GD- I fail to see why anyone just tosses it off as junk mail and spam- it was written in an acerbic manner, I don't deny, but if it is true, it is good news to know. The attitude that it is automatically JUNK or SPAM is a knee jerk hostile reaction and I expected better.

But no, I did not expect anyone to go OOOOOO and just *poof* change their mind- I wanted to share it, and maybe spark a discussion. Like I said, it was not a discussion, it was stomping.

I appreciate your apology BTD- and I know better than to get into the battle of so called lies ;)

Next time I will edit the more combative lines- I did not think of it when I posted it. It would be nice if people would at least talk about the substance of the email rather than fixating on one line and railing against that.

But you can rest assured I won't stop posting my opinions LOL :D

I've been lurking in this thread for a while, so I guess I'll jump in with my 2 cents.

Nephythys, I don't think you should edit out any of the text of an email you pass to the group. However, if you feel that the text echoes your sentiment but goes overboard with its manner, it might be helpful if you would say that in your initial post. For you to post something as "an email I got ... (I added nothing)" with no other explanation might lead a reader to believe (me included) that both the style and substance of the original email reflects your feelings. In that situation, I would imagine that the responses would hurt your feelings, but given the mordacious nature of the original email, I would imagine that you'd deserve it.

If you expected the discussion of the contents of the email to go a certain way, you could have done a much better job of setting up the conversation.

I must admit that I find your metaphor of someone yelling in a car to be a little off. If a passenger in my car dumped the contents of a letter he received in my lap and said "Look what I got! Neat spiders!" I'd yell a lot and expect that the misguided passenger to deal with my feelings.

Anyway, I'm always eager to hear other people's opinions. At worst, they make my own convictions stronger. At best, they open my mind. Please keep posting.

I'm fairly certain that if I go to a site that is conservative in nature and post an e-mail that is comprised of Al Franken or Michael Moore statements, I'd get seriously stomped. I doubt very much there would be any sort of constructive discourse. I get tons of e-mails like the OP, and I'm sure everyone else does as well.

Driver analogy-

Driver A
Driver B- and I am in the car with Driver B

Driver A cuts off Driver B- whether accidentally or purposefully. Driver B begins screaming profanities inside their closed car.

Driver A hears nothing, but I, as the passenger in Driver B's car, am subjected to all the abuse meant for Driver A.

Now, had I dropped spiders on Driver B, I would understand that coming my direction, but not when they are impotently screaming at Driver A who could care less.

(but thanks- I will keep posting ;) )

Your driver analogy still doesn't work.

Your friend (Driver B) never cut us (Driver A) off.

In fact, Driver B was never on the same road as us.

Driver B yelled his favorite song into your ear (or gave you a bunch of spiders or whatever).

You thought his song (or spiders) was cool.

You got into Driver A's car, knowing full well that they have different musical taste (or don't like spiders), but decided to yell the song into Driver A's ear anyway (or dumped the spiders).

To claim that Driver A is impotently shouting is wrong, plain and simple.

You want a discussion? Then say "My friend Driver A yelled this song in my ear. Do you mind if I sing it to you my way? I'd like your opinion."

You want a reaction? Scream the bloody song. Just don't wuss out and claim it wasn't you. I don't see your friend's name anywhere on your post.

Okay, I'll talk about the substance.

I did some fact-checking and found that indeed, a few of the lines I checked, appeared to be accurate. One though caught my interest and that was regarding small-pox vaccinations to children. Upon checking it out, I found out that a pretty intensive effort was made to vaccinate as many kids as possible and it was quite successful. The program was started under Hussein in 2000. I would venture to say that the high percentage quoted of kids that received the vaccination is due, in some part at least, to efforts made during the Saddam regime. So while the fact is true, it doesn't really have as much to do with our occupation as it would appear. I suspect there are other lines that use a similar method but I don't have the energy to research them all.

And while my feelings on the war are well known around here, that doesn't mean that I don't want things to get better for the Iraqis. And if they are, I think that is great. That doesn't mean that the successes are long-term though. I think the potential for a civil war in Iraq is still a big possibility and things may get a lot worse over there before they truly get better.

I think it was a mix of both. I can see how some of the replies can be taken as a stomping, they were harsh (mine included), but in a hot topic like this that should be expected.

:rolleyes: how is it I can post MY analogy for how I personally felt about the thread and you can tell me I'm wrong? I don't recall anyone here getting authority to validate my feelings or my analogy.

I'm not wussing out, and my friend did not write it either. I made it clear that I was not the author- that's all. I was not going to validate or deny anything on the email.

Thanks for the post MBC- I appreciate it. :) (even if I don't happen to agree with it all)

Never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty but the pig likes it.