A new anti-gay urban legend
Buck Foss
set him up on the internet. A new urban legend with a nasty anti-soc.motss
overtones. Also, my uncle's willingness to publish to EVERYONE he knows
gives a prime example of how these idiotic things spread.
From my dear uncle Jim:
I don't know if this is true or not BUT why take a chance. A friend sent it
to me so I am forwarding it to my mailing list. - Jim
***********DANGEROUS PRANK:*****************
Please read and forward to anyone you know who drives.
My name is Captain Abraham Sands of the Jacksonville,
Florida Police Department. I have been asked by state and
local authorities to write this email in order to get the word
out to car drivers of a very dangerous prank that is occurring
in numerous states. Some person or persons have been
affixing hypodermic needles to the underside of gas pump
handles. These needles appear to be infected with HIV
positive blood. In the Jacksonville area alone there have
been 17 cases of people being stuck by these
needles over the past five months. We have verified reports
of at least 12 others in various states around the country.
It is believed that these may be copycat incidents due to
someone reading about the crimes or seeing them reported
on the television. At this point no one has been arrested and
catching the perpetrator(s) has become our top priority.
Shockingly, of the 17 people who where stuck, eight have
tested HIV positive and because of the nature of the disease,
the others could test positive in a couple years. Evidently the
consumers go to fill their car with gas, and when picking up the
pump handle get stuck with the infected needle.
IT IS IMPERATIVE TO CAREFULLY CHECK THE HANDLE
of the gas pump each time you use one. LOOK AT EVERY
SURFACE YOUR HAND MAY TOUCH, INCLUDING UNDER
THE HANDLE.
If you do find a needle affixed to one, immediately
contact your local police department so they can collect the
evidence.
PLEASE HELP US BY MAINTAINING A VIGILANCE AND BY
FORWARDING THIS EMAIL TO ANYONE YOU KNOW WHO
DRIVES. THE MORE PEOPLE WHO KNOW OF THIS THE
BETTER PROTECTED WE CAN ALL BE.
Jeffrey C. Butler
Dennis Lewis
news:8igu7u$3gd$1...@bob.news.rcn.net...
>
> My name is Captain Abraham Sands of the Jacksonville,
> Florida Police Department.
OH MY GOD! This even prompted a rebuttal to be published in Friday's
edition of The Florida Times-Union. The first I'd heard of this thing was
when I read the disclaimer in Friday's paper.
Fortunate it was in Friday's paper since Friday is the only day I get the
T-U (for the movie ads). And fortunately I hadn't yet dumped yesterday's
paper in the recycling bin down the street. Here's the rebuttal, which was
written by T-U reporter Kathleen Sweeney and ran above the fold on the
front of the Metro section:
______________________________________
E-mail called hoax
An e-mail message titled "Dangerous Prank" circulating throughout the
country claiming there are hypodermic needles attached to the underside of
gas pump handles in Jacksonville is a hoax.
The "Capt. Abraham Sands" who is credited with sending out the e-mail
doesn't even work at the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, police said
yesterday.
The message says people are attaching the needles infected with
HIV-positive blood to gas pump handles. It says that in the Jacksonville
area, there were 17 cases of people being stuck. Jacksonville police say
that's not true.
"It's the Internet individuals who can stir up a stink," said detective
Chris Robinson of the Sheriff's Office Intelligence Unit.
Police said whoever is sending out the bogus message could face criminal
charges.
josephk
mud-shrimp mom story. See
http://urbanlegends.about.com/science/urbanlegends/library/bllobster.htm
In article <8igu7u$3gd$1...@bob.news.rcn.net>, Buck Foss
<bf...@bigfoot.com> wrote:
> From my 83 year old great uncle in Idaho - who is simply enchanted since I
> set him up on the internet. A new urban legend with a nasty anti-soc.motss
> overtones. Also, my uncle's willingness to publish to EVERYONE he knows
> gives a prime example of how these idiotic things spread.
>
> From my dear uncle Jim:
>
> I don't know if this is true or not BUT why take a chance. A friend sent it
> to me so I am forwarding it to my mailing list. - Jim
>
> ***********DANGEROUS PRANK:*****************
> Please read and forward to anyone you know who drives.
>
> My name is Captain Abraham Sands of the Jacksonville,
> Florida Police Department. I have been asked by state and
> local authorities to write this email in order to get the word
> out to car drivers of a very dangerous prank that is occurring
> in numerous states.
-----------8<--------
josephk
jkanuch at earthlink dot net
Edgar J. Lawrence II
"Dennis Lewis" <d...@sprynet.com> wrote:
[snip]
> E-mail called hoax
>
> An e-mail message titled "Dangerous Prank" circulating throughout the
> country claiming there are hypodermic needles attached to the
underside of
> gas pump handles in Jacksonville is a hoax.
[snip]
Unfortunately, it will probably continue to circulate
for a long time. Consider how long the "FCC petition"
hoax continued to circulate, even after O'Hair's disappearance.
Edgar
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
Gregg Johnson
>
> [snip]
>
> Unfortunately, it will probably continue to circulate
> for a long time. Consider how long the "FCC petition"
> hoax continued to circulate, even after O'Hair's disappearance.
>
> Edgar
>
> Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
> Before you buy.
>
Con-tin-UED? I wish... Got it twice last week, even after telling the
memory-impaired people about these emails less than a month ago. What
if we mandate that every email tagline must include a hyperlink to
an "Urban Legend" database? :-)
Gregg
Edgar J. Lawrence II
Gregg Johnson <greg...@my-deja.com> wrote:
> In article <8ilidk$ol8$1...@nnrp1.deja.com>,
> >
> > [snip]
> >
> > Unfortunately, it will probably continue to circulate
> > for a long time. Consider how long the "FCC petition"
> > hoax continued to circulate, even after O'Hair's disappearance.
>
the
> memory-impaired people about these emails less than a month ago.
I would have thought that the publicity about the
trials connected with her disappearance would have put the
kibosh on further uses of the hoax. Evidently, some
religious propagandists don't even have minimal competence.
One of the later examples of the hoax was a Xmas version
last year sent around by the pastor of the local MCC
congregation. I informed her of the truth about the hoax,
but she did not disavow the hoax, she just forwarded my
e-mail around with no real comment.
> What if we mandate that every email tagline must include
> a hyperlink to an "Urban Legend" database? :-)
Oh, you'd probably have someone whining that people's
"freedom of thought" or something was being suppressed.
Christian Hansen
>From my 83 year old great uncle in Idaho - who is simply enchanted since I
>set him up on the internet. A new urban legend with a nasty anti-soc.motss
>overtones. Also, my uncle's willingness to publish to EVERYONE he knows
>gives a prime example of how these idiotic things spread.
>
>From my dear uncle Jim:
>
>I don't know if this is true or not BUT why take a chance. A friend sent it
>to me so I am forwarding it to my mailing list. - Jim
>
> ***********DANGEROUS PRANK:*****************
> Please read and forward to anyone you know who drives.
><snip to:>
>affixing hypodermic needles to the underside of gas pump
>handles.
><rest of urban legend snipped>
It's an interesting twist on the one that a certain .net-god of my
acquaintance forwarded to another list on which I'm active--in that one, the
hypodermic needles were in the coin return slots of public phones.
The aforesaid .net-god ended by telling people to leave their change in the
coin return slots for poor people to take, rather than risking the needles.
Chris "Of course, I and several others pointed out that this would mean that
the poor people would get stuck with the needles in getting their change."
Hansen
--
Chris Hansen | chris at hansenhome dot demon dot co dot uk
http://www.hansenhome.demon.co.uk
Eric Bohlman
: In article <8invto$9pi$1...@nnrp1.deja.com>,
: Gregg Johnson <greg...@my-deja.com> wrote:
: > In article <8ilidk$ol8$1...@nnrp1.deja.com>,
: > >
: > > [snip]
: > >
: > > Unfortunately, it will probably continue to circulate
: > > for a long time. Consider how long the "FCC petition"
: > > hoax continued to circulate, even after O'Hair's disappearance.
: >
: > Con-tin-UED? I wish... Got it twice last week, even after telling
: the
: > memory-impaired people about these emails less than a month ago.
:
: I would have thought that the publicity about the
: trials connected with her disappearance would have put the
: kibosh on further uses of the hoax. Evidently, some
: religious propagandists don't even have minimal competence.
It's apparently been stirred up again due to misinterpretation of an
actual FCC decision that *did* go against some of the Religious Right's
interests. The FCC ruled that programming whose primary purpose was
religious proselytization did not qualify as "educational" programming
for purposes of deciding whether a station could get a license in the
educational/non-commercial FM band (such stations are required to run a
certain percentage of educational programming).
Edgar J. Lawrence II
I'm aware of that decision, and I'm sure Militant
Reactionary Christians don't like it at all. MRCs do
have a surpassingly arrogant concept of what they ought
to be allowed to do. However, since the decision occurred
well after O'Hair's disappearance, trying to connect her
with it would be uncommonly dishonest or uncommonly
stupid (or both).
Scott Safier
>It's apparently been stirred up again due to misinterpretation of an
>actual FCC decision that *did* go against some of the Religious Right's
>interests.
The ruling came in response to a "license swap" between WQED and WPIT
in Pittsburgh. WPIT (I think those are the call letters) is
Cornerstone Broadcasting, a fundamentalist christian broadcasting
corporation. WQED has been bleeding money, so it wanted to "swap" one
of its two educational licenses with WPIT, then sell the commerical
license to raise funds. The FCC eventually approved the swap, but
with the above conditions. WPIT called off the deal, saying the FCC
conditions meant that it could not fulfill its religious
proselytizing role.
> The FCC ruled that programming whose primary purpose was
>religious proselytization did not qualify as "educational" programming
>for purposes of deciding whether a station could get a license in the
>educational/non-commercial FM band (such stations are required to run a
>certain percentage of educational programming).
Actually, I don't think there was a percentage prior to the December
ruling. it was just a vague statement about having an educational
mission. The December rule imposed a percentage, and clarified the
types of programming considered "educational". I read somewhere that
the rule was withdrawn in January after political pressure was
applied.
--
Scott
Pennsylvania Freedom to Marry Coalition
http://www.paftmc.org