The items on this page are stories and messages about real things that are not trivial or out of date. While these are real, please don't create another chain letter out of them by sending them to everyone you know with an admonishment to send them on. Read about them here and elsewhere on the Internet.
September 13, 2001
This particular chainletter started making the rounds again this month after the terrible tragedies in New York and Washington, D.C. Several people have written us, thinking they have found another hoax, however this one describes a real event.
Gordon Sinclair was a respected radio commentator for a Canadian radio station who died in 1984. He made the following speech in 1973, just after we pulled out of Vietnam. You can find out more about Mr. Sinclair at the following link. I was there when this speech was made and I am truly sorry that I didn't hear it at that time.
http://www.broadcasting-history.ca/news/unique/american.html
As most of the chain letters contain partial or damaged copies of this speech, I obtained a complete copy from the web site listed above. The audio file on the above site is broken so here is an alternate copy.
"LET'S BE PERSONAL" Broadcast June 5, 1973
CFRB, Toronto, Ontario
Topic: "The Americans"
The United States dollar took another pounding on German, French and British exchanges this morning, hitting the lowest point ever known in West Germany. It has declined there by 41% since 1971 and this Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the Americans as the most generous and possibly the least-appreciated people in all the earth.
As long as sixty years ago, when I first started to read newspapers, I read of floods on the Yellow River and the Yangtze. Who rushed in with men and money to help? The Americans did.
They have helped control floods on the Nile, the Amazon, the Ganges and the Niger. Today, the rich bottom land of the Mississippi is under water and no foreign land has sent a dollar to help. Germany, Japan and, to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy, were lifted out of the debris of war by the Americans who poured in billions of dollars and forgave other billions in debts. None of those countries is today paying even the interest on its remaining debts to the United States.
When the franc was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it was the Americans who propped it up and their reward was to be insulted and swindled on the streets of Paris. I was there. I saw it.
When distant cities are hit by earthquakes, it is the United States that hurries into help... Managua Nicaragua is one of the most recent examples. So far this spring, 59 American communities have been flattened by tornadoes. Nobody has helped.
The Marshall Plan .. the Truman Policy .. all pumped billions upon billions of dollars into discouraged countries. Now, newspapers in those countries are writing about the decadent war-mongering Americans.
I'd like to see one of those countries that is gloating over the erosion of the United States dollar build its own airplanes.
Come on... let's hear it! Does any other country in the world have a plane to equal the Boeing Jumbo Jet, the Lockheed Tristar or the Douglas 107? If so, why don't they fly them? Why do all international lines except Russia fly American planes? Why does no other land on earth even consider putting a man or women on the moon?
You talk about Japanese technocracy and you get radios. You talk about German technocracy and you get automobiles. You talk about American technocracy and you find men on the moon, not once, but several times ... and safely home again. You talk about scandals and the Americans put theirs right in the store window for everyone to look at. Even the draft dodgers are not pursued and hounded. They are here on our streets, most of them ... unless they are breaking Canadian laws .. are getting American dollars from Ma and Pa at home to spend here.
When the Americans get out of this bind ... as they will... who could blame them if they said 'the hell with the rest of the world'. Let someone else buy the Israel bonds, Let someone else build or repair foreign dams or design foreign buildings that won't shake apart in earthquakes.
When the railways of France, Germany and India were breaking down through age, it was the Americans who rebuilt them. When the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central went broke, nobody loaned them an old caboose. Both are still broke. I can name to you 5,000 times when the Americans raced to the help of other people in trouble.
Can you name me even one time when someone else raced to the Americans in trouble? I don't think there was outside help even during the San Francisco earthquake.
Our neighbors have faced it alone and I am one Canadian who is damned tired of hearing them kicked around. They will come out of this thing with their flag high. And when they do, they are entitled to thumb their nose at the lands that are gloating over their present troubles.
I hope Canada is not one of these. But there are many smug, self-righteous Canadians. And finally, the American Red Cross was told at its 48th Annual meeting in New Orleans this morning that it was broke.
This year's disasters .. with the year less than half-over… has taken it all and nobody...but nobody... has helped.
November 2000
The following Internet petition concerning the civil rights of Afghanistan women has been making the rounds and it is true. However, an Internet petition has no validity at all as no signature can be checked or validated. The other problem with this petition is that this is the latest way for Internet spammers to get huge lists of valid e-mail addresses. If you are concerned about this topic go to one of the websites that are concerned about this issue such as: RAWA.
This is an actual petition, and
"signatures" will be lost if you drop the line.
Dear Friends,
Please do not ignore this email.
This is something that we as women and
essentially as human beings need to support - I
don't know if this is going to help but take 3 minutes out of
your life to do your part.
Madhu, the government of Afghanistan, is waging a
war upon women. Since the Taliban took power in
1996, women have had to wear burqua and have been
beaten and stoned in public for not having the
proper attire, even if this means simply not
having the mesh covering in front of their eyes.
One woman was beaten to death by an angry mob of
fundamentalists for accidentally exposing her
arm(!) while she was driving. Another was stoned
to death for trying to leave the country
with a man that was not a relative.
Women are not allowed to work or even go out in
public without a male relative; professional
women such as professors, translators, doctors,
lawyers, artists and writers have been forced
from their jobs and stuffed into their homes.
Homes where a woman is present must have their
windows painted so that she can never be seen by
outsiders They must wear silent shoes so that they
are never heard. Women live in fear of their lives for
the slightest misbehavior. Because they cannot work,
those without male relatives or husbands are either
starving to death or begging on the street,
even if they hold Ph.D.s.
Depression is becoming so widespread that it has
reached emergency levels. There is no way in such
an extreme Islamic society to know the
suicide rate with certainty, but relief workers
are estimating that the suicide rate among women
must be extraordinarily high: those who cannot
find proper medication and treatment for severe
depression and would rather take their lives than
live in such conditions.
At one of the rare hospitals for women, a
reporter found still, nearly lifeless bodies
lying motionless on top of beds, wrapped in their
burqua, unwilling to speak, eat, or do anything,
but slowly wasting away. Others have gone mad and
were seen crouched in corners, perpetually
rocking or crying, most of them in fear.
When what little medication that is left finally
runs out, one doctor is considering leaving these
women in front of the president's residence as a
form of protest.
It is at the point where the term "human rights
violations" has become an understatement.
Husbands have the power of life and death over
their women relatives, especially their wives, but an
angry mob has just as much right to stone or beat
a woman, often to death, for exposing an inch of
flesh or offending them in the slightest way.
Women enjoyed relative freedom: to work, to dress
generally as they wanted, and to drive and appear
in public alone until only 1996.
The rapidity of this transition is the main
reason for the depression and suicide; Women who
were once educators or doctors or simply used to
basic human freedoms are now severely restricted
and treated as subhuman in the name of right-wing
fundamentalist Islam.
It is not their tradition or 'culture', but it
is alien to them, and it is extreme even for
those cultures where fundamentalism is the rule.
Everyone has a right to a tolerable human
existence, even if they are women in a Muslim
country.
If we can threaten military force in Kosovo the
name of human rights for the sake of ethnic
Albanians, citizens of the world can certainly
express peaceful outrage at the oppression,
murder and injustice committed against women by
the Taliban.
STATEMENT:
In signing this, we agree that the current treatment of
women in Afghanistan is completely UNACCEPTABLE
and deserves action by the United Nations and that
the current situation overseas will not be tolerated.
Women's Rights is not a small issue anywhere, and it is
UNACCEPTABLE for women in 2000 to be treated as
subhuman and as so much property. Equality and
human decency is a fundamental RIGHT, not
a freedom to be granted, whether one lives in
Afghanistan or elsewhere.
DIRECTIONS:
PLEASE COPY this email onto a new message, sign
the bottom and Forward it to everyone on your
distribution lists.
If you receive this list With
more than 300 names on it, please e-mail a copy
of it to:
Even if you decide not to sign, please be
considerate and do not kill the petition.
Thank you!
September 2001
This virus warning is real, but don't get your virus warnings from mail messages like this and don't pass them on, get them from a bonafide antivirus site.
URGENT VIRUS ALERT ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The TROJ_VOTE.A e-mail virus has been identified currently spreading in-the-wild. This email is being sent to raise your awareness of the TROJ_VOTE.A virus, which is spreading. It contains the following: Subject: Fwd:Peace BeTween AmeriCa And IsLam ! Message Body: Hi! iS iT A waR Against AmeriCa Or IsLam! Let's Vote To Live in Peace! Attachment: WTC.EXE If you receive an email with an attachment of "WTC.EXE", or the subject line of Fwd:Peace BeTween AmeriCa And IsLam ! DO NOT EXECUTE THE ATTACHMENT. DELETE THIS MESSAGE IMMEDIATELY AND EMPTY YOUR TRASH ON YOUR E-MAIL ACCOUNT.
September 2001
The picture of the burning World Trade Center with a face in the smoke has been making the rounds of the Internet after the tragedy on September 11. Many people have tried to read things into it, calling it the face of the Devil or Christ crying in anguish. However, you should keep in mind that it is just smoke that seems to look like a face in the same way that clouds often look like people, fish, boats, etc. What you make of it is up to you.
As best I can tell, the photo is authentic. It was photographed by Mark Phillips and sold to Associated Press. You can see the photo on Mark Phillips website, www.stellarimages.com along with his statements. The image was also captured on video by CNN.
9 News in Denver has a copy of the photo plus a discussion with Mark Phillips about the photo.
November 2001
This story is true and was verified by the New York Post. While this proposal has merit, an Internet petition generally has little validity and little effect because it is so easy to forge. If you really want to do something like this, create a real paper petition with real signatures including names and addresses so they can be validated.
Please read: "I lost my Dad on September 11th; he was Chief Edward Geraghty, Battalion 9, New York City Fire Department. He lost his life with many other heroes that day, victims of the terrorists. Firefighters from all over have come to the aid and rescue of the tragedy in New York and Washington, D.C. Many firefighters have lost their lives to save someone else's; the truth of the matter is, they do this every single day. They truly are heroes. I know many people feel helpless, especially those who live far from NYC and D.C. We all want to do something, show our appreciation, our support. I think we can... In honor of the bravery, courage and determination of American firefighters and police officers, there should be a day in our nation to celebrate and appreciate their hard-work and never-ending passion for saving lives. I think we should honor all those other heroes who still live today. I'm starting a petition for a National Firefighters Day, or National Firefighters and Police Officers Day! Will you help make every September 11th "National Firefighters Day"/"National Firefighters & Police Officers Day"? Please join me!" Thank you. Connor Geraghty, age 14, Rockville Centre, New York (I Love u, DAD!!)
July 2002
This Department of Defense site does indeed exist and you can list your name there to be sent on to our soldiers.
Subject: Appreciate Your Freedom If you are so inclined, visit the Department of Defense web page below and sign a brief message thanking the men and women of the U.S. military services for defending our freedom. The compiled list of names will be sent out to our soldiers at the end of the month. 7/4/02 So far, there are only about 230,000 names, A shame. It is National Military Appreciation Month (please pass it on to your email friends) http://www.defendamerica.mil/nmam.html
July 2002
This one is real. The e-mail rumor was taken almost verbatim from a July 2, 2002 St. Petersburg Times article by Tamara Lush. Well done Outback!
Here's another one Air Force Link.
Subject: Outback in Afghanistan Heaven In Time Of War: 6,700 Ribeyes For troops in Kandahar, comfort is an Outback meal delivered on a C-17. But for those traveling to prepare the meal, it's a nerve-wracking mission. The rumor started about a month ago. It spread through the 101st Airborne Division in Afghanistan like a dust storm in Kandahar. Nobody really believed it, because it sounded too good to be true. The Outback Steakhouse people were coming. And they were bringing food. Members of the 101st Airborne, like all of the troops in Afghanistan, have been eating meals such as T-rations, food that is sealed in large tin containers. The entire container has to be boiled to heat the food. Powdered eggs the color of sand are a common T-ration breakfast entree. The possibility of ribeye steaks, grilled shrimp and, best of all, a deep-fried Bloomin' Onion, had them understandably excited. About 3 a.m. on June 18, a C-17 landed at the Kandahar Airport. On board were 15 men and women in white Outback T-Shirts. And a giant cooler. It contained 6,700 steaks, 30,000 shrimp and 3,000 giant onions. "Enough to feed 6,700 troops," said Dave Ellis, Outback's director of research and development. They also unloaded 13,400 cans of O'Douls, a nonalcoholic beer. Ellis wanted to bring Budweiser, but alcohol is forbidden on the base. The idea of feeding the troops was born a few months ago, when Outback CEO Chris Sullivan was at a social event with U.S. Army Gen. Tommy Franks. Sullivan "thought it would be neat to serve the troops a steak dinner and a Bloomin' Onion," Ellis said. Franks thought so, too. Ellis worked with Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base to figure out how to transport the enormous dinner and get military clearance for 15 people and cook in a war zone in the middle of the desert. The employees came from Outbacks around the country; Ellis is based in the company's headquarters in Tampa. Most of the food was donated to Outback by the restaurant's vendors; the rest was paid for by Outback. It took nearly three days to fly to Kandahar. The group stopped in Germany, then flew the eight hours to Afghanistan. Armed troops greeted the plane. "Nerve wracking," Ellis said. The Outback employees were in Kandahar for only three days. They were preparing food almost the entire time. That posed some special challenges in the 115-degree heat. Ellis and the other employees wore water-filled backpacks called "camelbacks" so they could constantly rehydrate. In between their tent and the kitchen, they were told not to stray off the gravel path or risk being killed by a land mine. And they were informed of the closest bunker to the kitchen, in case they were bombed. Base officials also pointed out the area's infamous sights: where American Taliban member John Walker Lindh was held. Where a firefight happened a few weeks ago. Where Osama Bin Laden's troops had trained nearby. "You could sense the evil," Ellis said. Watching the troops in action and seeing their Spartan lifestyle made Ellis realize the sacrifices they had made for the United States. "It gave me a sense of pride," he said. The sightseeing was limited. Almost immediately, the employees set to work preparing the meal. They used the military's industrial-sized appliances. They served the thousands of troops in 70 minutes, Ellis said. After eating the ribeye steak, broccoli, grilled shrimp, rolls and Bloomin' Onions, they ended the meal with cheesecake for dessert. "They were so appreciative," Ellis said. "Comfort is very hard to come by over there." Since he has been back in the United States, Ellis has received dozens of e-mails from soldiers and their families thanking them for the meal. "I just wanted to say thank you for supporting the soldiers over here," said Sgt. 1st Class Ryan D. Field. "You have no idea how much it means to get anything from the states, but to have someone ship both great food and great people to prepare the food is awesome." One woman, a master corporal in the Canadian Forces who is serving in Operation Enduring Freedom, said it was the best meal she had all year.
September 2002
Or, How to light a barbecue in less than 3 seconds. I just couldn't resist including this one. It has been making the rounds for many years. You can visit George Goble's web page and see video and pictures of the lighting.
Nuclear Picnic by Dave Barry The Boston Globe Magazine June 25, 1995 Today's culinary topic is: how to light a charcoal fire. Everybody loves a backyard barbecue. For some reason, food just seems to taste better when it has been cooked outdoors, where flies can lay eggs on it. But there's nothing worse than trying to set fire to a pile of balky charcoal. The average back-yard chef, wishing to cook hamburgers, tries to ignite the charcoal via the squirt, light, and wait method, wherein you squirt lighter fluid on a pile of briquettes, light the pile, then wait until they have turned a uniform gray color. When I say "they have turned a uniform gray color," I am referring to the hamburgers. The briquettes will remain as cold and lifeless as Leonard Nimoy. The backyard chef will keep this up - squirting, lighting, waiting; squirting, lighting, waiting - until the bacterial level in the side dishes has reached the point where the potato salad rises up from its bowl, Bloblike, and attempts to mate with the corn. This is the signal that it's time to order Chinese food. The problem is that modern charcoal, manufactured under strict consum- er-safety guidelines, is one of the least-flammable substances on Earth. On more than one occasion, quick-thinking individuals have ex- tinguished a raging house fire by throwing charcoal on it. Your back- yard chef would be just as successful trying to ignite a pile of rocks. Is there a solution? Yes. There happens to be a technique that is guaranteed to get your charcoal burning very, very quickly, although you should not attempt this technique unless you meet the following criterion: You are a complete idiot. I found out about this technique from alert reader George Rasko, who sent me a letter describing something he came across on the World Wide Web, a computer network that you should definitely learn more about, because as you read these words, your 11-year-old is downloading pornography from it. By hooking into the World Wide Web, you can look at a variety of electronic "pages," consisting of documents, pictures, and videos created by people all over the world. One of these is a guy named (really) George Goble, a computer person in the Purdue University engineering department. Each year, Goble and a bunch of other engineers hold a picnic in West Lafayette, Indiana, at which they cook hamburgers on a big grill. Being engineers, they began looking for practical ways to speed up the charcoal-lighting process. "We started by blowing the charcoal with a hair dryer," Goble told me in a telephone interview. "Then we figured out that it would light faster if we used a vacuum cleaner." If you know anything about (1) engineers and (2) guys in general, you know what happened: The purpose of the charcoal-lighting shifted from cooking hamburgers to seeing how fast they could light the charcoal. From the vacuum cleaner, they escalated to using a propane torch, then an acetylene torch. Then Goble started using compressed pure oxygen, which caused the charcoal to burn much faster, because as you recall from chemistry class, fire is essentially the rapid combination of oxygen with the cosine to form the Tigris and Euphrates rivers (or something along those lines). By this point, Goble was getting pretty good times. But in the world of competitive charcoal-lighting, "pretty good" does not cut the mustard. Thus, Goble hit upon the idea of using - get ready - liquid oxygen. This is the form of oxygen used in rocket engines; it's 295 degrees below zero and 600 times as dense as regular oxygen. In terms of releasing energy, pouring liquid oxygen on charcoal is the equiva- lent of throwing a live squirrel into a room containing 50 million Labrador retrievers. On Gobel's World Wide Web page (the address is http://ghg.ecn.purdue.edu/), you can see actual photographs and a video of Goble using a bucket attached to a 10-foot-long wooden handle to dump 3 gallons of liquid oxygen (not sold in stores) onto a grill containing 60 pounds of charcoal and a lit cigarette for ignition. What follows is the most impressive charcoal-lighting I have ever seen, featuring a large fireball that, according to Goble, reached 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The charcoal was ready for cooking in - this has to be a world record - 3 seconds. There's also a photo of what happened when Goble used the same technique on a flimsy $2.88 discount-store grill. All that's left is a circle of charcoal with a few shreds of metal in it. "Basically, the grill vapor- ized," said Goble. "We were thinking of returning it to the store for a refund." Looking at Goble's video and photos, I became, as an American, all choked up with gratitude at the fact that I do not live anywhere near the engineers' picnic site. But also, I was proud of my country for producing guys who can be ready to barbecue in less time than it takes for guys in less-advanced nations, such as France, to spit. Will the 3-second barrier ever be broken? Will engineers come up with a new, more powerful charcoal-lighting technology? It's something for all of us to ponder this summer as we sit outside, chewing our hamburgers, every now and then glancing in the direction of West Lafayette, Indiana, looking for a mushroom cloud.
September 2002
Here is another one that I cannot resist including. The exploding whale story has also been going around for years and has its own website. The actual event occurred in 1970 in Oregon. Video of the event is available on the Exploding Whale website.
I am absolutely not making this incident up; in fact I have it all on videotape. The tape is from a local TV news show in Oregon, which sent a reporter out to cover the removal of a 45-foot, eight-ton dead whale that washed up on the beach. The responsibility for getting rid of the carcass was placed upon the Oregon State Highway Division, apparently on the theory that highways and whales are very similar in the sense of being large objects. So anyway, the highway engineers hit upon the plan -- remember, I am not making this up -- of blowing up the whale with dynamite. The thinking here was that the whale would be blown into small pieces, which would be eaten by sea gulls, and that would be that. A textbook whale removal. So they moved the spectators back up the beach, put a half-ton of dynamite next to the whale and set it off. I am probably not guilty of understatement when I say that what follows, on the videotape, is the most wonderful event in the history of the universe. First you see the whale carcass disappear in a huge blast of smoke and flame. Then you hear the happy spectators shouting "Yayy!" and "Whee!" Then, suddenly, the crowd's tone changes. You hear a new sound like "splud." You hear a woman's voice shouting "Here come pieces of... MY GOD!" Something smears the camera lens. Later, the reporter explains: "The humor of the entire situation suddenly gave way to a run for survival as huge chunks of whale blubber fell everywhere." One piece caved in the roof of a car parked more than a quarter of a mile away. Remaining on the beach were several rotting whale sectors the size of condominium units. There was no sign of the sea gulls, who had no doubt permanently relocated in Brazil. This is a very sobering videotape. Here at the institute we watch it often, especially at parties. But this is no time for gaiety. This is a time to get hold of the folks at the Oregon State Highway division and ask them, when they get done cleaning up the beaches, to give us an estimate on the US Capitol.
December 2002
I have see an e-mail with these pictures going around the net for some months now. The flags were donated by the Colonial Flag company in Sandy, Utah. and placed in front of the city hall. Only the top of the message is shown here. Use this link to see the whole message.
More images of the flags are available on the Colonial Flag Co. website.
Utah remembers the victims of September 11, 2001
I never heard or saw anything about this in the media. I was going to the bank when I saw this. I went home, got my wife Linda, and came back with a camera. Below is my best, though inadequate, attempt to share the experience with you.....
October 2002
This one is true. It and a lot of other commentaries by Charlie Daniels can be read in the soapbox area of his website.
The Straight Scoop I’ve just returned from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba Naval Air Station base where we did three shows for the troops and toured several locations around the post visiting with some of the finest military personnel on planet earth. The kids seemed to really enjoy the shows and especially liked “This Ain’t No Rag, It’s A Flag” and “In America”. We had a great time with them. We saw Camp X-Ray, where the Taliban detainees are being held only from a distance, but I picked up a lot of what’s going on there from talking with a lot of different people. The truth of the matter is that this operation is under a microscope. The Red Cross has an on site presence there and watches everything that goes on very closely. The media is not telling you the whole truth about what’s going on over there. The truth is that these scum bags are not only being treated humanely, but they are probably better off healthwise and medically than they’ve ever been in their lives They are fed well, able to take showers and receive state of the art medical care. And have their own Moslem chaplain. I saw several of them in a field hospital ward where they were being treated in a state of the art medical facility. Now let’s talk about the way they treat our people. First of all, they have to be watched constantly. These people are committed and wanton murderers who are willing to die just to kill someone else. One of the doctors told me that when they had Taliban in the hospital the staff had to really be careful with needles, pens and anything else which could possibly be used as a weapon. They also throw their excrement and urine on the troops who are guarding them. And our guys and gals have shown great restrain in not retaliating. We are spending over a million dollars a day maintaining and guarding these nasty killers and anyone who wants to see them brought to the U.S.A. for trial is either out of their heads or a lawyer looking for money and notoriety. Or both. I wish that the media and the Red Cross and all the rest of the people who are so worried about these criminals would realize that this is not a troop of errant Boy Scouts. These are killers of the worst kind. They don’t need protection from us, we need protection from them. If you don’t get anything else out of this soapbox, please try to realize that when you see news coverage much of the time you’re not getting the whole story, but an account filtered through a liberal mindset with an agenda. We have two fights on our hands, the war against terror and the one against the loudmouthed lawyers and left wing media who would sap the strength from the American public by making us believe that we’re losing the war or doing something wrong in fighting it. Remember these are the same people who told us that Saddam Hussein's Republican guard was going to be an all but invincible enemy and that our smart bombs and other weapons were not really as good as the military said that they were. They also took up for Bill Clinton while he was cavorting around the Oval office with Monica Lewinsky while the terrorists were gaining strength and bombing our Embassies and dragging the bodies of dead American heroes around the dusty streets of Somalia. It’s a shame that we can’t have an unbiased media who would just report the truth and let us make up our own minds. Here I must commend Fox News for presenting both sides much better than the other networks. They are leaving the other cable networks in the dust. People like being told the truth. Our military not only needs but deserves our support. Let’s give it to them. The next time you read a media account about the bad treatment of the Taliban in Cuba, remember what I told you. Been there done that. Footnote: I got an e-mail from a rather irate first cousin of mine the other day who has a daughter who’s a lawyer and she seemed to think that I was painting all lawyers with the same brush. Please understand that I’m not doing that at all. That would be like saying that all musicians were drug addicts. There are a lot of good and honest attorneys out there. I happen to have one of them. But it seems that they never get any airtime. It’s always the radicals who get their opinions heard. Who fight the idea of the military tribunals and site The Constitution and the integrity of America as their source of justifying their opinions. Well, first of all The Constitution says ” We the people of the United States”, it doesn’t mention any other country. And secondly as far as integrity is concerned, I don’t think some of these folks would know integrity if it bit them in the posterior. What do you think? God Bless America Charlie Daniels
May 2003
This one is essentially true. Theobromine is a chemical in cocoa that is much like the caffine in coffee. Dogs don't metabolize it quickly so it is lethal to them in quantities of about 100 to 150 Milligrams per pound of body weight. For Milk Chocolate, which contains 44 to 60 mg/oz this works out to about 33 to 68 ounces of Milk Chocolate for a 20 pound dog. Other kinds of chocolate contain different amounts of Theobromine. A good article on Theobromine is on about.com.
Cocoa Mulch is made by Hershey's from the shells of the cocao beans. According to the Hershey's website,
What this means is that if you are going to use Cocoa Mulch in your garden,
you chould check to see if your dog will eat it before spreading it around.
Cocoa Mulch, which is sold by Home Depot, Foreman's Garden Supply and other Garden supply stores, contains a potentially lethal ingredient called "Theobromine". It is lethal to dogs and cats. It smells like chocolate and it really attracts dogs. They will ingest this stuff and die. Several deaths already occurred in the last 2-3 weeks. Just a word of caution -- check what you are using in your gardens and be aware of what your gardeners are using in your gardens. Theobromine is the ingredient that is used to make all chocolate -- especially dark or baker's chocolate -- which is toxic to dogs. Cocoa bean shells contain potentially toxic quantities of theobromine, a xanthine compound similar in effects to caffeine and theophylline. A dog that ingested a lethal quantity of garden mulch made from cacao bean shells developed severe convulsions and died 17 hours later. Analysis of the stomach contents and the ingested cacao bean shells revealed the presence of lethal amounts of theobromine.
Febuary 2003
This photo was actually taken by Michael Clancy, a photojournalist. You can read his description of the picture at his website.
The "Picture of the Year," or perhaps, "Picture of the Decade." The attached picture is that of a 21-week-old unborn baby named Samuel Alexander Armas, who is being operated on by a surgeon named Joseph Bruner. The baby was diagnosed with spina bifida and would not survive if removed from his mother's womb. Little Samuel's mother, Julie Armas, is an obstetrics nurse in Atlanta. She knew of Dr. Bruner's remarkable surgical procedure. Practicing at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, he performs these special operations while the baby is still in the womb. During the procedure, the doctor removes the uterus via C-section and makes a small incision to operate on the baby. During the surgery on little Samuel, the little guy reached his tiny, but fully developed, hand through the incision and firmly grasped the surgeon's finger. The photograph captures this amazing event with perfect clarity. The editors titled the picture, "Hand of Hope." The text explaining the picture begins, "The tiny hand of 21-week-old fetus Samuel Alexander Armas emerges from the mother's uterus to grasp the finger of Dr. Joseph Bruner as if thanking the doctor for the gift of life." Little Samuel's mother said they "wept for days" when they saw the picture. She said, "The photo reminds us my pregnancy isn't about disability or an illness, it's about a little person." "The Hand" of the fetus. Attached is the actual picture, and it is awesome. And hey, pass it on. The world needs to see this one.
March 2004
Donations to breast cancer research from sales of Pink and White M&M candies is true though the particluar promotion has ended. According to Masterfoods the manufacturers of M&M candies, they may do it again next year.
March 2004
This warning was copied directly from the University of Texas police department website. According to the police department, they received this information from the Texas Attorney General's Office with corroboration from an Englewood, NJ police detective.
A team of organized criminals is installing equipment on legitimate bank ATMs in
at least 2 regions to steal both the ATM card number and the PIN. The team sits nearby in a car
receiving the information transmitted wirelessly over weekends and evenings from equipment they
install on the front of the ATM (see photos). If you see an attachment like this, do not use the
ATM and report it immediately to the bank using the 800 number or phone on the front of the ATM.
The equipment used to capture your ATM card number and PIN is cleverly disguised to look like
normal ATM equipment. A "skimmer" is mounted to the front of the normal ATM card slot that reads
the ATM card number and transmits it to the criminals sitting in a nearby car.
At the same time, a wireless camera is disguised to look like a leaflet holder and is mounted
in a position to view ATM PIN entries.
The thieves copy the cards and use the PIN numbers to withdraw thousands from many accounts
in a very short time directly from the bank ATM.
RAD: Free Self Defense Class for Women
June 2005
An excellent analysis of this warning was done on urbanlegends.about.com where they found that this one really happened. People should keep in mind that inhaling any compressed gases to get high can be extremely dangerous. Even an inert gas like that in Dust-Off displaces the oxygen in your lungs, causing you to get light headed, hence the "high" but that same loss of oxygen can kill you.
People should heed the
warning from Falcon, the manufacturer of Dust-Off, that huffing
these products is dangerous.
First IM going to tell you a little about me and my family. My name is Jeff. I am a Police Officer for a city which is known nationwide for its crime rate. We have a lot of gangs and drugs. At one point we were # 2 in the nation in homicides per capita. I also have a police K-9 named Thor . He was certified in drugs and general duty. He retired at 3 years old because he was shot in the line of duty. He lives with us now and I still train with him because he likes it. I always liked the fact that there was no way to bring drugs into my house. Thor wouldn't allow it. He would tell on you. The reason I say this is so you understand that I know about drugs. I have taught in schools about drugs. My wife asks all our kids at least once a week if they used any drugs. Makes them promise they wont. I like building computers occasionally and started building a new one in February 2005. I also was working on some of my older computers. They were full of dust so on one of my trips to the computer store I bought a 3 pack of DUST OFF. Dust Off is a can of compressed air to blow dust off a computer. A few weeks later when I went to use them they were all used. I talked to my kids and my 2 sons both said they had used them on their computer and messing around with them. I yelled at them for wasting the 10 dollars I paid for them. On February 28 I went back to the computer store. They didn't have the 3 pack which I had bought on sale so I bought a single jumbo can of Dust Off. I went home and set it down beside my computer. On March 1st I left for work at 10 PM. At 11 PM my wife went down and kissed Kyle goodnight. At 530 am the next morning Kathy went downstairs to wake Kyle up for school, before she left for work. He was sitting up in bed with his legs crossed and his head leaning over. She called to him a few times to get up. He didn't move. He would sometimes tease her like this and pretend he fell back asleep. He was never easy to get up. She went in and shook his arm. He fell over. He was pale white and had the straw from the Dust Off can coming out of his mouth. He had the new can of Dust Off in his hands. Kyle was dead. I am a police officer and I had never heard of this. My wife is a nurse and she had never heard of this. We later found out from the coroner, after the autopsy, that only the propellant from the can of Dust off was in his system. No other drugs. Kyle had died between midnight and 1 Am. I found out that using Dust Off is being done mostly by kids ages 9 through 15. They even have a name for it. It's called dusting. A take off from the Dust Off name. It gives them a slight high for about 10 seconds. It makes them dizzy. A boy who lives down the street from us showed Kyle how to do this about a month before. Kyle showed his best friend. Told him it was cool and it couldn't hurt you. Its just compressed air. It cant hurt you. His best friend said no. Kyle's death Kyle was wrong. It's not just compresses air. It also contains a propellant. I think its R2. Its a refrigerant like what is used in your refrigerator. It is a heavy gas. Heavier than air. When you inhale it, it fills your lungs and keeps the good air, with oxygen, out. That's why you feel dizzy, buzzed. It decreases the oxygen to your brain, to your heart. Kyle was right. It cant hurt you. IT KILLS YOU. The horrible part about this is there is no warning. There is no level that kills you. It's not cumulative or an overdose; it can just go randomly, terribly wrong. Roll the dice and if your number comes up you die. ITS NOT AN OVERDOSE. Its Russian roulette. You don't die later. Or not feel good and say I've had too much. You usually die as your breathing it in. If not you die within 2 seconds of finishing "the hit." That's why the straw was still in Kyle's mouth when he died. Why his eye's were still open. The experts want to call this huffing. The kids don't believe its huffing. As adults we tend to lump many things together. But it doesn't fit here. And that's why its more accepted. There is no chemical reaction. no strong odor. It doesn't follow the huffing signals. Kyle complained a few days before he died of his tongue hurting. It probably did. The propellant causes frostbite. If I had only known. Its easy to say hay, its my life and I'll do what I want. But it isn't. Others are always effected. This has forever changed our family's life. I have a hole in my heart and soul that can never be fixed. The pain is so immense I cant describe it. There's nowhere to run from it. I cry all the time and I don't ever cry. I do what I'm supposed to do but I don't really care. My kids are messed up. One wont talk about it. The other will only sleep in our room at night. And my wife, I cant even describe how bad she is taking this. I thought we were safe because of Thor. I thought we were safe because we knew about drugs and talked to our kids about them. After Kyle died another story came out. A Probation Officer went to the school system next to ours to speak with a student. While there he found a student using Dust Off in the bathroom. This student told him about another student who also had some in his locker. This is a rather affluent school system. They will tell you they don't have a drug problem there. They don't even have a dare or plus program there. So rather than tell everyone about this "new" way of getting high they found, they hid it. The probation officer told the media after Kyle's death and they, the school, then admitted to it. I know that if they would have told the media and I had heard, it wouldn't have been in my house. We need to get this out of our homes and school computer labs. Using Dust Off isn't new and some "professionals" do know about. It just isn't talked about much, except by the kids. They know about it. April 2nd was 1 month since Kyle died. April 5th would have been his 15th birthday. And every weekday I catch myself sitting on the living room couch at 2:30 in the afternoon and waiting to see him get off the bus. I know Kyle is in heaven but I cant help but wonder If I died and went to Hell. Jeff
January 2005
We originally listed this one as a hoax but as was pointed out by a reader (thanks for the info) it either was real or has become real. The newspaper articles below describe real situations where this method was used to steal cars. Hopefully, these cases will give the car dealers a heads-up about making a key for someone without demanding proof of ownership.
While the article suggests covering up your VIN number, that is probably not a good idea. In most places it is required to be visible when driving your car. It is a good idea to put your VIN number on all the removable parts on your car so they can be identified if the car is ever stolen and parted out.
http://www.wnbc.com/station/1169231/detail.html
http://www.wlbt.com/Global/story.asp?S=3373620&nav=2CSfa7u2
http://www.officer.com/article/article.jsp?siteSection=1&id=23800
http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/2167428/detail.html
It sounds too easy. Subject: Fwd: Fw: Your vehicle's VIN number Seems that car thieves have found yet another way to steal your car or truck without any effort at all. The car thieves peer through the windshield of your car or truck, write down the VIN # from the label on the dash, go to the local car dealership and request a duplicate key based on the VIN #. I didn't believe this e-mail, so I called a friend at Chrysler Dodge and pretended I had lost my keys. They told me to just bring in the VIN #, and they would cut me one on the spot, and I could order the keyless device if I wanted. The Car Dealer's Parts Department will make a duplicate key from the VIN #, and collect payment from the th! ief who will return to your car. He doesn't have to break in, do any damage to the vehicle, or draw attention to himself. All he has to do is walk up to your car, insert the key and off he goes to a local Chop Shop with your vehicle. You don't believe it? It IS that easy. To avoid this from happening to you, simply put some tape (electrical tape, duct tape or medical tape) across the VIN Metal Label located on the dash board. By law, you cannot remove the VIN, but you can cover it so it can't be viewed through the windshield by a car thief. I urge you to forward this to your friends before some other car thief steals another car or truck. I slipped a 3 x 5 card over the VIN # .
December 2006
This is all true.
Let's all shop at Sears!!! I assume you have all seen the reports about how Sears is treating its reservist employees who are called up? By law, they are required to hold their jobs open and available, but nothing more. Usually, people take a big pay cut and lose benefits as a result of being called up... Sears is voluntarily paying the difference in salaries and maintaining all benefits, including medical insurance and bonus programs, for all called up reservist employees for up to two years. I submit that Sears is an exemplary corporate citizen and should be recognized for its contribution. Suggest we all shop at Sears, and be sure to find a manager to tell them why we are there so the company gets the positive reinforcement it well deserves. Pass it on.
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