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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!uiucdcs!uok!dwhitney
From: dwhitney@uok.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: RE: RE: DAMADD call for new members - (nf)
Message-ID: <22100011@uok.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 1-Aug-84 12:02:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: uok.22100011
Posted: Wed Aug  1 12:02:00 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 4-Aug-84 01:45:58 EDT
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Nf-ID: #N:uok:22100011:000:2666
Nf-From: uok!dwhitney    Aug  1 11:02:00 1984

#N:uok:22100011:000:2666
uok!dwhitney    Aug  1 11:02:00 1984



Andy Tannenbaum says

...what makes the difference is whether I think it's funny...

There have been two responses to my flame about the DAMADD call for
new members.  Considering that's far fewer than I expected, I'll
respond to both of them now.

One said he was making use of irony to be funny.  Pardon me,
if I miss the point; making something serious into something funny.
Based on that, I could run into the maternity ward of my favorite
hospital and start telling dead baby jokes, right???

Yes, Mr. Tannenbaum, you DO judge me by what you post.  But may I also
say that the reverse is true, as well.

I do not live to meet your approval, or your sense of humor.  I am not
a member of MADD, but all the same I just don't see the humor in that
posting; maybe I should; but it just seems to me that the death of
children due to drunks is a poor subject for humor no matter which venue
you employ to express it.

I'm sorry if you found my posting dull.  You didn't have to read the whole
thing, but you must have.  Is the level of "dullness" (sp) a subjective
determination?  Or is it merely based upon the number of invectives and
quantity of profanity that can be crammed into one line of text?  If thats
so, I guess I'll just be dull for the rest of my life.

You said you if someone's little rugrat gets creamed by a drunk drive
it didnt matter what was posted to netnews; maybe not in terms of that
one child, but don't you think that the net reflects at least a smattering
of public opinion?  Granted, not everyone has access to the net, but 
still, first impressions are lasting ones, and if someone read that they
might have serious questions about how seriously to take the net. Would
you find jokes about the San Ysidro murders funny?  I think it all falls
in the same vein.  Black humor.  

Maybe I'm in the minority here, and I don't mean to make anyone mad or
start a name-calling contest.  As the original posting was made to
generate some type of response, I felt the need to post what I believed
to be an intelligent, if too emotional, reply.

Thanks for listening, 

David Whitney
ctvax!uokvax!uok!dwhitney

Not the official ANYTHING of the 1984 Olympics.


P.P.S. We do agree on one point; drunk drivers are a menace to society,
       and your solution is the best one I've heard so far.  I'd like
       to see the idiots picture, name and address plastered on the
       front page of every major newspaper and magazine, and have his
       car painted bright orange so everyone else will know when he
       is on the road and to stay the heck away from him....humiliation
       is a form of punishment that is ignored in this country.
w