A Croatia lumberjack claims he started 'enjoying housework and knitting' after he was given a female kidney. Stjepan Lizacic, 56, from Osijek, is suing his local health authority because he says he's become a laughing stock.
He says his life changed from enjoying heavy drinking sessions with pals to prefering housework after the operation. He told local newspaper 24sata: "The kidney transplant saved my life, but they never warned me about the side effects.
"I have developed a strange passion for female jobs like ironing, sewing, washing dishes, sorting clothes in wardrobes and even knitting."
He pointed out that before the kidney transplant he would not have been seen dead doing the housework, and expected his wife to do it all, but now found it both relaxing and fulfilling. He said: "My wife is the only one that is pleased. I do most of the housework now, and I blame the hospital that transplanted me the kidney of a 50-year-old woman instead of a man's kidney."
His wife Radmila added: "If the new femine side to him is confined to housework I am very happy, I only hope he doesn't start looking at other men." I never wanted to do this in the first place!
I... I wanted to be...
A LUMBERJACK!
(piano vamp)
Leaping from tree to tree! As they float down the mighty rivers of
British Columbia! With my best girl by my side!
The Larch!
The Pine!
The Giant Redwood tree!
The Sequoia!
The Little Whopping Rule Tree!
We'd sing! Sing! Sing!
Oh, I'm a lumberjack, and I'm okay,
I sleep all night and I work all day.
CHORUS: He's a lumberjack, and he's okay,
He sleeps all night and he works all day.
I cut down trees, I eat my lunch,
I go to the lavatory.
On Wednesdays I go shoppin'
And have buttered scones for tea.
Mounties: He cuts down trees, he eats his lunch,
He goes to the lavatory.
On Wednesdays he goes shoppin'
And has buttered scones for tea.
CHORUS
I cut down trees, I skip and jump,
I like to press wild flowers.
I put on women's clothing,
And hang around in bars.
Mounties: He cuts down trees, he skips and jumps,
He likes to press wild flowers.
He puts on women's clothing
And hangs around.... In bars???????
CHORUS
I chop down trees, I wear high heels,
Suspenders and a bra.
I wish I'd been a girlie
Just like my dear papa.
Mounties: He cuts down trees, he wears high heels
Suspenders and a .... a Bra????
(mounties break off song, and begin insulting lumberjack)
#1
Or maybe it's just that "giddy, in love with all of the details of life I missed before I got off that damn dialysis machine and got a new lease on life" feeling.
An old Arab lived close to *New York* City for more than 40 years. One day he decided that he would love to plant potatoes and herbs in his garden, but he knew he was alone and too old and weak. His son was in college in Paris, so the old man sent him an e-mail explaining the problem:
"Beloved son, I am very sad, because I can't plant potatoes in my garden. I am sure, if only you were here, that you would help me and dig up the garden for me. I love you, your father."
The following day, the old man received a response e-mail from his son: "Beloved father, please don't touch the garden. That is where I have hidden 'the *THING*.' I love you, too, Ahmed."
At 4pm the FBI and the Rangers visited the house of the old man and took the whole garden apart, searching every inch. But they couldn't find anything. Disappointed, they left the house.
The next day, the old man received another e-mail from his son: "Beloved father, I hope the garden is dug up by now and you can plant your potatoes, that is all I could do for you from here; Your loving son Ahmed."
An Argentinian woman who went missing after a New year's Party turned up at her own funeral. How, um, inconvenient, lol. New Year's party, huh? This is why I don't drink anymore.
Angela Saraiva, 20, from Salta, was only gone for 20 hours and was amazed to find herself declared dead. 20 hrs? Hell, I've gone missing for years... only it was intentional - like I said, I don't drink anymore.
Her worried mother mistakenly identified a dead body as being that of her daughter, reports Terra Noticias Populares. Mom! What about that cool birthmark I have on my, um, er, nevermind. Maybe it was that Gerber Life policy she took out when Angie wuz a baby...
And the funeral was in full swing when Ms Saraiva finally turned up again. I like swinging funerals. Mariachi & Calypso bands, dancing Gypsies, dog acts, the Houdini seance, David Copperfield making the stiff disappear, y'know, the run of the mill Texas funeral.
She said: "My parents thought I was this woman because she looked just like me. Dead dopplegangers. Wow, what will they think of next? And what about the REAL dead woman's family? Suddenly this isn't quite so funny...
"I loved this whole experience, it made me realise how much my friends and family love me and how much they would miss me if I die; that made me feel important!" Everyone else: Yeah, well, you've made us look like fools. I gotcher love right here... How about we try again, with the right corpse, smartass?
An Australian woman has become famous for her ability to paint with her breasts
Di Peel's first canvas sold for £5, her second for £10 and she's now busy with an order for 10 at £40 each.
The mother of two, from Tasmania, who is happy to describe herself as a big woman, works at the kitchen table rather than at an easel, reports the Mercury newspaper.
She said: "I either apply the paint to my breasts and lean on to the canvas or apply the paint to the canvas and then lean into it to spread the paint.
"I sign every picture with my nipple."
Di says she has to take a shower ever time she changes colours and uses canvases because drawing paper tends to slide around the table.
Commenting on her work, she added: "They are more like abstract flowers. But my latest piece, people say, looks like the Earth from space. My son named it Earthquake, because he thinks it looks like an earthquake." The artist's, uh, ample profile (NSFYE*) and examples of her boobs' work. Heh, I've seen worse - art that is. There was this toilet, you see, and...
* NSFYE - Not Safe For Your Eyes -- Fair Warning: Better left to your imagination.
KUWAIT CITY, 22 January 2006 — Kuwait’s Cabinet yesterday initiated constitutional procedures to remove the ailing Emir Sheikh Saad Abdullah Al-Sabah just days after he was appointed leader following the death of long-serving Emir Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah. The emir has however sent a letter to Parliament Speaker Jassem Al-Khorafi requesting a house session during which he would be sworn in as ruler.
A statement issued by the Cabinet following an extraordinary session held yesterday said it was taking the constitutional move because of the poor health of the emir. “The Cabinet expresses its deep sorrow...over the health of his highness the emir, Sheikh Saad Abdullah Al-Sabah, and it has therefore decided to invoke constitutional procedures under Article 3 of the 1964 Succession Law,” said the statement.
Article 3 stipulates that if the emir fails to meet, for health or other reasons, constitutional conditions set down for him to fulfill his duties, the Cabinet, after establishing this, must present the issue before Parliament within a closed-door session. The Parliament in turn could then decide by a two-thirds majority vote to transfer the emir’s duties temporarily to the crown prince, or transfer state leadership to him permanently.
"You can't transfer power! The Emir is still capable of drooling on his own!"
House Speaker Al-Khorafi yesterday told a press conference at the Parliament that he had not yet been apprised by the Cabinet of its decision but that he did indeed receive the letter from the emir requesting that he be sworn in before the house, and that constitutional experts were assigned to study the matter. “Yes, I received a letter from his highness the emir, Sheikh Saad Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah, on allocating a special National Assembly session for taking the constitutional oath,” he said.
He said he had been assigned to meet with the emir, and hoped the meeting would take place as soon as possible.
"Nurse! He's doing it again!"
Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad called the extraordinary Cabinet meeting yesterday to continue addressing leadership succession issues one day after a large gathering of Al-Sabah elders reaffirmed their confidence in him to continue running the day-to-day affairs of the country in light of the newly-appointed emir’s bad health. He accepted the responsibility as de-facto ruler under Sheikh Saad Abdullah.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/22/2006 01:05 ||
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DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) - An opposition-sponsored strike closed shops and shut down public transport across Bangladesh on Sunday as authorities deployed thousands of security forces to deter violence. The main opposition Awami League and its 13 allies called the dawn-to-dusk strike to protest an alleged government plan to compile new voter lists that favor the ruling coalition.
Nearly 7,000 police and security forces were mobilized in the capital to prevent any violence during the protest, Dhaka Metropolitan Police said in a statement. There were no immediate reports of clashes.
Stores were shuttered and schools closed in Dhaka, a city of 10 million people. The streets remained largely devoid of public transport, and only a few tricycle rickshaws operated with permission from strike organizers. Similar disruption occurred in more than 60 cities and towns, according to police officials who requested anonymity because they are not allowed to speak to media.
Police erected barbed-wire barricades around the Awami League's downtown Dhaka headquarters, preventing several hundred protesters from taking to the streets.
The opposition parties were calling for the resignation of three election commission officials whom they accuse of plotting to create voter lists that would drop names of government opponents head of next year's general elections. The government denies the allegations and opposition charges that it influences the five-member commission.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/22/2006 06:12 ||
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I've written here several times about Indianismo and its effects on stability in Latin America. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here are some pictures.
A Dutch company is selling nazi helmets to Dutch football fans to wear during the World Cup Finals in Germany. Wow. Clever.
Free Time Products, from Schijndel, has already sold 15,000 plastic orange helmets in just two weeks reports Het Laatste Nieuws. I'm expecting a high body count among the Dutch "fans". Somewhere above 15,000.
The plastic helmets are adorned with slogans such as "Attack", "There he goes" and "Go Holland go". How about "I'm a moron!"
Designer Weno Geerts said they were meant as a joke: "We just want to support our team and tease the Germans. Nothing else. That's why we called it 'Helmpje' (Small helmet)." Well okaaay, then. At first I thought it might be offensive.
Geerts said the company had received only a few complaints and expected to sell another 100,000 helmets before the finals this summer. Heh. Yep, a much higher body count.
"They are meant for the supporters who watch the game on the television, in the pub but also those who are travelling to Germany," he said. Okay, maybe those traveling to Germany will show more sense than old Geerts. Moderate that body count accordingly.
However, the Dutch Football Association KNVB said the helmets were in poor taste. Duh.
And official supporters club chairman Lloyd Vandenberg said: "They go too far. It has nothing to do with football. We go for friendship and we don¹t want to refer to war times." It'll be a real hit with host country Germany. Is there an optional monogrammed body bag? Idjits.
#3
Of course, being Germans, I wonder if they will decide to confiscate all the helmets at the gate for violating the anti-Nazi laws. Remember that Schroeder successfully sued their newspapers for making fun of his dyed hair.
#4
i would've been as surprised to hear this as everybody here seems to be if i didn't know much about european soccer fans(which i don't)but i know there are dramatic displays of racism at the stadiums. Not only against black players (whom they chant ooga-booga monkey sounds to when they have the ball) but against each other by rioting over nazi party politics. Would like to see nazis yell nigger at an American football game, say the Oakland Raiders or maybe the Carolina Panthers.
#5
Many Dutchstill haven't coped with the 1940 invasion. In fact there is a village at the
border who is half Dutch and half German and where well into the eighties there were frequent street fights between the Dutch and the German citizens involving dozens of people in either side. In fact I would not be surprised if they still fought.
Wearing Nazi helmets in Germany that is teh kind of things you could expect from a vengeful Dutch.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/22/2006 15:50 Comments ||
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#7
When Ajax of Amsterdam (the leading Dutch club who was created by Jews) visits its archrival Feyenoord, the Feyenoord people scream "Jew, Jew, Jew" and then
imitate the hissing sound of gas chambers.
The sensible and soophisticated Europeans at work.
LISBON - Portuguese voters cast ballots Sunday in a presidential election with polls indicating former centre-right prime minister Anibal Cavaco Silva is far ahead of his five left-wing challengers. Cavaco Silva, who oversaw a period of economic growth as a Social Democrat prime minister between 1985 and 1995, has 52-53 percent support, more than the 50 percent needed for a first round win, four polls published Friday showed.
His closest challengers are Socialist lawmaker and poet Manuel Alegre, 69, running as an independent, and former prime minister and two-time president Mario Soares, 81, who has the backing of the Socialist Party he helped found. The split left-wing field also includes Communist Party leader Jeronimo de Sousa, the chief of the far-left Left Block, Franciso Louca, and Antonio Garcia Pereira who heads the tiny Communist Party of the Portuguese Workers.
Splitters!
Cavaco Silva, 66, is credited with introducing economic reforms as prime minister that, combined with the arrival of billions in aid from the European Union which Portugal joined in 1986, helped lift living standards in the nation of some 10.5 million.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/22/2006 00:53 ||
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#1
Does this mean another country is going to join the vast rightwing conspiracy? There may be hope for Europe yet!
#3
Cavaco Won. Some caveats:
Portuguese President is a sort of ceremonial King that only has an atom bomb as weapon: Parlament Dissolution if Governement isnt "working". It also can make politics in newspapers and undermine the governmement. He is a centrist.
PRISTINA, Serbia and Montenegro - Kosovo Albanians began the search on Sunday for a new president to lead the disputed Serbian province into independence negotiations after Ibrahim Rugova died aged 61, leaving no clear successor.
Rugova’s death on Saturday of lung cancer left the 90 percent Albanian majority leaderless on the eve of direct talks with Belgrade to decide whether Kosovo becomes independent or remains part of Serbia, as Belgrade insists. A charismatic and powerful figurehead, Rugova has no obvious replacement as president or at the helm of the Kosovo negotiating team. He will be buried on Wednesday, the day United Nations-mediated talks were due to begin. The talks in Vienna have been postponed to early February.
Of what year?
Parliament has three months to vote in a new president but Kosovo’s Western backers will want Rugova’s Democratic League of Kosovo to overcome bitter factionalism and nominate a successor sooner. “I expect the momentum generated by President Rugova to be sustained, and that Kosovo’s political leaders assume the responsibility to remain unified,” said Martti Ahtisaari, the U.N. envoy appointed in November to chair negotiations.
Fe-e-e-el the momentum!
Legally part of Serbia, the province of 2 million people has been run poorly by the United Nations since 1999, when NATO bombing drove out Serb forces accused of the “ethnic cleansing” of Albanian civilians in a two-year war with separatist guerrillas. The U.N. Security Council gave the green light to status talks late last year, responding to growing Albanian impatience with the status quo and US warnings of fresh violence.
The major powers have signalled they want a decision on status within the year. Serbia says Kosovo is the cradle of the Serb nation and can never become independent.
But the Albanian majority has ruled out a return to Serb rule after years of repression in the 1990s, when Rugova turned the other cheek while he created a virtual underground state.
His policy of passive resistance was eclipsed by the guerrillas in 1998, but he bounced back after the war and was twice elected president. Five days of mourning began on Sunday.
Diplomats say Western powers will likely steer negotiations towards a form of independence, under continued international supervision for years to come.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/22/2006 00:50 ||
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Conservative Leader Stephen Harper is in the driver's seat headed for 24 Sussex Dr., a new Toronto Star poll suggests. But the EKOS Research Associates survey conducted for the Star and La Presse shows that though the Conservatives look poised to topple the Liberals, voters may only give Harper the test drive of a minority government in Monday's election.
Harper, 46, will be assuming power at a time when Canadians acknowledge a profound sense of progress and economic security, but have been increasingly gloomy about whether these achievements will continue, much less be enjoyed by the next generation, Graves added.
For the national results, EKOS surveyed 2,313 Canadians 18 and over from Wednesday until last night and the results are considered accurate to within 2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
In Ontario, home to 106 seats and the Liberals' electoral stronghold since 1993, the Tories are in a statistical dead heat with the governing party.
EKOS interviewed 967 people in Ontario and found 35.8 per cent support for the Tories, 33.4 for the Liberals, 24.3 for the NDP, and 6.3 per cent for the Greens. The percentage of undecided was 14.3. The results are considered accurate to within 3.2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
In the 2004 election, the Liberals won 75 seats in Ontario, the Tories 24 and the NDP seven. "Certainly there's a scenario where the Conservatives still pull out a majority and there's actually a scenario where the Liberals can end up maybe losing the popular vote slightly and pulling out a plurality of seats. It's in play," noted Graves. "It's not a good bet, but it's a possibility. Frankly, if Ontario moved the same way it did last time from here on in, Liberals end up with a tie or more seats. It's not outside the realm of possibility â it happened last time," he said. "Clearly, there's an expectation and preference for some form of Conservative government right now."
In Quebec, EKOS surveyed 618 people, where they found the separatist Bloc has 50.2 per cent support, the Tories 24.5 per cent, the Liberals 12.7 per cent, the NDP 7.9 per cent and the Greens 3.4 per cent. The percentage of undecided was 21.3. The Quebec numbers are accurate to within 3.9 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. Eighteen months ago, the Liberals won 21 seats in Quebec and the Bloc 54 seats. The Tories and New Democrats were shut out.
British Columbia continues to be the most hotly contested province in the country with the Liberals, Tories and NDP running a three-way race for the province's 36 seats. In the last election, the Tories won 22 seats in B.C., the Liberals eight seats and the NDP five seats. There was one independent.
The latest projections I've seen have the Tories about 5-10 seats short of an outright majority.
The new president on "The West Wing" will be a real short-timer: NBC announced Sunday it was pulling the plug on the Emmy-winning political drama after seven seasons in May.
I guess the left's second favorite president(after Geena Davis) will be looking for work soon as well.
For the first time in memory, the word "activist" doesn't make me cringe... Angered by a Supreme Court ruling that gave local governments more power to seize people's homes for economic development, a group of activists is trying to get one of the court's justices evicted from his own home.
The group, led by a California man, wants Justice David Souter's home seized to build an inn called the 'Lost Liberty Hotel.'
They submitted enough petition signatures - only 25 were needed - to bring the matter before voters in March. This weekend, they're descending on Souter's hometown, the central New Hampshire town of Weare, population 8,500, to rally for support.
'This is in the tradition of the Boston Tea Party and the Pine Tree Riot,' Organizer Logan Darrow Clements said, referring to the riot that took place during the winter of 1771-1772, when colonists in Weare beat up officials appointed by King George III who fined them for logging white pines without approval.
'All we're trying to do is put an end to eminent domain abuse,' Clements said, by having those who advocate or facilitate it 'live under it, so they understand why it needs to end.'
Bill Quigley, Weare deputy police chief, said if protesters show up, they're going to be told to stay across the street from a dirt road that leads to Souter's brown farmhouse, which is more than 200 years old. It isn't known whether Souter will be home.
'They're obviously not going to be allowed on Justice Souter's property,' he said. 'There's no reason for anybody to go down that road unless they live on that road, and we know the residents that live there. The last time (Clements) showed up, they had a total of about three or four people who showed up to listen to him.'
Clements, of Los Angeles, said he's never tried to contact Souter, who voted for the decision.
'The justice doesn't have any comment about it,' Kathy Arberg, a Supreme Court spokeswoman, said about the protesters' cause.
The petition asks whether the town should take Souter's land for development as an inn; whether to set up a trust fund to accept donations for legal expenses; and whether to set up a second trust fund to accept donations to compensate Souter for taking his land.
The matter goes to voters on March 14.
About 25 volunteers gathered at Weare Town Hall on Saturday before setting out in teams to go door-to-door. Organizer Logan Darrow Clements gathered nine signatures in less than an hour, with only one resident declining to sign.
He also distributed copies of the Supreme Court's decision, Kelo vs. City of New London, to residents.
The court said New London, Conn., could seize homeowners' property to develop a hotel, convention center, office space and condominiums next to Pfizer Inc.'s new research headquarters.
The city argued that tax revenues and new jobs from the development would benefit the public. The Pfizer complex was built, but seven homeowners challenged the rest of the development in court. The Supreme Court's ruling against them prompted many states, including New Hampshire, to examine their eminent domain laws.
Supporters of the hotel project planned a rally Sunday at the town hall. Speakers were expected to include some of the New London residents who lost the Kelo suit.
State Rep. Neal Kurk, a Weare resident who is sponsoring two pieces of eminent domain legislation in New Hampshire, said he expects the group's proposal to be defeated overwhelmingly.
'Most people here see this as an act of revenge and an improper attack on the judicial system,' Kurk said. 'You don't go after a judge personally because you disagree with his judgments.' We'll see. I do hope Souter and the rest of the SCOTUS asshats who voted in favor of the decision to allow seizure of Susette Kelo's home find out how it feels. The result of this unAmerican decision is a snowballing epidemic of outrageous land grabs. This is not happening in a vacuum... The books will be rebalanced - with interest - before this is over.
This issue makes my blood boil. E.D. should be the last resort executed on absentee land lords or against known crack houses *NOT* for Grandma's old 2 bedroom house in a blue-collar neighborhood. I seem to remember a revolution was fought over similar circumstances. It is a land grab of the worst kind. I don't know how these justices/politicians et al that back this legislation look themselves in the mirror at night. Personally, I would defend my home w/shotgun in hand.
#2
The important thing is not publicity, but strategy. They care little if you make the papers, but they really do care if you make them *have* to start signing papers to protect themselves.
So what they should do is buy a small parcel of land, then take advantage of whatever absence of zoning laws to move in a whole bunch of people in high-density just long enough to vote in the next council elections. Then, unless you get agreement from every councillor, you target just those that oppose you in the next election with a large enough block to most likely defeat them.
Make it clear to the rest of the town that you will leave *them* alone, and will pick up and leave just as soon as Suter is punished, even returning his land to the city once his house is demolished.
#6
My mom was becoming a LLL moonbat of sorts, so after the eminent domain decision came down from SCOTUS, I sent her the decision and majority and minority opinions from the court reporter. I told her that is why we need to replace those so-called "liberal" justices on the bench with ones that read the Constitution. She now understands that anyone, herself included, can be affected the same way. This decision makes nobody safe.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/22/2006 12:45 Comments ||
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#7
They may not get his house, but I'm sure they have his attention.
#8
E.D. should NEVER be used to benefit a private organization. We use it only for public improvements (streets, fire/police/libraries) and ONLY as a last resort. I'd consider an ED condemnation a failure of negotiations and probably a failure on my part as Project Manager, if the other party was willing at all....
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/22/2006 15:47 Comments ||
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This could be nothing, but it looked interesting and thought I'd pass it along:
Bank of America customers in Seattle have reported a rash of illegal cash withdrawals from checking accounts apparently coming from foreign automated teller machines and debit card purchases. According to customer service representatives at Bank of America, there have been numerous reports of checking account fraud in Seattle, but many more incidents being reported from other states. The increases in fraud reports are generally about overseas cash withdrawals, they said.
Michael Chee, Bank of America's Pacific Coast spokesman, refused to say if the company was experiencing a rash of checking fraud. He would not confirm or deny any information that pertained to the bank's security investigations. He also declined to comment on any incidents in general or information from consumers and bank representatives. Seattle police have been taking "a lot" of calls and reports involving Bank of America customers, said police spokeswoman Debra Brown. She could not provide a specific number of complaints, but said that while officers routinely get calls about financial fraud involving a variety of banks, people have been reporting an unusual number of Bank of America-specific thefts.
Samantha Crowley was assured by Bank of America that her business checking account would be credited after she reported 15 thefts to the bank and to police on Wednesday. Crowley doesn't know how her information would have ended up in the hands of thieves who, according to her bank records, withdrew cash from ATMs in Russia and in Chicago. [S]he has never been lured by e-mail "phishing" attacks -- e-mails that masquerade as official notices from financial institutions asking people to update their account information. "It's a concern for me that this information is out there," she said. "I want to find out how this kind of thing happened." Note: I edited out the handwringing and wild-a** guesses about how "The increase in this activity and the psychological impact on society might be a reason why the United States trails other countries in using high-tech payment systems," and the quotes from a university professor. I would much rather have seen some reporting on *which overseas countries* are making the withdrawals. Russia is mentioned, but no other information.
#3
"The increase in this activity and the psychological impact on society might be a reason why the United States trails other countries in using high-tech payment systems."
No. The reason the US trails other countries in using high-tech payment systems is because our credit card companies and banks are still using cutting-edge security technologies from the 1980s, or even earlier.
Even though credit card fraud is and remains at obscenely high levels, mostly due to this refusal to upgrade their security by the credit card companies; the banks are allowing, permitting, or even condoning outright theft and fraud.
Credit card companies issue card numbers that are *consecutively* numbered, so if someone steals *a* card, they automatically know what the next 1-99 card numbers are, *and* their expiration dates. Security codes are only used by a tiny minority of companies to check card authenticity.
The biggest bank fraud, however, comes through "automatic withdrawl". Theoretically, such withdrawl can only be made from "flagged" accounts; but routinely, some corporations withdraw from $100 to $500 from unflagged accounts. The account holder is unaware of this until they get their monthly statement. When they complain, the bank shrugs and tells them to contact the corporation that took their money.
The corporation promptly returns the stolen money, but keeps the "float" on that money it had for a month; whereas the bank does *not* pay the interest to the account holder it would have paid on the stolen money, had it remained in the account.
This means both the bank and the corporations that do automatic withdrawl are rewarded handsomely for this fraud, and perhaps millions of small account holders are annually defrauded.
The amount of the fraud is too small for federal court, and the banks are too powerful for small claims court. By stealing just a few dollars from a hundred thousand people, they get away with it, where they would be prosecuted from stealing even a few hundred dollars from a person.
#5
Hee hee, raptor. But let's say most of the fraudulent ATM withdrawals are being made in Lahore. (That is, if Lahore even *has* ATMs). Would that be an issue of concern? Maybe they're being made in the banlieus outside Paris. Would that cause any alarm bells to go off? Or would that be considered petty crime comitted by bored kids...
#6
Interesting how you can order that telemarketers not call your landline phone, but you are not allowed to forbid withdrawals from your bank account into foreign ATM's, or withdrawals from your account direct to another corporation without your signature, etc. etc. The banks seem to be profiting indirectly from this theft, bit by bit.
#7
BTW - I got a phishing expedition email from "Paypal" saying overseas attempts were made to access my Paypal acct. I was directed to go to their "Paypal site link" and change my password.....nice try
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/22/2006 14:21 Comments ||
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#8
Unfortunately, a major reason for the lack of security changes is not just the banks, but the merchants. They whine and scream if you try to increase the security measures in place for transactions. You'd not believe how often I got screamed at for not removing security features without a signed letter by the merchant accepting responsibility for chargebacks if they get fraudulant charges.
The Credit Card Processors have been trying to push people into upgrading to newer equipment and software but it's a very difficult sell to these merchants who typically want all the security features turned off to decrease the time it takes per transaction. So alot of the blame lies not just with banks but the merchants as well.
Another note, credit card fraud does fund terrorism, you don't hear much about it, but I've seen cases involving the FBI hunting for these guys.
#9
This is one of several reasons I have a signed, notarized statement that I presented to my bank several years ago that stipulated that a) I would not accept any credit cards, b) I did not want, nor would I accept, a "debit" card, and c) that I would not authorize ANY cash withdrawals from my account except by signed affidavit. I've had them take money out twice. Both times they not only apologized, but someone ended up being fired. Banks have rules they have to operate under. If you're thoughtful enough, and nasty enough, they'll do what you say. We've had our account at the same bank (different names, different owners) for 35+ years. It's not a big account, but we do seem to have some clout.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/22/2006 18:03 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
An Argentinian woman who went missing after a New year's Party turned up at her own funeral.
An Australian woman has become famous for her ability to paint with her breasts
KUWAIT CITY, 22 January 2006 — Kuwait’s Cabinet yesterday initiated constitutional procedures to remove the ailing Emir 
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) - An opposition-sponsored strike closed shops and shut down public transport across Bangladesh on Sunday as authorities deployed thousands of security forces to deter violence. The main opposition Awami League and its 13 allies called the dawn-to-dusk strike to protest an alleged government plan to compile new voter lists that favor the ruling coalition.
A Dutch company is selling nazi helmets to Dutch football fans to wear during the World Cup Finals in Germany.
PRISTINA, Serbia and Montenegro - Kosovo Albanians began the search on Sunday for a new president to lead the disputed Serbian province into independence negotiations after Ibrahim Rugova died aged 61, leaving no clear successor.
Angered by a Supreme Court ruling that gave local governments more power to seize people's homes for economic development, a group of activists is trying to get one of the court's justices evicted from his own home.
