Email: Liberal media and litmus tests [AS]

I used to get 1,000 spam emails a day until I turned on my spam filters (aggressively). I recommend you consider taking similar measures. Now I get 12-15 a day. Another alternative is to use an address like janedoe2005 and change it each year; human beings should be able to figure it out, but spammers will be thrown off the trail.

I have no idea [yet] what a lagunillero is, and diccionarios.com doesn't have it either. Lagoon is laguna and so my best guess is buccaneer; several Google references say Che Guevara called someone El Lagunillero (in the context of guerrilla activities).

I am with you on the pro-journalism angle -- because you and I both worked hard to ensure fairness and accuracy in our work, and the majority of journalists we know are hard-working and sincere professionals. It's a rabble-rousing rubric for conservatives to blame "the liberal media" -- because political pandering requires one or more enemies to rally against -- and the whole world becomes "liberal" when right-wingers believe themselves to be the "center." (Because they are reactionary by definition, conservatives predictably believe themselves to hold the only orthodox view, when they are in fact extremists who are far right of center.)

I believe in identifying one's hot buttons and learning to control them so they don't control you.

There have been litmus tests before Rush [Limbaugh] came along. A litmus test is a decision tree or flowchart that outlines your must-haves or can't-stands based on a handful of possible alternatives. (Will you accept [when dating] someone who doesn't drink, drinks socially, drinks often, or is an alcoholic?) It's not a litmus test for me, but I find a strong correlation for compatibility with women who are in business [management], the arts or esp. education (secondary level and above) -- as opposed to blue-collar jobs, for instance. I know certain personality types or backgrounds clash with mine (Brainiac + Barbie = Not So Good). I am open to serendipity and surprise, but I try to draw every lesson I can from experience too.