Mysteries of netiquette revealed

I have only bad things to say about people who include me in Cc'd group emails. An acquaintance did that recently, beginning her letter with something lame like, "Oops. Sorry for the Cc but I'm really busy". Yeah, well thanks a lot, bonehead. Now I am getting 200 to 300 pieces of spam a day. I'm furious. Before she tossed my email address into the shit river of spam, my inbox was virtually spam free.

So, in hopes this may spare someone else the misery, I'm posting something I found online that lays out, in plain language, why savvy people use the Bcc instead of the Cc. I don't know why people have such a hard time switching to the Bcc. I myself had an irrational fear of it and it took me several attempts before I was willing to try it. Big surprise. It worked just fine but so many people I have sent this to prefer to take me off their email list rather than Bcc me. It's weird.

"This came to me direct from a system administrator of very large corporate system. It is an excellent message that ABSOLUTELY applies to ALL of us who send e-mails.

Please read the text below....

Do you really know how to forward e-mails? 50% of us do; 50% do NOT. Do you wonder why you get viruses or junk mail? Do you hate it? Every time you forward an e-mail there is information left over from the people who got the message before you, namely their e-mail addresses & names. As the messages get forwarded along, the list of addresses builds, and builds, and builds, and all it takes is for some poor sap to get a virus, and his or her computer can send that virus to every E-mail address that has come across his computer. Or, someone can take all of those addresses and sell them or send junk mail to them in the hopes that you will go to the site and he will make five cents for each hit. That's right, all of that inconvenience over a nickel! How do you stop it? Well, there are two easy steps:

(1) When you forward an e-mail, DELETE all of the other addresses that appear in the body of the message and forward the message, NOT all the other forwards that came with it! For this reason, we must open multiple messages before we get to the real meat message. Just forward the message that's within the message and that's right, DELETE the email addresses. Highlight them and delete them, backspace them, cut them, whatever it is you know how to do. It only takes a second. You MUST click the "Forward" button first and then you will have full editing capabilities against the body and headers of the message.

If you don't click on "Forward" first, you won't be able to edit the message at all.

(2) Whenever you send an e-mail to more than one person, do NOT use the To: or Cc: columns for adding e-mail address.

Always use the BCC: (blind carbon copy) column for listing the e-mail addresses. This is the way that people you send to only see their own e-mail address. If you don't see your BCC: option click on where it says To: and your address list will appear. Highlight the address and choose BCC: and that's it, it's that easy. When you send to BCC: your message will automatically say "Undisclosed Recipients" in the "TO:" field of the people who receive it.
Have you ever gotten an email that is a petition? It states a position and asks you to add your name and address and to forward it to 10 or 15 people or your entire address book. The email can be forwarded on and on and can collect thousands of names and email addresses. A FACT: The completed petition is actually worth a couple of bucks to a professional spammer because of the wealth of valid names and email addresses contained therein. If you want to support the petition, send it as your own personal letter to the intended recipient. Your position may carry more weight as a personal letter than a laundry listname and email address on a petition.

So please, in the future, let's stop the junk mail and the viruses.

Finally, here's an idea!!! Let's send this to everyone we know (but strip my address off first). This is something that SHOULD be forwarded (via Bcc of course).

spam email netiquette

Conservatives / fascists

I found an intersting article today by Jack Fairweather published by a newspaper in Socorro, New Mexico called Mountain Mail. In it, Fairweather quotes Italian dictator Benito Mussolini saying,

"’Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power.”

Speaking of his brand of fascism, Mussolini said, “Anti-individualistic, the Fascist conception of life stresses the importance of the State and accepts the individual only in so far as his interests coincide with those of the State.”

“The Fascist concept of the State is all-embracing -- outside of it no human or spiritual values can exist.”

He then adds a definition from the The American Heritage dictionary stating

fascism as a “system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merger of state and business leadership, together with a belligerent nationalism.”

It's a short, clear article, well worth the 2 minutes it takes to read but, if you don't want to do that, then here's my half minute recap,... fascism is the guiding principle of the modern day American conservative party. The radical right has hypnotized and enamored masses of people via media brainwashing but the sad and frightening reality is that these sleepers at the trough are guzzling poison and are drunk and belligerent on its false, fatal numbing comfort.


Photo: "America Fascist Mind Magazine" by artist Stephen Pitt at light-to-dark.com






fascism conservatism republican party politics right wing

Crows and canes

Every morning a crow does a fly-by of the Bird Park to see what's out, which lately hasn't been much due to my knee surgery. To his credit, Mr. Lee has been keeping seeds in the tubes for me but the crows like the marvel meal (veggie suet) I make so the last few days I've got gotten out there on my crutches and stuffed the suet cage with the delicious, peanutbuttery delight. Now, just yesterday, the doctor upgraded me to a cane and prescribed some physical therapy to get me moving so it's a lot easier getting out there plus it's a great relief not clicking around on those crutches. It made Mr. Lee nervous and that makes me nervous.

So, now it's afternoon and Minerva and her companion just showed up and they're nibbling on the marvel meal. Last year she had one gray feather on her right wing. This spring she had a couple of new gray feathers on her breast and just now I noticed that the gray has spread all over her breast, down onto the fluff at the top of her left leg and over onto her left wing. She must be a ancient. She's a regular here and I'm delighted she considers the Bird Park a friendly place to be.

Well, it's raining now and some pigeons have just arrived and are cold tubbing. Seems they prefer bathing in the rain. Go figure. Two are in one tub and a third is trying to crowd in but, combined, they are too fat for all three to fit. A fourth pigeon is in the second tub and has it all to herself. So it goes. Anyway, there's plenty of the marvel meal left in the feeder, seeds in tubes, fresh water in the tubs so, all and all, life is good again at the Bird Park.

Lucky Pierre arrives at last

Lucky Pierre arrived today. Actually Roy kindly mailed him to me weeks ago (thank you again, Roy) but, because of my recent knee surgery, I have yet to make it to the post office. Mr. Lee went there today for me.

After living under Roy's house for who knows how long I must say, Lucky Pierre is in great shape ... physically. But he's despondent. I couldn't get him to look at the camera. I understand. He's embarrassed to be seen in public dressed in a Santa clown suit. You must understand, Lucky Pierre is actually an artist, a Parisian and a very proud fellow. God knows what brought him down so low but better times are ahead.

Perhaps it was the nipping of the wormwood, the absinthe, as was so popular among the surrealists when he was still known as Lucky Pierre. Perhaps he had too many Pernod Fils too many times at the dark and smoky bistros. Something sent him on his downward spiral. To gig as a Santa? Ah, Pierre. But now you are found, my friend. It will be slow. Everything around here happens on ashatime but things are looking up my friend. Things are looking up.

Conservatives suck

Paul Waldman at TomPain.commonsense posted a clear-minded critique of conservativism on his website the other day, from which I quote:

"Conservatives supported slavery, conservatives opposed women'’s suffrage, conservatives supported Jim Crow, conservatives opposed the 40-hour work week and the abolishment of child labor, and conservatives supported McCarthyism. In short, all the major advancements of freedom and justice in our history were pushed by liberals and opposed by conservatives, no matter the party they inhabited at the time."

In his article, It's The Conservatism, Stupid, Walden elaborates on why conservatives suck in three bullet points. It's definitely worth a read.

1. Conservatism has failed.
2. Conservatism is the ideology of the past, a past we don'’t want to return to.
3. Conservatives are cowards, and they hope you are, too.

Thanks to Jodi at I cite for the link to Walden's article. I couldn't agree more. For all the chest pounding about how decisive they are, it's clear that conservatives have no spine. How can they? Their minds are closed to facts. They do not think for themselves, they believe what they are told to believe. They do what they are told, when they are told, the way they are told to do it. They are ready and willing at all times to sacrifice everybody else for the advancement of the conservative agenda. They ignore even the most blatantly criminal actions of their leaders because they are gray men and clone-like womem lapping up the "trickle down", clinging to a corrupt hierarchy chiggers on a dying dog.

Sunday at the Roxy - cartoon shorts

Here's a few animation videos for your Sunday entertainment. They are from a Canadian site that has a large archive, going back many years. I watched several and have to say I found them a bit on the grim side. Maybe it's the effect of the long, dark winters. Anyway, they're interesting and well done.

The Cat Came Back 1988 - 7 min 37 s

The Owl Who Married a Goose: An Eskimo Legend
1974 - 7 min 38 sec

Night Angel 1986 - 18 min 41 s