The Religious Chain Letter

Posted on January 2, 2013 by The Old Wolf

Occasionally I will get this sort of thing in my mailbox. I have to say I remember my mother typing chain letters with carbon paper and sending them to myriads of people in the 50’s… but now with electronic communication, it’s possible to annoy millions without effort or cost.

Look at this Picture Closely

The President of Argentina received this picture and called it “junk mail”: 8 days later his son died. A man received this picture and immediately sent out copies: His surprise was winning the lottery. Alberto Martinez received this picture and gave it to his secretary to make copies but she forgot to distribute it – She lost her job and he lost his family. This picture is miraculous and sacred.”

You were chosen to receive this novena (prayer).

The moment you receive it, say :

[Insert the Lord’s Prayer here]

GOD WANTED ME TO TELL YOU, It shall be well with you this coming year.

No matter how much your enemies try this year, they will not succeed.
You have been destined to make it and you shall surely achieve all your goals this year.
For all of 2013, all your agonies will be diverted and victory and prosperity will be incoming in abundance.
Today God has confirmed the end of your sufferings, sorrows and pain because HE that sits on the throne has remembered you.
He has taken away the hardships and given you JOY. He will never let you down.

I knocked at heaven’s door this morning.
God asked me, “My child! What can I do for you?”
And I said, “Father, please protect and bless the person reading this message.”

This is a Novena from Mother Theresa that started in 1952.

It has never been broken. Within 48 hours send 20 copies (Or as many as you can – God does know if you don’t have 20 people to send it to – it’s the effort and intent that counts) to family and friends.

Do not send it back to the person who sent it to you.

This is a powerful Novena. Can only help. All prayer is powerful.

Please do not break it.

Now: I have nothing against sending out good energy, or prayer. I appreciate people who exercise their faith on my behalf. But I have serious issues with this kind of email because they’re – to be charitable – a crock of .

I’m supposed to believe that

I was “chosen” to receive this special communication (along with the countless other “unspecified recipients”)
Some stock photo taken off the Internet is miraculous and sacred
Some really bad writing can be attributed to Mother Teresa in 1952
The chain has never been broken
If I send it to 20 friends, I’ll have amazing luck
If I don’t send it on, I’m opening myself to apocalyptic consequences, loss of job, family, life, and limb. (The idea that a prayer for the blessing of people would automatically morph into a curse if not sent onwards defies logic. Oh wait, we’re talking about religion, excuse me.)

People! In the name of anything you hold sacred or worthy of respect, if you want to send good energy to your friends, great. Pray for them privately (see Matthew 6:6 if you’ve forgotten the admonition), but please don’t forward hqiz like this. Above and beyond all the things I mentioned above, some of the folks in your address book will invariably be humanists or atheists, and you don’t want to send them to the hospital with intense pain caused by prolonged and forceful eye-rolling.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Instagram Users: READ THIS!

Posted on December 18, 2012 by The Old Wolf

Yes, I’m SHOUTING! Because it’s important.

How would you feel about a beautiful picture of your significant other being used as part of an ad campaign for Trojan condoms? For free, and without your permission? Which Facebook would have collected money for?

CNET.com is reporting today (along with Wired.com and other sources, that as of January 16th, they will now have the right to sell your photos without payment or notification. Oh, and there’s no way to opt out.

My first response was,

After thinking about it for 0.62 seconds, I was more like this:

From the CNET article:

“Instagram said today that it has the perpetual right to sell users’ photographs without payment or notification, a dramatic policy shift that quickly sparked a public outcry. The new intellectual property policy, which takes effect on January 16, comes three months after Facebook completed its acquisition of the popular photo-sharing site. Unless Instagram users delete their accounts before the January deadline, they cannot opt out.”

Fortunately, Wired gives instructions on how you can download your photos and delete your account. That massive sucking sound you hear? No, it’s not NAFTA – it’s the mad rush of users to clear out their pictures before every shot they ever took becomes free fodder for the largest stock photo database in the world.

Seriously. What ragskull in the corporate chain thought this up, what morons approved it, and who in their right mind thinks they can get away with it? I have never seen anything so egregiously arrogant in my life.

Edit: Here’s a photo of one of the potential ragskulls:

Kevin Systrom, Instagram’s CEO

Dear Kevin:

I have never used Instagram, but I wonder how long it will be before the people at Facebook decide to change their photo policies over on the main FB site? If they do, all my photos are coming down faster than a fly settles on a rotting mango.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Senseless criticism

Posted on December 7, 2012 by The Old Wolf

I saw this posted over on Facebook today, on a fan page called “Being Liberal.”

What caught my attention was the prominent picture of the Salt Lake temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, of which I happen to be a member. There were 3,191 comments when last I checked and the debate was in large part your typical flame war between believers and anti-religionsists.

My response at the Facebook page was as follows:

“A picture of this nature is disingenuous and divisive by nature because it cannot convey even a fraction of the big picture. If, for example, you were to put the dollar value of such structures in a chart next to the dollar value of aid rendered by the organization to the disadvantaged or suffering throughout the world, and then in a third column, the dollar value of personal contributions and charitable service to society made by those who belong to your group, that might actually have some statistical value. Since such comparisons are impossible to quantify, the picture has relatively little empirical value other than to engender bitter polemics. If we were to reduce the massive expenditure down to the least common denominator, one could argue that it’s immoral to have a banana for breakfast when millions in Africa have none. One could create a similar montage of vast expenditures by secular organizations and make exactly the same point, so for me the net impact of the picture is an ill-advised and baseless attack on religion for no other reason than a personal bias.”

At the same page, I found this image:

Once again, the LDS Church is targeted. Granted, the conference center (pictured) may have cost more than $350 million to build. At the same time, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as an organization has donated more than $1 billion in cash and material assistance to 167 different countries in need of humanitarian aid since it started keeping track in 1985, and this is over and above the charitable efforts of its individual members. And from the pulpit pictured above is broadcast to the world on a regular basis messages of hope, of faith, of goodness, of charity, and of service, messages which inspire Church members to live lives in harmony with the teachings of the historical Jesus.

For the sake of comparison, the Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest, Romania, built by the avowed atheist and communist Nicolae Ceauşescu, is estimated to have cost over €3 billion.

There’s a better way to spend one’s energy than tearing down organizations that do a lot of good, simply because one doesn’t happen to ascribe to the philosophy or theology upon which they are based. From a social standpoint, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with either faith or atheism – both systems are capable of tremendous human good and tremendous douchebaggery. Quiet service and the creation of positive energy trumps the public mockery of the beliefs of others any day – at least in my book.

The Old Wolf has spoken.