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Do you still want to complain about America?
The View
From My Front Porch
With Larry L. Peel
larry@ioncinema.com
We all know the
drill...some slick
salesman contacts you
offering to make you
rich if you just invest a
little money to help get
things started. Most of
us know that there is
no such thing as a “get
rich quick” plan, if there
were, there would be no
poverty.
Still, some people
are so desperate or so
naive as to believe the
pitch and the hype,
and turn over their
Faded fashions find resurgence in modern trends
By Bobby Moore
Guest Writer
rmoore 7 @ my.west ga .edit
Have you ever been
a little ashamed to wear
something and then years
later find out that those
same dreaded clothes
became fashionable?
I was in Boy Scouts
for years. In fact, I
outlasted most of my
friends and became an
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hard earned money.
Sometimes the con artist
is caught, sometimes
not. Sometimes it even
goes horribly wrong.
In August 2006, Mary
Winkler allegedly killed
her husband Matthew
during a fight over
money she lost to a
Nigerian Internet scam.
Nothing I have
seen or heard of here
in the states compares
however, to what one
man in China is accused
of. According to CNN.
com (quoting Beijing
Eagle Scout.
We entered Boy
Scouts and got our new
khaki uniforms when we
were 12 (1994), which
means we were right at
the age when we first
became all self-conscious
and really started noticing
girls.
Over the next few
years, a lot of things
changed about all of the
guys. Dirty magazines
News) Wang Zhendong
of a province in North
China, created a phony
business selling ants to
consumers, and raking
in over 3 Billion yuang
($387 million). The
company was reportedly
going to offer wines, tea
and medical elixirs to
be used to relieve things
like arthritis. Now I
spent 20 years as a
medic, and I don’t claim
to know everything
about medicine, but
the thought of drinking
wine, tea or anything
else with ants, as an
ingredient would make
me think twice about
whether I really was in
that much pain in the
first place.
My personal tastes
aside, it seems there
started showing up on
camping trips, some folks
actually went on dates
occasionally and of course
some of us discovered
cars and motorcycles.
One thing never
changed, though. None
of us wanted to be seen
in our uniforms. Granted,
we thought the uniforms
looked nice, and our
parents paid a lot of
money for them, but we
Opinion
is a great demand for
the products in Asia,
as Zhendong and his
“managers” convinced
over 10,000 people
to sign over 100,000
contracts before he was
caught. The investors
were coaxed with
promises of up to 60%
profit. Zhendong sold
the investors bags of
ants for 10,000 yuang
each, when the actual
value of the ants was a
mere 200 yuang.
The Chinese
government investigated
the practices of the
bogus company in 2005
and found that Zhendong
spent 798 million Yuan
on himself and his
friends and squandered
the rest. His 15 managers
were each sentenced to
had our middle school
reputations to protect.
We were especially
cautious if there were
girls around. Those
insecure thoughts amuse
me now, but back then
being labeled a good
little Boy Scout was a
horrifying thought.
All kinds of effort
would be put into not
being seen in our first
class uniforms if anyone
5 to 10 years in prison
and fined between 100
and 500,000 Yuan each.
Investors were only able
to recoup 10 million
Yuan, and one investor
was so upset that he
committed suicide.
Wait, the strangest
is still to come.
When Zhendong
went to trial, his defense
was simply that he didn’t
know the first thing about
raising ants and was
“quite unclear” that the
amount he was charging
was so far above the
actual market value. Ok.
so someone tell me how
this person managed to
convince not only 15
people to work for him,
but 10,000 people to
believe he knew what he
was doing?
had band practice or a
soccer game at school
before our Tuesday night
meetings.
Now, after all of
these years, the guys are
still changing. Everyone
but me is married now
and a lot of the married
fellows have kids. As far
as I know, we all have
careers, too.
Perceptions of those
uniforms have changed
*
Now then, back to
the original topic of
this little jaunt off my
porch.
If this happened in
America, this guy would
get 20 or 30 years most
likely to think about his
intelligence quotient. In
China, they see things
a bit differently. They
apparently figure that
someone that stupid
should never be allowed
to breed, or for that
matter breathe. He was
sentenced to death,
and they don’t allow
a million appeals and
public protests. He will
die. Soon.
Still think America
is a bad place to be?
Support our freedom,
support our ground
troops.
as well, apparently.
I was in the ultra
trendy Junkman’s
Daughter shop in East
Atlanta the other evening
before the Heart Attacks
show at the Star Bar,
and there was a whole
rack full of Boy Scout
uniform shirts with all
kinds of different patches
on them.
See Fashion page 5