Social security is a Ponzi scheme???
You may have received another right wing "hate your government" e-mail. Social Security, from the beginning, was a program designed to partially support the elderly in our nation. The idea being that today's workers will take care of their elders. Before social security children took in their parents and cared for them until their death. My parents had 3 of my grandparents die in our house. Thanks to Social security your Mom and Dad are not living with you.
Bernie Madoff took the money and spent it on himself. Social Security money is given to the retired elderly and disabled in our nation. What kind of people would want to go back to the old system of every old person and disabled person being on their own and dependent on family??????
Social Security is the major source of income for most of the elderly.
• Nine out of ten individuals age 65 and older receive Social Security benefits.
• Social Security benefits represent about 41% of the income of the elderly.
• Among elderly Social Security beneficiaries, 54% of married couples and 73% of unmarried persons receive 50% or more of their income from Social Security.
• Among elderly Social Security beneficiaries, 22% of married couples and about 43% of unmarried persons rely on Social Security for 90% or more of their income.
Social security returns over 99% of the tax payments to beneficiaries. Name one insurance company that does that!
In the name of truth, justice and the American way,
Grace
Friday, December 2, 2011
Friday, October 23, 2009
Stupid e-mail urban legends
This is the "Reply all" I sent in response to an anti-Islamic e-mail I received that purportedly was written by the Australian Prime Minister (the only problem was they referred to him once as Howard and in another spot as Kevin Rudd:
This e-mail is really old, and mostly untrue. First it started out in 2002, then it changed and got applied to Australia - " A January 2008 version combined elements of this article with a separate piece about Muslims in Australia, creating the misleading impression that the hybrid version reflected a speech given by Australian prime minister John Howard", then someone changed the heading to "Kevin Rudd" who is the 26th and current Prime Minister of Australia and federal leader of the centre-left Australian Labor Party (ALP) who won the 2007 federal election on 24 November against the incumbent centre-right Liberal/National coalition government led by John Howard (see Howard Government). The Rudd Ministry was sworn in by the Governor-General, Michael Jeffery, on 3 December 2007. Neither Howard, nor Rudd, have anything to do with this article.
Who ever is forwarding this stuff has no knowledge about Australia and is forwarding rumors, not truths. It is very sad that this kind of urban legend e-mail is read by people who think they are getting the truth. In a separate e-mail I am sending to you I have given some info that will help you sort truth from fiction when it arrives in your in-box. The Snopes site is also a great site for footnoted research of quality.
It is time for Americans to educate themselves from credible information, not anonymous e-mails.
In the name of truth, justice, and the American way.
Grace
I received this humorous response from one of the recipients:
'THE RIGHT TO LEAVE'.'
DOES THIS PASS THE CREATIVE WRITING TEST??????
GRACE
This e-mail is really old, and mostly untrue. First it started out in 2002, then it changed and got applied to Australia - " A January 2008 version combined elements of this article with a separate piece about Muslims in Australia, creating the misleading impression that the hybrid version reflected a speech given by Australian prime minister John Howard", then someone changed the heading to "Kevin Rudd" who is the 26th and current Prime Minister of Australia and federal leader of the centre-left Australian Labor Party (ALP) who won the 2007 federal election on 24 November against the incumbent centre-right Liberal/National coalition government led by John Howard (see Howard Government). The Rudd Ministry was sworn in by the Governor-General, Michael Jeffery, on 3 December 2007. Neither Howard, nor Rudd, have anything to do with this article.
Who ever is forwarding this stuff has no knowledge about Australia and is forwarding rumors, not truths. It is very sad that this kind of urban legend e-mail is read by people who think they are getting the truth. In a separate e-mail I am sending to you I have given some info that will help you sort truth from fiction when it arrives in your in-box. The Snopes site is also a great site for footnoted research of quality.
It is time for Americans to educate themselves from credible information, not anonymous e-mails.
In the name of truth, justice, and the American way.
Grace
I received this humorous response from one of the recipients:
Maybe sometime its the MEANING of the message that is important. It's not always about who may or may not have said it or if it is or is not true. If someone believes everything in e-mails, quite frankly they're ignorant. I passed it on for the following portion but a story had to be told to get the message across. It's called creative writing.
'We will accept your beliefs, and will not question why. All we ask is that you accept ours, and live in harmony and peaceful enjoyment with us.'
'This is OUR COUNTRY, OUR LAND, and OUR LIFESTYLE, and we will allow you every opportunity to enjoy all this. But once you are done complaining, whining, and griping about Our Flag, Our Pledge, Our Christian beliefs, or Our Way of Life, I highly encourage you take advantage of one other great freedom,'THE RIGHT TO LEAVE'.'
DOES THIS PASS THE CREATIVE WRITING TEST??????
GRACE
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Quotations
I have been working on my quote collection for over 35 years. I have organized these quotations into over 1650 categories. Unlike Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, I have ordered these quotations into categories by subject, which allows you to find all the familiar sayings on a topic in one place. For quotes from Aristotle to Obama, this is a feast for your mind
For more information with a free sample, of your favorite category, send me a personal e-mail with your choice of category. Enjoy reading!!!!!
HIGHLIGHTS
*140,000+ quotations, proverbs. etc. by people of all philosophies, ages and cultures.
*Over 10,000 authors, 1650 categories.
*Search quotations by word, phrase, author, source, category via your computer's word processing program Find function.
*Ability to add your quotations or correct any errors (I think they are few, but even Bartlett's has errors).
*Ability to Print, copy and paste easily with your own word processing program, also add quotes that you find.
*Format: Word Processing, 1650 Categories in Alphabetical order, with each category alphabetically ordered by author's last name, followed by Anonymous and Proverbs. The CD is available in Microsoft Word Document (DOS), Appleworks (for Macintosh) or plain text.
For more information with a free sample, of your favorite category, send me a personal e-mail with your choice of category. Enjoy reading!!!!!
HIGHLIGHTS
*140,000+ quotations, proverbs. etc. by people of all philosophies, ages and cultures.
*Over 10,000 authors, 1650 categories.
*Search quotations by word, phrase, author, source, category via your computer's word processing program Find function.
*Ability to add your quotations or correct any errors (I think they are few, but even Bartlett's has errors).
*Ability to Print, copy and paste easily with your own word processing program, also add quotes that you find.
*Format: Word Processing, 1650 Categories in Alphabetical order, with each category alphabetically ordered by author's last name, followed by Anonymous and Proverbs. The CD is available in Microsoft Word Document (DOS), Appleworks (for Macintosh) or plain text.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Obama the Antichrist?
======
I received a WMV DIDJESUSGIVEUTHEN...ANTICHRIST - this is my reply.
If I were a Republican or a Christian I would be hanging my head in shame to be associated with weak minded people who forward drivel like Didjesus give us the name of the antichrist.
In the 1990s - these same idiots concluded indisputably that Bill Clinton was the antichrist.
In 2004 it was John Kerry who was the antichrist
Now they have concluded that Barack Obama is the antichrist.
I am sure that the democratic candidate in 2016 will, in fact, also be the antichrist
AND in retrospect - 2000 was going to be the end of the world, but now it may be 2012. This predicting is quite tricky!
"If he's going to be the counterfeit of Christ, (the Antichrist) has to be Jewish. The only thing we know is he must be male and Jewish." Jerry Falwell
"I feel much freer now that I am certain the pope is the Antichrist." Martin Luther
"The clergy converted the simple teachings of Jesus into an engine for enslaving mankind and adulterated by artificial constructions into a contrivance to filch wealth and power to themselves . . . these clergy, in fact, constitute the real Anti-Christ." Thomas Jefferson
"The real Antichrist is he who turns the wine of an original idea into the water of mediocrity." Eric Hoffer
The real enemy is people who try to scare you into political docility. Resist such charlatans with all your might and use your brain to deliver you from evil.
Escalation in hatred is despicable and needs to be stopped - we do not need another civil war. Our own Minnesota Michelle Bachman is in the same camp as "Wrong-way" Wilson. The longer Republicans embrace these kind of imbeciles the more they will drive out the middle of the road Republicans like Minnesota's Arne Carlson and Dave Durenberger. Needless to say, also, the more elections they will lose, because the majority of the American people are not that stupid. They do not embrace Secession, lying and racism. The Rick Perry's, Sarah Palin's, Michelle Bachmans, and Joe Wilsons are driving the Republican party into the grave......
In the name of truth, justice and the American way,
Grace
======
Follow up from Salon
Friday, July 31, 2009 14:32 EDT
Obama isn't just Kenyan, he's also the Antichrist?
By Alex Koppelman
WASHINGTON -- Move over, Birthers. It turns out President Obama is actually part of a far, far more sinister plot, one that will make you long for the days when you only worried that someone had ginned up a phony birth certificate for him.
As a breathless new report on the loony World Net Daily makes clear, Obama isn't just Kenyan -- he's also the Antichrist. And Jesus himself knew it.
A YouTube clip published earlier this week reveals the evil truth, by delving into some Aramaic words that come together to sound like the president's name. The key to the theory is a line from the New Testament, specifically Luke 10:18, in which Jesus says, "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven." Whoever put the video together -- someone named "ppsimmons," who World Net Daily couldn't persuade to go on the record -- reveals that the ancient Aramaic, and modern Hebrew, word for "lightning" is "barak." And then, using the word "bamah," or "the heights," which appears in Isaiah 14:14, ppsimmons argues that in the original Aramaic, Jesus would have said, essentially, "I saw Satan as Barack Obama." (When combining "barak" and "bamah," the narrator says, you'd have to add a "u" or "o" sound in between.)
Throughout the clip, the narrator keeps referring to how "a modern Jewish rabbi" would pronounce the Luke phrase. (At one point, the video helpfully provides a photo of one such rabbi, looking authentically Semitic -- if a bit stereotypical -- with a beard, a tallis and a Torah in front of him.) "If spoken by a Jewish rabbi today, influenced by the poetry of Isaiah, [Jesus] would say these words in Hebrew: 'I saw Satan as Baraq Ubamah,'" the video says.
Actually, as Woody Allen's Alvy Singer character in "Annie Hall" might say, Salon happens to have a "modern Jewish rabbi" right here. "They want to say it would be pronounced 'Ubamah,'" says Rabbi Dan Ehrenkrantz, president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, in Wyncote, Pa. "No -- it would be 'Uvamah.'" The YouTube video's narrator is correct that the Hebrew letter vav would have to become a "u" or "o" sound, but the letter that the word "bamah" starts with would also have to shift, to a "v" sound. "It doesn't hold up even within its own silly logic," Ehrenkrantz says. (I had also tried to reach a Salon editor's nephew, who has been studying Hebrew for his upcoming bar mitzvah, but he was in math camp and unavailable for comment.)
In essence, the whole video seems to be the political conspiracy theory equivalent of taking a phrase and running it back and forth among different languages in Babelfish until it becomes gibberish. The line in Luke 10:18 wouldn't typically be translated as "I saw Satan fall as lightning from the high place," as the YouTube clip does it, but rather, as "I saw Satan fall as lightning from heaven," or "from the sky." That phrase, "lightning from heaven" is rendered in Hebrew as "barak min ha-shamayim," not "barak uvamah." (Even the basic instruction I had years ago in Hebrew school was enough to figure that much out.)
The video's producer does make a fig leaf attempt to step back from the conclusions he's drawn. "I'm not proclaiming he is the Antichrist, or that I'm some kind of a Hebrew expert, but the word associations are indisputable," the producer told WND. "The Hebrew word for lightning is 'Baraq' and the word for heights or high places is 'Bamah.'" The video also includes a disclaimer saying it's not proof of Obama's true identity; the whole thing could just be a fluke.
But the linguistic twists needed to produce the whole theory give away the game. Once you start playing around with language and deliberate mistranslations, of course, it's not too hard to come up with something that fits whatever preconceived notions you may have already had. "It would take us about a half an hour to come up with a crackpot theory, and we can make just about anybody into either the Messiah or the Antichrist" by picking and choosing words from the Bible, Ehrenkrantz says. The idea that Obama is the Antichrist has been around long enough that Snopes.com posted a thorough debunking of it in April 2008 -- about 14 months before this latest YouTube clip popped up.
And while it may be easy to mock the video -- for its spooky music, its insane conclusions and, oh, yes, also the fact that it misspells "heights" as "heigths" -- there's no doubt some people on the right's lunatic fringe will take it as, well, gospel. After all, it's been more than a year since Obama's campaign posted a copy of his Hawaii birth certificate. By this time next year, will Lou Dobbs be asking why Obama hasn't put the Antichrist rumors behind him yet?
In the name of truth, justice and the American way,
Grace
Also check
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/antichrist.asp
http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/feature/2009/07/31/antichrist/
I received a WMV DIDJESUSGIVEUTHEN...ANTICHRIST - this is my reply.
If I were a Republican or a Christian I would be hanging my head in shame to be associated with weak minded people who forward drivel like Didjesus give us the name of the antichrist.
In the 1990s - these same idiots concluded indisputably that Bill Clinton was the antichrist.
In 2004 it was John Kerry who was the antichrist
Now they have concluded that Barack Obama is the antichrist.
I am sure that the democratic candidate in 2016 will, in fact, also be the antichrist
AND in retrospect - 2000 was going to be the end of the world, but now it may be 2012. This predicting is quite tricky!
"If he's going to be the counterfeit of Christ, (the Antichrist) has to be Jewish. The only thing we know is he must be male and Jewish." Jerry Falwell
"I feel much freer now that I am certain the pope is the Antichrist." Martin Luther
"The clergy converted the simple teachings of Jesus into an engine for enslaving mankind and adulterated by artificial constructions into a contrivance to filch wealth and power to themselves . . . these clergy, in fact, constitute the real Anti-Christ." Thomas Jefferson
"The real Antichrist is he who turns the wine of an original idea into the water of mediocrity." Eric Hoffer
The real enemy is people who try to scare you into political docility. Resist such charlatans with all your might and use your brain to deliver you from evil.
Escalation in hatred is despicable and needs to be stopped - we do not need another civil war. Our own Minnesota Michelle Bachman is in the same camp as "Wrong-way" Wilson. The longer Republicans embrace these kind of imbeciles the more they will drive out the middle of the road Republicans like Minnesota's Arne Carlson and Dave Durenberger. Needless to say, also, the more elections they will lose, because the majority of the American people are not that stupid. They do not embrace Secession, lying and racism. The Rick Perry's, Sarah Palin's, Michelle Bachmans, and Joe Wilsons are driving the Republican party into the grave......
In the name of truth, justice and the American way,
Grace
======
Follow up from Salon
Friday, July 31, 2009 14:32 EDT
Obama isn't just Kenyan, he's also the Antichrist?
By Alex Koppelman
WASHINGTON -- Move over, Birthers. It turns out President Obama is actually part of a far, far more sinister plot, one that will make you long for the days when you only worried that someone had ginned up a phony birth certificate for him.
As a breathless new report on the loony World Net Daily makes clear, Obama isn't just Kenyan -- he's also the Antichrist. And Jesus himself knew it.
A YouTube clip published earlier this week reveals the evil truth, by delving into some Aramaic words that come together to sound like the president's name. The key to the theory is a line from the New Testament, specifically Luke 10:18, in which Jesus says, "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven." Whoever put the video together -- someone named "ppsimmons," who World Net Daily couldn't persuade to go on the record -- reveals that the ancient Aramaic, and modern Hebrew, word for "lightning" is "barak." And then, using the word "bamah," or "the heights," which appears in Isaiah 14:14, ppsimmons argues that in the original Aramaic, Jesus would have said, essentially, "I saw Satan as Barack Obama." (When combining "barak" and "bamah," the narrator says, you'd have to add a "u" or "o" sound in between.)
Throughout the clip, the narrator keeps referring to how "a modern Jewish rabbi" would pronounce the Luke phrase. (At one point, the video helpfully provides a photo of one such rabbi, looking authentically Semitic -- if a bit stereotypical -- with a beard, a tallis and a Torah in front of him.) "If spoken by a Jewish rabbi today, influenced by the poetry of Isaiah, [Jesus] would say these words in Hebrew: 'I saw Satan as Baraq Ubamah,'" the video says.
Actually, as Woody Allen's Alvy Singer character in "Annie Hall" might say, Salon happens to have a "modern Jewish rabbi" right here. "They want to say it would be pronounced 'Ubamah,'" says Rabbi Dan Ehrenkrantz, president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, in Wyncote, Pa. "No -- it would be 'Uvamah.'" The YouTube video's narrator is correct that the Hebrew letter vav would have to become a "u" or "o" sound, but the letter that the word "bamah" starts with would also have to shift, to a "v" sound. "It doesn't hold up even within its own silly logic," Ehrenkrantz says. (I had also tried to reach a Salon editor's nephew, who has been studying Hebrew for his upcoming bar mitzvah, but he was in math camp and unavailable for comment.)
In essence, the whole video seems to be the political conspiracy theory equivalent of taking a phrase and running it back and forth among different languages in Babelfish until it becomes gibberish. The line in Luke 10:18 wouldn't typically be translated as "I saw Satan fall as lightning from the high place," as the YouTube clip does it, but rather, as "I saw Satan fall as lightning from heaven," or "from the sky." That phrase, "lightning from heaven" is rendered in Hebrew as "barak min ha-shamayim," not "barak uvamah." (Even the basic instruction I had years ago in Hebrew school was enough to figure that much out.)
The video's producer does make a fig leaf attempt to step back from the conclusions he's drawn. "I'm not proclaiming he is the Antichrist, or that I'm some kind of a Hebrew expert, but the word associations are indisputable," the producer told WND. "The Hebrew word for lightning is 'Baraq' and the word for heights or high places is 'Bamah.'" The video also includes a disclaimer saying it's not proof of Obama's true identity; the whole thing could just be a fluke.
But the linguistic twists needed to produce the whole theory give away the game. Once you start playing around with language and deliberate mistranslations, of course, it's not too hard to come up with something that fits whatever preconceived notions you may have already had. "It would take us about a half an hour to come up with a crackpot theory, and we can make just about anybody into either the Messiah or the Antichrist" by picking and choosing words from the Bible, Ehrenkrantz says. The idea that Obama is the Antichrist has been around long enough that Snopes.com posted a thorough debunking of it in April 2008 -- about 14 months before this latest YouTube clip popped up.
And while it may be easy to mock the video -- for its spooky music, its insane conclusions and, oh, yes, also the fact that it misspells "heights" as "heigths" -- there's no doubt some people on the right's lunatic fringe will take it as, well, gospel. After all, it's been more than a year since Obama's campaign posted a copy of his Hawaii birth certificate. By this time next year, will Lou Dobbs be asking why Obama hasn't put the Antichrist rumors behind him yet?
In the name of truth, justice and the American way,
Grace
Also check
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/antichrist.asp
http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/feature/2009/07/31/antichrist/
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