I hate Perry Como.

Two things that made "justice-loving Mena" come out of the woodwork:

1. The boatload of spam I received today. The kicker? They were sent from a dollarshort address. If you've commented here, you probably received one or two as well.

Because of this, I spent about two hours looking up laws about spamming practices. Apparently, it is illegal to forge an actual email address for spam mailings in the jurisdiction of California. Although I doubt this little ant can move any sort of rubber tree plant, I certainly do not want to let this issue drop. Basically, I want to try to wreak mofo penal retaliation on those fools at TrafficBBS.

Yeah, good luck.

An ounce of prevention:

MT 2.0 has a tag attribute which will encode the email addresses posted on a site. Hopefully, this will be enough of a preventative measure for those who choose to post email addresses in comments. Being completely fed up with spammers, I just removed the email display on all past entries.

2. Heather losing her job because of her wickedly funny weblog.

Apparently posts like "Reasons The Asian Database Administrator is So Fucking Annoying" apparently did not bode well with her never-named employers.

You know the Twilight Zone episode (It's a Good Life) where Billy Mumy wishes "bad men" into the corn field? You know the one -- it's the best episode ever. Perry Como and bad Collies, jack-in-the-boxes and evil little boys.

Well, it's people like the anonymous tipster (who emailed the vice-presidents of Heather's company to inform them of her blog) who make me long for the power to wish bad people into cornfields.

And no, I don't think Heather would abuse that power.

Well, not that much. All in good fun, I say.

I'm thinking that a Dooce's Law is going to come out of this whole situation.

Comments

[Kiffin]

Yeah, I got spammed by the same folks. Go out at get them, eg. hang them by their toenails if possible...

[kismet]

if it makes you feel better mena, the spam I got was actually sent to me from the webmaster@ my own site (heh) with "dollarshort.org/archives" written as the subject.

Either way, I'm with Kiffin. Go get 'em!

[Paul]

I confess I didn't receive it - which means, of course, I don't post here nearly enough.

How many years until employers have weblog rules?

[Dawn]

Yep, I received the same type of email that kismet did from TrafficBBS. I reported them to spamcop.net, not sure yet if that works, but it's something.

I've been receiving a crapload of spam lately - much more than usual, so I'm desperately trying to find out where it's coming from as well.

And as for Heather, that is SO wrong! I hope that she is able to do something about it. I respect her for having the backbone to journal publicly about her situations at work. I do not, as I fear just the fact that I post from the office could mean I'd be standing in the unemployment line. Nevermind that I haven't taken a lunch in over 4 years - another story for another time. :)

[Daniel]

too bad we cant find a way to forward all that spam to that "tipster". that makes me very mad. very mad. poor heather.

[Bill]

He's gonna get his. You live your life like that, it comes back on you.

[Vis10n]

Hey Mena... I posted the Heather link for discussion over at MetaFilter.

http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/15133

[critically-acclaimed]

u suck. very much

[Mena]

There's nothing like an anonymous tipster's opinion to really set me straight. Thank u. Very much.

(very much added for dramatic element)

[Mike]

Gotta love the anonymous 'u suck. very much' comment. I'm sure the email they provided was something like no@way.com, because they're so scary clever. So scary clever that they don't even know how to spell 'doesn't' in their URL.

[Jeff]

Three issues:

1. her ability to say what she wants on her own site.

2. an anonymous tipster getting her fired.

3. whether her characterization of her coworker was racist.

People have talked about numbers 1 and 2 but not three. IMHO, it comes perilously close to racist in the way she describes him. If you don't think so, substitute "Black" or "African-American" and think about the flack that would insue.

Perhaps her employers were reacting to this.

If nothing else, IMHO, the characterization here of Heather (as in "poor Heather") is misplaced. She knew what she was doing and she's taken responsibility on her site for her dismissal. Still, the racist overtones are very disturbing.

[Mike]

Substitute 'White' in there - is that racist?

I never took her use of 'Asian' as racist. In a medium largely dependent upon text, I saw it as an adjective, not a slur.

[Jeff]

The challenge with racism is that the lines that define it are based on context. Perhaps in your context she wasn't. In mine she was.

And because race can be an incredibly incindiary issue in our society, we should err on the side of prudence. Heather chose not to. With results that shouldn't be shocking.

Her twelfth reason sounds pretty racist to me.

[Paul]

I'm not white. I'm Irish-German-Bohemian-American.

[Daniel]

Jeff,

did you ever consider there could be more than one database administrator and the term 'asian' was used to identify which one she was talking about. there are terms that could have been used that were clearly racist and - nevermind, i cant believe something like this is even being discussed.

[Jeff]

Why can't you believe this is being discussed, Daniel. This happens everyday. Perhaps not in your world. And it's good that it's being discussed.

And, actually, at first, I did consider she meant it as a way of simply discribing an individual. But as I read her post it was clear it went beyond mere description. Her #12 is a case in point.

[Mena]

Jeff and I had a private discussion about the "Asian Admin" post and I do have to say that we all have our limits to what we find offensive. This offended Jeff and he has every right to express how he feels.

I don't think we can judge this post in its context. We don't know Heather, her work or even the admin. We don't know if this admin is even her friend and it's a joke between the two of them.

[Mike]

Different people will take it differently, I suppose. That said, is it impossible to believe that this man did not in fact say those words, in that order? (as you pointed out in #12)

Also, I guess there's a line between satire and racism that gets blurry with political correctness. Is it not true that Asian-Americans have this pattern of speak? Why are they above being poked fun at a little?

I'm white, and I can't dance. Poke away...I won't cry racism.

[linda]

"I'm thinking that a Dooce's Law is going to come out of this whole situation."

I'm thinking it's going to turn into a new word in the dictionary.

dooce
pronounciation key (doos)
v. intr.
1. To lose one's job for posting "questionable content" on a personal website.

2. The act of receiving retribution for posting "questionable content" on a personal website.

As in, "crap, I heard Heather just got dooced by her employer for what she wrote on her personal weblog." or "ouch, I just got dooced by my ex-boyfriend for writing awful things about him on my blog."

[you know who]

but you really do suck, mena. you're a political, game-playing bitch. some of us have had the misfortune of seeing you in action, up close and personal.

[Mena]

Dad, is that you?

Yeah, I do like (and are rather good) at games -- particularly Scrabble and Scattergories.

Political? I highly doubt that. But I'm proud to say I voted.

If you have a problem with my actions, take it up with me in private.

[np]

so where is Heather? her blog story generated more than 100 responses on MeFi, but she is silent. Does anybody know what is going on with her?

[resonance]

To whoever's leaving the malicious notes: get a life. Elsewhere, preferably.

Regarding the asian admin post: I'm all for free speech. I think people should be able to say what they want to say. It follows, then, that I also think people should be able to react the way they want to react to something said.

I'll fess up: I'm Asian. I've read Heather's blog and have found its blend of insight, wit, and eloquence extremely enjoyable. #12 on the post in question, though--while it didn't offend me, if I found someone saying something similar about me in a public forum, I'd probably be offended. Even though the "offense" took place in a non-work related forum, it was a public forum accessible to coworkers.

I didn't know why the Asianness of the database administrator was relevant until #12, where it was made clear that his ethnic identity was in fact one of the "fucking annoying" traits. In any case, I thought it was hysterical, but if I were his boss and had to balance one employee's freedom of speech with another employee feeling persecuted racially (to his face or not), I'd probably side with the latter. No offense or malice to Heather, mind you--I'm sorry she lost her job. Some mediation might have been a better call on the employer's part, especially if Heather was a valued employee.

[nonasian]

I had a workplace where 40 per cent of the subordinates were Chinese. Not Asian, Chinese. Whenever my female coworker ruined her part of the project which happened very often she followed it up by offering some nice food to the (male) supervisor next day. Both of them were married. In this case the supervisor not only accepted her offering very happily but a few days later his memory turned the mistakes of the Chinese female into somebody else's. Unfortunately this was not the only Chinese female who was seemingly subservient yet quietly took over the office. Now am I racist mentioning Chinese over and over again? Yes. But I am convinced that for example an English woman would not have brought leftovers from her husband's table to the supervisor to correct her mistakes but would have learnt to do the project well instead. Guess who got fired? Those who complained while the Chinese female kept smiling and bowing.

[K]

I agree with the last post. People have to remember that the company has a responsability to its other employees as well. They can be sued for allowing something even remotely considered racist to continue. Heather may or may not have been attempting to be racist, we certainly can't judge that, but her employer obviously thought she was and dealt with the risk accordingly. Heather has every right to say what she thinks and feels but her employers also have every right do react.