You Are Kidding!!!

New York, November 23 — Providing deeper insight into the climate change scientific establishment, the hundreds of emails hacked from a British university and posted online has sparked another climate change debate.

This time it has raised questions about the authenticity of the data provided by the scientists at the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia.

The global warming skeptics say that the e-mail messages, highlighting the correspondence between prominent climate change researchers in America and UK, show that scientists have manipulated data to fit their theory that humans are responsible for global warming.

“We feel that climate science is, in the current situation, too important to be kept under wraps,” stated the hacker on the site Air Vent.

E-mail conversations
The e-mails include discussions of efforts to ensure the report from Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change includes their findings and exclude all contrary data.

In one of the e-mails, CRU’s professor Phil Jones wrote that he was worried about the Freedom of Information request seeking data that he has used to support his findings. In order to make research fit the conclusions, he was contemplating to delete some unrealistic figures.

“I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) amd [sic] from1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline,” stated an email from Jones in 1999.

In another e-mail Kevin Trenberth wrote, “Well I have my own article on where the heck is global warming? We are asking that here in Boulder where we have broken records the past twodays for the coldest days on record. We had 4 inches of snow. The high the last 2 days was below 30F and the normal is 69F, and it smashed the previous records for these days by 10F. The low was about 18F and also a record low, well below the previous record low.”

He further added that they are not able to account for ‘lack of warming’ at the moment and it is a ‘travesty’ that they cannot.

The identity of the hackers is not certain but the stolen e-mails and documents have been posted on a site called‘an elegant chaos’.

E-mails taken out of context
Though the university officials have confirmed the leakage, many believe that the move is meant to undermine the climate change summit in Copenhagen in December.

Government representatives from 191 nations, NGOs, journalists and others are expected to meet in Copenhagen to reach consensus over limiting emission of green house gases.

Trenberth was quoted by Associated Press as saying, “It is right before the Copenhagen debate, I’m sure that is not a coincidence.”

He further added that he was shocked at the selective use of e-mails and so by the fact that they have been “taken out of context”.

Even Jones denied claims that facts have been manipulated and asserted that the word “trick” used by him means “a clever thing to do”.

Read it here:
http://www.themoneytimes.com/featured/20091123/scientists-debunk-global-warming-manipulation-id-1091804.html

One year, a husband decided to buy his mother-in-law a cemetery plot as
a Christmas gift.
The next year, he didn’t buy her a gift.
When she asked him why, he replied, “Well, you still haven’t used the
gift I bought you last year!”
And that’s how the fight started….

************************************************** **********************

A woman is standing nude, looking in the bedroom mirror.
She is not happy with what she sees and says to her husband, ‘I feel
Horrible; I look old, fat and ugly. I really need you to pay me a
compliment.’
The husband replies, ‘Your eyesight’s damn near perfect.’
And that’s how the fight started…..

************************************************** **********************

I asked my wife, ‘Where do you want to go for our anniversary?’
It warmed my heart to see her face melt in sweet appreciation.
‘Somewhere I haven’t been in a long time!’ she said.
So I suggested, ‘How about the kitchen?’
And that’s when the fight started….

************************************************** **********************

My wife and I are watching Who Wants To Be A Millionaire while we were
In bed. I turned to her and said, ‘Do you want to have sex?’
‘No,’ she answered.
I then said, ‘Is that your final answer?’
She didn’t even look at me this time, simply saying ‘Yes.’
So I said, ‘Then I’d like to phone a friend.’
And that’s when the fight started….

************************************************** **********************

I tried to talk my wife into buying a case of Miller Light for $14.95.
Instead, she bought a jar of cold cream for $7.95. I told her the beer
Would make her look better at night than the cold cream.
And that’s when the fight started……

************************************************** *******************

I took my wife to a restaurant. The waiter, for some reason, took my
Order first.
‘I’ll have the strip steak, medium rare, please.’
He said, ‘Aren’t you worried about the mad cow?’
‘Nah, she can order for herself.’
And that’s when the fight started…..

************************************************** **********************

My wife sat down on the couch next to me as I was flipping
The channels.
She asked, ‘What’s on TV?’
I said, ‘Dust.’
And then the fight started…

================================================== ============

My wife was hinting about what she wanted for our upcoming
Anniversary.
She said, ‘I want something shiny that goes from 0 to
200 in about 3 seconds.’
I bought her a scale.
And then the fight started…

================================================== ============

When I got home last night, my wife demanded that I take
Her someplace expensive….
So, I took her to a gas station…
And then the fight started…

================================================== ============

My wife and I were sitting at a table at my high school
Reunion, and I kept staring at a drunken lady swigging her drink as
She sat alone at a nearby table.
My wife asked, ‘Do you know her?’
‘Yes,’ I sighed, ‘She’s my old girlfriend…
I understand she took to drinking right after we split up those many
years ago, and I hear she hasn’t been sober since.’
‘My God!’ says my wife, ‘who would think a
Person could go on celebrating that long?’
And then the fight started…

================================================== =========

I rear-ended a car this morning.. So, there we were
Alongside the road and slowly the other driver got out of his car.

You know how sometimes you just get soooo stressed and little

Things just seem funny?
Yeah, well I couldn’t believe it… He was a DWARF!!!
He stormed over to my car, looked up at me, and shouted,
‘I AM NOT HAPPY!’
So, I looked down at him and said, ‘Well, then which one are you?’
And then the fight started…

================================================== ============

THE BROKEN LAWN MOWER
When our lawn mower broke and wouldn’t run, my wife
kept hinting to me that I should get it fixed.
But, somehow I always had something else to take care of
first, the truck, the car, playing golf ‘
Always something more important to me.

Finally she thought of a clever way to make her point. When
I arrived home one day, I found her seated in the tall grass,
busily snipping away with a tiny pair of sewing scissors.
I watched silently for a short time and then went into the
house. I was gone only a minute, and when I came out again I handed
her a toothbrush. I said, ‘When you finish cutting the grass,
you might as well sweep the driveway.’

The doctors say I will walk again, but I will always have a limp

Across the country, customers who’ve ordered the popular Snuggie blanket are getting something else in the mail - an $8.50 check, with a catch.

“I thought it was a rebate on shipping,” said Marc Catalina, who received the check seven months after ordering a Snuggie.

The check - which comes in an envelope stamped with the Snuggie logo - is real but it’s not a rebate.

It’s from a group called “Great Fun” - a company that promises 2 percent back off credit card purchases. They piggy-back onto Snuggy and a number of products with a controversial advertising method.

On both the front and back of the check, in small print, is a notice that says cashing or depositing the check automatically signs you up for a $150 a year membership in their service.

“By cashing or depositing this check you are purchasing a membership in Great Fun,” it says in small print on the front. “When you cash or deposit the enclosed check, we will automatically charge the $149.99 annual fee to your credit card,” it explains on the back.

Deceptive or clever marketing?

Consumer experts say it’s not illegal but it can be deceptive.

“If it comes to me, I’m probably going to look at it and say $8.25? That’s worth my while to cash it,” said Travis Ford with the Missouri Division of Finance.

While some marketers defend the practice of sending so-called “activation checks” as a legitimate form of advertising - with everything spelled out in writing -Ford says it can catch unsuspecting consumers off-guard.

“It’s certainly not as clear as it could be,” said Ford. “Because normally there’s fine print on the back of a check where people don’t spend a lot of time reading anyway.”

Ford says this type of advertising has been challenged by consumers across the country, including here in Missouri. Last year, then-Attorney General Jay Nixon got a 26-state, $400,000 settlement in a lawsuit against a company that sent out similar checks.

“Any company that does this may run into trouble,” said Ford. “Either with unhappy customers or even law enforcement agencies.”

Not a rebate or refund

A representative from Great Fun told us, emphatically, what they’re doing is not deceptive.

“We view our terms as clear, inconspicuous and as up front as possible,” Mike Bush, a spokesman for Great Fun said by phone. “At no point do we claim there is a rebate or refund attached to this. It’s simply an opportunity to try our products.”

The $8.25 amount isn’t chosen randomly. It’s calculated, based on research, to get the greatest number of people to cash the check, according to Bush.

Still, he acknowledges people could “mistakenly opt into this program,” despite the fine print. He says a full refund will be offered to anyone who unknowingly signed up.

Less than 1500 people, a small amount of their customers, have recently cancelled their accounts, said Bush.

KRCG News tried to contact representatives from Snuggie but were unable to reach anyone.

What If George W. Bush had made a joke at the expense of the Special Olympics, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had given Gordon Brown a set of inexpensive and incorrectly formatted DVDs, when Gordon Brown had given him a thoughtful and historically significant gift, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had given the Queen of England an iPod containing videos of his speeches, would you have thought this embarrassingly narcissistic and tacky?

If George W. Bush had bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had visited Austria and made reference to the non-existent “Austrian language,” would you have brushed it off as a minor slip?

If George W. Bush had filled his cabinet and circle of advisers with people who cannot seem to keep current on their income taxes, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had been so Spanish illiterate as to refer to “Cinco de Cuatro” in front of the Mexican ambassador when it was the Fifth of May (Cinco de Mayo), and continued to flub it when he tried again, would you have winced in embarrassment?

If George W. Bush had misspelled the word advice would you have hammered him for it for years like Dan Quayle and potato as “proof” of what a dunce he is?

If George W. Bush had burned 9,000 gallons of jet fuel to go plant a single tree on “Earth Day”, would you have concluded he’s a hypocrite?

If George W. Bush’s administration had okayed Air Force One flying low over millions of people followed by a jet fighter in downtown Manhattan causing widespread panic, would you have wondered whether they actually “get” what happened on 9-11?

If George W. Bush had been the first President to need a teleprompter installed to be able to get through a press conference, would you have laughed and said this is more proof of how he is inept he is on his own and is really controlled by smarter men behind the scenes?

If George W. Bush had failed to send relief aid to flood victims throughout the Midwest with more people killed or made homeless than in New Orleans, would you want it made into a major ongoing political issue with claims of racism and incompetence?

If George W. Bush had ordered the firing of the CEO of a major corporation, even though he had no constitutional authority to do so, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had proposed to double the national debt, which had taken more than two centuries to accumulate, in one year, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had then proposed to double the debt again within 10 years, would you have approved?

So, tell me again, what is it about Obama that makes him so brilliant and impressive? Can’t think of anything? Don’t worry. He’s done all this in 10 weeks — so you’ll have three years and nine-and-a-half months to come up with an answer.

“Justice needs to be served, but not at the expense of innocent people - that wouldn’t be justice, would it?”

Because he wanted to pass a family business on to his son and two daughters, Charles Terrizzi started his own small company out of the converted garage behind his house. With five employees, Charles’ start-up, Chase Air, installs air conditioners in homes in Jacksonville, Florida.

Last year, Charles was working in a customer’s attic when he received a call from his service crew. He learned that a man crossed a yellow line and veered into oncoming traffic, hitting one of Chase Air’s two vans head on. The police determined that the accident was the other driver’s fault. But that didn’t stop the ticketed driver from hiring a lawyer to file a claim with Charles’ insurance, threatening to sue if they did not pay for the damages that, according to the police report, he himself caused. 

Like they do with many other claims, the insurance company decided that, not withstanding the facts of the accident, it would be more costly to fight and win in court than simply to pay a settlement, so they gave the driver $10,000. Charles said, “The sad truth is that it’s cheaper for [the insurer] to settle as if they did something wrong when they didn’t do something wrong… Thus it’s perpetuated that opportunistic lawyers can continue to do these things. They’re made stronger when who’s made weaker? The American people – the hardworking people.” 

In this case, Charles was right. After receiving the money from Charles’ insurance company, the driver and his lawyers next sued the young man who was driving the Chase Air truck. That case is still ongoing.

Speaking about the cost of lawsuits to American businesses, whether in the form of higher insurance costs, out of court settlements, or expensive legal fees, Charles said, “All these things factor into our ultimate price to our consumers, and everybody has to pay for it.” 

According to Charles, not only do the costs of liability insurance and other legal fees drive up prices, but one lawsuit could easily put his small start-up company out of business. “Justice needs to be served, but not at the expense of innocent people – that wouldn’t be justice, would it?”

For more jaw dropping cases of lawsuit abuse, visit Faces of Lawsuit Abuse.