Often in my opposition to the lie which we call 'Political Correctness', and in my disdain for the Media which is more interested in selling newspapers than the truth, I remind people to check the facts of an issue, rather than allow themselves to be caught up in an emotional or ideological con job. This same warning applies to emails.

I constantly receive emails on a variety of topics; from the prayer chains which collect email addresses for spammers, to the outrage over some purportedly 'real' and vital issue affecting society at large.

From the story about the Egyptian woman and her kids who were buried alive for believing in Jesus to the story about the abhorrent punishment of child thieves in Iran, weekly we receive 'bleeding heart' calls for compassion or outrage. Who really knows why the tricksters send them out? Perhaps they are spammers collecting email addresses as you forward the email along. Perhaps they are people with a particular and peculiar emotional issue which they justify somehow by tricking everyone into believing as they do.

Whatever the email's purpose, it relies on you the reader not to check out the asserted facts. It is quite easy to do a Google word search and find a plethora of information on just about every subject known to man. You should never just 'buy into' what these emotionally charged emails are selling. You should 'check them out'.

Just the other day I received an email about the punishment dished out in Iran to a child who stole a loaf of bread. The story came with numerous photographs of the incident. Photographs such as this one below.

But the story told in the email was a lie. I did a google search and came up with the 'hoax slayer' website which lists the progression of this chain email over the years.

Interestingly enough, while the story surrounding the photographs is a con job, the photos themselves are not. But to discover what those photographs are about, you will have to read the article at 'hoax-slayer'.

We tend to think that the expression 'Buyer Beware!' only applies to financial transactions, but in today's mass media, mass propaganda, mass politicizing environment, we are constantly being 'sold' something and we need to beware of just what it is that we are buying into.

SO - If you would like to receive payment for reading this article, just send me your credit card details along with its security identification code and I guarantee you a quick change in your financial status.

R.P. BenDedek
Email: rpbendedek@hotmail.com