Sunday Ramblings

Lowlife of the Week Award: If you live in Chicago, this is a lawyer to avoid, especially if you love your dog. He did nothing less than try to steal a dog from a little boy. It took his law firm insisting that he return the dog for him to do so. If he worked for me, he wouldn't be now. Jerk.

UN Peacekeepers: In Saturday's Ramblings, I mentioned that UN Peacekeepers have been banned from having sex with the locals in the Congo. I knew, but failed to mention, that one UN official, Didier Bourguet, is accused of running an Internet pedophile ring from the Congo. Claude de Boosere-Lepidi, Bourguet's attorney, said last week in court, that "there was a network of U.N. personnel who had sex with underage girls." He also said that "Bourguet had engaged in similar activity in a previous U.N. posting in the Central African Republic." A report from the U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) says, its "investigation into allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse of local Congolese women and girls found that the problem was serious and ongoing. Equally disturbing was the lack of a protection and deterrence program." Lack of a protection and deterrence program? Is this anything like the UN not knowing about the Oil for Food Scandal? Somebody needs to get their head of out their butt and start overseeing the UN.

Links found at ABC News and the Washington Times.

Iraqi Elections: The tally is finally in and apparently the Shiites won nearly half the votes cast with the Kurds coming in second. Now they can go on with the next part: choosing national leaders and drafting a constitution. It's an amazing time in history. But of course, there are some who say that because there were no UN or international observers, the results are suspect. Give me a break!

Going Wireless: We got our "refund" check Friday, so Dale went and bought the equipment we need to network our computers wirelessly. I can't wait! My computer has been offline for months. I've been using Dale's for Internet and it's a bear! I can only use it when he's not, and it's not always convenient for me to wait, or for him to let me use it. I don't want to download anything on his so that's been annoying. But as soon as he gets it up and running, I'll be off and running, so to speak. I wanted to go wireless a year ago, but Dale didn't think it was a good idea. But since he's had to share, it's become a good idea. Go figure!

Phising: If you don't know, this is email that looks authentic but is not from the company it proports to be from (eBay, PayPal, Citibank, Wachovia, Wells Fargo for just a few examples). They usually say something along the lines of, your account has been compromised, or, we need to verify certain information. They may even say not to reply to this email, but to click on the link which will take you to a secure site. Sure, it's secure - for them. It's not part of the authentic company. Do not click on the link. If you feel you want to check it out, leave the email and go to the actual online site. If you click on the link, you will be asked for information that will allow them to steal from you. No reputable online company will ever ask for information this way.

If you are savvy enough to be reading this, you probably know this is a scam. If you are a relative newbie who's just stumbled here (and welcome! by the way) do not click on any links in the email. The originator is trying to get information from you so they can steal from you. A new twist on the scam is email regarding Tsunami relief.

I recently got two emails from "PayPal". One said that an address had been added to my account and was this correct? It wasn't. The other was a verification for a $279 charge. I hadn't, but I closed out the email account and went to check my PayPal account at PayPal. The address was not listed and the charge didn't exist. I went back to the email account and forwarded the emails to spoof@paypal.com. I got a response that said neither email was from PayPal. I forwarded them because I wanted PayPal to have any information they could get from the email to find the person or persons who had tried to scam me.

Just be careful and be suspicious. You are responsible for your own financial security. If you give personal information out because you got an email, you have no one to blame but yourself. Be proactive and just assume that any email like this is bogus until you prove it's authentic. Make a phone call to the bank. It's cheaper to pay for a long distance call than to lose your life savings.

The Crusades: I received an email from Conservative Alerts.com promoting a new book called A Concise History of the Crusades (link in the sidebar). It's been a long time since history class, and while I knew about the Crusades, I had forgotten the history. When I read the blurb about the book, I was struck by the similiarity between then and now. According to the description, the Crusades have been generally portrayed as an unprovoked "series of unholy wars against Islam." The West was greedy and wanted to colonize the Muslim world.

The description of the book continues: "Thomas F. Madden sets the record straight. The Crusades, he shows, were not the brainchild of an ambitious pope or rapacious knights but a response to more than four centuries of conquests in which Muslims had already captured two thirds of the old Christian world. At some point, Christianity as a faith and a culture had to defend itself or be subsumed by Islam."

I think I will be doing some research to fill in some blanks here. There's been a lot of talk about the Muslims striking back in retailiation for the Crusades. The little bit I've read about the book draws an interesting parallel between the time of the Crusades and today.