Scammer fail

I really get a kick out of phishing scams. They're just so terrible. I don't understand how anyone can fall for them. Here's one I received today:

This is customer support service we are notifying you to carry out urgent verification of your account as we are having some congestion due to so many unused account that has been registered on our system. We are therefore closing some of this account and we need you to verify if your account is still very active and useful to you in order for us to wipe out the unused accounts. In order to verify your account kindly click reply and insert your password on this box (*********) for urgent purpose or you face to lose your account within 48 hrs of receiving the message.

Thank You For Your Understanding and we are sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

Indeed. I particularly love "kindly click reply and insert your password on this box (********) for urgent purpose." And the Caps they use in the final paragraph are just so special.

Seriously, how do these guys make money? They'd need entire nations filled with nitwits to...

Oh. Never mind.

Jesus visits Phoenix

There's been a new, incredibly stupid Jesus-sighting. I suggest you kneel as you read the following excerpts from a highly ignorable story. Apparently right now, this very second, Jesus is appearing as a stain on a tile floor at the Phoenix airport. Hallelujah!

The smudge — dubbed the "Tile Jesus" of Terminal 3 — is seeing worshipers flocking in their hundreds to catch a glimpse.

"It's definitely Our Lord Jesus Christ," said unemployed dental hygienist Becky Martin, who's visited the site every day for the last two weeks.

"He appears to us from time to time in ordinary places, to remind us He is here with us always, being our spiritual guide," she added to the Phoenix New Times.

Highly uplifting. Truly.

I love religion -- for the laughs

In an AP article at the NYT about "El Santuario de Chimayo, one of the most popular Catholic shrines in the Americas", I found this:

Some pilgrims will make the 90-mile, three-day walk from Albuquerque to the shrine that houses "el pocito," a small pit of holy adobe-colored soil that some believe possesses curing powers. 

Indeed. I don't understand what's wrong with people's brains that allows them to believe in this sort of nonsense. A pit of soil?

Just two weeks after Pope Francis was elected, around 50,000 are expected to visit the popular northern New Mexico Catholic shrine, and officials say even more may come because of Argentine-born pontiff. 

Because there's such an obvious connection between the new pope and this pit of holy soil. Everyone can see it. Sigh.

France doesn't get it

Even if you've never read Glenn Greenwald, you should take the time to read this column. It's about the insane efforts various countries are making to ensure that they and their beliefs are not criticized. We've seen it with religion; we've seen it with politics.

Putting a muzzle on people is the end of democracy. And as you'll see in the column, even France (not Iran; not China; France!) doesn't understand this.

The wisdom of Jan Brewer

Arizona's GOP governor on climate change:

Everybody has an opinion on it, you know, and I probably don’t believe that it’s man made. I believe that, you know, that weather and certain elements are controlled maybe by different things.

I wonder if there are any neurons in a GOP brain. (Hat tip to AmericaBlog.)