h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

That's the way to go. Kansas.

It was the first TV station in this area. Course we're darned near in Kansas. I can almost spit and hit it from my front yard.

Isn't that illegal...?

I once found the city bylaws of Little Doodah, and spitting at Kansas was in fact written in and codified

Hypatia,
I was listening to NPR on the way home from Refuel Outage 18 Owl Shift yesterday morning and heard something about seven homes being rebuilt by Extreme Makeover from TV. Have you gotten any word of this? I mean, it's good they are helping a half-dozen families get reestablished, yet it pained me to think that so many more weren't being addressed. How do you slice something like that?

B4ipostthelink2getotherpeoplethinking2late

http://www.joinextreme.com/joplin

It's situations like this that have made me limit any monetal support to organisations that have, what we in Sweden call 90-accounts (what used to be postal giro but is now plus giro due to the privatisation policy of the current government and what a surprise - postal deliviries actually deterioted *sarcasm*).

Anyway, '90 accounts' (so called because the account number starts with those two figures) are controlled by a foundation that checks that the funds received are actually used for what the foundation claims to be supporting.

And yes, a few years ago, an organisation got its 90 account cancelled, because of tax debts and because it was calculated that all the funds raised needed to be used to pay said taxes and for salaries to the employees.

I regularly get phone calls asking me to donate money to this and that, and I always ask 'do you have a 90 account?'. And if they don't, then no, sorry, you're not getting my money.

What a sensible way to monitor charities, Titania. My hat's off to the Swedes.

From BG's article: This past Saturday myself and 4 of my friends walked into good ‘ole 18th St Pier and to our shock there was a
“Rockin with Joplin” benefit being held.
As with anyone we assumed Janis Joplin, not until I
glanced at the 60” high definition TV hanging
on the wall that was showing footage of devastation
(that looked really similar to San Leon after
IKE) I then realize I was attending a benefit for
Joplin, MO. "

Joplin MO was less than a year ago, and Janis has been gone for over 40 years...seriously, they assumed it was Janis Joplin? It's not even like San Leon is *that* close to Port Arthur...it's about 80 miles, and even then, only if you're a crow.

I agree that the kids who raised the money should have seen it go to their intended recipients; otherwise that's a lousy example to set of the value of charity.