A response to "Respect us, don't diss us"- and some other stuff

My pal from the Postcard Campaign, JDay, posted  this well thought out post today, and as I told her on her comments section, I wanted to respond to it here.  So go read that real quick, and then come back here.

Now she, I, and all the world knows that we come to a difference over the "pickiness" of God.  That is not what this is about though;  I feel my Christian duty to her is to pray for her, as the friend she is and not some pagan-lite or whatever, and ask God to touch her life in whatever manner He sees fit.  End of that end of the conversation.

Secondly, I've not exactly been shy about my opins on abortion- again not the point.  Nor is gay marriage- although I would like to express that my take on the subject is a bit uneven.  At my point in my faith, I find the sin reprehensible.  I sorrow that our society has come this far down the road.  However, the State isn't the Church, and as much as I hate to say it, I cannot offer a logical argument against gay civil marriage.  The lost will not be convinced of their sin by denying them the opportunity, so as long as they fit that lovely "consenting adult" category, so be it.  Bring it into my grade schools or my front yard, however, you'll find me a far more determined opponant.  But, again, not the point.

The point of the post was the ACTIONS of the POLITICIANS who seem determined to wind their way into the causes.  And here, I have two, hand-in-hand opinions.  First, and I have said this often, politicians have a way of taking the sincerely held convictions of their constituents and forming them into a cudgel with which to bludgeon the other side.  Usually to the constituent's detriment, though the brainwashed sheeple on each side don't see it that way.

Second, I had to go out and pray about this post.  Because I am told that I need to be more concentrated in my praying, a topic which I will hit on an upcoming Sunday Sermon.  And in that praying, it cmae to me that we do need a new kind of politician.  Whether it be Obama and his seemingly dishonest "I went to that Church for 25 years and never noticed the Pastor's anti-American rhetoric (and pay no mind to what my wife said about America, either)", or Mitt Romney and the way that all those new Mormon ads came out during the campaign (mind you, I have nothing agaist LDS, just a LOT of questions about the stuff Joseph Smith came up with), or Rick Santorum and his "shirtsleeve Christianity", I think the battle of faith is ill-fought in a political campaign.  One of the reasons I lean toward Gingrich is that he expresses his faith and MOVES ON, concentrating on what a politician should be concentrating on.

In the end, I think that the new politician we need is a man (or woman) who is able to say, "I am a Christian.  I'm not going to campaign on it, but you will see it by my actions."  And then, get on with the things we hire a politician for.


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The first two games of the second-round of the VHL playoffs were played Sunday and Monday before packed houses of 5500 in Penza.  Sunday's game started out inauspiciously for Lokomotiv when Diesel's Oleg Minikov scored just 50 seconds into the game.  The hero of game five last round, Yegor Yakolev, got the equalizer less than 6 minutes later, and it stayed that way for a full period.  Petr Khokhryakov scored at 6 minutes of the second for Diesel. 

Then it was the Dmitry Maltsev show.  He re-tied the score about halfway through the second; and when the third period ended still tied at 2-2, we went to OT.  And again it was Maltsev, only 32 seconds in, and Lokomotiv had a 3-2 win.

The second game was a similar story.  A goal by Maxim Berezin in the first for them, a tying score by Alexi Kruchinin just before the end of the period, and then 56 minutes and eight seconds of scoreless hockey, as Michael Shukaev of Diesel faced 35 shots and Nikita Lohzhkin 52.  Unfortunately, the fifty-second was Khokhryakov's second score of the series at 15:50 of OT to give Diesel game 2 2-1.  Next match is Thursday at home.

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Now, some fun with scammers.  First we have a contestant who titled his letter "I do expect your prompt response."  Do you, now?  Anyway, Mr. Benjamin Darbah goes on to say, "... our client died 2008 leaving behind Capital amount (US$18.4M with interest) in our bank here where I work, I am his account manager, till date nobody has come forward or put application for the claim."  Clue one Benjy- does "our client" have a NAME? "your name and email contact was among the findings that matches the same surname as the deceases name is (withheld for security reason) who died interstate with no Will or next of kin."  Oh, Okay.  But what do you want from me, then?

A. Your complete names.

B. Your address.
C. Private telephone number.
D. any kind of id card.
E. occupation.

Guess what?  I'm withholding it for security reasons.

Second contestant? "Barr ( I assume short for Barrister, since it usually is) Morgan".  He is swiftly to the point:
"DO YOU NEED URGENT LOAN CONTACT US NOW FOR MORE DETAILS "

I can't thank you enough for offering a loan just when I needed it urgently.

Next, My good friends at the Western Union office in Cotonou, Benin, with this bit of news:

"INFORMATION REACHING US FROM OUR CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS NOW, STATES THAT YOU ONLY HAVE 48HOURS TO EFFECT PAYMENT FOR THE ACTIVATION OF YOUR MTCN TO ENABLE YOU CASH UP YOUR FIRST $7,000:00 FROM YOUR TOTAL (FUND) SINCE YOU ARE FINDING IT DIFFICULT TO MAKE THIS PAYMENT WE HAVE DECIDED THAT YOU ARE TO GO AHEAD AND PAY WHATEVER YOU HAVE FOR THE ACTIVATION FEE SINCE YOU ARE NOT ABLE TO COME UP WITH THE REQUIRED SUM..."

Real princes, there.  Bonus:  Contact person- Dr. John Peter.  Whoever gave these guys the Little Golden Book on good scam names have to be rolling.  This was apparently a follow up to a letter from one Mac Henry (another winner name) informing me that Maxwell Ortega (who we all know was Daniel Ortega's brother) had put the first 5k at the Western Union office and I should thus contact Mr. Ralph Atohs.  Clue #2, cut down the number of names you want me to remember.

Next we have the confusing Mr. Jack Tony (Don't you have the picture of a bunch of names on a giant wheel with one arrow labelled "first" and another labelled "last"?):
Dear Customer!!!

We have been waiting for you to contact us for your Confirmable Package that
is registered with us for shipping to your residential Location. We had
thought that your sender gave you our contact Details. It may interest you
to know that a letter is also added to Your package.We understand that the
content of your package itself is a Bank Draft worth of $800,000.00 USD,
FedEx does not ship money in

CASH or in CHEQUES but Bank Drafts are shippable. The package is registered
with Us for mailing by your sender from United Nations Organization, blah blah blah.

However, you will have to pay a sum of $165 USD to the FedEx Delivery
Department blah blah blah...

Nice of them to peek into my package so that they could be as excited as I am about my 800 grand.

I do have another regular scam, but I'm running out of steam.  So let me leave you with this one from "Comcast Team":

Dear Comcast Customer l.easterday@comcast.net,

Today, 19 March.2012, your security is top priority at Comcast Team!

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In order to maintain high security, the administrators have been assigned with the task to manually identify our clients.
To link your account to our new update you just need to Relogin your account using the secure link bellow.
The link will redirect you to our update login page.
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Simply login your account and the account will automaticly be updated.
Click here to confirm&update your account.

Thank you for your cooperation.


Sincerely,
Comcast Team.
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I have to admit, I didn't see the little "ghost nonsense in between paragraphs" until I copied it.  I did however reply to the "Comcast Team"- SOUNDS LIKE BS TO ME...