Should you forward that e-mail?

Brian at Shoebox Greetings answers the eternal question.


This is good advice, worth passing along to everyone you know.

Did you ever notice...

Did you ever notice that many of the people
who condemn waterboarding as a moral atrocity
celebrate abortion as morally neutral -- and even compassionate?

This e-mail scam gets points for trying a little harder than usual

Received this morning:

Bank of East Asia Ltd.
Bank of East Asia Building,
137 Market Street, Singapore 048943
Email-seahchaio1@hotmail.com


Good Day,

A customer of ours who may relate to you (perhaps) in Singapore died three years ago in Tsunami tragedy in Indonesia leaving behind an estate/capital (US$14.2M with interest) in a bank here where I work, till date nobody has come forward or put application for the claim. Please log on to this websites for more information about the Tsunami tragedy.

http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=2375
http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=2745

During the bank private search recently for the late gentle man relatives your name and email contact was among the findings that matches the same surname as the deceased (name WITHELD for security reason) who died intestate with no Will or next of kin. To maintain the level of security required I have intentionally left out the final details.

I urge you to come forward since I can provide you with the details needed for you to claim the estate/capital so that I can be gratify by you, in this way $4,260,000.00 for you and $9,940,000.00 for me and my colleagues that will do all the crucial part in the bank to have the claim release to you promptly.

To affirm your willingness and cooperation,please do so by replying me at my private email (seahchaio1@hotmail.com) with your FULL NAME, DATE OF BIRTH,TELEPHONE NUMBER, FAX NUMBER, PRIVATE EMAIL ADDRESS, BANKING DETAILS AND POSTAL ADDRESS.

I do expect your prompt response.

Thank you,
Mr.Seah Chai.
Email-seahchaio1@hotmail.com

The author of this scam has done a few things to improve the perceived credibility of his or her offer (I'll assume hereafter the author is a male). First, by posing as a Singapore national, his fractured English is much more excusable than it would be if he was posing as a native English speaker.

Second, and more significantly, he refers to an event that we actually know about -- the December 2004 tsunami. He even provides links to legitimate news articles about the tsunami, hoping that this appeal to authority will overcome our reticence, and hoping that we won't notice that this documentation is completely immaterial to his business proposal. This rhetorical sleight-of-hand works in other settings, so why not here?

Third, he realizes that the Hotmail contact address needs to be explained, and attempts to do so: "Look, I'm suggesting that we split this money, and it wouldn't do for my employer to know that we're doing this, so please contact me at my private e-mail address." Unfortunately, the author's credibility is undermined by the presence of two other addresses in the message header. The Reply-to address (seahchaio3@hotmail.com) is a slight variation on the address in the message, but the From address references domain centrum.cz, suggesting that the message originated in the Czech Republic.

But maybe not. The detailed mail header shows all of the "hops" the message made on the way to my mailbox. At one point it passed through mail.centera.com.au (which doesn't show up in any Whois listing) and lvbw.net (an ISP in Branson, Missouri, USA). The ordering of the entries suggests that the message actually originated in Branson.

Thanks for playing, whoever you are. Keep at it, and you may create a masterpiece in time.

More evidence the GOP doesn't know what it stands for any more

WSJ's Kim Strassel comments on the congressional GOP's frustrating silence on the Obama administration's plan to nationalize and socialize health care:

The president has a plan, and he's laid it on the table. The industry groups that once helped Republicans beat HillaryCare are today sitting at that table. Unions are mobilized. A liberal umbrella group, Health Care for American Now, is spending $40 million to get a "public option," a new federal entitlement that would kill off private insurance. Democrats passed a budget blueprint that will allow them to cram through that "public option" with just 51 votes.

Republicans? They're trying to figure out what they think.

Well, not all of them. Earlier this week I ended up in the office of Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn, where the doctor was hosting North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr. The duo is, for the second time, crafting a comprehensive reform that would lower costs, cover the uninsured, and put Americans in control of their health care. And while the senators decline to talk GOP politics, their bill raises the multitrillion-dollar question: Will the party have the nerve or sense to coalesce behind some such conservative alternative to the Democratic product?

[...] no small number of Senate Republicans are biding their time in Max Baucus land, waiting to see what the Democratic finance chairman produces as a "bipartisan" product. (Read: A bill the president wants.) This crowd has taken to heart Mr. Obama's accusation that they are the party of "no," and think it might be easier to be the party of Baucus, or the party of Baucus-lite, or the party of nothing whatsoever.

Whenever the GOP slips into minority status, they have the annoying tendency to be the ME TOO party. With health care it happened during the Clinton administration, and it's happening again now: the administration does a full-frontal assault on the independence of the health care industry, and the GOP responds with various "kinder, gentler" alternatives.

The GOP alternatives are said to be more "conservative" because they spend less of the taxpayers' money.

The alternatives are generally more friendly to free enterprise, but every one of them concedes the assertion that a federal solution is required. Never mind that the feds have no constitutional authority to meddle with the health care industry in the first place. I'm enough of a realist to know that constitutional literacy has not gained any serious traction in Washington within any of our lifetimes.

Another pathetic e-mail scam

Really -- what are they teaching in the Scammer Schools these days? There must be a lot of social promotion, because a lot of guys are graduating without even the most basic skills. Here's one that came in this morning:

ATTENTION: EDU WEBMAIL SUBSCRIBER:

This mail is to inform all our {EDU WEBMAIL} users that we will be upgrading our site in a couple of days from now. So you as a Subscriber of our site you are required to send us your Email account details so as to enable us know if you are still making use of your mail box. Further informed that we will be deleting all mail account that is not functioning so as to create more space for new user. so you are to send us your mail account details which are as follows:

*User name:
*Password:

Failure to do this will immediately render your email address deactivated from our database.Your response should be send to the following e-mail address.
Your Admin Manager: webmailsubscriber@jmail.co.za Yours In Service.
Mr fred johnson

I didn't realize that our university's webmail server was being administered by a guy in South Africa. Huh. You learn something new every day.

"Prom rebel" pretends to be a victim

CBS/AP, May 12:

Tyler Frost, a 17-year-old senior at Heritage Christian School in Findlay, Ohio was warned that that he would face suspension and miss his graduation if he attended his girlfriend's prom at her public school -- but he did it anyway.

The move has resulted in his being labeled him a rebel in some places, but he told The Early Show in an exclusive interview he has no regrets.

"It was worth it," Frost told co-anchor Harry Smith.

Frost signed a contract at the beginning of the school year that prohibits dancing, handholding and listening to rock 'n' roll.

Tyler Frost is shocked -- shocked! -- to learn that the school intends its students to honor the moral behavior contract they sign at the beginning of each school year.

He consciously defies the warnings he was given, and then he is stunned to learn that, unlike him, the school keeps its word.

Now Frost is upset that he won't be able to walk the stage with his fellow graduates:

"It's kind of sad that it has to end this way," Frost said. "I was kind of looking forward to graduating with my class, you know, that's why you put in 13 years of school -- to graduate. And to just, you know, show up one day and just have it taken from you."

Yeah, it's like, you know, this just came right out of the blue, with no warning and no explanation!

Frost's stepfather, in an apparent bid to teach Frost the importance of keeping one's word, hinted that he might sue the school. Way to teach a valuable life lesson in character, Dad!

So, does young Frost think his choice reflects badly on him?

"I still feel I’m a Christian," Frost said. "I believe in the morals they’ve taught me."

Including, I suppose, the virtue of parading your disputes on national television so you can turn public opinion against the one you have a disagreement with.

My regard for Mr. Frost might have gone up a notch or two if he and his stepfather had told the media that this dispute was none of their business, but it's far too late for that.

As if the Democrats are going to go after one of their greatest enablers

It appears that as long as the Dems control the federal government, the criminal activities of the "community organizers" in ACORN are safe from congressional scrutiny, as Matthew Vadum of The American Spectator observes:

Some coincidences live in infamy.

It would have been hard Monday for Rep. John Conyers (D-Michigan) not to understand how Bill Ayers felt the day the World Trade Center and Pentagon were attacked. Unforgiving history records that on Sept. 11, 2001, the retired domestic terrorist's "I don't regret setting bombs" comment ran in a New York Times profile.

While obviously of a much lesser magnitude, the House Judiciary Committee chairman's May 4 statement exonerating ACORN couldn't have come out at a worse time. "Based on my review of the information regarding the complaints against ACORN, I have concluded that a hearing on this matter appears unwarranted at this time," Conyers said in a statement aired that night on CNN's "Lou Dobbs Tonight."

Just hours earlier his fellow Democrats in Nevada, Secretary of State Ross Miller and Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto dropped a bombshell. ACORN and two former senior ACORN employees in the state, they announced, had been charged with a total of 39 felony counts related to voter registrations.

The Nevada voter registration fraud case is just one of many being pursued around the country (for example, here).

NYT: Carlos Slim is a thief, a robber baron, and ... a wonderful human being

TimesWatch notes today that the New York Times has decided that Mexican mogul Carlos Slim ain't so bad after all:

Carlos Slim, described in 2007 as a "thief" and "robber baron" by a Times editorial writer, is now "a very shrewd businessman with an appreciation for great brands," according to the paper's publisher. What changed? A $250 million loan from Slim to the NYT Co., for one.

I guess Rupert Murdoch now knows what he needs to do to get some good press from the Times.

Illustrating the looting of the American economy

This graph shows Obama administration estimates of federal budget deficits over the next ten years. Notice that in every year the White House lowballs their numbers in relation to the Congressional Budget Office estimates for the same years.

Economist Mark Skousen refers to this as "the scariest chart I've ever seen", and I'm inclined to agree.

Japan slowly commits demographic suicide

It's sad to see a culture implicitly make the decision to vanish from the face of the earth, however slowly.

Many native European peoples are making similar choices, but it's less obvious there, because their population implosion is masked by uncontrolled immigration from third-world countries.

Japan strictly limits immigration, so there is no hiding the fact that the sound of children there is slowly diminishing. AP via CNSNews, May 6:

Japan, which designates every May 5 as Children's Day, has fewer children to celebrate the holiday for the 28th straight year, underscoring a demographic dilemma that could eventually wreak havoc on the world's second-largest economy.

A government report released this week said the number of children under age 15 as of April 1 had fallen to about 17 million. Japan's proportion of children which has been declining for the past 35 years now stands at just 13 percent of the country's 128 million people.

In contrast, Japan's elderly population is swelling. The number of those over 65 years old has reached 22.5 percent and continues to climb.

The unprecedented changes to Japan's population, fueled by low birthrates and one of the world's highest life expectancies, are expected to strain government services and pension programs, as well as lead to labor shortages in the near future.

Japan now has the lowest percentage of children among 31 major countries, trailing Germany and Italy, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications report. Children make up about 20 percent of the U.S. population and 17 percent in neighboring South Korea.

(Photo found here)

Way to treat your shareholders, General Motors

Obama administration: "I got a majority stake in GM!"
UAW: "I got a big piece of GM, too!"
Joe Bondholder: "My piece is kinda small, but it's better than nothing."
Joe Shareholder: "I got a rock."

The title of this post implies that this insane idea originated with GM, but given the beneficiaries, and given the fact that this plan will totally destroy investor confidence in the company, I'm seeing the Obama administration's fingerprints all over the place.

Reuters states the facts rather plainly, but can't scare up an adjective stronger than "unusual" to describe the plan:

General Motors on Tuesday detailed plans to all but wipe out the holdings of remaining shareholders by issuing up to 60 billion new shares in a bid to pay off debt to the U.S. government, bondholders and the United Auto Workers union.

The unusual plan, which was detailed in a filing with U.S. securities regulators, would only need the approval of the U.S. Treasury to proceed since the U.S. government would be the majority shareholder of a new GM, the company said.

The flood of new stock issuance that could be unleashed has been widely expected by analysts who have long warned that GM's shares could be worthless whether the company restructures out of court or in bankruptcy.

The debt-for-equity exchanges detailed in the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission would leave GM's stock investors with just 1 percent of the equity in a restructured carmaker, ending a long run when the Dow component was seen as a bellwether for the strength of the broader U.S. economy.

GM shares closed on Tuesday at $1.85 on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock would be worth just over 1 cent if the first phase of GM's restructuring moves forward as described.

Once GM has issued new shares to pay off its debt to the U.S. government, bondholders and its major union, it said it would then undertake a 1-for-100 reverse stock split.

Such a move would take the nominal value of the stock back to near where it had been before the flood of new shares. But in the process, GM's existing shareholders would see their stake in the 100-year-old automaker all but wiped out.

Buy local -- or else (Economic stimulus, Chinese style)

The Telegraph (UK) reports that one Chinese province has come up with a novel way to boost the local economy:

Local government officials in China have been ordered to smoke nearly a quarter of a million packs of cigarettes in a move to boost the local economy during the global financial crisis.

The edict, issued by officials in Hubei province in central China, threatens to fine officials who "fail to meet their targets" or are caught smoking rival brands manufactured in neighbouring provinces.

Even local schools have been issued with a smoking quota for teachers, while one village was ordered to purchase 400 cartons of cigarettes a year for its officials, according to the local government's website.

The move, which flies in the face of national anti-smoking policies set in Beijing, is aimed at boosting tax revenues and protecting local manufacturers from outside competition from China's 100 cigarette makers.

In total, officials have been ordered to puff their way through 230,000 packs of Hubei-branded cigarettes worth £400,000.

It's not unusual for various levels of government in the U.S. to have "Buy American" or "Buy Local" mandates for their agencies, but cigarettes.... I don't think so.

"Abortion with detergent": A note to someone who visited this blog on May 1

On May 1 at a little past 7:30am central time, someone using a Roanoke County (Va.) Public Schools computer came across this blog through a Google search on the term "abortion with detergent". The search yielded this page, which is not related to abortion.

My fear is that the visitor was looking for how-to advice.

If you are the person who did that search, and if I am correct regarding your intent, please contact me at the e-mail address on the sidebar.

Quick Quote: Churchill on socialism

Socialism is a philosophy of failure,
the creed of ignorance,
and the gospel of envy;
its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.

-- Sir Winston Churchill

"Cramdown" shot down: Victory for the rule of law

There is so much that is wrong with the notion that a judge can look at a contract, legal and supposedly binding, entered into with the full knowledge and consent of both parties..... and at a whim simply rewrite the contract to the benefit of one of the parties.

This is exactly what President Obama wanted to allow judges to do with the mortgage "cramdown" bill. Congressional Democrats seemed ready to march in lockstep with this plan to wreck the mortgage lending industry, with the bill sailing through the House effortlessly.

But, as the Wall Street Journal reports, a few Senate Democrats showed a spark of rational thought (or, perhaps, a pang of conscience). Enough of them joined the united GOP to kill the bill:

The power of a united minority was on beneficial display yesterday, as Senate Republicans defeated the budget bankruptcy "cramdown" bill. Credit goes to Arizona's Jon Kyl and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who kept their party together to beat destructive legislation that had easily passed the House and was one of President Obama's housing priorities.

The cramdown would have allowed bankruptcy judges to rewrite contracts to reduce the amount that people owe on their mortgages. But a bipartisan majority understood that relief for today's troubled borrowers would be paid with higher rates on the next generation of homeowners, as lenders priced the added risk into mortgage contracts.

A dozen Democrats joined Republicans in the 51-45 vote, and even Pennsylvania turncoat Arlen Specter gave his former GOP comrades an assist. Speaking for millions of renters and nondelinquent borrowers, Mr. McConnell said that the vote "ensures that homeowners who pay their bills and follow the rules won't see an interest-rate hike at the whim of a bankruptcy judge."

This is but one battle in General Obama's war against free-market capitalism and the rule of law. Obama and his statist army are still advancing, so I'm sure we haven't seen the last of insane ideas like this.