Reminds me of Don Sims of Dallas, who entertains troops. HIs dad died in WWII. Maybe he passed through North Platte? http://ussocallahan.wetpaint.com/page/USS+Franklin
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Profound Statements worth a review
In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless
man is a shame, two is a law firm and three or more is a congress.
-- John Adams
man is a shame, two is a law firm and three or more is a congress.
-- John Adams
If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do
read the newspaper you are misinformed.
Mark Twain
Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of
Congress. But then I repeat myself.
Mark Twain
I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is
like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the
handle.
Winston Churchill
A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on
the support of Paul.
George Bernard Shaw
A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man,
which debt he proposes to pay off with your money.
G. Gordon Liddy
Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep
voting on what to have for dinner.
James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)
Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor
people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.
Douglas Casey, Classmate of Bill Clinton at Georgetown University
Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and
car keys to teenage boys.
-- P.J. O'Rourke, Civil Libertarian
Government is the great fiction, through which everybody
endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.
-- Frederic Bastiat, French Economist (1801-1850)
Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few
short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
-- Ronald Reagan (1986)
I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.
-- Will Rogers
-- Will Rogers
If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see
what it costs when it's free!
-- P.J. O'Rourke
what it costs when it's free!
-- P.J. O'Rourke
In general, the art of government consists of taking as much
money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.
-- Voltaire (1764)
money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.
-- Voltaire (1764)
Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't
mean politics won't take an interest in you! -- Pericles (430 B.C.)
mean politics won't take an interest in you! -- Pericles (430 B.C.)
No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature
is in session.
-- Mark Twain (1866)
is in session.
-- Mark Twain (1866)
Talk is cheap . . . except when Congress does it.
-- Anonymous
The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy
appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other.
-- Ronald Reagan
The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the
blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of
misery.
-- Winston Churchill
The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that
the taxidermist leaves the skin.
-- Mark Twain
the taxidermist leaves the skin.
-- Mark Twain
The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly
is to fill the world with fools.
-- Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)
is to fill the world with fools.
-- Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)
There is no distinctly native American criminal class...save
Congress.
-- Mark Twain
What this country needs are more unemployed politicians.
-- Edward Langley, Artist (1928-1995)
A government big enough to give you everything you want, is
strong enough to take everything you have.
-- Thomas Jefferson
strong enough to take everything you have.
-- Thomas Jefferson
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Thursday, February 12, 2009
INFLATION - a Tax on the Poorest
I read this guy a lot because he is pithy and has some insight to the market patterns.The vids on the blog today are on target.
My own guess. inflation will kick in but probably delayed a bit as deflation continues.
Sometime in the next year to two years inflation will ramp up steadily.
INFLATION -- How to Tax the Poor and get away with it.
Interesting thing - inflation: It is a PERFECT way to tax the poor and they have no idea they are getting hit by the government -- they just think businesses are raising prices to make their life more difficult. This whole financial scenario is playing out with superb press for the Democrats - the whole time they destroy the poor and create a larger segment of poor population out of the middle class.
First -- Make sure banks are pushed to loan mortgages to people who are unable to pay them back and hold off any regulation that might cut into the executive class largess from the huge churning of cash. (Franks, Dashel, Obama, Reed --- Clinton and Carter)
Second -- Once the banks and then the WORLD economy are destroyed in the maelstrom and a hated Republican president is easily scapegoated - take control of the nations finances as if you had no hand in the massacre.
Third -- Create the most massive government expenditure "stimulus" pork program ever heard of with only a tiny portion going to private sector job creation and print up dollars as fast as possible. Put truckloads of cash into the marketplace. Let the ignorant actually think you are saving them with cash.
Fourth -- sit back and wait a year or two and enjoy the rise of prices across all spectra while the poor struggle to pay the new inflated rates for everything. A simple solution. The poor continue to believe you are the hero for pouring cash on them and they continue to hate business and capitalism because THEY are raising prices. You have taxed the poor and laid all blame on your opposition in government and on business and you are the hero.
Democrats are geniuses. Rebublicans are stupid. (when it comes to taking power in government).
My own guess. inflation will kick in but probably delayed a bit as deflation continues.
Sometime in the next year to two years inflation will ramp up steadily.
INFLATION -- How to Tax the Poor and get away with it.
Interesting thing - inflation: It is a PERFECT way to tax the poor and they have no idea they are getting hit by the government -- they just think businesses are raising prices to make their life more difficult. This whole financial scenario is playing out with superb press for the Democrats - the whole time they destroy the poor and create a larger segment of poor population out of the middle class.
First -- Make sure banks are pushed to loan mortgages to people who are unable to pay them back and hold off any regulation that might cut into the executive class largess from the huge churning of cash. (Franks, Dashel, Obama, Reed --- Clinton and Carter)
Second -- Once the banks and then the WORLD economy are destroyed in the maelstrom and a hated Republican president is easily scapegoated - take control of the nations finances as if you had no hand in the massacre.
Third -- Create the most massive government expenditure "stimulus" pork program ever heard of with only a tiny portion going to private sector job creation and print up dollars as fast as possible. Put truckloads of cash into the marketplace. Let the ignorant actually think you are saving them with cash.
Fourth -- sit back and wait a year or two and enjoy the rise of prices across all spectra while the poor struggle to pay the new inflated rates for everything. A simple solution. The poor continue to believe you are the hero for pouring cash on them and they continue to hate business and capitalism because THEY are raising prices. You have taxed the poor and laid all blame on your opposition in government and on business and you are the hero.
Democrats are geniuses. Rebublicans are stupid. (when it comes to taking power in government).
Sunday, February 08, 2009
Who Built the Financial Mess
The people that built it are the people now in charge.
Profile In Incompetence
Jimmy Carter became our 39th president at the young age
of 52. He was a one-term governor from Plains, GA, where he
managed the family peanut farm and taught Sunday school. He
was also a graduate of the Naval Academy and served seven
years in the Navy, leaving as a lieutenant.
He came to power in the aftermath of the Vietnam War and
the resignation of President Nixon. The public wanted change
and someone new, and Carter was an ambitious, hands-on
politician who promised better days. As good as his
intentions were, however, the things he tried were not
successful. In fact, he created far more serious problems
than he ever solved.
The centerpiece of Carter's foreign policy was human
rights, and he did achieve one noble success - a peace
treaty between Egypt 's Anwar Sadat and Israel 's
Menachem Begin.
Unfortunately, that later led to Sadat's assassination
at the hands of Muslim radicals.
Many people felt Carter was a good man who worked hard
and meant well. But he was naive and incompetent in handling
the enormous burdens and complex challenges of being
president.
He wrongly believed Americans had an 'inordinate fear
of communism', so he lifted travel bans to Cuba, North
Vietnam and Cambodia and pardoned draft evaders. He also
stopped B-1 bomber production and gave away our
strategically located Panamá Canal .
His most damaging miscalculation was the withdrawal of
U.S. support for the Shah of Iran , a strong and longtime
military ally. Carter objected to the Shah's alleged
mistreatment of imprisoned Soviet spies who were working to
overthrow Iran 's government. He thought the exiled
Ayatollah Khomeini, being a religious man, would make a
fairer leader.
Having lost U.S. support, the Shah was overthrown, the
Ayatollah returned, Iran was declared an Islamic nation and
Palestinian hit men were hired to eliminate opposition.
The Ayatollah then introduced the idea of suicide bombers
to the Palestine Liberation Organization, paying $35,000 to
PLO families whose young people were brainwashed to kill as
many Israelis as possible by blowing themselves up in
crowded shopping areas. Next, the Ayatollah used Iran 's
oil wealth to create, train and finance a new terrorist
organization, Hezbollah, which later would attack Israel in
2006.
In November 1979, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other Iranians
stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took 52 Americans
hostage for 444 days. Not until six months into the ordeal
did Carter attempt a rescue. But the mission, using just six
Navy helicopters, was poorly executed. Three of the copters
were disabled or lost in sandstorms. (Pilots weren't
allowed to meet with weather forecasters because someone in
authority worried about security.) Five airmen and three
Marines lost their lives.
So, due to overconfidence, inexperience and poor
judgment, Carter undermined and lost a strong ally, Iran,
that today aggressively threatens the U.S., Israel and the
rest of the world with nuclear weapons.
But that's not all. After Carter met for the first
time with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, the USSR promptly
invaded Afghanistan. Carter, ever the naive appeaser, was
shocked. 'I can't believe the Russians lied to
me,' he said.
The invasion attracted a 23-year-old Saudi named Osama
bin Laden to Afghanistan to recruit Muslim fighters and
raise money for an anti-Soviet jihad. Part of that group
eventually became al-Qaida, a terrorist organization that
would declare war on America several times between 1996 and
1998 before attacking us on 9/11, killing more Americans
than the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor .
On Carter's watch, the Soviet Union went on an
unrestrained rampage in which it took over not only
Afghanistan, but also Ethiopia, South Yemen, Angola,
Cambodia, Mozambique, Grenada and Nicaragua. In spite of
this, Carter's last defense budget proposed spending 45%
below pre-Vietnam levels for fighter aircraft, 75% for
ships, 83% for attack submarines and 90% for helicopters.
Years later, as a civilian, Carter negotiated a peace
agreement with North Korea to keep that communist country
from developing nuclear weapons. He also convinced President
Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to go
along with it. But the signed piece of paper proved
worthless. The North Koreans deceived Carter and instead
used our money, incentives and technical equipment to build
nuclear weapons and pose the threat we face today.
Thus did Carter unwittingly become our Neville
Chamberlain, creating with his well-intended but inept,
unrealistic and gullible actions the very conditions that
led to the three most dangerous security threats we face
today: Iran, al- Qaida and North Korea .
On the domestic side, Carter gave us inflation of 15%,
the highest in 34 years; interest rates of 21%, the highest
in 115 years; and a severe energy crisis with lines around
the block at gas stations nationwide.
In 1977, Carter, along with a Democrat Congress, created
a worthy project with noble intentions-the Community
Reinvestment Act . Over strong industry objections, it
mandated that all banks meet the credit needs of their
entire communities.
In 1995, President Clinton imposed even stronger
regulations and performance tests that coerced banks to
substantially increase loans to low-income, poverty-area
borrowers or face fines or possible restrictions on
expansion. These revisions allowed for securitization of CRA
loans containing subprime mortgages.
By 1997, good loans were bundled with poor ones and sold
as prime packages to institutions here and abroad. That
shifted risk from the loan originators, freeing banks to
begin pyramiding and make more of these profitable subprime
products.
Under two young, well-intended presidents, therefore,
big-government plans and mandates played a significant role
in the current subprime mortgage mess and its catastrophic
consequences for the U.S. and international economies.
Hardest-hit by the mortgage foreclosures have been the
citizens that Democrats always claim to help
most-inner-city residents who fell victim to low or no
down payment schemes, unexpected adjustable rates, deceptive
loan applications and commission-hungry salespeople.
Now we're having to bail out at huge cost Fannie Mae
and Freddie Mac, the very agencies that were supposed to
stabilize the system. In time, this should improve the
situation. But the party of Carter and Clinton that midwifed
our mortgage mess now wants to be trusted to take over and
have the government run our entire system of health care!
Don't forget his "incompetent" interventions
in the elections of Nicaragua (Daniel Ortega), the elections
of Venezuela (Hugo Chavez) and his "stupid"
decisions with Cuba (Fidel Castro).
This should shed some light on where the blame should go
for our current problems .
Profile In Incompetence
Jimmy Carter became our 39th president at the young age
of 52. He was a one-term governor from Plains, GA, where he
managed the family peanut farm and taught Sunday school. He
was also a graduate of the Naval Academy and served seven
years in the Navy, leaving as a lieutenant.
He came to power in the aftermath of the Vietnam War and
the resignation of President Nixon. The public wanted change
and someone new, and Carter was an ambitious, hands-on
politician who promised better days. As good as his
intentions were, however, the things he tried were not
successful. In fact, he created far more serious problems
than he ever solved.
The centerpiece of Carter's foreign policy was human
rights, and he did achieve one noble success - a peace
treaty between Egypt 's Anwar Sadat and Israel 's
Menachem Begin.
Unfortunately, that later led to Sadat's assassination
at the hands of Muslim radicals.
Many people felt Carter was a good man who worked hard
and meant well. But he was naive and incompetent in handling
the enormous burdens and complex challenges of being
president.
He wrongly believed Americans had an 'inordinate fear
of communism', so he lifted travel bans to Cuba, North
Vietnam and Cambodia and pardoned draft evaders. He also
stopped B-1 bomber production and gave away our
strategically located Panamá Canal .
His most damaging miscalculation was the withdrawal of
U.S. support for the Shah of Iran , a strong and longtime
military ally. Carter objected to the Shah's alleged
mistreatment of imprisoned Soviet spies who were working to
overthrow Iran 's government. He thought the exiled
Ayatollah Khomeini, being a religious man, would make a
fairer leader.
Having lost U.S. support, the Shah was overthrown, the
Ayatollah returned, Iran was declared an Islamic nation and
Palestinian hit men were hired to eliminate opposition.
The Ayatollah then introduced the idea of suicide bombers
to the Palestine Liberation Organization, paying $35,000 to
PLO families whose young people were brainwashed to kill as
many Israelis as possible by blowing themselves up in
crowded shopping areas. Next, the Ayatollah used Iran 's
oil wealth to create, train and finance a new terrorist
organization, Hezbollah, which later would attack Israel in
2006.
In November 1979, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other Iranians
stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took 52 Americans
hostage for 444 days. Not until six months into the ordeal
did Carter attempt a rescue. But the mission, using just six
Navy helicopters, was poorly executed. Three of the copters
were disabled or lost in sandstorms. (Pilots weren't
allowed to meet with weather forecasters because someone in
authority worried about security.) Five airmen and three
Marines lost their lives.
So, due to overconfidence, inexperience and poor
judgment, Carter undermined and lost a strong ally, Iran,
that today aggressively threatens the U.S., Israel and the
rest of the world with nuclear weapons.
But that's not all. After Carter met for the first
time with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, the USSR promptly
invaded Afghanistan. Carter, ever the naive appeaser, was
shocked. 'I can't believe the Russians lied to
me,' he said.
The invasion attracted a 23-year-old Saudi named Osama
bin Laden to Afghanistan to recruit Muslim fighters and
raise money for an anti-Soviet jihad. Part of that group
eventually became al-Qaida, a terrorist organization that
would declare war on America several times between 1996 and
1998 before attacking us on 9/11, killing more Americans
than the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor .
On Carter's watch, the Soviet Union went on an
unrestrained rampage in which it took over not only
Afghanistan, but also Ethiopia, South Yemen, Angola,
Cambodia, Mozambique, Grenada and Nicaragua. In spite of
this, Carter's last defense budget proposed spending 45%
below pre-Vietnam levels for fighter aircraft, 75% for
ships, 83% for attack submarines and 90% for helicopters.
Years later, as a civilian, Carter negotiated a peace
agreement with North Korea to keep that communist country
from developing nuclear weapons. He also convinced President
Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to go
along with it. But the signed piece of paper proved
worthless. The North Koreans deceived Carter and instead
used our money, incentives and technical equipment to build
nuclear weapons and pose the threat we face today.
Thus did Carter unwittingly become our Neville
Chamberlain, creating with his well-intended but inept,
unrealistic and gullible actions the very conditions that
led to the three most dangerous security threats we face
today: Iran, al- Qaida and North Korea .
On the domestic side, Carter gave us inflation of 15%,
the highest in 34 years; interest rates of 21%, the highest
in 115 years; and a severe energy crisis with lines around
the block at gas stations nationwide.
In 1977, Carter, along with a Democrat Congress, created
a worthy project with noble intentions-the Community
Reinvestment Act . Over strong industry objections, it
mandated that all banks meet the credit needs of their
entire communities.
In 1995, President Clinton imposed even stronger
regulations and performance tests that coerced banks to
substantially increase loans to low-income, poverty-area
borrowers or face fines or possible restrictions on
expansion. These revisions allowed for securitization of CRA
loans containing subprime mortgages.
By 1997, good loans were bundled with poor ones and sold
as prime packages to institutions here and abroad. That
shifted risk from the loan originators, freeing banks to
begin pyramiding and make more of these profitable subprime
products.
Under two young, well-intended presidents, therefore,
big-government plans and mandates played a significant role
in the current subprime mortgage mess and its catastrophic
consequences for the U.S. and international economies.
Hardest-hit by the mortgage foreclosures have been the
citizens that Democrats always claim to help
most-inner-city residents who fell victim to low or no
down payment schemes, unexpected adjustable rates, deceptive
loan applications and commission-hungry salespeople.
Now we're having to bail out at huge cost Fannie Mae
and Freddie Mac, the very agencies that were supposed to
stabilize the system. In time, this should improve the
situation. But the party of Carter and Clinton that midwifed
our mortgage mess now wants to be trusted to take over and
have the government run our entire system of health care!
Don't forget his "incompetent" interventions
in the elections of Nicaragua (Daniel Ortega), the elections
of Venezuela (Hugo Chavez) and his "stupid"
decisions with Cuba (Fidel Castro).
This should shed some light on where the blame should go
for our current problems .
Friday, February 06, 2009
2009 Stella Awards
It's time again for the annual Stella Awards
For those unfamiliar with these awards, they are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued the McDonald's in New Mexico where she purchased the coffee. You remember, she took the lid off the coffee and put it between her knees while she was driving. Who would ever think one could get burned doing that, right?
That's right; these are awards for the most outlandish lawsuits and verdicts in the U.S. You know, the kinds of cases that make you scratch your head. So keep your head scratcher handy.
Here are the Stella's for the past year:
7th PLACE:
Kathleen Robertson of Austin , Texas was awarded $80,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The store owners were understandably surprised by the verdict, considering the running toddler was her own son.
6th PLACE:
Carl Truman, 19, of Los Angeles , California won $74,000 plus medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbor's hubcaps.
Go ahead, grab your head scratcher.
5th PLACE:
Terrence Dickson, of Bristol , Pennsylvania , who was leaving a house he had just burglarized by way of the garage. Unfortunately for Dickson, the automatic garage door opener malfunctioned and he could not get the garage door to open. Worse, he couldn't re-enter the house because the door connecting the garage to the house locked when Dickson pulled it shut. Forced to sit for eight, count 'em, 8, days on a case of Pepsi and a large bag of dry dog food, he sued the homeowner's insurance company claiming undue mental Anguish.
Amazingly, the jury said the insurance company must pay Dickson $500,000 for his anguish. We should all have this kind of anguish. Keep scratching. There are more...
4th PLACE :
Jerry Williams, of Little Rock , Arkansas , garnered 4th Place in the Stella's when he was awarded $14,500 plus medical expenses after being bitten on the butt by his next door neighbor's beagle - even though the beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard. Williams did not get as much as he asked for because the jury believed the beagle might have been provoked at the time of the butt bite because Williams had climbed over the fence into the yard and repeatedly shot the dog with a pellet gun.
Grrrrr. Scratch, scratch.
3rd PLACE:
Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, because a jury ordered a Philadelphia restaurant to pay her $113,500 after she slipped on a spilled soft drink and broke her tailbone. The reason the soft drink was on the floor: Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument. What ever happened to people being responsible for their own actions?
Scratch, scratch, scratch. Hang in there; there are only two more Stellas to go...
2nd PLACE:
Kara Walton, of Claymont , Delaware sued the owner of a night club in a nearby city because she fell from the bathroom window to the floor, knocking out her two front teeth. Even though Ms. Walton was trying to sneak through the ladies room window to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge, the jury said the night club had to pay her $12,000....oh, yeah, plus dental expenses. Go figure.
1st PLACE: (May I have a fanfare played on 50 kazoos, please?)
This year's runaway First Place Stella Award winner was
Mrs. Merv Grazinski, of Oklahoma City , Oklahoma , who purchased a new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home, from an OU football game, having driven on to the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver's seat to go to the back of the Winnebago to make herself a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the motor home left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Also not surprisingly, Mrs Grazinski sued Winnebago for not putting in the owner's manual that she couldn't actually leave the driver's seat while the cruise control was set. The Oklahoma jury awarded her, are you sitting down, $1,750,000 PLUS a new motor home. Winnebago actually changed their manuals as a result of this suit, just in case Mrs. Grazinski has any relatives who might also buy a motor home.
For those unfamiliar with these awards, they are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued the McDonald's in New Mexico where she purchased the coffee. You remember, she took the lid off the coffee and put it between her knees while she was driving. Who would ever think one could get burned doing that, right?
That's right; these are awards for the most outlandish lawsuits and verdicts in the U.S. You know, the kinds of cases that make you scratch your head. So keep your head scratcher handy.
Here are the Stella's for the past year:
7th PLACE:
Kathleen Robertson of Austin , Texas was awarded $80,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The store owners were understandably surprised by the verdict, considering the running toddler was her own son.
6th PLACE:
Carl Truman, 19, of Los Angeles , California won $74,000 plus medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbor's hubcaps.
Go ahead, grab your head scratcher.
5th PLACE:
Terrence Dickson, of Bristol , Pennsylvania , who was leaving a house he had just burglarized by way of the garage. Unfortunately for Dickson, the automatic garage door opener malfunctioned and he could not get the garage door to open. Worse, he couldn't re-enter the house because the door connecting the garage to the house locked when Dickson pulled it shut. Forced to sit for eight, count 'em, 8, days on a case of Pepsi and a large bag of dry dog food, he sued the homeowner's insurance company claiming undue mental Anguish.
Amazingly, the jury said the insurance company must pay Dickson $500,000 for his anguish. We should all have this kind of anguish. Keep scratching. There are more...
4th PLACE :
Jerry Williams, of Little Rock , Arkansas , garnered 4th Place in the Stella's when he was awarded $14,500 plus medical expenses after being bitten on the butt by his next door neighbor's beagle - even though the beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard. Williams did not get as much as he asked for because the jury believed the beagle might have been provoked at the time of the butt bite because Williams had climbed over the fence into the yard and repeatedly shot the dog with a pellet gun.
Grrrrr. Scratch, scratch.
3rd PLACE:
Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, because a jury ordered a Philadelphia restaurant to pay her $113,500 after she slipped on a spilled soft drink and broke her tailbone. The reason the soft drink was on the floor: Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument. What ever happened to people being responsible for their own actions?
Scratch, scratch, scratch. Hang in there; there are only two more Stellas to go...
2nd PLACE:
Kara Walton, of Claymont , Delaware sued the owner of a night club in a nearby city because she fell from the bathroom window to the floor, knocking out her two front teeth. Even though Ms. Walton was trying to sneak through the ladies room window to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge, the jury said the night club had to pay her $12,000....oh, yeah, plus dental expenses. Go figure.
1st PLACE: (May I have a fanfare played on 50 kazoos, please?)
This year's runaway First Place Stella Award winner was
Mrs. Merv Grazinski, of Oklahoma City , Oklahoma , who purchased a new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home, from an OU football game, having driven on to the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver's seat to go to the back of the Winnebago to make herself a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the motor home left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Also not surprisingly, Mrs Grazinski sued Winnebago for not putting in the owner's manual that she couldn't actually leave the driver's seat while the cruise control was set. The Oklahoma jury awarded her, are you sitting down, $1,750,000 PLUS a new motor home. Winnebago actually changed their manuals as a result of this suit, just in case Mrs. Grazinski has any relatives who might also buy a motor home.
HOW TO FORWARD EMAIL Appropriately
A friend who is a computer expert received the following directly from a system administrator for a corporate system. It is an excellent message that ABSOLUTELY applies to ALL of us who send e-mails. Please read the short letter below, even if you're sure you already follow proper procedures. Please share it with your email buddies! Do you really know how to forward e-mails? Most of us DO NOT know how. Do you wonder why you get viruses or junk mail? Do you hate it? Every time you forward an e-mail, there is information left over from the people who got the message before you -- namely their e-mail addresses & names. As the messages get forwarded along, the list of addresses builds, and builds, and builds, and all it takes is for some poor sap to get a virus and his or her computer can send that virus to every email address that has come across his computer. Or, someone can take all of those addresses and sell them or send junk mail to them in the hopes that you will go to the site and he will make five cents for each hit. That's right, all of that inconvenience over a nickel!
How do you stop it? Well, there are several easy steps:
(1) When you forward an e-mail, DELETE all of the other addresses that appear in the body of the message (at the top). That's right, DELETE them. Highlight them and delete them, backspace them, cut them, whatever you know how to. It only takes a second. You MUST click the 'Forward' button first and then you will have full editing capabilities against the body and headers of the message. If you don't hit the forward button first you won't have full editing functions . I particularly dislike having to scroll through 200 Email addresses before I get to the email.
(2) Whenever you send an e-mail to more than one person, do NOT use the To: or 'Cc:' fields for adding e-mail addresses.. Always use the BCC: (blind carbon copy) field for listing the e-mail addresses. This is the way the people you send to will only see their own e-mail address. If you don't see your 'BCC:' option click on where it says To: and your address list will appear. Highlight the address and choose BCC: and that's it, it's that easy. When you send to BCC: your message will automatically say 'Undisclosed Recipients' in the 'TO:' field of the people who receive it That way you aren't sharing all those addresses with every Tom, Dick or Harry.
(3) Remove any 'FW:' in the subject line. You can re-name the subject if you wish or even fix spelling. This one is very important - please read and heed!
4) ALWAYS hit your Forward button from the actual e-mail you are reading. Ever get those e-mails that you have to open 10 pages to read the one page with the information on it? By Forwarding from the actual page you wish someone to view, you stop them from having to open many e-mails just to see what you sent. These are the ones that often end up having picked up a virus from somebody. This is really important!
(5) Have you ever gotten an email that is a petition? It states a position and asks you to add your name and address and to forward it to 10 or 15 people or your entire address book. The email can be forwarded on and on and can collect thousands of names and email addresses. A FACT: The completed petition is actually worth a couple of bucks to a professional spammer because of the wealth of valid names and email addresses contained therein. If you want to support the petition, send it as your own personal letter to the intended recipient. Your position may carry more weight as a personal letter than a laundry list of names and email address on a petition. (Actually, if you think about it, who's supposed to send the petition in to whatever cause it supports? And don't believe the one s that say that the email is being traced, it just ain't so!)
(6) One of the main ones I hate is the ones that say that something like- Send this email to 10 people and you'll see something great run across your screen.' Or, sometimes they'll just tease you by saying something really cute will happen. IT AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN!!!!! (Trust me, I'm still seeing some of the same ones that I waited on 10 years ago!) I don't let the bad luck ones scare me either, they get trashed. (Could this be why I haven't won the lottery??)
(7) Before you forward an Amber Alert, or a Virus Alert, or some of the other ones floating around nowadays, check them out before you forward them. Most of them are junk mail that's been circling the net for Years! Just about everything you receive in an email that is in question can be checked out at Snopes. Just go to http://www.snopes. com/ It's really easy to find out if it's real or not. If it's not, please don't pass it on.
So please, in the future, let's stop the junk mail and the viruses.
Finally, here's an idea!!! Let's send this to everyone we know (but strip my address off first, please). This is something that SHOULD be forwarded.
………………………………………..
ONE MORE IDEA TO HELP (Consolidating Information) – from Vic
IF you send a LOT of forwards every day … plan on DESENSITIZING your mailing list. Eventually people just delete it because your emails are too frequent and only one in 10 with catch their “eye”. It would be better (MUCH BETTER … and I don’t always follow this rule either) to post your message and links into a FREE BLOG. Maybe once a week send a LINK TO THE BLOG with a nice note that briefly explains all the good stuff you have in theat blog that week. BLOGS are easy! www.blogspot.com (you can learn to use one in about 15 minutes and they have plenty of help screens. Others: www.live.spaces.com . Another LIFE SIMPLIFIER is to learn to use www.facebook.com. It has a NOTES area that acts much like a blog and your recent posts are in a “newsfeed” to your friend list automatically and in real time.
www.incountry.blogspot.com (this is one of my blogs for the things “uncle vic” thinks most folks should know).
www.myemailstuff.blogspot.com (this is my blog to put a lot of useful information that comes in email).
How do you stop it? Well, there are several easy steps:
(1) When you forward an e-mail, DELETE all of the other addresses that appear in the body of the message (at the top). That's right, DELETE them. Highlight them and delete them, backspace them, cut them, whatever you know how to. It only takes a second. You MUST click the 'Forward' button first and then you will have full editing capabilities against the body and headers of the message. If you don't hit the forward button first you won't have full editing functions . I particularly dislike having to scroll through 200 Email addresses before I get to the email.
(2) Whenever you send an e-mail to more than one person, do NOT use the To: or 'Cc:' fields for adding e-mail addresses.. Always use the BCC: (blind carbon copy) field for listing the e-mail addresses. This is the way the people you send to will only see their own e-mail address. If you don't see your 'BCC:' option click on where it says To: and your address list will appear. Highlight the address and choose BCC: and that's it, it's that easy. When you send to BCC: your message will automatically say 'Undisclosed Recipients' in the 'TO:' field of the people who receive it That way you aren't sharing all those addresses with every Tom, Dick or Harry.
(3) Remove any 'FW:' in the subject line. You can re-name the subject if you wish or even fix spelling. This one is very important - please read and heed!
4) ALWAYS hit your Forward button from the actual e-mail you are reading. Ever get those e-mails that you have to open 10 pages to read the one page with the information on it? By Forwarding from the actual page you wish someone to view, you stop them from having to open many e-mails just to see what you sent. These are the ones that often end up having picked up a virus from somebody. This is really important!
(5) Have you ever gotten an email that is a petition? It states a position and asks you to add your name and address and to forward it to 10 or 15 people or your entire address book. The email can be forwarded on and on and can collect thousands of names and email addresses. A FACT: The completed petition is actually worth a couple of bucks to a professional spammer because of the wealth of valid names and email addresses contained therein. If you want to support the petition, send it as your own personal letter to the intended recipient. Your position may carry more weight as a personal letter than a laundry list of names and email address on a petition. (Actually, if you think about it, who's supposed to send the petition in to whatever cause it supports? And don't believe the one s that say that the email is being traced, it just ain't so!)
(6) One of the main ones I hate is the ones that say that something like- Send this email to 10 people and you'll see something great run across your screen.' Or, sometimes they'll just tease you by saying something really cute will happen. IT AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN!!!!! (Trust me, I'm still seeing some of the same ones that I waited on 10 years ago!) I don't let the bad luck ones scare me either, they get trashed. (Could this be why I haven't won the lottery??)
(7) Before you forward an Amber Alert, or a Virus Alert, or some of the other ones floating around nowadays, check them out before you forward them. Most of them are junk mail that's been circling the net for Years! Just about everything you receive in an email that is in question can be checked out at Snopes. Just go to http://www.snopes. com/ It's really easy to find out if it's real or not. If it's not, please don't pass it on.
So please, in the future, let's stop the junk mail and the viruses.
Finally, here's an idea!!! Let's send this to everyone we know (but strip my address off first, please). This is something that SHOULD be forwarded.
………………………………………..
ONE MORE IDEA TO HELP (Consolidating Information) – from Vic
IF you send a LOT of forwards every day … plan on DESENSITIZING your mailing list. Eventually people just delete it because your emails are too frequent and only one in 10 with catch their “eye”. It would be better (MUCH BETTER … and I don’t always follow this rule either) to post your message and links into a FREE BLOG. Maybe once a week send a LINK TO THE BLOG with a nice note that briefly explains all the good stuff you have in theat blog that week. BLOGS are easy! www.blogspot.com (you can learn to use one in about 15 minutes and they have plenty of help screens. Others: www.live.spaces.com . Another LIFE SIMPLIFIER is to learn to use www.facebook.com. It has a NOTES area that acts much like a blog and your recent posts are in a “newsfeed” to your friend list automatically and in real time.
www.incountry.blogspot.com (this is one of my blogs for the things “uncle vic” thinks most folks should know).
www.myemailstuff.blogspot.com (this is my blog to put a lot of useful information that comes in email).
Sunday, February 01, 2009
The American Form of Government
worth sharing - most people have no clue America is NOT a Democracy !
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