Ready for your bank to screw you?

According to CNN Money, several of the nations largest banks are getting ready to assault consumers to protect their bottom lines. JPMorgan Chase is considering capping debit card purchases at either $100 or even $50! Yes, thats right, even if you've got $5000 in your checking account, you'd be declined for trying to make a purchase that exceeded those caps. All because they're bickering with the federal reserve over the amount they can charge retailers for transaction fees. If this actually happens, and my bank, PNC, institutes a cap on debit purchases, I'll take my money out and keep it stuffed in my matress at home! I'll buy money orders from walmart and send my bills in through snail mail like I used to back in the day!

Whatever happened to "Down with Monopolies!"

I can still remember back in the day when Ma Bell reigned over everyone in the United States. If you had a phone, you did business with Ma Bell, and no one else. For me at least, that was when the whole anti-trust thing came up and the government broke Ma Bell up into a myriad of companies. Telling us that no one company should be so big and all-empowered, and that competition for consumer dollars would be good for us.

Whatever happened to the government that did this? AT_T has announced that they're going to gobble up T-Mobile for a reported $39 billion dollars. Which would leave the United States with just 3 wireless carriers, AT_T, Verizon and Sprint. I don't want to live with just 3 choices, Hell! I don't think 4 was enough! If AT_T is allowed to buy T-mobile, then it's apparent that our government has been seriously compromised by corporate America.

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Why are we hanging on to roman numerals?

Did you ever wonder why we're still hanging on to roman numerals? You see them everywhere, in logos, watches, product descriptions. The roman empire died off over 2,000 years ago, so why are we still using their numbering system to this day?

Stupid People...

My wife asked me tonight, "don't you think the internet is making people stupid? That they're becoming worse spellers, maybe because the internet is making them lazy?" I had to disappoint her though. A recent study (I can't remember who was behind it though), showed that IQ's have actually gotten higher the longer we've had the internet. I told my wife that it's not that people are getting more stupid, it's just that there have always been a lot of stupid people out there all along, and that with the advent of the internet, blogs and especially social networking sites, we're all just exposed to more and more of those stupid people. Whereas before, they just sat around the TV picking their noses, now they take video of themselves doing it and post it on Youtube!

Digital Broadcast Television SUCKS!

Digital broadcast television was touted to us as the best thing since sliced bread! It was going to revolutionize how and what we watch on television. The reality though, has proven to be much, much different. I am sitting here in my living room right now, and the television signal that I get these days is so poor, that it is nearly unwatchable! The signal drops every ten seconds or so leaving me with a smeared picture and hiccuping sound, and I should point out that I live less than ten miles from the cluster of television transmitters where I live.

We got rid of our cable subscription several months ago due to outrageous pricing and a diminishing channel line-up. I remember rarely ever having a complaint about broadcast television signals back in the days of analog signals. Now with digital television, it seems like every time the wind blows, or it's raining, the picture quality goes down the toilet. It's like putting up with Dish Network! I want analog television back, I'm sick of this digital crap that we got shoved down our throats while being told that it was "good for us".