Wow…I can’t believe I just titled this post with that! I didn’t make this up folks. It seems that a man by the name of Niko Alm who hails from Austria has finally won his battle with Austria’s equivalent of the DMV to take his driver’s license photo with a pasta strainer on his head. If you don’t believe me, here’s the proof:

Apparently, Mr. Alm is a member of the The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (Church of the FSM), a religious group that believes the universe was created by a flying spaghetti monster. Whether you’re laughing right now or you just think this guy is crazy, one thing is for sure; it really points out the absurdities of organized religion. I’m not here to spew my beliefs or offend anyone else’s, but I have to say that this guy’s point is well-taken. It’s a satirical take on how organized religions operate and define their existence by mystical gods and other higher beings.

About the church

Like any other church in the world, the Church of the FSM believes that the earth and the universe was created by a higher power; in this case, a spaghetti monster—not just any spaghetti monster, but a flying one. Their followers are known as Pastafarians. Their website offers this detailed description of what they represent:

Pastafarianism is a real religion.

Most of us do not believe a religion – Christianity, Islam, Pastafarianiasm – requires literal belief in order to provide spiritual enlightenment. That is, we can be part of a community without becoming indoctrinated. There are many levels of belief.

By design, the only dogma allowed in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is the rejection of dogma. That is, there are no strict rules and regulations, there are no rote rituals and prayers and other nonsense. Every member has a say in what this church is and what it becomes.

To outsiders it makes us hard to define, but here are some general things that can be said about our beliefs:

We believe pirates, the original Pastafarians, were peaceful explorers and it was due to Christian misinformation that they have an image of outcast criminals today
We are fond of beer
Every Friday is a Religious Holiday
We do not take ourselves too seriously
We embrace contradictions (though in that we are hardly unique)

Whether or not this church is the real McCoy is not the point. The fact is that it does exist. For those seeking hope and direction in life, but have not found it within the more modest religions available might find comfort here. Those who don’t believe in higher powers can relish in the satire. Others can simply watch in horror or pleasure.

My two cents

I’m not a fan of organized religions. I don’t believe that the way we live our lives should be dictated by a scripture written thousands of years ago. If you have religion for direction in life and it helps, then more power to you. If it consumes your life and you might be borderline insane, then I hope your god can help you. Either way, as long as you’re not hurting me or the people around you, you’re ok in my book!

What I love about the Church of the FSM is how it goes to prove that anyone, anywhere can follow a belief system and find themselves content in life. While a flying spaghetti monster might sound a little un-believable to you, I bet the followers of this church and those who don’t have a church find it un-believable that a man built an wooden boat and saved two of every animal on the planet from a 40-day flood.

I won’t be writing a major post today, but I thought I’d drop in to say have a happy 4th of July and be thankful for everything we have in the country (no matter how bad times get) because the United States is still the greatest country in the world in my opinion.

On that note, I also leave you with an image from probably the greatest city in the world, New York:

Anyone who’s my age probably remembers spending a late night or two watching a funny little man on tv telling us how he was able to make $50,000 a week “placing tiny classified ads in newspapers” from his “one-bedroom apartment”. Right in those two quotes, you have the makings of a very successful infomercial—mention how lots of money can be made with seemingly little work and cater to others who might be living in a one-bedroom apartment as these people are likely to want an opportunity that will change their lives.

If you have no idea who I’m talking about, check out this video…it’s exactly what I remember when I was younger:

First of all, this guy is good and there’s no doubt about it. As a firm believer that hard work pays off and there’s no easy way of making lots of money, I never “fell” for one his claims, but I will admit that there were a few times when it seemed like the plan would work. More importantly, there are many other people out there that are worse off than me financially and just might jump at the chance to make even 100 more dollars a week.

The indictment

Don Lapre has been running infomercials like these for the last 8 years or so selling all sorts of money-making packages that are guaranteed to turn your life around. The two most prominent ones include the one above and another selling the The Greatest Vitamin in the World. This is the one that’s garnered the attention of the Feds and the United States Postal Service.

According to the case, Don Lapre is being indicted on 41 counts of conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud and promotional money laundering. It’s being claimed that he bilked over $52 million from some 200,000 unsuspecting consumers. Essentially, he’s being accused of running a nationwide scheme to sell worthless internet businesses.

The program

I don’t want to get into all the details here because the case file says it all in a 28-page PDF document available from Casewatch.org, but I do want to briefly explain what it is that Don Lapre does. Using The Greatest Vitamin in the World program as an example, this is how the program works.

1. Watch Don’s infomercial and get excited about the potential of making lots of money.
2. Call the 800 number to order the start-up package and personal website for $35.00 plus $13.65 shipping.
3. Don’s reps would then call back consumers telling them that there were more fees in running the personal website including a $295 setup fee and $9.95 per month hosting fees.
4. Don’s reps would try to upsell customers into buying web traffic for their new site guaranteeing them that people would come to the site and buy products or signup as new “investors”.
5. Customers buy traffic packages ranging in price from $500-2000.
6. Customers are offered sales incentives: Get 20 new people to sign up for the program and get $1000. Get 100 new vitamin customers in a month and get $10,000. For every 5 $1000 bonuses you earn, you get a 7-day paid vacation for 2.

My two cents

First of all, the vitamins are worthless. To Don, getting new sales people all dropping about $3000 to start their own business is where the money really is. Unfortunately, this is nothing more than a pyramid scheme. The ones at the top who are able to get to everyone who hasn’t joined yet will make all the referral fees. The ones at the bottom will have nobody to recruit because they’ve all been recruited…after some time, the pyramid crumbles because there’s nothing left to do but sell worthless vitamins and the guys at the top take their money and run.

Second, if you really think about it, why would Don Lapre (or any tv pitchman) want to tell you his money-making secrets if what he’s doing already makes him so much money? Do you really believe he’s out there trying to help the community? Do you really think he cares about helping you make more money in life? The answer is no. It’s the tell-tale sign of a scam and it’s no different than all those bloggers out there selling you $47 money-making plans that tell you all the secrets of Internet marketing. Trust me, if I discovered a way to make $50,000 a week, I wouldn’t tell anyone! Not because I’m selfish, but because I wouldn’t want to create thousands of competitors out there. If there’s only $50,000 to be made, that means I’d have to share it with everyone else who copies me. That’s not a good business plan!

I’ll tell you a secret. There are no secret ways to make money! There are however innovative ideas that will make someone millions one day, but those aren’t secrets—sometimes those are flukes or fads or streaks of luck. Facebook is a perfect example—sheer luck. The point is to make real money, you have to put in real work. If you think you’re going to make $50,000 a week with only a few minutes of work, you’re either delusional or you’re the one sitting on top of the pyramid because in any other situation, you’re not going to make anything close to that.

Ok, I’m done venting…the last thing I want to say is that I hope Don Lapre goes away forever! He’s a con artist and a thief. At the same time, I hope none of those people get their money back so maybe they’ll learn from their mistakes.

Although the term D-Day has nothing to do with June 6th, 1944 specifically, it has become synonymous with that day’s events. For it was on that day that 9 allied countries fought together against 1 common enemy on the beaches of Normandy, France.

The beach landing, codenamed Operation Neptune was the start of a full-fledged attack on German forces occupying Western Europe. H-Hour for Omaha beach was set 0630 with the greatest fleet ever assembled moving in from the English Channel—2,727 ships and 2,606 other, smaller craft, 5,333 in all. Once on the beaches, Operation Overlord went into effect and by nightfall, allied forces had captured all beachheads.

Three days later, all D-Day objectives were completed and a 3-week military buildup began, after which a full-scale land attack, dubbed Operation Cobra went into effect, further pushing back German forces into open country. By August 25th, Paris had been liberated.

At the time, these attacks were considered very controversial and to some degree, were not very popular among the American public and our troops. It was thought that an attack of this size would draw too many vital resources from other theatres of war including the Italian and Pacific fronts. During those three operations in 1944, it was estimated that well over 12,000 casualties were suffered by the allied forces.

In remembrance of that day and the freedoms and liberties won on those beaches and in memory of those who fought and survived and died there, thank you—you will never be forgotten. And to those who currently serve in all branches of the United States Armed Forces, thank you—my work pales in comparison to what you do for our country and for what you have at stake.

June 6th, 1944