Not that I agree with it, but I think the principle at work here is that if you have lots of inquiries but no new credit account opened then the inquiries are either debt collectors looking for you or from businesses that saw your report and denied you credit -- both of which are viewed as "bad". There are certain types of inquiries (for identification or marketing purposes, for example) that don't count against you, but everything else does. I think mortgages are the exception because a person will likely shop around quite a bit before choosing a lender because so much money (in interest and fees) is at stake.

(I am not a credit expert, but I read a lot about it while trying to rebuild mine after my ex-husband destroyed it during our divorce.)

Here it is; not tons of detail because it happened in 2003 and most of its residue has been erased from the memory of the internet:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/workplace/2003-09-04-janitor_x.htm

Security Clearances are getting yanked over poor credit these days, because someone with a poor credit background allegedly would have a motive for selling secrets solely so that they could pay off their debts. There was a huge story a few years back about a janitor who had been at one facility and had a clearance for decades lost his job and clearance because his credit score went down. (I'll have to search around and see if I can find it.) I know some great responsible people (now) who can't get a clearance because of some stupid credit card bill from their wild youth days.

My guess is that the TSA is checking the credit of their employees periodically and threatening to yank their clearances, which would also yank their jobs. Maybe they should be firing the ones who steal stuff from my suitcase instead..... oh wait, they have no way of knowing who that actually was.

Dumb.

Oh; nice -- it inserts them, but preview shows without them.

Even more offtopic...

I have the same issue. I've spent my whole life with a congested nose. I've tried every medication on the market at one time or another, done allergy testing (only thing that came up was dust and cockroaches -- great) and even had surgery (they cauterized my sinuses to shrink them... fun). The surgery gave me relief for about 6 months and then the congestion came back. Claratin seems to do the best job, although even on a great day my sense of smell just isn't where it should be. But it's never affected my taste that I know of.

Maybe I will try the saline.

(and why is slash not letting me insert blank lines today?)

Some people can't just take a child home; they need the entire experience. Others, like my husband and I, just need to know that they put in a reasonable effort (in our case, two assisted attempts only) before moving on to adoption. We want a family, so we're moving on quickly. But for some reason, others need the whole enchilada and won't be satisfied with adoption. Don't know why it is that way, but it is.

I like how Jiffy Lube wanted to replace my automatic transmission fluid and showed me a dirty round air filter that needed to be replaced. I have a Subaru with a manual transmission and a square air filter (which was brand new at the time, because I had just replaced it myself the previous weekend). The only reason I took it there was because I didn't want the hassle of hauling used motor oil to the recycling center. I still take it there, but they don't even try to sell me wiper blades anymore, because if they even think about it, I tell everyone in the waiting room about the transmission fluid and air filter. Only had to do that once before they got the message.

They sent me a card for a 2004 Honda, but I've never owned a Honda in my life. I called the number on the card and demanded to know where they got their info. The guy I talked to kept telling me that they got it from Honda and the DMV, then tried to get info out of me about what car I do own so he could sell me a warranty. We went back and forth for almost 15 minutes (I can't believe I kept him on the hook that long) when I threatened to sue him *personally* for identity theft. Poor dumb guy was so scared (seriously.. how would I know who he was to sue him?!) he gave up the company he was calling for: US Fidelis. I still get pissed when I see their commercials now.

My understanding, when I read this the first time it was posted, is that he was trying to download something, but was put through hoops and loops, and required to download 17MB of scary security patches before he could get what he wanted. He seemed to be questioning why you have to download 17MB worth of crap, thinking that the patches were posted individually as deltas, not in huge allotments of "OMG YOU WILL DIE WITHOUT THIS" garbage.

Until I got a cellular modem, I had three computers sharing a 56k modem line because we have no access to high speed. Download 17MB of patches to Windows just to get the one piece I wanted? Yeah, right. My interpretation was that this was his issue with the patching.