By now everyone has seen the Barack Obama slander emails. You know how they go. They usually start like this.
"If you do not ever forward anything else, please forward this to all your contacts... this is very scary to think of what lies ahead of us here in our own United States... better heed this and pray about it and share it."
My boss would kill me if he know what I were doing but I have a response that's getting sent to countless email contacts. I always wondered (and still do) how these things started. Now I want to see if I can blanket the Internets with something unusual - the truth. Follow me below the fold for more...
This morning I received a forwarded email about Obama. I wrote a little response that got sent to the sender and all other recipients on the list. I'd like to see this sent to everyone who forwards this crap.
Here it is:
ATTENTION! ATTENTION!! ATTENTION!!! ATTENTION!!!! ATTENTION!!!!!
PLEASE READ NOW AND FORWARD TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW!!!
If you have a brain in your head you would realize that this email about Barack Obama is filled with LIES and completely unsupported false assertions that are explicitly designed to smear Obama and scare you with a Muslin boogeyman that doesn’t exist.
Don’t believe me? Then go to snopes.com and find out for yourself. Contrary to the statement made at the beginning of the email, i.e., "We checked this out on ' snopes.com'. It is factual. Check for yourself." this email is ABSOLUTELY NOT FACTUAL. CHECK FOR YOURSELF! Snopes.com directly contradicts every false statement made in the foregoing email. Here’s the link:
http://www.snopes.com/...
Can you say urban legend?
Let’s take a look at the facts.
- This is "very scary." What’s scary? There’s a bunch of made up BS in this email that the writer wants to scare you with. I’d like to know who originated this. Who wrote it and who wants you to be afraid? If you’re scared by made up unsubstantiated BS that’s obviously written by a radical right-wing fear monger then you’re not worthy of citizenship in the great country of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. I want to live in a country where citizens are forthrightly interested in the truth, don’t allow themselves to be buffaloed by fear mongers and don’t cower in fear because some unknown LYING A-HOLE EMAIL WRITER wants you to be afraid. Again I say: WHO WROTE IT AND WHO WANTS YOU TO BE AFRAID?
- Obama is not a "probable" presidential candidate. He IS a candidate. The moronic writing in the first paragraph (and throughout the entire email) reveals the writer’s agenda and ignorance of logical thinking and the ability to fact check. An uneducated writing style like this (along with EXTENSIVE USE OF ALL CAPS) is usually a tip off that someone is spreading ignorant, hateful and untrue rumors.
- Here are some of the LIES. Obama DOES NOT take "great care to conceal the fact that he is a Muslim." There’s a simple reason for this. Obama is a Christian who attends the United Church of Christ. Just because the writer says someone is a Muslim doesn’t make it so. And Obama never said, "He was once a Muslim..." Then, to further muddy the waters about the truth in the same paragraph, "Muslim" morphs into "Catholic" and finally into "radical." THIS STUFF DOESN’T MAKE ANY SENSE! If you can’t recognize the rhetorical shenanigans the writer is up to and the complete lack of substantiation for ANY of the claims made then you need to go back to school and learn how to read and how to THINK.
- There’s NO EVIDENCE that Lolo Soetoro was a "RADICAL Muslim." Again, just because the email writer says it doesn’t make it so.
- The school Obama attended was an Indonesian public school not a "MUSLIM school in Jakarta" and, CONTRARY to another false assertion made later in the email, the Indonesian public school that Obama attended in Jakarta was not a "Wahabi" school. Once again the writer simply made this up because he or she wants to scare you. One question I have is: Are you an AMERICAN or a ‘chickens**t?
- Please note this significant LOGICAL INCONSISTENCY! In one paragraph the writer starts out, "Obama’s introduction to Islam came via his father..." Immediately in the next paragraph he says, "Lolo Soetoro, the second husband of Obama’s mother, Ann Dunham, introduced his stepson to Islam." Well, which is it? You can only have one "introduction to Islam." It seems clear the writer is, once again, just making stuff up. ASK YOURSELF: Is it worth your time to read this type UNTRUE, MADE UP, ILLOGICAL crap?
- MAJOR SLANDEROUS LIE: Obama did not use a Koran for his U.S. Senate swearing in ceremony. Actually, no Bible is used in the official CIVIL swearing in ceremony. He did use a Bible in his later personal unofficial ceremonial swearing in ceremony. This statement is so OBVIOUSLY UNTRUE that it raises the question: HOW MANY LIES DOES A LIAR HAVE TO TELL BEFORE YOU KNOW FOR SURE THAT HE’S A LIAR?
- MORE COMPLETELY UNTRUE SLANDEROUS LIES: "Obama will NOT recite the Pledge of Allegiance [...] Obama turns his back and slouches." Aside from being easy to check and totally untrue, this MAKE NO SENSE WHATSOEVER! What presidential candidate who wants to be elected would actually disrespect the American flag on the campaign trail in front of thousands of witnesses? Certainly not a secretly "RADICAL Muslim" who was trying to trick everyone by pretending to be a Christian so he could become president and destroy "the US from the inside out." Wouldn’t it make more sense for a stealth, sleeper-cell, black, RADICAL Wahabi Muslim candidate who wanted to destroy America to at least go through the motions of pretending to honor and respect the flag? Wouldn’t that make more sense?
- FINALLY: If you’ve received this particular BIGOTED and LIE-FILLED email, you probably also received the one with the picture of Obama on stage with Hillary and John McCain ALLEGEDLY not holding his hand over his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance. (You probably know where I’m going with this by now.) You may have guessed that the email was a BIG LIE as well sent out by a BIG LIAR. The picture was taken during the playing of the Star Spangled Banner and NOT the Pledge of Allegiance. In case you don’t know, it is NOT CUSTOMARY to cover your heart during the National Anthem. You should stand up (which Obama did) and if you’re in the military you’re required to salute. But some people put their hand over the heart and some don’t during the National Anthem. The writer of that email was LYING and hoping you’d believe it. I hope you’re not that stupid. Again I ask: HOW MANY LIES DOES A LIAR HAVE TO TELL BEFORE YOU KNOW FOR SURE THAT HE’S A LIAR?
That’s about all I have to say. I’m proud to be an American but I’m not proud when my fellow citizens read, believe and forward LIE-FILLED, LIBELOUS AND HATEFUL emails.
Please make an effort of get informed and start thinking for yourself!