In the wake of the mass-shooting of six and seven year old children in Newtown, Connecticut, I believe it is time to highlight a few corporate ties to the National Rifle Association so those who do not wish to support that organization in any way can make a more informed choice on certain travel services.  However, before I do that, I need to make the usual disclaimer.

I strongly support the Second Amendment and the interpretation that it allows all citizens to own and use firearms.  I believe in this in the name of hunting, collecting, target shooting, just plain fun, and self defense.  I put extra emphasis on the last category as the United States is still filled with areas that are too rural to have nearby police assistance and we have cities where the police are so busy that taking matters into one’s own hands could easily be necessary.

However, I am also a strong supporter of common sense.  Hunting nor self-defense require military-style automatic weapons nor massive ammunition clips.  As for collecting, many special collections of other types need to be specially licensed and firearms designed for nothing but killing humans is logically one of them.  The only people that could possibly believe otherwise are living an absolute nut-job fantasy that citizens should be arming themselves in order to take on the U.S. Government.  The rest that claim such a thing are looking for nothing but to make money on a highly misinformed section of the public.

Of course, the leader in making impossible even the most sensible laws and enforcement regarding firearms has been the National Rifle Association (NRA).  Ever since turning away from being a benign organization that promoted hunting along with gun safety and education and morphing into one of the most powerful lobbying groups in the United States, they have done nothing but continue the illusion that America would be better off turning back into the Wild West where everybody carried a gun and issued justice on the spot.

If there is one good thing at all that will come out of the massacre in Newtown, it will be that a large portion of Americans — especially voting mothers — have woken up enough that the NRA can no longer hide the blood on its hands for spending so much time and money in blocking sensible firearms law enforcement.  Even the NRA was embarrassed enough to temporarily suspend its Facebook page, not use its Twitter account for a week, and not make any public statements of any other kind until a Friday “garbage day” as it’s called in the news business (because fewer people pay attention to the news as the weekend approaches).

The temporary showing of a little bit of conscience by the NRA has already passed.  While there is still a chance they might not succeed in preventing new federal and state legislation to put some sense back in the country’s gun laws, it is my belief that both the NRA and any of its enablers need to be punished for what they have done to this country for far too long.

While strongly in the mainstream media’s spotlight, it was brought to the nation’s attention that the NRA advertises several business affiliations on its website.  These businesses offer discounts to NRA members for various goods and services.  Through this whole week while even some of the most conservative of public figures and organizations have stated they would accept some new gun legislation along with badly-needed assistance for those needing mental health services (a big portion of the problem which should not be overlooked even though not the focus of this post), not a single one of these corporations has come forward to address the general public on their continued association with the NRA.

As I said back in my post listing the consumer brands controlled by the Koch Brothers, I believe that the NRA and its supporters are perverting our country and the common sense type of democratic republic that our Founding Fathers wished to be handed down to their descendant citizens.  Just as I do not allow perverts into my home in the form of the Koch Brothers’ paper and building products, I do not wish to spend the night in a pervert’s motel room or drive in a pervert’s car.  Therefore, just as is done on many government websites where perverts are listed so people can stay away from them if they wish, I offer this list along with pictures of these other types of perverts so they can also be identified and avoided.

This one sort of hurts because Best Western is generally my favorite motel chain although usually a bit more expensive than others I frequent.  However, it is quite clear that they are still offering a discount to NRA members as they are given a code to provide upon making a reservation that is then verified by showing one’s NRA membership card upon registration.

Wyndham Worldwide Corporation is a complicated one because it includes a lot of brands, many of which were independent for so long it does not always register in the public’s mind that they are now under one owner (especially since there is no similarity in each brand’s signage).  However, each of Wyndham’s brands lists a “Benefits ID” number on the NRA website. This is also not an easy one to avoid because the included brands are ones that include names that are reliable for either comfort or low prices along with being ones to which many Americans have fond attachment. Still, they have now been irrefutably sullied.

It is not just these two motel giants that must now be given the spotlight. More importantly might be the car rental companies which consolidated to such a point in 2012 that there are really now only three of them…and they are all helping to support the NRA.

The company that owned Avis acquired Budget in 2006. Both brands list a special number on the NRA website that allows its members to receive a discount.

While this might seem strange since many think of all three of these as being discount brands, Enterprise gobbled up both National and Alamo in 2007. All three offer a special discount code to NRA members with the one for Enterprise actually beginning with “NRA.”

Hertz is the Johnny-come-lately to the multi-brand scene. Late in 2012, they announced their intention to buy the already joined Dollar and Thrifty brands. This is Hertz’s second attempt at a buyout of Dollar-Thrifty. At this time, only Hertz is offering NRA members a discount code. Obviously, if the merger does not go through, Dollar-Thrifty would be exempt from this list.

Now it’s time to talk about alternatives.

Especially if Hertz is successful in taking over Dollar-Thrifty, other choices for car rental in the United States will be difficult to find. There are still a handful of independent companies but their market saturation is very limited…and even more so if one wants to pick up a car in one city and drop it off in another. It very well might end up that this will be an evil that cannot be avoided. However, depending upon one’s travel plans, at least give a look to companies such as ACE Rent A Car, Fox Rent A Car, Payless Car Rental, Rent-A-Wreck, and U-Save.

As for motels, the other choices are too numerous to even begin to list.  While I did admit my previous use of both motel chains listed above, my preference is to try to use the great resources of the World Wide Web to find independent, locally-owned motels or, at the very least, a smaller chain.  Since that is often not a viable option, one easy way to go to get a lot of choices in one place between number, style, and comfort level is, appropriately enough, Choice Hotels International which includes many well-known brands in its stable.  I have over 60 American hotel chains saved in my browser’s Bookmarks so being able to avoid Best Western and the Wyndham Group should almost never be a problem.

Boycotts are never easy.  These particular ones will be quite tough especially for business travelers.  However, the tragedy in Newtown seems to be the event that made enough Americans come to their senses and realize it is time to stop allowing the NRA to run roughshod over the country.  The NRA has certainly been The Man in how it has grabbed undue influence with its 4.3 million members to steamroll the other 310.7 million American citizens.  It is well past time that we not only stick it directly to The Man on this issue but also to all that are enabling him to live in extra comfort.

One of these days, maybe the Internet will get its act together enough to make moving to a new Web host an instantaneous process.  Until then…well, I apologize to anybody that came in here Monday evening and saw this place in a cluttered or nonexistent condition.

Despite the research I did, the host I chose upon leaving GoDaddy, a company called Name.com out of Denver, could not keep a handle on its e-mail servers.  To make a long story short, every e-mail server they put me on was blocked by one major service or another.  In a world where Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail/MSN/Live, and ISP-issued accounts still rule the day, this was unacceptable.  I gave them three chances and each one went sour (all accompanied by other screw-ups that I am leaving out in the name of brevity).  On Monday afternoon, when Name.com offered me the choice of either waiting 72 hours to get the server I was on off of the BellSouth blacklist (keeping me from being able to e-mail my mother) or just get a refund, I was out of there faster than prunes go through an AARP meeting.

My new host is based in Durham, North Carolina and has the oddball name of A Small Orange.  Yes, GoDaddy seemed like a strange name at first years ago, too.  I just I hope that, unlike GoDaddy, “ASO” stays true to its principles and good corporate citizenship in addition to providing good service.  I already feel very comfortable with ASO so I hope this is the last I have to write about any downtime for at least a few months until there might be another burp when I transfer my domain registrations away from Name.com (those are locked in as there is a waiting period after a transfer and I already just took those away from GoDaddy’s clutches).

Stuff like this is why I always caution people not to move to just any Web hosting service.  Even those of us that think we know what we’re doing can get hosed.  This is especially true as people trying to be re-sellers of a company’s hosting services flood search engines with phony review sites that make a company look wonderful even if one enters the term, “Company X sucks” (thus explaining why I am not putting any links in this entry…I want it to be clear that I’m not selling anything).

As with Name.com (thank goodness!), make sure the company has a 30-day money-back guarantee (ASO gives customers 45 days).  This gives people a fair opportunity to see if a hosting company lives up to its promises and delivers on good service.  In addition, just like anything that has to do with computers and/or the Internet, always make sure to have a site’s files fully backed up every time a change is made.  One never knows when it might be time to bail on a moment’s notice.

The one good thing that might come out of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker‘s attempt to eliminate collective bargaining rights for his state’s public workers (well, only for those who’s unions support Democrats instead of Republicans) is that much more of this country is becoming aware of the Koch Brothers (pronounced like “Coke”).  For those not aware of how this happened, this was mainly due to a prank telephone call placed to Walker by Ian Murphy of The Beast (a.k.a. The Buffalo Beast) where Murphy pretended to be David Koch.  The recorded conversation went “viral” on the Internet and even made the major television news broadcasts.

Until this time, concern about and exposure of the Koch Brothers mainly stayed within the liberal portion of the media and, even then, mostly online at websites where the vast majority of Americans never wander.  Some more true Libertarian-leaning blogs had also begun to take notice of the Koch Brothers’ activities but not too many as the Kochs are beginning to fully corrupt that movement as much as they are the GOP.  This was what led me to bring them to my own readers’ attention last August in my entry titled, Koch Fiends.

Still, in a world where most citizens get their news in all-too-brief preformed nuggets (assuming they bother looking at any real news at all other than how some new media outlet is exploiting Charlie Sheen and allowing him to further embarrass himself when he is obviously a very sick man), the name Koch is still fairly nebulous in the mind of the general public.  This has been quite intentional on the part of the Koch Brothers as it seems they prefer playing the Wizard of Oz role role of the man behind the curtain.

The mysterious nature of the Koch Brothers is also aggravated by the fact that, up until 2005, their company, Koch Industries, did not sell any products or services familiar to the American public.  Their portfolio from petroleum to chemicals to mining and even finance all went to very limited and usually large customers so nobody could ever place the name Koch on something when they went to their local store.

However, that finally changed when, in December 2005, Koch Industries bought the huge lumber, paper, and building materials company, Georgia-Pacific.  Now, millions of Americans and people all over the world touch the Koch Brothers every day even in the most intimate and hidden portions of their bodies.

The range of Georgia-Pacific’s building materials is quite large — so much so that I do not want to bother listing them here.  However, when browsing your local home improvement big box retailer that killed off your old favorite lumber yard and local hardware store, just remember that these products are all easily identifiable as they all carry the company’s evergreen tree-shaped GP logo.

As for the paper products, these do not always prominently carry the Georgia-Pacific logo even in that small print on the back of the packaging.  Yet, they should still be easy to remember as some of these are very iconic and previously independent brands that, over time, ended up under the Georgia Pacific family tree and, eventually, in the hands of the Koch Brothers.

• Advantage (computer and copier printer paper)
• Angel Soft (toilet paper)
• Brawny (paper towels)
• Dixie (paper and plastic cups and plates, paper napkins)
• Image Plus (computer and copier printer paper)
• Mardi Gras (paper towels and napkins)
• Quilted Northern (toilet paper)
• Soft ‘n Gentle (toilet paper)
• Sparkle (paper towels)
• Spectrum (computer and copier printer paper)
• Vanity Fair (paper napkins, plates, bowls, and tablecloths)
• Zee (paper towels and napkins)

For my readers in Europe or with access to products made there, here is a list of some of the Koch Industries/Georgia-Pacific brands that might be more familiar.

• Colhogar
• Delica
• Demak’Up
• Inversoft
• Kitten Soft
• Lotus
• Moltonel
• Nouvelle
• Okay
• Tenderly
• Tutto

Keep in mind that this is about so much more than the latest effort by big business to engage in union busting.  The Koch Brothers are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to pervert the American system of government.  Our Founding Fathers were very wise in trying to construct a country where there would be checks and balances against all forms of power, both governmental and corporate (and, I would add union power as well since many of them do need to be cleaned up and/or taken down a notch).  The Koch Brothers are spending their immense wealth to turn the United States of America into a place where there literally would be no laws enforcing workplace safety, labor standards, consumer welfare, or environmental protection.  To put it bluntly, that is frighteningly close to a fascist state (of course, minus the singular cult-of-personality-style ruler and the racist element).

In more immediate matters, the Koch Brothers are largely responsible for funding the so-called Tea Party movement which is bringing both the federal and state governments to a standstill with its no-compromise-allowed philosophy.  This is actually hurting our fragile economic recovery as it leaves state budgets and tax levels in limbo thus leaving smaller businesses unable to act on investing and new hiring since they cannot fully plan out their own expenditures.  Of course, that doesn’t hurt big guys like the Koch Brothers so they don’t care just as long as they have to pay less taxes and deal with fewer of those pesky regulations that do unnecessary things like keep their waste products out of our air and ground water.

So…what will you do with this information that long-time household friends like Dixie Cups and the Brawny Man are financing the destruction of proper, reasoned government and speeding along the race-to-the-bottom of the American workforce?  It’s a tough call because the only place people can really hit the Koch Brothers in their wallets is to boycott their Georgia-Pacific products and it’s not like this country’s other big lumber conglomerates have been great corporate citizens either.  It’s also hard on all of our wallets to go to more “green” paper products as those often cost twice as much as those made by the big companies (the only close exception I know of being the toilet paper sold at Trader Joe’s).

As per usual, I will leave it up to each individual as to what they want to do when it comes time to buy some paper or building products.  Maybe some reading this don’t mind giving the Koch Brothers their money for Quilted Northern just for the satisfaction of being able to wipe their ass on one of their products.  Well, just remember this.  Every time somebody buys a Georgia-Pacific product, the Koch Brothers are one dollar closer to being able to having no limits on what their many chemical plants put out into the atmosphere and ground water, no restraints on how their financial company plays on Wall Street, no curbs on how much money they can donate to political candidates, and no reservations that they know what is best for you and the country.  Think about that for a while, especially the last one…for it is just as bad for somebody like the Koch Brothers to think they know what is best for us as it would be for some equal force on the other side of the political spectrum.

As the old saying goes, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.  There is no doubt that the Koch Brothers want absolute power to run their company free of any “interference” and damn anybody who’s home or health gets in the way.  To those that call themselves conservatives, is that what you really want?  I don’t think so, so it’s time to wake up and stop drinking the Fox News Kool-Aid on this one and see that the kind of world the Koch Brothers want is just as domineering and oppressive as the one they claim is trying to be created by President Obama.

As for me, I will repeat that I believe the Koch Brothers are trying to pervert our system of government.  Personally, I don’t allow perverts into my home.  Take or leave that as you wish…but, just in case you do care, just like with other similar offenders, I feel it is my duty to post pictures of these perverts so they can be easily recognized.