Hey, James Dobson, Bite me!

[Katarina]

I go out to check my mail and I'll be damned, there in MY mailbox was mail from Focus on the Family telling me how to raise my son "godly"! WTF! WTF! WTF! *I* would never sign up for that garbage. I've never even been to that website. How in the hell did they get my name and address and know that I have teenage sons? The only conclusion I can come up with is the school. Can they do that? Dammit. So I am beyond pissed, tore open the letter and found a phone number. Called them up and told her I did not want that garbage propaganda EVER sent to my house again. She claims that my name and address aren't even in their system. I took great joy in shredding that puppy but I feel like I need to go lysol my mail box now. ugh!

[musette_sf]

1. Wanna bet this is tied in with the

military recruiting through high schools crap that has been going on recently? That would be my first thought, since you have teenage sons.

I know it sounds horrible, but I think you should have saved the letter, and raised high holy hell with the school. I think other DUers with high school aged kids should be on the lookout for this crap arriving unsolicited. Sounds like this could be a big "separation of church and state" thing.

[area51]

2. return address letter

I don't suppose that they had a postage-paid return address envelope, did they? If they did, fill it w/something heavy that'll fit in the envelope (or even kitty litter), & send it back to 'em. :evilgrin:

[Katarina]

4. Meh

I shredded the envelope too! LOL! I was just so mad! i don't bother anyone about their religion. I'm a live and let live kind of person. But I don't want that crap in my mailbox. I suppose I should have kept the letter and tried to find out how the hell they got my information, and I definately should have sent them a nice gift back but I just wanted to rid my desk of that crap. I grew up with his kind of religion, no thanks. I still have to deal with it with my parents. Fortunately I'm 39 years old and I can just hang up the phone now if it get's to be too much. Well if nothing else it provided a few minutes of entertainment for my kids. They thought it was hysterical. :silly:

[fertilizeonarbusto]

7. Hee

I like your kids!

[Warpy]

3. When you get garbage like that with a return envelope

just send that envelope back empty. No comment, no contents. Every one they get back costs them postage.

You can call and scream at them, too.

Their mailing lists come from remarkable places, like subscriptions to kiddie magazines, checks and charges at toy stores, and the like. Don't blame the school unless they fess up.

[Katarina]

6. Well, I do get gaming magazines

but they are for me. I just share with the kids when I am done reading them. As far as toy stores, I haven't been to one of those in well over a year. None of my kids play with toys besides which how would they know I have a teenage son from a toy store. Hey, maybe Hot Topic sold my info! I seriously doubt that.

[davidinalameda]

9. that's exactly what I do

and I get so much enjoyment knowing that they have a little less money to spend on their hateful messages

[Heddi]

10. no no! Put LOTS of stuff in it

what I do when I get junk mail is I save the envelopes. Not only do I send them back all the crapola they sent ME, But I also fill it with scraps of old newspaper, pages from old notebooks in school, pages I've torn from magazines...just FILL THAT ENVELOPE UP until It hardly won't close anymore and THEN mail it off.

THat way, they're not just charged the $.37 they would have been for a small letter, they're charged even more.

I've alerted the credit agencies to put me on the "no credit card offer" lists and yet I STILL get about 20 credit card solicitations a month.

And every month, I drop in the mail box about 20 credit card solicitation postage-paid envelopes chock full of useless crap from around my house.

Maybe I can bankrupt them via postage....that's my hope.....

[pstokely]

15. put expired coupons in the envelope

[Maat]

5. And bite me, too, James Dobson!

My bad WHITE MALE kitty, Snowball, subscribed to Dobson's free e-mail alert. Snow seems to respect the typical patriarchal structure - hangs with my hubby, and chases my female kitties around, even though he is a neutered-American. So, Snow gets the daily e-mail, so that we can all chuckle at the daily end-of-times/crisis alert.

(Sorry. In all seriousness, I'm sorry you were disturbed. Sometimes it is good to keep an eye on what they are up to.)

[jhain]

8. please- go retrieve it

and spit on it for me.

[Ian David]

11. The terror of junkmail

<snip>

But a recent paper by a computer security researcher at
Johns Hopkins University suggests that there are plenty of
gateways that connect the cyberworld with the more familiar
terrain that some call "meatspace." And, since he is a
security researcher, he does it by showing the potential
for a cunning attack that crosses that gateway.

<snip>

In fact, something like what Mr. Rubin describes has
already happened. Last year, Alan Ralsky, a spam-sending
entrepreneur known as the "spam king," gave an interview to
The Detroit Free Press boasting about his 8,000-square-foot
house and all the money he made from sending unwanted
e-mail to hundreds of millions of people at a time. Shortly
after that article appeared on Slashdot.org, a major online
news source for technophiles, its readers signed Mr. Ralsky
up for thousands of catalogs, brochures and more. Soon he
was getting hundreds of pounds of mail every day.

That was a spontaneous effort by a large community. But Mr.
Rubin's paper suggests that anyone can get a computer to
stand in for the Slashdotters and bury someone in junk. And
Google shows hundreds of thousands of Web pages from which
anyone could request a catalog.
<snip>
The paper, which can be found at
www.avirubin.com/scripted.attacks.pdf, has impressed Bruce
Schneier, a security expert who has been looking at these
issues. He is writing about it for the latest edition of
his widely read newsletter, Crypto-Gram. "This interstitial
area where cyberspace meets the real world is a ripe area
of attack," he said in an interview. He sees this problem
as being the real-world equivalent of a distributed "denial
of service" attack, in which the attacker gets computers
around the world to inundate a target machine with data,
messages and other electronic detritus that make it
impossible for legitimate users to get through to it.

More:
http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/200304/msg00184.html

[gollygee]

12. Ewwww! I hate James Dobson

They bought your name off someone. Have you signed the kids up for sports?

[Katarina]

13. Nope

My boys are the least sports minded boys I've ever seen. Every one of them from 6 to 16 are nothing but geeks and goths. The most into sports they ever get is playing DDR on their PS2.

I honestly cannot think of where else they could have got that information other than school.

[gollygee]

14. Then maybe it's the school

I wouldn't dobut it. Schools are so cash-strapped they're looking for money everywhere they can.

[Ezlivin]

16. Put a nice dusting of baby powder in the return envelope

When the Christers on the other end get it, they'll think they've just seen one of the Four Horsemen.

Remember to watch the evening news on the day they receive the envelope.

[Katarina]

18. You know...

somehow, I don't think that's a very good idea. I think I would be watching the evening news for the black SUV's pulling up in my driveway. I think I'll stick to trying to find out how the hell they got my info to begin with and bugging them until they get so tired of me they take me off their hate-list.

[Ezlivin]

19. I guess if you're really paranoid

then you'll think they can trace any envelope right back to its source.

Unless the return envelope has a special code keyed to your address, it's the exact same return envelope enclosed in a million other letters.

Imagine if 100 of us DUers got the same pitch and we tossed in some baby powder and returned our envelopes.

1) How would they know who sent the envelopes?
2) What would they do to us if they somehow answered #1?

Is it illegal to mail baby powder in response to an unsolicited mailing? Hmmmm.

[Katarina]

21. Well I guess I'm paranoid then.

I have 4 boys to raise. I'm not willing to take that chance. But feel free to try it yourself if you are so inclined. How would they know who sent the envelope? Hmmm, fingerprints? Postmarks matched up with mailing lists? I am sure it can be tracked. Good luck if you decide to do somethng like that. I'll stay my paranoid self though.

[Ezlivin]

22. You're paranoid? I was scared just to type that stuff!

I'm ex-military (and so is my wife), so we have some knowledge of how the government operates. And her uncle is ex-FBI. I'm sure they have their methods.

I'm full of ideas. Or, as my wife would say, I'm just full of it.

:)

[LostInAnomie]

17. My girlfriends mother follows his shit like it was the Gosple...

... and tries to apply it to her son.

It is complete soul stealing bullshit.

[LizW]

20. If you kids' school has a directory

that includes home addresses, that is probably where they got it. A church in our city got names from the school directory to send solicitations, and I wouldn't be surprised to learn Dobson's organization buys lists of names from churches.

[RevCheesehead]

23. I get that shit all the time.

And it comes to me double: at church, AND at home. I toss it in the recycling bin.

Dobson's organization is a behemoth - and they probably buy all their mailing lists from anyone willing to sell them.

But as far as individual churches go - they are in serious violation of privacy laws if they are selling their membership lists to anyone. That is considered private information - and that is a major no-no.

If I ever learn of any church doing such a thing, I will report them to whomever I need to. I will also defend, with legal backing, if necessary, the right to keep membership lists as private.

BTW - I know most of you won't believe it, but Dobson's becoming rather passe in religious circles (well, OK, in the circles I am aware of). And the sheer volume of mail has subsided greatly in the last 5 years.