Month: June 2006

I get most of my info and news and such stuff via RSS feeds.

I checked out the LGBT World Daily News site and came across something, um, interesting.

Fox News anchor Julie Bandaras interviewed first Albert Snyder, father of Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder. Cpl. Snyder died in Iraq and his funeral was interrupted by folks from Phelps’ alleged church (the notorious God Hates Fags moron). After interviewing Mr. Snyder, who is suing the other group, she interviewed Shirley Phelps-Roper, one of the leaders of the group who are interrupting funeral services for soldiers all across the US.

Now, seems like just normal news stuff, right? Wrong. Reporter Bandaras loses the stereotypical cool and reservedness that reporters stereotypically have. Oh boy does she lose it.

Julie Bandaras really lets Phelps-Roper have it. She has done her research and is ready. She never really gives the woman a chance to even gain firm ground and attacks from the beginning. If her purpose was to make Phelps-Roper look like a lunatic, it worked. If her purpose was to try and engage in interesting conversation, snort, she failed from the moment she began the interview.

Now, I don’t like Shrub. I don’t like that our soldiers went into a “war” based on lies and ulterior motives. But I do respect our soldiers. They are under-paid, under-supported, and under-fire.

The news article with LGBT World Daily News doesn’t have its own link so I went looking for other references. The article did have a link to another article on WorldNetDaily.com:

Fox News host to guest: ‘You’re going to hell!’
News analyst Julie Banderas attacks anti-homosexual Christian preacher

A discussion about protests by an anti-homosexual church at the funerals of fallen American soldiers turned into an astounding shoutfest on national television this weekend, with Fox News host Julie Banderas calling a fire-and-brimstone Christian preacher “the devil” and apparently condemning her to hell.

“You are the devil!” Banderas exclaimed to Shirley Phelps-Roper. “If you believe in the Bible, miss, you’re going to hell!”

Phelps-Roper, who believes America’s sinful behavior has resulted in God’s cursings rather than blessings, was appearing on “The Big Story” last night to talk about why members of her Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., protest at funerals for slain U.S. troops with slogans such as “Thank God for 9-11,” “Thank God for IEDs (improvised explosive devices),” and “God Hates Fags.”

(link to article)

From there I went to Michelle Malkin’s site which was to have the video. Instead, there was another link to Big Story Weekend on FoxNews and there I finally found a link to the video.

Video of interview

Another link to the video – A Washington Blade article links to the YouTube.com site which has the video.

Other links I found along the way:

Patriot Guard Riders
Julie Bandaras’ bio
Wikipedia: Fred Phelps
Wikipedia article’s “External Links” that support/criticise Phelps

Just thought I’d show y’all that I was indeed there and I did indeed actually dress up.

This is me with Zero (in her leather jacket) tying my tie and Cheri (in her leather skirt) watching.

larger version

Sure, the commercials are funny. Big strapping man lifting weights has the voice of some goofy woman who stole his credit card number. Red neck drinking beer in the corner of a living room talks about a leather bra.

But it’s not funny when you are about to go out of town and a few days before your bank tells you your debit/credit card has been cancelled. Again.

The first time it happened to me was a classic example. Years ago, I got health insurance for Joella. I cancelled it after just a few months because there was so little it would cover. A few years later I get a letter from them saying an employee had sold personal information of a group of clients and mine was one of them. Whoopie. Problem was, the bank didn’t tell me. It is Friday afternoon and we have a big weekend planned. Card doesn’t work. No idea why, no way to get money until Monday. I was pissed. It was nearly a week before the bank officially notified me and another week or two before I got a replacement card then another week before I got my new PIN number.

The second time was more of a pain than anything else. I met someone on-line who lived in the UK. I decided to support this person by getting them something from their Amazon wish list. Sounds cool, eh? Problem was, my bank froze my account a few days later because it was used on Amazon.uk vs Amazon.com. They called me a day or two after freezing it and I explained and they unfroze it. Only minor problems this time.

This last time I am not sure why my card was cancelled. My bank had gotten the process right this time though. I received a letter telling me my card would no longer work after a few days. A new one was in the mail. I got the new card just two days later, a full day before the other one was to be end. I got the PIN number the next day. Much less painful than the first time!

WiredNews has an article on how to prevent or catch identity theft before it happens. While in my case no one actually used the information (to the best of my knowledge), the potential was there. It’s not that I have a crap load of money in my account (I got, like, less than a hundred right now) but they could have used my card number to quickly reach my limit in a heartbeat before my bank could stop it.

How to Foil Identity Thieves

By Ryan Singel

Data breaches and identity theft are in the headlines again following dueling stories from government agencies who together allowed outsiders to get their hands on sensitive personal information of more than 28 million government employees, reservists, soldiers and contractors.

The massive Department of Veterans Affairs breach began when a burglar broke into the house of an analyst and stole a laptop and external hard drive containing the names, birthdates and Social Security numbers of 26 million veterans and 2.2 million active-duty National Guard and Reserve troops.

At hearings following that breach, the Energy Department admitted its computers had been hacked eight months ago, and though the Social Security numbers of 1,500 employees and contractors had been compromised, almost no one, including law enforcement, the head of the department and the affected individuals, was notified.

(snipped)

Still, several tools are available now to individuals that reduce their risk of identity theft, according to Hoofnagle and Tom Fragala, a volunteer with the Identity Theft Resource Center who is working on a free, do-it-yourself credit-monitoring and identity-theft recovery service.

• Opt out of pre-screened credit card offerings that come in the mail by calling 888-5OPTOUT (888-567-8688). This prevents would-be identity thieves from stealing your mail and then getting credit in your name (which seems possible even if you tear the applications into pieces).
• Check your credit reports frequently. Federal law allows you to get a free credit report from each of the three credit bureaus once a year. Mark your calendar every four months and check one bureau each go-round to make sure there are no accounts in your name that you haven’t opened.

full article

The article continues with five more ideas and tools to reduce the risk. It also has more information on what Congress and the states are (and are not) doing about this.

I am continuing to be so dang sleepy! I slept off and on almost all day!!

Between that and some sad news I got on the way home, I’m not much in the mood for doing that massive “What I Did at the Con” thing.

Before I left, Mad Max had to go into the hospital to deal with an abcess on his face and some nasty teeth. I dropped him off Tuesday and Lorna picked him up Thursday. He was fine and dandy on Thursday, oh so happy to be home! Then Friday at dinner he didn’t seem to want to eat. He went outside and hasn’t been seen since.

Lorna continued to look for him each day and we both went out twice again today. I tried calling some shelters but all I got were answering machines. I will try again tomorrow. Hopefully someone found him and took him there.

At any rate, still working on the missive and will post it here as soon as I get it together.