TV Sports on Your Computer! Paralympics Have Started

I mentioned a few days ago the Paralympics are being televised from Torino Italy. - I found out through an online friend whose son is a Paralympian on the U.S. sled-hockey team.

- Alexi Salamone -

Note the blade he is sitting on. Not only do the players have to whack the puck across the ice they have to do it while balancing the sled on that narrow blade

The paralympics have been running for 30 years now. I think it is amazing that we can watch the ceremony and sporting events through our computers. Narrowstep.TV is playing 100 hours of the events. - 10MAR06 to 19MAR06 -

Might need to use IE or get plug ins for Firefox...

Click here to view the Paralympics or click on the title above.

To learn more about the Paralympics
Click here to check out their home page.

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Online Porn Addicts Be Aware of this

Ted Richardson of Fraud, Phishing and Financial Misdeeds reports:

Quinn Norton of Wired News and Boing Boing are reporting that one of the major processors for "adult services" has compromised millions of their customer's personal information.

"Seventeen million customers of the online payment service iBill have had their personal information released onto the internet, where it's been bought and sold in a black market made up of fraud artists and spammers, security experts say."

"The stolen data, examined by Wired News, includes names, phone numbers, addresses, e-mail addresses and internet IP addresses. Other fields in the compromised databases appear to be logins and passwords, credit-card types and purchase amounts, but credit-card numbers are not included."

Good idea to click on the link to get the full story! AND CHECK YOUR CREDIT STATEMENTS!

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Jury Duty - Income Tax - FBI ScamsDon't Fall For It!

I received a call from a young lady at a concerned financial institution that had sent me some information I had applied for. They wanted to know if I had dealt with it yet. I said, "No." and was asked if I wanted to handle it right then and there over the phone. I said, "No. I never transact financial affairs over the phone." - The young lady's voice changed a bit and as she was thanking me, etc. I could tell she did not appreciate my philosophy. I guess not. If everyone said that she would be out of a job.

While it is not quite true that, 'I NEVER transact financial affairs over the phone', I try to stick to it up to a point. I try to remember if the call is incoming it could be anybody on the phone. Sort of like being in an online chatroom. You can bet big bucks that 'Sweetguy18' is most likely a 300 pound drooling horny slob and not the college student he claims to be. However I'm certain this young lady was truly with the financial institution. So was I being paranoid?

NO!

I can say this so firmly because my real desire was to hang up so I could continue watching a TV show. I wasn't being paranoid. I was being self-centered.

This morning I get an email with this:

Most of us take those summons for jury duty seriously, but enough people skip out on their civic duty, that a new and ominous kind of scam has surfaced. Fall for it and your identity could be stolen, reports CBS.

In this con, someone calls pretending to be a court official who threateningly says a warrant has been issued for your arrest because you didn't show up for jury duty. The caller claims to be a jury coordinator. If you protest that you never received a summons for jury duty, the scammer asks you for your Social Security number and date of birth so he or she can verify the information and cancel the arrest warrant.
Sometimes they even ask for credit card numbers. Give out any of this information and bingo! Your identity just got stolen.
.......
Check it out here: - Snopes - Jury Duty Fraud -

I love this type of email because it gives a link to a place I trust to back it up. Of course Nigerian scam letters too can have links to back up the stories they tell.
- Hello! My name is Mrs Dead Rich Guy and this is a link to the news story I'm currently using in my scam... -

Is it chance, luck, fate or the Hand of A Higher Power that had this email sent to me at a time when I was mentally torn about what to post on? I could have posted on so many things. The DPW Port Deal falling through. The poll on Bush's approval ratings.
How to connive $5 from your kid. The list goes on.

This jury duty note is real good because it reminds us that strangers calling on the phone may not be who they say they are. The same sort of scam is used saying the caller is with the IRS and the FBI.

Snopes.com has some great advice that everyone in the country should know by now but apparently not because the scams still work. If they didn't work the con artists would stop using them. - Use the following guidelines for ALL types of incoming calls. -

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

How to Avoid Falling Victim to 'Jury Duty' Scams:

* Court workers will not telephone to say you've missed jury duty or that they are assembling juries and need to pre-screen those who might be selected to serve on them, so dismiss as fraudulent phones call of this nature. About the only time you would hear by telephone (rather than by mail) about anything having to do with jury service would be after you have mailed back your completed questionnaire, and even then only rarely.

*** The FBI will not call claiming you have broken some law either. They will just beat your front door in. ***

* Do not give out bank account, social security, or credit card numbers over the phone if you didn't initiate the call, whether it be to someone trying to sell you something or to someone who claims to be from a bank or government department. If such callers insist upon "verifying" such information with you, have them read the data to you from their notes, with you saying yea or nay to it rather than the other way around.

* Examine your credit card and bank account statements every month, keeping an eye peeled for unauthorized charges. Immediately challenge items you did not approve.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



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Abortions vs. Sonograms

The Median Sib has a wonderful post entitled Abortion Rights vs. Sonograms. In it Carol says:

quote - When looking at a pregnant woman's abdomen, it's hard to visualize a baby underneath all those layers of skin and tissue. A sonogram makes it real. After seeing with clarity the baby's features, there is no denying the human life that is there.
~~~~~
"We've had babies wave. ... We've had babies smile. We've had babies suck their thumb. If they've had a little bit of caffeine, they're jumping around," said Frost, the center's nurse manager.

Kim Conroy, Sanctity of Human Life director for Focus on the Family, says two-thirds of the women who view their fetuses on an ultrasound machine at a pregnancy resource center end up rejecting abortion.
~~~~~
I can understand that. Once a woman realizes that it isn't a "fetus" but a real, live, active baby in there, abortion suddenly becomes not such a welcome choice.

However, some abortion-rights activists have opposed the use of sonograms. These are the people who claim they want women to make informed decisions. Instead of wanting to make sure that women who choose to abort their baby understand fully the ramifications of their decision, they claim that the use of sonograms puts inappropriate pressure on women.
~~~~~
"It's a manipulative tool," said Ginny Copenhefer, a former lobbyist with the Kentucky Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. "I don't think it's fair to heap guilt on them because they feel they have to terminate a pregnancy. That's just the most cruel form of abuse that I can imagine."

prying1 sez: Please go read Carols post. She says it all and I can add nothing to it.


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Dubai Ports World Occupation of U.S. Terminals

I've finally decided that the DP World use of U.S. ports is not an evil that will come back to bite us in the butts. I've been leaning that way for a while now. Mainly because I find myself arguing in favor of it every time I talk to anyone about it. Most people in this country are woefully uninformed about both sides of the issue. Of course most people in this country are woefully uninformed about a lot of things (including yours truly).

Cruising about the blogosphere I came across "I don't need a Tuxedo" who put a lot of the entire affair into a perspective that I felt comfortable with. Check his post - Port Security Tango -

'I Don't Need a Tuxedo' and I differ on many points in politics (including his bit re: Iraq at the end of his DPW post) our agreement on this matter shows how 'across the line' this subject is. I totally agree with him re: the politicos using it to show
they are tough on terrorism.

Quote - Now we're faced with a slew of bills from bipartisan but opportunistic legislators, all of whom want to score some political points by appearing "tough on security." What they'll actually end up doing is making us look even more ridiculous to foreign countries by making it clear that we don't think it's safe to do business with the A-Arabs. They'll discourage foreign investment, doing further harm to our struggling economy, while not doing anything to make us substantively more safe.

Hey! Representatives! How about focusing all of that energy on legislation to actually improve security at those ports? - end quote -

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STOP BELIEVING THE MSM!

Wandered over to AubreyJ's again today. He had the following from the
U.S. Department of Defense
written By Jim Garamone,
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, March 7, 2006 - The will of the American people is the center of gravity for the war on terror, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said during a Pentagon news conference today.

Exaggerated reporting is giving the American people a false picture of what is happening in Iraq, the secretary said. "Interestingly, all of the exaggerations seem to be on one side," he said. "It isn't as though there simply have been a series of random errors on both sides of issues. On the contrary, the steady stream of errors, all seem to be of a nature to inflame the situation and to give heart to the terrorists and to discourage those who hope for success in Iraq."

Rumsfeld pointed to reporting that exaggerated the number of mosques attacked and the number of Iraqis killed in the violence that followed the bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra Feb. 22.

Fomenting a civil war was the impetus behind bombing the sacred shrine, and press stories exaggerating the violence that followed played into terrorists' hands, he said. "It has been and remains a time of testing for the Iraqi people, but the Iraqis are meeting that test thus far successfully, I would say, and defying the seeming rush to ... proclaim exactly what the terrorists seek, namely a civil war," he said.

We can add this to the list of MSM nonsense over the years.

• Clinton was impeached over a personal matter = He lied under oath.
  
• Tried to brush off AlGores collection of money from Buddhist nuns.
  
• Tried to smear lies on Schwartzenegger two days before the California Governor's election
  
• Bush lied about WMD's = he was misinformed as was every other world leader.
  
• Rathergate Memo Forgery - (and he was allowed to quit when he still has not admitted it was a forgery)
  
• Eason Jordon
  
• Katrina victims are being raped and murdered in the stadium.
  
• No "exit strategy" from Iraq
  
• Ignoring Louisianna local and state complicity in Katrina and shoveling it onto the fed level.
  
• Levees were breeched and Bush did not stop it.
  
• Only half the story about the Dubai Ports World renting container terminals on the eastern seaboard.
  
• Only half the story about what is really going on in the war against terrorism.
  
• Only half the story about what is going on in Iraq.
  
• POLLS!
  

prying1 sez: - I find it disgusting that these people running the MSM continually mislead their customers with only one side of so many issues. They take a poll and skew the contents with misleading questions and then only report the results they like. What this country needs is a good lawyer (space for a joke here) that is willing to set up a class action lawsuit against these jokers for fraud!

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Dubai Ports World Deal Not Settled In My Mind

There are still two sides to the issue on the Dubai World Ports (DWP) deal. Should an Arab country be given the rights to operate 11 shipping terminals at six American seaports. -

The way it was first reported it seemed that the entire oceanfront would be owned by Muslum countries. Now to me it looks more like they are, in effect, renting the dockspace so their ships have priority in loading and unloading. I'm still not sure where I stand on it. They (DPW) are being given praises and condemnations that seem to cancel each other out but most of the condemnations are for pre 9-11 causes.

The main problem I have with the country, United Arab Emirates, which owns the majority stock in DPW is it's relationship (or lack thereof) with Israel. This however I do not think is a reason to stand against the deal. Much as I find it reprehensible I think that it should not enter into the debate.

The only problem I see is that some terrorist sycophant working for DPW could pass on sensitive info to terrorists. Which ship is loaded with explosives and the best time to blow it up. All else seems moot to me and is based on emotion rather than fact. Would this deal make it easier for this to happen? How easy is it now even if we do not have the deal in place or if it never comes to fruition?

Employees at any current port operations company might be swayed by money, idealism or threats to pass on info without this deal going through. There are no guarantees as it now stands. Could Dubai Ports World at the helm of operations at 11 terminals on the eastern seaboard give us any less guarantees or even put us on the minus side?

Hugh Hewitt has posted quite a bit about this issue and had several people from both sides giving their views on his radio show. Good arguments from both sides. He has this posted which I think brings some of it into focus.

- Quote - Here is the argument from the security lobby:


There are two categories of assets/businesses in the United States: those that have no or little bearing on the nation's security, and those that do.


Generally speaking, all nations that are not enemies of the U.S. are welcomed to invest in the former (no or little bearing). We encourage our allies to do so, even those allies with whom we have deep foreign policy differences on such matters as the boycott of Israel. The country is committed to free trade and the global economy, and that commitment is not subject to suspension over particular differences in foreign policy, even on such a crucial matter as trade with Israel. The boycott of Israel is not for us a national security issue.


Assets/businesses in the latter category are different. Defense contractors and their wares, strategic resources and the companies that develop them, some supercomputing businesses etc. --these sorts of assets/businesses are not open to market purchases, as the very existence of CFIUS (Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States) attests.


The first question is: Are port operations in the first or the second category. I, and most of the country, assumes that even though security at the ports is the duty of the Coast Guard, that nevertheless these are operations in the second category because they are border functions. After the attack on the Cole we became aware of the possibilities of port terrorism. After 9/11 we became aware that terrorists are willing to think way outside of the box and competent enough to carry out such schemes. Since 9/11 there have bulletins of alert focused on ports and a variety of stories about slips in port security and warnings that ports are our weakest link.
- end quote - See Hugh's entire post here -

prying1 sez: At this point my brain gets fuzzy and wants to shut down. - All I can think to do is to pray and ask the Living God to help those in power to make the decisions that come to the right choice.

Reminds me of the time a friend said, "Has it come to this? Should we pray about it?"

His point being that we should have been praying all along...



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Good News From Iraq!

Moseyed on over to AubreyJ's blog tonight and found this bit of news.

"I felt an urge to join after viewing the Nick Berg story on the news," said Pfc. David Henry, Co. B, 1-87 Inf. "One year later, here I am with my platoon and we've captured murderers of innocent people." Berg was an American contractor in Iraq who'd been captured and killed by terrorists.

And, on Feb. 25, soldiers from the battalion's Company C found a large weapons cache. Officials said that Iraqis no longer willing to tolerate terrorists in their neighborhoods - had provided the Americans with the cache's location.

The soldiers discovered weapons buried in an empty field a few miles west of Baghdad. Along with bomb-making equipment the cache yielded five rocket-propelled grenade launchers, 19 rocket-propelled grenades, 20 mortars, eight rockets, 21 grenades and some explosives.

Soldiers from Special Troops Battalion, 1st BCT, 10th Mountain Division destroyed the weapons in a controlled explosion.

"This is a big source of motivation for our soldiers," said Staff Sgt. Douglas Batchko, who led the search that revealed the cache. "Finding and destroying weapons caches like these marks a huge blow to the insurgency."

prying1 sez: - The insurgency is loosing and this means democracy is winning. Iraqis no longer willing to tolerate terrorists in their neighborhoods is a good sign but where is this in the MSM news? Iraqis have been turning in the bad guys for a long time now. Praise God!

The bad guys know they are loosing and that is why the Golden Mosque was destroyed. In the long run that hurt the terrorists even more!
~~~~~
Pray for out troops!
~~~~~
- Also check out the free song AubreyJ showed us the link to at Heroes In Our Midst - Words and Music by Dick Eastman -

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