Finding You Again…

Image representing AOL as depicted in CrunchBase

Image via CrunchBase

Through my blog I have made several friends.  One of the earliest was an awesome guy from Australia who used to comment here a good bit named Will C John.

Will, if you are reading this, you should email me.  I’ve been missing you and your email address is no good anymore!  It’s very sad.

What do you do when you’ve lost someone electronically?  In the olden days we could always open the phone book.  Remember when our phone numbers were tied to a home and we could take them with us when we moved within a city?  Remember when we stuck with the same cellphone provider because we wanted to keep the number or because we were stuck in a contract?  Remember when the same held true for email addresses?  If we had AOL as our ISP, which I mean, who didn’t back in the day; we kept that email address forever, or until people made fun of us enough that we dropped it for Yahoo!, Mailcity or Hotmail.

That is until both of those fell out of favor, now it’s all about Gmail!

So how do I find my lost internet friends?  How do I find Matt, the Lincoln University professor I dated after Geoff and I broke up?  He was so wonderful, nice, smart and attractive.  Our relationship was doomed, he was moving to the Northeast to teach Public Policy at a big Ivy League university and I was moving to California at the same time.  I miss him too though and would love to know what he is up to.

How does one find these lost friends?

Interestingly enough, both of their aol.com email addresses no longer work.  The professor’s cellphone has changed and I’ve lost Will from Australia’s number through the several cellphone changes I’ve had.

If you guys are out there, and reading this, email me.  I would love to catch up, talk.  You meant so much to me and still have a place in my heart.

Who have you lost?  Have you ever found that lost person in your life?  How?

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McCain’s Dangerous Choice

MoveOn.org –

Yesterday was John McCain‘s 72nd birthday. If elected, he’d be the oldest president ever inaugurated. And after months of slamming Barack Obama for “inexperience,” here’s who John McCain has chosen to be one heartbeat away from the presidency: a right-wing religious conservative with no foreign policy experience, who until recently was mayor of a town of 9,000 people.

Huh?

Who is Sarah Palin? Here’s some basic background:

She was elected Alaska‘s governor a little over a year and a half ago. Her previous office was mayor of Wasilla, a small town outside Anchorage. She has no foreign policy experience.1
Palin is strongly anti-choice, opposing abortion even in the case of rape or incest.2
She supported right-wing extremist Pat Buchanan for president in 2000. 3
Palin thinks creationism should be taught in public schools.4
She’s doesn’t think humans are the cause of climate change.5
She’s solidly in line with John McCain’s “Big Oil first” energy policy. She’s pushed hard for more oil drilling and says renewables won’t be ready for years. She also sued the Bush administration for listing polar bears as an endangered species—she was worried it would interfere with more oil drilling in Alaska.6
How closely did John McCain vet this choice? He met Sarah Palin once at a meeting. They spoke a second time, last Sunday, when he called her about being vice-president. Then he offered her the position.7
This is information the American people need to see. Please take a moment to forward this email to your friends and family.

We also asked Alaska MoveOn members what the rest of us should know about their governor. The response was striking. Here’s a sample:

She is really just a mayor from a small town outside Anchorage who has been a governor for only 1.5 years, and has ZERO national and international experience. I shudder to think that she could be the person taking that 3AM call on the White House hotline, and the one who could potentially be charged with leading the US in the volatile international scene that exists today. —Rose M., Fairbanks, AK

She is VERY, VERY conservative, and far from perfect. She’s a hunter and fisherwoman, but votes against the environment again and again. She ran on ethics reform, but is currently under investigation for several charges involving hiring and firing of state officials. She has NO experience beyond Alaska. —Christine B., Denali Park, AK

As an Alaskan and a feminist, I am beyond words at this announcement. Palin is not a feminist, and she is not the reformer she claims to be. —Karen L., Anchorage, AK

Alaskans, collectively, are just as stunned as the rest of the nation. She is doing well running our State, but is totally inexperienced on the national level, and very much unequipped to run the nation, if it came to that. She is as far right as one can get, which has already been communicated on the news. In our office of thirty employees (dems, republicans, and nonpartisans), not one person feels she is ready for the V.P. position.—Sherry C., Anchorage, AK

She’s vehemently anti-choice and doesn’t care about protecting our natural resources, even though she has worked as a fisherman. McCain chose her to pick up the Hillary voters, but Palin is no Hillary. —Marina L., Juneau, AK

I think she’s far too inexperienced to be in this position. I’m all for a woman in the White House, but not one who hasn’t done anything to deserve it. There are far many other women who have worked their way up and have much more experience that would have been better choices. This is a patronizing decision on John McCain’s part- and insulting to females everywhere that he would assume he’ll get our vote by putting “A Woman” in that position.—Jennifer M., Anchorage, AK

So Governor Palin is a staunch anti-choice religious conservative. She’s a global warming denier who shares John McCain’s commitment to Big Oil. And she’s dramatically inexperienced.

In picking Sarah Palin, John McCain has made the religious right very happy. And he’s made a very dangerous decision for our country.

In the next few days, many Americans will be wondering what McCain’s vice-presidential choice means. Please pass this information along to your friends and family.

Thanks for all you do.

–Ilyse, Noah, Justin, Karin and the rest of the team

Sources:

1. “Sarah Palin,” Wikipedia, Accessed August 29, 2008
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin

2. “McCain Selects Anti-Choice Sarah Palin as Running Mate,” NARAL Pro-Choice America, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17515&id=13661-9894224-id1Qbcx&t=1

3. “Sarah Palin, Buchananite,” The Nation, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17736&id=13661-9894224-id1Qbcx&t=2

4. “‘Creation science’ enters the race,” Anchorage Daily News, October 27, 2006
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17737&id=13661-9894224-id1Qbcx&t=3

5. “Palin buys climate denial PR spin—ignores science,” Huffington Post, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17517&id=13661-9894224-id1Qbcx&t=4

6. “McCain VP Pick Completes Shift to Bush Energy Policy,” Sierra Club, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17518&id=13661-9894224-id1Qbcx&t=5
“Choice of Palin Promises Failed Energy Policies of the Past,” League of Conservation Voters, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17519&id=13661-9894224-id1Qbcx&t=6

“Protecting polar bears gets in way of drilling for oil, says governor,” The Times of London, May 23, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17520&id=13661-9894224-id1Qbcx&t=7

7 “McCain met Palin once before yesterday,” MSNBC, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=21119&id=13661-9894224-id1Qbcx&t=8

Want to support our work? We’re entirely funded by our 3.2 million members—no corporate contributions, no big checks from CEOs. And our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. Chip in here.

PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://pol.moveon.org/. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee. This email was sent to Justin Scott on August 30, 2008. To change your email address or update your contact info, click here. To remove yourself from this list, click here.

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MoveOn.DNC…

I absolutely hate spam.  Luckily Google catches most of it, almost all of it.  But what to do when the mail isn’t unsolicited?  Those annoying forwards from family members, for instance.  Or in my case, emails from the Democratic National Committee.

Re: Devastating new Iraq ad

I get these emails from them at least once a week at most once a day and nearly every one of these messages start with “RE:” in the subject line.

“RE” technically means, “In regards to” but has come to mean, “In reply to”.  Slightly different wording meaning totally different things.  When you get an email which has “RE” in the subject line, you immediately demise that the email is a response to something you sent earlier.

Not when it’s from the DNC and they way they do this is deceitful and, well done pretty stupidly.

If you are going to fake something, at least do it right.  I finally got fed up with them and sent the email to the left.

Maybe I’m just bitchy but this kind of stuff really bothers me.