The Rowdy One

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Those supporting life are actually pro-choice ...

... as this compelling and amazing video reminds us.

"It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish." -- Mother Teresa

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Saturday, January 20, 2007

TCF Bank: The worst bank on Earth

OK, I haven't been to every bank on the planet, so it is at least possible (thought not likely) that there are one or two that may be worse. But based MY experiences, I believe there can't possibly be a worse financial institution than TCF Bank. (That is, unless there is one that simply auto deletes your money as it is deposited.)

First, the great irony. TCF is supposed to stand for: The Customer First.

So, how did the bank chain that operates in Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Colorado, and Indiana -- and soon, I've learned, Arizona -- "put me first" in the near two years I banked with them?

When we signed up, it was because they were close to our home -- AND they had the most aggressive savings rates in the area. Ah, but now the catch. TCF sucks you in with a great rate. But after two or three months, the bank would drop the rate on our savings account to a mere fraction of a percent (at one point, we were dropped to 0.1%).

So, I would pay a visit to the bank, upon which time they would inform me of a "new" savings account I could move into that had a better rate. But guess what would happen would I would move our money there? If just a few short months, it'd happen again.

The password is: Weasels.

The last straw was when I went in to withdraw a few hundred dollars, and I was informed I would have to pay a $4 cashier's check fee to do so.

When I went to close my account a couple weeks later, the branch manager -- who like the majority of the bank's employees, was, incredibly nice -- expressed his own frustrations with his bank's slimy practices. Another former TCF employee, who now works at our new bank, told me, "It usually takes about two years, but eventually people figure out the games they play."

This former employee also shared that the bank's fee-raising, interest-lowering practices in Colorado were an effort to fund its new locations in Arizona. Very nice.

Arizonans, here's my advise. TCF more accurately stands for: The Crooked Financiers. Run far. Run fast. But most of all, run away from TCF.

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Monday, January 01, 2007

Happy New Year and Soy to the World

It's a new year, and like many I have resolved improvement in several areas for 2007, including eating less junk food, drinking less soda, and exercising better "portion control".

But one thing I am NOT doing is eliminating soy products from my diet because I'm worried they are making me gay.

Irrational as this sounds, a news commentator for World Net Daily is attempting to link soy products to an increased likelihood of becoming homosexual. "Soy is feminizing, and commonly leads to a decrease in the size of the penis, sexual confusion and homosexuality," the article asserts. "That's why most of the medical blame for today's rise in homosexuality must fall upon the rise in soy formula and other soy products."

What's sad is that radical, out-there hypothesis like these get lumped in with reasonable and credible ones and then they all get catagozied, and dismissed, by some as being from the "right wing extreme."

Well, you can count me as one who chooses not to partake of soy products ... not because I'm worried they are making us all gay -- but, because they typically taste down right nasty. And my kids agree.

A couple years ago when it was determined that one of our kids had a very mild dairy allergy, we briefly switched to soy-based milk. Yikes. Milk intake plummeted to almost zero until we switched back to the real deal. Therefore ... oy, no soy. At least, not in our house.

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