Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Please Support Ranger Up & Their Veteran Entrepreneurship Program!

From their press release:

Ranger Up, the fast growing North Carolina-based apparel company owned by veterans of the United States Army Rangers and Special Forces, today launched a crowdfunding effort on indiegogo.com: to support their successful Veteran Entrepreneurship program which provides business training and seed investment to returning veterans interested in entrepreneurship.

Recently recognized by Internet Retailer as one of the Hot 100 e-commerce firms in the United States, Ranger Up was started in an apartment just seven years ago by a duo of veterans intent on providing the military community with its own brand. Now with a Facebook following of over 250,000 and millions in annual revenue, Ranger Up is equally focused on paying forward their success by working with and investing in the business ventures of other veterans.

“Engaging veterans in entrepreneurship is good for society. Small business is the driving force behind our economy and veterans succeed at it more than anyone,” said Ranger Up Founder and CEO Nick Palmisciano. “They come from a world where failure isn’t an option; they are used to having a mission they have to complete.”

Palmiciano and Ranger Up COO Tom Amenta have had their confidence in veteran entrepreneurial skills affirmed watching inaugural Veteran Entrepreneurship Jon Walsh successfully launch a Mixed Martial Arts training gym with the mentorship and investment capital of Ranger Up. Walsh, a former Force Recon Marine and a Navy Cross recipient is now the proud owner of Five Rings MMA, a fast-growing mixed martial arts gym in the greater Camp Lejeune area.

While Ranger Up loves the program and is inspired to continue it, hopefully at a larger level, Palmisciano admits the program has a cost – in the case of Walsh, over $100,000. 

“We have so much knowledge to share, but at our revenue size, the program isn’t sustainable on an annual basis.  We’re left with a choice: do it every two years or look to our community for support.  So we’re asking for help.”

In order for the Veteran Entrepreneurship program to expand and continue without hindering Ranger Up’s growing business, Palmisciano and Amenta are turning to both the public and its loyal customer base to support the next addition to the program. Costs of full-time employment for the selected veteran during business training and the additional seed capital that will launch the new company are expected to exceed $100,000 once again. 

A five-minute video featuring Palmisciano and Walsh explaining the program has been posted indiegogo.com: where supporters from around the world will have the opportunity to contribute to making another year of the Veteran Entrepreneurship program a reality.

“I had 100% drive and zero percent direction,” said Walsh of himself once he left active duty military service and began thinking about starting his own company. “Ranger Up took me start to finish and taught me how to run a business successfully -- from bookkeeping to operations.” 


Ranger Up is based in Durham, N.C., where a team of mostly veterans oversee every aspect of one of the fasting growing apparel companies in America. Palmisciano and Amenta share ownership in Ranger Up with decorated UFC fighter Tim Kennedy, who also served as a Special Forces Army Ranger. For two consecutive years Ranger Up has ranked within the Top 1000 e-commerce sites on the internet. For more information on Ranger Up, patriotism, and veteran entrepreneurship, visit RangerUp.com.

Friday, February 14, 2014

Don't Be So Quick To Praise

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UPDATE: Ms. Frank has posted a reply to this post on her FaceBook page.  I have put a screen shot at the bottom of the post.  Apparently she purchased & resold stolen goods because *I* am old & divorced!  LOL!  I kid you not!
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Yahoo is highlighting lovey-dovey stories on their front page in honor of Valentine's Day.

One in particular is about a New Jersey photographer, Kristen Frank.  Ms. Frank is in possession of wedding photos and she is purportedly looking to find the bride in the pics.  Yahoo is assisting in her efforts to use social media to accomplish her goal.  Here's a link to the story,
In the story there is a link to Ms. Frank's business page on FaceBook.  I followed the link to see if she had found the bride.  Imagine my surprise when I saw this exchange!

  • Eddie Brinkley Kristen ! $5 bucks for a 220 Hasselblad back ?. Gee I remember what the 220 backs for my RB 67 use to cost.Good luck on your search.
    Like · Reply · 2 · 14 hours ago
    • Kristen Frank Photography Hahaha Eddie! And u better believe I knew just what I was doing! Lol! I sold that puppy on EBAY for $200! I really had no use for it.
      Like · 1 · 14 hours ago
    • Jessica Robbins It's too bad that you sold the camera because when you find the couple they probably could have given you the name of the photographer & I'm sure that he or she would have LOVED getting their camera back.
      Unlike · 5 · 6 hours ago

So, before you buy her  “I just died. I was like, ‘This is horrible that somebody is not going to get to see their pictures of their grandmother and of them walking down the aisle during the ceremony,”....  Remember this - Kristen Frank purchased stolen property; made no effort to find the rightful owner; bragged on her FB page that she knew exactly what she was doing; made a huge profit on the stolen property and now has received tons of free publicity from Yahoo.

Ms. Frank is accepting praise on her FaceBook page for reuniting the family and the photos.  When in reality, they likely would have been returned much sooner had Ms. Frank turned her $5 purchase into the police.  The camera was reported stolen.  Instead, she made her profit and now ten years later reaped another reward.

Yeah, my heart is not so warm.
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Here is Kristen Frank's reply -
Kristen Frank Photography Hello "BOSTONMAGGIE". I would love to hear what YOU would have done in this situation. 
Maybe you are not familiar with how NYC police do their jobs, but I am. There is no way they would have found these people at that time,10yrs ago, as there was no such thing as "social media", nor would they have cared as much as I did for they had to many murders, rapes and other crimes to investigate. I held onto that camera back for a whole year and I had NO IDEA it was stolen, because, as the article reports if you had paid attention to what you were reading, the woman told me she found it on the subway train! After deciding what to do with it and having had zero leads, finally, I made the decision to sell it. A choice I do not feel one ounce of regret for making. That money helped me pay my rent that month because I was only making a measly $8.50 an hour at that photo lab. I was almost homeless back in 2004 when I lived in Queens, NY. I had absolutely NO IDEA I would ever find the couple. NEVER did I expect any compensation, or financial gain by doing what I did. I AM a professional photographer. I would lose my credibility as an honest business person!! Maybe no one has ever done anything nice for you out of the goodness of their heart. Maybe you could never see yourself doing the same for anyone else. Maybe you are jealous, just want to steal the spotlight from a good Samaritan, and are just trying to drive more traffic to your lame blog that no one has even heard of. I don't know. 
Next time GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT before you judge someone on doing a good deed. You should be ashamed of yourself. A woman of your age should know better. You are no better than the trash you write. I'm not surprised by your cynicism , there are always going to be a few haters. Bitter, old divorcees who have been beaten down by life. God bless you with a chance to stop your bitchy ways.
Like · 

Thursday, February 06, 2014

Dear Massachusetts Voters

Just some facts for you -

Massachusetts State Rep.Carlos Henriqez, D-Dorchester was convicted on two counts of assault against his ex-girlfriend.  Rep Henriquez is currently serving six months in Billerica HoC.

He has been asked to resign by many of his fellow Democrats, including Gov. Deval Patrick.  But he declined.  So the Legislature was forced to call for a vote on expelling him.

Today Rep Henriquez came before the Massachusetts State Legislature in shackles to plead his case.  During the discussion, State Rep Russell E. Holmes, D-Boston brought forth an amendment to only censure, not expel the Honorable Mr. Henriquez (it's weird to use that word for a man who beat and terrorized his ex-girlfriend as he drove her around, but it is proper for his position).  Ten representatives voted for the censure only option, but it was otherwise soundly defeated.

At the end of the day, 146 representatives voted to expel and some abstained, but five voted not to expel.

Who voted NOT to expel?

State Rep Russell Holmes D-Boston

State Rep Benjamin Swan D-Springfield

State Rep Carl Sciortino, D-Medford

These three are bad enough, but the next two are women.  Really?  Disgusting.

State Rep Gloria Fox D-Roxbury

State Rep Denise Provost D-Somerville

Oh, and can you see any pattern/commonality among these five?

Wednesday, February 05, 2014

Why North Korea Is The Way It Is.....

....here's a hint - It's not what this guy thinks.

So this morning on my FaceBook feed there was a link to "North Korea is not changing with the times Only getting worse and for what you ask?" by "An Average American Patriot".

I was reading it and thinking "Uh huh. Uh huh." as the author laid out all the frightening  things about the threat.  Because it is a very troublesome to me.  But then halfway down I read "Remember we were talking about a story line that was front and center because of President Bush's Bullying and war mongering."  I'm sorry?  What?  Does the author realize that "W" has retired to Texas to be a grandfather?  Except when he is painting buildings in Africa?  Yeah,  and Kim Jong-Un didn't even come into power until "W" had been gone for years?

That's when I realize that I have been rick-rolled into reading another post from a jamoke who believes if only America would behave..... fill in the blank with your concern.....would be solved.

No, the instability in North Korea is not because of joint American/South Korean military exercises.  And even responding to North Korea's temper tantrum makes about as much sense as responding to a two year old's temper tantrum.  North Korea knows damn well that these exercises/war games pose no threat to them.  They've been going on for years and they go on in other parts of the world.

Mind you, we already have scaled back "Key Resolve" and that's bad enough.

And even if I did want to sip a Coke and sing "America the Beautiful" in some obscure language and indulge Kim Jong-Un.......do you really think Kim is going to say "Thanks" and start planting wildflowers by the side of the road?

Do you really want to live in a "Twilight Zone" episode where Billy Mumy decides what you can do?

The author also makes the assertion that China could fix north Korea but can't be bothered.  Au contraire mon frere!  China cares.  Deeply.  Because when North Korea does collapse or do the unthinkable and attack South Korea, China knows where all those refugees are headed.  Oh they care.

But all is not hopeless Dear Reader!  North Korea is allowing family reunion visits later this month.  And some North Koreans are employed by South Korean companies near the DMZ.  And most hopeful of all, North Koreans love their children just like parents around the world.  When those South Korean companies give their employees snacks, the North Korean workers sneak them home to their children.  Humans, they're not so bad.

Saturday, February 01, 2014

Blind Outrage

I don't get it.

Now don't get me wrong, I can get pretty steamed at things.  My Marine calls me the "Queen of Outrage".  But  it's not because I want to be outraged.  It's not as though you can't reason with me......most of the time.

But out here in the blogosphere and on FaceBook, I keep running across people who want to be outraged.  They will find a story somewhere and post it; then they and all their friends get all riled up.  So far, I'm with them.  You read the sensationalized headline and rip apart the human failings of those involved.

But then someone, like me, spoils all that fun by actually reading the story and pointing out facts.  Now like my friend Stella says, the back and forth between people of different political views; backgrounds; upbringing; religion, etc., makes for interesting discourse.  And that's all good.  But it's disheartening when someone on one side or the other just wants to hold onto their outrage.

For example -  "Church closes food bank because it attracts poor people"  Now I can't give you a link to the actual story from the Ottowa Citizen because the story doesn't appear in their archives.  However, most people agree it was an actual story because a follow up story can be sourced from the archives of Canada's CBC.

But then you read the story and the only one using the words "poor people" is the author.  The people in both stories talk about how some (not all) of the clients of the food bank caused problems.  The pastor said that there were "safety concerns".  But internet critics didn't want to acknowledge that was possible.  They wanted to hang onto their bitter contempt of the church leadership.  They made sneering comments about Jesus and how disappointed he'd be with this church.  They accused me of having disdain for poor people because I pointed out that sometimes, along with the working poor, your food bank attracts drug addicts and people with psych problems.  The church also has a duty to protect vulnerable parishioners from the bad element.  Because I dared to defend the church I was labelled as "delusional".  I was told my only charitable activities were "dropping off your designer clothes at some drive to support the arts".

I pointed out that attacking me didn't negate the facts.  But I realize, they just wanted to be angry.  That if the facts beyond the headline didn't support their narrative, they would just attack anyone pointing out those facts.  They chose blind outrage over reasoned thought.

It's not the first time.  A short while ago I wrote about legislation being proposed in Virginia that would keep a pervert on the sex offender registry and keep other sexually deviant persons in custody.  But a militant element of the gay community was fighting it..  The words "sodomy" and "Republican" appearing together in one article can only mean one thing to these people, homophobia.  Facts be damned, if a Republican is legislating anything with the word "sodomy" it's an attack on gay rights.  Even if it isn't.

So  despite the best intention of people like Stella, discussion between opposing viewpoints isn't always possible.  Some people just don't want to have the discussion.  They only want to be outraged.