The Funny Farm
Where life is beautiful all the time and I'll be happy to see those nice young men in their clean white coats...
Adventures of a Basic Force For Good in Our TimeTM
...going on around here. A lot of personal things, including a surprisngly good concert by Missing Persons, The Fixx, and The Knack, on Saturday night for five bucks apiece (yeah, I know - some of you think I still threw my money away. And you'd be wrong! - my good friend Lew treated me and the Sig-O to the concert). And a touch of some type of stomach ailment that is causing me minor distress in between the trips to the vomitorium bathroom today. But I digress...
Of course I've been outraged about Ronstadtnacht and the gay innuendo about Kerry and Edwards and the latest smear and deflect tactics of the right (not to mention the latest Wilson propaganda directly or anything like that). But it's all just white noise around here. And of course the only thing we bother watching much on the telly is sporting events of some excitement (read - not bowling, golf, fishing, auto racing, baseball, or any of the psuedo sporting stuff like adult cartoons pro wrestling and Sunday morning pontification political shows) and occasionally a movie on HBO (the extended version of The Two Towers is in the rotation now) - so we are definintely not a harbinger of the latest in hip fashion and rampant rumor.
But we still manage to get a few interesting emails from time to time. Like this one from the Alliance for Retirement Prosperity:
Dear (: Tom :) Jack Kemp, Dick Armey, and Dorcas Hardy invite you to join them in the most important reform the U.S. will undertake in the 21st century -- Personal Retirement Accounts. You have heard that the Social Security system is broken. It is. The good news is we know how to fix it. But the politicians won't do it. That's why we have formed the Alliance for Retirement Prosperity and why we need every working American like you to help. Yes, it's true that by the end of next decade, Social Security will be out of funds. Yes, it is true that Social Security is a "scheme" and that we can only keep it going by raising taxes again and by cutting benefits. We know what makes America and freedom so great is that crisis can be transformed into opportunity. We have a great opportunity today. The bankrupt Social Security "scheme" can be transformed into a real retirement investment program for all workers. The Alliance is fighting to bring this transformation about so that you can save half the current payroll tax (FICA on your paycheck) in a Personal Retirement AAccount that you own and control. Visit us on our website to get more information: http://634770000000000040773c6680e21e5d.cyberdiplomats.com. Join ARP today and help us change the world. Saratoga Capital Management proudly sponsors the Alliance for Retirement Prosperity. The attached email is being sent to you based on permission provided in the past. If you feel as if this message has reached you in error, or if you would like to be removed from future distributions, please contact us at abuse@cyberdiplomats.com or write to us at: 1775 Pennsylvania Avenue, 11th Floor, Washington, DC 20006. All Claims and views expressed in this message are made soley by the Alliance for Retirement Prosperity. |
Now, I don't know about you, but when I see that I received an email due to permission provided in the past without being told too much about that permission, and then I go and see what www.cyberdiplomats.com is all about (it doesn't exist) and then see what cyberdiplomats.com is all about (it doesn't exist, either - with or without the http:// lead-in) - you know, to sort of get an idea of who might be trying to hack into my computer talk to me this time - when something like that happens, I tend to get a little curious.
And then, when I go and check out the Alliance for Retirement Prosperity, and find out that they're ostensibly a non-profit organization with a completely different URL than the email I got, and I find out that I am refused persmission when I actually try and use the URL they supplied me with the great big key code number combination in the front, well then the alarm bells go off. I guess I'll have to say no to the Saratoga Capital Management company's request to manage some of my money. And I would strongly encourage anyone who might have some extra capital floating around to consider other firms before considering using the services of this one.