Quick Hits for August 23, 2009

* Headline: Taliban cut off fingers of Afghan voters. Wow, it sounds pretty scary. Their goal was to "disrupt" the elections. While I don't want to sound like I approve, because I don't, but doesn't this seem like oversensationalized reporting? I mean, out of millions of people, only TWO had their fingers cut off. It sounds like you almost lost a finger for voting if you read CNN's teasers and headlines. Yes, it sucked anyone got their finger cut off, but come on, this was a pretty major failure for the Taliban if the best disruption of an election they got was two fingers cut off.

* I gotta say this Miley thing is just over the top. The big story is she was "fully making out" with someone because they kissed and were romantic at an airport saying goodbye to him as he was getting on a plane. She is 16. I pretty much assumed she was "fully making out" and maybe more. Heck, I know most of my friends were when we were 16. Shouldn't it really be a story if she WASN'T making out with anyone by 16 as popular as she is? As is, I just don't see why it is news other than that people just need to stop paying so much attention to the lives of others and start designing their own lives so it is more entertaining and fun.

* Win or lose this fight over health care, Republicans are doing more long term damage to their brand because of the way they are doing it. The lies, the deliberate misrepresentations, and the red herrings continue to leave them as the "party of no" even if President Obama fails to get this passed. People will start looking to them for solutions and those solutions of simply limiting liability and savings accounts are old, wornout answers that no one really believes will solve anything except doctor and insurance company profits. They better find something for 2010 to run on other than "Just say no".

* I think it is almost time to venture into Youtube. Look for Plinking Reality to work on making videos of various kinds with the new digital video camera we got for this vacation when we get back. If you have any suggestions, let us know.

* I love Vonage even if I don't use it. My parents do, but we are on cellphones exclusively now. However, I just noticed they added all the long distance and local calls you can make to 60 countries for the same $25 a month. If only one of those 60 was the Philippines, we would have bought it when we get back from vacation. Yes, we use webcams and internet messenger services for it, but a phone would be nice too. I just don't understand why anyone uses a regular landline from say Verizon or ATT anymore.

* New credit card rules that are about to go into effect are helpful for consumers, but I know some of us have seen interest rate hikes, even with credit scores of over 700. That means, more than ever, it is important to start paying down credit cards because interest rates also tend to rise during an economic recovery. Use your cards for specific purposes, but now is the time to pay them down as far as you can.

* Only 2 days until vacation time. But I will still be here, just missing a few days here and there, but keep checking in. My facebook will have international pictures coming regularly right after we get the foreign internet connection set up.