By momiss on February 03, 2012

Sniff, sniff.  Oh, honey, I am so proud of you!  Have you gotten a census form yet?  I had a lot of fun with that one!  LOL

By carolee on February 03, 2012

Lying to statisticians is one of my all time favorite sports!  Over the years I’ve never once told the truth.  The more personal the questions, the more I’m going to fib.  People who have the guts to disturb your evening don’t deserve the truth! 

Now, I don’t know if this was just coincidence, but I once told them our income bracket was well, huge.  Suddenly, I was bombarded with calls from all sorts of charitable foundations.  So, now I answer that one more accurately, more or less. LOL

By Sarah Christensen on February 03, 2012

Carolee or Momiss - Do you guys know how to get yourself off the political call lists?  I’ve asked both of those groups multiple times to stop calling me, but they just.won’t.stop.

By carolee on February 03, 2012

If you ever find out let me in on it.  I have unplugged the phone when you don’t want to be bothered.  Eventually, they should get the message.  I have found that I can block numbers for just so long before they get through by using other numbers.  Since, people make money by selling your name and number, it’s not likely to stop.  Example, buy from one catalog and soon you will have dozens in the mail.

By on February 03, 2012

Momiss, screwing up the census is not something to laugh at. They use that data to appropriate funds among other things. Shame.
P.S. I don’t know if the do not call registry works for political calls, but it’s worth a shot:https://www.donotcall.gov/

By Sarah Christensen on February 03, 2012

Kay, I’m already on the call registry.  We still get called about three or four times weekly from political groups, though.  They mostly call me, so I’m thinking maybe it’s because I write letters and e-mails to representatives so frequently?  That’s about the only difference between Donald and my political status that I can think of?

By momiss on February 03, 2012

Sarah, I do not know how to get off the lists.  They are exempt from the calling rules, and there is a rule that says if you have ever “done business” with them before that they can continue to call you in MO at least. 
@Kay:  I do not “screw” with the information that they have any right to.  As far as using that information to appropriate funds, yes, EXACTLY.  The census can know how many are living in my house and who we are.  Period.  I hardly hold getting “appropriated funds” from the Federal Government as any kind of “help”.  We will take care of that ourselves in Missouri, thank you very much.  Where do you think those funds come from, anyway?

By on February 03, 2012

Have you donated any money to a particular representative? Did you attend any meetings where you may have signed in (and will now be punished for the rest of your life for it)? I found this link too: http://stoppoliticalcalls.org/index.php

By on February 03, 2012

Momiss, to avoid getting into an argument on a blog about whether or not Missouri can “take care of themselves” without government funds, I suggest you go to the following website to educate yourself. http://www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/fas-10.pdf

By on February 03, 2012

Not politically related, I once got a string of calls from the local paper wanting me to subscribe. I got so frustrated with them calling me all the time that in a fit of hysteria I told them I couldn’t read. They never called me again. LMAO The poor guy on the phone… he felt so bad. Ha!

By Sarah Christensen on February 03, 2012

MC -  That made me laugh!

Kay -  I will check out the no political calls list, thanks for the heads-up!  Now that you mentioned it, I could have landed on the call lists because of attendance at meetings too.  That’s definitely possible.

I don’t really know what to say about the census discussion here (I was sort of employing the head-in-the-sand tactic earlier) except that it might be best for us all to drop the subject and agree to disagree.

By E @ Life on a Quilt on February 03, 2012

Sarah!  This makes me hate you and love you all wrapped into one cute little pig in a blanket.

ANYWAY - Do you have caller ID?  Whenever we receive calls from anonymous, etc., be it political or not, I answer the phone “Jay’s Dentistry!  When can I schedule your next cleaning?“

Needless to say - EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. the person on the other line profusely apologizes telling my “business” that our number was mistaken and will be removed immediately.

Thank you.  Very.  Much.

By Meg @ Moments Like This on February 05, 2012

I just don’t understand 1. Why it’s funny to lie in the census or to political callers? and 2. Why you wouldn’t just ask them to call back another time ( time when you aren’t having dinner) or 3. Politely tell them you are not interested in taking a survey (no matter how many times they call?- Seriously. These, sometimes, are young people wanting to volunteer for a cause they are passionate about and/or step into politics. Why be rude (directly or indirectly) by lying? It’s just not funny. Sorry.

Ps. I’ve never volunteered for a political campaign but my husband did volunteer to give phone surveys for a company and the stories he told about the rudeness of people or their blatant lies was discouraging. Especially when he was just doing his job.

By Sarah Christensen on February 05, 2012

Meg - I am going to overlook the census discussion.  I feel like that conversation must be a nightmare to moderate and I *really* do not want to touch it with a ten-foot pole.

The thing about political callers is this.  I am registered as an Independent and I regularly attend local political meetings and contact my representatives once or twice a month.  I am called CONSTANTLY, several times a week, by political interest groups.  I ask them not to call, to please take me off their lists, yadda yadda, that I’m not interested in surveys, and most of the time people acquiesce and a few weeks later their organization stops calling me - only to start up again a few months later.  But there are a few groups that have not stopped, and these groups - well, the way I see it is this: I gave them a way out, they didn’t take it, and now it’s open season.  I strongly feel that they have no place calling me and asking me personal questions after I’ve asked them not to, so I don’t really have a problem lying (although to be fair, I have a pretty liberal policy on lying anyway).  I’m not going to taunt or berate or insult them or hang up on them - I know these are people who just have a job to do - but lying to them about something insignificant gives us both an easy way out of a conversation.  In my experience, it takes far less time and is far less invasive for me to lie and have them go away because they think they can’t make headway with me than it is for me to ask them politely to not call me any longer for the fourth time this month.

This is what it is.  If I’m going to give a well-rounded view of who I am online then I might as well show the everyday parts of me alongside everything else, no?  This is something I do - I lie to political cold-callers.  I don’t expect everyone to agree with it or to like it, but you know?  I don’t even expect my husband or my parents to agree with or like everything about me.  I expect them to look at the big-picture of who I am and decide whether or not it’s still worth it to put up with my crap.

By Sarah Christensen on February 05, 2012

I should explain too that I don’t personally think it’s funny to lie to telemarketers so much as I think it can be effective - I think the funny thing is that both of these groups said they were going to conduct a survey but when given answers in direct conflict with what they want to hear on their survey, they hung up on me.  Twice!  In the same week!  From different camps!  I mean, obviously I lied to them HOPING for that outcome and sort of counting on it, but it’s still kind of funny.