So, apparently, Visa is offering a new service to businesses in search of alternative payroll methods -The Visa Payroll card. They say it will cut costs from paper usage and manpower and be more secure than paychecks. The way I see it, the more of my payroll that is held by computers through a credit, the more opportunities someone has to tap in to that money. If this catches on it's only a matter of time before I don't even SEE my money anymore. It will all be 'credits' just like in the movies.

According to Visa: "The Visa Payroll card is a reloadable prepaid card that provides employers and their employees with a convenient, low-cost alternative to payroll checks. It enables businesses to help reduce costs associated with paper-based payroll processes, including producing, handling, and processing paper checks. It also helps businesses avoid check-related fraud losses and theft. For employees without a bank account, the Visa Payroll card is a valuable employee benefit that helps avoid the high cost of check cashing, while providing convenience and safety.

The Visa Payroll card is welcome everywhere Visa debit cards are accepted. So employees can use them at millions of locations worldwide, including Internet and mail order/telephone order (MOTO) merchants, Visa ATMs, and Visa member locations. Adding Interlink® and/or Plus® brand marks on the Visa Payroll card provides expanded acceptance for cardholders."

You can read more about the Visa Payroll card here.

...Let me cut to the chase. The biggest robbery in the history of this country is taking place as you read this. Though no guns are being used, 300 million hostages are being taken. Make no mistake about it: After stealing a half trillion dollars to line the pockets of their war-profiteering backers for the past five years, after lining the pockets of their fellow oilmen to the tune of over a hundred billion dollars in just the last two years, Bush and his cronies - who must soon vacate the White House - are looting the U.S. Treasury of every dollar they can grab. They are swiping as much of the silverware as they can on their way out the door...

And yet, they are screeching about how the end is near! Panic! Recession! The Great Depression! Y2K! Bird flu! Killer bees! We must pass the bailout bill today!! The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

Falling for whom? NOTHING in this "bailout" package will lower the price of the gas you have to put in your car to get to work. NOTHING in this bill will protect you from losing your home. NOTHING in this bill will give you health insurance.

Health insurance? Mike, why are you bringing this up? What’s this got to do with the Wall Street collapse?
It has everything to do with it. This so-called "collapse" was triggered by the massive defaulting and foreclosures going on with people’s home mortgages. Do you know why so many Americans are losing their homes? To hear the Republicans describe it, it’s because too many working class idiots were given mortgages that they really couldn't afford. Here's the truth: The number one cause of people declaring bankruptcy is because of medical bills. Let me state this simply: If we had had universal health coverage, this mortgage "crisis" may never have happened... - From This Guy

While trying to track down a friend of mine from Michigan, I came across a blog that he and his wife, Stephanie had created for their daughter, Emmie-Rose. I decided to take a look and see what it was about. I was heart-broken to find that Emmie-Rose was born in July of 2006 seventeen weeks premature and quickly developed complications. It was a gut-wrenching battle for the two of them, but in the end their sweet little girl didn't make it past that September. What makes this horrible story even worse is that she had fought on long passed what the doctors had predicted, but in the last days the hospital refused to continue to feed her against the multiple requests from Chris and Stephanie, a decision supported by the ethics committee.



The ETHICS committee said stop feeding the little angel, she's fading anyway. What the hell?! I know it's been almost exactly two years to the date that all of this took place and I wish I could have known about what was going on to give them my support, but to this day they still continue to write little Emmie-Rose at 23weeks and never let her forget that she's in their hearts.

This has got to be one of the creepiest things I've ever seen using Flash animation. Tomas Eriksson of ONEMOTION.com, a Flash artist from the home of IKEA and porn, Sweden, has created an amazingly realistic interactive spider using the simple program that Flash is. When I say 'interactive' I mean IN-TER-AC-TIVE.


This thing is so well thought out. It reacts to everything you do with your mouse. It follows that cotton-pickin' thing everywhere. Try grabbing it by it's body, or just by one leg. You can even change the physical specifications on it to best suit your arachnaphilic tastes. The only way this baby even seems to give you a break is if you drop an insect on the page [spacebar]. Heck, you can even change the angle of the plane he crawls around on. It's just so cool, even for an arachnaphobe such as myself. I am both impressed and exceedingly creeped out at the same time, but I just had to share something this cool. You've got to see it and play around with it to believe it. Enjoy.