I’ve done a little searching around and I have found a true gem of a website!!! I love this site!!! It’s WhyCall.Me. It’s a website where we can search the phone numbers of the calls we get, to see if these numbers are telemarketers or from real companies. I found out that one person who keeps calling me was not a telemarketer– they were from the medical office needing to make an appointment. At the WhyCall.Me website, we have a voice. We can search for numbers, leave a comment to help others know if the call is a fraud, and more. It’s a very good resource to bookmark.

WhyCall.Me also has some great resources to help you combat unwanted calls. Some of them are pretty humorous. I love the Top 14 Ways to Annoy a Telemarketer (only 14, huh? lol). I especially like #7 and #9.

There’s also information on current known scams, how to file complaints with the governing authorities, how to deal with harassing calls and SMS spam (a VERY good article), how to report phone numbers and how to get “reverse phone number” information. I am now the “official” spam and telemarketing expert in the family, believe me! I highly recommend this site.

It’s time to FIGHT BACK against the onslaught of unwanted calls and texts. I have had enough!!!! How about you?

I am currently unhappy with our existing “Big Box” health insurance coverage. We almost never use it, except for eye exams and dental exams. The coverage for vision and dental is horribly ludicrous, too. We’re only allowed ONE eye exam every year and ONE pair of glasses every other year. That’s it. And the glasses are covered up to $40. That’s it. Um, hello, Mr. HMO have you seen the cost of glasses?! The frames alone cost $100! And of course, the kids can only choose frames from a certain brand, etc etc. I won’t even go into the lame dental coverage. However, the insurance policies cover IN FULL weird stuff like Viagra, mental health and alcohol abuse stuff, and other things. I wish we could just pick and choose what we wanted. But most health insurance is like cable TV– you’re stuck with the entire package of junk at a super high price.

So I saw with interest this article here: Is Health Insurance Really Worth It? The answer isn’t conclusive. It really, really depends on your lifestyle, your needs, your health and your budget. The article makes the good point that insurance is definitely worth it for a major catastrophe. But that’s the thing– catastrophes are rare. And unexpected. Those “one size fits all” policies are becoming more and more repulsive to me. They are expensive and they do nothing for me. It’s one of the reasons why people flock to alternative companies like Kaiser or other groups. They can get temporary plans, too, something my Big Box HMO does not have. Hmmm.

What do you think? Do you think health insurance is worth it? Would you shop around for a better deal or hoard it all in your own for an emergency?

We’ve slowly incorporated more cell phones now that the kids are older. We now have five cell phones and one VoIP phone, and I’ve really enjoyed the relative quiet. Before, our landline would literally ring off the hook with calls from telemarketers and bill collectors. But the calls weren’t for us- they were for the people who had our phone number before us. Apparently, those folks had bad financial problems. When their debt collection calls got too pervasive, they ditched the number and got a new one.

…and our lovely telephone company promptly dumped that old number onto us. Sweet. Fun. SO now I was not only getting calls for OUR telemarketers, I was getting calls for THEIR telemarketers and debt collectors. My heart would always skip a beat when the phone rang. I discussed with my phone company how we could stop collection harassment for good from these calls, and the company said they’d give us a new number… but this would be our THIRD number because the one we had previously was bad, too! So we ditched our landline altogether and got a funky VoIP (Internet phone) number and I got the kids cell phones. The silent bliss lasted a few months and it was wonderful. But since September, we’ve all been bombarded with calls. Solicitors, wrong numbers, even some stop collection harassment California requests or some such stuff.

I’d heard about some Do Not Call list that the government maintains. I did a little research and found out that, according to the DoNotCall.gov website,

The National Do Not Call Registry gives you an opportunity to limit the telemarketing calls you receive. Once you register your phone number, telemarketers covered by the National Do Not Call Registry have up to 31 days from the date you register to stop calling you.

Now correct me if I am wrong, but I thought cell phone numbers did not need to be placed on the list. Isn’t it illegal for telemarketers to call us on our cell phones? We get so many calls so often that I would consider it harassment.

Anyway, I put all our numbers on the list. I find it very discouraging that we have to go to such extremes to opt out of such things. Junk mail is another thing. Why aren’t we all just “opted out” automatically? Well, we all know the answer to that: because NO ONE would ever sign up!

Here’s more information about the DO Not Call list that you may find interesting or helpful:

• After you sign up, telemarketers have 31 days to remove your number from their list.
• Charities, political organizations, and businesses with whom you have done commerce are exempt from the Do Not Call list. A business can keep calling you for 18 months after your last purchase! And if you sign up to “win” products, these companies have permission to call you because you voluntarily released your phone number. I always believed that those “contests” promising new windows, new siding, new cars, and new shoes are more like information farms that harvest your data for marketing later.
• Your phone numbers in the Do Not Call registry are “shared” with law enforcement to “assure compliance with federal and state law.”
• The Do Not Call registry applies to telemarketers calling from within the U.S. and from foreign countries. So, even telemarketers from Russia or China are not supposed to call you. How the U.S. government is able to enforce that, I don’t know.
• If your number has been on the list for more than 31 days and you are receiving telemarketing calls, you can file a complaint with the government at DoNotCall.gov.

Hello, it was 11 IN THE MORNING on Thanksgiving Day!!!

I’ve done the “Black Friday” thing. I got up at 4am to stand in line for 2 hours in the freezing cold. Even though there was a loooong line ahead of me, I still waited. The doors opened at 6am and BANG people rushed to the doors. By the time I got inside, everything was gone. Never doing that again. What a waste.

But still, let’s say you have tons of time on your hands and, say, you REALLY REALLY need a new 50-inch plasma TV. I mean, the necessities of life, right?! Hey, if I REALLY REALLY needed a plasma TV, I guess I would wait in line, too. But I’ve never needed one, nor do I foresee EVER needing one.

Anyway, I was pretty surprised to see folks lining up in front of stores already. Wow. These folks have got a long wait, and in here in New York State, it can get pretty cold outside, after dark.

I don’t have anything against Black Friday, per se. It’s good to save money, and if it is worth your time to wait in line– hey, that’s cool. But I do not like Thanksgiving Day being marginalized. It’s supposed to be a holy day, a day when we publicly and personally give God thanks for the amazing blessings He’s given to us. No, Thanksgiving Day is not the day we give thanks for the Indians saving the Pilgrims’ skins, as nice as that was. It’s God’s day. He deserves it.

So as much as I think it’s great to save money, I greatly dislike the commercialization of yet another holiday. Marketers have already wrecked Christmas, blown Halloween WAY out of proportion, and now they want to scarf up my Thanksgiving holiday?! Must the money lovers encroach on our holiest national holiday of the year?! :hmph:

Abortion is a “hot” topic these days. I am against it abortion. It’s killing a baby. Murder is never acceptable. Some people say abortion should be allowed because society has “no right” to tell others what to do. That’s a poor excuse for murder. Society tells us what to do ALL THE TIME. To stop at the traffic lights, to not engage in prostitution, to not steal from the bank, to not kill off your grandmother or your sister.

I have thought about abortion for many, many years. Some say abortion is OK because that fetus is not “life.” They compare a scrambled egg with a fetus, but that’s a deception. For one, a chicken egg is UNFERTILIZED. A fetus is the result of fertilization. Secondly, a fetus is not a blob of tissue. By the age of SIX WEEKS, the baby already has eyes, limbs, a beating heart and measurable brain waves. Most abortions occur between the 6th and 9th weeks.

Abortion also makes me very angry. You see, abortion was made legal in my lifetime. In the first 35 years since Roe v. Wade, over 55 million of MY PEERS have been erased from the earth. These are people I would have known, laughed with, enjoyed my life with. Then the older generation has the GALL to complain that there are not enough workers in my generation to support Social Security. WHAT THE ****??? You killed them off, buddy!

If you saw the video, you saw that people are SO QUICK to judge this issue without really thinking deeply about it. Abortion is a serious issue. It is a shame that it is legal in this country. A SHAME. And don’t go giving me excuses about rape and incest and the coat hanger. I’ve heard it all. Did you know that there are almost 2 million babies aborted in this country EVERY DAY? That’s not rape and incest, people. The most likely candidate for abortions are upper-middle class girls under the age of 25 who abort because they are not married and a baby will interfere with their plans. Of course, it’s the girls who always bear the brunt of it, don’t they? Where are the men, supporting their women that they so proudly and easily knocked up?

Anyway, I’ve written countless letters to the editor, articles, debated with people…. there’s no denying that life begins at conception. That ending the innocent life — for whatever reason, supposedly good or bad — is murder. And that abortion is wrong. A society that accepts murder of a certain type of person is barbaric and is in danger of unraveling into chaos. Abortion is bad all around.

And you never hear from the baby, do you? Do you think that baby wants to be born? Sorry for being so vehement and ranting, but I’ve hashed this issue over for decades and I’m very passionate about it. The facts just don’t change. Who will stand up and defend the babies? I don’t get any personal gain from this and politically, I have some libertarian strain in me. I’m not trying to dictate people’s lives! I don’t like getting insults and threats (yes, I’ve been threatened before). But these are innocent babies we’re talking about!

Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless. -Isaiah 10: 1-2

The caller left a voicemail, so she played it and we listened. True irony, my friends. This was the message:

Hi this is senator —- calling with an important message. I have always felt that it is important to be accessible to communicate with my constituents throughout my district….

:blink:

OK, in the senator’s defense, he did eventually leave an address and phone number at the end of the voicemail. But we got tickly ribs when we saw the number was “withheld” and the first thing the message talked about was accessibility!

Irony, Take Two

Just watch the first 45 seconds of this video. It’s just TOO funny!!!

:blink:

Well, funny for a second. After that, I got pretty mad. :rollpin:

Can you believe that the media will actually list poll results for Number 1, Number 3 and Number 4 and TOTALLY disregard Number 2 because the media disagrees with the candidate?! How can they get away with this?!

Have any of you heard of Ron Paul??? I think it’s a very scathing, dangerous thing for the media to censor stuff like that. They are all doing it, too. You practically need prescription glasses to read the tiny mouse print in the newspapers where they may mention this unknown guy named Ron Paul. But in most cases, there’s a media blackout about him. It’s nothing short of an encroachment on our right to know. SHAME ON THE MEDIA!

There I was, innocently scrolling through the headlines: our nation’s economy on the verge of default… mmhmm…. president taking vacation #875 for the year… mhmmm…. Russia and China making rhetorical threats…. mmhmmmm…. Americans beating each other up over parking spaces…. hmmmm….

THEN I SEE THE HEADLINE.

Is this FOR REAL?? Are these people nuts?!

Aliens may destroy humanity to protect other civilisations, say scientists

It’s from a UK news site. It wouldn’t be promoted here because it might give Americans something to do besides beat each other up over parking spaces…..

It may not rank as the most compelling reason to curb greenhouse gases, but reducing our emissions might just save humanity from a pre-emptive alien attack, scientists claim.

Watching from afar, extraterrestrial beings might view changes in Earth’s atmosphere as symptomatic of a civilisation growing out of control – and take drastic action to keep us from becoming a more serious threat, the researchers explain.

This highly speculative scenario is one of several described by a Nasa-affiliated scientist and colleagues at Pennsylvania State University that, while considered unlikely, they say could play out were humans and alien life to make contact at some point in the future.

Shawn Domagal-Goldman of Nasa’s Planetary Science Division and his colleagues compiled a list of plausible outcomes that could unfold in the aftermath of a close encounter, to help humanity “prepare for actual contact”.

WHOA WHOA WHOA. Let’s focus on a few key words here:

pre-emptive alien attack
scientists claim
highly speculative scenario
described by a NASA-affiliated scientist
a list of plausible outcomes
prepare for actual contact

Someone tell me how you can have a “highly speculative scenario” and a list of “plausible outcomes”?

Don’t people have enough video games and movies to keep them entertained?

Why are these guys even bringing this up?
Have there been any conclusive evidences of alien contact?
No.
Have there been any evidences of alien life?
No.
Any evidence of alien life on other plants?
No.
Any evidence that any the zillions of planets we’ve seen can support life?
No.
Heck, is there any real evidence that global warming is from human activity?
No.

This is insane, illogical, makes the brain of any person living in real life go tilt. So they are basically saying: This whole fairy tale that we’ve invented may or may not appear out of thin air, but we should at least THINK that it might happen because we want to be in control whether it does or does not.

The story is written in a way that literally brainwashes you as if real life is a movie or video game. Trilby, Trilby…. Consider the possibilities of absolutely nothing happening…

The dead ringer for the intent of this “highly speculative scenario” is in the final sentence of the news story:

Even if we never make contact with extraterrestrials, the report argues that considering the potential scenarios may help to plot the future path of human civilisation, avoid collapse and achieve long-term survival.

WHY the heck should we consider and plan for something that will never happen, especially when there are so many other things to do???

And avoid collapse of human civilization?!?! What collapse? Are they expecting something to happen?

Unreal.

10. I was taken to too many games by my parents when I was a kid.

9. I suspect that I was sitting next to some hypocrites, because instead of paying attention to the game, they were talking to friends the whole time!

8. It seems the games are always scheduled when I want to do other things, like go to church.

7. The band played numbers I’d never heard before, not the good old fight songs.

6. I went to a lot of games but the coach never bothered to thank me!

5. The referees made decisions I couldn’t agree with! I don’t attend ball games, I hate ball games!

4. Often the game goes into overtime or extra innings, and I’d be late getting home.

3. The seats are too hard and uncomfortable, so I don;t attend ballgames.

2. The people I sat next to didn’t seem so friendly, so I don’t go to ballgames anymore.

All these seem like lame excuses, don’t they? Nothing but bad reasoning — lies — for not attending churc– er, ballgames.

And finally, the NUMBER ONE reason why I don’t attend ballgames….

***drum roll***

1. Every time I went they asked for money!

Thanks to Todd Friel from Wretched Radio for this one. ;) Dude, you rock.

In case you didn’t hear, Verizon– my telephone carrier as well as my Internet service provider– was hacked into. The *only* thing the creeps stole were email addresses, house addresses and other “harmless” information.

:rants: Harmless, my eye! I don’t care for ANYONE to have that information! Hello! Why do I pay Verizon money to keep my name, address and phone number unlisted?!

Then, Verizon gets this idiotic idea to merge our email addresses with our telephone account and online bill pay! I can’t believe it!!!! :rage: Are these people absolute dummies?? Why are they making us LESS secure while at the same time our information is out there in God-knows whose hands??

I’m ranting because I got three phishing emails today, in a matter of hours. I can spot them *pretty* easily. One of them was for Adobe Acrobat (“click here to update!”) and another few were for Skype. Rrrrright, buddy, like I’m gonna click your link.

So I went to the Verizon website to file a phishing report. They have an email address where you can forward the phishing emails, so they can investigate. So I sent all three. Guess what Verizon sent me?

The following recipient(s) cannot be reached:

phishing@verizonwireless.com on 5/30/2011 12:34 PM
550 5.7.1 The message you attempted to send was determined to be spam.

Well, GOLLY GEE. DUHHHH!!!!

I’m seriously thinking of going to Time Warner, folks. But I hear they’re just as bad….

In the past, I never really believed I needed any kind of identity theft protection, but now I am thinking again. It’s getting too, TOO common, folks. I did have identity theft about 6 years ago. Some creep had hacked into my bank account and took money out. I spent untold hours filling forms and reports with the police and the attorney general and a slew of other suits. I have no idea even anyone even did anything.

And of course I, like zillions of fellow Americans, have had my credit card and personal information stolen several times. I just can’t believe how easy it is for hackers to simply steal everything. Identity Hawk is sure looking good, I tell ya. *sigh*

Apparently, their funding has been hit.

The Mountain View, California, Allen Telescope Array has been switched off and placed into hibernation, as of April 22, 2011.

SETI has always been the brunt of the most hilarious and brutal attacks in our household. I always thought it was the stupidest thing (especially because there is no evidence for extraterrestrial life) and was a taxpayer’s money pit.

According to the MercuryNews.com story:

“There is a huge irony,” said SETI Director Jill Tarter, “that a time when we discover so many planets to look at, we don’t have the operating funds to listen.”

SETI senior astronomer Seth Shostak compared the project’s suspension to “the Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria being put into dry dock. “… This is about exploration, and we want to keep the thing operational. It’s no good to have it sit idle.

“We have the radio antennae up, but we can’t run them without operating funds,” he added. “Honestly, if everybody contributed just 3 extra cents on their 1040 tax forms, we could find out if we have cosmic company.”

Oh BOO HOO!! :whyohwhy:

Here, leezard, leezard, leezard...

The problem isn’t that SETI wants 3 extra cents… it’s that EVERYBODY wants 3 extra cents to run their pet projects. If aliens are REALLY out there, let THEIR alien people pay through the snouts for SETI satellites. As for me, I’d rather NOT talk to an alien. Didn’t anybody see the 80′s TV series “V”?! :egads:

But most of all, we should be searching for intelligent life here ON EARTH, because it seems to be getting rarer and rarer…