Date: Sun, 12 Feb 2006 17:17:53 -0500 (EST)
From: "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl at KeithLynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: New list (was Re: This list is... )
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

Ted White <twhite8 at cox.net> wrote:

> Keith, I don't believe anyone in WSFA (and I include myself, since my
> dues are now paid for 2006) thinks of Yahoo as "a Communist agent."
> That characterization just serves to make you less credible.

The American Heritage Dictionary has:

  Agent

  NOUN: 1.  One that acts or has the power or authority to act.  2.
  One empowered to act for or represent another: an author's agent;
  an insurance agent.  3.  A means by which something is done or
  caused; instrument.  4.  A force or substance that causes a change:
  a chemical agent; an infectious agent.  5.  A representative
  or official of a government or administrative department of a
  government: an FBI agent.  6.  A spy.  7.  Linguistics The noun
  or noun phrase that specifies the person through whom or the
  means by which an action is effected.

By several of these definitions, Yahoo is an agent for the Communist
Chinese government.  Just ask Shi Tao.  Or Li Zhi.

Rich Lynch <rw_lynch at yahoo.com> wrote:

> To review the bidding:  It was your choice to leave the club,

Yes, a choice I should have made four years ago, after I saw our
hostess's absurd reaction to what was on *your* web page.

> just as, earlier, it was your choice to blow up something that was
> a feud between two people into an issue that WSFA was forced to
> deal with.

What are you referring to?  I don't recall calling for a vote
on anything.

My contention was that while the club owes a lot to a family willing
to host it for 38 years, that that debt does *not* constitute license
for that family to, without the slightest provocation, spread
malicious and groundless slander and libel against members.

Evidently the club disagrees.

> That escalation should never have been allowed to happen at that
> First Friday meeting;

A great many things never should have been allowed to happen.  For
instance as soon as our host reneged on his promise that no member
would be excluded from a meeting at his house, the club should have
ruled that get-togethers at that house were not WSFA meetings.

Unsatisfied with his total victory, that host than escalated by
airing WSFA's dirty laundry in File 770, for all of fandom to see.

> Meanwhile, you don't own the name WSFA, the club does.
> WSFA therefore can, and should, host its own mailing list.

It makes perfect sense to me that WSFA would want a current member
rather than a former member to run the list.

But that's not what happened.  Instead, they chose Yahoo, who was
never a member, and who has the ethics of a psychopath.

Since you travel internationally, you ought to be concerned.  You
could be the next one they turn in to some repressive regime to
serve a lengthy prison sentence.

Anyhow, the club ought to rename itself to GSFA.

> If there is any contempt, it appears to be from you.

I have contempt for hypocrisy.