Here's one of many similar emails. I'll try to be more cautious.
Saul Landau's essay identifies many, far more dangerous hoaxes..
Ed
From: Lorraine Grindstaff
To: 'Ed Pearl'
Sent: Wednesday, January 20, 2010 11:06 AM
Subject: RE: Cell Phone Do Not CALL list HOAX
http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/business/a/cell_directory.htm
Dear Ed: It is an Internet hoax that cell phone numbers are being released
to telemarketers. See snopes.com and urbanlegends.about.com above.
The following is from the Urban Legends website.
Email: Add Cell Phones to Do Not Call Registry ... Hurry!
Forwarded email warns that cell phone numbers are about to 'go public'
By David Emery, About.com Guide
See More About:
cell phone urban legends
do not call registry
Forwarded email warns that a directory of cell phone numbers will soon be
published and urges users to dial 888-382-1222 and enter their cell phone
numbers on the federal Do Not Call Registry to prevent unsolicited calls
from telemarketers.
Description: Email rumor
Circulating since: Sep. 2004
Status: Mostly false
***
From: zhelp@zcommunications.org
Naked Empire
By Saul Landau
Landau's ZSpace Page: Jan 13, 2010
Millions of Americans drink "unhealthy" water; military suicides escalate;
schools erode and health programs collapse. -- The New York Times
In ten years of a new Century, U.S. systemic dysfunction became more
dramatic. The government responded by retreating down the ancient Egyptian
River
The Senate passed a $626 billion "defense" budget without discussion. Since
1947, when the War Department became the Defense Department, Congress has
allocated trillions of dollars, but all for offense and with dubious
results: Korea (1950-53), Vietnam (1964-74), Iraq and Afghanistan. None of
those countries attacked or threatened us.
In Copenhagen, Obama reflected the denial mood of Congress, banks and
corporations and offered platitudes to reduce global warming while admitting
the perils of growing climate change. Raising unpleasant future scenarios
signifies unacceptable political pessimism. The press, predictably,
abdicated on all issues not connected to celebrity scandal.
Last September, Fidel Castro said modern media's main message was "Buy this,
buy that." After watching CNN International, a network whose founder, Ted
Turner, attributed to Fidel the idea of fashioning a global news network, he
called such "news" a purveyor of "universal disorientation."
Mass confusion also derives from priorities. As unemployment grew and war
raged, newspaper headlines and TV news shows featured Tiger Woods' women.
Even George Orwell didn't imagine how incessant visual shock images and
audio babble could combine with the blur of newsprint to immerse the public
in depths of muddle.
Misdirected U.S. residents also entered the second decade of the Century as
victims because of scams and con jobs perpetrated by CEOs. Ruses perpetrated
by the country's highest officials which led to the U.S. military's
reduction of parts of Iraq and Afghanistan to rubble - with massive death
and injury.
The Century itself began with a sham election. Bush's presidential
qualifications equaled mine as a religious icon painter. No matter. The
Supreme Court established that democracy did not include counting votes in
Florida.
Shortly after, Bush's buddy and campaign contributor, ENRON chief
"Kenny-Boy" Lay, stood naked as his company defrauded the public -- billions
of dollars of losses hidden by fraudulent accounting - we learned the new
meaning of "innovative." For six consecutive years Fortune named ENRON its
"most innovative company."
Some ENRON executives made billions by helping cause and then profit from a
California power shortage; others guided creative accountants through
courses in numerical book-cooking so as to create the fa?e of profitability.
Other monster-sized corporations with high ratings also collapsed (Adelphia
and WorldCom) thanks to dubious profiteering and speculating by top
executives.
Despite warning signs that "prosperity" included phony accounting, Fed
Chairs offered rosy predictions of an eternal housing boom. The U.S. economy
would perpetually rise.
The venerable Bernie Madoff assured clients, with phony assets statements,
that they would enjoy ever larger fortunes by investing pension and
endowment funds in his licensed ponzi scheme of $64 billion. Bernie's good
times lasted more than a decade.
Bush had done nothing of note until Osama's crew struck. Bush's National
Security neo cons then pushed their aggressive agenda through a terrified
Congress and an un-skeptical media. Invading Afghanistan would somehow
retaliate for the 9/11 outrage, rid the country of the hated Taliban and,
most importantly, capture the evil Osama bin Laden. Without fear or fact,
neo con ideologues manipulated publics in the U.S. and England.
In record time, we had a new war, and a hastily drafted Patriot Act to
curtail our liberties for the purpose of stopping bin Laden, who wanted to
curtail our freedom.
After no opposition to war in Afghanistan emerged, Vice President Dick
Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld "conned" the media and
Congress, with British collusion, into war in Iraq (see the film "In the
Loop").
Over six plus years, hundreds of thousands died. Iraq's integrity got
shattered. No weapons of mass destruction were found; nor ties between
Saddam's Iraq's and Al-Qaeda. Bush and Blair shrugged: "It's a better world
without Saddam." Relatives of the dead shouldn't complain because their
loved ones died "for a better world."
Scandal also struck religion - again. Ultra religious megapreacher Ted
Haggard liked getting speed inserted into his stimulant-craving booty
according to his masseuse who followed the drugged-up Ted's nether orifice
with his own you know what. Like the fictional Elmer Gantry, Ted preached
fidelity while imagining kinky scenarios. After his "outing," Ted "cured"
"homoerotica" by spending two weeks in Christian rehab. Now happily reunited
with wife and kids, Ted counsels others with similar "problems."
In November 2008, Americans, recoiling from the Bush nightmare, voted for
"hope" and "change." Obama then appointed the same old perpetrators as top
economic bosses (Treasury Secretary Geithner and Economic Adviser-in-Chief
Summers) and continued Bush's Afghan war with more troops. Our rotting
infrastructure will somehow take care of itself and the unemployed and
foreclosed should have faith. Happy New Year and Take to the Streets!
Saul Landau is an Institute for Policy Studies fellow. He has written
regularly for Counterpunch for four years.
From: Z Net - The Spirit Of Resistance Lives
http://www.zcommunications.org/zspace/commentaries/4106
Commentaries: http://www.zcommunications.org/zspace/commentaries/
Comment: http://www.zcommunications.org/zspace/commentaries/4106#AddComment
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