[mousepod]

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.