Get rid of junk mail
I saw a piece on the Today Show this morning that really got my attention. It was about reducing the amount of junk mail you get. Evan and I get a tremendous amount of credit card offers and other annoying things that just end up in the trash. The whole story is here, but the most useful site was this one which will end the majority of our junk which are those pesky pre-approved credit card offers, which can also be very dangerous if they fall into the wrong hands. So do yourself a favor and fill out the opt-out form which will keep you from getting these offers for 5 years. You will need to do this for each person in your household and if you are recently married I would fill one out for your maiden name as well.
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May 7th, 2007 13:07
Jen - It good to see you over the weekend. I also saw this on Oprah a few weeks back (yes, I DVR Oprah) about junk mail. This has a cost associated with it, but they also plan trees on your behalf. Thought it would be another option to share with your readers. Tammy http://www.greendimes.com
May 8th, 2007 08:50
Do Not Mail Opt-Out Law would be fair to everyone.
The proposed recent “Do not mail” is an Opt-Out law. Only those not desiring advertising mail need opt-out. Anyone desiring advertising mail can do nothing - and continue to receive it. Why deny those wishing to avoid advertising mail the power to do so?
I do not consider handling unwanted advertising placed against my will on my personal property to be a civic obligation!
The US Supreme Court said in the Rowan case in 1970, ““In today’s [1970] complex society we are inescapably captive audiences for many purposes, but a sufficient measure of individual autonomy must survive to permit every householder to exercise control over unwanted mail. To make the householder the exclusive and final judge of what will cross his threshold undoubtedly has the effect of impeding the flow of ideas, information, and arguments that, ideally, he should receive and consider. Today’s merchandising methods, the plethora of mass mailings subsidized by low postal rates, and the growth of the sale of large mailing lists as an industry in itself have changed the mailman from a carrier of primarily private communications, as he was in a more leisurely day, and have made him an adjunct of the mass mailer who sends unsolicited and often unwanted mail into every home. It places no strain on the doctrine of judicial notice to observe that whether measured by pieces or pounds, Everyman’s mail today is made up overwhelmingly of material he did not seek from persons he does not know. And all too often it is matter he finds offensive.”
Furthermore, the Supreme Court said, “the mailer’s right to communicate is circumscribed only by an affirmative act of the addressee giving notice that he wishes no further mailings from that mailer.
To hold less would tend to license a form of trespass and would make hardly more sense than to say that a radio or television viewer may not twist the dial to cut off an offensive or boring communication and thus bar its entering his home. Nothing in the Constitution compels us to listen to or view any unwanted communication, whatever its merit; we see no basis for according the printed word or pictures a different or more preferred status because they are sent by mail.”
We need a nationwide “Do Not Mail” law to create a one-stop, convenient place for homeowners to give senders the aforementioned affirmative notice that we do not want certain kinds of mail sent to our homes.
http://www.newdream.org/emails/ta19.html
Signed,
Ramsey A Fahel
May 8th, 2007 10:14
I would like to know the websites to get rid of junk mail. On the Mon. show they went too fast for me to get all this info.
May 8th, 2007 13:52
Norma,
You can go to this site to see the full article from the Today Show:
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/18530707/