Another Urban Legend: Invitation Facebook Virus

PLEASE CIRCULATE THIS NOTICE TO YOUR FRIENDS, FAMILY, CONTACTS!

In the coming days, you should be aware.....Do not open any message with an attachment called: Invitation FACEBOOK , regardless of who sent it.

It is a virus that opens an OlympIc torch that burns the whole hard disc C of your computer.

This virus will be received from someone you had in your address book. That's why you should send this message to all your contacts. It is better to receive this email 25 times than to receive the virus and open it..

 This came in our mail today, so naturally I researched it. These always seem to come with a link to Snopes saying they claim the report is true. I checked the link in the letter and it refers us to a completely different virus that was true*, but not so the email they quote:

If you receive an email called: Invitation FACEBOOK, though sent by a friend, do not open it and delete it immediately. It is the worst virus announced by CNN.
 A new virus has been discovered recently that has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever.
It is a Trojan Horse that asks you to install an adobe flash plug-in. Once you install it, it's all over. And there is no repair yet for this kind of virus. This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital information of their function is saved.
SNOPES SAYS THIS IS TRUE
*http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/facebook.asp

Bing

Snopes calls it a hoax, but their site will not permit cutting and pasting their text.


TruthorFiction reports:

The Truth:  Update 09/22/11: A new version of this warning has begun circulating about the popular network site Facebook saying that the Invitation will burn the whole hard disc on computer C: drives.
Update 04/05/10: A new version of this fictitious virus warning is back in circulation saying not to open any attachment called "Black in the White House."   This virus warning, which originally began circulating at the opening of the 2006 Winter Olympics in February, is a hoax.  There is no such virus.
One of the clues that the eRumor is a hoax is that it borrows language from another classic virus hoax.  The reference to CNN, the description that Microsoft has classified it as "the most destructive virus ever," the contention that it was discovered "yesterday" by McAfee, and the reference to the "Zero Sector" of the hard disc are all wording borrowed from a classic Internet virus hoax about "A Card for You."updated 09/22/11

So these are old, but they keep going around in a modified form as you can see in the above text, which came in my mailbox today. TD

Obama in denial

 Michael Gerson  "One would think, given so much practice, that the Obama White House would have been better prepared for last week’s wretched jobs report.  

"Instead, we witnessed the five stages of bad public relations. Delusion: It was a “step in the right direction.” Dismissiveness: Don’t “read too much into any one monthly report.” Grudging acceptance: “It’s still tough out there.” Cliche: “There are no quick fixes.” Self-pity: “I suspect that most people in Cincinnati would acknowledge that I’ve tried real hard.” "

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/2012/07/12/100906

Fast and Furious Is Not a D.C. Law Firm

Ann Coulter  "Most Americans don't care about whether Attorney General Eric Holder is hiding Fast and Furious documents because they don't understand the story.

"Until someone can tell us otherwise, there is only one explanation for why President Obama's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives gave thousands of guns to Mexican drug dealers: It put guns in their hands to strengthen liberals' argument for gun control."

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/2012/07/06/100828

...."It would be as if the Bush administration had implemented a covert operation to dump a dangerous abortifacient in Planned Parenthood clinics, resulting in hundreds of women dying -- just to give pro-lifers an argument about how dangerous abortion clinics are."

Running Out of Excuses on Iran

Jonathan S. Tobin  "Though even the president will occasionally say that no options are being left off the table, the administration has been doing its best to argue that military strikes would only give the West a temporary respite. But, as Lee Smith writes in Tablet, the claim that strikes on Iran wouldn’t effectively end the threat tell us more about the president’s unwillingness to use force than it does about its effect on Iran."
....Keane is right. The whole thrust of American diplomacy has tended to reinforce Iran’s belief that President Obama is a paper tiger who will never challenge them. (Emphasis added)

http://www.capoliticalreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Iran-Obama-Nuclear-Bomb.jpg

The Texas Voter ID Law challenge

Texas Voter ID on Life Support  "Other states can learn a lesson from what is happening in a Washington, D.C., courtroom to the Texas Voter ID law.  Take as much time as you need to prepare the case.  Keep the constitutional challenge close in time to the trial on the merits.  Don’t generate statistical data that hurt your case.  And most of all, be prepared to wage war in a battle of experts.  Otherwise the burden shift of Section 5 will be the undoing of other state Voter ID laws."


Texas Photo-ID Law Vetted For Voter Bias In U.S. Trial  "The Obama administration’s claim that Texas’s voter identification law will keep blacks and Hispanics away from the polls this November will be tested in a week-long federal trial that started today in Washington."

Texas officials defend voter ID law, citing votes cast by felons, corpses  "A Texas elections official, Brian Ingram, testified that felons, non-citizens and those declared dead have voted in past elections, including the May primaries.

" “It’s more common than we thought – and it’s troubling,” Ingram said."

Trees have souls and we give them names, but...

Two more urban legends to discuss

Obama and the "D-Day Monument" Only 3 Times...Only 3 (Link to Snopes, which calls it false)

In all the years since D-Day 1945, there are three occasions when a president failed to go to the D-Day Monument that honors the soldiers killed during the Invasion. Only Three Times.
The occasions were:
1. Barack Obama 2010
2. Barack Obama 2011
3. Barack Obama 2012

The Tunnel Wall covered these rumors a month ago


False: "Starbucks does not support the war, nor anyone in it, and that they would not send the troops their brand of coffee."


Also refuted at TruthOrFiction and it includes this apology from Sgt Wright, who wrote the original rumor:

Almost 5 months ago I sent an e-mail to you my faithful friends.  I did a wrong thing that needs to be cleared up. I heard by word of mouth about how Starbucks said they didn't support the war and all.  I was having enough of that kind of talk and didn't do my research properly like I should have.  This is not true.  Starbucks supports men and women in uniform. They have personally contacted me and I have been sent many copies of their company's policy on this issue.  So I apologize for this quick and wrong letter that I sent out to you. 

This column by Snopes does discuss another e-rumor about one Starbucks store charging 9-11 rescue workers $130 for three cases of water: True: Starbucks charged 9-11 rescue workers $130 for three cases of water It was later corrected by Starbucks, but done rather poorly.

So, these three German Shepherds walk into a bar...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60LU71vNRYg

Hat tip to John Paul Curnutt, former classmate from Oregon

Top 5 Reasons to Repeal Obamacare

Heritage   "Heritage has laid out the impacts of Obamacare on the American people—and according to a poll released this week, a majority of Americans agree that Obamacare should be repealed. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius took to the pages of The Washington Post this week to re-argue the Administration’s positions, claiming basically the opposite of the havoc Obamacare is wreaking on the U.S. economy and health care system.

As Congress takes up the issue, we present the Top 5 Reasons to Repeal Obamacare:"....

ttp://townhall.com/political-cartoons/2012/07/06/100783

Putin nails it

Neal Boortz  "Monday of this week Putin said that the West – and by this he means America – is in decline as the American economy recedes.  It’s tempting, of course, to disregard these comments from a Russian leader.  After all, for most of our lives we’ve been having either Soviet or Russian leaders talk about the decline of the west.  Well .. this time they may have a point."

The ‘God Particle’ and God

Dennis Prager; Without God, major scientific discoveries have no meaning.  "Not only is science incapable of discovering why there is existence; scientists also confront the equally frustrating fact that the more they discover about the universe, the more they realize they do not know."

Does the 'God Particle' Prove that God Does or Does Not Exist  "So the term God particle was first used by a scientist, but was picked up and popularized by the media. It's catchy and enhances interest in the subject among the public. But like so much else that the media promotes, it is misleading and inappropriate."

Texas refuses to expand Medicaid or establish health-care exchange

bostonherald.com

"AUSTIN, Texas — In a sharply worded letter to federal officials Monday, Gov. Rick Perry said Texas will not participate in two key programs under the Affordable Care Act, noting that the law recently approved by the U.S. Supreme Court "will find no foothold here."

"Perry said Texas will not expand Medicaid, forgoing an estimated $13 billion a year in federal money from 2014 to 2017, and will not create a health care exchange, an online market that would allow uninsured people to shop for coverage.

" "Please relay this message to the president," Perry wrote to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. "Both represent brazen intrusions into the sovereignty of our state." "