A degree of hostility, or the beginnings of a great dissertation?

Yesterday I received a comment from an eloquent writer named Anonymous (a very common name among Whirled participants). Anon sent the comment as a response to my most recent post on phony college degrees. I have no way of knowing if it was something in that particular post that inspired such passion in Anon, or if it was just the blog in general, and the Faux-Degree piece was the last one this individual read before firing off the comment. But I felt inspired to share it with y’all. In the interests of what little decorum I try to maintain on this blog, I am lightly censoring and abridging the comment, but here is the gist of it:

Cosmic Connie, you are a f–g bitch...an idiot... I hope you die for what you wrote. You know f–k about what you write about on your blogs…I hope you die a horrible death…Whore. Bitch. Slut.

And so on.

My first thought was that this was someone who was simply bored and trying to provoke something – perhaps a junior-high school student with too much time on his/her hands. And that may very well be the case.

Of course there are other possibilities, though I seriously doubt that the comment came directly from anyone to whom I have paid tribute on this blog. For example, the fact that all of the spelling, punctuation and capitalization were correct would rule out someone like Melbourne’s Mini-Madoff or his teenage son, the latter of whom maintains a blog telling other teens how they can make money in ways both legal and not-so-legal. Both the elder and younger Schirmer seem to be seriously spelling- and grammar-impaired, and at least I can say that my fond Anon doesn’t seem to have that problem. It's possible that the remark was from one of the elder or younger's fans or pals.

It is also possible that this comment, if genuine and not simply a practical joke, is from a follower of one of the hustledorks whose own phony degrees I've snarked about here, but in no way do I think this is typical of such fans, as their general policy is to publicly ignore bad apples like moi. For the most part they are too busy fawning over their hustledork(s) of choice and perfecting their own derivative hustles to spend time or energy in my Whirled.

There is, however, the possibility that Anon’s comment was indeed a response to the post to which it was sent. Perhaps it was written by a person who has begged, borrowed, or hustled to obtain the funds for an advanced "degree" from a fine institution such as Belford University or the University of Metaphysics/University of Sedona. If so, then here is my advice to you, Anon: Take that eloquent comment and flesh it out a little – you need only add a few sentences – and then add some footnotes or endnotes, and perhaps a bibliography, and voila! You will have yourself a doctoral dissertation that may very well help you earn that coveted degree from the esteemed university of your choice.*

Never let it be said that I am not a big believer in eddy-cation.

*I’m talking, of course, about the universities that have the really high standards and actually require the appearance of minimal effort on the part of the student.

"Hell hath no fury..."

Within hours after publishing my post of 20 March entitled, "All I need is a miracle," I received a long email from a person who apparently took umbrage at my words. Whether he is a Joe Vitale fan or a devotee of the Maharishi, I couldn't say, but I suspect the former. Anyway, after reading his email, I immediately responded to him, thanking him for sharing his insights and asking his permission to publish his letter on my blog, anonymously, if he wished.

I received no response, so I sent another email the next day, asking him again, and adding that I assumed his lack of response meant that it was indeed okay to publish his letter.

I have yet to receive a reply, and so, in the interests of giving "the other side" a fair say, I am publishing his email in full – uncensored and unedited (but, of course, sans name and email address).

Here goes...

I stumbled across your blog! so insightful…

...if one is into snarky people.

Your greatest gift appears to be a driven hunger for tearing down those who have faith in something that you don't believe in.

You offended me with your vengful ignorance, your willful desire to slash at others who I have received great value from, and your complete failure to understand the things you bash. I'll work on whatever it is in me that allows you to pop into my reality and I'm responsible for how I feel about what you spew. Though part of me felt the need to write you a response. I accept the fact I feel the need to tell you what I am about to say. Your pain is so raw and searing as I read your rants and the people you attack so out of your league.

I wonder who hurt you or what happened to you that you are so bitter. No one is so focused on another's flaws unless they themselves don't feel right enough, good enough, or of value enough themselves. I looked at your picture and its clear you hide your hurt behind a forced smile of a woman disappointed by life. You use 'humor', sarcasm, cynicism and all the other typical masks to hide your own vulnerability. Is your pain really the fault of those you slash and flail at? I bet you used to believe in the things you now attack. You can't accept responsibility for your failure so you turn on your former beliefs. Hell hath no fury I guess.

You are of course welcome to your opinions. It seems every critic has opinions galore to share. Opinions are cheap after all. Problem is with critics is they content themselves a bit too much on mocking the creations of others. it is a temporarily filling distraction from the cold hard truth that you have nothing of real original value to offer of your own.

What do you create besides criticism? Bad feelings in others? Does that warm your heart on a cold night? Or is your anger and pride the closet thing you have to self esteem and your only approximation of self acceptance. Are you a 'good girl' when you punish others?

Really I wonder what drives your hate? How can you drone on and on for pages about the failings of someone else's work? Where do you get such energy and why don't you apply it to your own work?

We all have only so much time on this planet and your body of work is simply a statement of dissatisfaction with others. Who are YOU? What are you building, creating, sharing?

Uh, judgement of others?

You must sit pretty high in your thrown with your digital gavel pronouncing guilt in others with such certainty. But who are you to judge others who clearly are more successful and better educated than you in the matters you nit pick to death? Self appointed watch dogs make me wonder what dark skeletons lurk in their closet.

In what way are you a fraud and a scammer? Read Debbie Ford's book 'Dark Side of the Light Chasers' and you'll find out. Read that book and you can heal your real wounds. Heal that and you will be far happier than all this hurt you try to inflict on others with your 'im so smart' act. In the end we are all measured by how much we loved. That is all that matters. What will your tombstone say? Here rests a woman who was nobody's fool? Yay! so proud of you my dear. It would be so much more fulfilling if it read 'here rests a woman beloved by all'.but that seems very unlikely, doesn't it? You have to give love and forgiveness to receive it fully in case you didn't know.

I bet you are so critical of others that you dare not create anything for fear of being the focus of such bile yourself.

Sad. Again, I am confident someone else treated you this way and you are simply dishing it out now as your own. we all simply project what is inside us after all.

Maybe you might want to read what Alexander Pope said about critics. if only I had his economy of words.

While I certainly believe blogs and twitter offer a democratic venue for people to express themselves, the downside is that some people prolifically express hateful garbage. You must be so proud of your doubt. I wonder how many people really read what you spent so much time sowing - and what exactly are you going to reap from your efforts? an award? a medal? You are the hero to the skeptical and critical? You must be so proud and warm inside knowing that. We get what we focus on and you focus on scams, doubt, how everyone is out to get you and dishonesty. I would not want to trade shoes with you my dear. Ugh.

I wonder what exactly you would be without such a public forum for your vitriol. As you take such pride in bashing others I will take some comfort in knowing that at your core you feel hollow, bitter, and without faith or hope in anything that really matters.

I considered a point by point eviceration of your blog posts but thought better of it. It is not my place to do that and I just don't have the time. where do you get all that time to go on and on about the failings of others more successful than you? Are you the Robin Hood of the pen tearing down the evil rich gurus? Is that the hot burning belief driving your bitter mania? Oh how sorry that makes me for you.

There is no need to publically bash someone suffering from such an inner void, it is enough to know that you won't ever reach real happiness attacking others. I would wish for you that you find a place within yourself to look at how all the things you criticise could actually be good and helpful to others.

Are you so sure of your opinions that you don't wonder if you are tearing down genuinely good people? it doesn't take a genius to find flaws in others. Everyone has flaws. It just makes you small minded and a petty form of bully to strike so viciously in a public forum without facing scrutiny for your conjecture and false assumptions. But that of course is your right as a blogger. No one to stop you from saying whatever nonsense you want. It is the perfect forum for the coward who wishes no dissent.

this much is clear. if you were put up against the people you mock on the same stage in an equal debate you would leave with your tail between your legs. best restrict yourself to cheap shots from the peanut gallery love. that way you don't really face having to deal with all the ways in which you have nothing to offer but bile.

if you had any idea how cold, bitter and off base your words are I would hope you would hde your face in shame and apologize with all your heart. but you clearly don't have a clue. in your blindness and ignorance you will surely continue to flail in anger at those who have what you so desperately crave and yet will not ever have: the love and admiration of people all around the world.

My dear, 'you can't get there from here' is the phrase that comes to mind when I think of your efforts compared to what you truly want.

I wish you could find faith in something besides skepcicism and bitterness towards those who teach faith based things. I wish you happiness and hope you can find it. But you can't have happiness or hope about life's biggest questions without some faith which you so clearly lack.

You don't need to find your own 'scam' as you said on your blog. You need to find a way to love and forgive or find someone who loves you.There is no lasting way to build yourself up by tearing others down Connie.

Read Debbie Ford's book. It will change your life. And it's not based on woo woo so you may find you can read it without hurling up a blog post.

Best of luck with that.

[Signed]

Well, I guess that just about says it all. Or maybe not. Later I might publish my responses to my correspondent's insights.

PS ~ The photo above was taken on a particularly memorable night a few years ago, when we were celebrating Ron's birthday. I chose it because of my rather devilish smile, which, I now know, is merely a cover-up for a troubled heart, a bitter rage, and a deep disappointment in life. And speaking of devilish, does it sort of look like a little horn is growing out of my head on the left side of the photo? Hmmm....

Addendum (24 March 2009): As I mentioned yesterday in the comments section, I did finally hear back from my correspondent, who said it was okay for me to publish his first email, though he was surprised I would want to. He did ask that I withhold his name, and I will honor that. I haven't yet had a chance to finish my private reply to him, but I did want to mention that he said he regrets the personal assumptions / attacks he made. Here is a small part of his second email:

Had I wanted to publicly debate the merits of your posts, I would have taken a different point by point approach, but I am clear that I don't want to contribute to your quest to tear people I admire down, nor do I really want to take the time to really get into this properly with you.

I regret the personal remarks and assumptions I made in my letter as that was me taking the low road. By not engaging me at that level you served me a timely reminder that the high road is where I want to focus my attention. For that I thank you.

By assuming your motivations and making judgements about what drives your perennial criticism I made the same error I was accusing you of and the irony of that amuses me.

He did, however, stand by his basic opinions about the people he says I tear down, as well as his suggestion that I read the Debbie Ford book. I'll probably have more about this soon (I'm on the run again today), but I wanted to be fair to him and let y'all know that he did have second thoughts about the ad hominem stuff.

On hurricanes, the Universe, fan mail, and a song

Wow, it's September already. It's been a busy few days and now I'm getting ready to retire to the living room and watch the Republican debacle, but I thought I'd share a few snippets first.

Farces of nature
Hurricane Gustav has come and mostly gone, and fortunately didn't decimate New Orleans, although he was responsible for nearly a hundred deaths in the Caribbean. I am sure that the Hurricane Whisperer herself, Phoenix/Spirit Diva, aka Lynn Marks, who has claimed to be successful in calming numerous 'canes, will soon be taking credit for helping to talk Gustav out of being more awful than he was. Phoenix/SD led a telephone meditation for this very purpose a few nights ago; I was invited to join but had other plans. Anyway, I'm looking forward to reading the message Phoenix channeled from Gustav. As of now, her most recent channeling is from Hurricane Dolly, whom I mentioned here a couple of weeks ago. Here's part of what Dolly had to tell us:

Peace is your birthright.
Peace is the fertile soil for love to spring forth.
Everything has its natural life cycle.
Me, you and even those levies [sic] in Texas
As they were in New Orleans.

I can't wait to hear the words of love and wisdom from Gustav.

All this talk of hurricane taming puts me in mind of an excellent suggestion that my new pal Mojo shared in her comment to one of my recent posts. In response to my breaking the news that the sun is going to explode next July unless a large enough group of like-minded folks get together and stop it, Mojo suggested this:

Start a movement to get everyone together to think Good Thoughts and "attract" the sun into NOT blowing up next July. Sort of like that hurricane lady, only instead of calming tropical storms you can calm stellar explosions.

You can also take a page from Blair Warren [his classic "Mr. Amazing's Magic Rocks"] and sell magic sun-explosion-preventing rocks... Thus keeping with the fine self-help tradition of just ripping your schtick off from other people. Or as I prefer to call it, "standing on the shoulders of giants", or however that one goes. (It all just kind of mushes into one big vat o' poo after a while, don't it?)

I KNOW this will work, because I myself am the proud possessor of the world's first "make the sun rise every morning" rock. Every evening I meditate and praise my rock for doing such a good job, and sure enough the next morning it works again! And I'm open to joint ventures and affiliates, so long as I don't have to do any work...

The great thing about selling "keep the sun from exploding" rocks is, unlike those other SCAM rocks YOU can offer a money-back guarantee. "If the sun explodes at ANY TIME during your ownership of this rock, merely ship it back to us postage due (That's RIGHT! We are so confident of our rocks WE PAY THE SHIPPING!) and your money will be cheerfully refunded. No questions asked!"

Thanks to helpful readers such as Mojo, I am getting closer and closer to actually finding a good scam. Which seamlessly leads us into our next snippet...

Mr. Fire 'splains the workings of the Universe
If you've ever wondered how the Universe really works, you're in luck. I found this scientifical illustration on the site advertising Joe Vitale's new Romance Attractor "subliminal" CD set:

How the Universe Works

So y'all can forget all those stuffy astrophysicists and other "experts" with their real Ph.D.'s, and you can forget all of those episodes of Nova, and those books by the late Dr. Carl Sagan. All you really need to know about the Universe is that it is in direct communication with your unconscious mind, and vice-versa. The deal is, no matter what you consciously think, say or believe, the Universe bypasses all of that and goes straight for the part of you that is totally inaccessible – inaccessible, that is, unless you buy certain books/DVDs/subliminal products/coaching services, etc., which Mr. Fire just happens to sell.

If you don't shell out your money for these products and/or services, then your unconscious and the Universe will continue to be in cahoots against you. Your unconscious will talk about you behind your back, sending secret messages up to the Universe about you, giggling at your failures, telling jokes at your expense, and so on. And the Universe will say, "Wow, what an unworthy dweeb!" and it will keep on sending you things and people and events that you don't like, and/or failing to send you things and people and events that you do like. And you will have only yourself, or, rather, your unconscious, to blame.

If you do buy the helpful products and/or services, you have a chance of beating your unconscious into submission (otherwise known as "clearing") so that it only says nice things about you to the Universe, and the Universe is obliged to finally start rewarding you with things and people and events that make you happy.

The drawback is that since it's your unconscious, you'll never be completely aware of what's really going on there, so bad things might continue to happen to you, because your unconscious exists to sabotage you and will keep on doing so, unless you keep it thoroughly "cleared."

Fortunately there are always more products and/or services to buy, and you can just keep on buying and buying and buying until good things start happening in your life. Even then you will probably still need to keep on buying for the rest of your life in order to ensure that the good things keep happening. It's kind of like being an insulin-dependent diabetic, except you probably won't actually die if you don't continue to buy those scientistical selfish-help products; you'll just be unhappy for the rest of your life and wish you were dead. Or maybe a better analogy would be the one that Mark Victor Hansen so smugly used when putting Steve Salerno down on Anderson Cooper's show a few years back (and I'm paraphrasing here): you need to take a shower every day in order to stay clean and non-smelly, and you need to keep buying selfish-help crap frequently in order to stay selfishly helped.

And that's the way the Universe works.

PS added Saturday 6 September:
I got this in from Whirled Musings' resident poet, HHH, who is also an artist and, obviously, a man who understands how the Universe really works. Or at least the New-Wage/selfish-help Universe:

Another couple of fan letters
I received these kind words the other day, in response to a post I wrote in May of 2007 regarding up-and-coming hustledork Chris Howard (and some of his more clueless affiliates):

Anonymous said...

I agree with you…
You should never attend one of Chris Howard’s seminars.

You are far too negative and closed minded, plus very egotistical to attend anything that just may show you up as being self-centered and opinionated.

Carry on with your one eyed comments in your own little world in blogger land. Where you reign supreme and get your jollys off with pathetic comments from like minded closed minded people like you.

5:36 AM

Anonymous said...

oh how pathetic, you're the only one to gets to say what you want to say... any blog moderated is a waste of time reading or commenting on

5:37 AM

To which I replied:

Anon, you obviously feel very strongly about Mr. Howard, as evidenced by the fact that you felt compelled to write not once, but twice.

FYI, I will publish any comment that is not overtly profane or in some way actionable (i.e., libelous).

And no, moderating blogs is not a waste of time. If this blog weren't moderated, then the aforementioned profane or actionable comments would be automatically published, along with spam messages about online gambling and penis enlargers. We do try to stay on topic here. :-)

Anyway, it's obvious that my post strongly affected you. Believe me, I do understand that disillusionment is never easy, and I only hope you didn't shell out too much money on your hero.

I thought I'd do Anon a favor and bring this up to the front page.

Why do the chickens have human arms?
And finally, here is a plaintive little song to carry you into the weekend. I know, I know, it's not the weekend yet, but it will be before you know it. (Warning: if you are at all offended by use of the "f" word or by references to recreational drug use, do NOT follow this link.)

* * * * *

And that's it for now. I hope to soon have an update on the ongoing saga of the Blunder From Down Under, David Schirmer... plus a thoughtful and well-researched post about a serious social problem... and oh, so much more. So much to blog about, so little time to blog.

For now, I'm off to the living room to watch that big spectacle in Minnesota, and get in some quality yelling-at-the-TV time. Apparently Mitt Romney just finished telling everyone that liberals/Democrats are to blame for our government getting too big for its britches. I suggest you hop on over to Steve Salerno's blog for some engaging discussions about that carnival/soap opera we call an American presidential election.

Monday musings

Sensitivity warning: Today's post discusses some rather delicate matters.

I think I'll take a little time out from my busy schedule of scooping the New York Times, reporting on the Blunder From Down Under, exploring the wonders of nature here on The Ranch, and, oh, yeah, that thing called work. I think we're long overdue for another "snippets" post here.

Stinkin' thinkin'
SHAMblog's Steve Salerno facetiously named his post of today, "Just another misogynistic Monday." Actually he's not being misogynistic, just making some well-considered points about the double standards that are working in women's favor in our society these days.

If you want to see some real misogyny – or at least what has been interpreted by some feminists as a sort of veiled misogyny – take a look at a couple of ads that were in some old magazines I just happened to have lying around the house (click on the images for enlargement). Something about living in this retro ranch house has inspired me to unpack and rediscover the delights and insights hidden within the yellowing pages of these old periodicals (so to speak).

 

You may have previously seen a version of this first ad in an email that was going around the Net some time last year. Well, I have in my possession a copy of a magazine that actually contains one of these ads: the March 1956 issue of Successful Farming, to be exact. This is one of the gems I retrieved from the home of my late paternal grandmother. (As it happens, my grandparents on both sides were farmers, and both of my parents grew up on a farm, so I guess I'm just carrying on the family tradition...sort of, anyway...by residing on The Ranch.)

Flipping through the pages of this issue of Successful Farming is a not entirely pleasant trip back in time. Nestled among the tractor and fertilizer ads and the articles about the latest breakthroughs in adding stilbestrol (estrogen) and antibiotics to cattle and pig feed, there are numerous articles and ads targeted to Milady. She may have been a hearty farm wife who could slop the hogs with one hand and cook up three enormous meals a day in her country kitchen with the other, while helping six children with their homework and hand-sewing all of their school outfits (in short, a woman who had far more life skills than I'll ever have)... but she also, by golly, gave a hoot about internal daintiness. Even so, it couldn't have been the easiest thing to be fastidious about one's womanhood when one was busy tending to livestock and chasing kids and helping to run a farm.

Fortunately, there was Lysol liquid to come to the rescue. Not only was it a venerable household disinfectant, but it was also, apparently, just the thing for cleaning out more private "rooms." Matter of fact, Lysol had been a household name in feminine hygiene for years before that 1956 ad.

Ouch.

Flash forward thirteen years to 1969: the Summer of Love has come and gone, and free love and the Sexual Revolution are making their profound mark on society, thanks in large part to the Pill and, of course, to the hippies. In certain circles, the "natural look" is becoming more acceptable, although in some cases "natural" is code for "a little careless on the hygiene front." On the other hand, the "second wave" of feminism won't really hit for another year or so, and it will be quite a while before it makes any sort of dent in the "women's magazines." (Actually, a glance at many ads and articles today makes a pretty good case for the opinion that the feminist revolution completely bypassed Women's Mag Land.)

I'm looking now at the June 1969 issue of Ladies' Home Journal, which at that time was "The Magazine Women Believe In." I nabbed this one from my mom's house a few years ago. Actress Ali McGraw is featured on the cover as an example of "The Movies' New 'Natural' Woman." And I suppose she does look natural, comparatively speaking, in that her eyes aren't weighted down with the garish false lashes and blue eye shadow that were the fashion in those days, and her teeth are...gasp... a little crooked.

Flipping through the magazine, it seems clear that feminine daintiness is still an overriding concern, but a revolution has obviously taken place in the interim, as indicated by the headline on one ad devoted to the topic of down-there freshness: "Five years ago most women would have been too embarrassed to buy this product." This from an ad for a feminine deodorant spray called Feminique, by Intec Laboratories in New Jersey: "a product that would have made your grandmother faint and your mother blush." The copy went on to explain that now that "The Pill" had freed gals from worry, "The Spray" would "help make all that freedom worthwhile."

The real revolution, of course, had taken place among the marketers who came up with the idea of deodorants specifically for women's naughty bits. And not a moment too soon, what with women being so smelly and all. I never can remember if it was Dear Abby or her sis Ann Landers, but I recall that one of those sage pop-advice columnists wrote on more than one occasion: "Men should bathe once a day. Women can't bathe often enough." The good folks at Lysol had gotten wise to that fact decades previously, as had various makers of commercial douching products, but it took late-60s marketing whizzes to truly refine the art of feminine hygiene by introducing products for external daintiness. Feminique was but one of several such products advertised in that issue of LHJ; in my view, however, the award for Most Patronizing Copy easily goes to a similar offering called Pristeen.

So it was that in that eventful summer of 1969, while the hippies were doing their thing (Woodstock, of course, happened later that year), and some dudes were getting ready to walk on the Moon, and the ongoing war in Vietnam was dividing the US as nothing had in many years, our attractive, nice-to-be-with-girl was off in her own dreamy world – uncertain of many things, perhaps, in that time of turmoil, but completely confident that the most girl part of her was under control.

Of course it's stretching things a bit to say that any of the feminine-hygiene ads are indicative of misogyny. They are, more than anything else, examples of advertisers preying on the various insecurities of their prospective consumers, and in that respect are no different from ads for baldness cures or erectile-dysfunction remedies. For that matter, preying upon people's insecurities is how New-Wage and selfish-help hucksters attract their customers. I knew there was a way to tie old feminine hygiene ads in to the main themes of my blog.

Still, when one is in a certain kind of mood, it's hard to get past the overriding message that we gals are real stinkers.

 
Mail...I get mail!

Speaking of stinkin' thinkin', I occasionally get emails and blog comments from people who think my thinking stinks. F'rinstance, there was this one that came in recently (I have not edited the post for spelling, grammar, or punctuation, but I have softened the expletives):

I just came across your blog and pissed myself laughing, I mean what is it in someones life that is so so sad that you have to bitch about other people all the time. I don't know what this LOA or stuff is (and I can't be assed to find out!) but I cannot believe that ANYONE has that much time to spare in their lives that they can moan about a whole load of things that have nothing to do with them all the time. Your like the gossip of the internet. You remind me of 2 neighbours, who have such sad lives that they sit and make stuff up about everyone else. How bored must you be? Seriously now, as a grown up, don't you think this is childish? Maybe you could start a hobby? I do have better things to do with my time, but I thought that I would be nice and tell you how much of a loser you sound. Also, for the people who do read the books you moan about, this is the perfect place for them to come and find out about the new books and inside gossip about what they believe in. I bet they come here, check for new books and are off to amazon to buy them. So your selling the stuff for them, how daft is that? I am all for people having a say, but surely you need to have at least have looked into this and tired it all 100% to have formed such childish opinions. How can you have an opinion on something you know nothing about? Unless of course it is just a childish opinion built on sh-t. I have read you WHOLE blog and have gone from tears of tiredness cause I am so bored, or laughter because your so shallow!! Maybe you could do with some of those crazy books to help you get a life! George

Oddly enough, this comment came in response to a post that didn't contain my usual snarking. At the time, however, it was the top post on the page, so I suppose the person just wanted his comment to be noticed. Judging from the spelling conventions observed, I'm guessing the writer is a Brit or perhaps an Aussie. I'm also thinking that quite possibly he is a David Schirmer fan or family member (who is not being entirely truthful about not knowing what "this LOA stuff" is).An anonymous commenter responding to that same post wrote:

Maybe you should try using the LOA instead of moaning and going on about all that is wrong in your life. What you think about, you bring about!!

Wow, they sure told me, didn't they?

One of my favorite pieces of fan mail came in just last week in response to a post I'd written a year previously. The post was about some of the most inspiring MystiCouples at work in the world today, and the person who wrote to me took umbrage at my remarks about a cult leader in Sedona, Arizona named Gabriel of Urantia. (At one time he was Gabriel of Sedona, and before that he was Tony Delevin, but "Urantia" encompasses the entire planet, being a name for planet Earth, as revealed in a wackadoo New-Wage bible called The Urantia Book. I actually have a copy of that classic work, and have for many years. Can't say I've read it all, though.)

Anyhow, one of Gabriel's followers really took me to task, and once again, I've abandoned my day-job role as editor, except for my customary neutralization of expletives:

Well ms. schmid, You ask what do you think about me ,so I will give you some feed back. I think you are probably very confused about life and cosmic reality. It is a shame that you try to discredit people that you don't even know,you must be very angry or just self absorbed or possibly your upset with your own life. I can not be the judge of what determines your actions, but I must say you have put some bad information up about Gabriel and Niann. They are very special people and there only desire is to help the planet grow into a reality where sh-t talking is none excitant and mature and the only criticism is positive reinforcement which I am giving you write now. I could say you suck sh-t at being a write ,editor or book designer but that would not be constructive criticism it would just be rude ,kind of like what you said about Gabriel's singing. That's your opinion and some opinions should be kept to ones self. Did your mother ever tell you if you don't have anything nice to say then say nothing at all. God loves you but he don't like the sh-t you write about beautiful people. So Gabriel and Niann have my vote for the most beautiful balanced compliments I have ever had the privilege to serve in gods kingdom with ,not the mysticouple award. You should show them great respect and honor them for the beauty they pour out on this planet.

As you'll see if you follow the link above, I published the comment and replied to it. Yet the writer sent the identical comment again the next day, perhaps not understanding how Blogger's archiving system works. Just in case that writer is still stewing about my perceived failure to publish his letter, I am presenting it to you now on the main page.

This disgruntled soul isn't the first person to get after me about things I'd written about Gabriel; one of Gabe's cousins had previously challenged me on my blog, as did another follower via private email. The consensus seems to be that if nothing else, the opinion I expressed about Gabe's vocal limitations was very rude. Well, as we know, opinions are like you-know-whats, so don't take my word for it. Go here to sample Gabriel's singing for yourself.

Oh, those polygamists!
And speaking of cults... I'll wrap up this collection of snippets with another gem you may or may not have seen: the 2008 Texas Polygamist Wives Wall Calendar. Guys, I gotta warn ya: grab a towel before you click. This is even better than watching drunk college girls fake orgasms on YouTube.*

And that's it for now, Dear Ones. I'll be back soon with more news you probably can't use, but that, with any luck, will be a reasonably entertaining way to waste your time when you should be working.

* Okay, not better. But quieter, anyway.