WIL WHEATON dot NET: 1.5

I HATE spam! Bah!

Wow. Way to say what I've been saying for years....

Spamming me with stuff about how to get off spam lists is NOT going to reflect favorably on your company. Now the WSJ is doing it. Oh gods, does the maddness EVER stop?

My wife used to believe those "Click here to be removed" links. Then she spent a month faithfully clicking on those links to get removed. Her SPAM count went from about 20 per day to over 4000. (Yes, that's 4000 per day.)

LOVEd the Terri Schivo reference. And the Runaway bride. Two stories that I feel were overblown the FIRST time they were reported as "news".

This guy loves spam!

http://spamusement.com/

I got the same thing, and pretty much just ignored it. I suppose I should have them remove me. I've just gotten used to that never working, and training my spam filter to catch the crap anyway.

(Damn, you gotta clean up the preview page and make it look nice.)

In the Church of the SubGenius™ http://www.subgenius.com - we call the Media part of the CONSPIRACY

The Conspiracy (Con, for short) lives to control our lives, by in part controlling our information. "1984" as George Orwell predicted has become a frightening reality TODAY!

Look at how fast Newsweek magazine buckled and retracted their earlier story that said American interrogators at Guantanamo Bay were flushing the pages of the Koran down the toilets to rattle detainees. (also have you noticed how we call them "detainees" and not "prisoners of war"?)

Realizing just HOW BAD that Newsweek story would play out in the Muslim world, the Bush Family ordered Newsweek to retract the story. But it is too late, the die is cast and now America has another disgraceful black mark to go right up there with all the other blunders that Bush's private little war has created. Blunders like:

Finding NO EVIDENCE of Iraqi WMD
The Abu Ghraib Prison Scandal
Insurgent uprisings
Over 1,500 killed
Over 20,000 permanently disabled

Remember last year when ABC News was going to read off the names of all those killed in Iraq? And how Sinclair Broadcasting acted in support of their friends in the Bush Administration to NOT AIR that night's broadcast?

I watched that. I made a point to stay up that night to watch. Thankfully Sinclair Broadcasting doesn't own the ABC affiliate in Lexington, WTVQ-36 and they had the courage and balls to air that.

A great majority of the names of those killed were all ten years or more younger than I was. And these are the kids who will never ever come home again because they had to die for Bush's lust for power and control.

America is headed down a slippery slope and it's about to get a whole hell of a lot worse if The Governator should run for President. That is assuming that the Republican controlled Congress will repeal Article 2 Section 5 just so Arnold can run. http://www.arnoldexposed.com

If you don't like giving away google mojo, you can always whack a rel="nofollow" into the link.

Getting back on topic, you'd think that they could at least be a little more personal than "Dear Blogger".

Hi Wil,

Nice to see you're in such fine form! I haven't been by in quite some time. In fact, when I first ran into your site I didn't even know what a "blog" was. Recently I've learned that you're somewhat famous for being one of the pioneers in this scene.

I hadn't realized before that you were a "progressive" but it's nice to know that you haven't drunk the koolaid and still have the sense to see that the Emperor (and all his merry men, which includes Condi, of course) has no clothes.

I too am pretty fed up with the bullshit corporate media, and rely on Democracy Now! and other independent news sources to maintain my own personal sanity during these dark daze. Some day there should be war crimes trials, and all the media talking heads and the executives who pull their strings should be lined up in The Hague with George, Dick, Donald, Alberto "Torture Czar," John "Mazola Head," Wolfie "the comb-licker," et al. (I know it ain't gonna happen, but it's a cute fantasy!)

Stay free, and Stay Human!

Power to the peaceful...

Prem / www.lakeforestparkforpeace.org

Me Want Some!!!!

I Love You Long Time and have 5 Million in Special Account for you when we are done and you give me:

Every Bit of Personal Info on You and the Rest of the World!!!!...

hehehehehehe..

I Doubt it will ever stop Wil...

It's the Age Old Battle of *Good & Evil*.. No matter how good things seem to get Online, someone out there is going to find a way to make it bad for alot of people..

Oh Wil,

You didn't mention all the spoof spam!!! I am a powerseller on Ebay (even though I started a Yahoo Group called "greedbay" and personally hate ebay's corporate bullshit and auction monopoly), and I get roughly 15 spoof spams per day claiming I need to sign into my ebay or paypal account and update my personal info, or I'm in violation, or Safeharbor update, etc.

I usually report the emails I receive to either Ebay or Paypal's spoof line. But it does no good. I keep getting them.

I think ebay sells our personal information to these assholes. Wish I could live without ebay or paypal, but for the time being, I cannot.

Then I filled out something a while ago on MSNBC.com and now I'm getting about 20-30 spams per day, which I know are coming as a result of that. I unsubscribed, but still the junk mail keeps on coming.

Grrr.... a never-ending cycle of frustration.

Kel

There's no good way of dealing with spam, but having unlimited email aliases helps. Give each site a unique alias and then when you get the spam, you can see which site sold you out or got breached, and then redirect that alias to your trash or out into digital purgatory.

If you hate spam, check out mailinator.com

I use it for every sign up service I can...

No more spam for me :)

Nice Monty Python ref!
getting spam from mass mailings is annoying... getting it from your parents is the PITS. They don't say hello, they don't say anything REAL.. they just send an email with the fwd addresses of every other jerk they accept email from. *sigh*
liek you hadn't heard about that virus before they were even BORN (well, you get the drift) =F
other people you can at least ignore...family you are stuck with.

This whole anti-blogger business really upsets me. Ironically, there are posters encouraging us to make blogs around my highschool.

I hate spam too, but it is an unfortunate and inevitable consequence of human greed.

If it didn't work - internet spam would quickly die off. (Thanks mindless masses)

But it's here to stay.

So instead of getting even or mad, I eat mine with green eggs instead.

Dear Mr Wheaton,

My name is General M. Otors and I have a proposition for you. My father, General F. Uckup left billions of dollars...blah blah blah.

What fun times we live in? And the tele-marketing...

I'll take the spam, egg, chips and spam please.

You know, I have managed to get my spam blocking from my various email servers pretty well tuned. I hardly receive much spam these days. Maybe at the most 5 in one day. Considering that I use to receive upwards of 50 to 60 in one session......
However, if I receive one from the WSJ, which I doubt very much is going to happen, I would probably feel the same as you, and make and effort at telling them to Bush off. And yes, Bush is now a more offensive word then F**k.

You know, I never really noticed, but is it alright to swear in the comments on your blog, Wil?

Hey Wil,

Totally agree with you on the corporate media. I either get the bulk of my news from The Daily SHow with Jon Stewart, Democratic Underground and Dailykos and other websites. Most of them blogs. Loved the Terri Schiavo reference. I really cannot believe that a family's private matter is put under such a large and uncomfortable microscope. Sadly, her relatives were part of the problem, but still. It seems to get progressively worse that way too.

I hate spam too. I am glad that with my Gmail account, I have a spam folder for messages I want to delete. Though sadly not every bit of spam automatically goes in that folder.

Hold on - I have to actually push back my cubicle chair and stand up and clap for this. Wil, you just said what many of us think and only Jon Stewart seems to have been able to do on live TV.

Allow me also share with you a HTML coding tip I just learned - there's a rel attribute called nofollow you can put on link tags that keep the major search engines from indexing the link. It was introduced to help eliminate blogspam, but it appears to be very useful in a lot of situations.

Hi Wil,

I hate spam too - about 20% of mine in Chinese now, which I can't read, 20% is in Russian, which I can figure out quite a bit (I got one from a Chinese restaurant in Moscow last month, but I'm a bit beyond their delivery area!), and a bit in Korean. Oh, and last month I got one from "Mrs Malgorzeta Wojtyla, wife of the late Pope John Paul II..." inviting me to help get some money out of the Vatican Bank!!

Wil,

You're dead on the money here; I've always found it amazing how stupid stories that aren't really news keep getting media air play. Some news stories are truly news worthy but beating a story to death isn't going to accomplish anything other than to discredit the media outlet providing the story.

Imagine how many news stories that are real and legitimate that are being ignored because the Michael Jackson case needs to be reported on.

Stop the spam and stop beating us over the head with trivial media coverage of useless sensationalist stories.

Small update: looks like "nofollow" is already used here as I checked the page source and my link has it!

Kudos.

Spam sucks! I had an e-mail address where I was getting 500+ spam messages a day. It's now in the large e-mail graveyard, hopefully generating lots of friggin bouncebacks for those evil a**holes! They can take their "free" money and shove it where the sun don't shine.

As for the MSM... I unfortunately work in it. It sucks.

-A

wil,

GREAT commentary on spammers and the news media. rock on pardner.

i do have a secret fascination with some of the "male enhancement" spam i've seen come my way. especially as a female.

a lot of the subject headings talk about how my boyfriend's penis will destroy my vagina with it's girth.

i think spammers are watching WAAAAAY too much hentai.

Oh... *someone's* sinuses are feeling better, I see.

Sheesh.

This is a good rant because it doesn't just say, "Spammers are fuckers! I hate them teh suck!" It's good because Wil tempers his anger (but only slightly) and then levies his battle with real, valid, informed points of argument:

Bad: "We hate you."

Good: "We hate you cuz you spam us."

Wil: "We hate you cuz you spam us. Here's why."

Naturally, no one at the WSJ will read that email.

But *we* will.

And we're far more dangerous.

--AJ @ the Egg

(Great... my post has to follow a post which includes the words: "penis, vagina, girth, and hentai"

Hmmm... gonna paste those words into Google and see what I .... ACK!

*no carrier*

I don't think there is much more I can say that hasn't already been said. You are absolutely right about it all. If you want to really know what is going on you have to get the buzz from someone that is there. TV news is too polluted by sponsers to care about the only thing they are there for, to inform the public! So, PREACH ON BROTHER WIL! Maybe someday they will get their heads out of their asses long enough to hear what the public really wants, instead of trying to immatate Jerry Springer.

Mainstream media doesn't produce comprehensive reporting on stories such as the Downing Street Memo because they are afraid. Remember Dan Rather when his otherwise accurate story had only one questionable document in it? Or, the recent News Week article reiterating detainees claims and a Washington-Post 2003 story that the Quran was disrespected in the US detention camps as a means of coercion? Whitehouse PR and media spin have mastered the dark-art of making the truth sound like a lie - the untruth. What age do we live in when doing your job telling the truth can destroy you? When one false step out of 1000 can send you tumbling?

My Father, a retired USMC Colonel once said the only way tyranny can be maintained is through media control. He is right, and so is Wil: "Mainstream Corporate Media in America is a miserable failure." - and they have failed us all.

Newsweek was beaten when the retracted.

Welcome to the world of the 'untruth'.

Here's the Washington-Post article including the testamony of innocent Afgans released from Guantanamo.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A29276-2003Mar25¬Found=true

//rant-off

agreed.

you know what bugs me more than spam itself? spam that is completely misspelled, has incredibly stupid sounding subject lines, words with punctuation in the middle of them, etc. I mean, first of all, it's spam: we're either not going to see it, or we're going to delete it. but additionally to that, if a spammer has to employ tricks to get their spam into our inbox, what in the world makes them think we're going to do business with a company that starts out by tricking us in order to get to us? and then tries to get their message across in a thoroughly stooopid, hard-to-read and ungrammatically correct manner??

I guess when it comes to email marketing, it's more about the numbers than about the business, at least from the mailer's perspective. still... it boggles my mind.

the only 'spam' I've ever enjoyed was from the guy who wasn't all that great with the English language, and used to mail with news about a special exercise in his book (how to get rid of the buckets of black gunk we all carry around inside us, get healthy again, and make your hoo-hoo last longer). entertaining at least, and when he said he'd stop mailing if he got no reply... he actually did stop mailing! cool. except I kinda miss his emails, now.

l.
x

Wil,

If you had the time and inclination, here is an article/column idea:

It would be interesting to call the WSJ's publicity spokesdroid to get their comments for an article you are writing on all the negative reaction to their "Dear Blogger" e-mail. [i.e. 42 out of 42 bloggers surveyed felt it was spam.]

Then when they rave about all the bloggers who appreciated the information and happily provided the link, ask for statistics and examples. [I'm sure there are many puppets and sycophants that installed the requested links. You would need some good research to counter their spin such as "50 of the 50 most popular blogs didn't" or something like that.]

_-=/^\=-_ .

Here is a blog from August 06, 2004 discussing the media realizing that blogs are a significant factor in reaching people.

http://www.benedictionblogson.com/archives/000894.php

BML

I hate spam. I hate the grocery & pharmacy circulars stuffed in my front door grate twice a week. I hate the people who stand outside Grand Central and try to hand me free copies of AM New York, menus for delis, and coupons for a free eye exam. On good days I calmly state "No" or "Please get out of my way" to them. On bad days I yell "Get a real job, willya?!"

I've had friends comment to me that the guy handing out AM New York is just doing his job, working so he can pay for his food and rent, and I'm an ass for yelling at him. And I get that reasoning. But I think we need to hold individuals responsible if we're going to stop these kinds of unsolicited aggravation-style marketing. We rant about corporations who sponsor it, but seem to feel that the individuals carrying out the task are exempt from blame.

I'm a marketer for a book publishing. I'm given the chance constantly to spam listserves that authors provide with announcements about books and events. And while the DMA probably wouldn't notice me, and while my company technically has no policy to stop me (we're supposedly in line with the DMA, but there's no legitimate in-house policy on spam) I still would never do it. My own guideline is simple: Would I really want to be on the receiving end of that email? If not, it doesn't go out.

So let's make it personal and hold our friends and neighbors and families accountable. Companies can't behave this way if individuals refuse to carry out the work. When it becomes sincerely socially unacceptable, they'll stop.

Now c'mon Willy my boy. That's not news. That's liberal-schmiberal left-wing conspiracy theory propaganda. Looks like we're all talking about the "news" today...

I have news for you Mr. Crusher the reason the Guckert deal is not newsworthy is because the Mainstream Corporate Media (as you so rightly call them) have hundreds of homosexuals masquerading as just about anything you can imagine. Why would they continue to run a story that only highlights (in a negative light) the homosexual population? In a way, the media is doing gays a favor by (rightly) not judging a man on his sexual proclivities.

As for the Downing Street "Memo" (actually it is minutes from a private meeting) there is no tree to bark up here. All the "memo" reveals is that Tony Blair discussed all the options they had as for the most sensible way to explain to the British people why war is the answer to problem.

I find it fascinating that despite the FACT that everyone thought Saddam had WMD, once the WMD was not found, Democrats deny there ever was any. That my fine little liberal is called historical revisionism.

A stolen copy of the minutes of a meeting that took place months before the war in Iraq and actually called for the United Nations to be involved is not only NOT newsworthy to the LIBERAL media, but in a lot of ways it goes against their agenda to prove Bush and Blair wen to war w/out any thought at all of WHY.

Thanks for your time!

Kevin D. Korenthal
http://www.socalpundit.com

Remember Dan Rather when his otherwise accurate story...

Prove it was accuarate. Prove it! You can't prove it because they only evidence that was ever found tuned out to be 100% fake. If ytou have no proof that what you say is true I really think you should stop going around saying it is a fact.

Whoa there, techunter/Kevin. Gannon/Guckert is not about homosexuality. It's about someone with questionable reporting credentials getting so much access to the White House and the President and the related softball, somewhat liberal-bashing questions he asked. Couple that with the other two cases of media people being actively paid by the administration to promote the administration's agenda, well then, that's actually a very salient news story, homosexuality or not.

The homosexuality aspect of it just makes it sweet, sweet irony since the "news outlet" he worked for (as well as the possible Republican administration he curried favor with) is publically vehemently opposed to that lifestyle.

Hi Wil,

I don't really buy into the liberal/conservative media conspiracy. Having been a member of the media for fifteen years ( I am no longer ) I never saw any real evidence of it. Truthfully most newsrooms are way too chaotic and disorganized for that kind of deceit. Most journalists I know are hard-working ethical people who take seriously the public trust they have been given. That's not to say there aren't problems. It is possible the Downing memo hasn't received the same coverage here because the media hasn't found it to be credible enough yet. Look at what happened to Newsweek just this week. When proper journalism isn't done bad things happen. I don't know, I am just playing devils advocate. The other thing one must look at is news organizations exist to make money (something they a pretty good at ) and as such, particularly in TV, go when the public wants them to. While this country is founded on tremendous democratic principles, it is powered by capitalism (which is why I believe homelessness is a problem, because as yet no one has figured out how to make a profit from solving it). The public is not always so smart or interested in becoming smart. Look who they elected. To a degree the media has to give them what they want or they go away. There is a chicken and egg element here; I don't know what the right answer is. I think the media mostly tries to give the public what they want and what the need the best they can. I could be wrong. The key to this working is better educating our kids about being responsible citizens.

Anyway, thanks for reading. I love your blog. To me you, as you say, write in your own voice. Keep it up.

Dear Kevin D. Korenthal: Your post makes no sense.

Thanks for your time!

techunter

"Prove it was accuarate. Prove it! You can't prove it because they only evidence that was ever found tuned out to be 100% fake. If ytou have no proof that what you say is true I really think you should stop going around saying it is a fact."

Hey, we have a neo-conartist pundit...how nice.

What was Dan's mistake? Yes, yes, he shouldn't have embellished the story with a document he couldn't fully source. But that memo was about a side issue, not the key accusation, that Senior Bush got Junior out of the draft. Despite not a jot of evidence that the main story of draft-dodgin' George was wrong, CBS cited Rather's insistence on the veracity of that report as grounds to crush his career and his reputation.

Rather was convicted by a corporate kangaroo court. Dickie Thornburgh, who had been Poppy Bush's Attorney General and owed his big salaries and career to the Bush family, ran an "independent" investigation which concluded -- surprise! -- the Bushes had done no wrong. It was Dan that committed the evil. That whacky conclusion went along just fine with the diktat of Sumner Redstone, CEO of Viacom, CBS' owner, that a "Republican administration is better for media companies."

Another neo-con circle-jerk.

Cush, cush, cush Air National Guard duty for a c- minus student, senators son who, if anybody, dubya should have been grunting around the jungles of Vietnam instead of runnning off to help daddy's political campaign. This has been rehashed and rehashed. Dubya is chicken-hawk who sends others to die while he takes extended vacations who, when had his chance, used Daddy's connections to get him out of service. End of reel.

What annoys me more than the "blogger" part is the "dear" part. The salutation Dear is to indicate that the person you are writing to is dear to you, they are your friend. You should not use Dear when writing to someone you don't know, or in most business letters. I understand why my bank calls me "Dear Customer" my business is dear to them =P

Wil, I luv ya like my luggage, but, seriously, do you BELIEVE this drivel on Cannongate? Sure, there was a huge male prostitution ring being run out of and serving the White House. C'mon, Wil, I didn't figure you to be an hysterical conspiracy theorist---this was one of the flimsiest I have ever read! There were so many holes and spurious connections---"fantastic" is the only word applicable here---Puh-leeze!

Still wondering where your share of Microsoft's e-mail tracking money is? Wondering how much money the Red Cross has given doomed little Timmy for collecting e-mail messages?

In that case, this Flash message is for you! (Site has pop-ups. Safe for work.)

I feel neglected. All i get is the obligatory breast enlargement and viagra spam.

I'm not cool enough to get spam from the WSJ. :(

YaY!!!!!!!!!!
I made this Type Key thing just because of you, Wil :)
I don't want to email anymore :D
I just wanted to tell, that you're one of my favourite actors; you, River Phoenix, Joaquin Phoenix and Keanu Reeves....:D
I hate spams tooo :P

rush:It's very telling, though not surprising, that so many conservatives seem to believe that Gannon / Guckert is about him being a male prostitute.

I'm sure that is the story for some people, but I could care less about his sexuality, or whether he is a prostitute or not.

The only reason his homosexuality could even be remotely relevant is because he so rabidly supports the hateful, disgusting, bigoted, medieval Republican politics that are hell-bent on destroying civil rights for people, based on their sexuality. Of course, his support for the very people who would seek to destroy him and others like him is not a surprise to me at all, as most people who support Republicans do so against their own best interests.

The story that I do care about, which should be a scandal (and would have made quite a bit of noise in the right wing echo chamber if it had happened during the Clinton administration), is that a man with a fake identity, fake journalism credentials, from a fake news site, was granted virtually unlimited access to the White House. He abused his seat in the press room to regurgitate White House talking points and propaganda. He's a liar and a shill for the GOP, and is further evidence of the Bush administration's war on the truth and against a free, independent, and trustworthy media.

SoCalPundit: once again, you have substituted Neo-con talking points for facts, and your comments aren't worthy of correction.

Wil:

Good on ya for keeping the GannonGuckert thing in our consciousness. It's not the prostitute thing - it's the "someone who was using a pseudonym and phony credentials was in the White House EVEN ON DAYS the press was on Air Force One" thing.

Keep fighting the good fights.

WF

Humor:

Can I shoot my friends that email chain letters, prayer letters, etc... then ask I email it to seven of my friends???

Don't they know I delete 'solicited spam' without really reading it?

Won't I hurt their feelings if I tell them I don't forward them?

Maybe I shouldn't say anything, otherwise they might forget to email me with the important things later... eh?

This whole spam thing has many complex facets.

Glad you are feeling better Wil. When I get sick, I don't watch Star Wars... I watch Star Trek Movies and Next Generation.

Side-note:

(oow, oow... Jack is back on 'Days on Our Lives'... this is giving me flashbacks of the late 80's/early 90's and 'Next Generation', when the only reason I watched that show was because of YOU MISTER WHEATON... same reason I ever turned into DAYS, cuz of Jack)

ps... Spike TV was running all the good Next Gen's, the ones with Ensign Crusher in his dashing Red Bridge Officer Uniform, but yesterday Wesley headed off to Starfleet Academy... (as I'm pouting)

DAMN, I'M PATHETIC....

:) Kel

Dear Alan,

We sent out an email to several bloggers, but did it in such a way that it might have appeared to be spam. We're sorry about that and want to make a bit clearer what's going on:

For the past year, WSJ.com has been reaching out to bloggers to let them know about certain articles from the print and online Journal that we're making available for free to nonsubscribers. We're now in the process of expanding the lists and targeting the links better to bloggers' areas of interest.

Please let me know if you want to be included on future emails, and if you have any comments or suggestions about what types of articles you'd like to see made free, and how best to communicate with you about it. If you don't want to hear from me again, simply don't reply to this email.

Thanks,

Ah, spam. The junk mail of the web world. The geek's garbage, if you will.

If you find a miracle cure for spam, please share. In the meantime, I'll remain a delete button junkie. ;-)

Governor Rocknar --

Nice post. I would make two notations.

1. "Over 1,500 killed
Over 20,000 permanently disabled"

If only it were that few. That is only the US casualties. It does not include the "Coalition of the Coerced," nor does it include Iraqi non-military casualties. Those numbers are closer to 100,000 dead and 250,000 disabled.

2. Barring a Constitutional Congress (let's not discuss THAT dangerous idea) it will take not only the Republican Controlled Congress but also 2/3 of the state legislatures to change the U.S. Constitution to allow the Gropinator to run for President. However, I have heard mentioned the frighteningly brilliant triangulation strategy of having the required Constitutional Amendment include both an allowance for non-native borns to be President or VP and ALSO a removal of the two-term limit. The idea is a CLINTON vs. AHRNOLD contest in '08. I admit it's a great "high concept" story line for the MSM, but a really UGLY constitutional idea.

Anyway, you are right about the big neo-con CON. We are at the brink of living in a real-life 1984 where they can re-write history ("No, we never said there were WMD") and plant stories and force retractions of the truth and just about anything else their sick little minds think of.

The Days of Decision are coming.

We are frogs begin slow-cooked, and by the time we realize the water is boiling, we won't have the strength to jump out of the pot.

Charlie L
Portland, Oregon
CLL2001@Gmail.com

*kicks all the ads she gets for free male enhancement* do these people not know that ANALEE IS A GIRL'S NAME?!??? *calms down* and by the way, i'll have the spam spam spam baked beans spam spam and spam, and Maddy will have the eggs, bacon, and spam.

side note to kelsquatch: ooh, you watched that too??? i taped it...and Days...just to see Jack...and Wesley...*is shameless occasionally*

What was Dan's mistake? Yes, yes, he shouldn't have embellished the story with a document he couldn't fully source.

Ok so what other proof did you folks have that Bush missed any meaningful amount of his stint in The Texas Air National Guard?

Anything?

I am actually surpised you librals are still acting like you care if Bush did or did not serve all of his commitment. So quick are you leftist liberals to jump to judging our troops behavior when you don't know if any of the rumors that have been passed around the liberal MSM are even remotely true.

That is the problem with you guys, you go full bore to your assumption regardless of the complete lack of credible proof that what you suppose is true.

I've started putting the email address of people who spam into those forwards that ask for the email address of 5 friends so your friend can get some referral points. That way my friend is happy and I don't lose any other friends by passing on that crap.

Please, somebody tell me what I can do about MSM. I'm not being sarcastic; I want to know what I can do other than feel helpless and trapped in a red state with people who think they're so right and everything they believe is based on social myth.

As a Canadian, this whole "Damn you, Liberal!" "Screw you, Conservative!" battle y'all have going on is one hell of a scary fight.

There's so much hatred and division in your country right now that the rest of us in North America are watching you with utter horror.

I don't understand how the divide got so great and how the fight got so bitter...

...but I sure as hell hope it ends soon.

I know that it won't, though, and that's bloody sad.

As for SPAM? I don't get much of it.

I do wonder how it came to be called SPAM, though. The food product SPAM is favoured by formerly cannibalistic South Pacific tribes for its highly-porky reminiscent-of-human-flesh taste, so I'm wondering how an unwanted email campaign was named for, well, porky wanna-be man-food.

It's all very strange. I hope they don't find me anytime soon.

thelastditch.blogspot.com

all I have to say is, if you can't beat 'em join 'em. Become another Noam Chomsky (of some sort that fits your skill set). It seems that writing of any kind, perhaps acting for those who do not do it for the $ but for art or a labor of love, and/or publishing in the same category as established in class tonight, do not make any money except for "The Man", (aka Hollywood, Paramount). So the media works the same way, publish stories that sell, not "there was not enough evidence for the war in Iraq in the first place. This war, then said, is that which is sapping our economic viability, making it look very unlikely that any college student will find a full-time job this summer unless they have a bachelor's already and even then its still painful"

So I say what I tell people when they freak out at things, what are you not doing? or do the exact opposite. I just applied at Current TV.... (crossing fingers)

Get in the media somehow as an anchor, or someone who somehow has money, power, influence. (which you somewhat have). Use it or loose it.

I watch E! for the Michael Jackson trial, which is bemusing but Yahoo's latest article is disturbing - oh wait, we have stuff going on in the world other than him.. and Martha Stewart, and who knows what other banal things they come up with (yes I swear more on MY blog which requires a Live Journal account, haha)

So I ask prey tell, what time are BBC broadcasts on PBS? I don't know them locally, it'd be nice to have a link, and get away from the evil of Fox News, CNN, etc.,

scribecalledsteff:

If they have 'Days of Our Lives' and 'Next Generation' I might consider moving to Canada. Hell, I'm in Washington State, I'm almost in Canada now. I agree, USA is greatly divided and becoming a scary place to live.

shewhobeatsass

Jack and Wesley were my high school loves... but I loved Gordie LaChance when I was in Jr High. In 9th Grade, when we went to ASB retreat, we listed to the Stand By Me soundtrack over and over and over again. It was a great time.

I was so happy when Wil showed up on Next Gen. That helped me get thru my high school years.

LOVE YA WIL!!!

:) Kel

You know, spam's popular in hawaii. Must really clog up their email servers. I have my own servers, and it's really a pain in the neck.

(I'll refrain from making star trek jokes)

OMG. Crazy story!!! My husband's relatives own (and run) some sugar woods. Nice country folks, overall. They were all over the news, but I missed it. Well, imagine this was you: you're walking in the woods, on your property. Walking in your backyard, basically. You walk along a trail that (for as far as you know) is basically not used by anyone but you. And you come across .... A BODY !!!!! An actual deceased human corpse. Ok, so deceased corpse is a bit redundant, but I'm going for impact here, people !!! haha It's like a scene from one of my fave movies or something!! "Stand by Me" eat your heart out, man!!! (Sorry Wil, love ya and loved that movie, but......... This one is close to home and IRL! It can't compare!) Basically the same concept as the movie, only instead of young boys: it was an old country couple who made the discovery. And I am not from L.A. or anything so maybe to you guys it's a regular occurrence. I don't know. (I would hope not, really!!!) But from where I'm from? Finding bodies laying around it NOT a common thing.... lol ;-)

Anyhoo, though a part of me was horrified by the news, I was a bit jealous by the whole thing, really. Not that I really WANT to see a dead body (I'm not perverse or anything - in fact I had nightmares about it all night... *sigh* I'm a wuss, deep down, I think!) but I am a little curious as to what my reaction would be to the whole ordeal. I am really creeped out by bodies at funeral homes, only cause they are so dolled-up that they seem like creepy life-sized dolls. I'm sure the poor girl whose body they found did NOT look like a doll at this point. God only knows how long it had been there.... So I'm not sure what my reaction would have been. I think I probably would have cried for her. Or maybe have been sick. Who knows.

The investigation is underway to find out who she is and how she died. I guess it's just a waiting game to hear about it, now. HAD TO SHARE THIS ONE !!!

WIL

I just had a strange feeling, that i had to do that :/ :D

Days of our lives....Here they just live that time, when somebody had murdered Colin Murphy. :/

where is my hearts :'(

techhunter

Ok so what other proof did you folks have that Bush missed any meaningful amount of his stint in The Texas Air National Guard?

Anything?

I am actually surpised you librals are still acting like you care if Bush did or did not serve all of his commitment.

A little slow on the uptake there Kevin?

Did you even see Dan Rather's report? Did you realy even read my posts? The issue I am reiterating here and the focus Rather's investigation was that at the time Senator Bush Sr., got Bush Jr. the cush Air National Guard duty because of his influence. The core issue was not about whether or not Jr. missed "...any meaningful amount of his stint in The Texas Air National Guard..."

Are we clear yet?

Kevin, you're not cut out for debate, nor discussion for that matter if your refuse to comprehend the issue here. You're diversion into side issues are exactly the tactics that mislead and deceive the electorate in this country.

Read the posts again and learn to think for yourself Kevin. I appreciate your passion, but if you want to put your energy into being a pundit I hope you are able take a deeper look at what's going on with the oligarchy in this country and not just tow the party line blindly.

Good luck to you.

Stacey who said: "Please, somebody tell me what I can do about MSM. I'm not being sarcastic; I want to know what I can do other than feel helpless and trapped in a red state with people who think they're so right and everything they believe is based on social myth."

Stop supporting the MSM and start giving your time (and if you can money) to the "alternative media." THE NATION. MOTHER JONES. HARPERS. GREG PALAST. SY HERSH. TRUTHOUT.ORG BUZZFLASH.COM RAWSTORY.COM Center for American Progress. IndyMedia. AirAmerica. You pick em. Get your hands on a semblance of the "truth" rather than the re-packaged press releases and talking points that the MSM delivers.

And don't forget, that even the MOST "red" state is really just a red shade of purple. There are "True Blue Liberals" in all 50 states (even Utah and Idaho). Even by their crooked count, they only won the country by 2%, and in reality, they probably lost it by 3%. YOU ARE NOT ALONE!!!

Don't worry too much about trying to "convince" the really arrogant "reds" around you of the truth -- you can't. Their ears are shut to any facts that might shatter their deeply held belief system. You can talk to them about vote fraud and show them massive evidence of it from 2000 or 2004 and they will ignore it. You can show them independent news reports of abuse and torture and they will repeat talking points of "a few bad apples". You can try to read them the Constitution or the Bill of Rights (without telling them what it is, and paraphrasing to modern language) and they will tell you to "get that Communist propaganda away from me."

Just keep yourself sane and wait.

The Days of Decision are coming.

We are frogs begin slow-cooked, and by the time we realize the water is boiling, we won't have the strength to jump out of the pot. Perhaps we already don't.

Charlie L
Portland, Oregon
CLL2001@Gmail.com

Republicans lie and innocent people die.
Republicans steal and give to their rich friends, leaving just an IOU for our kids to pay off.
Republicans cheat and think they are "moral."
We must flush away all Republicans in '06 and '08.

Stacey who said: "Please, somebody tell me what I can do about MSM. I'm not being sarcastic; I want to know what I can do other than feel helpless and trapped in a red state with people who think they're so right and everything they believe is based on social myth."

Stop supporting the MSM and start giving your time (and if you can money) to the "alternative media." THE NATION. MOTHER JONES. HARPERS. GREG PALAST. SY HERSH. TRUTHOUT.ORG BUZZFLASH.COM RAWSTORY.COM Center for American Progress. IndyMedia. AirAmerica. You pick em. Get your hands on a semblance of the "truth" rather than the re-packaged press releases and talking points that the MSM delivers.

And don't forget, that even the MOST "red" state is really just a red shade of purple. There are "True Blue Liberals" in all 50 states (even Utah and Idaho). Even by their crooked count, they only won the country by 2%, and in reality, they probably lost it by 3%. YOU ARE NOT ALONE!!!

Don't worry too much about trying to "convince" the really arrogant "reds" around you of the truth -- you can't. Their ears are shut to any facts that might shatter their deeply held belief system. You can talk to them about vote fraud and show them massive evidence of it from 2000 or 2004 and they will ignore it. You can show them independent news reports of abuse and torture and they will repeat talking points of "a few bad apples". You can try to read them the Constitution or the Bill of Rights (without telling them what it is, and paraphrasing to modern language) and they will tell you to "get that Communist propaganda away from me."

Just keep yourself sane and wait.

The Days of Decision are coming.

We are frogs begin slow-cooked, and by the time we realize the water is boiling, we won't have the strength to jump out of the pot. Perhaps we already don't.

Charlie L
Portland, Oregon
CLL2001@Gmail.com

Republicans lie and innocent people die.
Republicans steal and give to their rich friends, leaving just an IOU for our kids to pay off.
Republicans cheat and think they are "moral."
We must flush away all Republicans in '06 and '08.

P.S. Just in case you have any doubt about how these people think, here's a classic example:

http://mediamatters.org/items/200505180008

Any of you supposed "moderate Republicans" (an oxymoron equivalent to "sane psychotic") are welcome to immediately denounce Mr. Beck and demand of Clear Channel that he be taken off the air for his "hate speech." But, somehow, I don't think you will. For some reason, it's only "hate speech" when a liberal does it.

Sorry for the duplication in the post. Not sure what happened there.

I guess the truth twice is better than not at all. Wil, if you wish/can, please feel free to edit.

Charlie

The thing about spamming and the like seems to be counterproductive to good business. I tried two jobs that involved some form of telemarketing. I will say that I didn't last very long at either one of them. But that's beside the point. I would figure that in order to be a good business one asset would be some respect in the community. Whether that community was a neighborhood or the United States. And telephone solicitation, spam and door to door, etc. more often than not causes the community to look upon the individuals performing the tasks and the company unfavorably because they are intrusive. You would think that there has to be a better way to make yourself known and sell your product, but people seem to rely on this method because the better methods are not obvious. Sadly, many of the workers that do this are pawns in this game too. Sometimes they take these jobs because there are no other offers on the table at the time.

I do wonder how it came to be called SPAM, though.

I'm not completely sure this is true and not a post hoc fabrication, but the usual explanation is that the term "spam" as used for unwanted e-mail messages came from a Monty Python skit involving a restaurant in which every item on the menu inevitably included lots of spam whether the customer wanted it or not, and in which a group of Vikings kept interrupting the proceedings with a song about spam. (This page contains links to the skit's script, a RealVideo audio file of the skit, and a smaller audio file of just the spam song.)

For a more detailed analysis of the history of the term, see this page.

The other eptimology of SPAM for Unsolicited Communications I have heard refers to what happens when you put a lump of SPAM into a blender and hit the PUREE button without putting the top back on. You get a thin and vile (and unexpected or requested) layer of SPAM over everything within 5 feet.

BTW, many believe the birth of SPAM was the "Greencard Lawyers" (Canter & Siegel) doing a massive cross-posting of an "off-topic" (except, perhaps for rec.arts.communications.pathetic) and "content-free" advertisement on the usenet some time in the early 1994. They might not have been the first to cross-post (accepted, but only in limited fashion, not to all 6000 groups) a commercial message (generally not appreciated at usenet in those days), but they were definitely the most infamous.

BTW, in 1991, the The Hacker's Dictionary defined Spam as "To crash a program by overrunning a fixed-size buffer with excessively large input data." You can see how throwing a massive amount of message at a system to fall into a variant of that definition. Does't explain why the Hacker's or MUDers chose to call it that, of course.

Charlie L
Portland, Oregon
CLL2001@Gmail.com

The Republicans in power have lied and innocent people died.
The Republicans in power have stolen and given to their rich friends, leaving just an IOU for our kids to pay off.
The Republicans in power have cheated and claim they are the "moral" ones.
We must flush all Republicans out of power in '06 and '08.
Take back American Democracy. Don't vote Republican.

Hey there!

Really liked the intro to your site. This is my first time here and I'll be back. You're a very good writer! (that was my first surprise/unexpected thing) and quite funny. I'm right on the same track with your politics (very, VERY nice second surprise).

I'm a thirty something, work-from-home mom, second gen sci-fi fan (my mom got to drive Gene Rodenberry back to his hotel room once from a Houston con in the mid '70's because her fellow trekkies felt sorry for her that she was going to miss the convention because it was on the same weekend as my birthday party! It was a hard choice for her, but the sacrifices parents make for our kids…:>))). I guess I'm sort of a half-geek, geek-groupie. Half geek because I love all this computer/internet stuff but I don't know how to work it. The only time I tried programming was with my first computer, my trusty TI-99A. Geek groupie because my husband is the real geek--his co-workers refer to him as "Gates" because he's the only one that can make their computers do all the fancy things they want them to.

Oh. Veggie_Gurl: I think the constitutional venue your are referring to is called a "constitutional convention." What we have now would be a constitutional Congress. A convention is a gathering of citizens (as opposed to legislators) to make amendments to the constitution. We desperately need one (there are a number of Yahoo! groups that have tried to get one together). The problem is that no one knows how to make it legitimate outside of Washington, D.C. I believe the last time a convention was used was to repeal prohibition

kelsquatch: did you know that they're bringing back Frankie Brady? *prepares herself for some serious drama*

indigo: i know who did it.

speaking of spam and such (again), i got one of those "claim yer money" ones...i'm starting to get slightly pissed off. why are these people allowed to do this and how the HELL are they getting my email address? anyone have any idea on that one?

Amen! I think it's very important to take the time and respond to companies who do stupid shit like this and let them know what a turn off it is. Sure, it's easier to just delete the message, but easier usually get things done. Good for you.

Once Again Wil Weaton goes to the Weenie-Liberal Bag O tricks instead of addressing the legitimate points I have raised. When are you raging leftists going to realize that you can not win elections and the hearts and minds of Americans unless you are willing to give answers to the questions posed by your critics. I realize you are not running for public office, but this habit is one Dem pols are also guilty of. For instance: We still do not have the complete unabridged military record of John Kerry. He wanted us to elect him President yet he was unwilling to level with us.

Wil, I like you man. You are a very excellent writer and you are also very witty. But you need to wise up man. The days of simply pulling the wool over the eyes of America and rigging elections so Dems can win anyway are over. You need to kick up the dialogue. You as an important member of your party can lead the charge if you really want to!

Kevin D. Korenthal
SoCalPundit.com

Sorry so long in responding--my point was, if you have a cogent argument to make, do so, but present credible resources. This one simply was not credible, and did nothing to convince. It's like using a comic book to prove a theory.

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