*

*
Yosemite under Orion's gaze

Monday, August 30, 2010

If I had a gun for every ace I have drawn...

I can't shake the bad taste in my mouth for successfully getting punked. The inevitable next letter just came and I enclose it along with my reply. I have talked to a few friends this morning and I guess I was the only guy in the world not aware of the Facebook Hijack scam. Supposed friend in need just contacted me and worst suspicions confirmed. It was so well choreographed. My friend was due to be in London, the scammer said that he had been mugged in London. Perfect. Have deactivated my Facebook account. I had some interesting interactions on the social networking site, will miss my repartee with Ed, Mark, Jeff and Roy but the thing was a major masturbatory time waster and I am finished for now, feeling majorly violated. I can think of several more productive ways to waste my time.

thank for the money i have pickup the money but i still need to pay some bills and get a flight home...the rate of money is too low so i still need your help all i need now is $865 to complete everything ok...i will def refund it back asap and with the westernunion charge....

keep me posted


**


thanks for fucking me. It will really make me want to reach out to help my fellow man in time of need in the future. I hope that there is a special hell for you and your pathetic, sociopathic brethren. Here's to you getting hit by a bus and expiring slowly of a painful infectious disease.

Robert

***

I have been following the social breakdown/civil war in this country with rapt attention this week. Glenn Beck in his "I have a dream" moment, conservatives questioning our great leader's ecumenical bona fides, murder suicides run amok, the normal offal that we media hounds graze upon on a daily basis.

I took particular note of the opinion piece by Robert Knight that ran on CNN. Knight is a writer for the Coral Ridge Ministries and a a senior fellow for the conservative American Civil Rights Union. He helped draft the "Defense of Marriage Act," the 1996 law in which the federal government defines marriage as a legal union between one man and one woman, and is the author of "Fighting for America's Soul: How Sweeping Change Threatens Our Nation and What We Must Do." The title of the piece is, America was born a Christian nation.

Now as a student of the founding fathers it always seemed to me that the writers of the constitution took great pains not to adopt any state religion. There is no mention of the United States being a christian nation in the constitution, certainly. 

What I did find intriguing about his piece was the private letter to Pennsylvania House member John Murray dated October 12, 1816 he included from John Jay, the noted jurist, wherein Jay states, "Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers."

When I was young and possibly more naive than I am today, I believed that with enough focus, drive and  perseverance, anyone could accomplish anything. Why, I could have even been elected President of the United States, if the stars were properly aligned and a few things had gone in my favor. Imagine that, a jewish boy...

Now I know that I was mistaken. Christians have a duty to elect Christians, and it must be the right brand of the creed, to boot. Obama is castigated and excoriated as being the wrong type of Christian, JFK was pilloried for his Catholicism. The thought of a gasp, muslim president, or a man born of the despised islamic seed, is enough to give some Americans the vapors. Let alone sikhs, buddhists, jews, atheists, what have you. 

I think that the message to all Americans who are not Christians or even believers is simple: You operate here at our convenience, but don't get the idea that you can run the show. Racial and religious minorities are supposed to be seen but not heard, and if you gum up the works you will see what is coming. We are tired of hearing about crosses on public land, creches and nativity scenes, prayer in the schools. This is our country and if you don't like it get the hell out.

I get it.

***

It was amusing for me to watch Ken Mehlman, the ex head of the Republican National Committee, finally come out with the worst secret in Washington, the fact that he is gay. He wishes that he could have been there for a host of issues that affected gay people and is sort of apologetic. Pure hypocrisy. Worse yet is the idea now floated by Republican apparatchiks like Ed Gillespie that the Republican Party was a big tent, where deviants like Mehlman were welcome.

Mehlman said that he "really wished" he had come to terms with his sexual orientation earlier, "so I could have worked against [the Federal Marriage Amendment]" and "reached out to the gay community in the way I reached out to African Americans."

I quote Gillespie from Atlantic Magazine: 

Gillespie said that "it is significant that a former chairman of the Republican National Committe is openly gay and that he is supportive of gay marriage." Although Gillespie himself opposes gay marriage, he pointed to party stalwarts like former Vice President Dick Cheney and strategist Mary Matalin as open advocates for gay rights who had not been drummed out of the party. He acknowledged "big generational differences in perception when it comes to gay marriage and gay rights as an agenda, and I think that is true on the Republican side."

But, Gillespie said, he does not envision the party platform changing anytime soon.

So lets get this straight, we will welcome you to our party but we won't change our homophobic platform or do anything to make your chosen lifestyle any easier for you to live. The mostly republican congressmen that are caught tap dancing in airport bathroom stalls or chasing pages around the congressional floor will be given the "I am a born again christian, I am forgiven card" to play if they happen to be caught, as they mostly always are. 

Another case of, we will tolerate you - just don't expect us to change. We run this game and it's fixed.

**




14 comments:

Anonymous said...

life is funny
life is sad
life is miserable
life is bad
it's so funny
I could cry
It's so funny
I could die

Anonymous said...

This is unacceptable! There are far too few people on Facebook with interacting with and you were one of them. Come back. We promise to always be respectful and care for you.

Love Jeff

Sanoguy said...

You were fucked alright!!

My wife got one of those a while back from a local girlfriend. It was almost exactly the same. We knew she was in town and thus, were not taken in.

As I said, you was fucked!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Call the FBI and set him up

Anonymous said...

Dear SUCKER,
I am sorry that you suffer from having a good heart Rob but now that I know it is worth $500.00, if you ever feel that you need to help out again please make the check out to; Gary Innocenti, (that really is the last name) and I will gladly pay you back on Tuesday.

windowdancer said...

Your preaching to the choir... Back in the day I gave a hitchhiker I picked up my last 85 dollars to score a half pound of Panama Red while I patiently waited in the back my '66 Volkswagen van. Yeah... I was stoned at the time... on the joint he had kindly shared with me on our journey to screw me from behind. He never came back. At least you got a thank you note.

And speaking of taking it in the rear... Why don't the Gays call "Getting Married" something else like "Getting Fairied"? Give them the exact same rights as being married with a different twist on the name. I would think that most everyone would be happy. But hey... What do you think? Inquiring minds want to know.

Blue Heron said...

Dear Gary,

I would like to believe that you are the scum sucking con man that you claim to be, but in a world where there are so many scum sucking con men, I have my doubts. Furnish me with some hidden pearl regarding our sorry transaction so that I can honestly ascertain that you are the legitimate piece of shit that has defrauded me.

Blue Heron said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Widowdancer, your suggestions on gay marriage duly noted, thanks for the way back machine on the Panama Red. I got burned in a similar fashion once on the mean streets of Palm Springs.

I only tried Panama Red one time, a grower in Anza had seeds in the mid seventies. Long red spears, really unusual color that I have never seen again until this day. Peppery if I remember correctly.

The flavors I fondly recall and long for are the notorious Wacky tabacky of 1971 and the same era's Santa Marta Gold. The colombian strains had a chesty, expansive perfume that were out of this world and seem to have disappeared. Long growing seasons and low yield. Many of the old favorites succumbed to the onslaught of the indicas, a tragic occurrence in my book. Sacrificed great taste and psychedelics for narcotizing skunkage.

Anonymous said...

Robert, I have been mugged by my Uncle Sam and need $10,000 I will pay it back asap. Anyway, I check in with your blog now and then and a week or so you wrote about the Israeli Palestinian conflict and I thought it was right on. Most the time it amazes me the liberal view point you take. Well it just dawned on me that you bought the into the change American Obama scam and also the mugged in London scam. Both will cost you dearly. Was it Neal Rasmussen? I doubted that he would be mugged, not an easy mark, and the grammar ? !! Perhaps it is not a misconceived ideology but just a good and generous heart wishing for a better world that posses you. Remember the 60s what a great time. I Thought this attached viewpoint of Churchill to be interesting, as I am writing this I just heard the First lady of France was just called a whore by Iran for condemning the stoning of Iranian adulterers. (lets give them a nuke) Maybe if they build the Mosque at ground zero we could open a cannabis club across the street just a stones throw away. That way one could get stoned for getting stoned at the same location !! Maybe we should fear Sharia Law.

Anyway hope all is well with you. Regards, L.

***
How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy.

The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist where ever the followers of the Prophet rule or live.

A degraded sensualiAlin>n>sm deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of it's dignity and
sanctity.

The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.

Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities- but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world.

Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome.

--Winston Churchill

Anonymous said...

You are a loving, caring schmuck. Don't let it spoil your otherwise pristine view of life and friends! It will NEVER happen to you again and is a relatively inexpensive lesson.

L

Anonymous said...

Robert
great reading, I got beat for $1500 Craigslist scam....... different story same result.
Michael

John Aman said...

Dear Blue Heron:

I have to differ with your conclusion that Christianity in America is exclusionary. The Christian message is not, as you put it, "This is our country and if you don't like it get the hell out."

Instead, Christians, just like any other group, have the right to seek to vote their values and, as Jay said, prefer those for public office who share their values. That's life in a constitutional republic. It's also what secular humanists who want to purge the public square of religious expression, and gay activists, who want to impose their moral framework on the nation, do every day.

Liberty of conscience flourished in America because of the Christian and biblical outlook of its founders. Don't believe me? Consider these words from Thomas Jefferson (not a believer but one who had a largely biblical framework for his thinking). He wrote the Virginia Act for Establishing Religious Freedom, a seminal expression of conscience rights. The Act recognized that "Almighty God hath created the mind free" and drew up a formula for freedom taken from the life of Jesus Christ. Jefferson wrote in the Act: "that all attempts to influence it [one's mind or conscience] by temporal punishment or burthens ... are a departure from the plan of the Holy author of our religion, who being Lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was his Almighty power to do . . ."

So the example of Jesus Christ, who did not coerce belief, offered the template for religious liberty in America. His teaching laid the foundation for our freedom.

Which is why, as Knight wrote, "America is a unique beacon of freedom precisely because of its founders' Christian perspective, which has protected the right of conscience and thus freedom of religion for Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and nonbelievers. Try to identify another nation on Earth that similarly advanced individual rights without being influenced by Christianity."

Here's one more witness to the welcoming posture toward other religionists adopted in early America as a consequence of the Christian idea of liberty of conscience. This is from Benjamin Rush, a Chrisitan and signer of the Declaration, commenting on festivities in Philadelphia after the ratification of the Constitution:

"The Clergy formed a very agreeable part of the Procession - They manifested, by their attendance, their sense of the connection between religion and good government. They amounted to seventeen in number. Four and five of them marched arm in arm with each other, to exemplify the Union. Pains were taken to connect Ministers of the most dissimilar religious principles together, thereby to shew [sic] the influence of a fiee government in promoting christian charity. The Rabbi of the Jews, locked in the arms of two ministers of the gospel, was a most delightful sight. There could not have been a more happy emblem contrived, of that section of the new constitution, which opens all its power and offices alike, not only to every sect of christians, but to worthy men of every religion."


A good introduction to our heritage of religious liberty for all can be found in the book, The Sacred Rights of Conscience: Selected Readings on Religious Liberty and Church-State Relations in the American Founding.

Godspeed,

John Aman
Coral Ridge Ministries

Anonymous said...

P.S.: But the good Reverend still thinks you are going to Hell, you heathen Jew, and don't you forget it!