Godless Dave

"Nothing about my email was insulting or harassing. I just disagreed with you. You're saying it's OK for you to send mass emails, but it's not OK for someone else to do so?"

Stephen Maturin

Terrific response, Kelly. FWIW, I don't see anything "nasty," "insult[ing]" or "harass[ing]" in what you wrote. The fact that you received more positive responses than negative ones is at least in part a function of your measured tone.

The negative responders appear to be little more than ill-informed nutburgers. Loon No. 1 says:

It's tough to cram that many idiocies into a mere two sentences, but this clown managed. (A) Nations don't have beliefs; individuals do. (B) He's conflating the concepts of "nation" and "government." (C) The first sentence boils down to, "I have no problem with separation of church and state, but I have a serious problem with separation of church and state." This brings to mind the immortal words of The Clash: "You have the right to free speech; as long as you're not dumb enough to actually try it."

Nutjob No. 2, who apparently started this whole thing with her need to share the spam, writes:

<img src="graemlins/banghead.gif" border="0" alt="[Bang Head]" /> The urban legend status of the Pepsi can incident has already been discussed. Also, the notion that Congress "eliminated" anything from the Pledge would be laughable if it weren't so thoroughly idiotic. Last time I looked, "under God" was still in the codified version of the Pledge notwithstanding Newdow v. U.S. Congress. The shameless pandering that went on in Congress in the first few hours after the Ninth Circuit released its decision is proof positive that no such "elimination" is in the offing. Someone needs to study up on separation of powers.

Oooo boy, feel the agape!

lisarea

Not just the first amendment, either. The whole damned constitution. The US is emphatically not a simple democracy. It's a constitutional republic founded on democratic ideals. Do these people know ANYTHING about the foundations of the US government aside from the words to "Proud to be an American"? What hath our self-esteem movement wrought when blithering idiots like that think they have something worthwhile to contribute to public discourse? Has it never occurred to these people that the people who founded this country expended a great deal of time and effort getting everything just right, and that maybe it would behoove them to expend a little time and effort themselves to try to understand it before they go spouting their ignorant, emotional, seditious little diatribes?

This is precisely the reason that we are not a mob rule democracy. How can these people consider themselves Americans, much less patriots, when they actually put forward the argument that we should toss aside the most fundamental principles of our nation to appease the mob?

{edited by Toto for formatting}

[ September 18, 2002: Message edited by: Toto ]</p>

Rhea

I wish I had looked here before replying. I like yours better. Oh well, I may get another chance.


But you know what REALLY gets me? People (predominantly AOL users) who forward things by attachment within attachment within attachment within attachment within attachment. Don't they teach them how to freaking cut & paste? Sending out each other's e-mail addresses all over creation. Some marketer should mine this vast willingness to give out e-maill addys. Shakes head.

Here's what I said,