Just thought I’d alert everyone to a common internet scam since I was victim of it. Probably a number of you are or have been victims since it’s connected to a large number of internet retailers. I believe it started with me when I clicked to check out an offer for ten dollars off my next purchase of 1800Flowers. Unbeknownst to me, that very act sent my credit card information to another company which then started charging me $7 a month for services I was unaware of from some company called Webloyalty. It appeared under the name “WLI Reservations Rewards” and I had been getting it for some time and was too lazy to check it out (which is how the scam works since it only charges between $7 and $10 a month hoping people won’t notice and care).
Luckily, as part of the scam, they’re quick to give you money back so you won’t complain. It was pretty telling that the automated system for them had plenty of options for quickly canceling with them. Also, when I got a person on the line and demanded all the money back they had taken (I had not challenged these charges for over a year), the guy said, “While it is not our usual policy to refund more than one month, the credit will appear on your next credit card statement,” in a way that made it sound like he had said it a thousand times before.
Still, I’m going to make sure to put in a complaint to someone. Check out all about the scam here and the list of web businesses that let these scammers operate through them (it’s a big list and most likely you have done business with some of them; 1800Flowers has ended its relationship with Webloyalty, though).
It’s pretty scummy, and the really annoying thing is how many internet businesses are complicit in it.

Hot Air has the second part to the Mark Steyn interview up. I’m really enjoying the book America Alone as it’s both funny from Steyn’s writing style and also really scary because of the subject matter. Still, I’m quite skeptical of any book predicting doomsday (and, Steyn seems to be too as the book lists all the other books predicting doomsday, such as The Population Bomb, that ended up being completely wrong in its predictions), but it’s quite interesting to have something saying that too few births is what is going to cause our problems versus the usual mantra (that continues to today) of overpopulation.
After I finish the book, I’ll probably look up the science and math behind it myself. Of course, the main problem of any predictions about the future is you never know how science and unforeseen events will change things. Even so, it does seem pretty certain that at least Europe is doomed.
DOOOOOOOMED!
Oh well.
Also, Mary Katherine Ham has a hilarious new HamNation about all the hidden racism in ads today.
Whatever software she’s using to do all those video effects, I need to get that…

One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
Not much between you and penis ectasy
One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
Can’t be too careful with an old story
I can feel my election prospects slipping away from me…

Seriously, even if Webb wins now, he going to be stuck with every picture of him captioned “Mmm… penis.”
So, do you think the Macaca/Penis-Eater race has any hilarity left between now and November 7th?

Apparently, Virginia Senate candidate Jim Webb thinks that a man placing his four year-old son’s penis in his mouth is not a sexual act:

Among the excerpts is a scene from the 2002 novel “Lost Soldiers,” in which a man embraces his four-year-old son and places the boy’s penis in his mouth.
Webb said the release of the excerpts was “a Karl Rove campaign tactic” and a “classic example of the way this campaign has worked. It’s smear after smear.”
He defended his fiction as “illuminative.”
“It’s not a sexual act,” Webb told Plotkin regarding the “Lost Soldiers” excerpt. “I actually saw this happen in a slum in Bangkok when I was there as a journalist.”
“The duty of a writer is to illuminate the surroundings,” he added.

I’m just waiting for him to make a play for the Jewish vote by claiming this was an emergency circumcision.
I mean, how many rabbis could there possibly be in the slums of Bangkok?
(Or should I not ask?)

Iran doubles it’s Uranium enrichment capacity, so Bush doubles down…

“We must double our effort to work with the international community to persuade the Iranians that there is only isolation from the world if they continue working forward on such a program,” Bush said in a news conference on Friday. “Whether they’ve doubled it [uranium enrichment capacity] or not, the idea of Iran having a nuclear weapon is unacceptable? We’re working with the United Nations to send a common message.”

Wait… wait… I know this one…

Continue reading ‘Double Double, International Trouble’ »

Many of you aren’t familiar with the literary works of Jim Webb, Democratic Senate Candidate for Virginia.
Turns out that Jim Webb wrote some bad books which featured the phrase Monkey Face, plus used some “bad words” referring to black people, and featured father-toddler fellatio. Personally, I’m glad to see the Democrats still stand for family values.
Of course, I never want to take anything out of context, so here, without permission, is a complete reprinting of the segments in question.
**
From the book: Daddy’s Little Boy is All Grown Up
Jim was a war veteran and glad to be back on this sunny tropic beach. As he walked along looking at the water, he thought to himself, ‘Could it be possible one day that the ocean levels would rise because of man’s insane desire to create more and more biodiesel fuels, leading to a greenhouse effect that would raise the levels of the ocean sea?” Then off in the distance he saw his young son running toward him. The boy was 4 maybe 5 years old, depending on the state’s age of consent. As they hugged, he took off his son’s pants, as oddly enough, really bad chickawomp womp guitar music played in the background.
**
From the non racist Jim Webb (D) book: Johnny and the Jigaboo
Johnny looked at her and her monkey face. Did he say monkey? that would be insulting as nobody in their right mind could think that people descended from monkeys or anything. What he meant to think was that she was more like a macaca – a species or genus of monkey, he wasn’t sure but didn’t feel like looking it up as that would cause more work and ruin the tender moment.
He looked at her, “I’ll have to leave this exotic bar area and go find a knife to use to cut up this banana.”
She put down her peanuts and looked at him seductively. “I have a better way of slicing a banana.” She then put it down beneath the table where it couldn’t be seen by Johnny or anyone reading this under the age of 13. “Here,” she said. And gave him back his banana in four slices.
“Wow. That was great. Now slice THIS!.” He handed her a cantaloupe.
**
From the Women Respecting book by Jim Webb called “Shake your ass back to that kitchen.”
Margaret was tired of all her hard work. “I cook and cook for you and you never eat anything. All you do is sit there and look at those young boys on the beach frolicking.”
I worry about them. I worry about them and having older men send them flirty messages which might corrupt those young kids. Anyway, why should you have an opinion? You’re just a woman. In this day and age, women don’t have the same rights as men. They never will. Now wiggle your butt to the living room and turn on some Monday Night Football.”
She walked away angry and upset, her gigantic, glistening bosoms heaving from anger.
**
Dear IMAO readers, this is obviously a plot by Karl Rove and it will soon be exposed as such. I think it’s shameful that the Republicans are resorting to quoting from books written by Mr. Webb when they were very obviously written for the general public and not meant for conservative consumption. I’m not sure, but it’s safe to guess that we are somehow violating Mr. Webb’s (and the American public’s) privacy.
You should all be ashamed of yourselves.