Wait, what?

I think that should be the motto for the 21st century. (or at least the first ~10 years of it). So many things have happened in the world that make a person (or at least ME) wonder if they're crazy, or if the rest of the world is.

Here's the latest: The White House apparently hired an outside company to send out those "unsolicited" e-mails.

(Well, at least they didn't attach a notice saying, "Forward this mail to ten of your friends, or else bad things will happen to you!" and go on to give a story of some woman in Buttlick, NH, who didn't bother to forward the mail and who lost her job, her husband, and her purse the very next day)

Please, someone explain to me: how is this different from the unsolicited e-mails friends send me that claim things like, "YOU ARE GOING TO ABSORB ALUMINUM FROM YOUR ANTIPERSPIRANT AND GET ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE SO STOP USING ANTIPERSPIRANT NOW!!!11!!" or "Have you ever wondered why Proctor and Gambel products have a moon and stars on them, and there's also this cult called the Moonies...."

Yeah, yeah, I know. Other than that I can go and check the veracity of those claims on Snopes.

Seriously? I think one of the fastest ways to piss off people in your base (and especially out of it) is to fall into the mindset those "Constant Contact" commercials promote ("Harvest your customer's e-mail addresses and send them newsletters every day! Don't let them forget your existence for a moment!")

I don't know, but IMHO this is one of the more tin-eared things that someone in the upper reaches of government has come up with. It's right up there with the (for a while) nearly-weekly "press conferences" in prime time.

(I'm betting it's Gibbs came up with this idea, but I could be wrong.)

I will say I didn't get any of the "unsolicited" e-mails, so I guess I'm not on that "list." Which is a big relief.