My RW brother has an issue ...

[zbdent]

See, he was named after our father. Sort of. In a way.

Okay, here's the gist of it. Not giving the exact name, but Dad was NameA NameB Surname. My brother was named NameB NameA Surname.

It wasn't much of an issue as we were growing up. I always referred to him as NameA. (referred to father as Dad).

This wasn't an issue for years.

Until his friends found out, in High School, that his real first name was NameB.

He didn't like being called NameB (nor did he like the childish "ie"/"y" addition ... like "Jim" becomes "Jimmie" or "Joe" becomes "Joey"). (There is also another nickname I called him, non-derogatory, that he doesn't like, but that's different.)

So, he's right-wing. Likes to send me e-mails which can be interpreted as RW nutbag crap. Used to flood my e-mail box in 2004, until I told him it would be a shame if his daughter never got to know her uncle because her father drove him away.

I wonder if he would like to be referred to as NameBie ... if he insists on referring to "Barack HUSSEIN Obama" ...

[jeepnstein]

1. Leave politics out of it.

My family is a volatile mix of D+ and R- types. We simply do not discuss politics amongst us except in a kind of detached scholarly way. The election will be over soon enough. I can't remember a time when the extremes of both sides of the political spectrum were more hostile than this one.

Filter his emails into their own "special" folder. Some of the crap the right is pumping out is kind of amusing. Some of it is seriously disturbing.

I won't even try to comment on the pathology of hating your own name. Especially if it was a name good enough for your father.

Look at it like this. When human society collapses and we have roving bands of zombies terrorizing our suburbs, your family will suddenly be very important again. It would be a shame to not have your brother around when the chips are down.

[zbdent]

2. actually, I have left politics out of it ... he's the one who keeps sending me the stuff ...

I don't subscribe to those kinds of e-mail things ... I'm bombarded enough with offers to enlarge both my penis and my breasts as it is ...

(how does that work? my penis AND my breasts???)

[jeepnstein]

3. Filters are our friend.

Get a copy of Thunderbird and you can filter mail quite well. I have a couple of buddies who send me some of the most unbelievable junk. Since their friendship is important to me, I filter their stuff just a wee bit more delicately than I do junk mail.

http://en-us.www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/

It'll get better. They're just all hot an bothered because they power they were told they possessed turned out to be a lie. Wait till they figure out who's been lying to them.

[JohnWxy]

4. One way I stopped spam was to paste a screen shot into a reply and send it.

A screen shot is about a mega-byte or 1.5 mega-bytes in size. Reall stuffs the normal in-box.

Or you could send him informative, factual stuff like how Phil Gramm is the deregulatory cause of the current economic desaster we are confronting. Phil gramm is john mccains chief economic advisor and his pick to be TREASURY SECRETARY!!.

Foreclosure Phil: http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/07/foreclosure-phil.html