I will not hug it out with you, Ari.

A while back, I recieved a stray email from some rightwing blog/’website/focus group/circle jerk- as opposed to my own leftwing b/w/fg/cj’s-, and sent them a really irritated letter telling them to take me off their mailing list. If I want exposure to more conservative thinking, I’ll read the Economist ( which I recommend to anyone regardless of political stripes), Fox News ( hey, I get to laugh, cry, and shriek in terror, better than Gremlins, better than ET), or one of the NYC tabloids.

Or the Wall Street Journal Editorial page. That is always a lot of scary rich people fun.

So while I can do more to read up on opposing view points, I really don’t want to go straight into their echo chamber, and I don’t want them adding the mountain of unread bits on various servers across the world on my behalf.

So out of the blue, I get an email from Ari Fleischer and “Freedom’s Watch”, thanking me for my support, and so forth. I’ve talked with other righties about this in the past. (https://cmss1971.wordpress.com/2007/09/22/thank-you-for-my-suppport-what-support/)

I’m not going to post the letter from Freedom’s Watch, but if you want to see what their about- freedomswatch.org. Only fair if I mock them, I give you a chance to see why they deserve it. Here’s the reply to Ari, error’s and all.

And why is it that if you name a man Ari, he’s likely a dick? Someone answer that for me.

***
Hi.

Uhm, I have no idea how you got my address, but I'm a lefty. A liberal. In
my mind, Ari Fleishcer is one of the people responsible for the most
damaging presidential administration in my life time, my parents lifetime,
and possibly our nations.

Why would I respond to his call?

So, as you can imagine, I'd be really, really happy if you remove my email
address from your mailing lists.

Thanks, and I hope the defeat of McCain/Palin will wake up American
Conservatives from their reactionary slumber to the need to be a healthy,
productive part of solving world issues.

Yours,
James Gerber

***
PS: ‘Re- Hey Elk’ Bunnies and Elk deseve their bridges, you heartless bastiches.

Salon Reviews “Y-The Last Man.”

It’s been a good day, net wise. Finally posted and did some replies, Added some more folks to my blog roll.

Yay, accomplishing one or two things.

I also caught up on Salon, where Douglas Wolk was reviewing “Y-The Last Man.” Now, Wolk’s review is pretty good, except he argues that Y is really putting a “wig on the world”, that it’s the women don’t really act like women in it.

Well, the bad news is my response is a mess grammatically. Some of the points are dropped.

Main lesson kids: REVIEW YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE INTERNET BEFORE PUTTING THEM ON LINE.

The good news, is despite the mess that it was, my post was one of the Editor’s choices. Hopefully I stand firmly in the gender equality realm, rather than with the feminist back lash crowd. There are some dudes who really need some hugs, from the look of some of the responses.

Most importantly… go buy “Y.” It’s worth a trip to your nearest comic store, even if you are not a comics reader.

And I’ll take more care in the crafting of my internet blather.
Here’s the original review-

http://www.salon.com/books/review/2008/07/14/last_man/index.html

Thank you for my suppport? What support?

  I just got home from watching “Easter Promises” ( great. loved it.We’ll talk more later.) and dinner ( great. loved it.We’ll talk more later.), when I found an email claiming I had signed a petition for “Victory Caucus for the Drudge Report.” Turns out it’s this pro-war website, which of course I’d never seen, much less signed on for.

Here’s the text of the email, see if you’ve gotten something similar:

—————————- Original Message —————————-
Subject: Thank you for your support!
From:    “Victory Caucus for Drudge Report” <noreply@victorycaucus.com>
Date:    Fri, September 21, 2007 8:23 pm
To:      “James Gerber” <james@jXXXXXXX)
————————————————————————–
Dear James,

Thank you for signing our Petition to stand by the American mission in Iraq.

We appreciate your support.

Please email your friends and encourage them to visit http://victorycaucus.com to sign the petition as well.

Thank you again for your support!

***

Sincerely,

Your friends at Victory Caucus for Drudge Report

***

I’ve asked my name to be removed from the list. Odds are, it was just someone pulling a prank. Not a funny one. Still, if some war supporters are looking to fluff the roster of the willing, I wouldn’t be surprised.

Folks, will someone please explain to the American far right that after all the lies and fraud the Administration committed to get us into Iraq, more lies and fraud won’t make anything better?

Us lefties can challenge our side to be more truthful and honest as well. Don’t get me wrong. But we aren’t the ones trying to spin a decades long occupation of a country that didn’t have weapons of mass destruction and wasn’t behind the 9/11 attacks.

If you agree with me on the need for more mutually assured truth, thank you for your support.

53 People Find Me Helpful.

One great thing about the web is all the ways you can get minor validation. Social networking, PbEM’s, Digging… there are many little ways short of doing serious damage to your self or your property in a viral movie to know that other people think you are right about something.

I just checked my Netflix page, and found 53 people found my glowing review of “Brick” helpful. This is huge jump from the 6 who were helped by my “meh’s” of Shaolin documentary, The Road to Perdition, Battlefield Earth (which proved that just about every theology and mythology on Earth are better sources for film than Scientology), and several indie films that the critics loved, and I didn’t.

Aside from the fact that Netflix makes it hard to actually see negative reviews, what can we learn from this?

– I’m glad that at least one person clicked helpful for my poorly written review 53 times.

– Crowds will only respond to things they are being encouraged to look for. Word of mouth has spread about Brick, so people are looking for it. Not many people are looking over their back log of videos, and thinking if they really need to see Blue Submarine #6

– Since it’s not an open forum, Netflix lacks some really cool flamewars between film geeks, obsessive fans, and people with nothing else to due since they were Trollmarched off of Trekweb and Television Without Pity.

– If 53 people found me helpful, do I get enough good karma to come back in my next life as a really happy puppy? That would be cool.

So what now? Do I look for the movies people are likely to be looking for, so my reviews get read? Do I make more positive reviews, so they are more likely to stay up top instead of being buried 10 or 20 pages away?

Short of finding more validation in the real world, focusing on my Netflix reviews seems a good start.