Have you tried to access the same page after deleting the s from https in the address line? A lot of sites that use SSL don't limit what pages can be requested using SSL and therefore you can wind up accessing the entire site through SSL.
Thanks for the idea. I deleted the "s", hit (enter), and found that the page refreshed and put the "s" back in.
It's "no skin off my nose," but I am just curious why someone would design a website this way. Am I correct that unnecessary SSL encryption can slow down performance in accessing the page? Why else would someone do it?
If you look e.g. at www.vanguard.com, you will see that some pages are http (general information) and some are https (the one that asks for user login).
Maybe the designers of the other pages are just careless, and put SSL in unnecessarily?