Email Forwards & Chain Letters - Gross exaggerations

I'm surprised when family & friends send forwarded emails to me. I want to be informed as much as anyone. But I want good & real info.

The first thing I do when I see "FWD:fwd:" in the subject line is hit "delete." One "Fwd:" may get a pass if it passes my next test:

The second thing is to scroll to the bottom of the email. Does it say something like "Pass this on to at least __ friends & ________ will happen." CHAIN LETTER! Hoax. Stupidity. Not worth my time. "Delete"

If it passes those tests, I'll read it...with a skeptical eye.

When the information is good, it often moves me to action. Rarely, though, because 99% of the time it's misinformation.

I have this advice for anyone who receives & is tempted to forward a mass email:

Before forwarding any email, do a quick google search using the word "hoax" with the key words from the email. Usually, you'll find snopes.com or other dedicated sites have already looked into the validity to either confirm or debunk the content of the email.

Today I got an email that came through well intentioned, intelligent family members.

Below the email is my response after some quick research that left me still questioning things.

YOU DECIDE...

From: family & friends

Date: Wed, 13 Jan 2010 11:17:53 -0500

Subject: Please pass it on

Dear Fellow American,

For too long we have been too complacent about the workings of Congress. Many citizens had no idea that Congress members could retire with the same pay after only one term, that they didn't pay into Social Security, that they specifically exempted themselves from many of the laws they have passed (such as being exempt from any fear of prosecution for sexual harassment) while ordinary citizens must live under those laws. The latest is to exempt themselves from the Healthcare Reform that is being considered...in all of its' forms. Somehow, that doesn't seem logical. We do not have an elite that is above the law. I truly don't care if they are Democrat, Republican, Independent or whatever. The self-serving must stop. This is a good way to do that. It is an idea whose time has come.

Proposed 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution:

"Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States ".

My response:

Seems a hoax to me. Congress hasn’t any immunity from its laws. Does it? (!)

Who says that congress members don’t have to pay into social security? Who says they are exempt from sexual harassment prosecution? That’s ridiculous. If they can retire on pension after one term, maybe that should be addressed, or maybe we should all run for congress! But the proposed amendment makes no sense – they are citizens, so it just reiterates keeping things the same as they are.

This seems like an emotional government-hating proposal. My leanings tend to be very conservative, but that’s based on a rational conclusion of issues that always seems to end up on the right. However, just like I don’t care for churches that run simply on emotional energy rather than biblical integrity, I don’t like running politics on bipartisan misinformation. If this can be proved true, then maybe there’s merit. But I know of nothing that supports the allegation that Congress LEGALLY has taken an elite class status. In their own minds, many do believe themselves above the little people, but they have no legal backing to their delusions.

The only point I see in this proposed amendment is to incite fear & anger that is based on a lie. If I’m wrong, I’d like to see the proof that Congress has applied laws from which they are exempt.

Enlighten me!!

Ordinary People - Grossly underestimated

from December 15, 2009...

In my research about piracy, I've stumbled across many literary works & images generated by average, normal people. Most notable among the many writings are the letters, notes, journals & logs. They're written by real people, about real people, addressed to real people.

They're gems.

I recently had the horror of watching history get so twisted by activism, that it has left me sickened. In a TV event, Matt Damon convinced an impressive array of actors & musicians to blot out the truth about America by manipulating history with readings all designed to call Americans capitalist pigs, pushing for reform to Communism.

The People Speak is an atrocity in its agenda to revise history & brainwash young people into hating the America that allows them to be such bold-faced socialists.

Meanwhile, there is one genius behind this sickening movement; it uses the writings of mostly "ordinary" people. They would argue that these writings represent the "truth" about America, while I would insist these are pieces which tell a very small part of a bigger story, and in no way does the whole of these writings equate a thematic umbrella of meaning. Each writing has something compelling & truthful from its time, & represents some powerful yet isolated feelings & events.

This infuriating event needs to be answered. Therefore, I plan to call on YOU, friends, family, fans, to start digging for letters & journals in the attic.

I have a letter from a great great ancestor in the Civil War whose letter home to the family was as eloquent as a presidential address, despite its brevity and poor grammar. It conveyed everything intended: he missed his family, and he loved his country.

I believe we all have gems like this sitting in an attic, or a family Bible, or an archived file.

I want to help compile such writings in answer to The People Speak, & show what TRUE Americans really had to say in the context of their time & circumstance. I don't have an agenda to brainwash children with a left-wing curriculum (as does the author who has the public school system involved). But I don't have a right-wing agenda either. As in all my research, I'm just looking for the truth. And the truth I'll find is no doubt a confirmation that America is the most unique, wonderful & worthy country to ever be created by a people.

And I think many writings will highlight mistakes along the way. The beauty of the writings of more educated & purposeful men such as Ben Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, etc. is that such mistakes were expected and provided for. Our constitution is so ingenious that it allows for the fact that we are fallible people who sometimes learn the hard way. We stumble. We sin. We learn. We grow. We move on. We make changes in the law and the constitution if injustice is found & is deemed correctable. Our imperfections are made perfect by our quest for a more perfect society.

Proving that is my agenda. And I've set up a site where you can actually submit it pain-free at your leisure:

http://fs18.formsite.com/grossmusic/form988617943

So - scan those letters, photos, drawings, doodles, journals, diaries, logbooks, etc. Everything from 1700 to present day. Use 300 dpi for scanning &/or digital photography to ensure its legibility. I can't wait to put a collection together that will reveal the truth about America, the greatest nation on Earth.

http://fs18.formsite.com/grossmusic/form988617943

The World Off Its Axis - A Gross Birthday

To my more liberal friends:

Take this tongue-in-cheek. I wrote it lump-in-throat...

Today is my birthday. yeah yeah. Special day. Big wow.

It WAS a special day until I got wind of the biggest disaster since 9/11. Really. I'm not exaggerating. I'd never do that in a zillion years.

Today, on MY special day, some Norwegian knuckleheads awarded Obama the Nobel peace prize.

Huh?

It's almost as crazy as if NASA decided to send a rocket to the moon to blow it up.

Wait. That happened, too. Really.

Still, when I went to Google Maps today, before learning all of these shocking stories, I already knew the world was off its axis...

I needed a route to visit my friend in Sarasota next week. The map route is several miles off kilter from the roads. I tried many times this morning to get a good map, but all I could get was this evidence that the world is about to end.

In retrospect, I think that Obama can be blamed for knocking the world off its axis, not the moon blowing up. But that's just me??

As of this hour, the maps are working again, & the moon is still there, but we'll see a couple big pimples on the Man On The Moon's face tonight & forevermore.

As for Obama, that will go down as one of the top questions I have for God on judgment day. Why? God, why???????

fyi, the map should look like:

Mickey Mouse Justice - A Gross Ranting

My mother should have been thrown in jail decades ago.

As kids, my sister & I were forced to endure hours of travel, suffer desert heat, sleep in strange rooms. For what? All to see a mouse in California?

My parents practically got away with murder.

At least, that would be the perception of some geniuses here in Orlando after we all heard the hard-breaking news story of the week, which is sure to be a tremendous boost to tourism.

Starting with the quick-reacting maids at a Disney hotel who then called the all-wise police who then called the ever discerning family services, a family was saved from the same fate I suffered in childhood. Whew.

The crime was ghastly. Two small children, aged two & four, were rescued from the perils of their evil family when two angelic maids entered the hotel room, no doubt pretending not to be able to read the "do not disturb" sign on the door. The horror they found is almost too graphic to describe. But I must...

Inside the quiet room, amidst unpacked suitcases & perhaps a few dirty towels thrown on the floor, the two-year-old was in her diaper, buried under blankets on the first king-size bed, sleeping. The four-year-old was sprawled out on the other bed, in his underwear, sucking his thumb, twitching, lost in a nightmare that likely had him remembering leaving the security of the wonderful foster system to come live with this horrible family who rips kids out of their home in Michigan to force them to go to Disney World. This was clearly a dangerous situation.

Huh?

Anyhow, the saviors - I mean the maids - looked around for the parents. They waited. And waited. Time ticked away. FIVE WHOLE MINUTES!

Time to call the police.

Now the manhunt was on for the abusive foster parents who would leave their sleeping tots in an air conditioned room for a nap while they went off with their bouncing-off-the-walls six-year-old nephew into the 95-degree heat...to play in the pool.

After a grueling two-hour search, the parents were finally located at the pool, & the wheels of justice finally started spinning in favor of the children.

Family Services was called in from Michigan, & you can guess the happy ending!

The parents were arrested, fined $4,000 & banned from Disney. The children were taken back to Michigan's all-loving Family Services system to live happily ever after.

The end?

I gotta say that I'm pretty embarrassed to live in Orlando right now. Apparently, this Mickey Mouse town is in the business of arresting people for made-up crimes.

To think that if such "do-no-gooders" (as my mom calls them) had been around when I was a kid, I could have been spared the pain of a childhood spent traveling with my parents, who were entertainers. When very young, my sister & I both slept in guitar cases instead of cribs while on the road. It was terrible.

Um - well - actually, it was wonderful. The number of times we were left alone in hotel rooms at all ages is too astronomical to count. Sometimes 15 minutes. Sometimes six hours while Mom & Dad went to do a show. It was so hard to be alone in a hotel room. Nothing but unlimited snacks, a blaring TV, one (sometimes two) trampolines (beds) to occupy our abused little selves.

Yes, I know that 2009 is not the same as 1969, but kids are still the same. Parents are still the same. Parents & kids need a break from each other, even (or especially) when on vacation.

If you're thinking that the maids and the police and Family Services did NOT overreact, enlighten me.

Undoubtedly, my parents deprived me of a normal childhood. I'm so screwed up I can't think of a punchline for this. I just want to punch someone! But that's clearly a result of my bad upbringing. Thanks, Mom.

(CLICK HERE to see the original story)

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