Rooting for the Giant Asteroid

There are countless movies, TV shows, books, etc. warning us about the danger of the killer asteroid that will someday hit the earth and destroy every living thing including us. Some depict horrendous scenes of fire engulfing the planet, boiling away the oceans and turning the surface of the earth into a molten bubbling mass.

Not all of these scary scripts are the same, but nearly all indicate gloom and doom for the human race.

There are times when I wonder, 'maybe this wouldn't be a bad thing'.

One of the things that make me wonder are terrorist attrocities. How can they justify killing of innocents? They claim it is because their supreme being tells them to kill, but I don't believe that. The terrorists are destroying the airline industry in bits and bites at a time.

Another thing that makes me wonder is how greed has nearly destroyed our country's financial well being and ruined so many lives. People are still losing their jobs, their homes and their health care due to pure greed.

Corporations send jobs to other countries due to greed. Never mind more people here are unemployed when those jobs leave. It's the bottom line. Greed.

Big pharma is a major player in greed.  Paying big bucks to convince people to 'Ask your doctor' and paying kickbacks to the doctors so they can sell higher and higher priced drugs that have side effects that can and probably will kill countless folks over the years. (I think I may start rooting for that asteroid!)

It is pretty obvious the Lobbyists own most of Congress. (Look at the good things for consumers that get voted down because the Lobbyists tell the congressional members if they want support come election day, they better vote no.)

False statements like "Health care for every one will cost too much money and ration it for everyone."  Guess what, health care is already rationed. If you can't pay, you get no care and you die. It seems to me like it's a case of "I got mine, to hell with you."  Some of the more vicious of the statements about health care for everyone were saying when you get old, you get put to sleep. Maybe not in just those terms, but that is what came across to a lot of folks.

Yep, those are just a few of the things that make me think maybe the asteroid will be all for the best.

Rant over for now,

Martha

Social Networks and Some Other Services Are Getting Too Social For Me

There is Google's Gmail and Buzz.

Google made this 'Buzz' automatic. They didn't ask me, they just turned it on. As a result I decided to turn it off, but before that I deleted all of the email addresses in my Gmail accounts. (I have more than one)  Now I download the emails to my computer. I am seriously thinking of deleting my Gmail accounts and just using my ISP or my domains for email.

Facebook keeps adding changes. Facebook keeps making changes.

I looked at my privacy settings.  They had to be changed again! I am seriously thinking about deleting my Facebook account.  Who knows what they will do next?

Now it's Microsoft and Hotmail.

Years ago I got a Microsoft Passport as it is needed sometimes to get content from Microsoft.  Fortunately, there is nothing in my profile and I intend to keep it that way. I left Hotmail about 6 years ago, so hopefully that is now defunct.

Nothing concerning privacy really seems to matter to the 'big boys' (Microsoft, Google and Facebook).  Usually they make changes available to users, but it is 'after the deed is done', so in the meantime private information is exposed to the world.

I think I may have to forget the Internet and go back to socializing face to face.

Martha

Free Speech? A Sad Day!

The Supreme Court is now saying it is OK to torture animals.
The Court says "banning the videos is an unconstitutional violation of free speech".

Well they said it is OK to show videos of animals being tortured. In my book it's the same thing.

The only member of the Court to vote against this despicable practice was Justice Samuel Alito.  Too bad the rest of the members of the Court don't seem to think it's wrong. I hope they don't decide to ban the child porn laws.

A sad day for animals and animal lovers every where.

Martha

Is that all there is?

Mary is now friends with...................

John is now friends with........................

Harry became a fan of.........................

Jane became a fan of.........................

Mary and Jane are now friends.

So enough of that! Facebook Lite!!!

Then Facebook Lite won't let me sign in. AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!

Who needs Facebook!

Martha

Facebook Friends

Why is it so important to so many folks to have hundreds of friends on Facebook?

By far the majority of these folks don't have a clue who all of the 'friends' really are and I suspect they don't care. They just say 'OK' and 'befriend' anyone who asks.

Case in point.

I think that pretty much says it all.

Martha

Online Order Deception

With the advent of the Internet, soon came the ability to shop online. Sites like Amazon.com became the darlings of online ordering.  (Amazon is one of my favorites!) Online ordering became a major way to get goods delivered to a customer's home with little effort. (Except maybe when it came time to pay the bill.)

But unfortunately, sometimes unscrupulous merchants try to boost their bottom line by using practices that while maybe are not illegal, but are certainly shady.

One way customers are sucked in to a shady practice is the promise of a rebate for shipping.  Notice this is NOT the same as an order code for free shipping that many reputable sites offer.

Most customers are intent on what they want to order and fail to read all fine print on the site where they will order. Sometimes the fine print is in a much lighter shade and is located below the 'Order Now' button. An example of this is on this site: Plaque Attack

Notice the Free Shipping logo at the top of the page has a small wording, After Rebate. Now scroll to the bottom of the page and in a box with light gray text, read the Offer Details. In order to get the free shipping, the customer is signing up for a 'free trial' of the 'Insider's Club'.   Curious, I went to the site FreeShipping.com mentioned in the order details and nowhere could I find what the price would be after the free trial ends.

So now what happens?  Customers sign up to join to get the free shipping.  What they may not realize and most don't, after the 'free trial' they will be billed a monthly fee and nowhere does it say what that fee will be until it's too late. Then when they get their credit card statement or bank statement they learn the awful truth.  (Never ever use a debit card to order online!) Trying to get this unwanted service canceled and a return on their money can be a very frustrating experience, sometimes almost impossible.

Unfortunately there a lot of sites like this. Just check out the posts on the Complaints Board.

There are so many deceptive practices on the Internet. A lot of them are pure scams, but the sites like the one above cover their you know whats by putting disclaimers or confusing wording on their sites so when the customers dispute the charges they can claim the customer was notified in advance. So while these sites are not actually illegal, they are in cahoots with sites that are certainly out to scam the customer.