mdofva's Blog

A friend sent this to me and I thought you guys would love this.

Junk Mail Help:

 When you get 'ads' enclosed with your phone or utility bill, return these 'ads' with your payment. Let the sending companies throw their own junk mail away.

When you get those 'pre-approved' letters in the mail for everything from credit cards to 2nd mortgages and similar type junk, do not throw away the return envelope.

Most of these come with postage-paid return envelopes, right? It costs them more than the regular 41 cents postage 'IF' and when they receive them back.  

It costs them nothing if you throw them away! The postage was around 50 cents before the last increase and it is set according to the weight. In that case, why not get rid of some of your other junk mail and put it in these cool little, postage-paid return envelopes.   


 One of Andy Rooney's (60 minutes) ideas:
Send an ad for your local chimney cleaner to American Express. Send a pizza coupon to Citibank. If you didn't get anything else that day, then just send them their blank application back!
If you want to remain anonymous, just make sure your name isn't on anything you send them.

You can even send the envelope back empty if you want to just to keep them guessing! It still costs them 41 cents.

The banks and credit card companies are currently getting a lot of their own junk back in the mail, but folks, we need to OVERWHELM them. Let's let them know what it's like to get lots of junk mail, and best of all they're paying for it...Twice!  

Let's help keep our postal service busy since they are saying that e-mail is cutting into their business profits, and that's why they need to increase postage costs again You get the idea !

If enough people follow these tips, it will work ----I have been doing this for years, and I get very little junk mail anymore.

I'm trying this the next chance I get  ;o) I don't know if it will really help but I'll have fun doing it.

Interesting facts that you may not have known... Look carefully....

These are some rather eye-opening facts: Since the start of the war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan, the sacrifice has been enormous.  In the time period from the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 through now, we have lost over 3000 military personnel to enemy action and accidents. As tragic as the loss of any member of the Armed Forces is, consider the following statistics: 

The annual fatalities of military members while actively serving in the armed forces from 1980 through 2006:

1980 .......... 2,392
1981 .........  2,380
1984 .......... 1,999
1988 .......... 1,819
1989 .......... 1,636
1990 .........  1,508
1991 .......... 1,787
1992 .......... 1,293--------------------------------------------------
--
1993 ......... 1,213
1994 .......... 1,075
1995 ...........2,465
1996  ......... 2,318        8 Clinton years @13,417 deaths
1997 ..........    817
1998 .........  2,252
1999 .......... 1,984 -------------------------------------------------
2000 .......... 1,983
2 001 .........    890
2002 .......... 1,007        7 BUSH years @ 9,016 deaths
2003 .......... 1,410
2004 .......... 1,887
2005 .........     919
2006..........     920 -------------------------------------------------------
-----

If you are confused when you look at these figures...so was I.

Do these figures mean that the loss from the two latest conflicts in the Middle East are LESS than the loss of military personnel during Mr. Clinton's  presidency; when America wasn't even involved in a war?   And, I was even more confused; when I read that in 1980, during the reign of President (Nobel Peace Prize) Jimmy Carter, there were 2,392 US military fatalities!

These figures indicate that many of our Media & Politicians will pick and choose.  They present only those 'facts' which support their agenda-driven reporting.  Why do so many of them march in lock-step to twist the truth.    Where do so many of them get their marching-orders for their agenda?

Our Mainstream Print and TV media, and many Politicians like to slant; that these brave men and women, who are losing their lives in Iraq, are mostly minorities!    Wrong AGAIN--- just one more media lie!

The latest census, of Americans, shows the following distribution of American citizens, by Race:

European descent (White) ...... 69.12%
Hispanic ...................................... 12.5%
Black.............................................. 12.3%
Asian ............................................... 3.7%
Native American ......................... 1.0%
Other ...............................................  2.6%

Now... here are the fatalities by Race; over the past three years in Iraqi Freedom:

European descent (white) ..... 74.31%
Hispanic ..................................... 10.74%
Black ............................................ 9.67%
Asian .......................................... . 1.81%
Native American ......................... 1.09%
Other ..............................................  . 33%

These statistics are published by Congressional Research Service, and they may be confirmed by anyone at: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL32492.pdf<
/a>   (Please look at this report site if you have the chance.)

Now ask yourself these two questions:

In most of the United States there is a policy of checking on any stalled vehicle on the highway when temperatures drop to single digits or below. About 3am one very cold morning , Montana State Trooper Allan Nixon # 658 responded to a call where there was a car off the shoulder of the road outside Great Falls,  Montana.  He located the car, stuck in deep snow with the engine still running. Pulling in behind the car with his emergency lights on, the trooper walked to the driver's door to find an older man passed out behind the wheel with a nearly empty vodka bottle on the seat beside him. The driver came awake when the trooper tapped on the window.  Seeing the rotating lights in his rearview window , and the state trooper standing next to his car, the man panicked. He jerked the gear shift into "drive" and hit the gas. The cars speedometer was showing  20-30-40 and then 50 MPH.  but it was still stuck in the snow. Trooper Nixon, having a sense of humor, began running in place next to the speeding (but stationary) car. The driver was totally freaked, thinking the trooper was actually keeping up with him. This goes on for about 30 seconds, then the trooper yelled. "PULL OVER!"  The man nodded, turned his wheel and stopped the engine. Needless to say, the man from North Dakota was arrested and is probably still shaking his head over the state trooper in Montana who could run 50 miles per hour.  Who says troppers don't have a sense of humor?      

At this point a still photo of the plant would do. It's distasteful and everyone has already seen it. All it's doing at this point is causing us to turn the channel!  ENOUGH ALREADY!

I tried to respond on Itmorgan67's blog but for some reason you can't.......

Wake up sleepy head!

Smiles

I can't believe this one. This world is so filled with hatred and disrespect! SAD!

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/02/13/wheelchair.dump
ing.ap/index.html#cnnSTCVideo

You guys will love this.... It's a must see. It's entitled "The Tale of Two Brains" I dug it up just for Starrman  ;o)

My husband and I saw it a couple of weeks ago and still laugh about it.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1059025/tale_of_two_b
rains/

Tainted Wheat gluten sold as "Food Grade"

by Goldy 04/01/07

Del Monte Foods has confirmed that the melamine-tainted wheat gluten used in several of its recalled pet food products was supplied as a “food grade” additive, raising the likelihood that contaminated wheat gluten might have entered the human food supply.

“Yes, it is food grade,” Del Monte spokesperson Melissa Murphy-Brown wrote in reply to an e-mail query. Del Monte issued a voluntary recall Saturday for several products under the Gravy Train, Jerky Treats, Pounce, Ol’ Roy, Dollar General and Happy Trails brands.

Wheat gluten is sold in both “food grade” and “feed grade” varieties. Either may be used in pet food, but only “food grade” gluten may be used in the manufacture of products meant for human consumption. Published reports have thus far focused on tainted pet food, but if the gluten in question entered the human food supply through a major food products supplier and processor, it could potentially contaminate thousands of products and hundreds of millions of units nationwide.

Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Veterinary Medicine said the FDA is not aware of any contaminated gluten that went into human food but said he could not confirm this “with 100 percent certainty.” Wheat gluten is a common food additive used as a thickener, dough conditioner, and meat substitute. It is widely used as an additive in commercial bakery items and special purpose flours.

The FDA announced today that it has traced the contaminated wheat gluten to a single processor, Xuzhou Anying Biological Technology of Peixian, China, but has not released the name of the U.S. distributor who supplied the product to Del Monte, Menu Foods, Nestle Purina, and Hills Nutritional. In all, more than 70 brands and over 60 million cans and pouches of dog and cat food are now part of this massive recall, as well as at least one brand of dry cat food.

Public statements have indicated that the contaminated gluten was distributed by a single U.S. company, but since the FDA refuses to name the supplier, it is not yet known if this company also supplies human food manufacturers. It is also not yet known if Xuzhou Anying sells direct to food manufacturers in the U.S. or abroad.

While cats seem particularly susceptible to the effects of melamine poisoning, there is little research on the substance’s human toxicity. Unless and until the FDA determines otherwise, one cannot help but wonder if our sick and dying cats are merely the canary in the coal mine alerting us to a broader contamination of the human food supply.

I found this today when I was reading about a report on bread being tested by the FDA.

TTYL   mdofva

To my suprise I found that there were warnings and recalls issued by the FDA dating back to December 2005.  The plant in question was the Gaston, South Carolina facility aka  Diamond Pet Food. Where were we when this warning came out. I don't ever remember hearing about this. Every day more foods are being added...today was certain brands of beef jerky for dogs. I was annoyed when looking for an update and couldn't seem to find any information on the Fox 5 website. Could you guys please keep an updated easy to find link for us? I had to search for 20 minutes before I found a valid update.

  I don't know about the rest of you but this seems like it may have been on purpose. I hope NOT! You may think this is funny but I have even started TRYING to stay away from certain people products as well. I mean who's to say how many food items are at risk. It's pretty hard to find cereals that we feed our kids and other food products that don't have wheat as an ingredient. Back to reading labels again! What a mess! My brothers cat has been ill for two years with these symptoms. HHHMMMM We're thinking it's linked.

          I'm good for a letter or two a year and I guess it's that time again. The older I get the more clear things become. This concerns all of us!
   We are failing our kids! I have raised and in the process of raising two more children and am noticing a huge downfall in our education system over the past few years. The SOL’s are causing what I call fragmented learning, which in the long run will be harmful to our children and the economic future of the U.S. I agree there needs to be some kind of standards but we're going about this the wrong way! Typically when you ask a student to define a question on his or her SOL they are unable to give you an explanation or even slighty debate it for that matter, due to the fact they have only memorized the material needed to pass the SOL. This is leaving us worst off than before. Teachers aren’t able to teach under these circumstances either. Leaving us in a loose loose situation. I can go on with examples of fragmented teaching for hours and get more upset with it as I go along. So please understand what I am telling you. The schools don’t want to look bad and get low scores etc. so they teach the answers to the questions so the child will pass the SOL. There is no time to actually learn the subject from beginning to end leaving holes in all subjects. Why would you want this to happen? My kids were learning a lot more before the SOL’s and were more prepared for college. This is our nightmare come true and I feel our children are guinea pigs, and the end result will be economic failure for the U.S.
So who’s going to fix this????!!!!

Well it's about time. I was wondering what would happen this year when the hand gun ban came up for vote again. Just two years ago I was asking around about it. The DC Police Dept won't be thrilled by the lift, but I can't imagine living in a city or anywhere for that matter and not being able to protect your own family in a time of need. I'm sure some people aren’t happy about it but I sure am. Now the criminals will think twice about breaking in to a person’s home. The ban didn't stop the criminals from getting weapons it caused the honest people to be unprotected.