Banking eggs

I recently had all of my money stolen out of my checking and savings accounts at my main bank. All the checks and payments I made were bouncing all over the place. It’s a mess. I have to contact each creditor individually and convince them it wasn’t my fault so they will reverse their returned check fees.
I’ve been unsatisfied with how my bank has handled this affair. They’ve dragged their feet on the carpet of inefficiency. It is likely I will be ending my relationships with this bank and its affiliates as soon as this matter is completely fixed.
Fortunately, I have back up money stashed away in a couple of separate accounts at different banks. The old saying comes into play; never leave all of your eggs in one basket. I didn’t have a lot of money in my separate accounts, but I had enough to re-pay this month’s bills before they were too late.
I have these back up sources because I direct deposit relatively small amounts each paycheck into these other accounts. In fact, the amounts are so small, they don’t make a difference in any given month by themselves. But collected over time, they do add up.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving all!

I also thought that I'd share the most unusual keyword search hit come come across my site that I've seen in a long time: free pictures of hermaphrodites. Ugh!

Infallible Bible

One of the pretenses of Christian Fundamentalism is that the bible is the infallible word of God. The statement often made in support of this is that God has overseen the bible’s development and directed its additions into its current form. Yet, the bible used by these people is incomplete and edited.
The King James Version is the core source of ALL protestant translations of the bible (whether admitted to by subsequent authors or not). Even this version has been intentionally changed many times in history. Several books of the King James Version and subsequent protestant bibles have been completely removed over the years to suit current tastes. The stated reasoning for this is that these books had dubious origins. So, if God is caring for his bible so well, why did he allow dubious sections to be included in it for over 500 years? Additionally, many individual scriptures have been removed, edited and reworded as late as the 1990’s! What? So, fifteen hundred or more years after the bible was painstakingly assembled, some group of protestants declare that part of the bible was unnecessary or needed editing? How can anyone believe the bible is infallible if it is constantly being tinkered with by their religious leadership? Is that leadership so arrogant that they believe they are God’s modern day prophets allowing them to mangle his word?
Furthermore, this same process of tinkering was very likely a major factor in the earliest days of the bible’s origins. Except now, no record of that tinkering exist because of time itself, destroyed documents and intentional rewrites to suit then current political and religious agendas. Basically, if tinkering exists now, it certainly existed then.
The bible is a great guide to live by, but to take its current form completely literally is a self-contradiction.
I have a message to the Christian Fundamentalist and other clergy who pretend that they believe the bible is infallible: You can’t have it both ways. If the bible is infallible, then stop editing the bible and undo the ongoing edits. If you accept the ongoing edits, then admit that you really don’t believe the bible is infallible, stop lying to your followers, and stop trying to cram your personal exobiblical believes down everyone else’s throats.

Citibank Strangedays

Well, I called up Citibank today to inquiry about the status of my unauthorized transactions investigation. A person from the fraud customer service department picked up my call. I'll refer to him as Gear. So, I asked Gear about the status of the investigation. First words out of Gear's mouth in reply, "Investigations take 14 business days to be completed." Well, I expressed about as much frustration as I am capable in response. When I first reported the unauthorized withdrawals on my account, I was told that I would have resolution in 4 to 5 days. The second time I called, I was also told 4 to 5 days. After the 5th day, I called again. This time, I was told it was 10 days. And now I called on the 11th day and Gear was telling me I had to wait 3 more days. No way!
He put me on hold and did some checking. He comes back and tells me I was right. The investigation is 10 days, and it is done. I will receive the investigation closure letter and my reimbursement in a couple days. Then he tells me the amount of the reimbursement, under $2000. More than $3000 was stolen from me! What the?!
After more time passes, Gear finally figures about that the initial investigation was only opened for one of my two accounts that was affected. So Gear and I had to go through all of the transactions again, and submit two requests (one for each account) for review and reconsideration of the investigation results, all because of a Citibank error!
You know what, I don't know if this means I will get the initial reimbursment amount, or hafta wait another ten days for the correct amount. Arg! So, the saga continues.

Movie Review: The Forgotten

The movie The Forgotten starts off as a good story that appears to be building towards something significant. In the film, the heroine starts realizing that major portions of her life are disappearing, particularly those portions regarding her son. She is the only person that sees it happen. The movie’s flaws start showing up as the plot unfolds (or unravels). The second half of the movie is full of huge plot holes. The plot problems didn’t distract me from enjoying the film, at least until the end. Important characters and plot points are completely forgotten to give the film a Hollywood happy ending that contradicts and negates the rest of the movie. It’s as though the movie itself suffered from the same plight as the heroine. The one redeeming quality of this film is its affirmation of a mother’s love for her offspring.

New Campaign

I've determined that I need to try to change the system. ::que dramatic music:: lol Really though, I'm working with my friend Dave, and soon others too, to create an abstract proposal for points to include in the law for enhancement of security for credit, charge and debit card holders.
I've got several ideas. I'll state the details of this proposal when we've worked them out. Once we get the details worked out, we are going to look for help in letter writing for people that agree. We will approach the banks, credit card companies, congress, president and state governments.
More to come.