Cave News

Disappearing debt

There are people who are more than willing to help make your debt disappear. We have all seen these advertisements on TV, in the newspapers and in our mailbox.

How do they plan to make your debt disappear? By lending you money. Not only that, they want you to borrow against your house to pay off your cars, credit card bills and what ever else you owe money on.

A lot of people are falling into the “disappearing debt” trap. Problem is the debt does not disappear. It stays with you a lot longer by increases your home mortgage.

They tell you that it makes sense to refinance the house to pay off high interest credit card debt with a low interest home mortgage. What they don’t tell you is that you are now paying several more years on your house to clear up what should be short-term debt.

The things you bought with credit cards before the home mortgage refinance will have worn out long before the house is paid for.

Unhappy with your cell-phone service?

If you are unhappy with your cell-phone service, you’re not alone. According to an article here, complaints are up 38%. Cingular had most complaints while Verizon was the national carrier with the fewest complaints and US Cellular had the fewest among regional carriers.

The article did not say if they made allowances for complaints against Cingular that could have resulted from the Cingular and ATT&T Wireless merger. This could have been unfair to Cingular.

"The numbers don't lie -- there continues to be a problem, and it's getting worse, not better," Janee Briesemeister, a senior policy advocate for the consumer advocacy group, said in a statement.

"The staggering increase in complaints is further evidence that reform is needed in the wireless phone market so consumers can get a fair shake," Briesemeister said.

Billing problems were the No. 1 complaint among consumers. Complaints about transferring their phone numbers, service quality, contracts and marketing were close behind.

According to the Consumers Union complaints rose to 29,478 in 2004 from 21,357 in 2003. But did they allow for the increase in cel-phone users? If so, they didn’t say so in the article. Without factoring in the increase in users during that same time period, the number of complaint increases has limited value.

Safety cheat sheet by PC World

The following is copied right from PC World online edition. Link is here. It shows how to avoid being played for a sucker. I think this is very important so I am also posting here.

If people didn't fall for online scams, online scammers would take up another line of work. And really, it isn't terribly hard to protect yourself. If you do one thing today, print out the following list and tape it to your computer

Be wary of any financial solicitation from a stranger, especially if there's a sense of urgency involved. Scammers always want you to act without thinking too hard about it.

Be very clear about what you're buying from an auction site, and what such items typically cost. Be wary of goods sold "as is" or sellers who claim products are authentic but refuse to provide proof. Check the seller's reputation score carefully before you bid.

When you get an e-mail from your bank, never click the link inside it. Always open your browser and type your bank's Web address manually.

When you log in to your bank account, make sure you're doing it on a secure site; the Web address should start with "https" and you'll see a tiny lock icon in the bottom right corner of the browser.

Be suspicious of all contests and giveaways, and read the fine print before filling out any online forms. Pay COD for shipping and handling, if you can.

Don't believe all return addresses. Though an e-mail message may claim it's from your bank, your ISP, or even your boss, that doesn't mean it is. Spammers and virus mailers generally spoof the "From" address field in their messages with a legitimate address that they've stolen. You may even have received spam from yourself as a result of this clever technique.

Don't open e-mail attachments--unless you absolutely, 100-percent trust the sender (e.g., it's someone you know well sending an attachment you've been expecting). Most viruses and worms arrive on your PC in the form of e-mail attachments.

If you think you've been taken for a ride, contact local law enforcement in your area. Then file a complaint with the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center.

Note: the Internet Crime Complaint Center can be found here.

Longest public execution in American history

Terri Schiavo has been sentenced to death. A judicial murder. What was her crime?

Her crime was being disabled, voiceless, and at the disposal of our media.

For all the world to see, a 41-year-old woman, who has committed no crime, will die of dehydration and starvation in the longest public execution in American history.

She is not brain-dead or comatose, and breathes naturally on her own. Although brain-damaged, she is not in a persistent vegetative state, according to an increasing number of radiologists and neurologists.

Judge Greer has never wavered from his original ruling - that Terri Schiavo is in a persistent vegetative state. He will not be influenced by medical experts who say otherwise. He will not even go see her for himself.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which would be passionately criticizing state court decisions and demanding due process if Terri were a convict on death row, has shamefully served as co-counsel for her husband, Michael Schiavo, in his insistent desire to have her die.

Terri Schiavo has never had an MRI or a PET scan, nor a thorough neurological examination. Republican Senate leader Bill Frist, a specialist in heart-lung transplant surgery, has, as The New York Times reported on March 23, "certified [in his practice] that patients were brain dead so that their organs could be transplanted." He is not just "playing doctor" on this case.

In death penalty cases, defense counsel for retarded and otherwise mentally disabled clients submit extensive medical tests.

Ignoring the absence of complete neurological exams, Judge Greer has sentenced her to death by ordering her feeding tubes removed.

The way this public execution is playing out, the Democrats may pay a political price. More here and here.

Rowing into history

Maud Fontenoy became the first woman to row solo across the Pacific Ocean after arriving in French Polynesia at the end of a nearly 8,000-kilometre (4,960-mile) journey that took 73 days.

Maud Fontenoy at the end of her remarkable journey
The determined 26-year-old Frenchwoman set a schedule of rowing, cooking freeze-dried paella or fresh-caught fish for her meals, navigating, and grabbing 20-minute spots of sleep.

What most people don’t know is that she was also the first woman to row across the North Atlantic Ocean alone. More of this story here.

eBay sales income taxable?

There is an interesting article on Business Week Online that says IRS may label eBay sales taxable. The word ‘may’ puzzles me. Why would eBay sales be any different from any other sales?

It’s actually fairly easy to determine if proceeds from eBay sales are taxable. The key is intent. Do you just want to turn some unwanted things you own into cash or is your intent to earn money by going out and buying things to sell at a profit?

If you sold some things lying around the house there would probably be no profit. Chances are most of the stuff would sell for less than the original cost. In that case, you are recovering some of your original investment and there is no taxable income.

If you decide to earn money on eBay by buying merchandise to re-sell, chances are you will need to pay Federal Income Tax on the net profit. The income and expense of your eBay business would be reported on IRS Schedule C and filed with your Form 1040.

Some tax accountants will tell you this is a gray area and that it depends on if you rely on the profits from your eBay business. Don’t listen to them, they will get you in trouble. After preparing well over 30,000 tax returns, my advice is - file the Schedule C for your eBay business. There is no gray area. An accountant who tells you otherwise will probably not stand behind you in a tax audit. Link is here to Business Week article.

British Royal pic of the week

British Royal picture and
caption of the week

”Why do commoners have such hard heads? Sheesh!.”

Not easy shopping for a doctor

Shopping for docs should be as easy as shopping for socks. The truth is, it is harder to shop for a doctor than it is to shop for a lawyer.

If you are looking to buy a car, a box of laundry soap or suit of clothes you have the benefit of easy comparison-shopping. Kids learn comparison-shopping when they buy their first candy bar or bottle of soda pop. That’s what free markets are all about.

Ever tried to comparison shop for a doctor? Why can’t we use the free market system to shop for a medical professional? Why are we forced to trust a stranger with our health? There are ways to check up on physicians and surgeons you say? Good luck in your search.

How do you know how many malpractice settlements a doctor has made in the last few years? You have been referred to a surgeon for a very serious procedure. What do you know about the person who will cut you open?

A few years ago I read about one nurse who said, “the dirty little secret about surgery is the wide variation in performance among doctors”.

The sad fact is -- we know more about how to buy a good lawn mower than how to choose a good surgeon.

Mouse more than spouse?

A survey was taken several months ago by computer input device maker Logitech. Results of the survey showed that over 60 percent of all respondents said they spent more time during an average day with their mouse than any other single thing. That is a lot of time spent with an electronic rodent.

During a typical day, what do you touch most? A steering wheel? A fork? A cel phone? A conventional phone? A remote control? MP3 player? A Palm Pilot (or other PDA)?

In my case the list is a bit smaller:

Cellular phone? Nope. Valeta won’t leave the house without her mobile phone but I have never carried one.

PDA? No again. I don’t own a PDA. However, if I could find a Palm that could handle a “grandpa’s brag book” Photo Album on a COLOR screen for under $75 I could be tempted.

MP3 player? Nope.

A fork? I admit, I use a fork a little too much. If I would use my fork less, I just might loose that extra 10 pounds.

A steering wheel? Except for out of town trips, I don’t drive much. Valeta does most of the local driving.

Remote control? I can’t remember the last time I watched a situation comedy or drama TV program. Cable News, HGTV, some History Channel and a few football and baseball games. That’s about it.

A mouse? Now there ya got me. With my internet photo galleries, maintaining 2 blogs and Ebay work I’m sure I use a mouse more than most old goats my age.

Conclusion:
Until another form of efficient input device is introduced, large numbers of people will continue spending more time with their mouse more than with their spouse.

Media coverage Columbine vs. Red Lake

The Minneapolis StarTribune has an article that takes a measure of the Columbine media coverage compared to the recent Red Lake killings.

I don’t like the StarTribune because of the way they allow their intense liberal bias to infiltrate stories that are otherwise non-partisan - including this story - but that’s just the way the “Strib” is. The story of the Columbine vs. Red Lake media coverage is here (registration required).

In the four days after Columbine, the New York Times published eight stories about the shooting on its front page. This week, the Times had three front-page stories about Red Lake.

Without question, Red Lake has received less attention from the news media and officials in Washington, D.C., than did Columbine.

Some see racism at play. Red Lake is a poor Indian reservation; Littleton, Colo., where Columbine is located, is a predominantly white suburb.

The location and proximity of the two schools to media access played a big role. Columbine is located in the Denver metro area. TV cameras were set up at Columbine within minutes after the disturbance began.

By contrast, Red Lake is about 250 miles from the Twin Cities. The closest commercial airport is in Bemidji, which is about 30 miles away from Red Lake. By the time media cameras arrived the live story was all over.

The Strib pointed out one other big difference -- the attitude of the tribal authorities at Red Lake. In fact, tribal authorities severely limited access to the reservation by journalists.

Among Minnesota reporters, Red Lake is not known for welcoming media coverage. During a 1979 outbreak of violence on the reservation, a news helicopter was hit by gunfire, although it didn't crash, said Gary Hill, special projects manager for KSTP. Two photographers this week were arrested and handcuffed by tribal police for taking pictures in a place that authorities had ruled off-limits.

Television needs images...we need people on camera talking. The tribal authorities' stance did make it difficult to get to the people who could tell their stories.

Red Lake was not ignored. It was the remote location and the uncooperative nature of the Red Lake Chippewa Tribal authorities. If there had been a standoff at Red Lake, like there was at Columbine, it would have been a much bigger story with cameras grinding away for hours.