Insecure Banking

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I wrote a letter to one of my banks regarding the deplorable security of their online banking system. Then I scrapped it because I thought it was too mean and wrote another one. Here it is:


One of the concerns of the website I run is about security, be it personal or electronic, and I was wondering, is there was someone I could conduct a short email interview with for an article I'm writing about online bank security in the modern age?

As you're no doubt aware, electronic crime is on the rise, and banks everywhere are scrambling to keep ahead of the crooks, who are finding all kinds of new ways to break in and steal money, often without leaving much of a trace.


One of the earliest ways they broke in was by doing "brute force" attacks to find user accounts and passwords. It takes a single computer about a day to hack a password of only 8 characters, and only a few minutes if limited to letters and numbers. Some criminals have access to parallel networks of thousands of computers, which can crack otherwise strong 8 character passwords in about 5 minutes or less, which means a network of crackers can extract the passwords for 3000 banking customers in under 2 weeks. Despite this obvious gaping hole in security, many banks refuse to upgrade their passwords to defeat this, making them a class-action suit waiting to happen.

I've heard that the weak security is so the bank can still crack the passwords of its users if they "have to", but what valid reason there could be, I'd like to ask.

Lately, banks have started implementing "secret questions", which are about as secret as asking what color the sky is. Perhaps you remember the Paris Hilton scandal. Though it may cut down slightly on the random, massive thefts, it doesn't stop criminals from focusing on a big payday customer, finding out all the publicly available information about their target, and then answering the "secret questions", which only ever seem to ask for publicly available information. People with an ax to grind also find this very easy security to bypass and ruin the life of their enemy.

Things like "sister's middle name" or "grandmother's maiden name" or "street you grew up on" and so forth, are all easily available to anyone willing to invest $20 in any ad that shows up on the WhitePages.com site. (Which is to say, those online stalking websites which allow you to get information about anyone.)

My questions entail wanting to know what proactive steps your institution is taking to safeguard their customers' money and personal information against theft, and whether you plan on taking such steps before or after a preventable theft results in a massive class-action suit which holds your board of directors personally responsible and has them jailed and bankrupted for gross incompetence.

For instance, your institution only allows passwords of up to 8 characters, and I cannot use symbols. It would take a cracker just a few minutes to break into my account. In contrast, Microsoft's minimum password security standard recommends 14 character passwords made of upper and lower case, numbers, and symbols; doing so yields passwords which require many years of effort to crack.

Why doesn't your institution allow users to have secure passwords if they want them? Security questions are often used to bypass forgotten passwords, and so they need to be approximately as secure as passwords; when will your institution no longer require that users use publicly available information like names of family members and residence addresses for these questions? Is it true that banks regularly hack the accounts of their own users? Is it true that the personal information gained for security questions is used to target advertising? Is the database of security questions itself protected by more than a simple 8 character password? Is there some law which prevents banking customers from suing the CEO and Board of Directors personally for gross negligence regarding the security of their accounts?

Thank you very much for your assistance in directing me to the person I need to talk to about this article. I'm very interested in getting all my facts straight before publishing articles, and your institution's assistance is much appreciated.


I never sent this, since it's still a little too mean. I did, however, close that account so I wouldn't get hacked.

The worries behind it, though, are still valid. Why would a bank prevent you from having a properly secure password? I realize not all customers WANT secure passwords, since they're a hassle, but for those who DO want them, why deny them?

As mentioned above, if you have a password like "hello", that can be cracked in SECONDS. Even one like "7&tND0=q" will take a few minutes. The more characters you use, and the more characters you have to choose from, the harder it is to crack. This goes up very quickly, such that a proper 16 character password can take millenia for a cracking farm to break. Check out this tool to help you make secure passwords. And here's additional information about passwords; If you don't get something, just skip to the next section.

Check your online banking passwords and make sure they are larger than 8 characters, and that they have numbers and symbols in them. If your bank doesn't allow this minimum level of security, you might want to consider keeping your money elsewhere before someone else decides to keep your money elsewhere.

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Sunday Funnies 11-10-30

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It's funny: I started out this month thinking I had enough stuff to do two posts per week, and I could probably keep up that pace for a while, maybe throw a third article in there once in a while. Then I decided to add the Facebook page (LIKE it, or I'll give you a cat!) and kept bumping into some really good stories to share and things to talk about, so I've been posting FOUR articles a week and even feeling like that's not enough. Before too long, I may hit that magical seven per week, just you wait! If I can drop 60-some pounds with almost no effort, I can find a way to get a new article written every day. Of course, that pushed the book back, but that's okay, it can wait a few more days.

The site's numbers keep climbing faster and faster. Exciting! October was our biggest month yet, with the record being broken just a few days ago, leaving this last week as gravy to get the bar up there even higher for next time. If this keeps up, by the end of the year, we'll be hitting 35,000 visitors in the past 18 months!

And tomorrow is Halloween! Everyone got your candy and your costumes ready?

Here's some more stuff that happened last week; pay close attention:

Stimulus Money Used to Employ Foreign Guest Workers Instead of Americans

All sides should agree: down with the Big Banks - Most of our Founding Fathers warned us about them. Shoulda listened!

A new way to buy real influence - Like politicians need even MORE ways to embezzle without us knowing.

New York cops defy order to arrest hundreds of ‘Occupy Albany’ protesters

Not all GOP candidates opposed to Occupy Movement - There is one with his country's best interests at heart.

OWS's Beef: Wall Street Isn't Winning, It's Cheating

Iraq veteran hit with police projectile during Occupy Oakland demonstration - In the days since, a lot has happened, but here's the original report.

Ten Reasons Not to Bank On (or With) Bank of America - See if their list matches up with your list.

Denver PD hospitalize protester: Occupy Together - The scary thing is most of these police brutality events are inflicted on people who aren't even protesting, they're just there observing!

That's all for this week. Still cranking out plenty of articles, so keep checking the site daily, and if you haven't done it yet, you've still got a chance to be among the first 100 people to click the LIKE button or become a follower. Hurry, this offer won't last much longer!

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You are a Peter

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A system which robs Peter to pay Paul will always have Paul's support. What the majority of people don't realize is who Peter and Paul are in this story, or why Paul thinks he needs money.

The richest 1% own the media. They also own the governing bodies. Why? Because they have more money than the other 99% put together. Is that really equality under the law? (Hint: No, it's not.) For hundreds of years, the common man has fought for his right to be heard. God-emperors were toppled, Kings eliminated, Tsars banished, and so forth, because the public at large wants to be treated fairly by the law. Equal justice should be available to all who work for it, not just to those rich enough to corrupt the system.



All this control they have gives them the power to do anything they want. And they DO anything they want. The only time a rich person gets in trouble with the law is when another rich person wants him to take a fall.

I don't know about your country, but in mine, a little over 200 years ago, we fought to be free of such tyranny. We fought again four score and seven years later to be free of the tyranny of chattel slavery. And again, another four score of years later, we put down a tyranny which threatened the globe. But tyranny is an insidious thing. Every time you give one man power over others without also keeping power over him - by holding him accountable for his actions and punishing his crimes - you create a tyrant who will not rest until he has taken control of everything.

A new tyrant is lording his power over us, and it's high time we topple him before a war is required to do it.

A lot of noise is being made about bullies in schools, and I've seen people who say that they stand up to bullies. And yet, few people actually stand up to the real bullies, the ones who are doing their level best to enrich themselves at the cost of our lives.

It's time we stop being Peters and stand up for what's right.

I'm not really interested in becoming a serf. How about you?

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Road Trip 3 - Meeting Wyatt Earp

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The legend of Wyatt Earp begins in Dodge City, which is in south-central Kansas. The "Queen of the Cow Towns," Dodge City was a nexus for enormous cattle drives heading to markets like Chicago. Earp's history before then was rather speckled and inglorious, but in Dodge he started to make a name for himself, and the city celebrates that.

The first time I drove through Dodge City was in a truck. I happened upon a pull-over next to a huge cattleyard, so I stopped and took some pictures. Seemed to me, both while I was there and after I drove past the bypass, that there was nothing much to see in Dodge except a fancy town sign, that cattleyard, and a bunch of cattle-carriers filling the lot of a local truckstop which, at the time, served large, locally grown steaks. But later, I had another chance to go through town and discovered I'd been deceived. There's a whole, thriving, modern town to be found, not to mention a tourist trap around the original Boot Hill! I couldn't stop then, but some day, I could come back. That day was today. (You know what I mean.)


We departed Oklahoma City bright and early and made our way northwest into Kansas. That part of the country is largely cornfields and rolling hills, with the occasional gully thrown in for good measure. I grew up in the flattest part of Indiana, and here in Florida it's at least as flat, so when people tell me states like Kansas and Iowa are flat, I just laugh and think they have no idea what flat is.

Miles and miles of miles and miles is pretty if you haven't seen them in a while; there's a lot of forest and swamp in Florida, not a whole lot of cornfields and such, and the grass is a different color than I'm used to, so it's pretty for the first couple hours. But eventually, one patch of ground looks like another, and road-hypnosis gets you where you're going.

We came in from the south, from where you can tell there's at least some kind of town. We stopped at the truckstop, which has since been bought up by Flying J (which itself has since been taken over by Pilot) hoping to get one of those big steaks I had the first time I came to town. But such was not to be, so we lunched over at the cattleyard and watched that for a while. It's not as boring as you'd think, unless you've never sat down in your life. Fortunately the wind was to our backs too.

Then we went back into town, and lo and behold, it was still a thriving town. When I'd driven through in a truck, I hadn't had the chance to get a good look. I just knew there was some kind of information center and some kind of special building to look at, and the town's style is very quaint on the main street. But now that we had a chance to stop, we discovered it was a full-blown tourist trap! I wanted t take a ride on the tour bus, which would've given us a one hour tour of the most important things to see in the town, but someone was afraid we wouldn't be able to drive 300 miles in under 8 hours on a high speed road, so the most we did was tromp around the area and take some pictures.

We couldn't stay long, so we headed out after almost an hour of looking around. I'll definitely come back one day and ride that tour bus and take my time seeing the town. Who's with me?

There were enough roadside historical markers between Dodge and Pueblo that we would've been stopping every 5-15 minutes most of the time, so since we were in a hurry, we had to pick and choose which ones were worth the stop. For instance, the Santa Fe Trail crossing was very informative.

Every time I come up on the mountains from the east (like what we were doing), I try to challenge myself to figure out from how far away I can spot them. And every time, I don't see them until I'm a lot closer than I think I should be, like about 30 miles away. Before that point, they are just dark shapes on the horizon easily dismissed as being part of the sky. Any snow on the mountains is dismissed as being clouds. For whatever reason, my mind simply can't see them until they're high enough to cause the sun to set an hour early. It's possible that the time of day has something to do with this. It's always the afternoon when I first come upon them, and that means the sun is on the other side, so it's not illuminating the near face any more. That keeps them darker, more sky-like. At least, that's the story I tell everyone who asks, which so far is just you guys.

Finally we made it to Pueblo, Colorado, where we could jump on I-25 and skip on up to Colorado Springs. Unsurprisingly, Sam and Dad had no difficulty figuring out which mountain was Pike's Peak. It was the big one, with the snow on it.

I'll tell you more about it next week.

And if you missed it, here's the start of our journey.

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Selling Ice to Eskimos

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Eskimos live in cold places. They have plenty of ice sitting around, and they can make more any time they want it. Wouldn't it be great, though, if we could sell them our ice? We can carve it out of the same places they get theirs, and then convince them that our ice is better than their ice so they'll buy it from us. The only problem I foresee is that they'll only be able to pay us in fish, and I don't think Walmart takes fish as a payment option for giant-screen TVs, though I could be wrong. Even if they do, I'm not sure what the exchange rate is.

But maybe we can do something equally preposterous. Maybe we can sell water to people who are already paying for a residential water system. We'll bottle it up and sell it for ridiculous prices.

Maybe you're wondering why people would buy our water when it would be so much cheaper and easier for them to simply drink water out of their faucet like they used to do even 10 years ago, or, if they don't like the impurities, why they don't buy a water filter and a reusable container, like a glass or a water bottle.

Simple.



We'll claim it's healthier or tastes better or something. We'll pretend there are advantages to drinking our water. We'll con some celebrity into liking us, and then get them to endorse us to their celebrity friends and all their fans. It's not hard at all, if we simply do it the way the inventors of Scientology did.

We'll use all the same marketing techniques that the soft drink makers use. Essentially we'll equate it in the minds of people to BE soft drinks, except healthier AND cheaper. We'll avoid all comparisons to tap water, because we can't possibly compete with free. The RIAA and MPAA have sued thousands of their own customers for billions of dollars to prove it, so I'm pretty sure it's true. It explains why Windows can dominate the market when they charge hundreds of dollars when Linux is free and no one's ever heard of it. Nope, we're not going to compete with free tap water, so get that unproductive idea out of your head.

By putting ourselves against soft drinks, and being a healthier and cheaper alternative, we can't lose. Before you know it, all those landfills will be full of OUR bottles instead of Coke and Pepsi's bottles.

Where to get this magical water? Why from the same place everyone already gets their water! It's the ultimate irony, selling someone something they're already paying someone else for! We'll filter out the smells and colors, of course, since we say we've got pure water in our bottles, but nothing special; just enough to get the job done so we don't have any complainers saying we're not what we say we are.

With the proper marketing slant, we'll usurp the soft drink empires. It will take some time for this con to take hold, but once it does, the profits will be astronomical!

So, anyone want to invest in a sure thing?

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Sunday Funnies 11-10-23

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Welcome back for our weekly summary of everything important that you can't just scroll down and read! Just eight days to Halloween; do you have your house decorated and your costume designed and your party scheduled? If not, you'd better get it done quick.

We've had a cold snap here in Florida this weekend. Last Friday for my morning walk, it was so cold I felt like my brain was freezing. Still made about 5 miles, but I was miserable doing it. Fortunately it's warming up a little, and yesterday's and today's mornings were slightly less cold, so I'm not worried about Monday.

There were an awful lot of stories I thought were important enough to share over on our associated Facebook page, which you should check out and hit that big LIKE button at the top. So many, in fact, that I felt there was getting to be a bit of information overload, so I didn't share everything I really wanted to. Here are the most important things which happened last week:

86% of Bailout Money Used for Executive Bonuses -  How many times do we have to fall for this before we figure out we're getting ripped off by the corps AND the congressmen voting in favor of these?

5 Conservative Economic Myths Occupy Wall St. Is Helping Bust - Amazing. Simply amazing.

Awake The State November 1st! - All 50 state capitals are going to experience demonstrations.

The Artful Dodgers - How those who most need to pay their taxes get away with paying none.

Wall Street’s Second Occupation: The Rise of the NYPD's Homeland Security State - I believe they had something like this in Germany in the early 1930's.

Janet Reid's Most Terrifying Contest Ever! - I managed to get my entry in third out of almost 200. No idea when we'll hear who won, but if you pester Jet enough, maybe you can convince her I should win.

How to Regain Our Democracy - Very simple solution.

Presidential Candidate Buddy Roemer Calls for Withdrawal From NAFTA, WTO - These are basically illegal treaties in which we give away what we have and get nothing in return. They gotta go. Roemer is the only candidate who wants to get money out of DC to end taxation without representation.

Judge Judy - Here's Who You Support With Taxes - She's far more patient with him than I would be.

Stimulus Money Used to Employ Foreign Guest Workers Instead of Americans - Are you sure this isn't treason?

That will definitely keep you busy today. Have a great Sunday!

The Church of the Almighty Dollar

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Lately you've heard a lot about the Occupy Wall Street Movement. The first thing you may have heard was that it was being suppressed by the major media outlets, who have zero obligation to report facts no matter how important they are. Then you started to hear that the protesters were a bunch of hippies who didn't know what they wanted, except to tax the rich into oblivion. But when the Movement reached your city, you found that you couldn't dismiss them so easily because not only were there a LOT of regular people among them, but they were coherent and made a whole lot more sense than the major media wanted you to believe.

What Americans want is simple: True separation of Church from State. We want the Church of the Almighty Dollar to be expelled from the process of law-making and law-enforcement.


The way things are now, our politicians and police only listen to whoever pays them the most. And because the top 1% of "Americans" are making more money than the rest of America combined, that means only the super-rich get their way and the other 99% are forced into slavery. And because all the major media outlets are owned by the super-rich, that means the 99% get brainwashed and fed lies to keep them from figuring out that they've been robbed. They are now enacting programs to destroy the public education system to make this state of affairs permanent.

We called bullshit on the royalty about 230 years ago for treating us exactly the same way, and now that it's happening again, the royalty is all aflutter, trying desperately to wield their armies of reality-TV drones against the few clear-thinking Americans who see what's happening and want the wholesale rape of their country to stop.

As things currently stand, a politician's loyalties, in order from most important to least, are:

1. Money
2. Party
3. Constituents
4. Nation

This is completely the opposite of what it should be, and hence is no surprise why we're going to hell in a handbasket. In fact, to put something above the good of your country is the very definition of treason, isn't it?

I'm no big fan of Obama, but when Congress intentionally sits on its hands all day to make the President look bad so he won't get reelected, is that putting your country first, or your party? It sure isn't putting the best interests of the people first, I can tell you that much.

The top corporations like GE, which make HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS in profit, pay ZERO taxes, receive BILLIONS in subsidies and stimulus money for the purpose of creating jobs for Americans, and then ship jobs overseas and complain that it's too expensive to hire an American, spend MILLIONS of dollars wining and dining politicians, popularize the obscure ones who accept bribes, and suppress anyone who tells the truth about how we got into this mess. It's those corporations who should not be allowed to run the government. They should not be allowed to buy the justice that the other 99% of Americans can't.

America is a government OF the people, BY the people, FOR THE PEOPLE. Corporations are NOT people, and should NOT be heard any more than should the voice of a car. A corporation is a tool, in the same way a car is a tool. It has a function and a purpose, and can be used for good or ill. Right now, they are being used so that only the top 1% - the royalty - have their voices heard. It's time the voice of the PEOPLE is heard.

There is one thing which ties together all the major problems in this country and the "free" world at large, and one natural solution:

Take the corporations out of the government. When our elected officials stop getting the free rides and have to actually answer to the public who voted for them, the other problems will clear up pretty darn quick, because Americans will rightly believe that they actually are being represented again, and they will work to make this country great again.

The love of money is the root of all evil, and it's the root of all the problems which are overwhelming us right now. Hold our officials accountable.

Who's with me on this?

Anyone?

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Road trip 2 - A Moment of Silence for those We've Lost

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Not counting the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks, what is the worst act of terrorism committed within American borders? Maybe Waco comes to mind. Or the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Or the DC sniper. Those were terrible events, but the Oklahoma City bombing, which took place in 1995, is what I'm talking about.

As a truck driver, I've been through OKC many times, and been across the state of Oklahoma even more. The roads through the state are designed such that you almost can't pass through Oklahoma without also going through its capital.

There's a lot to see in these pictures; take your time as you look at them.

On the morning of April 19, 1995, a pair of soulless men filled a truck with fertilizer and other explosives. One of them drove it to the front of the Murrah Federal Building, a nine-story multipurpose high rise in the heart of the city. He parked the van, fuses already lit, and walked away. A few minutes later, at 9:02 AM, a large explosion devestated the building and the parking lot across the street. At least 168 people died, including 19 children in the daycare center, and 680 more were injured. Within a 16 block radius, 324 buildings were damaged and 86 cars were destroyed. The bomb had to be enormous to cause so much damage; it was equivalent to 5000 pounds of TNT, or 1/4 the power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

After clearing away the rubble, a memorial park was created, encompassing the entire area around the blast and the former location of the building. As you drive down the street, it suddenly ends at a park. There used to be a street there, but it's now a reflecting pool. On one side, where the Murrah building was, is arrayed 168 chairs, most of them adult-sized, but many of them much smaller. There is a chair for every person who died that day. The small chairs are for the children who perished.

To read that here might not impact you much, but to see it up close is powerful. It really moved me, brought the event home for me. Before that moment, it was some distant thing that happened to someone who may as well have been in another country. When it happened, I'd never been anywhere near Oklahoma and had only nominal ambition ever to go. But after that moment, I really wanted to stay there for a while, read everything there was to read, see the memorial museum, and learn the story behind not just the attack, but also the rebuilding and the people whose lives were impacted by it all.

Unfortunately, we didn't get there until late. The park itself is open 24 hours, but the museum closes at 6:00, and we were a few minutes too late, after having driven all the way from Jackson. I would've liked to come back in the morning, but we had to get to Colorado Springs the next day, which I'll tell you about next week.

In the meantime, I've posted several additional pictures of my time at the Oklahoma City National Memorial on the More in Sanity Facebook page.

Lots more coming up; see you again soon!

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Last Week's Installment: Road trip 1 - Who Shot JR

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Discount Cards

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Thank you for letting me scam you last week.

Scams are awesome, aren't they? I've got a few of them I'd like to tell you about, and then we can work together and do what's morally required of us: parting suckers from their money.

A great way to part suckers and their money is to make them feel like they're getting a huge discount on what you're selling. And for eons, the traditional route to doing so has been to inflate the price and quote that to the customer, then let him haggle you down. It has worked well in the open-air markets of the world for millennia. Americans haven't directly experienced the joy of haggling in quite some time outside of a car lot, but if you'd like to see how it works, you can easily take a trip to Mexico and give it a try. I got my first experience when I was briefly stationed in San Diego. A couple weekends, we went down to Tijuana.

In Tijuana, and probably other Mexican border towns like Juarez, there is a touristy section of town where the locals bring what you're supposed to believe are handmade crafts (many of which might actually be) and if you pay the asking price, you're going to feel ripped off when you ask your buddy who DID haggle what they paid. For example, I found a really nice onyx chess set. After some haggling, I bought it for about $15. I have since seen the same set in two or three different stores selling for $50. I think I got a good deal! But if I hadn't haggled, I would've wound up paying about $30 or more.

Since we in America don't haggle on anything but the price of a car any more, and we all dread doing that, we don't get much experience with it, and it makes us pretty vulnerable to scams which use this simple principle of asking for a lot more than it's worth.

So it's not at all uncommon to see sales advertised which offer large discounts of 25%, 30% or even more, but which in actuality are the same price as before the sale. You've heard the deal: "They marked it up 35% so they could offer a 30% discount."

So let's do something like that ourselves, except we're going to do something different so people won't realize we're scamming them the same way everyone else does. What we're going to do differently is create a membership club for our grocery store. We'll even print up special cards so that people feel special, and at the cash register, they'll have to sign up for and use those cards to get discounts and sales.

This way, we can jack up ALL the prices in our store, then offer discounts on a few items for those people who have the card, and at the register, we'll tell them how much they've "saved" so they feel like it was worth it to get this card. We could sell them this card, but we could also give them away for free so that our customers feel like we're giving them something for free on top of the discounts.

Of course, it costs money to get these cards printed and get the card-reading equipment and track our customers and do all that obnoxious paperwork just to get the card, but we'll just pass those costs along to the customer. We can't add those costs to just the non-card-users, because there won't be many of them, and it would drive business away, but if we apply the additional cost burden too ALL customers, it will be harder for them to notice.

This puts us at a pricing disadvantage against any store which does NOT use this expensive system, but what are we going to do? We can't accept a smaller profit; I NEED a new swimming pool because the old one got wet! I think the "savings" we'll report to the customer should suffice to distract them from it. Most people believe anything you tell them if you say it with enough authority and conviction.

But wait, I've got another great idea!

Since we're already tracking what people are buying with their cards, why don't we use this information to make even more money off them? For instance, we can use what's called "targeted advertising" to send them ads regarding things they buy and things similar to things they buy. This should keep us on their minds so they don't leave us, and it should bring them in to check out those alternatives. They'll think we're very relevant and that we have everything they're looking for on sale all the time!

It will take a little while to get this information, and then to make use of it, but once we do have it, we have a choice of either lowering our prices or of pocketing the profits. HAHAHAHA!!! Yeah, like we'd ever choose to lower our prices! Had you going there, didn't I?

But wait, there's still a lot more we can do!

Our store doesn't carry everything everyone wants. It's simply not possible, and trying to do otherwise would cost too much. Let Bass Pro handle motorboats, we'll take care of groceries.

But people still DO want to buy stuff we don't have. How to profit on those sales? Simple! The stuff that people DO buy from us can still be used to find out other things people want to buy which we don't carry. What if we sold that data to other companies who DO sell those things? We can make as much in selling this behavioral data as we can in our actual business, and it's all PURE PROFIT! Our customers have already bought the equipment required to track what they're doing, we'll leave it to the other businesses which buy our data to interpret it; after all, we can't possibly know what they're looking for or how to get it from the data.

We'll get business from more than just Bass Pro. Think of all the insurance companies wanting to find evidence that their customers might have undisclosed health problems that they should be getting charged for. Think of all the mass-email-marketers who are looking for suckers to buy viagra. Think of all the government agencies desperate to find out what Americans are doing; and not just OUR government, but all of them! And think of all the uses we can't ourselves even conceive of! There's no limit to the uses that the data could be used for, or the people who will buy that data.

This is again PURE PROFIT, and the customers will eagerly give us all the information we want because we're making them think we've saved them 20 cents on a dozen eggs or a pair of crappy China-made shoes. It's a windfall like no other.

So what do you say? Can I count on your investment in a sure thing?

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Sunday Funnies 11-10-16

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A lot's happened this past week. First off, I found a nice intermediate step between the previous rendition of the site and the super-modern, user-reconfigurable version (which I really want you to have, just as soon as they enable the important stuff), and that is what you see now: nice lines and boxes and a very clean, professional look. I'm extremely happy with this, although it forgot to import all my keywords and meta tags; thank God I saved the code from the previous rendition! I've probably got 1000 keywords to help the search engines find the stuff you're looking for! The site should stay about the same for a while.

Second is that Biketoberfest is winding down today. There are a few things still going on, but come sunset, bikes will return to their normal level of ubiquity. Had wonderful weather for this extended weekend, and from the looks of my riding around, there were about as many people here as there usually are for my birthday party, aka Bike Week in March. (Bike Week always falls on my birthday, except, apparently, for next year.)

Third is that I checked out the new Occupy Daytona Beach group last week. Fifty people showed up last Monday for its first meeting, and over 100 showed up for yesterday's informational/rally/demonstration, which itself was part of a WORLDWIDE event taking place in almost 1000 cities.

As I said at the meeting, it takes a lot of courage to show up at these things. When you see the attrocities being committed in New York City against these people, such as a cop running over an observer with his motorcycle and then beating and arresting him, it makes you wonder for your own safety. When you have hypocritical retards like Ann Coulter - a woman who lauded Timothy McVeigh's terrorist attack on Oklahoma City (which you'll read about later this week) - are slinging hateful insults and telling regular people to commit irrational acts of violence, you have to wonder for your own safety. And when you even have various elected officials calling for violence and even murder against the protesters, it's almost enough to go back to being a sheep, awaiting your turn to be fleeced and slaughtered.


So yes, it takes a hell of a lot of balls (or a hell of a lot of nothing left to lose) to show up and demand your rights, and I applaud and admire this kind of bravery. I applaud even more those people who have taken it upon themselves to organize and support them. Organizing the gatherings and leading them is a big job which makes them even more of a target of ridicule and hate by hypocritical pundits who have never contributed anything meaningful to society.

I've had a handful of people thank me for my time in the Navy, and I'm grateful to know they're grateful for what I did, but I was fortunate enough to have never faced the kinds of dangers the protesters in New York City are facing from the people who are supposed to be protecting them. I have a lot of respect for these people, and thank them for making the sacrifices which will see this Movement through to the end.

Fourth, on a more personal note, the site's traffic has increased significantly in the past few months, with this week possibly setting a record. I have no doubt that October will set yet another traffic record for the site. We had about 20,000 visitors the first year Google started counting them for me, a number I never thought I'd see when I started doing this 12 years ago, and another nearly 8000 visitors in the past three and a half months, so we're well on the way to see a large increase next year. Amazing! And it's all thanks to you guys, finding the place, liking what you see, and spreading the word to your friends.

Thank you!

Now on to the important news links which were posted on the new More in Sanity Facebook page you may have missed.

Bank On It: They're Scared - The 1% is starting to realize they're about to lose their iron grip on the public's minds.

Roemer joining Occupy Wall Street protest - The only Presidential candidate who "gets it", Republican Buddy Roemer supports OWS.

Alan Grayson: The Best 2 Minutes On Why We Should All #OccupyWallStreet - Democrat Alan Grayson explains OWS in terms any genuinely fair-minded individual can understand.

Microsoft finds 64 billion fewer spam messages one month after botnet takedowns - It's getting harder and harder to call them evil.

Americans believe Tea Party is Counterproductive - They betrayed what they claimed to stand for: us.

Grayson on Occupy Wall Street: The last human thing left to do.... show up. - More wisdom from Alan Grayson.

86% of Bailout Money Used for Executive Bonuses - How corporations rape America.

30 Citibank customers arrested for closing their account - Bonus fascism!

And lastly, near as I can tell, this is the Congressional Oath of Office.

The Congressional Oath of Office:
I pledge allegiance, to my political party, to ruin the United States of America, and to the scandal, for which it lies, one nation, under our thumb, with liberty, and justice, for those who help me do it.

Coming up this week: more good stuff! Keep on keepin' on, and work up the courage to click the LIKE button on the More in Sanity page! I know you can do it.

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Last Week's Installment: Sunday Funnies - 11-10-9

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Road trip 1 - Who Shot JR

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Back in May, I told you I had something special coming up. This is it. I got to take a trip around the country with my dad and favorite nephew. Somehow we avoided killing each other or getting too much on each others' nerves, and got to see a lot of great stuff.

For my nephew it was all new; he'd never been west of the Mississippi. Everything was new for him, everything a sight unseen, a sight to remember.

For my dad, it was reliving an experience he'd had when he was about 6. Back when he was a little kid, before the interstates existed, his grandparents took him and his older sister out west to Yellowstone. It was a trip he's been itching to repeat for almost 60 years. Additionally, about 12 years ago, just before I got out of the navy, he took a trip out to San Diego, where I had been stationed a year or two before, to visit an aunt of his he hadn't seen in a long time. On his way back, he visited the Grand Canyon. (Then a few days after he got home, his aunt passed away.)

And for me, I've been driving a truck long enough that I've driven past a lot of very interesting things, but for one reason or another couldn't stop at all of them. I wanted to get a closer look at a lot of things I was forced to drive past.

You, dear reader, get to come along for the ride!


I live in Daytona Beach, Florida. Our first order of business, once my dad and I were in the same car, was to go to Jackson, Mississippi, to attend my nephew's high school graduation. Sam survived Brandon High School, which has grown considerably since I spent a year there in 1987-88. The graduating class was so large that they had to rent out the Coliseum in Jackson, where they have the flea market on the weekends. The place was filled nearly to capacity with friends and family. The ceremony went as quickly as it could, but there were a few hundred students whose names had to be announced and cheered, so it lasted the better part of three hours.

Two days later, on a Friday morning at oh-dark-30, we headed out across I-20 toward Vicksburg. Dad likes to help the roosters wake up when he goes on trips, and lately I've preferred to get my walking done before the day gets really hot, and Sam napped.

At the time we left, the Mississippi river was flooding. It had been making a lot of news upstream the preceding weeks, tearing up Illinois and Missouri, and I wondered if we'd make it across the bridge at Vicksburg. I'd heard the night before that Vicksburg was starting to get flooded. Would our trip be over before it had even begun? Would we have to drive down US-61 looking for a probably overcrowded bridge to get us across the mighty Mississip'?

But crossing the Mississippi bridge there at Vicksburg proved uneventful, and we waved in the direction of McRaven House as we passed. Well, I did, anyway.

The drive across northern Louisiana is a desolate sea of green. There's pretty much nothing between Vicksburg and Dallas except swamp and forest. Not even rest areas; Louisiana closed all of them and tore them up. I thought those were federally funded, but I guess not. But since we wanted to get to Dallas in time for lunch, and it's a 6 hour drive, Louisiana wasn't in much danger of getting any of our tourist dollars.

After a quick stop at the Texas welcome center, where we found an interesting sign posted, we got into Dallas in time for lunch. I called up my cousin Patti and we met at a Genghis Grill we were driving past. It's a Mongolian restaurant chain which has thoroughly invaded the Dallas area and a large swath of the rest of Texas, and they've got a few branches in other states. Hopefully they'll bring one to Daytona Beach before too long. (Feel free to get on their Facebook page and clamor for it for me!)

It was all kinds of a good thing that we met up with Patti that day. She'd been out west recently with her husband and parents, and they had spent some time in the Colorado Springs area! We found out there was a lot more to do there than simply drive up Pike's Peak. I'll tell you about that when our story gets there.

This was Sam's first experience with Mongolian BBQ, or Mongolian Grill as most such places are calling it now. How can anyone NOT like Mongolian BBQ, I don't know, and I didn't find out from Sam, because he loved it too. I could probably spend all day telling you how fantastic Mongolian BBQ is, and how much I wish they'd open a place in Daytona Beach, but I'm going to save that for another day.

Downtown OKC

This is a good place to stop before telling you all about Oklahoma City, which was far more interesting than I ever thought it would be. So tune in again next week!

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Is Change Good?

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Change for the sake of change is rarely good. It may be how Evolution works, but we as a society can't afford such luxuries. However, times change, and if we don't keep up with those changes, we stagnate and crumble. Even a brick wall needs to be remortared every once in a while to maintain its integrity.

When it comes to politics, there are two broad philosophies: keeping things as they are - Conservatism - and changing things - which goes by many names, such as Liberalism and Progressivism.

Historically speaking, the Conservatives are a more cohesive force than those wishing for change. So long as enough people are willing to put up with whatever the current circumstance is, change isn't needed. But circumstances change of their own accord, no matter how we might want to keep them the same, if for no other reason than because as we age, our needs change, and when they do, the number of people satisfied with the current situation decreases until change happens.


You'll notice when this happens, though, that there have to be a LOT of dissatisfied people. The Conservatives are much more cohesive, and can retain power even when 1/3, even 1/4 of the people want to keep things the same. Why is this so? Why is it that those who want change can't seem to stick together long enough to take control and make those changes?

Today, an overwhelming majority of people believe change must come. Between the corruption of politicians, corporations, and news agencies, a country which produces more than any other country in history is going broke and in danger of a civil war.

The United States created nearly 15 TRILLION dollars of wealth in 2010. That's $15 million million! ($15,000,000,000,000) Can you imagine how much money that is? That's enough to give every man, woman, and child on Earth $2000, and still have a trillion left over to give to me as a birthday present so I can buy a couple of Switzerlands. How is it conceivable that we could possibly be broke? It's not, of course, unless you've got a bunch of leeches stealing whatever they can. And so, change is coming.

But even though this has been building for several years - I recall when I was in grade school studying the Civil War, I saw a quote from someone who said the next civil war wouldn't be between the states and the federal government - no useful changes have happened before now. In fact, the Conservatives have only cemented their power further with impressive con jobs on the American people, which I won't go into right now.

Why has this gone on so long?

Because, although the vast majority of Americans want change, they can't decide which change to make. Even when a question has only two possible choices, there are still a lot of questions and choices to make. Which issue is most important to you? There are so many to choose from, and tons of distracting questions asked of us.

Change is coming, that's for sure.Those in power may have created a lot of anti-protester weapons, and that may put down some of the complaining, but as they continue to take more and more from us, we have less and less to lose. I think we all know what happens to someone when they have nothing left to lose.

The road we took to get here was a crafty one, well-disguised and full of distractions to keep us from noticing we're not in the shallow end of the pool any more and being expected to keep an anvil above water, but people are starting to wake up, and the media disinformation campaign against the brave souls lining Wall Street is faltering under the continuing barrage of real journalists who do NOT bow to the dollar.

I pray justice will be done for those brave enough to stand up for what's right, and that it will be done to those who have tried so vigorously to rob us of our future. To do that, we have to have something to agree on. Something to unite behind. Simply "Take back our country" isn't good enough. We need the problem defined and a specific goal. THAT is something we can unite behind. THAT is what we can use to take the country back from those who have stolen it from We The People.

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Sunday funnies - 11-10-9

Tweet.

Since starting up the Facebook attachment (which I just spoke about in the previous post), I've found it's very easy to just throw up interesting links. However, Facebook doesn't have a very good history function, nor a good search function, so when those very important posts fall too far down, they're pretty much lost to all who aren't internet archaeologists.

So I just now sez to myself, "Self," I sez, "why not preserve the best of them thar linkies up in here in this website?" That might be funnier if you can imagine me doing it in my Mr. Turner voice. If you've had the privilege to hear it.

But anyway, here are the best links of the week, not counting the links back to here.

Bombshell: DOJ Considering Elimination of ATF

What’s behind the scorn for the Wall Street protests? - Jesse Ventura (yes, that one) pointed this out.

TrainStation - A very rare find: a Facebook game worth playing.

Daily Show: Parks and Demonstration - John Stewart's take on the Wall Street demonstrations.

Ohio Pork Industry Hurt by Prison System Decision - Political Retardation strikes again.

Bank On It: They're Scared - More on the Occupy Wall Street movement, just released today.


Quite a collection there. Once you're done checking them all out, how about heading over to our new Facebook page and hitting the LIKE button for us? Click here to see it. Do it. Do it nooooooow.

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Good Numbers, Gooooood Numbers

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As you know, I added some Facebook love to the site. I then campaigned to get 1000 LIKEs. A lofty goal, no doubt, especially since I don't have even 1/3 that many FB friends, but sometimes if you shoot for the stars, you hit the moon. I did pretty good, considering, but the opportunity to set a record is gone.

I'd still appreciate a LIKE, if you don't mind taking a second to do it. The more LIKEs we get, the harder we'll try to be likeable. (In a manly, macho sort of way, not a toady, mealy sort of way.)

I also spent some time checking out some of the new ways available to display a blog. They've come up with an absolutely GORGEOUS front page, which I used briefly Friday, until I discovered that some critical functionality was missing and had to switch back. It's a shame, it was really awesome. Hopefully in the future they'll fix that and I can use it.

But there's some unmitigated good news, too. Not just that Sarah Palin has taken her misbegotten  pre-campaign donations and withdrawn from the Presidential race, but rather that the site's numbers are up big time!


This started happening back in August, when we shattered our old record for views, which had been set back in July 2010, the first month Google offered statistics tracking. The 31 days of August 2011 saw a dramatic climb in visitors! For September, the number stayed about the same, which surprises me since I published only one story in that time. And so far this month, the number of visitors has been on the rise, which means I'll bet October is an even bigger record breaker!

The October numbers are definitely influenced by the Facebook connection, and I expect to get the numbers to rise even further, especially since I've got a ton of new articles written and coming.

I'm liking the Facebook addition so far. It's very easy to put out little blurbs. Kind of like Twitter, but not obnoxious, and more capable. I can throw a bunch of pictures up in a gallery very easily, or jot down some interesting blurb, or release a cool link. Facebook works well for that. Facebook isn't nearly so good for things like longer articles, or static information pages like the Civ4 page or the Expose Yourself articles list.

So I'm pretty happy to see this upswing in interest.

And it's all, of course, thanks to you, the loyal reader and supporter. Without you, all this I do would be pointless and to no benefit to anyone.

Keep tuning in, there's a lot more to come! Check us out tomorrow!

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Right lane allergy

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I have lived near major interstates pretty much all my life, especially my adult life. By this I mean an interstate highway which has 3 or more lanes per direction which is within 2 miles of my house. A good example of this is the Bohrman Expressway in northwest Indiana. I-80/94, the fastest non-toll road into Chicago, has had 3 lanes for as long as I can remember. (A few years ago, they added a fourth lane to it.)

In a place like northwest Indiana, where the traffic is thick and the exits are only a mile or two apart, or over in Chicago where it's considerably worse, I can see why people might develop an allergy to being in the right-most lane. That's where the entry and exit ramps are, and keeping out of that lane means you're not in anyone's way.

But here in Florida, on the stretch of I-95 that I live near where there are 3 lanes to travel in and the exits are few and far between, I still see people exhibiting this allergy.

Most of the people here are from the New York area, so they probably know how to drive almost as well as I do, which makes it surprising that they would discriminate against a lane when, where they learned to drive, all lanes are needed to get anywhere.

I've driven all over the country (excepting 4 states) and seen this happening everywhere. I even see it on the vast majority of roads which have only 2 lanes in each direction, and the frequency seems to increase every year. What is this fear people have of driving in the right lane? I can see no reason why people would feel compelled to stay out of it, but as I write this (last weekend of September), I'm on the road to attend my niece's graduation from law school and my dad hasn't been in the right lane for more than the 2 seconds it took to get across it when we got on the road half an hour ago.

You're supposed to be in the right lane unless you're engaged in passing someone, or if there's an emergency vehicle on the right shoulder. Most people also have the courtesy to move over if someone's trying to enter the highway. But the rest of the time, you're supposed to be in the right lane.

Why? Because doing so promotes better traffic flow. It allows the drivers anxious to get speeding tickets to get past those who drive in 2nd gear. And it's the law, if that matters.

You probably hate getting stuck behind a long line of cars, like everyone else does. If the rules of the road didn't tell us to keep right except to pass, the highways would be unbearably clogged with even half the traffic they now carry. I see it in places where this is ignored.

So do us all a favor and keep right, except to pass. And when passing, if you have to speed up a little bit to complete the operation in under 10 seconds, please do so. It's not just common courtesy, it's the law.

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Favorite Rip-offs

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Recently, some pretty ridiculous things have been assaulting me from the TV, from friends, and even my own family. I've shared a handful of them with you from time to time, but of late, it seems like there's a lot more than usual going on. It occurred to me that Snopes.com has a good thing going on: they expose fakes and the like, and they're pretty much the authority about that kind of thing. They've branded themselves well. I've always liked debunkers, which I suppose is why I have a lot of respect for Snopes, Mythbusters, and the Amazing Randy and Johnny Carson. Yep, I like Adam and Jaime for more than their ability to blow things sky high.

I came up with a great idea on how to rip off people while making them think I'm doing them a favor. Actually, I thought of a few ways, and I'll share them now and then. Today's idea has to do with on-line auctions.

Imagine for a moment that you wanted to run an auction website. How do you cut in on giants like Ebay? You have to come up with something different, of course. Like so...


In the online auction world, people sit up and take notice if you can promise them they can buy the stuff they want at pennies on the dollar. Designer labels for 90% off? You got it! Vacations for $20? Absolutely! New Corvette tickling your fancy? Why pay $70,000 when you can have one for $900? The hawt chicks won't know the difference! I can already hear you begging me to tell you how to get these deals and more.

If you cruise on over to Ebay, chances are pretty good you can find something you're looking for, and its current price is something ridiculously low. So you right quick make a bid for it; A new laptop for $50, baby! But the bidding increments are big, like $1, or $5, or even larger. I've seen bidding increments on some auction sites as high as 25% of the current price! Who wants to pay that?

So we'll offer bidding increments of 1 cent. Can't get any smaller than that! But there's another problem with online auctions: people routinely overbid.

I see it all the time. I find something really cool, like maybe a new hard drive or camera. I find out what it would cost to buy it at Newegg or Walmart and sure enough, the bidding goes over its value, usually in its last few minutes. It happens so often, it's almost impossible to get a good deal on anything I'm looking for. How do we overcome this?

We make it cost a dollar to bid! Genius! Now things won't get overbid on!

But wait, there's more. Because the prices are low, people will still be inclined to bid a lot. For instance, if a phone you're looking for would normally cost $100, it might sell here for $10. If the bidding increment is only a penny, who wouldn't bid for 90% off? Even people who've already bid a few times would probably bid another time or two.

On the surface, it sounds pretty fantastic: Getting to buy a $100 item for only $10, plus a few bids at a dollar apiece. But let's look a little closer.

At a penny per bid, how many times DID you bid? Is it possible you got into a bidding war with someone, maybe you bid 10 or 20 times? Maybe 30 or 40 times? Maybe 100 or 200 times? Sounds ridiculous, but let's look even closer.

If the bidding started at 1 cent, and got up to $10.00, that's 1000 bids. Could you have bid 10 or 20 or 40 or 100 times? That's $100 worth of bidding if you did!

But you're not that careless with your money, are you? Maybe you'd only bid 10 times if it was something you really wanted. $20 for a $100 phone is still a pretty good deal. But let's look at it from the other side.

With 1000 bids, that's $1000 spent just on bidding for a $100 phone!!! Can you see the possibilities? Isn't this a great scam? All we need is a snappy name!

I'd use something like QuiBids or BeeZid, but those're already taken. Anyone got a better name? Anyone got some money to invest? Guaranteed return on investment!

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