Flag Yourself for Suspicious Activity

Flag yourself.

I did.

Show that you do not agree with what is going on.

Don’t Fall for Jury Duty Scam

The phone rings, you pick it up, and the caller identifies himself as an officer of the court. He says you failed to report for jury duty and that a warrant is out for your arrest. You say you never received a notice. To clear it up, the caller says he’ll need some information for “verification purposes”-your birth date, social security number, maybe even a credit card number.

This is when you should hang up the phone. It’s a scam.

Jury scams have been around for years, but have seen a resurgence in recent months. Communities in more than a dozen states have issued public warnings about cold calls from people claiming to be court officials seeking personal information. As a rule, court officers never ask for confidential information over the phone; they generally correspond with prospective jurors via mail.

The scam’s bold simplicity may be what makes it so effective. Facing the unexpected threat of arrest, victims are caught off guard and may be quick to part with some information to defuse the situation.

“They get you scared first,” says a special agent in the Minneapolis field office who has heard the complaints. “They get people saying, ‘Oh my gosh! I’m not a criminal. What’s going on?’” That’s when the scammer dangles a solution-a fine, payable by credit card, that will clear up the problem.

With enough information, scammers can assume your identity and empty your bank accounts. “It seems like a very simple scam,” the agent adds. The trick is putting people on the defensive, then reeling them back in with the promise of a clean slate. “It’s kind of ingenious. It’s social engineering.”

In recent months, communities in Florida, New York, Minnesota, Illinois, Colorado, Oregon, California, Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona, and New Hampshire reported scams or posted warnings or press releases on their local websites. In August, the federal court system issued a warning on the scam and urged people to call their local District Court office if they receive suspicious calls. In September, the FBI issued a press release about jury scams and suggested victims also contact their local FBI field office.

In March, USA.gov, the federal government’s information website, posted details about jury scams in their Frequently Asked Questions area. The site reported scores of queries on the subject from website visitors and callers seeking information.

The jury scam is a simple variation of the identity-theft ploys that have proliferated in recent years as personal information and good credit have become thieves’ preferred prey, particularly on the Internet. Scammers might tap your information to make a purchase on your credit card, but could just as easily sell your information to the highest bidder on the Internet’s black market.

Protecting yourself is the key: Never give out personal information when you receive an unsolicited phone call.

(Original link)

The Solution Is Found Within Each Of Us

So, all we hear is how crappy the economy is anymore and how the US is spiraling into some sort of black hole of which we will never recover from. And for all this psycho babble talk (and with the help of my new friend Liz), I say BULLSHIT.

Of course, my optimism is not due to Messiah Obama coming into the big chair here in a few days. No. I could care less about him. He isn’t magical and he surely isn’t my Messiah. No, my optimism is rooted in the belief that Americans are a different breed. In the history of our country we have never laid down in the face of a problem, adversity, or even a big bully throwing torpedoes at our ships. Hell no. We were build on the notion that WE THE PEOPLE had the power here in this land – not only control of our government, but also to fix whatever happened in the economy. During the Revolution war we rode our horses around and flipped the bird at England. We told her to shove off and go find some other people to rule.

For the first time in the history of the world a group of people decided they wanted to be free of tyranny and live their lives how they wanted.  They didn’t want to be told what religion to practice. They didn’t want to work hard just to give someone “tax” money. They didn’t want to have the government come in their house and dig around. And so much more. And with those thoughts, we made this country.

School is done, therefore I’m back!

So for the last 3 months or so I have been going to school. It has been a horrible experience, to say the least. Always have done well in school and never felt like I was completely lost. In this case, I was beyond “completely lost.”

I don’t know if it was because I took it online, because I tried to jump right into a Masters program after being out of college for 4 years, because the material was extremely difficult, or because the class and professor were horribly set up and guided. My guess is that I had a hard time mainly because the class was hard (most of the class seemed lost) and because the Professor is the worst one I’ve ever had.

In any case, I will slowly get back into posting on here, especially with the big’en coming up!

Matisyahu – King without a Crown

http://youtube.com/watch?v=IG_ybej9e8o

I know, I know… HE’S NOT ALLOWED TO SING ABOUT GOD AND PSALMS LIKE THAT.

Whatever. I like his music, regardless of his words. It is fun. In fact, it reminds me of some good times I had in Germany where I got to party with the Darmstadt locals.

I’m glad that he found what he likes – music. Have you found your passion?

Where Have All the Leaders Gone?

I found this article and man-o-man is it a gem! I am going to repost here in-whole just in case something happens to the original found here. Below is the article in it’s entirety.
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I Had Enough?

Am I the only guy in this country who’s fed up with what’s happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We’ve got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we’ve got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can’t even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, “Stay the course.”

Stay the course? You’ve got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned Titanic. I’ll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out!

You might think I’m getting senile, that I’ve gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore. The President of the United States is given a free pass to ignore the Constitution, tap our phones, and lead us to war on a pack of lies. Congress responds to record deficits by passing a huge tax cut for the wealthy (thanks, but I don’t need it). The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we’re fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving pom-poms instead of asking hard questions. That’s not the promise of America my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for. I’ve had enough. How about you?

Being Alone

According to a 2005 Gallup Poll, here are the most feared things [for teenagers].

1. Terrorist attacks
2. Spiders
3. Death
4. Failure
5. War
6. Heights
7. Crime/Violence
8. Being alone
9. The future
10. Nuclear war

For me, I am pretty fear-less of terrorist, spiders, death, failure, war, heights, violence, the future, and nuclear war. Well, I don’t care for spiders, but I’m not afraid of them. Failure, well, I’ve got plenty of experience in that so that is not a fear. Most of those fears, to me, seem to be stuff that I either cannot directly impact (or stop) or things that don’t affect me directly. The one thing left – being alone – scares me and has always scared me. (Well, maybe the future scares me a bit. Everyone seems so eager to give up their individuality to be part of a group – herd mentality. And I think that is wrong when we do that and find it a bit scary.)

I am not a very social person. I don’t go out and party. I don’t go out and really socialize. I have a few friends, a few of which I talk to on a weekly basis. I don’t make new friends very easily, or very frequently. I’m not anti-social, I’m just a homebody. I’d prefer to just keep to myself than be around a bunch of friends, much less strangers. For that matter, I have a hard time hanging out with strangers - I am shy by nature. I’m not all that great with ladies either…

So, by far my greatest fear is to be alone. With my somewhat recent “breakup” with my girlfriend, I’ve been even more lonely. I can’t help but to think that due to my non-social demeanor, that finding a new significant other will be hard… real hard. And that scares me.. a lot. I like to have that one person that I can always depend on to confide in, laugh, and talk to. Without that one person, mehhh…. I just don’t like the idea. So there you have it… my number 1 fear…

Dude…

Man, I look like hell….

Playing hacky sack is hard work…. dude…

And who ever thought I would be that excited about a wine bottle cork pressurizer things?

New Shriner (FTL)

Check out the new Free Talk Live Shrine listener here (top left corner).

Gotta love the ladies that love freedom.

As Borat would say… “Very nice…. how much?”

Evil Eye

I found this hilarious….