Here are the folks who wrote in about their organization or cause during the last week:
* If you’re in the Seattle area, there’s a Veterans Therapeutic Massage benefit brunch on November 6.
* Dames for Danes is “dedicated to saving the lives of homeless, abused and neglected Great Danes in Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia, as well as to areas resources will allow.”
* In Warren County, Ohio, the local National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) chapter had a tough time at their fundraiser this year and could use some help. Here’s their donation page. NAMI is a worthwhile organization — here’s their national webpage.
* Finally, one person wrote in to suggest mailing a brick to credit card companies using their postage-paid return mail envelopes.
Every Friday, I pimp the legit causes people send me during the week. Send me an email (my email is in the upper right-hand corner) if you’d like your cause highlighted.
arguingwithsignposts
You should have a graphic to accompany these posts.
soonergrunt
OT–Khadaffy was apparently executed shortly after capture, and not died of wounds as previously reported.
Queue Wilfred, Kola Noscopy, Uncle Clarence Thomas, and the rest of the firebaggers desperately topping each other in screaming for Obama’s head for a war crime.
Also some incoherent blather from multiple_personality_matoko about how this proves that Islam is better than Christianity, but that happens in threads about gardening, so nothing new with that.
Oh, and Grandpa McCain is on the Today show talking about how he supported this thing from the very beginning, but he was right and Obama was wrong anyway, so nothing new with that.
arguingwithsignposts
@soonergrunt:
As I posted last night, it’s always Sunday for John McCain.
Starfish
Consider giving money to the Jackson Women’s Health Organization which is going to need to fight a law in Mississippi granting full personhood to embryos. The law is so nutty that a Catholic bishop opposes it.
SiubhanDuinne
@soonergrunt:
Haven’t seen her in a few days. Is she on vacation or did she get another time out?
lord karnage
regarding this:
i have, for the last 7-10 years, routinely collected credit card and bank solicitations from my mail, removed the envelopes, filled them with random pieces of paper, coupons that had expired, my son’s art projects, and placed them back in the mail. It amuses me to think of it as a fascinating exchange that I am having with their staff. i probably mail off anywhere from one to three per week. each one is different. I’m always careful not to put their actual paperwork back into the envelopes as they are covered with numeric codes, and anyone who was half interested could eventually put together a pattern of these things and then they might stop sending me the envelopes. for shame, i want the envelopes. they are my pen pals!
meander
This Monday, October 24, is the first annual “Food Day“, an event cooked up by the Center for Science in the Public Interest. All across the U.S., there will be events to educate about real food and advocate for better policies from government, and better behavior by corporations. In San Francisco, for example, there is a panel about school food. You can find events in your area on the Food Day page.
forked tongue
I have occasionally, when visiting my father, boosted some of the fundraising mail he gets from various Republican outfits and returned their postage-paid envelopes filled with scrap paper. I’ve been tempted to try the brick, but I heard somewhere that it doesn’t work.
thalarctos
Thanks for the shout-out, mistermix–it’s very much appreciated!
thalarctos
Thanks for the shout-out, mistermix–it’s very much appreciated!
geg6
Completely OT, but my campus has been closed and is in lockdown due to a “credible threat”. Worried about the kids in the dorms and administration and staff required to be there, but I do now have the day off. Hope all is ok.
thalarctos
Sorry about the duplicate post–my finger slipped, and I see the edit button’s gone away again…
ETA–but *this* post does have an edit button–well played, WP, well played.
soonergrunt
@geg6: I hope everything is OK there for you and your people too.
gbear
@forked tongue:
I called the post office asking about that a few years ago and was told that a return envelope taped to a brick won’t be delivered. Whatever it is that you’re mailing to them has to fit inside the envelope.
Amir Khalid
@SiubhanDuinne:
Our dear m_c opened a comment under mistermix’s post on the Zanesville wildlife massacre yesterday with the salutation YOU STUPID FUCKING ASSHOLE, then went on to her usual combo of poor reading comprehension and high dudgeon. It was somewhat over the top, even for her, so he gave her a one-day timeout. She’ll be back today in some thread or other, possibly with a new nym.
arguingwithsignposts
@Amir Khalid:
damn.
WereBear
I have a bleg going:
Remember the three week old kitten I rescued last year? Well, my friend’s family started feeding a stray cat with an uncanny resemblance to my little kitten boy… and she has three kittens, too! She and her kittens got trapped this weekend, now at a vet who was flooded out during Hurricane Irene… but is valiantly battling on.
We wouldn’t have troubled her, except the shelters were overwhelmed. So if you ever said to yourself, Oh, if only I had a kitten like the lovebug, Tristan… here you go.
Already placed one, three to go. Momma cat is a real cuddler, the vet reports, and the kittens are taming up beautifully.
Save Tristan’s Relatives!
WereBear
Forgot to add that I WILL DELIVER YOUR KITTY to the NYC Metro Area or New England, as the case may be.
nancydarling
Hopefully the slaughter in Ohio the other day will lead to shutting down the exotic pet industry and rescuing the animals in need of help. Big cat refuges are already stretched and will need help. This place is open to the public 364 days a year, so their good work is available for all to see. I have been there several times and can attest to the wonderful care their cats and other animals receive.
http://www.turpentinecreek.org/
Chris from Arlington
I love the idea of mailing a brick back to junk mail companies. I know what I’m doing this weekend.
wonkie
Mastermis, for some reason I cannot email you from my computer, so I hope you see this.
I want to give a big shout out to Stary Rescue of St. Louis. strayrescue.org/
I don’t live in St. Louis but it would almost be worth moving just to volunteer for this woderful orgaization. It all started with one remarkable man who could not judt drive by strays and ignore them. St Louis is overrun with stray dogs for a variety of reasoon. The estimate is in the tens of thousands. many are sick, mangy, pregnant, survivors of dog fighting…Anyway Randy Grim coud not just drive by. He started bringing strays home. Whe he got up to fifteen or so his family staged an interevention designed to make him stop. Instead he wet big and founded Stray Rescue of St. Louis.
They have to triage, of course. They have a wonderful facility that can house up to a hudred dogs and includes a vet clinic. They also have a net work of foster homes. ether the less most strays they cannot pick uo so they triage. They pick up the pregnant sick sol or very young ones and live the rest. But they don’t ignore the rest. They maintain food and shelter stations all over thecity for the dogs that still seem healhty. They recoruit busiess and even the police to support the food and shelter stations. They moitor thier established stray packs and pick up dog when they ahve room.
Their website is addictive. So many stories of suffering and rescue. Randy Grim is a great man.
I sent one hudred dollars to buy a brick for thier new builsing in honor of a dog I loved. I hope Master mix will feature Stray Rescue next week. They are having a fundraising job because they have taken in so many starved emaciated dogs recently that their vet bill arte through the roof.
Chris
@Amir Khalid:
I’d like to apologize in advance for being a whiny little bitch here, but… is there a reason why she keeps getting time outs, or getting banned but allowed to return under another name and blather on for months until the inevitable moment when she goes too far? As opposed to a straight-up IP address ban or something equally drastic?
I mean, yeah, I’m told she makes good statements from time to time, but it really seems like one of those “broken clock, twice a day” moments to me. Are her occasional real contributions really worth putting up with the tons and tons and TONS of race-baiting, religion-baiting, eugenicist agitprop, screaming the same mantras over and over again in irrelevant threads like a teabagger at a town hall meeting, and just generally prickish behavior?
It’s not my blog, I respect that, front pagers got to do what they gotta do. But I do really like reading it, and it’s vaguely saddening to me how many good threads have been hijacked by the same screaming lunatic in the past.
Paul in KY
@lord karnage: I love the idea & I’m going to try it out.
Paul in KY
@gbear: You place the brick inside a box and wrap it up like a legit package & then put the envelope on outside.
gbear
@Paul in KY: Have you tried it that way and had success? From what the post office told me, the reply HAD to fit inside the postage-paid envelope. Taping the envelope to a nice package wouldn’t be any better than taping it to a brick.
Amir Khalid
@Chris:
Permanent IP-address bans don’t seem to be Balloon Juice house policy, even for a persistent offender like m_c. I guess John Cole isn’t keen on them.
Warren Terra
Bricks cost money, are useful, could be perceived as a weapon and a threat, and might irritate the postal workers and damage their machines. What about strapping together a pile of junk mail, and sending that? Though it would contain your name and address …
scav
Occupy JunkMail. Suggestions for some slogans to include in the paper we mail back?
Chris
@Amir Khalid:
Ah. Now I know that.
Well, I can only say it’s everyone’s loss…
MikeJ
@Chris:
What she says generally isn’t any more vile than that said by other regulars here. My main complaint about her and some of our other trolls is the volume. I don’t think there’s a plugin for FYWP to do it, but I’d just limit her to two comments per thread. See also the troll in the next thread.
Arclite
That is too awesome. Too bad some in this thread are reporting it doesn’t work.
Arclite
O@Arclite: On the other hand, this is on the website FAQ for mailing bricks using the return mail envelopes:
Q: Does this actually work?
A: Someone used my company’s buisness-reply from inside the magazine, and taped it to a box. That’s how I know this works
Q: What is the weight limit?
A: I’ve heard rumors that it is 13 ounces, but the box that was sent to the magazine I work for was twenty two pounds.
Geoduck
I would bet the brick thing never works, while the taped-to-a-box trick might slip through depending on the workers at your local PO.
Bill K
The mail the brick to the credit card company website mentions the blue package mail boxes. I haven’t seen one of those in years. Weren’t these removed after 9/11?