Baldo by Hector D. Cantú and Carlos Castellanos for September 13, 2009

Dios Mio!

Just email her, then. ;)

Tia Carmen, I am a long lost relative who has been trying to find you. I have in my hand a check for $2’000’000. Please send your name’ bank account and Social Security number to The Prince of Nigeria.

Tia, make sure you send lots of emails so Bill Gates can pay you big bucks for every single one of those emails.

And don’t forget, if you don’t forward these to all of your friends RIGHT NOW, your head will explode in 20 minutes.

Lots of people believe those (well, maybe not Mars). If they didn’t, Snopes wouldn’t exist. On any discussion group, every so often someone will post an email forward, and several people will panic before some Snopes-savvy person comes in to debunk.

I just love de-bunking passed along e-mails. I always tell the mooks to offer a retraction.

I love the hysteria around 2012. Reminds me how people became unhinged over Y2K. Soon there will be all sorts of scams to prepare for the apocalypse

Tia may I suggest www.snopes.com

Joe Allen, yes. That is indeed when He was born. How anyone got the idea that He was born 1/1/01 AD is ridiculous. Most evidence suggests Christ was born in the fall of the year, most likely in the time period we now call October.

Some Christians (myself included) don’t particularly care when He was born. Just why. We celebrate it all year, every day!

And I love debunking urban legends e-mails myself. I’ve sent many a “check your sources” reply in my day.

Have a fantastic day!

¡¡¡Palabra mía!!! ¿A qué está viniendo este mundo?

My word!!! What is this world coming to?

next she will get email from the thruther and birther idiots

I don’t think anything’s gonna happen in 2012, but I’d like to have the day before and THE day off. That way we can party before the end, and then if the end doesn’t come we can recover and go back to work on the 22nd

Tia Carmen, don’t fall for it feebly!

Uhhh, Joe D., the Y2K thing was based on computer dates which in the original Microsoft programming protocol delineated years only using a 2 digit number instead of the full 4 digits. It had nothing at all to do with any organized religion or any such nonsense. The big hoohah was about whether most computers would continue to operate or would malfunction due to 2000 being numerically the same as 1900 under that specific protocol. It was basically a scam which put a lot of IT folks to work for a few years, and then ended when the world’s computers didn’t self-destruct.

Man, there’s nothing like a good unwarranted scolding. I’m posting this email we got today from a reader, and my reply.

Anyway, I figured I’d post this because it’s an interesting issue and thought it might make for a good discussion and also bring about a little awareness for those unfamiliar.

Feel free to chime in. Let the lashing begin…

Dear Cantu and Castellanos:

Your Sunday 13 September strip’s first panel stated “Some Do-Gooder group wants to remove cross-shaped headstones from all Government Cemeteries”.

Gracie “corrects” Tia Carmen saying that and the other items are “All made up! Urban Legends! Total Fiction!”

THIS IS NOT “TOTAL FICTION” nor is it an “URBAN LEGEND”. You did everyone disservice when you misinformed, mislead and spread your own “urban legend” saying this is not true. This was beyond irresponsible. It smacks in the face of every veteran who has lost a comrade in the service of our country and those who wish the memorials to our war dead remain as they stand.

In fact, as your “comic” is being read by me and others, soldiers newly back from the front lines overseas are gearing up and will be “caravanning across the country Sept. 14-17 to raise awareness of the plight of the Mojave Desert War Memorial and gather signatures of support.”

Please see: http://donttearmedown.com/

Please see: http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/mojave.asp

Please get your facts straight. Please educate yourselves about the issue of the Memorial in the Mojave Desert and please clarify in a subsequent “stip” that what you, yourselves are doing is spreading misleading misinformation.

This is a very serious issue and it is indeed true.

You would do well for ALL who you misinformed to clarify this every important issue and retract your comment and come clean about spreading your own “urban legend”.

There are many veterans, including latinos who are working hard to ensure that this memorial is not torn down and that memorials to our US war dead are kept intact.

Your “comic” strip on 13 September unacceptable and beyond irresponsible.

I look forward to hearing from you about how you will retract/clarify this issue. Hopefully before, but perhaps after the US Supreme Court Salazar vs Bruno ruling in October?

Very Truly Yours, Mrs. X

Reply:

Mrs. X, Thanks for writing in with your passionate response. I assure you we land on the same side of this Mohave cross issue. However, what we were referring to in our September 13 comic strip was the claim that the ACLU seeks to have all cross-shaped headstones removed from government cemeteries. See http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/cemetery.asp

The cross in the Mohave National Preserve in California that you mention is not a government cemetery, it is classified as a monument or memorial to our fallen soldiers.

Having said that, we agree with you completely on the issue of the Mohave cross. We feel it’s a piece of history, and a reminder of the ultimate sacrifices made by many of our finest through out our history and should be preserved as such. It’s painful to have it boarded up as if it were something to be ashamed of.

Respectfully, Carlos

Actually the ACLU us not trying to remove the crosses from government cemetaries according to snopes.com. http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/cemetery.asp I have no love loss for the ACLU and their attempts to erase Christianity from our history and from public buildings, but this is one case where they aren’t.

jelindley - that was the point I was making.

BTW- you can check out Mary’s latest reply on our blog http://baldocomics.com/blog/?p=374