[StBernard] TRUE 925: Autocorrect | Fear of Muslims | TRUE and Kids | HTML Update

[Westley Annis]

SINCE 1994 and reaching at least 42,646 subscribers, this is the 925th
  weekly issue of Randy Cassingham's...

THIS is TRUE: 4 March            Copyright 2012 http://www.thisistrue.com
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WHAT'S BETTER THAN KNOWING THE JUDGE? Kelly S. Ballentine, 43, got three
  tickets -- two alleging parking violations, and another alleging that
  her automobile registration had expired. So, authorities said, she
  dismissed them. Ballentine is a district judge in Lancaster, Pa. The
  $268.50 she saved on the tickets, though, may cost her much more: she's
  now facing a dozen criminal charges, six of them felonies. And she's
  been placed on leave -- paid leave, because, said the county's
  president judge, "I have no power to suspend her." (AC/York Daily
  Record) ...And unlike her, he doesn't do what he has no power to do.

DAMN YOU, AUTOCORRECT! A student at a technical college sent a text
  message: "Gunna be at west hall today." West Hall is a  combination
  middle and high school in Gainesville, Ga. There were two problems with
  the message: he sent it to the wrong number, and his phone auto-
  corrected the spelling of the first word -- to "gunman". The alarmed
  recipient called police, who advised the school to go into lockdown to
  deal with the apparent threat. Once the message was tracked down to the
  sender and it became apparent that it was all a mistake, the lockdown
  was lifted. (RC/Gainesville Times) ...And to anyone who can type on a
  phone without ever making a mistake, we say this: You're a better man
  than I am, Gunman Din.

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STINK BOMBS: It all started when someone at Jones County Junior College
  in Ellisville, Miss., found what they thought was a bomb threat in the
  bathroom. They gave the toilet paper note to a teacher, who recognized
  the handwriting. Investigators eventually arrested Harold Hadley, Jr.,
  19, for writing the note, which said, "I passed a bomb in the library."
  Hadley, a straight-A student scheduled to graduate in May, insists he
  meant something different when he used the word "bomb". His aunt
  agrees: "I am going to just let modesty go and tell you we are from the
  country, and so he calls passing gas -- 'bombs'," she said, and the
  teacher "recognized his hand writing and it blow all out of
  proportion." (MS/WDAM-TV) ...In more ways than one.

S.N.A.F.U.: "I just think that it validates to the American public that
  this Congress isn't going to accomplish anything," admits Rep. Tom
  Rooney, a Republican from Florida. Despite having the lowest-ever
  approval ratings from voters, and general agreement that several bills
  desperately need to be passed, even bills that have bipartisan support
  appear unlikely to progress. "We just look dumb when we can't agree on
  simple things," Rooney says. Nah, says Rep. John Garamendi, a Democrat
  from California. "Chaos is standard procedure. We always hope that at
  the end of that, a good law will emerge." (RC/Syracuse Post-Standard)
  ..."Hope" is behind every election win, but "Failure" usually follows.

SMOKING KILLS: "North Carolina Man Accidentally Drinks from Jar of
  Gasoline, Smokes Cigarette, Causes Fire That Kills Him" -- Washington
  Post headline

THIS WEEK'S CONTRIBUTORS: MS-Mike Straw, AC-Alexander Cohen, RC-Randy
  Cassingham

DID YOU FIND an error? See http://www.thisistrue.com/errata.html

ONCE A WEEK ON TWITTER and Facebook, I've been posting a link to
  something interesting in TRUE's archives. There's a LOT of great
  material that has built up over the past nearly 18 years, and it has
  been fun to remind long-time readers, or alert new readers, to some of
  the best stuff. This week, that was "False, Crude and Offensive!" --
  the reaction to a story about the Catholic Truth Society's then-new
  special prayer to say before having sex. There were quite a few
  comments to the page at that time (2009), and it started all over again
  this week, with Edmund in Connecticut objecting that I'm happy to slam
  Catholics (and for the record, I don't think the story DID do that),
  yet I'm clearly afraid to call Muslims to task the same way. "The
  reason you don't do Muslim jokes is that you can't," he charges, "not
  without the grave risk of making yourself their target."

  I didn't rise to the bait, but long-time reader James in Texas did this
  morning, adding his own comment to point to example after example of
  where I did hold those who follow Islam to the same standard as
  everyone else: to simply be consistent in how they follow their own
  beliefs, rather than exhibit the usual "do as I say, not as I do"
  hypocrisy. The story, the original reply, and the fascinating debate
  among readers is on my blog: http://ThisIsTrue.com/d-sexprayer

STORY UPDATE: Remember the story from last April, about the gang member
  who had a murder scene tattooed on his chest? When a homicide detective
  saw a photo of the tat, he realized it accurately depicted a murder he
  was working. The guy with the tat was charged in the murder, and
  jailed. I posted the police photo of his chest on my blog.

  On Monday Jeff in Washington pointed me to an update: the jailed man
  has been collecting unemployment benefits while in jail! Three people
  have been arrested in the benefits fraud -- but not the jailed guy
  (yet!) Catch the whole story including the update here:
  http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-lets_see_if_you_can_picture_this.html

DO YOU READ TRUE TO YOUR KIDS? I've heard from several parents that they
  use these real-life stories to help teach their children not just how
  to think more clearly about the ramifications of their actions, but WHY
  they might wish to. I'd love to do a blog post about this, so please
  tell me about your experiences doing this. How old are the kids? Do you
  skip some stories? Why or why not? What sort of discussions have the
  stories led to -- and how have you seen what they've learned reflected
  in their lives? Please reply with your input, even if you've done so in
  the past, and thanks!

IN CASE YOU'VE WONDERED: I've put off the HTMLization of the newsletters
  until I finish designing and setting up the e-book collections, which
  will be released on Kindle (and probably other platforms, like iBook
  and Nook) "soon". If you have no idea what I'm talking about, see the
  discussion at http://www.thisistrue.com/d-html

                                  o o o

IT WAS A YEAR AGO (already?! Yep: 11 March) that a magnitude 9.0
  earthquake, followed by the quake-triggered tsunami, hit Japan, causing
  unimaginable destruction. TRUE's readers ponied up an amazing sum (more
  than $6,500) to send to aid the people who needed it. (I've said it
  before: TRUE's readers are some of the coolest people on Earth.) The
  horror didn't bring up the best out of everyone, though: one comment on
  my blog: "I can't believe that you actually sent money to those little
  yellow animals.They can live and fight on a sock of rice for a week,
  and your [sic] worried about feeding them!" Yes, well, there's always
  an obliviot in every crowd, eh? http://ThisIsTrue.com/d-sendai has that
  blog entry from back then, with details on how TRUE's readers helped.

FEATURED in the shopping cart this week: the hardwood, laser-engraved
  (with the "Get Out of Hell Free" card image) sticky note holder. It's
  available with or without custom-printed sticky notepads, and shipping
  is FREE to USA *and* Canada (and just $ for overseas airmail). See the
  cart's home page -- https://secure.thisistrue.com -- for the featured
  items.

THE LATEST POSTING TO JUMBO JOKE: The Massage Therapists -- a true story
  of what happened to me last night. http://www.JumboJoke.com

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EIGHT MORE STORIES: 1.7 pounds of marijuana was hidden in WHAT?!
  Supermarket shoplifter manages to stuff more than $11,000 worth of
  merchandise into his car, but he didn't get away with it -- again.
  Women who were robbed were able to accurately describe robber, thanks
  to the fact he was wearing his girlfriend's pink Victoria's Secret
  hoodie.... Charter school dramatically improves class attendance -- by
  paying students to come to school. Woman's excuse for why she beat up
  her boyfriend is a bit boggling. Intruder into woman's apartment didn't
  take anything, but what he DID do was quite interesting (and he was
  still arrested). What happened after woman "saved" rats from a pet
  store. Man busted for DUI calls his dad to bail him out, but that leads
  to another problem.... The full version of TRUE has at least 10 stories
  each week, often more. You don't have to continue to miss MOST of the
  stories: upgrades start at just $10. http://thisistrue.com/upgrade.html
  has the details.

TEN YEARS AGO IN TRUE: Con artists rip off "pilgrims" visiting the graves
  of al Qaida fighters. http://www.thisistrue.com/8065

  And don't forget http://i.thisistrue.com for a new story every day on
  your Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, or other web-enabled phone!

THIS WEEK'S HONORARY UNSUBSCRIBE goes to William Hamilton. A theologian,
  Hamilton dared to ask, out loud, "Is God Dead?" Read what happened
  next: http://www.HonoraryUnsubscribe.com/william_hamilton.html

YOU CAN REALLY HELP TRUE: Send this issue (in its entirety, please) to a
  friend with your personal recommendation. A friend told YOU about this
  newsletter, right? Pass the favor on! Thanks.

TIRED OF BEING TOLD WHERE TO GO? "Get Out of Hell Free" with our popular
  and (in?)famous cards, created in response to a reader telling Randy he
  was doomed. http://www.GOOHF.com

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COPYRIGHT 2012 by Randy Cassingham, All Rights Reserved. All stories are
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