Posted on 06/10/2004 1:02:44 PM PDT by Temple Owl
Second Thoughts
By: William W. Lawrence
06/08/2004
The champagne corks were not popping at 400 N. Broad St., but there were some smiles. Circulation rose a paltry 800 to 387,692, which was an improvement over past years when the left-wing, liberal publication appeared to be in free-fall.
In 1999, the Inquirer was losing readers faster than any newspaper of comparable size in the country. An Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC), the largest independent verifier of newspapers' circulation figures, showed that the Inquirer's daily circulation had dipped to just under 402,000 -- a 7.2 percent decrease from the same six-month period the previous year.
Maybe they ought to drink champagne, maybe something even stronger.
***
Liberals reportedly have dumped millions of dollars into something called Air America. This is supposed to be a left-wing radio network designed to steal away listeners from Rush Limbaugh and other conservative broadcasters. Well, trust me when I tell you the air has been let out of that trial balloon. Air America has replaced five top executives, lost crucial producers and has been taken off the air in two of its top three markets.
Here are some inside tips for the new producers:
-- Start praising America.
-- Criticize abortionists.
-- Blast sexual perverts who hold high political positions.
-- Talk up school vouchers.
-- Offer a morning prayer. Oh, what the heck, one in the afternoon and evening too.
-- Bug your boy Teddy Kennedy to come up with a flat tax.
-- Read the Wall Street Journal editorial page every day.
-- Talk up Zell Miller as a Democratic presidential candidate.
-- Every once in a while, mention that Saddam Hussein is an evil man who should get the death penalty.
That's a good start. I'll give you more as you get into it.
***
The Star Democrat of Easton, Md., reports that a fifth-grader at Maryland's Grasonville Elementary School did a class project on the topic, "What would you take on a camping trip and why?" It consisted of a shoebox containing various tools, including a steak knife. School officials declared the utensil a "weapon" and suspended the unnamed 11-year-old felon for 10 days.
We desperately need school vouchers.
***
There's an e-mail going around that asks people to help rescue a Nigerian military official who took a secret flight to the Russian space station, only to end up stranded.
If you send $3,000 to help get him back to Earth, the message says, you can share in the $15 million in "flight pay and interest" he gets.
The New York State Consumer Protection Board thinks it has identified it as an obvious hoax and have named it the most outrageous example of advance-fee e-mails, which are also known as the Nigerian, or 419, scam. The messages often claim to be from a representative of a former government or royal official from Africa, and say that for a few thousands dollars, millions will be put into your bank account.
Of course, you have to send the scammers your account numbers and other information first.
Most of our readers are probably familiar with the scams in which a corrupt government official or attractive young woman is willing to share ill-gotten money with a nice American if he would simply provide access to his bank account.
A resident of the World Wide Web named "lowbridge" has found a way to turn these scammers into entertainment.
He leads them on and on and on and puts the correspondence on his website. What he did to a resident of the Ivory Coast named Gloria Gium can be found at http:// www.megaone.com/lowbridge/baitinggloria.html and what he is doing to Rita Kone can be found at http://www. megaone.com/lowbridge/baitingritakone.html
Poor Gloria wound up sending him a picture of herself wearing a pair of underpants on her head and holding a sign saying "Freepersrule" and "IMADUER"-- which refer to the conservative website Free Republic and the leftist website Democratic Underground, respectively.
What the hint of money will make some people do!
(Excerpt) Read more at countypressonline.com ...
It's also probably a significant portion of the GNP...
I've seen a few of these sites that scam the scammers. You'd think the Nigerians would catch on sooner or later. Or at least ask somebody with a working knowledge of English to help out.
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!
Lowbridge, you RULE!
I'd watch if it were turned into a FOX situation comedy.
Grrr. All your pages are coming up as "missing" now. >: (
Whoever is hosting your site, dump them and find another.
Scammer Photo Trophy Room (pages and pages of scammer photos)
http://www.419eater.com/html/trophy_room.htm
ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!
(The military official stuck on the Russian space station is a creative scam though.)
Definitely could ruin the key board, if you drink anything while reading the article. I nominate Lowbridge for the Free Republic Hall of Fame.
I'll second that.
Site got deleted. Megaone.com wasn't a bad host, but they had a very hardassed TOS. I was CAREFUL not to violate their TOS, but one thing was out of my control. The spamming. My site grew in popularity so fast, that god knows how many people were emailing each other about my site. Someone, maybe more than one, complained to Megaone. Goodbye site. I'll be rebuilding it again with both the old and some new baits.
My son has the same sense of humor, he drives those Nigerian scammers nuts.
With lowbridge's permission I've hosted a copy of the Gloria Gium post over @ my "Extra" blog, where I post longer items. Bandwidth should not be an issue.
http://comedianextra.blogspot.com/2004_07_11_comedianextra_archive.html#108985584534585157
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