Tag Archives: email

Mikey Weinstein Exhausts Vast Vocabulary

If this site relied on clickbait, the headline would continue “…and then he said THIS.”

Michael “Mikey” Weinstein is widely mocked for his writing style, even within his own group. His rampant use of ellipses and his odd use of font size/color often give Weinstein’s messages a hint of teenage angst. In addition, Weinstein’s diatribes contain so many adjectives — sometimes added to a draft document started by someone else — that his own staff has pejoratively called them “Mikey’s Mad Libs.”

Weinstein has never been short of words — he was even called “Motor Mouth” as a cadet at the Air Force Academy. Sometimes it seems as though he must write with a thesaurus at his side so he can fill in the white space of his rants.

Recently, however, his words failed him.

It seems an email exchange started with Weinstein directly emailing a critic a copy of his newsletter, with Weinstein adding a preface (in 61 pt bold red font) saying  Read more

Harassed by Mikey Weinstein, Part 6: Mikey as a Spam Bot

Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s harassment of his critics isn’t always direct. In fact, some of his “best work” is likely done by indirect harassment — that is, when he can cajole someone else into doing his deeds for him. One of his methods of harassment to achieve this end is to flood military inboxes with unsolicited emails — apparently in the desperate hope that someone will do something just to make him stop hitting “send”.

Such was the case in 2014, when Weinstein emailed US Air Force BGen David Harris with nothing more than an email copy of a recent article from ChristianFighterPilot.com. The only original content in the message (the email is even bereft of ellipses) was Weinstein’s subject line: “Latest From Dominionist “Christian Read more

Harassed by Mikey Weinstein, Part 5: You’ve Got (Lots of) eMail

While Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s lawyers weakly threatened this site with a lawsuit in 2009, the “conversation” with Mikey actually began more than two years earlier. It turns out, in fact, that Mikey Weinstein can actually come across as an OK kind of guy — so long as he agrees with your ideology.

In December 2007 — almost exactly 9 years ago — Mikey Weinstein responded to an email that rebutted a recent MRFF press release with the following missive:

mikeyweinsteinemail24The random capitalization and punctuation (as well as his inability to release the period key on the keyboard) often make Mikey Weinstein’s emails seem as though they belong in his wife’s book about poor grammar and hate mail. That aside, while he was being a bit arrogant and obnoxious, it was still relatively light-hearted.

That changed a few hours later.

In the email Read more

Can I put Bible quotes in my military email signature block?

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It depends. Using the Air Force as an example, in official correspondence–that is, email intended to conduct official military business–it is not technically permissible for members to have quotes of any kind in their signature blocks. This is “technically” true because this rule, while in place, is rarely enforced.

Air Force Instruction (AFI) 33-119 says that

Users will not add slogans, quotes, special backgrounds, special stationeries, digital images, unusual fonts, etc., to the body of their electronic messages.

Thus, a strict application of this AFI means that no one is allowed to have any quote of any content in their official email signature block.

This rule refers specifically to official email (which is the context of the AFI). While possible, it is unlikely that this rule would be (properly) applied against a military member who used their email for an authorized unofficial use. Some civilians (and some military personnel) may be surprised to learn that the vast majority of military email is actually “unofficial.”

At present, the Navy and Army do not appear to have explicit or readily available policies on quotations in email signature blocks.

This discussion is about what one is allowed to do; whether or not one should do something (that is otherwise permissible) is always a matter of prayer, good judgment, and professionalism.

See a discussion on the topic of religious content and military email here.