Could someone explain this "story" to me?

It's a very simplistic way of dehumanising someone. Terrorists no matter how extreme are not rattlesnakes, they do things for a reason. By calling them rattlesnakes it 's saying they'll want to kill you no matter what you do.

Al Qaida was practically non existent in Iraq prior to the invasion. Thanks to George Bush's ineptitude they now control vast swathes of the country. That's where simplistic metaphors gets you.

If a religious extremist sent such inflammatory emails to work colleagues over here they would be disciplined. Can't you complain to someone about receiving such unsolicited garbage?

Oh yeah, it would be a big deal here too.

In this case though, I'm not going to do anything because it's not worth it to me, and would make things difficult.

To clarify, I did not receive this email from her, or anyone at this job. I saw it in her email. I'm only there 2 days a week, basically answering the phone, directing calls and people that come in. I don't even have my own email there, I just use hers for the few things I need it for, which is forwarding faxes that came to her, and other minor things. I don't even see her but one of the days, when she spells me for restroom breaks, or when I run out to pick up lunch. I only took this job because it's 2 days a week, little responsibility, and basically pocket money, or a little extra to do stuff for the house, go out to dinner, etc. I've only been there 2 months, and I don't think about being there more than a year. In other words, these people aren't part of my life, and I'm not going to throw myself under the bus over it. She, and almost everyone that works there have been there literally 15 years or more. The only position that has turnover is mine. They ususally get college students or semi retired people like me. They're all really conservative anyway. I couldn't work there if I had to deal with them, but I don't. I just answer the phone, and direct people who come in back to the service dept, or rest rooms, and get a little paycheck every 2 weeks.

To me, it's no more than if I saw this random story on the internet. I just wasn't clear on some connections.

Fair Enough.

BTW, and off the topic of the original "story", but this is an example of other crap she gets in her email and saves...

My head almost fell off when I read this...


We have an amazing God!
>
> > How Great is our God!!! Our Creator and Redeemer . . .
> and do we
>
> > THINK
>
> > about it ??? God's accuracy may be observed in the
> hatching of eggs..
> .
>
> > .
>
> > . ..For example: the eggs of the potato bug hatch in 7
> days; those
> of
>
> > the canary in 14 days; -those of the barnyard hen in 21
> days; The
> eggs
>
> > of ducks and geese hatch in 28 days; those of the
> mallard in 35 days;
>
> > the eggs of the parrot and the ostrich hatch in 42
> days.
>
> > (Notice, they are all divisible by seven, the number of
> days in a
>
> > week!)
>
> > God's wisdom is seen in the making of an elephant.
>
> > The four legs of this great beast all bend forward in
> the same
>
> > direction.
>
> > No other quadruped is so made. God planned that this
> animal would
> have
>
> > a huge body, too large to live on two legs. For this
> reason He gave
>
> > it four fulcrums so that it can rise from
> the ground
>
> > easily.
>
> > The horse rises from the ground on its two front legs
> first. A cow
>
> > rises
>
> > from the ground with its two hind legs first. How wise
> the Lord is
> in
>
> > all His works of creation!
>
> > God's wisdom is revealed in His arrangement of
> sections and
>
> > segments, as well
>
> > as in the number of grains .
>
> > -Each watermelon has an even number of stripes on the
> rind.
>
> > -Each orange has an even number of segments.
>
> > -Each ear of corn has an even number of rows.
>
> > -Each stalk of wheat has an even number of grains.
>
> > -Every bunch of bananas has on its lowest row an even
> number of
>
> > bananas, and each row
>
> > decreases by one, so that one row has an even number
> and the next
> row
>
> > an odd number.
>
> > -The waves of the sea roll in on shore twenty-six to
> the minute in
>
> > all kinds
>
> > of weather.
>
> > -All grains are found in even numbers on the stalks,
> and the Lord
>
> > specified
>
> > thirty fold, sixty fold, and a hundred fold all even
> numbers.
>
> > God has caused the flowers to blossom at certain
> specified times
>
> > during the
>
> > day. Linnaeus, the great botanist, once said that if he
> had
>
> > a
>
> > conservatory containing the right kind of soil,
> moisture and
>
> > temperature, he could tell the time of day or night by
> the flowers
> that
>
> > were open and those that were closed !
>
> > The lives of each of you may be ordered by the Lord in
> a beautiful
>
> > way for
>
> > His glory, if you will only entrust Him with your life.
> If you try
>
> > to
>
> > regulate your own life, it will only be a mess and a
> failure. Only
>
> > the One Who made the brain and the heart can
> successfully guide them
> to
>
> > a profitable end.
>
> > I HOPE YOU FIND THIS AS FASCINATING AS I DID. May God
> Bless You In
>
>
> > Ways You Never Even Dreamed.
>
> > The Bible
>
> > When you carry the Bible , Satan has a headache, when
>
> > you open it,
> he collapses, when he sees you reading it, he loses his
>
> > strength, AND when you stand on the Word
> of God ,
>
> > Satan can't hurt you!
>
> > And did you also
> know...
>
> >
>
> > Faith is not believing that God can,
>
> > it is knowing that God will.
>

Cardinals are of the devil; their eggs take 11 - 13 days to hatch.
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/northern_cardinal/lifehistory

Waves vary; their periodicity is not set at 26 per anything.
http://message.snopes.com/showthread.php?t=80892

Banana bunch rows don't decrease by one.

That's a pretty typical image; there are hundreds more like this. Just Google banana bunch on tree and use the image search.

Here's an orange with 9 segments:


GET THEE BEHIND ME, SATAN!!!

****, Chai. That is VERY dangerous words you were sent. It's rationalization city, and it spells death - WORSE story in the world, and if these words somehow are embedded into the people, there will be a lot of death. These words cannot overlap people's hatred and emotional backlashes, or there will be only bodies and blood. The words are very harrowing in its tone - the type that says "I do not give chances, I will react, and that will be the last you'll see."

Oh dear, death is being spread in words - people need to get a grip, or these words may one day be more than just words.

Jes, that picture and video were obviously photoshoped.

You're giving me a headache.

Oh NO! jespah is the devil!

What I'm trying to figure out is how a horse getting up one way and a cow another proves there is a God.

Yeah, this is great. Someone can just say anything as fact, and connect it to something else, and that makes something else true.

Re the elephants having 4 "knees"

Elephants, like all tetrapods, only have two knees (i.e. joints of the hindlimb that bend forwards). They have joints in their forelimbs that bend backwards, but those are the equivalent of our wrist joints.

http://www.askabiologist.org.uk/answers/viewtopic.php?id=8416

And if a bullfrog had wings he wouldnt bump his ass all the time...

There are 7 days in the week because there were 7 known "planets." The Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter. They're even named after them, (or the Norse gods represented by each "planet.")

The fact that there aren't 7 planets at all, and that the Sun and Moon aren't planets, whilst Earth is, means whatever you want it to mean.

Hold onto your hats folks. This one will really blow the top of your head off.

Below is another example of "humor" that this person has shared.

I read it and just about fell over. Amazingly, at some time during the day, she actually said to me "Did you see the joke so-and-so sent me"? She did it with this half smile on her face, as if she was expecting me to laugh.

What I said was "As a matter of fact I did, and was really insulted by it. I don't find humor in making fun of others background or religion. I'm surprised it was even sent, as this would be a problem with HR....you're getting a degree in HR, aren't you?"

She said "oh, I told so-and-so to send it to me. I thought she would send it to my home address."
I saw it, because as I mentioned before, I don't have an email at this job, and use hers. (She got promoted because the person who sent this joke is moving. I won't see her at all any more, thank goodness)

Read it and weep. Oh, keep in mind in the orignal all the sentences where in red, white and blue.....sheesh.

******* right wing christian republicans. These are the people who give the people of Texas a bad name.

A Mexican, an Arab,
And a TEXAS girl are
In the same bar.
When the Mexican
Finishes his beer,
He throws his glass
In the air, pulls out
His pistol, and shoots
The glass to pieces.
He says, 'In Mexico ,
Our glasses are so
Cheap we don't need
To drink with the same one twice.'
The Arab, obviously
Impressed by this,
Drinks non-alcohol beer
(cuz he's a Muslim!),
Throws it into the
Air, pulls out his
AK-47, and shoots
The glass to pieces.
He says, 'In the
Arab World, we have
So much sand to make
Glasses that we don't
Need to drink with
The same one twice either.'
The TEXAS girl,
Cool as a cucumber,
Picks up her beer,
Downs it in one gulp,
Throws the glass into
The air, whips out her
45, and shoots the
Mexican and the Arab.
Catching her glass,
Setting it on the bar, and calling for a refill,
She says,
'In TEXAS ,
We have so many
Illegal aliens that
We don't have to
Drink with the same ones twice.'
God Bless TEXAS !
IN GOD WE TRUST

I can forgive anything if a joke is funny. It's not. You're well rid of her.

I've been thinking a lot about this. Not about the woman in particular, but the scenerio.

I'm not naive, and I may not be the smarted person around, but I'm by no means dumb. It's just that I've seen this sort of thing from a distance, not knowing the person/people who fall for this sort of thing.

It's bigotry disguised behind patriotism and religion.
It's like you can say anything you want, but if at the tail end you put "God Bless America" it somehow makes it all right.

In this case, you can talk about murder, others religion of ethnicity, make fun of the fact someone doesn't drink (because he's a Muslim!....for some reason that line got me. I don't drink, I guess I'm under suspicion too. Even though I'm not a Muslim. Maybe the day will come when I'm accused of being a Muslim because I don't drink. I mean, how can I be a red blooded American if I don't?)

I guess what dismays me is how easily you can get someone to think it's not just all right, but correct thinking, by invoking the name of God or your country. Just like the name Allah is invoked. These people are angry others can kill under the name of Allah, but it's ok if you invoke the proper name of a diety. Christ almighty, as I write this, I envision all the peoples who have killed each other because they invoked the name Thor or Balthasar over Jesus or Shiva.

I must say the God Bless TEXAS ! IN GOD WE TRUST at the end of the "joke" was completely incongruous. Some people think humour is about ridiculing others, all the best comedians put themselves down.

Your workmate sounds like an awful person, the sort that Jesus mentioned when he talked about those so concerned about the speck in other people's eyes that they can't see the plank in their own.

As someone who has lived in Texas since 1991, that "God Bless Texas" thing really gets me. You never hear "God Bless New Jersey"

I'm quoting here a member of the radio game show "Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me" that quizzes callers on current events and politics when they came to my fair city, the capital, to air the show.

He said "Here we stand on the steps of the capital here in Austin, Tx, and looking out into the distance we are surrounded by Texas.

We're an island of of blue in a sea of red.

I thought Austin was very nice when I visited.

It is, and it's even bigger and nicer now.

Lots and lots of growth.

Let me know if you ever come again!

I will, but it's not likely. There's lots of places I've not seen, and a lot of those are in Europe where flights from the UK are considerably less.

This made me laugh out loud.

Country and govt are two separate things to the author.
Govt's change - Countries don't.
I adore Wales - Its coastline, countryside, mountains (big hills), its climate etc - As for its history, politics, nationalism - I give not a toss.
Geographically - Wales suits me.
Geopolitically - No idea - Don't care - It abides by uk govt processes, on the whole.

I love irony.

(For the humor impaired, this statement is especially funny given that this thread is about Texas.)