AT & T Email Scams

If you get the following email purported to be from At & T, it is a scam and not from AT & T. Do not reply to it, but instead, delete it. There are a million bogus email cons all waiting for the unconscious, nieve  victim to respond to their scheme to get your password. Dont' fall for it.
----------------


Dear AT&T Subscriber's,


We are contacting you to remind you that our
Account Review Team (ART) has identified some
unusual activity in yourAT&T webmail Account. As
a result,access to your account has been limited
in accordance with the AT&T Online User
Agreement. Your account access will remain
limited until this issue has been resolved. You
are therefore required to provide the
information below;


° AT&T Email UserID and Password (********)


*Important*
Please provide all these information completely
and correctly otherwise due to security reasons
we may have to close your AT&T account
temporarily. We thank you for your prompt
attention to this matter. Please understand that
this is a security measure intended to help
protect you and your AT&T Account. We apologise
for any inconvenience.


Thanks
The AT&T Technical Team
© 2010 AT&T All right reserved.

30 Lurking Dangers - Hilarious Urban Legends

I wish I had the name of the individual who wrote this Urban Legend litany. It is so very creative, and fall-down-funny, with some real truth embedded. I laughed so hard I had tears in my eyes. Kudos to the author...- Enjoy
==============
As we approach the end of another month - I want to thank all of you for your educational e-mails over the past year. I am totally screwed up now and have little chance of recovery.

I no longer open a bathroom door without using a paper towel, or have the waitress put lemon slices in my ice water without worrying about the bacteria on the lemon peel.

I can’t use the remote in a hotel room because I don’t know what the last person was doing while flipping through the adult movie channels.

I can’t sit down on the hotel bedspread because I can only imagine what has happened on it since it was last washed..hmmmm

I have trouble shaking hands with someone who has been driving because the number one pastime while driving alone is picking one’s nose.

Eating a little snack sends me on a guilt trip because I can only imagine how many gallons of trans fats I have consumed over the years.

I can’t touch any woman’s purse for fear she has placed it on the floor of a public bathroom.

I MUST ALSO SEND MY SPECIAL THANKS to whoever sent me the one about rat ---- in the glue on envelopes because I now have to use a wet sponge with every envelope that needs sealing.

ALSO, now I have to scrub the top of every can I open for the same reason.

I no longer have any savings because I gave it to a sick girl (Penny Brown) who is about to die for the 1,387,258th time.

I no longer have any money, but that will change once I receive the $15,000 that Bill Gates/Microsoft and AOL are sending me for participating in their special e-mail program.

I no longer worry about my soul because I have 363,214 angels looking out for me, and St. Theresa’s Novena has granted my every wish.

I can’t have a drink in a bar because I’ll wake up in a bathtub full of ice with my kidneys gone.


I can’t eat at KFC because their chickens are actually horrible mutant freaks with no eyes, feet or feathers.

I can’t use cancer-causing deodorants even though I smell like a water buffalo on a hot day.

THANKS TO ALL OF YOU I have learned that my prayers only get answered if I forward an e-mail to seven of my friends and make a wish within five minutes.

BECAUSE OF YOUR CONCERN, I no longer drink Coca Cola because it can remove toilet stains.

I no longer buy gas without taking someone along to watch the car so a serial killer doesn’t crawl in my back seat when I’m filling up.

I no longer drink Pepsi or Fanta since the people who make these products are atheists who refuse to put ‘Under God’ on their cans.

I no longer use Cling Wrap in the microwave because it causes seven different types of cancer.

AND THANKS FOR LETTING ME KNOW I can’t boil a cup of water in the microwave anymore because it will blow up in my face.. Disfiguring me for life.

I no longer go to shopping malls because someone will drug me with a perfume sample and rob me.

I no longer receive packages from UPS or Fed Ex since they are actually Al Qaeda agents in disguise. And I no longer answer the phone because someone will ask me to dial a number for which I will get a phone bill with calls to Jamaica , Uganda , Singapore , and Uzbekistan

I no longer buy cookies from Neiman-Marcus since I now have their recipe.

THANKS TO YOU I can’t use anyone’s toilet but mine because a big black snake could be lurking under the seat and cause me instant death when it bites my behind.



AND THANKS TO YOUR GREAT ADVICE I can’t ever pick up a quarter dropped in the parking lot because it probably was placed there by a sex molester waiting to grab me as I bend over..

I no longer drive my car because buying gas from some companies supports Al Qaeda, and buying gas from all the others supports South American dictators.

I can’t do any gardening because I’m afraid I’ll get bitten by the Violin Spider and my hand will fall off.


If you don’t send this e-mail to at least 144,000 people in the next 70 minutes, a large dove with diarrhea will land on your head at 5:00 p.m. tomorrow afternoon, and the fleas from 120 camels will infest your back, causing you to grow a hairy hump. I know this will occur because it actually happened to a friend of my next door neighbor’s ex-mother-in-law’s second husband’s cousin’s best friend’s beautician . . .


Oh, by the way.....

A German scientist from Argentina , after a lengthy study, has discovered that people with insufficient brain activity read their e-mail with their hand on the mouse.


Don’t bother taking it off now, it’s too late.


PS: I now keep my toothbrush in the living room, because I was told by e-mail that water splashes over 6 ft. out of the toilet.

Criminals are Waging War Against Americans

America is at war. Most Americans do not realize it. The statistics on this war are staggering. In 2008, nationwide, there were an estimated 1,382,012 violent crimes committed against us. If we were reading about our soldiers in Afghanistan or Iraq, and read that over a million of them had been assaulted by the Afghanistan or Iraqi people, we'd be enraged. We'd be for waging all out war, or getting "out of Dodge" in a hurry.

In the years from 1980 to 2008, individuals paroled from prison and living amongst us rose from 1 million to over 4 million. Think about that for a moment. Four million people who have commited a crime, living with us. Scary, yes?  Have you done a crime? Have you broken the law and came out of prison? Most of us have not. This is not to say those who have a criminal past are all bad. But, we have to remember, their "goodness" didn't get them into prison. Somewhere, in the past, they saw, as a way to acquire a property, or to acquire a pleasure, or to settle a fight, or to make some money, that breaking the law was something that was acceptable to their conscience.

In the year 2009, there were 1,613,656 prisoners in state and federal prisons. Think about it. That's nearly two million humans living in a very controlled environment, some of them too violent to be loosed on the public. But, some of them will be loosed on us. Indeed, they are being loosed upon us every day. The "bad guys" are becoming our neighbors. From 1980 to 2008, individuals living amongst us who are on parole rose from just over 1 million to over 4 million people.

In 2008, around 2,737,166 people entered prison in the United States, and 2,701,561 exited. Over 5,095,181 people were reported as being under community supervision, which includes parole. So, that means that every year, we're getting a few million criminals sliding into our communities. Does anyone seriously wonder about the rising rate of crime?

In 1982, we spent annually, around $10 billion dollars on corrections, that is, the prison system. By 2006, we were spending over $60 billion dollars (an increase of over 660%). We spent, in 1982, around $20 billion on law enforcement. Today, that number is over $100 billion dollars. That is a staggering sum of money to spend on anything. But to spend it on crime? Like it or not, crime is a major part of our economic system. Lawyers make millions of dollars. Security companies make many more millions of dollars. Private prisons make employ thousands and rake in millions of dollars. (And some say, crime doesn't pay.)

According to FBI statistics, in the year 1994, around 544,880 offenses took place in the United States in which someone loved by some of us was murdered, robbed, or assaulted with firearms. In other words, nearly 1 out of 3 (31%) murders, robberies, and aggravated assaults collectively involved firearms as the weapons used. Keep in mind, these criminals had guns and there are those in high office who do not want us, the law abiding citizens, to have guns. Somehow, the logic of the liberal has never made its way through my simple mind. Criminals will get guns, regardless of what the law says. They have demonstrated that. So, we are to be denied guns because? Fortunately, our Supreme Court has not caved...yet, and the recent case overturning Chicago's Democratic Myoptic Gun Control Law pointed out that the Constitution trumps even the Chicago Machine.

We suffered losses from robbery totaling over $17 billion dollars in 2008. That's not millions. That's billions, with a GIANT B. And that's just one year.

It gets worse. In 2008, around 89,000 women were raped and only 22,584 persons were arrested. Most of them were not convicted. In the same year, 441,855 of us were robbed, while only 129,402 persons were arrested. That year saw 834,885 of us violently assaulted and 16,272 of us were slain or murdered. In total, the year 2008 saw 1,382,012 of us as victims of violent crime.

You tell me. Are we at war? Think about it. Do you hear a loud cry from Congress about crime? Do you see any help on the way? Or, do you hear, as I do, more "easy speak" and political meandering through the thicket of words, with most of the Congress playing a game similar to dodge-ball (translate: dodge the issue)?

The Democratic administration has geared up rhetorically with a war of words against Arizona, and with its legal muscle. They've completely ignored the statistics that show the greater part of the nation is FOR the stand Arizona has taken. The Obama administration has also ignored the fact that a staggering portion of the Arizona crimebudget (translate Arizona tax payer dollars) is spent on fighting crime committed by illegal immigrants. Those immigrants are importing crime into Arizona as though we were their most important trading partner.

Maybe we are.

Personally, I will never vote for anyone running for Congress who does not take a strong stand against crime. Unless and until we have a Congress that takes a view of criminals akin to that taken by the well known Sheriff of Maricopa County, "Joe" Arpaio, we will not act, as a nation, like we're in a war. It's a fight for survival, and we're losing.

Some amongst us are just too stupid to know it.

I've got pretty good survival instincts. I don't "think" we're in serious trouble. I know it. Millions of Americans know it, too. They also know that unless there are some serious steps (translate: all-out-no-holds-barred-war) taken by our government, by our congressional leaders, against crime, against the gangs, and against the hordes of illegal immigrants swallowing our dollars, devouring our jobs, and smothering our social services systems, we are doomed.

I say we start by dooming the careers of ALL political leaders who do not demonstrate an unwavering, aggressive stand against crime and criminals.

Joe, if you run for Prez, you got my vote, bro.

I am dictating this in Dragon NaturallySpeaking.  Although I'm a pretty good typist, with a better than average speed, it is really great to be able to type with my tongue, so to speak.

One thing I have learned about this program is that the more you use it, the better it works.  I use it at work (legal work), and use it for personal notes. For example, if I want to take notes out of a book, instead of highlighting (my old method), and writing notes, I'll just open a page, create a file called "Notes on Whatever" and begin by saying: "Number 1 period." The program types "1." and I begin reading from the book, or I will summarize a note. Now and then I have to stop and train the program how to say a particular word. But, the good thing is that I won't have to do that again for that word. It is possible to add new words to the internal dictionary.

All in all, whether one is a writer of novels, writing western fiction, mysteries, sci-fi, an entire book, or even a legal brief, Dragon Naturally Speaking is a great tool.

Wars, Appeasement, Evil Men and the Future of America

APPEASEMENT AT ANY COST

Wars bring out the best and the worst in people. History can teach us a lot about human nature, and how to deal with certain kinds of people. The sad thing is, it seems politicians never learned their history, nor the history of other nations. Clearly, they forgot the lessons on appeasement. If they ever knew it, they forgot it. They forgot the lessons, the sometimes hard lessons, learned by our forefathers.

Most of the English, especially the younger generations, are not very aware of the early efforts of appeasement by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain to keep Hitler “happy.” On May 9, 1940, Winston Churchill became Prime Minister of England and the doctrine of appeasement was tossed out the proverbial window. England went almost immediately to a war footing, and not a moment too soon. Had England acted earlier and with firmness, there is every reason to believe Hitler would not have been able to continue his unrestrained aggression. But, appeasement was the word of the day, and it became a “brass ring” to grasp, regardless of the risk.

America knows about appeasement. It fought a war in the fifties that it tried to forget almost from the beginning. Indeed, one can say America deliberately tried to keep from remembering, or even acknowledging that war. It wasn’t called a war. It was called “The Korean Conflict” Some 40,000 Americans lost their lives and more were severely wounded. It’s only since the advent of the comedy series MASH that Americans are even now aware of that war. The politicians, particularly President Harry Truman, were desperate to escape that war, feeling it was leading to a larger conflict, namely a war with Russia and China. Harry Truman appeased the appetites of the Chinese and the North Korean despots, and negotiated a peace that was, in reality, merely a temporary halt to war.

APPEASEMENT: PEACE AT ANY COSTS

General Douglas MacArthur was fired and peace became the sole objective. It was a peace at any cost. Today, the result of our makeshift, appeasement policy of peace-at-any-cost has given us unending conflict between North and South Korea, strapped millions of Koreans into a bed of nightmares akin to living on Elm Street, and placed generations of those pathetic souls under the despotic dictatorship of a string of megalomaniacs. The current (as of 2010) leadership, Kim Jong-il, has redefined the art of brinkmanship. No act is too reckless for this man. He has recklessly fired missiles designed to provoke, openly marketed arms, seeks to arm himself with nuclear weapons, made hideous threats of destruction against America and South Korea, and even brazenly and recklessly sank a South Korean naval vessel.

Appeasement is enablement to dictators and despots

We’ve seen what megalomaniacs can bring us. They bring war, but more, they bring horrific living conditions to those whom they rule. We’re witnessing the rise of men who will risk everything to rule everyone. We’re seeing men rising in power who will risk everyone’s peace and everyone’s lives, if only they can snatch the ring of power.

Will we stand by and let them do it?

We let Hitler go, and he almost made it. But for the aggressive stand taken by England under the leadership of Churchill, and the subsequent involvement of American in the war, we’d all be goose-stepping, living in fear, brutalized in a myriad of ways, and walking zombie-like through life in total subjection to a system that strips away one’s humanity. We’d all have a different version of the same kind of life the North Koreans now endure. Appeasement almost cost us the freedom we now enjoy.

Ah, but there would be more. There would be no Jews left in the world if appeasement worked. We’d all be blond and blue eyed. All blacks would be servants. All other races and nations would be servile to the Nazi version of humanity. There would be no Islam, and Christianity would be a byword, a curious piece of history. Mysticism and the Occult would be the new religion. A consolation we’d never appreciate is the fact that there would be no Korean megalomaniacs. Kim Jong-il would be goose-stepping along with the rest of us, instead of being in a grandstand watching his troops do a Korean version of the goose-step.

We’d have suffered this fate, had we not been willing to fight...and die. That would have been our fate, if we’d not rose up and declared our willingness to not only fight, but die, if need be, to live free.

Appeasement is a narcotic that brings a stupor

We’re losing that willingness to fight. Few in America are willing to die for their freedom. They’re willing to negotiate, barter, and appease their enemies. Anything but fight.

There comes a time when we must stand against naked aggression and evil men, and declare that we will fight, to the death if need be, but we will not cower, and we will not back away.

The truly sad thing is that America has forgotten how to win a war. We want to deliver a knockout punch and then, we the enemy merely staggers, when we get him on the ropes, instead of doing what we set out to do, we fail to pummel him into submission. We give him terms. We don’t press our advantage. We don’t speak any longer about “unconditional surrender.”

Appeasement allows terrorists to exist and thrive

How unfortunate that we’ve allowed social, political and foreign interests to govern our policies about survival and forgot the lessons of appeasement.

We did that in WWII. We did that in Korea. We did it in Vietnam. We did it in Iraq I & II. We did it in Afghanistan. We’ve done it in Iran, and we’re insisting Israel do the same thing (ignoring the fact that if they practiced appeasement, they’d all be dead).

We just don’t get it.

One day, we’re going to wake and realize that those men who call us evil, who wish us dead, who call us the Great Satan, and who hate us, will relentlessly exterminate us without pity or compassion. Why, oh why, will we not take them at their word? Why is it that we refuse to believe what they say, when they declare they are going to destroy us?

Appeasement is alive and well.

Hopefully, we will be, too, a few decades from now.

I’m not real sure about that, though.

Firefox Not Responding...but I am

I've given up on Firefox.

For years, I've loved using that browser. The little add ons that you can get with it are marvelous. However, for about a year now, I've been experiencing problems with Firefox. The biggest problem is a "not responding" message. Firefox just freezes for about a minute or more. If I try and click on it anywhere, the screen greys out. Eventually, it wakes up and all is well until the next frozen moment.

No more. I googled the issue and found several remedies. Nothing seemed to help. No doubt if I was a geek, I could fix the issue. I think I'll just wait until Firefox fixes the issue. Until then, Chrome wins the browser wars (with Opera coming in a close second). I like the speed of both those browsers.

Clean up the Oil Using Hay

Cleaning up the oil spill in the Gulf is doable with a minimal cost impact and minimal environmental impact. This ole country boy has a great idea.

Bogus Phishing Fake Facebook emails

Beware of the recent spate of emails posing to be from Facebook, telling you in essence that your password in your Facebook account has been changed, or that you need to do something. They either want you to click on a site or open a file. DO NOT OPEN THE ATTACHED FILE AND DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK THEY PROVIDE.

Here's a sample of a recent email (I have gotten half a dozen). I've included the header information (absent my email and some other info) as well.
------------------


-------- Original Message --------
From: - Tue Apr 27 09:26:34 2010

X-Spam-Status: No, score=2.0 required=7.0 tests=BAYES_05,FH_HELO_EQ_D_D_D_D, HELO_DYNAMIC_IPADDR,RCVD_IN_SORBS_WEB,RDNS_DYNAMIC autolearn=no version=3.2.5
Received: (qmail 1085 invoked from network); 27 Apr 2010 01:19:29 -0500
Received: from wsip-24-249-244-66.oc.oc.cox.net (24.249.244.66)
with SMTP; 27 Apr 2010 01:19:28 -0500
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2010 23:19:27 -0800
From: Facebook Service
Reply-To: comprisedthu7@balsamiq.com
Message-ID: <316815793.72402217762201@balsamiq.com>
To: vag@brevia.com
Subject: Facebook Password Reset Confirmation! Important Message
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="----------03680084AAD97B"


Dear user of facebook,

Because of the measures taken to provide safety to our clients, your password has been changed.
You can find your new password in attached document.

Thanks,
Your Facebook.

The National Debt is no Illusion

The brain can be tricked. Illusions are transmissions of visual information to our minds (and sometimes sound) which, when interpreted by our brains, tell us things about the object we are viewing that simply are not true.

I guess I have to wonder what kind of illusions were are work when President Obama and the Democratic Congress put us into debt forever. They saw bailout, and jobs, and improved economy, and all kinds of good things. Only thing is, from where I was standing, I saw bailout as simply me paying for someone else's business debt, and the loss of jobs, because of the loss of business; and because of the loss of business and jobs, a crippled economy. I see nothing good. I say our national leaders have been looking at an illusion.

Check these illusions out:

More DIY videos at 5min.com

Cosmetic Poisons - What Women are Wiping on Their Faces

American manufacturers are poisoning us. They put chemicals on our crops, in our food, in our cosmetics, and in our drinks. We've been soaking up chemicals for many years now. The cancer rate and other metabolic disorders are soaring. But, of course the chemicals couldn't be the cause. After all, we know that the manufacturers would never harm us. Right?

Way back in 1909, a rather prominent scientist wrote the following: "[T]he administration of benzoic acid, either as such or in the form of benzoate of soda, is highly objectionable and produces a very serious disturbance of the metabolic functions, attended with injury to digestion and health."[1]

Now, over 100 years later, benzoic acid, sodium benzoate and related compounds--parabends--are still widely used in foods and cosmetics. The technical nomenclature is antimicrobial preservatives, which means they kill cells that might infect what we eat or put on our bodies. However, tests that have been peer reviewed and have drawn conclusive results reveal that these chemicals cause gastric irritation, hives and are a known asthma trigger. And, because they dissolve in water and are soluble in oil as well, they have become a tool of incalculable value for the cosmetics industry, which has strict controls on potential microbe contamination.

How ironic that the cosmetics industry would want to control the microbe contamination but not be concerned as to the serious threat to human health posed by the use of these chemicals.

Fortunately, there are some people who have taken note of these harmful chemicals in skin care products, makeups, creams, eye-shadows, lipsticks, and other personal products. Two organizations deserve kudos. First, Ava Anderson Non-toxic for her "zero tolerance" policy with respect to chemical additives in her cosmetic products. And second, to Skin Deep, an organization determined to show the public the deadly contents of thousands of cosmetic products.

May their tribe increase.


[1] Lindy Woodhead, War Paint: Madame Helena Rubinstein and Miss Elizabeth Arden : Their Lives, Their Times, Their Rivalry [book on-line] (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2003, p. 204

Incredible Stats on the Internet

Recently, I watched a fascinating video dealing with the internet and statistics. It is incredible to know that there are over 250 million internet users in America alone. The  email we get daily (billions of emails around the world) is over 80% spam.

  Watch this little video.

The Future of America: Consequences of Our Departure From God

America is definitely on the decline. Economically, we are diminishing as the most powerful entity on the planet. China is the fastest growing economy in today's world. It will not be long before we will be overtaken.

What is America's Future? Is it to become a third-world nation? We certainly have seen the corruption that is typical of so many third-world nations invade our Congress, and it has engulfed our people. Every week it seems we hear about another scandal. We've seen national leaders who have lived double lives, speaking lofty words expressing lofty ideals, and living a lie. We've seen sports heroes whom we thought had great character, reveal a degraded side of themselves that was both disgusting, and disheartening.

Kidnapped Christian Missionaries in Haiti

The corrupt Haitian government hates Christians. They've made that clear. This, in spite of the millions of dollars in aid coming from thousands of Christian churches and people. In light of the recent arrests and charges leveled at the 10 misguided, but sincere American Christian missionaries, three things are rather apparent:

Haiti, Chaos, and Fading Memories

Haiti has become chaos layered with magnificent efforts to bring structure and organization there. Eventually, the chaos will subside. It will leave in its wake, bewilderment, confusion, and a deep, abiding sense of loss. But, it will not all be bad. For the first time in its history, the entire world is focused on this tiny little nation. Oh, there was great attention paid to it during the terrible coup years, when the government was in turmoil and the NATO forces were called in to help restore order. But, there was no real attention given to the needs of the nation, and the people. In that time, much aid was given, which had a strange way of disappearing. There was simply no accounting for the millions of dollars of goods and other aid that was brought into the country.

Now, it’s different (or so it is said).