Don't be a moron!!

Have you seen this email yet? Check this out and see what you think...


I’m against the $85,000,000,000.00 bailout of AIG. Instead, I’m in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in a ‘We Deserve It Dividend’.

To make the math simple, let’s assume there are 200,000,000 bonafide U.S. Citizens 18+. Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and child. So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up.. So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billion that equals $425,000.00.

My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a ‘We Deserve It Dividend’. Of course, it would NOT be tax free. So let’s assume a tax rate of 30%. Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500.00 in taxes. That sends $25,500,000,000 right back to Uncle Sam.
But it means that every adult 18+ has $297,500.00 in their pocket. A husband and wife has $595,000.00.

What would you do with $297,500.00 to $595,000.00 in your family?

• Pay off your mortgage – housing crisis solved.
• Repay college loans – what a great boost to new grads
• Put away money for college – it’ll be there
• Save in a bank – create money to loan to entrepreneurs.
• Buy a new car – create jobs
• Invest in the market – capital drives growth
• Pay for your parent’s medical insurance – health care improves
• Enable Deadbeat Dads to come clean – or else

Remember this is for every adult U S Citizen 18+ including the folks who lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers and every other company that is cutting back. And of course, for those serving in our Armed Forces.

If we’re going to re-distribute wealth let’s really do it….instead of trickling out a puny $1000.00 ( ‘vote buy’ ) economic incentive that is being proposed by one of our candidates for President.

If we’re going to do an $85 billion bailout, let’s bail out every adult U S Citizen 18+!

As for AIG –

• liquidate it.
• Sell off its parts.
• Let American General go back to being American General.
• Sell off the real estate.
• Let the private sector bargain hunters cut it up and clean it up.

Here’s my rationale. We deserve it and AIG doesn’t.

Sure it’s a crazy idea that can ‘never work.’ But can you imagine the Coast-To-Coast Block Party! How do you spell Economic Boom?

I trust my fellow adult Americans know how to use the $85 billion We deserve the ‘We Deserve It Dividend’ more than the geniuses at AIG or in Washington DC.

And remember, The Family plan only really costs $59.5 billion because $25.5 billion is returned instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam.

Ahhh…I feel so much better getting that off my chest.

Ok, fabulous plan. Now, have you done any research on this information? I'm no math genius, but I have to say that when someone told me about this I had to scratch my head. 450,000 is nearly half of a million. There are only a thousand millions in a billion (two thousand half millions) and only 800 billions in 800 billion (1,600,000 half millions). So unless we are planning on only sharing this wealth with the taxpayers in Utah (total population about 2.5 million, so I'm sure maybe 1.6 million taxpayers) then this isn't going to stretch very far. I didn't know why the math didn't work off the top of my head, but it just didn't seem right to me. Then I read the email and it really didn't seem right.

$85 (updated) billion million divided among 20 million Americans would only result in a payout of $425 (before taxes), according to this analysis by the urban legend site Snopes.com.

They also point out that even giving every American a share of the (updated) $700 million billion proposed (and rejected) bailout would only come out to about $3,500 per person. Not enough to pay off many mortgages, I'm afraid.

Get familiar with Snopes.com. Feel free to verify any emails that you get before forwarding them on. Do a search in Google or something. You'd be surprised how fast these kinds of things get debunked. Every year I get the same email about the moon being closer to the earth at that time than ever in history and every year I email out everybody the Snopes link that explains where they are wrong. I'm not saying that people who forward emails are morons, but I will say that you shouldn't believe everything you read. It makes you a target for scams.

Have you ever gotten an email asking for your bank information so that the deposed king of Nigeria can move funds out of the country? In exchange for your assistance he will leave several hundred million dollars in your account after the transaction is complete. Pretty obvious scam, huh? Obvious and yet hundreds of people fall for them every single year. In 1997 the Secret Service confirmed losses to this scam at over $100 million dollars. This is the national pasttime of an entire country of fraudsters. Not everybody in Nigeria is a scammer, but not everybody in America is a baseball fan either, but what do we call our national pasttime?

A search on Google will give you many sites with information about Nigerian Scams. Here are just a few:

For a good presentation with examples and links:http://www.snopes2.com/inboxer/scams/nigeria.htm

This link gives a chilling story about one hapless victim who was kidnapped:http://www.techtv.com/cybercrime/shownotes/story/0,23008,3396765,00.html

The official 419 Coalition Site ("419": after the relevant section of the Criminal Code of Nigeria).

This site gives Five Rules to Remember and instructions on what to do:http://home.rica.net/alphae/419coal/

This site has a discussion forum and a link to post the scam email you received, as well as many other links to even more information:http://www.quatloos.com/scams/nigerian.htm

Even the United States Postal Service has a site dedicated to these scams:http://www.usps.com/websites/depart/inspect/pressrel.htm

For an email gallery with a list of the different names, and circumstances used:http://www.potifos.com/fraud

Another good site:http://www.greaterthings.com/News/NigerianScam/

Of course, The Secret Service has it's own informative site dealing with this problem. If you have been victimized, they provide an address where you can send written documentation or, if you wish, an email, at the bottom of the page. If you have not lost any money, you can fax a copy of the letter you received at the number given:http://www.secretservice.gov/alert419.shtml

The majority of people who receive this type of correspondence don't fall for the scam. But there are still enough gullible people out there who do. Recently, in the Charlotte Metro area of North Carolina (where I live) 36 people fell for this scheme. That is just in this small area of this state. Now, try to think in terms of the rest of the billions of people in the world and the fact that these scammers also use snail mail...well, I guess you get the idea.

This type of scam gives new meaning to the phrase "A fool and his money are soon parted." However, the more people are informed beforehand, the less likely these people will profit.

There is a delightful organization of people who find these scammers and then string them along for the ride. http://www.419eater.com/ You gotta love people like that! They post faithfully their experiences in leading these scammers down the road of pain and torture. Well, not really, but they certianly make them sorry for ever getting involved in this industry.

These scams don't only take place in Nigeria though. They happen all over the world and just get called 419 scams. The scam has become as generic for Nigerians as Kleenex has become for tissues and Band-Aids have become for bandages. However, here is an example of a scammer in London who really got what he deserved. Read this story (and pardon any bad language) and tell me it isn't the greatest thing you've ever read! Some scammers really get what they deserve.

This post was inspried by an email I got this morning from an eBay member saying they were waiting for my payment for a Yamaha keyboard. The link to the item was a fake login site that just harvests your username and password for some nefarious purpose. I may have been born at night, but it wasn't last night, so I sent it to eBay and reported it as phishing. Phishing is when someone is just trying to get information from you so they can get access to your accounts. People do this to eBay all the time.

Craigslist also has their fair share of scammers. People will post an item for an outstanding deal and then say that the item is out of state and blah blah blah you'll need to put the money in escrow and they will ship the item to you. Be very fearful of that escrow word when dealing with anybody online. My rule of thumb is if they won't take cash in person or credit card/PayPal then they are a scammer. You just have to keep your eyes open and not believe everything you read. Like I said before, the sucking sound of sponges are just targets for scammers. Don't be a sucker.

Oh the humanity!!!

This post is inspried by my recent cleaning of the garage this week. My garage has a fair amount of stuff on the counters, but I detail cars in there sometimes and I like having everything in reach. Twice a year I'll sweep everything out and start over, so it doesn't really get too bad. I'm reminded of some houses I saw in Dallas that were so bad that you couldn't even open the front door. Then I found this video and way too many memories came rushing back... Get a barf bag ready!

Click here if that video doesn't work.

Seriously now... How the hell do people live like that?? That kitchen.... I nearly passed out!! My real issue is that the guy shooting the video seemed to be pretty mobile. He had at least two arms and two legs since he was walking around and holding the camera. What was wrong with him that keeps him from being able to clean up? Is it seriously easier to complain about the lawn mower being left out instead of putting it away? Of course, the way he was wheezing by the time he got upstairs to his space I would guess that he is two Big Macs away from a heart attack anyway.

He said at one point that he doesn't understand how she can live this way. How can SHE live this way? Dude, doesn't he live in the same house? The answer to his question is in his own little head. How does HE live in that house?? It is revolting.

Here is the crazy part. Did you see the bottles of hand sanitizer in the video? She is probably a germaphobe on top of being insane. I'm just wondering if anything else in that house gets washed other than her hands? The bed is so piled up full of crap that I'm sure those sheets never get washed. How could they? That would create an avalanche of epic proportions!! But hey... at least her hands are purified from 99.99% of common germs. Of course it is environments like that which breed 99.99% of the most uncommon germs, so they probably drink hand sanitizer like orange juice to make them stronger.

Here is the really sad part. People will live like that and then do cartwheels when they get their house upgraded from "disaster area" to "habitable mess." Case in point...

Can that really be called progress? Ok, so maybe it is. Now I'm not saying that I live in a museum where everything is spic and span all the time, but I would never step over a pile of clothes that blocks my path on the stairs or render my kitchen unusable by stacking stuff on top of all of the surfaces and blocking in the fridge and cupboards so the food can do nothing but rot. That is just sickening... I think this is the solution for houses like that...

Yes, that's right. I say jail the owners and send in professionals to clean sweep the sucker and then send them the bill just like they did to that guy. The really sad thing here is that people actually raise kids in that kind of environment. Can you believe that???

So my point on this rant is that you don't have to live in a perfectly clean house, but for heaven's sake at least be able to vacuum your floor once a week. Pile it up on the tables and chairs for all I care, but get it off the stinking floor. Think about your kids for crying out loud. Do you really want them going to school smelling like the garbage that rots in your house? You realize that you get used to the smell after awhile and don't even notice it, right? Well let me tell you that not everybody is as desensitized to the odor as you are. I have people at work that I know live in a pig pen because I can smell them a mile away. You can't live in a trash heap like that and not have other people know about it. I don't care where you live or what culture you come from.. It is never acceptable to live like that. NEVER.

In the name of all that is holy!!!

Seriously now, do we really need a milkshake that has over 2300 calories??? What is wrong with people? Why would you even create something like this??? Observe...

Who had the bright idea to try and choke the customer with half a pound of sugar?? And 320% of the RDA for Saturated Fat?? If heart disease doesn't get you first then I'm sure the Type II Diabetes that all the sugar you consume will. This is insane. In a world where people sue MacDonalds for making them fat, we have people selling these death shakes to anyone who wants to chug one down. Imagine your kid eating two or three of these a week. You need ID to buy cigarettes and beer, but a 4 year old can order up one of these meals in a cup without a parent present even. Baskin Robbins is sick and wrong... They just lost a customer.

And if that wasn't bad enough, check out this death burger! Hardee's Monster Thickburger. Imagine having one of those 1420 calorie burgers for lunch and sucking down a death shake on the way back to the office. The wonders of fast food have now made it possible to consume nearly 4000 calories in a simple meal.

This is a very interesting chart that is worth taking a look at . CLICK HERE TO SEE IT It is a little long to cut and paste, but if you ever wanted to know how many calories you were forcing into your body, or your kids' bodies, then this is something you need to look at.

I'm seriously the last person on Earth who is going to be watching what I eat. I'm 6'2" and weigh about 160 fully dressed with a leather coat on. I could probably stand to eat a couple burgers and a milkshake once in awhile. What I'm concerned about are the people who have heart disease in their history or have a potential for it by their diets, and the fast food industry seems to be hell bent on killing every single one of them with their menus. Don't we have enough to worry about??

Generations...

- The Silent generation, people born before 1946.

- The Baby Boomers, people born between 1946 and 1959.

- Generation X , people born between 1 960 and 1979.

- Generation Y, people born between 1980 and 1995.


Why do we call the last one generation Y? I did not know, but a caricaturist explains it eloquently below...



Gee, you really do learn something new everyday!

Hand Sanitizers: Good or Bad?

Read this article Hand Sanitizers: Good or Bad?




What is up with hand sanitizers? Do people seriously think it is a good idea to kill the germs before your body gets a chance to take a shot at them?



Here is what I think... We are going to just get sicker and sicker as long as we keep using this stuff. If you kill every germ that comes in contact with you, then you won't be able to fight them off anymore. It is like becoming addicted to nose spray or lip balm. If you continually use a product that replaces what your body will naturally do if you let it, then your body will stop trying. If you use lip balm every time your lips seem a little dry, then your lips will stop producing the moisture needed to keep that from happening. Why should it waste energy creating moisture when you are handling it with the lip balm? Hand lotion is the same story. Your hands are dry because you are addicted to lotion and your body isn't producing the necessary oils to do the job right.



My kids are incredibly healthy. They rarely have sick days. They also rarely use hand sanitizer. If we go to a petting zoo then they for sure use it, but soap and water keeps their hands clean. If they get a germ from dropping their sucker on a swept floor and putting it back in their mouth, then so beit. Their body has an immune system for a reason and the germ will be dealt with. Think about how you were raised. Did your parent's boil your pacifier everytime you dropped it? Did you sanitize your hands like you were about to perform brain surgery every time you shook hands with someone?



My message to the world is to STOP FREAKING OUT!!! They are just germs. Unless you have a disease that has seriously compromised your immune system, then you shouldn't have much to worry about. Your body will take care of it UNLESS you have taught your body that it doesn't need to attack germs. If you teach your body that germs will be handled by hand sanitizer and not your immune system, then you can just expect to get sick and be sicker for longer. The sickest people every year are the ones who use hand sanitizer like it is going out of style. Sooner or later you get hit with a germ that you don't catch with your precious sanitizer and because your body has no memory on how to defend itself, you are going to fall and fall hard.



Purell gives 99 places that germs are likely to hide. They then go on to advertise that their product kills 99.99% of the MOST COMMON GERMS. Well, what do you think happens when you get one of the uncommon germs that Purell can't kill? Do you think that just maybe the defenses that you develop for naturally fighting off 99.99% of the common ones just MIGHT help in fighting off the uncommon ones? What is going to happen when you don't have any of those defenses. I'll tell you what. That germ is going to kick the living shit out of you. It is like eliminating all of the little guns in your army and deciding that all you need are the big guns. But then you find out that the little guns are what clear the path for you to get the big guns into range. Without the ability to fight off the 99.99% of the most common germs, the uncommon germs are just going to dominate you.




My advice is this: Wash your stupid hands with soap and water and leave the hand sanitizer in the hospital and at the petting zoo. You need the germ fighting skills to ward off serious illness. You know how the flu shot is actually just a shot of the flu virus? They do that so your body will learn how to fight the virus so it doesn't make you sick when you get a full strength dose of it later on. If you haven't taught your body how to fight 99.99% of the most common germs out there, then what makes you think that it is going to learn how to fight a bug like the flu? Put the hand sanitizer down and back away. For cying out loud...

Our Growing Earth

You seriously have to watch this video.

I am just shocked and amazed simply because I never considered this a possibility. The gist of the video is that the continents didn't separate from each other by some strange drifting of the tectonic plates. In fact, they only moved at all because the Earth itself has been expanding.

The concept of Pangea is relatively new. In the 1920s there was a German scientist who theorized that the continents could have formed one giant landmass at one time in the past. This would explain all sorts of things. Things like why certain dinosaur fossils have been found in continents nowhere near each other, yet not found anywhere else in the world. If they lived on a seam, so to speak, and that seam separated, then that would account for such things.

What I never understood about this theory is why all of the land would be in one place and then just decide to separate. On a sphere like our planet is, wouldn't the land masses just eventually join up again? According to Pangea experts, in 250 million years or so we will have one great big continent again.

My thing is that I don't like complicated explanations. I like things to make sense, but without all the stretching that sometimes seems to be done when explaining something that should be simple. Pangea seems complicated. Expanding Earth is simple. There have been well thought out reports that have been written about this theory for many years longer than the Pangea theories. In fact, Nikola Tesla (inventor of the radio as well as many other things. You might recognize the name from the post before this one) said it best in 1935 in the New York Herald Tribune.

"Condensation of the primary substance is going on continuously, this being in a measure proved, for I have established by experiments which admit of no doubt that the sun and other celestial bodies steadily increase in mass and energy and ultimately must explode, reverting to the primary substance."

I'm not looking forward to any planets exploding, but it just make sense. Everything is getting bigger. We have evidence that the Universe is expanding based on distance between objects growing farther apart. Planetary orbits are getting larger. Space is expanding. Everything grows. Believe it or don't believe it, but now you know what I believe.

Woah... Check out the Tesla!

From Wired Blog Network:

Choosing the best car from among the scores of new models introduced each year is invariably dicey because there are always people who say you got it wrong. But that doesn't stop the motopress from doing it at about this time each year, and for the first time, we'll join them.
We didn't see any big trends that took the auto industry in a new direction this year, but a renewed focus on diesel engines and smaller cars, particularly in Europe and Japan, suggests the industry finally realizes it must produce cleaner, more fuel-efficient vehicles. If this was the year the auto industry woke up to that fact, 2008 will be the year it gets out of bed and does something about it.

The industry is on the cusp of great change. Sales are falling in America and Europe. Rising fuel prices have consumers favoring thriftier cars. American and European policymakers are poised to significantly tighten fuel economy and emissions standards. It's not at all clear how this will shake out, and the major automakers are scrambling to find their way.

And so it is that a survey of the cars various magazines and juries named the best of the year reflects the transition we're seeing in the industry, and explains how cars as different as the Audi R8 super car and Fiat 500 micro car both can be considered the best of the year.
Before we name our pick for the best car of the year, we'll take a quick look at what others are saying.

Motor Trend gave the nod to the Cadillac CTS, calling it the "star of a new GM revival." The editors of Playboy - not exactly known as a bellwether of auto trends, but we'll mention it anyway - also liked the Caddy but gave top honors to the Audi R8. Britain's Evo, a magazine that stresses performance above all else, said the Porsche 911 GT3 RS is number one. (We agree the '3 is a sweet car, but we think the 911 GT2, a 600-horsepower bare-knuckle brawler that is not for the weak or the stupid, remains the best 911 ever.) Car and Driver offered up a laundry list of cars as its "10 Best". With cars ranging from the Honda Fit to the Porsche Cayman and Boxster, it's got something for everyone.

These are all fine cars, particularly the R8 - which isn't as good as you've heard, it's better. They're exhilarating. They're technologically advanced. And they represent some of the best work their respective manufacturers have done in years.

But they don't lead the auto industry into the future. We're not suggesting automakers stop building insanely fast cars like the 911 GT3 RS or luxurious performance sedans like the CTS. But they need to begin expending at least as much effort producing cars at the other end of the spectrum - cars an increasing number of consumers want. Subcompacts are the fastest growing market segment in the United States, and, with hybrids, clean diesels and electrics, the only ones sure to meet the tougher fuel economy and emissions regulations the automakers know are coming.

That's why its refreshing to see the "car of the year" choices by juries of auto industry journalists, insiders and engineers. They were unanimous in selecting small, clean and efficient cars. A panel of 58 jurors from 22 countries named the Fiat 500 the European car of the year. Sixty jurors in Japan selected the Honda Fit. The Automotive Researchers and Journalists Conference of Japan chose the Mazda Demio, also called the Mazda2. It's too bad only the Fit is available in North America.

And so in keeping with that theme, we offer our choices for the car of the year.

The runner up: the Fiat 500. Perhaps no car better sums up the smaller, cheaper, more efficient ethos than this update of the iconic Cinquecento. It's fun, it's reasonably quick (it's a safe bet it won't be long before Abarth makes it quicker) and no car, including the Mini, so perfectly pays homage to the past while looking to the future. Car Magazine named it car of the year - over the Rolls Royce Phantom DHC, Audi R8 and BMW M3, among others - and said it is a car "every right-thinking enthusiast ought to be encouraging at this time." We couldn't agree more.
The 500 isn't available in America; if it were, it almost certainly would be our car of the year. We're big supporters of alternative fuels and hybrid drivetrains, but we also realize the gasoline-fueled internal combustion engine will be around for a long time to come. We'd like to see more of them in cars like the 500.

And Autopia's 2007 Car of the Year is...

The Tesla Roadster. Yes, it's got a price tag approaching six figures. Yes, the first run is sold out. And yes, the it's been in the pipeline for more than two years, so strictly speaking it isn't really "new." But this was the year the Tesla finally hit the road - the company is letting journalists test drive it this month - so we're including it.

The Tesla is our pick for two reasons. First, it's easily the coolest alternative fuel vehicle ever made, one that proves electric cars can be every bit as breathtaking as the finest fossil-fuel guzzling super cars. Granted, the TZero and Venturi Fetish are in the same vein, but they haven't had the impact - or the hype - of the Tesla.

But more importantly, the Tesla best represents the direction the auto industry must go. Too many automakers have churned out the same old cars year after year, growing fat and lazy on the profit margins offered by SUVs and pickup trucks. That won't work anymore, and they know it. It's time for new thinking and new ideas. It's time for innovation. The Tesla has those things in spades, and there's a reason Silicon Valley is emerging as a leader in electric vehicle technology.

And so because of what it is and because of what it represents, the Tesla Roadster is the Autopia car of the year. Tell us what you think...