e-Card Warning

Thanks to Tom Gustin.
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Watch For Holiday E-Card Spam, Symantec Warns


Some malware authors have even gone so far as to include the phrases "no worm, no virus" in the e-card's text, as if such an assurance made the message safe.

By Thomas Claburn
InformationWeek

December 4, 2007 04:20 PM

'Tis the season to be wary. Sadly, malware authors are quick to seize on current events to cloak their social engineering attacks -- which typically involve tricking people into clicking on a malicious link or visiting a malicious Web page -- in an aura of legitimacy.

So it is that the holiday season brings a surge in holiday-oriented scams. As security company Cyveillance noted on Monday, phishing attacks jumped by 300% on Thanksgiving Day, compared with the number of attacks seen the previous week.
Another security company, Message Labs, said following Thanksgiving that it was seeing holiday-themed spam coming across its infrastructure at a rate of about 300,000 an hour.

Symantec security researcher Jitender Sarda documented one such attack on Tuesday that uses e-cards.

"These e-cards are purportedly sent from a legitimate source and try to lure the victim to click on the link to view the e-cards, which have underlying tricks to try and infect the computer," said Sarda in a blog post. "With the Xmas bells starting to ring, here is the first incidence where Xmas e-cards have started doing the rounds."
While these e-cards may appear to come from a familiar brand name, the "From:" field is forged. And the spammer responsible, perhaps aware that e-cards have acquired an air of disrepute, has even gone so far as to include the phrase "(no worm, no virus)" in the e-card's text, as if such an assurance made the message safe.
In fact, the link provided attempts to download a file named "sos385.tmp," which is itself a downloader that connects to the Internet and attempts to download other malicious files.

America the Beautiful and America the Terrible

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I grew up in America the Beautiful, a country that was part idealization.

But it was a system that respected international law and order. It was a massive, mighty, many say "blessed," country that would never, under any conditions, stoop to invading a third-world country whose "soldiers" are often twelve-year-olds. And it would never have engaged in this nightmare of mass-murder of women and children for the evils of oil and greed.

I love America. But I do not always love or embrace her behavior under the tyranny of ignorant and greedy men. I do not respond with "shock and awe" to the slaughter and massacre of hundreds of thousands of innocent women, children, and men in a single day. This is the evil twin of America the Beautiful; her name is America the Terrible.

In America the Terrible, it is a place where elections were fixed and dishonest. In both twenty hundred in Florida, and in twenty-oh-four in Ohio, hundreds of thousands of valid votes were disenfranchised-- mostly votes of native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latino Americans. Huge boxes of their valid votes were simply thrown away.

Why? Because they did not want the government to be led by men who trashed personal rights and civil liberties. They were rejecting a government that practiced regular torture and mass-murder. They turned away from a government that spied on its own citizens, and took away civil rights and freedoms. In short, they insisted on a simple democracy, which the U.S. claimed to be exporting, while in reality, it was suppressing here at home.

The rulers of America the Terrible were the pygmy-puppets of corporate America. They stood by the greedy and destructive corporations while they ruined the environment, and defended their absolute greed even as they poisoned innocent citizens. And when opportunities arose to help people-- whether senior citizens, children, students, or the common person-- the leaders stood squarely opposed to programs that could assist. This was done not once, but over and over again. America the Terrible believed in war-- even in starting it, and in the defense of pollution; and "anything for a buck" was its guiding philosophy.

In America the Terrible, an unqualified man could, with the aid of his father, "buy" the highest position in the land, and end up in the White House even if the citizens did not want him there. He could buy his way to power by becoming a weak puppet of vast wealth, again, mostly corporate. He could then reverse laws that the wisest people had developed for decades. He could not only start a nightmarish war, but could threaten the beginning of another-- this time, nuclear. By simply ignoring the poor and supporting the rich, he could come dangerously close to eliminating the middle class-- the traditional strength of America the Beautiful. In sum, everything that could go wrong in America the Beautiful did go wrong in America the Terrible.
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"Small" Blessings

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The longer that we remain on this tiny planet, the more we realize that the "small things" are really the great things, and that "small, ordinary" blessings are from the Heart of Love at the Center.:) So, we send a thousand million "small blessings," which add up to healing, joy, friendship, and, most of all, Love.
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The Body in Spirituality

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The body exists within the mind, not the other way 'round.:) The body is only a psychohologram, an aspect of maya. It is a part of spirituality, and is to be acknowledged in a healthy way, but mystics do not focus much on body-consciousness, which we more often regard as a distraction from the spiritual Way. But it is an ego-distraction that, like a pesky fly, keeps coming back, again and again.:)

The chakras (pronounced "chuck-ruhs") can give valuable feedback, especially when we concentrate on the so-called "energy-bodies." But these fields of force are also a part of the mayic world, and so, are not the equivalent of the Christspirit, God, or Reality (cosmic Mind).

The body has its own karmic pattern within the overall pattern of the illusionworld (dreamworld). Sometimes, it challenges a certain aspect of mind to grow. But every biological dysfunction need not have deep symbolic meaning. Some states or conditions are meant to challenge our detachment, our faith in Love, or other factors. Thus, a person with foot-problems need not assume that she is "walking down a wrong spiritual path," and a person who temporarily loses her voice need not assume that she is "speaking incorrectly."

Still, the body is an incredibly complex "school" within the general school of earthlife. It is to be loved and respected, like a best friend, and is our "training-instrument" in this life. But heavy bodily emphasis just leads a person into greater selfconsciousness of, and perhaps slavery to, the world of illusion. Only in purest Mind, not in body, can we ever find true and lasting liberation.
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In-sight

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When the interior eye of the mind is opened by Spirit, the enlightened learn from everything and everyone all around them. All are students, all teachers.:)
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Maintenance of Friendship

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Yesterday evening's visit from you was a great and very thoughtful "Christmas gift.":) We got to share-- early-- some of that famous "Christmas spirit." This is, of course, the spirit of Love, generosity, giving, thoughtfulness, kindness, other-centeredness, and other delightful related positivities.

It stuns and somewhat surprises me just how easily even the best of friends can "lose each other" in the busy-ness of everyday life. Emails stop, phone-calls become rare, and visits scarce. Friendship is a living thing. It must be "fed" by fairly regular communications, or else, it can "die on the vine," evaporate, simply vanish. And this can just naturally happen, without anyone's doing anything, even without anyone's wanting it.

You have to do a little fun "work" to keep a friendship going, but it can disappear without any work at all. In fact, it "starves" when neglected.:(

I surely do not want this to happen to our very precious and light-filled, Love-filled friendship. For it is fun, energizing, positive, and life-enhancing. It makes our lives richer and more fun.

A friendship, no matter how strong or how long, can perish through simple neglect. Everyone is in greatest and immediate danger of becoming simply "too busy" to do "maintenance" on a friendship. This delightful friendship-maintenance includes fairly regular communications (emails, phone-calls, snailmails, cards) as well as visits when possible. It might also include, as in the Christmas Holy-day, small gifts as appropriate.

Let us simply think of each other. Let us do this often, and with Love in our hearts. And let us show that we truly love and care for each other. Friendship is the most beautiful gift that we can ever give each other. Construction of friendships is one of the reasons for living on earth. (It is a most common form of Lovexpression.) Investing in friendship is investing in the "ggold" of real spirituality. So, friendship-maintenance is real worship.

Creating, and maintaining, good friendships is one of the very few things that we can do on earth that will affect eternity. For the best friendships can last for millions or billions of years!:) So, friendship is the center-piece of Love, and one of the most important things in our lives. For long after these tiny lives have disappeared, friendship will stand by our side to support us and make us stronger and wiser.

It is rather startling, for example, how easily, and how quickly, the good habit of regular emails can simply die. It appears that even our email communications could follow this troubling path to non-existence.
Again, this letter is written so that this "vaporization" (through forgetting or busy-ness) does not occur in our case.

For we love you and think and speak of you quite often, with both Love and joy in our hearts. And the Season of Love and Light is the perfect time to express these sentiments,together with these caveats. And Love is always, like friendship, Its twin, a two-way communication. So, we look forward, with delight and pleasure, to your response to this email, so that, together, we can "get our friendship back on track.":)
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Deborah Shank Needs Your Help

Seven years ago, a semi-trailer plowed into the driver's side of Deborah Shank's minivan. The 52-year-old Missouri Wal-Mart employee and devoted mother of three suffered permanent brain damage. Today she lives in a nursing home for round-the clock care, unable to walk, feed or dress herself.

As the Wall Street Journal reported on November 20, it's a tragic story - but it gets worse:

"Wal-Mart started out as one of the good guys in this story, paying almost $470,000 of Shank's initial medical bills. But three years after Shank's husband sued and settled with the semi driver's employer, the retail giant changed hats. It demanded every penny back, plus interest and legal fees -- more, in fact, than the $417,477 the settlement had placed in a special trust fund specifically for Shank's future health care expenses."

Wal-Mart sued a permanently brain-damaged woman out of her medical care funds. Thanks to her former employer - the world's largest retailer - Deborah's family is sinking deeper into debt and Deborah will be completely dependent on Medicaid and Social Security for a lifetime of medical care.

Wal-Mart Watch is collecting funds to help Deborah Shank's family with her medical bills.

Will you make a donation?

Wal-Mart's actions are horribly unethical and morally bankrupt, but the company says it's legal - and it's right about that.

As the Wall Street Journal explains:

The reason is a clause in Wal-Mart's health plan that Mrs. Shank didn't notice when she started stocking shelves at a nearby store eight years ago. Like most company health plans, Wal-Mart's reserves the right to recoup the medical expenses it paid for someone's treatment if the person also collects damages in an injury suit.

In cases like the Shanks', where injuries and medical costs are catastrophic, accident victims sometimes can be left with little or none of the money they fight for in court. Company health plans are increasingly adopting language such as Wal-Mart's, which dictates that it is to be paid first out of any settlement, regardless of what remains for the injured person. Moreover, the victim is responsible for all legal costs in pursuing the suit.

Last year the U.S. District Court sided with Wal-Mart over the Shank family - making its ruling just six days before Deborah Shank's 18-year-old son, Jeremy, was killed while serving in Iraq.

The decision has forced Deborah's family to take drastic measures.

Earlier this year, her husband divorced her because of advice from a health care administrator, who said that she would qualify for more public assistance as a single woman.

The Shanks aren't gold-diggers. They are an honest, hard-working American family trying to deal with a catastrophic event, and now they're doing it with an empty wallet - thanks to Wal-Mart.

Please do your part to help the Shank family by making a donation now:
http://action.walmartwatch.com/deborahshank

This holiday season, Wal-Mart rolled out a new slogan: "Save money. Live better."

But who lives better with Wal-Mart's low prices? Clearly, it isn't Wal-Mart employees like Deborah Shank.

Sincerely,
David Nassar
Wal-Mart Watch

Help horses reach finish line -- support stronger laws today

Your support is critical to helping end the export of American horses to Mexico and Canada for slaughter and foreign consumption.

In 2007, state laws in Illinois and Texas shuttered the last remaining horse slaughter plants in the United States. But the perpetrators of this grisly industry continue to ship American horses to Mexico and Canada, where the creatures endure long-distance transport and harsh killing methods.

Help us stop the export of America’s majestic horses once and for all.

Please make a special year-end gift to the Humane Society Legislative Fund today.
We've made great strides toward protecting these American icons from ending up on European dinner plates. HSLF has worked to pass state and federal laws to protect America’s horses, and also to defeat lawmakers who were proponents of horse slaughter.

But America’s horses still face the chopping block, and we can’t save them without your help. Please donate today to help us push for federal legislation to outlaw the export of American horses for slaughter.

We will also put your donation to work to pass other animal protection bills, such as: prohibiting dogfighting nationwide and criminalizing attendance at a dogfight; stopping the imports of sport-hunted polar bear trophies; allowing the establishment of trusts to provide lifelong care for pets; halting the imports of dogs from foreign “puppy mills” where they are treated like production machines; and much more!


And with 2008 shaping up to be a critical election year all across America, your support will help HSLF accomplish other important goals like: continuing to get humane candidates elected to office; publishing an online Congressional scorecard, with real-time humane-legislation scores for your federal lawmakers; and continuing to grow HSLF's popular "Party Animals" program for grassroots advocates.

I know we can continue to directly impact the lives of animals by changing laws in our state legislatures and on Capitol Hill. I hope you'll join us by showing your commitment to the HSLF with your special year-end gift today.

On behalf of our staff and many dedicated animal advocates nationwide, I wish you a holiday season filled with joy and compassion. Thank you for all that you do to help animals every day.
Sincerely,

Mike Markarian
President
Humane Society Legislative Fund

Camel No. 9 or Cancer No. 9?

This week we won a victory in our fight against Camel No. 9! R.J.Reynolds announced that they're temporarily suspending all print advertising -- including magazine ads. While they claim that this was a business decision, we find it hard to believe that it has nothing to do with the outrage and protests from people like you.

Since last spring, we've fought R.J. Reynold's marketing of Camel No. 9.
In July, you flooded the offices of Vogue with more than 8,000 e-mails asking the magazine to stop accepting Camel No. 9 ads. Later in August, you sent more than 4,000 thank you e-mails to Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA) for taking this issue up in Congress.
Now we have a new web site to help you fight this deadly product. Visit www.CancerNo9.com today!

Don't let RJR fool you, Richard. We still need to keep up the fight. They may have stopped magazine advertising for the moment, but Camel No. 9 is still actively marketed towards young women and girls through direct mail, web sites and events. There's also nothing from stopping R.J. Reynolds from advertising in magazines in the future.

The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids listened to advocates from across the country, and designed a web site that allows YOU to stand up for young women and girls in YOUR community. CancerNo9.com features:

A petition asking editors of women's magazines to stop running ALL cigarette ads

Fact sheets about women, smoking and health

Media coverage of Camel No. 9

Image gallery of Camel No. 9 magazine ads, postcard promotions and novelty items

Message board to share ideas

Resources page

Thank you for standing up for women and young girls! We hope that you'll visit www.CancerNo9.com and use its resources as R.J. Reynolds continues to lure young women and girls into a lifetime of disease and addiction.


Sincerely,

Carter Headrick
Director, Grassroots
Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids

P.S. Don't forget to tell your friends and family about www.CancerNo9.com.

Friendship

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There is no better use of time on this planet than to offer assistance to a friend.:)