BEWARE OF SCAMS

I have noticed that the quality of the 'you have millions waiting for you' emails have improved. Now the English is correct.

PAM'S SCAM RULES:

NEVER send money hoping to get a windfall. These things are ALWAYS scams. If you think your GREAT OPPORTUNITY is not a scam, check it out by doing a Google search. You will find out it is a scam. If a bank is mentioned, email the bank, who will reply that it is a scam.

Lately, I have been getting 'help me collect money' scams aimed at attorneys. NEVER allow anyone to electronically transfer money into an account where you keep your money. ALWAYS open a new account, have the money sent to that account, and immediately transfer the money to your account. Scams go away when you tell them that you have a special account for fund transfers.

IF SOMETHING SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, IT IS ALMOST CERTAINLY A SCAM.

CON ARTIST ARE GOOD AT WHAT THEY DO. They can make the impossible sound possible. ALWAYS double check on line or with a sensible friend before sending money to anyone.

I do not understand why the internet emails for the scam artists are not being shut down.

SHORT SALE OF REAL ESTATE IS A GOOD IDEA!

A short sale of real estate is when the owner owes more than the house is worth. The owner and the bank agree to sell the property using a real estate agent and a multiple listing service. The bank agrees to 'forgive' the part of the loan which is not paid off by the purchaser.

This can be a hassle, as banks are reluctant to 'forgive' loans. However, it is a win-win-win for the seller, the buyer, and the bank. Foreclosure is expensive for the bank. Buying a foreclosed home is risky for the buyer (who usually cannot inspect the property). Foreclosure hurts the owner's credit rating worse than a short sale.

Short sales use the free market system to set a new and reliable price for the home.

The seller's tax consequences for a short sale are exactly the same as for a foreclosure. Owners of rental houses should remember that they are taking a business loss, which may more than cover the 'income' from the loan forgiveness.

I also recommend that sellers put something in their sales agreement that limits the money they might have to spend on inspections and improvements. Owners should also consider selling the home 'as is' to prevent lawsuits over undisclosed defects. Owners should also disclose all known defects even if they sell 'as is'.

And, of course, I ALWAYS say that NO ONE should agree to binding arbitration. See my website, www.LawandLaws.com, for a discussion of binding arbitration.

MY BIOPSY

I had a breast cancer biopsy yesterday. I know I should be worried about my 5% chance that I have cancer.

Instead I worried all day yesterday about the women who do not catch their cancer in time to prevent their untimely deaths. Too many women do not have access to mammograms and pap smears. They do not have health insurance or, worse, their health insurance does not cover these life-saving tests.

I cannot BELIEVE that the citizens of the richest country on the planet are too selfish to demand that EVERYBODY in the country have access to health care.

IT TAKES GUTS TO GOVERN. Sometimes an elected person has to chose what is right over what pleases people that day. (Sorry Mom, I meant to say, 'intestinal fortitude', not 'guts'.)

If you are NOT one of the selfish citizens, please call your senators and representative today. Feel free to email, text, fax or write a letter. Remember that you need to vote in their district before they care what you think. Do not forget to email, text, fax or write to President Obama.

WE NEED HEALTH CARE REFORM NOW!

BTW, it is NOT unfair to use the rules that Congress lives by to pass the health care bill. I did not write the rules covering filibuster, the Senate wrote those rules. If you think Republicans would never take advantage of such rules, you have not been paying attention.

TIPS FOR LEARNING ENGLISH

Watch Sesame Street. It will teach you to say simple English sentences and to understand the words that change the meaning of things. Words like if, then, when, can change what a sentence says.

Watch Electric Company, which will teach you reading and spelling simple words.

Both these programs are rather fun to watch.

A friend who teaches languages says that you can practice speaking English on the telemarketers who call to sell you something. REMEMBER THAT YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BUY ANYTHING. She says the salesmen have to be patient and try to understand you so it is an excellent way to practice your English.

Speaking into a tape recorder can help you listen to how you actually sound. This can help make you speak with less of an accent.

I also recommend playing an old adventure game where the people talk and the program also writes out the words the people are saying. I would recommend King's Quest 5.

GOOD PEOPLE ARE EVERYWHERE

I know I keep saying that EVERY group has evil, corrupt, greedy and dangerous people. I forget to say how the overwhelming majority in every group are good people -- kind, caring, and who want to do the right thing.

For some reason, this has become more apparent than ever. 2009 and January of 2010 was full of stories of people with courage trying to make the world a better place.

I gives me hope for us all.

BAD NEWS FOR DEMOCRATS?

Democrats have now lost their filibuster proof majority in the Senate. Is this a bad thing? Maybe not. I am not a fan of absolute power. Absolute power made the Democrats argue amongst themselves. Opposition is usually a good thing. It concentrates the mind on what is and is not important.

The U. S. Supreme Court has decided that corporations now have political free speech. Everyone is assuming that all corporations are Republican, which is probably not the case. Also unions will now have political free speech. If nothing else come of this, at least there will be a LOT of money poured into the economy as corporations and unions put political ads on television, on the internet and in newspapers. I expect the internet community will have great fun checking the ads for accuracy.

I should warn corporations that customers also 'vote' by refusing to purchase items from corporations when the corporations advocate policy that the customers find objectionable.

CURING ADULT ADDICTION

The rules for curing adult addiction are easy. What is hard is the implementation of those rules.

1. An adult CAN NOT be cured of addiction until the adult WANTS to be cured of addiction. Forced cures do not work. It does not matter if the addiction is to alcohol, prescription drugs, illegal drugs, sex, gambling, whatever. A cure cannot be forced on an adult. The adult MUST ask for help and be ready to do the work necessary for the adult to have a chance at being cured.

2. Do NOT try to help the adult by yourself. INSIST that the adult get help from some outside source. The AA groups can be very helpful, and they are free. You can not do this by yourself as it is too easy to be pulled into the adult's pain and suffering. Sympathy may not be helpful as it may keep the adult from facing the problem.

3. Get help for yourself. An addict can pull you into his/her world and you do NOT want to go there.

4. Sometimes an addict has to hit bottom before he/she is ready to want to be cured. THE HARD PART is NOT HELPING until the adult shows that he/she actually DOES want to be cured. If you help before then, you could just be enabling the addiction.

PEOPLE OF MASSACHUSETTS -- PLEASE VOTE ON TUESDAY

You have the opportunity to effect the future of our nation. SO PLEASE VOTE.

Remember that some of your ancestors died in the winter at Valley Forge. They did not let snow stop them from fighting to get you the right to vote. SO VOTE!

I also recommend voting with hope, rather than with fear. If your ancestors had allowed fear to stop them, they would not have founded our great nation.

MEMORY LOSS

Three times now, passengers on a plane have prevented a terrorist attack (the 9/11 passengers who deliberately crashed their plane, the shoe bomber case, and the Christmas bomber case).

That Giuliani, who should know better, could forget the brave people who went to their deaths to save others, seems to indicate a serious memory loss problem.

Only memory loss would account for anyone forgetting the planes flying into buildings in New York and in Virginia.

How could anyone forget the shoe bomber?* Most of you probably do not remember the persons with explosives who crossed the Canadian border.

So Giuliani, I count at least five terrorist attacks (using your definition of terrorist attacks) during the Bush Administration.

* I seem to remember that the shoe bomber was foiled before the plane reached the US.

CORPORATE LEGAL ADVICE

Super giant corporations need to be careful that their consumer contracts are NOT clearly unfair to the consumer. A contract in which the powerful require a signature before giving a needed service is especially vulnerable to being deemed a contract of adhesion. California appellate courts do not admire contracts of adhesion.

A contract that is acceptable in one context, such as a contract to advertise in a book which will be good for a year, may not be acceptable for an internet service that can be cancelled by the push of a delete key.

START YOUR OWN RELIGION

In the interest of NOT getting sued, the following statement is only a joke.

I have often thought that L. Ron Hubbard and Robert Heinlein got drunk one night and bet each other that they could start a religion just by writing a science fiction book. Hubbard won the bet, although for years some of us 'grokked' things.

MY FAVORITE CONSPIRACY THEORY

I believe that the Republicans have spent years punishing California for not being a Republican state. When Bush was in power, he did everything he could to insure that California did not get federal funding. If a military base was closed, there was a good chance that base was located in California.

Pundits agree that Silicon Valley (located in California) has many of the solutions which will fuel the economic recovery. Silicon Valley cannot give us solutions unless they have money to invest in these solutions.

However, the stimulus dollars being spent everywhere else are not being spent in California. It was really easy to manipulate this. All our governor had to do was to not fund the agencies that have to approve the proposed projects. (In the name of saving money, of course.)

I believe that the Republicans WANT the economy to stay bad until after the congressional elections. This is because they want to blame the trouble that THEY caused on the current administration. HOW SELFISH IS THIS?

The Republicans that I know want the best for this country, just like the Democrats that I know want the best for this country. What I dislike is when either party uses manipulative tactics to get people to make decisions out of fear rather than to make decisions using reason.

IRONIC MOTHER NATURE

Mother Nature has a sense of irony. The world holds a conference on global warming, where countries argue and get almost nowhere. Then the Northern Hemisphere is blanketed in snow storm after snow storm ever since the conference.

I grew up in South Dakota, where the landscape was shaped during the last ice age. Change in the temperature of the planet can be devastating.

I am more worried about our use of OXYGEN. People and other animals breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide. Cars and power plants make power by burning oxygen and discharging carbon dioxide.

It is possible that we can change the chemical makeup of our planet, which is the only known source for life in the universe. Without oxygen we ALL die.

The solution is simple in concept but hard in practice.

PLANT AND CARE FOR THE TREES which naturally turn carbon dioxide to oxygen.

TAKE CARE OF THE OCEAN where plankton makes oxygen for us.

STOP TRASHING UP THE PLACE.

DO NOT WASTE RESOURCES.

Since people tend to be careless and selfish, governments will almost certainly have to force us to do these things.