When we were in Illinois in early January, we drove past several billboards like the one above.

I was annoyed.

I think it's great to work toward a world of less pollution, lower energy bills, and more efficient sources of energy. But I was annoyed to see the sign that essentially stated two false ideas:

1. Global warming is the only issue. Really? What about

• AIDS in Africa,
  
• people dying of preventable or curable diseases like Malaria,
  
• people dying from dirty drinking water,
  
• persecution based on religious belief in China,
  
• genocide in Sudan,
• and oppression of the Dalits in India?

This is by far not an exhaustive list.

All of these are killing people today. Global warming is unique on a list like this - it's not killing anyone today. If we fight these other things, we'll be saving people's lives today.

2. If you don't both believe what we tell you AND do what we say, you're doing absolutely nothing, you're wrong, and you're probably stupid.

Yes, it does sound like a cult when you think about it. We're being told that we're not allowed to question, not allowed to think, not allowed to ask. In order to avoid being stupid, you have to check your brain at the door and just follow what Al Gore and others say.

Perhaps a time is coming where critical thinkers are completely unwelcome in our society.

Instead of requiring that everyone place their faith in, and live in accordance to an apocalyptic vision based on the theory of global warming, we should be taking care of the planet because we hate the effect pollution has today, and we should be putting our time and money into saving lives rather than buying a different brand of lightbulbs.

In other news, the global temperature has plummeted in the last 12 months, in the "the single fastest temperature change ever recorded" [source]

I'm working late and am watching C-SPAN as I finish up work for the day. Senator Carl Levin (I only know because his name is on the screen) is talking about the horrible state of the military. He just said that only 50% of new recruits are scoring above average on the entry aptitude test.

That sounded pretty bad... but then aga, isn't that what average means? Shouldn't it work out that 50% are above average and 50% below?

(As always, this post is personal opinion only, and not paid for by anyone.)

Ok, maybe not everything is cheaper online, but most things.

Most major online retailers have affiliate programs - if you send a visitor from your website to their store, and a purchase is made, they'll give you a percentage of the purchase price.

A few websites will give you some or all of that cash. I'll mention 2 today, that I use.

• Ebates - Tons of stores, great rates, and they automatically send you your cash quarterly. To date I've gotten $127 cash back in the last few years by using Ebates.com. Ebates is also a great source for coupons - search for a product or a store, and see what web coupons are available.
  
  Some sites for cashback from ebates: Buy.com, Old Navy, Barnes & Noble, Babies R Us...
  
  Sign up and you'll get $10 for free!
  

• ExtraBux - Extrabux does essentially the same thing, but with different cashback rates and some different stores. I bought Rosetta Stone language-learning software and am getting 12% cash back! Instead of paying quarterly, they hold each purchases' cashback for so many days, after which you can get a payout.
  
  Some sites for cash back from extrabux: Ebay, Walmart, priceine, skype, Best Buy, iTunes!
  
  Sign up for extrabux for cash back.
  

Both Internet Explorer and Firefox memorize what you type into forms. This is based on the name of the form field, what you type for "email" on one form will be saved and shown to you next time you're filling in another "email" field. "email" and "e-mail" would be memorized separately, so that's why sometimes you'll see options, but not other times.

Every day I'm reminded of all the typos I've made in website forms because my browser memorized it and never forgets!

Finally I figured it out by several web searches. When you're filling out a form and see things memorized that you don't want to show up again, hit the down arrow until the option is highlighted. Hit shift+delete and the item will be deleted.

This also works for the auto-complete in the Address bar when you're typing in a website address.

This blog post has not been sponsored or paid for by anyone - it is a personal blog post only.

I've done most of my banking at ING direct and Presidential Bank - out of state banks that offered much higher interest than anything local.

Both ING and Presidential have lowered their interest rates, which makes Washington Mutual one of the best bets for interest on personal savings, with online Savings with no minimum balance getting 4% Interest!

So, if you have any money in savings, and you're getting the average .25%, why not get 8 times that much interest at WaMu?

The customer service has so far been amazing as well.

Looking for banks? Check out:

• bankrate.com
  

I've learned not to over-commit, and when it comes to my blog, every commitment tends to be an over-commitment. So who knows how long I'll post Monday Money Maven tips, but here's #1. Yes, it was posted on a Tuesday.

Combine Liberty Bell and Grand Central to Save Money and get Better Service.

Liberty Bell:
Tom Martino is a consumer advocate - If you have a complaint about a company he will look into it for you, and he keeps a referral list of good companies with great customer service at referrallist.com.

Like the rest of us, Tom Martino had bad experiences with Qwest's customer service, so he started Liberty Bell Telecom. Liberty Bell resells Qwest services. While Qwest will still maintain the lines and send out technicians if there is a problem, but you only deal with Liberty Bell's customer service. In addition, instead of having to choose 3 features, you get all of them (call forwarding, caller id, etc.).

The service cost $6-8.50 less, but the voicemail is $6.

Meanwhile, GrandCentral provides free local phone numbers, free call forwarding, free voicemail, and much more. (Check out the list of features below.)

Today I had Liberty Bell change the settings on the line so after 4 rings the line forwards to my GrandCentral number instead of Liberty Bell's voice mail.

	1 Line	2 Lines
Cost Before	29.99	39.99
Cost Now	21.50	34.00
Monthly Savings	8.49	5.99
% Saved	28%	15%
Annual Savings	$101.08	$71.88

If you find this information useful, and choose to sign up with Liberty Bell, please give them my phone number as your referral - please contact me or click the link below to call me through GrandCentral.

---

Here's the list of features for the two services mentioned today:

Liberty Bell

GrandCentral

Anonymous Call Rejection 3-way calling 900 - 976 Blocking Call Forwarding Call Rejection Call Waiting Call Waiting Caller ID Caller ID Caller ID Blocking Continuous Redial Custom Ringing Last Call Return Long Distance Alert Priority Call Speed Calling 30 Speed Calling 8 Selective Call Forwarding

Free local number of your choice Forward to multiple phone numbers with each call - whichever you pick up first gets the call Screen callers Listen in before taking the call Record calls on the fly and access recordings online Block selected callers Receive voicemail notifications via email or SMS One number that rings different phones based on who's calling Transfer a call from one of your phones to another mid-call. Different Greetings for Friends, Family, Work Contacts, etc. Access voicemail online or over the phone Cool web buttons like the one used above to allow people to call you without revealing your phone number.

...Tenants located on the lower floors of the building handed their children to German firefighters on ladders.

But the parents in the photograph were too high up, and made the harrowing decision to drop the young boy to the crowd below. He was caught safely by an off-duty police officer who just happened to be in the neighborhood.

Not everyone was so lucky; nine people - including five children - died in the blaze.

It's not known whether the baby's parents survived.

source: CBS News

I don't know much about caucuses, so I was looking it up online.

From what I can find, it seems that in caucus states, geographic areas select 'representatives' (delegates) who then go to bigger and bigger meetings within the party until all of the state delegates are together, and they all vote. The delegates are not bound to vote for who the people in their district want to win the primary, but they usually do.

In researching this, I found some pretty under-handed tactics being planned for the Colorado caucuses to manipulate the election. I won't say which politician these people are scheming for, but the website is RonPaulForums.com.

Here's one interesting quote on how to get yourself in as a delegate to vote for the candidate supported at RonPaulForums.com:

In running for delegate -- make people's reasons to vote for you PERSONAL. Talk about local issues, improving the local party. If necessary, say that you will vote at the county assembly for whomever the precinct prefers...

And another comment:
The preference poll [,the actual votes of the people you said you'd agree with,] is truly almost meaningless. The point is to ensure that your neighbors like you.

(source. emphasis added.)

Wow. Talk about integrity and believing in democracy.