Probably just lost my brother-in-law...

[FLyellowdog]

due to his stupidity.

He sent me an email, "Now you know the difference between Class and Ass" with the attached file/website
http://www.papamiket.com/?p=47832



So I had to respond this way.
Please do not send me this kind of trash again.

I am neither entertained by it nor amused by your attempt to trivialize the serious problems that we faced and continue to face.

As someone who is supposed to be fairly intelligent, you apparently missed the obvious fact that "the success of yesterday's mission" noted in Bush's speech was anything BUT a success. It took someone of real courage and forward thinking to orchestrate the assault on and the eventual termination of the person who was actually at fault for 9/11.

I think it was William F. Buckley who said, "I won't insult your intelligence by suggesting that you really believe what you just said." Sadly, I know you do believe it as do others of the same demented dogma.

The truth of the matter is, President Obama deserves any and all kudos for his part in bringing down Bin Laden just as Bush deserves all the blame for lying to and misleading the American people simply to get us into his personal war against Saddam. If you'd care to see just how despicable Bush's act of war was, please go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War The numbers are staggering.

[New Yawker]

1. I hate my sister in law with an passion for a different reason

Non-politics, but she's annoying as hell, and barely feeds her son. We were all out tonight and I saw my 2.5 year old nephew eat up all the fries in a basket that was in front of him.

It tells me that she's not letting him eat enough.

In comparsion, my 3 year old son eats enough and yet his grandmother keeps giving him more food. Result? He puked on the playpen where he usually sleep when we're out of town.

His doggie got dirty, so he'll have to wait till tomorrow to get it back, freshly laundered.

[FLyellowdog]

5. This guy is my sister's second husband.

I can either take him or leave him, but his politics really rile me up. Sorry you have family issues. It's sad all the way around.

[Darth_Kitten]

26. My sister's husband is a sanctimonious ass.

He caters to my sister and her lying ways. She's still got a huge chip on her shoulder. We hardly ever get to see our nieces and nephews, and no telling what they've been told about us. We get sporadic communication from them time to time, but very sporadic depending on the moods.

I've been living with this for years. Enough is enough. My fantasy is for my sister and father to be locked up in a room where they can fight to the death. (he can afford to get off his ass and start making amends for problems in our childhood)

There, happy, happy family times!

[grasswire]

10. if you think a child is not getting enough food, please do something

There was a child in my extended family who was not getting enough to eat simply through a lot of anxious stuff going on in her family where the parents simply didn't pay attention to what was happening -- they had business troubles and anxiety disorders x2. I said something. It caused a fuss and some hurt feelings. But things changed. All is better now. Don't let that child be hungry, please.

[New Yawker]

15. We have. Even a friend of the mother contacted ACS

So she is on the ACS watch list after a visit and determining that the mother is not taking adequate care of her.

The sad thing is, neither my parents-in-law and her husband cannot stand that person.

But it is for sake of the child that my BIL is not going to divorce the mother - she is not an American citizen - she is a legal alien from Canada.

She is bipolar, and may be mentally ill. But she loves her son.

[grasswire]

20. I truly understand.

More than you might think or that I am willing to write here. It's very difficult to stand by in that kind of situation. Best to keep the child as close to the family as possible. In my situation, the couple and child moved in with the mom's grandmother, a retired nurse. I knew the child would be fed -- that grandmother had fed two generations already. Best wishes to you and yours.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

41. ?

[TheMastersNemesis]

2. I Keep Saying This Campaign Is A Civil War

I have been saying for several years now that we are in a Civil War except that it is not a shooting one yet. There are a lot of families where hostilities have broken out.

Your response was kind compared to what I would have said. It would have been a scorched earth verbal response. I would have gone out of my way to burn him as badly as I could. I don't have family, but had I a relative like that they would have understood that they could not come within 100 yards of me and that a permanent state of war existed.

I realize how extreme I may sound. I am seeing an escalation of hate, vicious, vitriol and violence inciting rhetoric every day. And we are only in February. The hatred and division is becoming more palpable every day. The GOP has said it will steal this election by every forceful and fraudulent means necessary. They are inciting their base with more and more racial bigotry and hatred.

I am a veteran and I never thought I would see this country in a suicidal frenzy over this election. At some point these haters are going to be counter attacked if we continue along this line.

Too bad your sister is caught in the middle of the warfare. Someone like your brother in law is a potential violent abuser. What is worse is that his vicious behavior will also cost you whatever relationship with your sister that you have. And it will effect other relationships in the family.

[FLyellowdog]

6. I just can't wrap my head around all the hatred toward our president.

I really am afraid we're in for a rough election if all the signs we're seeing are any indication. Not a good thing.

As for my bro-in-law...he's a member of Mensa, but he's really stupid in my opinion. Maybe it's just the republican in him. And the racism.

[Samantha]

11. Ironic you should say that -- I have been calling it the Uncivil War

I think our side will eventually win. How about you? As a whole, I think this Country is tired of all the bickering, all the name calling, all the insults and the impediments to the recovery. And some of us are especially tired of the political bullying. I can't stand to listen to Chris Christie for this reason.

Sam

[BlancheSplanchnik]

32. Oh boy, would I love to chat some more with you!!

I lost a man I love (still...it's hard to get over), A Vietnam vet who has a lot of rage and other issues; he would regularly have sudden rages and the sick crap he spewed about Obama..... ugh! It was crazy and I still find it hard to believe he has this in him. He has a hard right fundy christian brother who he is close to. His eighty year old parents are Democrats and love Obama; they don't understand how their son (the brother---my ex doesn't let on to his folks, so they don't know about his racist hate rants on Obama) got this way.

He could never seem to forgive me for my refusal to ignore the brother's hypocrisy and ugliness.

well, anyway, it's too long to really go into, but the disintegration of that r-ship meant losing what felt like family; I have no other family either.

[TheMastersNemesis]

36. Civil War Addendum

You can contact me on Du Inbox.

I do not understand why so many Vietnam vets have gone so RW. It must be the agent orange. Part of the hatred might be that the Democrats prosecuted the war in Vietnam and the vets resent having been sent. I resented it at first myself. I voted for Nixon. I got back to town in St. Clair, Missouri and went right down to the polling place and voted. I still have my uniform on.

However, when I saw that the GOP was the one cutting vets benefits I changed my mine. I was still mad at LBJ, but I kept my Democratic roots. I only voted once for a Republican. That was Nov 1968.

We are in the midst of a vicious political civil war. The GOP has said it will never, never, never, never compromise on a single thing. They have a vision of the country they will force on everyone given the opportunity. They are determined to be the only party. The have said that over and over and over again. And they are setting the conditions in place to accomplish that mission. If they win decisively, then democracy is over. We will be a corporate theocracy.

The split in families is every bit as severe as the Civil War. It is every bit as deep and bitter. The only thing that is different is that it is not a shooting war.

BTW you cannot deal with the rages of your ex. Only professional help can and that is iffy. PTSD is an extremely difficult thing to treat and probably is incurable. All you can do is mitigate the rage. I worked at DOL and with vets and was around vets a lot being one myself. I knew four personally who ended their lives. Two were friends one was really close.

You can be ok with what happened even though it is still very hard.

[FLyellowdog]

43. This makes me sad but at some point we all have to make choices.

One of my nearest and dearest friends and I parted ways over the 2008 election but somehow came back together a little bit over the last 3 years. I won't discuss politics with him on any level now and he won't either, so maybe we can at least be civil to one another.

I have other repub friends, some of whom refuse to talk politics others who still do. This is going to be a difficult year for people like us.

[limpyhobbler]

3. Well, you sure told him.

He didn't leave you much choice sending you garbage like that.

I have a relative that used to send me garbage like that. I had to ask her to stop about 5 times before it finally stopped.

Those emails used to make me really mad.

[FLyellowdog]

7. I have NO idea why he sent this to me.

He knows where I stand and it sure ain't with HIS politics.

[Fumesucker]

23. Not to put too fine a point on it..

But it's because you don't share his politics that he sent you the piece.

I've about come to the conclusion that a great deal of what today's "conservatives" do is based more on pissing off liberals than anything else..

[Jackpine Radical]

31. I think that's a good call.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

34. yep...the aggressive authoritarian

fighting to defend their mythical protectors

Hey Pine, I got the Adorno book from the College library the other day! Thanks for the recommendation, it is fascinating, and I'm only just past the Introduction now.

Ordered "Thinking Fast and Slow from Amazon, so that should be here fairly soon.

[Jackpine Radical]

56. Hi Blanche. Another rec

if I haven't already mentioned it is John Dean's book Conservatives Without Conscience in which he aplies some of Altemeyer's insights, now available pretty cheap on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Conservatives-Without-Conscience-John-Dean/dp/B001G8WNEG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1330356073&sr=8-1

[Zoigal]

4. Had a "friend" who kept sending me similar e mails

after President Obama was elected. She was aware that we were politically
on opposite sides. (i never mentioned anything political in my correspondance). I told her several times nicely that i wasn't interested in politically related e mails.
The last time she responded by telling
me to "lighten up"...I didn't answer and haven't heard from her
since. Mission accomplished......z

[FLyellowdog]

9. Good on you!!!

[eridani]

12. The way I stopped my brother from sending them--

--was to use "Reply all."

[Webster Green]

16. Oh yeah.

I love "reply all". I've raised a little havoc using it.

[The Doctor.]

42. Usually with the appropriate Snopes article in accompaniment.

I don't hear from those folks any more.

[FLyellowdog]

45. I rely on Snopes almost daily.nt

[dixiegrrrrl]

39. I have never used "reply all.".what does it do?

I have a problem emailer myself who keeps forwarding me irritating shit.

[pinboy3niner]

50. It sends your reply to the sender AND everyone else who received the original message

People often re-send or forward a viral email to multiple addressees from their address books. 'Reply all' sends your reply to your sender and everyone else that message was sent to.

Don't use it if you're making a personal reply intended for the sender only. But if you're debunking a viral email, 'reply all' makes sure it goes to everyone your sender sent or forwarded the viral email to.

[dixiegrrrrl]

55. Hm..I now see the potential.

and the possible oooops factor.

[Webster Green]

51. Your reply will go to everyone who got the original email.

If it's from someone who posts right-wing talking points & emails them to everyone on a list, they all get to read it when you shred the mofo with your reply.

edit for grammar

[FLyellowdog]

44. A few years ago I used reply all for something

and aol locked down my account!!!! I didn't even know what I'd done, but we got it sorted out. Strange.

[pinboy3niner]

54. Someone probably objected and complained to AOL

Once, when I used 'Reply all' to debunk a viral email sent by a conservative friend, I got an irate reply back from one of my friend's addressees. It said something like, "Who are you and what are you doing in my email???!!???"

Some people don't grok the concept of "reply all."

[eridani]

57. Just tell them to take their complaints to the person who

--sent you the usual rightwing bullshit.

[Yooperman]

8. Yeah.. pretty sad isn't it...

All I remember is bush once saying..."Yeah, I don't think about him anymore." (referring to Osama)

It took someone with a new focus to carry out such a mission and you know.. I really think bush didn't want to get him. The actual evidence against Osama was very weak.... it would have never held up in a true court of law... and because he was family to bush's best buds the Saudi Royalty... he didn't go after him.

My own op ... I have no way to prove it...but that is how I feel because to me... bush somehow knew it was going to happen... maybe not the dropping of the towers ..but some kind of attack...

bush was, is and always will be a criminal in my eyes... for many ..many reasons.

YM

[pkdu]

19. I thought the exact same thing...here it is on Youtube just 6 months after 9/11

[newspeak]

28. why would little boots think much about him?

after 9/11, he hit the trifecta and told us publicly more than once. He apparently, got what he wanted. And the truly magic thing, was how he tied iraq to 9/11 by pushing the american people with FEAR. Now, how american is little boots? Or is he just another businessman attempting to make more profits for his family and friends? sociopathic tendencies, is what I see.

He's the catalyst for norquist's dream and he apparently was willing to sacrifice americans and the economic security of our country for it.

[Yooperman]

33. He really makes me ill to my stomach.

The greatest failure in American history as a person who held the office as President of the United States. Notice... I didn't call him President... he just held the office of. For he was not elected as MY President but appointed by the Supreme Court.

[barbtries]

53. i agree with you

100%

[moriah]

13. I have a NoPolitics list on Facebook for that reason.

Keeps the peace with my mostly conservative family.

[renie408]

14. I have lost both my brother and my sister for similar reasons.

We make nice for the sake of my 80 year old mother, but I haven't spoken to either of them privately in years. I see them at the minimum required holiday visits and that's it. My sister has steadily become more and more religious over the years until now she cannot have a conversation without praising God in every other sentence. She thinks Rick Santorum is a GREAT guy and that what this country needs to get straightened out is more religion. My brother is so conservative it is just ridiculous. He is a flat out Tea Bagger.

I just can't talk to them any more. It's sad.

[FLyellowdog]

46. So sorry.

I don't know which scares me the most...the religious zealots or the despicable racists. How can our fellow Americans be so ignorant. I mean, it's one thing to have a difference of opinions, but what's going on with these RW idiots is way over the line.

[Arugula Latte]

17. Send him this ... Bush was the biggest grandstander of all.

[Warpy]

18. Nitwit brothers in law exist to be lost

The only thing you have to wonder is what the hell your sister was thinking when she married that lout.

It's just another illustration of how love is not only blind, it's also deaf and deluded.

[FLyellowdog]

48. He was her college sweetheart, revisited so to speak.

He saw a pretty good paycheck via her retirement and disability income and since he wasn't particularly able to hold a job, he decided they needed to be together. We weren't pleased but we have tried to endure. Now I guess that'll be a little more difficult. Since their marriage, my sister hasn't really had much to do with my other sister and me...soooooo, I'll survive.

[hfojvt]

21. that is interesting though

In his speech, Bush does not use I, not very much. He does not talk about himself. What he does talk about though, are his policies. He used the capture of Saddam to promote his policies - the invasion of Iraq, which was now justified by the fall, and capture of Saddam, and the war on Tara, which he pledged to continue, seemingly forever, although he also promised victory. The terrorists "will be defeated".

Obama seems to have been caught here, promoting himself. He has no policy to promote, other than his own re-election, and, sad but true, with the death of bin Laden, Obama was only continuing Bush policies. The war on Tara continues.

The other part is that Bush had no need to promote himself, because he had an M$M to do that for him. Chris Matthews to gush about how he filled that flight suit, Fox news and Rush Limbaugh and George Will (et. al.) to proclaim his greatness and bold leadership.

[Zalatix]

22. I would have taunted him endlessly with pictorial jokes about Republicans.

But then I'm just crotchety like that...

[Duppers]

24. Good for you! He deserved no less for sending such bullshit!

My hubs and I lost his sister and most of his family years ago for the very same reason: the bullshit they believed and sent out.

Good riddance to them too. There was always some tension and some contentious issue with them anyway. Many times ignorance and bigotry cannot be corrected with facts.
It was a relief to get them and their criticism out of our lives.

Please, have no guilt about this, ever. You did the right thing.

[The Backlash Cometh]

25. One of the signs that most people are accepting that Bush was a huge mistake,

is the insult that has been spawned by his legacy. Now, when people want to tell you that your judgment isn't to be relied on, they say, "You voted for Bush...twice!"

[gong bath water]

27. Um...demented dogma, eh?

What about YOU? You don't think the Official Story of that whole Navy Seals JessicaLynch-esque "heroic" raid is an insult to the old brainpan? It was a LIE! OSB was Bogeyman of the Decade and "they" chose a satanic, Illuminati-friendly day of May 1st (read David Icke for more info). But I suppose when you live in a state like Flori-DUH, it's a dueling banjos of the mind type of deal

[BlancheSplanchnik]

35. OH...I see gong's gone

from our midst. Guess my alert was after the fact.

[Bluerthanblue]

29. if you did, it's his choice-

you laid out your boundries- and if he cannot honor them, that is his problem.

I think what you said to him is excellent.

[UTUSN]

30. R#27 & K, for, sadly, it happens. In '04 I had to de-fang a web-ring of my Vietnam shipmates

that I had just discovered a year or so before, 35 yrs after Vietnam, because it was just a wingnut chain letter crapfest. I was totally outnumbered and "discussion" was not an option. So the F-U was the only option.

Relatives, too. Some of them *do* get a jolt by realizing that they have gotten an extra large stone pizza.

[mick063]

37. An ocean of Obama hating spams out there.

I used to receive and read them all in an attempt to formulate counter argument and truly understand the thought process.

Some are well written, but most are simplistic and carefully crafted to seduce the simple mind.

The volume is surprising.

I absolutely believe there is a well financed anti-Obama spam writing factory that churns this stuff out like an assembly line. Lots of red, white, and blue. Lots of bald eagles. Lots of patriotic tugging. Lots of disgust for lazy people that want hand outs. Lots of European references to socialism. Lots of God being chased from schools. Lots of Islamphobia.

I put an end to it by writing back the folks that were sending it to me. In a way, I wish I had not. The crafting toward a target audience was fascinating to me.

[otohara]

38. I Am In Process of Finding New Doctor - Same Shit

I can not be treated by a punk ass kid who thinks he's paying too much in taxes while the middle class and working poor pay NOTHING...blah, blah, blah.
He's been posting the dumbest shit of Facebook, like fact-free bullshit from The Heritage Foundation - and other wingnut sites.

He has no compassion - has a girlfriend he will never marry, only she doesn't know that, I do, he told me. Poor thing is wasting her time, thinking some day he will change his mind. He never wants children and that's okay - but docs with kids seem to have a little more compassion.

He hooked up with one of his college buds and joined his office,. The guy a evangelical wingnut and I knew he'd get to my doctor eventually. A doctor got his premed degree at Pat Robertson's college. The office has a huge clear plastic wall piece with scripture - and the evnagelical (he's the boss) states on his profile, he believes in praying your heath problems away.

I will no longer spend one dime at this place.

The new doc I found, he sounds awesome - worked with Hillary on Universal Health Care - went to Stanford and is a target by some blogger, for being an "abortionist". All the more reason to support this new guy.
I can't wait to meet him.

[FLyellowdog]

49. OMG...good luck with your new doc. You needed one!!!!!

[Mikeystyle]

40. You didn't "lose" him, the guy was already lost

Had the same problem with an extended family member who shot his mouth off all the time and brought up politics when no one else wanted to talk about it---and he was farther to the right than Rush Limbaugh.

I finally told hm "I disagree" one Thanksgiving and he exploded, acted like a two-year-old who can't have his lollypop. He and I no longer speak and I'm better off for that----simply because I disagreed with him on something that HE brought up.

If it ever comes up, just tell him or anyone else "if you're going to shoot your mouth off in an email, you have no right to complain if someone hits the reply button."

[Ken Burch]

47. No great loss.

Anybody who send a link with that kind of an ugly, racist tagline DESERVES whatever you give him. Just hope it doesn't cause trouble between you and your sister.

[barbtries]

52. i don't know if you lost him.

you were appropriately harsh. my sister sent me one, just one, email that was full of shit. i sent her back links debunking the premise and at the end, wrote, "i love you. please never send me this kind of garbage again," and she hasn't, and our relationship is still good.
i liked your response very much. bash 'em with facts.