Sent: Monday, January 21, 2002 9:12 PM
Subject: DAYS OF OUR LIVES #43

THE FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES!!!
I Am the Flag of the Of America

I am the flag of the United States of America.
My name is
Old Glory.
I fly atop the world's tallest buildings.
I stand watch in America's halls of justice.
I fly majestically over institutions of learning.
I stand guard with power in the world.
Look up and see me.

I stand for peace, honor, truth and justice.
I stand for freedom.
I am confident.
I am arrogant.
I am proud.

When I am flown with my fellow banners,
My head is a little higher,
My colors a little truer.

I bow to no one!
I am recognized all over the world.
I am worshipped - I am saluted.
I am loved - I am revered.
I am respected - and I am feared.

I have fought in every battle

of every war

for more then 200 years.

I was flown at Valley Forge,

Gettysburg, Shiloh and Appamatox.
I was there at San Juan Hill,

the trenches of France,
in the Argonne Forest,

Anzio, Rome and the beaches of Normandy.

Guam, Okinawa, Korea and

KheSan, Saigon, Vietnam know me.
I was there.
I led my troops, I was dirty, battleworn and tired,
But my soldiers cheered me and I was proud.

I have been burned, torn and trampled on the

streets of countries I have helped set free.
It does not hurt for I am invincible.
I have been soiled upon, burned, torn and

trampled in the streets of my country.
And when it's done by those

Whom I've served in battle - it hurts.
But I shall overcome - for I am strong.

I have slipped the bonds of Earth

and stood watch over the uncharted
frontiers of space from my vantage point on the moon.
I have borne silent witness to all of America's finest hours.

But my finest hours are yet to come.

When I am torn into strips and used as bandages

for my wounded comrades on the battlefield,
When I am flown at half-mast to honor my soldier,
Or when I lie in the trembling arms of a grieving parent
at the grave of their fallen son or daughter,

I am proud.

================================================================

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From: Dumbo
lstupid1@starpower.net

How they cracked the terrorists' code
Getting to the heart of the documents contained in the al-Qa'ida computer - bought by chance by the Wall Street Journal's reporter in Kabul - meant cracking the encryption of Microsoft's Windows 2000 operating system installed on the machine, which had been used to protect the data.

That is not a trivial task. Microsoft will only say that if you lose the password that controls entry to a Windows 2000 system, your best option is to remember it - or simply to wipe the machine and start again. And its Encrypting File System (EFS), which had been used to encode the files, is just as strong.

But the files were too valuable for that. Instead, the team embarked on the task of breaking through the encryption, which jumbles the contents of the files so that even someone reading
the individual bytes of data stored on the actual hard disk (rather than trying to access them
through the operating system, which had locked them out) would simply find rubbish.

Cracking the encryption meant finding the digital key" that had previously been used to unlock it.
That was not stored in any readable file on the machine, for it was itself encrypted.

The only way to reproduce it was to generate the key from first principles: by trying various
combinations of random bits and trying to decrypt the file with them, and seeing if it produced sense - or gibberish.

Luckily, the PC had a version of Windows 2000 with an "export-quality" key - only 40-bits long,
rather than the "US" quality, which being 128-bits long would have been billions of times harder to crack.

Even so, it took the equivalent of a set of supercomputers running for five days, 24 hours a day, to find the key. But find it they did.

The irony that the terrorists used a product made by one of the US's biggest corporations to
protect plans it was making against it may not be lost on an administration that recently relaxed rules on the export of "strong" encryption. Tighter controls may follow.
By Charles Arthur
End excerpt]
This is from the UK Independent today:
<http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=114885>

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

FM: Harry Bennett

This is the prayer I recite everyday before going to work.

A LITTLE OFFICE PRAYER

Grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change
The courage to change things I cannot accept
And the wisdom
To hide the bodies of those people
I had to kill today because they
Pissed me off.

And also,
Help me to be careful
Of the toes I step on today as they
May be connected to the ass
That I might have to kiss tomorrow....

Always give 100% at work....
12% on Monday
23% on Tuesday
40% on Wednesday
20% on Thursday
5% on Friday

And remember....
When you're having a really bad day and it seems like
people are trying to piss you off, remember it takes 42 muscles to frown and only
4 to extend your middle finger!

Now get back to work....

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Fm: Dumbo lstupid1@starpower.net
Subject: 25 Signs That You Have Grown Up

25 Signs That You Have Grown Up
1. Your potted plants are alive. And you can't smoke any of them.
2. Having sex in a twin-sized bed is absurd.
3. You keep more food than beer in the fridge.
4. 6:00 AM is when you get up, not when you go to sleep.
5. You hear your favorite song on an elevator.
6. You carrying an umbrella, because you watched the Weather Channel.
7. Your friends marry and divorce instead of hookup and breakup.
8. You go from 130 days of vacation time to 7.
9. Jeans and a sweater no longer qualify as 'dressed up'.
10. You're the one calling the police because those darn kids next door won't turn down the stereo.
11. Older relatives feel comfortable telling sex jokes around you.
12. You don't know what time Taco Bell closes anymore.
13. Your car insurance goes down and your car payments go up.
14. You feed your dog Science Diet instead of McDonald's.
15. Sleeping on the couch makes your back hurt.
16. You no longer take naps from noon to 6 p.m.
17. Dinner and a movie - The whole date instead of the beginning of one.
18. Eating a basket of chicken wings at 3 a.m. would severely upset, rather than settle, your stomach.
19. You go to the drugstore for Ibuprofen and antacids, not condoms and pregnancy test kits.
20. A $4.00 bottle of wine is no longer 'pretty good stuff'.
21. You actually eat breakfast foods at breakfast time.
22. "I just can't drink the way I used to," replaces "I'm never going to drink that much again".
23. Over 90% of the time you spend in front of a computer is for real work.
24. You don't drink at home to save money before going to a bar.
25. You read this entire list looking for one sign that doesn't apply.

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From: Dumbo lstupid1@starpower.net

Subject: Late Night funnies

"What we know about Osama bin Laden is this - he's worth $300 million, he has five wives and 26 kids...and he hates Americans for their 'excessive' lifestyles."-- David Letterman

"The leaders of the Taliban said today that killing bin Laden won't solve the problem. But, you know, it couldn't hurt."-- Jay Leno

"More and more details coming out now about spoiled rich kid Osama bin Laden. Time reports this week he was one of 52 kids. This guy inherited $80 million at age 13 and has since expanded it to $300 million through construction, smart stock buys and gas & oil investments. This way, he can use the money in his war against capitalism."-- Jay Leno

"You read about all these terrorists, most of them came here legally, but they hung around on these expired visas, some for as long as 10-15 years. Now, compare that to Blockbuster; you are two days late with a video and these people are all over you. Let's put Blockbuster in charge of immigration." -- Jay Leno

More and more facts coming out about Osama bin Laden. You know, he never sleeps in the same place two nights in a row, just like Clinton." -- Jay Leno

"This Osama bin Laden guy, spoiled rich kid worth $300M. I have three words for this guy: Anna Nicole Smith. We send her over there, she'll get his money, and he'll be dead in a week."-- Jay Leno

"It was reported today that Osama Bin Laden has 50 brothers and sisters. Which absolutely shocked me because I had no idea he was Catholic." -- Conan O'Brien

"CBS News finally received anthrax in the mail. As usual, we're number three."-- David Letterman

"Things have really changed here in Hollywood. Used to be people in this town couldn't wait to get an envelope full of white powder." -- Jay Leno

"I don't mean to harp on this, but it's like the networks are a how-to manual for terrorists. You see them on the news. This reporter is standing outside a water-treatment plant, going, 'If they poured the poison here, it could wipe out thousands because the guard is off duty from noon until 1 every day.'"-- Jay Leno

"Postal inspectors have been given advanced warning that Publishers Clearinghouse is sending packets of laundry detergent that could be mistaken for anthrax. Oh, good timing! What genius came up with this promotion? What's next? A ticking alarm clock? Let's put THAT in a box."
-- Jay Leno

"The FBI is urging all Americans to beware of any letters or packages that have badly misspelled words. Man, this is terrible news for the rap industry."-- Jay Leno

"In Pakistan anti-American protesters set a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant on fire. The protesters mistakenly thought they were attacking high-ranking U.S. military official
Colonel Sanders."
-- Jimmy Fallon on Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update

"Tomorrow night on NBC, a very special episode of West Wing makes a direct reference to what happened in New York City. The exact plot is being kepttop secret. We're the only country in the world where we put our battle plans on CNN, but the plots to our TV shows are top secret."
-- Jay Leno

"There was a rumor that Jesse Jackson was going to go over there to talk with the Taliban; apparently they were having trouble rhyming the word Jihad." -- Jay Leno

"People want to say there isn't racial profiling at the airport, but let's be honest. If you first name is Mohammed, and your last name isn't Ali, arrive at the airport extra early." -- Jay Leno

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From: Dumbo lstupid1@starpower.net

Subject: Southern style

Did you hear about the guy from Alabama who passed away and left his entire estate to his beloved widow, but she can't touch it 'til she's 14.

How do you know when you're staying in a Kentucky hotel? When you call the front desk and say, "I gotta leak in my sink," and the front desk replies, "Go ahead."

How can you tell if a Tennessee redneck is married? There is dried tobacco juice on both sides of his pickup truck.

Did you hear that they have raised the minimum drinking age in West Virginia to 32? It seems they want to keep alcohol out of the high schools!

What do they call rerun of "Hee Haw" in Alabama? Documentaries.

Where was the toothbrush invented? Mississippi. If it was invented anywhere else, it would have been called a teethbrush.

A Georgia State trooper pulls over a pickup on I-75 and says to the driver, "Got any I.D.?" and the driver replies "Bout wut?"

Did you hear about the $3 million Arkansas State Lottery? The winner gets $3 a year for a million years.

Did you hear that the governor's mansion in Alabama burned down? Yep. Pert' near took out the whole trailer park. The library was a total loss, too. Both books -- poof! -- up in flames and he hadn't even finished coloring one of them.

From: Walters, William Waltersw@BRAGG.ARMY.MIL

Who Is Boss?

A husband was advised by his psychiatrist to assert himself.

"You don't have to let your wife henpeck you. Go home and show her you're the boss."

The man was on fire with enthusiasm and couldn't wait to try the Doctor's advice...

He rushed home, slammed the door, shook his fist in his wife's face, and growled,

"From now on, you're taking orders from me. I want my supper right now, and when you get it on

the table, goes upstairs, and lay out my best clothes.

Tonight, I'm going out with the boys and you're going to stay home where you belong. And another

thing...you know who's going to comb my hair, adjust my pants, and then tie my tie?"


I certainly do," said his wife calmly....

"The undertaker".

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From: Tony Salinger salinger@worldnet.att.net
/Bernardsville, NJ/SP5/98GRU/Det 27, 61-62

Subject: The Station

THE STATION

by Robert J. Hastings

Tucked away in our subconscious is an idyllic vision. We see ourselves on a long trip that spans the continent. We are traveling by train. Out the windows we drink in the passing scene of cars on nearby highways, of children waving at a crossing, of cattle grazing on a distant hillside, of smoke pouring from a power plant, of row upon row of corn and wheat, of flatlands and valleys, of mountains and rolling hillsides, of city skylines and village halls.

But uppermost in our minds is the final destination. On a certain day at a certain hour we will pull into the station. Bands will be playing and flags waving. Once we get there so many wonderful dreams will come true and the pieces of our lives will fit together like a completed jigsaw puzzle. How restlessly we pace the aisles, damning the minutes for loitering-waiting, waiting, waiting for the station.

"When we reach the station that will be it!" we cry. "When I'm 18." "When I buy a new 450 SL Mercedes Benz!" "When I put the last kid through college." "When I get married." "When I have paid off the mortgage." "When I get a promotion." "When I reach the age of retirement, I shall live happily ever after!"

Sooner or later we must realize there is no station, no one place to arrive at once and for all. The true joy of life is the trip. The station is only a dream. It constantly outdistances us.

"Relish the moment" is a good motto, especially when coupled with Psalm 118:24: "This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." It isn't the burdens of today that drive men mad. It is the regrets over yesterday and the fear of tomorrow. Regret and fear are twin thieves who rob us of today.

So, stop pacing the aisles and counting the miles. Instead, climb more mountains, eat more ice cream, go barefoot more often, swim more rivers, watch more sunsets, laugh more, cry less. Life must be lived as we go along. The station will come soon enough.

Tony Salinger
Educator and Organization Consultant
908 766-0283
Eastern Standard Time
salinger@worldnet.att.net
http://www.marquiswhoswho.net/SALINGER
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Dumbo lstupid1@starpower.net
Sent: Sunday, January 20, 2002 11:48 AM

Subject: The Enron Explanation

ENRON EXPLAINED: In case you were wondering how Enron came into so much
trouble, here is an explanation reputedly given by a Colorado Aggie professor to explain it in terms his students could understand.
Capitalism
You have two cows.
You sell one and buy a bull.
Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows.
You sell them and retire on the income.

Capitalism as practiced by Enron

You have two cows. You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap
with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows.

The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island company secretly owned your CFO who sells the rights toall seven cows back to your listed company.

The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on six more.

Now do you see why a company with $62 billion in assets is declaring bankruptcy?

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From: Dumbo lstupid1@starpower.net

Sent: Sunday, January 20, 2002 6:56 PM

Subject: MSNBC: Email ties Richard Reid to Pakistan

E-mail ties Richard Reid to Pakistan

Investigators find digital clues; Yahoo, Hotmail asked to help

NBC, MSNBC AND NEWS SERVICES

Jan. 19 — In e-mails apparently sent by shoe-bomb suspect Richard Reid before he boarded a Paris-Miami flight, he indicated he would be destroying an airplane and, after being thwarted from boarding an earlier flight, asked one recipient in Pakistan if he should "go again." The mail was found on the hard drives of computers used by the 28-year-old Briton while he was in Paris, French news media reported Saturday.

COMPUTER EXPERTS were able to retrieve the data off hard drives from computers used by Reid, Europe 1 Radio and the newspaper La Provence reported Saturday.
Europe 1 reporter Frederic Helbert provided the greatest detail, telling NBC News that French sources said the e-mails so far showed that:
A few hours after Reid missed a Paris-Miami flight on Dec. 21, he sent e-mail to a Pakistani address from the business center of the Copthorne Hotel, where American Airlines had put him up after tight security prevented Reid from making the flight. In that e-mail he told the recipient of the difficulty of boarding and asks, "Should I go again?" An e-mail was sent back to Reid that said, "Yes, go again."
Reid sent an email — a testament of sorts — to several mosques in England and Belgium. He sent a similar mail to his mother and claimed responsibility for the destruction of an airplane but did not say who he was working for.
He wrote that he was a "martyr for the Islamic cause" and asked his mother to convert to Islam.

ACCOUNTS IN EUROPE, PAKISTAN
Upon arriving in Paris,
Reid created an e-mail address from a computer kiosk in a subway station in a largely Arab neighborhood in northern Paris called the Goutte d’Or (Drop of Gold), officials said. He also frequented two cybercafés in Paris and one in Brussels.

European investigators have discovered Reid created e-mail boxes in other countries — two in Britain and three in Pakistan.
Reid sent messages throughout Europe, many to Belgium and numerous others to Pakistan, computer experts said after examining the hard drives.
FBI agents and a U.S. prosecutor arrived in Paris last Monday to work with French authorities investigating the e-mails, Helbert reported.

HOTMAIL, YAHOO LINKS

The U.S. team was expected to ask two e-mail hosts — Hotmail and Yahoo — for authorization to get more details about some of the addresses found on the hard drives, particularly that of the Pakistani.
NBC’s Robert Windrem, citing U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, said intelligence services have long identified Yahoo and Hotmail as the al-Qaida terrorist network’s preferred means to send e-mail.
The benefits to al-Qaida are that such services can be accessed from any computer in the world with an Internet connection, can be encrypted if necessary, and accounts can be opened and closed quickly. Moreover, the services do not retain records of emails for a long period of time.

ACCOMPLICES?
Helbert said French investigators still do not know where Reid stayed during the week he was in Paris before finally boarding the Paris-Miami flight on Dec. 22.
All Paris-area hotels have been checked, leading investigators to believe that he was lodged by someone privately.
Investigators also believe Reid had an accomplice with the ability to stabilize the explosive in his running shoe.
That explosive, TATP, is so volatile it could easily have exploded while he walked, Helbert cited investigators as saying. Moreover, TATP is effectively stabilized for only 48 hours before it reverts back to its volatile form.
Reid was subdued by flight crew and passengers when he allegedly was spotted trying to light a fuse on the shoes.

NOT-GUILTY PLEA
In a Boston courtroom Friday, Reid pleaded not guilty to a nine-count federal indictment charging him with trying to blow up the Paris-Miami flight as it was over the Atlantic Ocean.
He was indicted Wednesday on the new charges and accused of ties to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network. Initially held for interfering with a flight crew, Reid faces charges more closely tied to terrorism, including the attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.
"Not guilty," Reid answered softly when asked to enter a plea in the case.
One of Reid’s court-appointed attorneys said the indictment does not accuse Reid of acting for a terrorist group.
"We note that the indictment does not allege that any of the crimes charged were committed on behalf of or to further the cause of al-Qaida or any other terrorist organization," Tamar Birckhead said in a statement. "We are aware of no basis for such an allegation."
On Wednesday, Attorney General John Ashcroft said Reid "is being charged as an al-Qaida-trained terrorist" and could face up to five life sentences.
Ashcroft said the charges "alert us to a clear, unmistakable threat that al-Qaida could attack the United States again."
The other charges include: attempted murder and homicide; placing an explosive device on an aircraft; interfering with a flight crew; attempted destruction of an aircraft; using a destructive device during a crime of violence; and attempted wrecking of a mass transportation vehicle.
The London-born Reid is being held in Plymouth, Mass. No bail has been set because Reid is considered a risk to the public and likely to flee if released. Reid could be moved to Alexandria, Va., to stand trial. A Justice Department spokesman has said the federal court there has expertise in terrorism matters and could provide better security.

AL-QAIDA TRAINING CITED
The indictment also alleges that "at various times ... Richard Colvin Reid received training from al-Qaida in Afghanistan." It did not specify when or where inside Afghanistan Reid is alleged to have been trained.
The indictment came as the Wall Street Journal reported finding an alleged al-Qaida computer in Afghanistan that contains a travel itinerary very similar to that taken by Reid in the months before his arrest.
The itinerary is said to be that of an "Abdul Ra’uff" and a senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told NBC News that the intelligence community has "few doubts" that Ra’uff is Reid.
An Israeli official who spoke on condition of anonymity said it was possible Reid was gathering intelligence during those travels for large-scale attacks in Tel Aviv and other cities.
Investigators are seeking any links between Reid and al-Qaida operators. There have been reports that Reid spoke with
Zacarias Moussaoui the first man charged in the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

NBC News’ Nancy Ing, Pete Williams and Robert Windrem, MSNBC’s Jon Bonné and The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.