[Vision2020] Shape Shifting Reptilian

[amy smoucha]

Whew.  This is getting more boring than waiting in a car.  I am now going to 
delete any Edna-related thread withoug reading it, as I'm sure the listserve 
will be much improved.  If a person emerges to talk about anything of 
substance, without the monologic, masturbatory writing style, someone let me 
know so I can tune in again.

Amy Smoucha


----Original Message Follows----
From: Edna Wilmington <edwilming@yahoo.com>
To: Aldoussoma@aol.com, vision2020@moscow.com
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Shape Shifting Reptilian
Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2004 11:54:58 -0800 (PST)

Forum Members,

Actually, I don't remember the last time someone
"played this anonymous identity email...game." Sorry,
read about it, but I wasn't around to witness it, nor
does it matter.

Because some folks seldom, if ever, stay on topic and
defend their basic assertions (whether explicitly
stated or not), but instead resort to incessant
personal attacks, clever innuendo, and inane
diatribes, they get all crossed up when it comes to
dealing with me, that is, unless they assume I work
for Happy Saggers. Why is that?  No, seriously now,
dear reader, ask that question as strongly as you can:
WHY?

The sagacious target chosen for my "venom" and
"onslaught" had nothing to do with anything that
happened in the past with someone's email address. It
had everything to do with what's happening right this
minute.  It had everything to do with overdrawn
epithets like, "cult," "fundamentalist,"
"Neo-Confederate," "bigot," and "racist." It had
everything to do with grandiose, but unsubstantiated
universal claims (and implications) of right and wrong
in our ever-evolving universe.  It had everything to
do with the ongoing minstrel show, replete as it is
with blackface, humorous yet vacuous criticisms, and
lyric insults.

I'm not saying, "There's no way to substantiate those
claims." I'm saying, "Let's see how well they hold up,
how definitive they are, how rational and logical they
are, how unassailably true they are, how universal
they are, how timeless they are, and how proven they
are."  Not only that, let's try doing it while playing
strictly by the epistemological rules put forth by the
person making the claim.  No trickery there.

Several hundred people have joined this list.  Some
listen.  Many probably don't.  Maybe the latter are
wiser, because I'm still waiting (and max patiently)
for a reply to my initial, reasonable, and very simple
ethical question.  I stand ready and willing to
dispense with all the cute diversions. It's a darn
good thing I'm not standing on the street, short of
time to read someone's dissertation on the subject,
but trying to decide whether or not to be arrogant to
a hot dog vendor. Man, I didn't ask for proof of
Heisenberg's Uncertaintly Principle.

Mr. Fox was right about one thing: It's easy to ask
the questions, and I submit, cast aspersion. Answers
are tougher to crank out.  Problem is, unless we have
any solid, defensible answers, what basis have we for
leveling insults? Can anyone spell b-i-g-o-t-r-y?
Well, the right-wing radical fundamentalist theocratic
Neo-Confederate cultists and their inspired book have
spent enough time on the meathook.  Let's assume
they're all full of crap.  They can stand by and ride
the pine for awhile.  Now it's time for the liberal
opposition to have their ideas vetted; or will this
deafening silence and bitching about preoccupation
with Wilson/CC issues continue forever and ever, Amen?

Even the message below from Ted slips from its lofty
perch and resorts without cause into over-the-top
attacks like, "staging the current onslaught,"
"another shape shifting chameleon cyber ghost," "pesky
phony monikers," and "lording it over us with jabs,
reptilian tongue hissing and sliding." Give me a
break, Ted.  Does your other (i.e. left) ear work okay
or do you need to turn it up a couple notches?

As for my posing as though above the fray to hide the
deep-seated nastiness hidden behind my requests for
calming discussion, I'll say this:  In the immortal,
twisted lipped, and raspy words of that great
individualist warrior, Rambo, "They drew first blood."
They changed the subject; I followed along smirking.
They resorted to sarcasm; so did I. They collaborated
to put together our little storybook; I played along
all by my lonesome, lead by my imperial mind,
implementing policy by committee of ten digits, none
of them equal. Call it a little prefatory game of quid
pro quo before the main event. I would rather have
bypassed the exercise, but now, what's done is done.
I had fun. Did you?

By the way, did you know that I wouldn't give a hoot
if someone located my phone number and address? That's
right. I wouldn't care one bit.  Actually, I'd really
like it a lot.  Not only that, it would prove once and
for all how presumptuously nincompoopish the
speculators really are and what's more, would confirm
my third party status "above the fray."  You might
ask, "Well, if you don't care if we know, then tell
us." Nice try. My personal information is private for
reasons outside this realm and will remain that way.
Consider it an act of forbearance and mercy.  Trust
me, you don't want to know.

Please don't take this as pompous, but I've already
anticipated each move, every outcome, and none of it
matters one lick to pertinent discussion on the forum.
  Before you jump to conclusions and accuse me of
having delusions of grandeur, this isn't a tribute to
ingenuity on my part.  This group, with all due
respect, ain't that hard a puzzle to figure out.  Nor
is the pattern of behavior enjoyed by some:

I ask a few schizophrenic megalomaniacal
carefully-crafted leading questions, and all of a
sudden, a frenzy erupts to determine my identity.
Frustrated, the curious and bucketless rain catchers
resort to diversions, insults, and characteristic
quietness about the core question at hand.  Who cares
where I live or how to reach me by phone?  Better yet,
as I already said above, ask yourself, "Why do some
care?"

Would someone (perhaps a valiant soul from among the
numerous kind folk on both sides who have emailed me
off-list with compliments and encouragement) please
call the bumps off their log?  The more of you who go
public, the better. But then again, I don't expect a
groundswell of public support from those whose address
and phone number already appear in the
intelligentsia's database.  Why subject yourself to
needless abuse?  Just head down to the SUB, grab a
placard, and toe the line.

How about we just get on with it?

Really now, everybody have a pleasant weekend.

Edna Wilmington


--- Aldoussoma@aol.com wrote:
 >
 > All:
 >
 > Oh no, not again!
 >
 > Remember the last time someone on V2020 played this
 > anonymous identity e-mail
 > address mutating game?  Odd that that character made
 > the chief target of his
 > venom the same person it has been ALLEGED is staging
 > the current onslaught.
 >
 > Now we have another shape shifting chameleon cyber
 > ghost, haunting our
 > virtual world with a potentially infinite variety of
 > addresses and pesky phony
 > monikers, lording it over us with jabs, reptilian
 > tongue hissing and sliding, at
 > numerous V2020 personalities, as though composing a
 > local gossip column.  Edna
 > the detached philosopher, posing as though above the
 > fray, was an excellent
 > guise to hide the nastiness that hid behind lofty
 > pronouncements of calming
 > discussion.
 >
 > Psychoanalytical suggestion: schizophrenic
 > megalomania fueled by delusions of
 > all knowing all powerful immortality.
 >
 > Or am I responding as though to a list serve
 > Internet Rorschach test?  Naw,
 > couldn't be.  I might be all powerful and all
 > knowing, but I firmly deny
 > immortality for any living being.
 >
 > Ted
 >
 >



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