Except almost no one implements "hardened wired connections". Do you run crypto on your wired network? Do you require 802.1x auth on your wired network? Do you you encase all the cabling in pressure-alarmed conduit? Do you perform Functional Compartmentalization where network access is limited on a per-user basis? Almost no one does these things - most of them are non-trivial to do with wired networks. All I have to do is pay a janitor a few bucks to plug something into a wired port and bingo, I have full network access.

Wireless on the other hand has auth and crypto built in so while sniffing is trivial, if you're running 802.11i it doesn't matter. If you're worried about what happens when it reaches the AP, some wireless vendors keep the traffic encrypted all the way back to a controller in the Data Center. There are no crypto keys or user data on the AP so if someone were to steal it or gain access to the cable behind it they would only get encrypted data. Then add in some vendor's built-in ICSA firewall and you can easily perform Functional Compartmentalization on a per-user basis regardless of user location.

The wireless world has moved on from the old WEP days regarding security. There is still the jamming DoS attack vulnerabilities but many people have mitigated or just accepted them in exchange for the huge productivity gains and cost savings.

I have tried to do side work as a geek for money on many occasions and have found that in the end the amount of work that I end up doing far exceeds the amount gained over time. What I have found that actually works very well is just letting small businesses in your community at places you frequent know that you are in computers and willing to work a trade in services. I did this with my vet several years ago and I have not paid a single cent for my dog in over 4 years. This includes food and boarding of my pet and anything to do with the health of my dog which. I get roughly 2-3 calls a month from them and probably spend 4-8 hours every quarter there keeping printers working and just fixing things that someone has screwed up. I have crunched it out and this deal easily saves me 3-4k a year depending on teeth cleanings and annual travel. The health of my pet is amazing as the vet is very invested in keeping my dog alive. I have recently cut another deal with a large salon that provides office space to hairdressers and pedicures. In essence they are giving me office space (since I mostly work from home when I am not not he road) and hair cuts for my wife and two daughters. This deal will save me an additional fortune over time and gives me a place to hide from the previous mentioned family members. The benefit to the salon owners is that the office space means they will have a friendly tech in house when I am home. Not to bad a deal to keep up a small wireless network and one server. Now if I could only figure out a way to get free toilet paper. With three women in one house you can imagine the implications!!!

Currently, the only way to buy oil from an OPEC nation is with "Petrodollars" which are actually US dollars. What this means for the American economy is that oil importing countries (which is pretty much all of them) have to hold lots and lots of US dollars in their treasuries in order to pay OPEC for their oil (and then they have to "buy" more dollars to buy more oil). So if OPEC were to one day decide that they wanted to accept Euros for their oil instead of dollars, then mountains of US dollars would hit the world currency markets to be exchanged for Euros. This would crush the value of the US dollar and leave us in a very bad situation.

It's been said that one of the reasons we went into Iraq was because Saddam was accepting Euros for his oil.