unabashed.

Is he such a bad guy?  No, probably not.  I just don't like it when my copyrighted material is usurped by others.  He gets the Voodoo Hex of the Moment because he was involved; even if he was not the one who did the cut and paste job (and in truth it appears that he did not have prior knowledge of the infringement).

Voodoo to you, Glenn.  voodoo... vooDOO... VOODOO

All my Hexes lived in Texas, now you're livin' here next to meeeeeeeeeEEEEEEE!