A provision from last summer’s financial regulation bill promoted by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) capped the fees that banks can charge retailers when customers pay with debit cards. The new rule goes into effect on Saturday.

Until the voters can address, in 2012, the economic disaster which has been the Obama administration and Democrat majority rule, we will have to find our own way to lower the cost of living, and banking, in particular.

My family has used ING Direct, an online bank, for several years with unparalleled success. ING offers a wide range of services, from checking to savings to home loans and retirement accounts. The “Electric Orange” checking account has no monthly fee, no debit card fee and actually pays interest on the balance. Transferring money between the checking account and savings accounts is quick and easy, and can even be automated. The debit card can be used at tens of thousands of ATMs nationwide.

Great Customer Service

Our single experience with customer service came when my sweetheart lost her debit card while shopping. A store employee picked it up, used it at two locations, then returned it to the “lost and found.” We called ING after discovering that the card was lost and that the fraudulent transactions were pending (via the free mobile app). After a quick phone call (also via the app) and within a few days, the stolen funds were restored to our account.

Greater Convenience

Two issues had prevented me from moving entirely to an online bank in the past– the lack of paper checks for those rare occasions in which one is needed (we pay almost everything online) and the difficulty in depositing checks and cash (also a rare occurrence). ING now offers paper checks and is working on a process whereby paper deposits will be processed digitally. We just stick cash in the vacation fund coffee can.

I am not a Bank of America customer but my bank, Suntrust, recently notified me that the free personal account that I had maintained for greater convenience for 15 years will soon be subject to a $7 monthly fee… at least, it would be if I kept it, which I will not. I have no doubt that my free checking has met its demise at the hands of federal over-regulation.

How to Switch

To open an ING Direct account, you must have an existing “brick and mortar” checking account from which to transfer funds initially. Contact me and I’ll send you a referral. Open the ING account, link your existing BoA, Suntrust or other account, and transfer a small amount to get started. Order a book of checks, open a couple of savings accounts (incidentally, ING will soon offer a student account with debit card) and begin the process of redirecting any automatic deposits. As soon as you receive your debit card and/or checks, transfer the balance from the old account.

Finally, enjoy closing the “brick and mortar” account before any fees kick in. Oh… and vote in 2012. Choose freedom.

• The Atlantic: Did Congress Kill the Debit Card?

“We are not talking about a national ID card. We are not talking about a government-controlled system. What we are talking about is enhancing online security and privacy, and reducing and perhaps even eliminating the need to memorize a dozen passwords, through creation and use of more trusted digital identities,” Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said at an event Friday at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, according to CNET.com.

It is a very short step from freedom to “identify,” then an even shorter one to “control.” We are fools if we don’t understand that the President who will take the first step will, without hesitation, take the next.

Obama Administration Reportedly Plans to Create Internet ID for All Americans – FoxNews.com

The complaint hinges on Iacono’s claim that her nose piercing isn’t just a matter of fashion, but an article of faith. She and her mother, Nikki, belong to a small religious group called the Church of Body Modification, which sees tattoos, piercings and the like as channels to the divine.

ACLU Sues NC School Over Student’s Nose Piercing – Atlanta News Story – WGCL Atlanta

Not all Germans were Nazis – most were decent, most were revolted by the Third Reich, most were good citizens hoisting a beer, earning a living and tucking in their children at night. But, too many looked away, too many cried out in lame defense – I didn’t know." Too many were silent. Guilt absolutely falls upon those who committed the atrocities, but responsibility and guilt falls upon those who did nothing as well. Fault was not just with the goose steppers but with those who pulled the curtains shut, said and did nothing.

In WWII we won because we got it. We understood who the enemy was and we knew that the end had to be unconditional and absolute. We did not stumble around worrying about offending the Nazis. We did not measure every word so as not to upset our foe. We built planes and tanks and battleships and went to war to win, to rid the world of malevolence.

We are at war‚ yet too many stubbornly and foolishly don’t put the pieces together and refuse to identify the evil doers. We are circumspect and disgracefully politically correct.

Let me mince no words in saying that from Fort Hood to Bali, from Times Square to London, from Madrid to Mumbai, from 9/11 to Gaza, the murderers, the barbarians are radical Islamists… To camouflage their identity is sedition. To excuse their deeds is contemptible. To mask their intentions is unconscionable.

PRIMER-Connecticut: Ehr Kumt

““Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”

The controversy over the proposed “Ground Zero Mosque” and the uproar over Pastor Terry Jones and the Dove World Outreach Center’s plan to burn copies of the Quran on September 11 serve to further expose the acute lack of truth and honesty in today’s society.

I find myself asking the obvious questions and marveling at the inability (more likely, refusal) of many to understand and accept the obvious answers.

For example, why do the same people who demand “freedom of religion” for the “Ground Zero” Muslims excoriate Pastor Jones’ for practicing his religion in the way that he sees fit? Why is it wrong to criticize Muslims for their practices, yet perfectly fine to denounce the Gainesville, FL church’s expression of its own faith?

Some critics of the Quran burning are worried that it will lead to violence in the Muslim world. Here’s a novel idea– why don’t the critics hold the riotous Muslims responsible for their own conduct? Since when does a book burning have to result in a riot?

Nothing compels Muslims to respond with anger and violence… except their own religion.

When a Muslim cleric in Iran calls the United States “the Great Satan,” why do Islamic moderates not denounce the inflammatory rhetoric and criticize the imam for words that could lead to violence? Is it because Americans, primarily adherents of the Christian faith, aren’t likely to take to the streets in anger, behead any Muslims that they find and issue fatwas calling for the death of all non-Christians?

Could it be that Pastor Jones’ critics know that the followers of Mohammed are absolutely incapable of rational, reasonable, non-violent expression of their faith; that they really are likely to go nuts when, for example, a Danish newspaper prints cartoon depictions of Mohammed or a non-Muslim writes a novel that casts their prophet in an unflattering light?

(In 1989, Ayatolla Khomeini, the supreme leader of Iran (where there is no “separation of church and state”), ordered all “good Muslims” to kill Salman Rushdie, the author of The Satanic Verses, and anyone else associated with the book’s publication. Although Rushdie lives today, 38 others have died as a direct result of the “peaceful” Ayatolla’s fatwa.)

I believe that incinerating a stack of books is pointless, but why must the Pastor of the Dove World Outreach Center be tolerant of the religion of Islam when its most ardent followers have absolutely no tolerance for his religion?

Why is it that our own government denounces the Quran burning as “un-American” while acquiescing to, and even commending a religion that allows men to deny their wives food and sustenance if they refuse to obey their sexual demands; requires women to get permission from their husbands to work; and allows rapists to avoid prosecution by paying the victims?

The burning of the Quran may be extreme, what is more “un-American” than a religion whose extremists celebrate the death of over 3,000 “infidels” on 09/11/2001?

The mere fact that I ask these questions marks me as bigoted, racist or, at the very least, intolerant. None of those adjectives describe me; rather, I am simply mad as hell. Hypocrisy has gone mainstream and I am tired of it.

I refuse to give evil a pass.