are those bad? they look fine.... edgy to me.
Oh my dear AvikB, Microsoft has ruined your eyes with their devilish cleartype ;-)
Look:
The top image is how it is now (ugly), the bottom image is how it looks when I type the same text in a new message (correct):
(just compare the colons and you'll see what I mean)
About the all-caps:
It is not as ugly, since the font size is larger, but when you look at the letters M, A, D, P you can see some ugliness.
But don't bother too much if it is any trouble, it's not a big issue at these locations.