In My Not So Humble Opinion

Archive for the ‘News’ Category

Wow. My shoulder surgery was 9 weeks ago. How time flies. Physical therapy, though painful, is moving along well. They said it will still take about 4 months to get full use of my arm and shoulder, because the damage they repaired was so extensive. Obviously, when I hurt myself, I don’t do a half-assed job.

I celebrated the ability to type with both hands again by writing a guest post for the blog of my twitter friend, @stinginthetail. I talk about crystals, crazy celebrities, and vagazzling in You want me to stick rhinestones where?

(In case it’s not clear, @tweet_fail is one of my twitter accounts, that links to my other blog, Twitter-Fail.com.)

Once you read my post, stroll through the rest of her blog to discover why I like her so much.

All the uproar by big-named stars and directors over the detention and pending extradition of the fugitive child rapist Roman Polanski confirms that Hollywood is as big a cesspool as I have long believed. Further proof is in the petition for his release: celebrities proudly sign their real name, and they parade with Free Polanski badges, while opponents sign the counter petition with pseudonyms in fear of retribution. Supporting a fugitive child rapist is evidently the right thing to do in Hollywood, while standing up for justice and children can cause you to lose your job. Can they be any more depraved?

I am sick of stardom, talent and money giving people a free ride, no matter what they do. Debra Winger (who I used to like) seems to believe his guilty plea and flight from justice is a “technicality.” Whoopi Goldberg said it wasn’t “Rape rape.” The girl was 13, he was 40, he drugged her, she said no, he did it anyway. Brutally. Have you read the transcript? She was not a willing participant to the act, no matter how he and his huge group of powerful friends paint the picture. It was rape. It was rape rape. And even rape-a-di-do-dah-day. Rape.

The fugitive child rapist is now finally being brought back to justice. This is the people’s case. Not the victim’s, who understandably wants the entire matter closed. That the victim entered into a $500,000 settlement 25 years ago doesn’t matter, either. People are parading that around as if the money should buy his freedom – since the victim was compensated. He didn’t ever pay the settlement, so that point is moot, AND it has nothing to do with the debt he owes to society for his crime.

Does anyone really believe he only raped one child? I don’t. He’s a child predator, not someone who picked up a girl in a bar, thought she was old enough, and didn’t check her ID. Even if it was only one child, that’s one too many, but child rapists have a pattern of abusing lots of kids.

These A-listers think child raping is just a momentary lapse in judgment for which there should be no repercussions. I wouldn’t want any of these pro-child-rape reprobates babysitting my children, and I refuse to pad the pockets of anyone who has signed the “Free Polanski” petition, or speaks in his defense. This means there will be very few movies to watch. So be it.

Here’s some upcoming movies I won’t see, by child-rape supporter Harvey Weinstein movies:
Four Knights (2010)
Halloween III (2010) … aka Halloween III 3-D
Fraggle Rock: The Movie (2011)
Rambo V: The Savage Hunt (2011)
Scream IV (2010)
Piranha 3-D (2010)

…and some of his other upcoming projects
Knight Rider
The Prom
The Lives of Others
Panic
The Equalizer
Sin City 2
Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland
August: Osage County
The Seven Samurai
Come Drink with Me
An American Werewolf in Paris
The Silence of Six
Solomon Grundy
Faster, Pussycat Kill Kill
Rain in Spain
Crane: Iron Pentalogy
Kung Fu High School
Alex and the Ironic Gentleman
The Alchemist
Mulan

Pro-child-rape fan Martin Scorsese won’t get my money for any of these upcoming films:
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt (2011)
Sinatra (2011)
Silence (2011)
Shutter Island (2010)
Untitled George Harrison Documentary (2010)

…or any of these other projects of his:
Cache
I Heard You Paint Houses
The Elia Kazan Documentary
The Wolf of Wall Street
High and Low
Duel
The Long Play

That’s just 2 of the many, so yes, the list will get pretty long. You say it will be impossible to boycott everything created by a pro-child-rape artist? Not really. It just takes committment to the belief that every penny spent on their projects supports their inflated sense of self-importance. Their stance that the craft of movie making is one to be honored above all others, and any crime should be excused.

I’d rather spend my money with people who have honor. So, I will see the next Kevin Smith movie. I will applaud Chris Rock’s performances. I’ll happily support the celebrities on this list who speak against the fugitive child rapist and the perversion of their peers.

I’ll send my message to Hollywood with my pocketbook. They won’t miss my meager funds, but if enough of us send the message, perhaps someone will start listening. I don’t live in the fantasy land they create, however, so the real benefit to me is that I get to keep my own self-respect.

Not everyone can be Click and Clack from Car Talk, but that doesn’t stop auto mechanics from trying. I wouldn’t have a radio announcer rebuild my transmission, and he’d be smart enough to leave the job alone. Unfortunately, there’s at least one grease monkey who thinks his voice was made for radio. Uh, no. Seriously. Would you tune in and listen to this guy?

YouTube link

Okay, I take it back. He’s hilarious. But not for the reasons he’d like to think he is.

There was a perfectly good car show on KEZW. For some reason, the production director thought this one would be better. Better for whom? Not for the listeners who would rather hear Tom Collins, The Auto Answerman, a talented, real radio guy, running the show with the smooth precision that years of radio experience can afford. He fielded calls, gave car reviews, handed off questions to his guests and kept it interesting. And in all that time, I don’t think I heard him say, “Ya know,” once.

I doubt this car repair show will last long. No one can listen to that voice week after week and resist the impulse to stab themselves in the ear. So, they’ll tune out, the show will get no calls, and the advertisers will go somewhere else with their money.

I’ll be tuning around to find the new home of The Auto Answerman – a real radio show. I’ll let you know when I find it. Ya know?

Whew! Moving a blog isn’t hard, but it can be very time consuming. You may have noticed the new design. The old one was a crappy Blogger template I created about 5 years ago, which in internet years is about 100. So, I finally sat myself down and created this new one. And set it up on WordPress, which is 1000 times better than Blogger.

Some links in Google no longer work. I’ve redirected everything I can from the old blog to the new one. If you reached the 404 page it’s Blogger’s fault. Blogger creates an html page with all the tags for each post as the page name. With spaces between, which are bad, because you should never have spaces in a page name.

You probably don’t care about any of that unless you’re thinking about creating your own blog. Blogger is good for people who don’t know how to set up a blog, and don’t have time to figure it out. If you’re creating a personal blog, that’s fine. But, if you’re planning on blogging for your business, you reallys should have a professional blog on something like WordPress. There’s some unsolicited advice for you. It’s worth more than the price you paid for it.

Anyway, I’m pleased with the way this looks. And now that it’s on a more user-friendly platform, you’ll probably be hearing a lot more from me. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

I’ve compiled the following information because someone you know and care about may be solicited by someone involved in a “Cash Gifting” scheme. There is a huge surge of these groups right now, who are taking advantage of people during the recession. A search for “Cash Gifting” on Google shows 207 paid listings for these scams. That’s just the tip of the iceberg.

The “Cash Gifting” groups are soliciting under a bunch of different names, but the theme is the same. You join, pay a cash “gift” to the person who recruits you, and then you recruit people who give cash “gifts” to you. Their premise is that it is legal to give a gift to anyone, and they’ll tell you that it is exempt from taxes. Some of these groups claim that a charity is being supported, or that this is a charitable activity. Cash Gifting, under any name, is an illegal Ponzi pyramid scheme. Participation could mean at the least that you lose the money “gifted” and at the most, you could be arrested for participating this illegal activity, which is a felony. You can also be sued by everyone you get to sign up under you.

Don’t let biblical quotes and the false representation of being a charity fool you into believing you can gain monetary success through an Cash Gifting program.

The Better Business Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission suggest that anyone who is approached to join a gifting scheme should:

• Consider that a legitimate gift has no strings attached
• Avoid being misled into thinking a gifting club is legitimate because the members say they consider their payments a gift and expect nothing in return. This is an attempt to make an illegal transaction look legal.
• Be wary of success stories or testimonials of tremendous payoffs. Very few members of illegal gifting clubs or pyramid schemes ever receive any money.
• Take your time. Don’t buckle under to a high-pressure sales pitch that requires you to join immediately or risk losing out on the opportunity.
• Remember that pyramid schemes are illegal. Avoid plans that offer commissions based solely on recruiting new members.
• Don’t be swayed by assurances that the scheme has been “approved” or that charities will benefit from the gifting club. Before risking your money, your reputation, and your peace of mind, review the plan with an accountant or an independent attorney who is experienced in consumer law.

 

They also promote themselves as a legitimate business opportunity, where there will be:

• No Selling
• No Explaining
• No Chasing Family or Friends
• No Convincing
• No Products people don’t want or need

Other groups claim you can get a “Mortgage Free” home by saying:

• you can obtain a custom built home, with very little money as down payment.
• you do not have to pay any further out of pocket expense to own a home.
• you will obtain your home in far less time than with a conventional mortgage.
• you can earn large monthly incomes forever, and they can even be “willed.”

These people are flooding the internet with a bunch of false information. They have nice websites, and they publish press releases. They claim to be endorsed by Oprah. They send chain letters, and do telemarketing. They claim you can get (fill in any dollar amount here) from people all over the world. They say you can turn $5 into $75,000 in 3 weeks. They say that the more you “gift,” the more you’ll receive. Some of them include a product or download, or lifetime membership as a way to try to cover up the illegal “gifting” activity. Don’t believe what they tell you.

There are also “download” and “lifetime membership” groups that are cash gifting scams that claim (quoting one such website):

• You will answer no emails!
• You will never need to build a website to earn money
• You will earn money without paying membership fees or recurring membership fees!
• There will be no silly over saturated affiliate programs you will need to promote!
• You will obviously sell . . . absolutely nothing!
• You won’t ever talk to prospects. Okay, you will answer to your referrals, but you do not EVER need to physically do it or via phone. This is limited to comments and talking “through the pen”!
• You will NEVER call anyone!
• You will obviously NOT gamble, and with my help . . . not even with Google Adwords!
• You will receive money without paying subscription fees and NO Monthly Subscription!
• You need NO high start up costs!
• In fact when you join, that will be the ONLY money you will be spending!

These scams masquerade under a bunch of different names, and the scammers dress up their scams in different ways. If they promise you Free Money, run in the opposite direction. The names change all the time, so just because it’s not on the list below doesn’t mean that it’s a legal group, activity or opportunity.

Some names, terms, and websites often used by groups like this include:

1-Up
90 days with Dell
A Gift Network
Abundance
Abundant Living System
ALS
Avalanche of Payments
Cash1234DotCom.com
CashGifting4Every1.com
Cash Giving Mentor
Cash Gift Proof
CashGiftGenerator.com
CashGiftTrainer.com
Cash Leveraging Made Simple
cashinwithchris.com
Charity Begins at Home
CommonSenseCashStation.net
Constitutional Rights Kindness Free association
Decide Freedom Now
Dedicated Marketers
Destiny
Elite Activities
Elite Activity
Elite Resurrected
Environmental Constr Solutions Inc.
Epic Wealth Systems
Eventis
EZ1Up
EZY Cash Gifts
FailProofCash.com
FastSimpleCashFlow.com
FGH Marketing
Freedom Club
Freedom 3000
freedomfighter3000.com
Freshmen Nice people Sophomore
fromrobbedtoriches.com
Get My Free Money
Gift Gifter I gave
Give Freely
Give Helping others Activity
Giving and Sharing Gifts
Golden Rule Associates Panel
goodyboyce.webs.com
Home Business Start up Funds
I have gifted Giving Family
ICF World Homes
Investment Club
Invited by Fellow man Community
Jacob’s Ladder
key-to-cash.com
Liberty League International
LivetoProsper.biz
LivingRoomGoldMine.com
Mission Cash Complete
Mortgage Free Homes
My Incentive Website
NetESPRESSO
NewCashGiftingSystem.com
Operation 20k
Participation Register your gift Giving
Pay it Forward
PIF
PopnLife
Power of People Network
Prosperity Man’s Channel
RealPassiveCash.com
Receive Junior Participant
Retirement Club
Right to give Senior I have received
Rockstar Marketing
Season of Sharing
Sharing Caring Invitation
Summit
The Abundant Pay it Forward Gift Program
The Cash Leveraging System
The Friendship Investment Club
The Last Program
The Online Cash System
The Power of Leadership
The Spirit of Giving
The World’s first Interdenominational Belief System on the Internet!
thiswillbehuge.com
Toni’s Resources
True Wealth Today
Upgrade My Cash
You can retire soon
YourFatPockets.com

Note: I compiled the above information from data collected from http://scam.com/, the BBB, FTC, and other online resources. If you have legal, incontrovertible proof that one of the above groups is not involved in illegal activity, please comment to this post, and I will remove them from the list.

Update:
Since posting this earlier today, I’ve beeen contacted by a dozen people who want me to sign up with their scam. Can’t these people read?