Pakistan in Flames

What a powder keg! Benazir Bhutto, the only woman ever to be elected prime-minister of a Muslim country and the leader of Pakistan's largest political party, was brutally murdered today. Is there anyone who still downplays the seriousness of the terrorist threat the whole world faces after a day like today? There is no reasoning or negotiating with people whose main weapon is mass murder on a global scale.

Say it With Gusto: MERRY CHRISTMAS!

He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not

Socialist gadfly Gary Mullen-Schultz, whose Sith name is Darth Pompous, has opened up his wallet and made "a generous gift donation" to Wellstone Action! in my honor.



I laughed out loud when I got the notification from Wellstone Action! member services above. At least Mr. Mullen-Schultz didn't use taxpayer money to "honor" me, unless he can get a tax deduction of some kind. I wouldn't put it past him.

If his faulty thinking is as predictable as it's always been, Mr. Mullen-Schultz meant the gift as one of his childish insults. Actually, I don't take it that way. Senator Paul Wellstone and his wife Sheila may have have been misguided in their liberal zeal, but at least they were intellectually honest and consistent. I can respect that. Unlike Mr. Mullen-Schultz and his fellow left-of-center ideologues, the Wellstones had the moral backbone to stand by and fight for their convictions came Hell or high water.

The truth is, Mr. Mullen-Schultz can't stop thinking about me (Not that there is anything wrong with that). The man is drawn to me like a moth to the flame. I ask again, should I be flattered or frightened?

If any other liberal cyber-stalkers out there want to honor me with their money, the Salvation Army is the organization I favor to receive your not-so-hard-earned cash. This being a free country and all, you are at liberty to donate your money to the Sierra Club, PETA, the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement or the Kucinich campaign in my honor if you want.

Merry Christmas to all, particularly Gary Mullen-Schultz. May he find emotional peace and mental health in the coming year.

Bill and Hillary: Endless Soap Opera?

Maureen Dowd, a.k.a. "The Snake," seems to think so. According to her, Bill and Hillary are playing their usual little game:

Let’s create chaos and then get out of it together. You ride to my rescue or I ride to yours. We come within an inch of dying and then recapture the day by the skin of our teeth. While we’re killing ourselves, we blame everyone else. We’ll be heroes.

It sounds right. Bill and Hillary haven't matured either personally or politically in any way since their fateful, morally corrupt Arkansas days.

When her cynicism is not in full bloom, Dowd can ask insightful questions. For example:

Is Bill a loyal spouse or a subconscious saboteur?

Her tentative answer further down the piece is more precise than she might think:

Maybe the Boy Who Can’t Help Himself is simply engaging in his usual patterns of humiliating Hillary and lighting an exploding cigar when things are going well.

If Hillary's candidacy is, as Dowd suggests, "a plebiscite on the '90s," her campaign is certainly doomed.

Mullen-Schultz's "Revenge"

It's been over a year since Gary Mullen-Schultz lost his electoral bid for a school board seat. He hasn't gotten over it, however, and blames yours truly for his humiliating defeat. I mean, this guy had the election bagged until the Rochester Post-Bulletin editorial board endorsed Fred Daly, the incumbent and Mr. Mullen-Schultz's opponent. As a result, Daly won by a very respectable margin. I believe Fred would have won regardless, but the P-B endorsement sure didn't hurt. Here are the official results:

Rochester School Board Dir. 5
	61 of 61 Precincts (100%)
	Fred Daly		19,261	55%
	Gary Mullen-Schultz		15,653	45%

Mr. Mullen-Schultz's supersized ego must have taken quite a blow.

Because I exercised my free speech rights to express my thoughts on the school board election then, I seem to have become the object of Mr. Mullen-Schultz's misplaced resentment. A good friend alerted me to the fact that Mr. Mullen-Schultz has started an anti-Othelmo blog.

I was quite amused by it at first. I mean, Mr. Mullen-Schultz is a Consulting IT Specialist at the International Technical Support Organization, IBM Rochester Center. That means that he is supposedly very smart. You would think Mr. Mullen-Schultz has better, more important and time-consuming things to do - like, say continue to develop and improve Blue Gene, IBM's super duper über computer - than harass a lowly academic advisor and occasional blogger. But Mr. Mullen-Schultz has carved up some time out of his busy schedule and dedicated it to me.

Bear with me as I give you a brief history of our "relationship," if you want to call it that. Mr. Mullen-Schultz used to write a very liberal and very pompous column for the Rochester Post-Bulletin. I often took the time to respond to it either online or through a letter to the editor. That never sat well with him. Liberals purport to be open-minded and tolerant of opposing points of view. Not true, as evidenced by the tenor of his testy reactions to my challenges of his faulty arguments.

I knew who Mr. Mullen-Schultz was by sight. I had seen him at a few school board meetings. That was when he was eying Fred Daly's seat. After his defeat, I never saw Mr. Mullen-Schultz at another school board meeting. He never seemed pleased to see me. I often wondered why.

Finally one evening, Mr. Mullen-Schultz could not contain himself any longer. During a break at a candidate's forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters, he talked at me as I made my way to another room. "Othelmo, Gary Mullen-Schultz. You have been very rude to me online," he said. I was surprised because (1) I didn't expect him to ever condescend to talk to me, (2) I had never heard his voice and (3) I thought it would be more grave and masculine. I managed to say that I objected to his points of view, not to him personally but he wouldn't hear it. After allowing him a brief rant, I said I was sorry he felt the way he did and excused myself.

That was the last time I saw Mr. Mullen-Schultz before the 2006 election. And what a massacre that was. At the time, I noted here that the only local silver linings in the election results were the defeat of Amy Blenker's reelection bid for Rochester City Council and Gary Mullen-Schultz's for school board.

I didn't think about Gary Mullen-Schultz at all after the election until Fred Daly stopped by to retrieve his lawn sign about a week later. I congratulated Fred on his reelection and he told me that Mr. Mullen-Schultz had not yet extended his congratulations as it is the custom in civilized societies. Pitiful.

I didn't think about Mr. Mullen-Schultz again until I saw him at the Public Library reception for Dr. Romain Dallemand, our new School Superintendent. Mr. Mullen-Schultz didn't look as clean cut as he did when he ran for office about a year before. His hair was longer and he was wearing very casual clothes - shorts and a polo shirt, I believe. Mr. Mullen-Schultz sprang back to life after I wrote a letter to the P-B editor regarding the SCHIP legislation. His pompous response was as insipid and void of intellectual honesty as usual. I was glad to see him back in the game, however.

Mr. Mullen-Schultz was kind enough to inform me himself of his new hobby - trashing me - via an email which subject line read, "Enjoy!" The following is a record of our email exchange since then. Follow along and laugh with me. Should I be flattered or frightened? You be the judge.

Gary <glms@yahoo.com> wrote:

http://locustofevil.blogspot.com/

Sincerely, Gary


Othelmo da Silva wrote:

Mr. Mullen-Schultz,

You are, as usual, a day late and a dollar short. I was made aware of your website yesterday.

Have you considered anger management? I ask the question sincerely. Or at least consider directing your vitriol toward the editorial board of the Rochester Post-Bulletin. They are the ones who objected to your candidacy for the school board. It was their reasonable arguments regarding a conflict of interest if you were elected to the school board while your wife was a teacher in the district that sank your candidacy rather than anything I may have said on a blog that is read by a couple dozen people. Certainly the readership of the Post-Bulletin is greater than that. Besides, Fred Daly is a decent and hard-working school board member. He possesses what I believe is the hallmark of leadership: humility. I know you think very highly of yourself, but pride does come before a hard fall. Remember that.

I will have you know that my "banishment" from the comments feature of the P-B Online as well as the wise counsel of level headed older friends of mine have tempered my zeal. You will notice that I endeavor not to be critical of people and reserve my incisive commentary for the opinions they express. I regret that I do not receive the same consideration from you and your friends. Moreover, one cannot have a thin skin if he wishes to express his views honestly and forthrightly. But surely you know that. Please know that I am a better man now.

You seem to be a bright and accomplished individual. You have the potential to contribute to the Rochester community in many productive ways. It would sadden me to see you allow yourself to be consumed by the pettiness, resentment, jealousy and anger you express on your blog.

Please trust me when I say that I have gone for months without thinking about you. At all. I was quite relieved to see your letter to the editor in response to my own comments on the SCHIP legislation. I rather thought you had suffered an irreversible nervous breakdown after your humiliating electoral defeat last year. I am glad you are up and at it again. If I have had anything to do with your recovery, I am thankful for it.

That is all. Please do not expect to hear from me ever again. Good luck with your blog. You are, of course, always welcome to peruse mine. Please check out my most recent entry. It is a picture of Senator Hillary Clinton as she must look like on the inside and a few pithy comments from yours truly.

Finally, give my best to your wife Pam. We met years ago as students at Winona State University. We had at least one special education class together. You certainly heard stories about Frank Rocco, our teacher then, from her. Pam is a charming, witty, driven and intelligent woman. You are fortunate to be married to her.

Hoping that you will let go of your pain,

Your unwilling nemesis,

Othelmo da Silva

Gary <glms@yahoo.com> wrote:

Mr. da Silva:

Thanks for your note. Words of advice on humility and anger management coming from you are really, really rich.

I sincerely hope that you have truly changed – but based on your recent posts to the PB and to your blog, I have my doubts. You seem to harbor a strong misogynist bent (your “ugly” pictures of “Hitlery” and Pelosi). Perhaps that’s just a remnant of your Brazilian upbringing – but I suspect something more deeply ingrained and pervasive. In addition, there are simply too many glimpses of the “old” Othelmo in your note to me – “witty” sarcasm cloaked in feigned concern. The caged animal can’t help but snarl, no matter how innocent he may pretend to be.

Don’t be overly worried about my mental state – it’s just fine. I just felt it was time to shine a light on the religious bigotry and hatred displayed by you and your friends. If there is anything factually inaccurate in my posting, by all means let me know. As I wrote, I’m truly interested to see how you all would react to a Romney candidacy. It would undoubtedly be difficult for you personally to embrace a candidate whose religion calls yours an “abomination.”

Yes, Pam remembered you. Like many others I’ve met who knew or know you, she too was shocked at the depths of your nastiness as displayed on your blog. Speaking of college, I’m curious – did you completely pay your own way through college, or did you take advantage of financial assistance? Given the nationwide and local desire to hire minority teachers, I imagine you had a decent amount of aid available to you. You undoubtedly, on principle, refused it all.

Sincerely, Gary

Othelmo da Silva wrote:

Merry Christmas.

Good bye. Forever.

Othelmo



Mr. Mullen-Schultz used to trash me to his running companions and co-workers, some of whom I know and who asked me what the deal was. Apparently, whenever I responded to his columns online, Mr. Mullen-Schultz would say that he was "daSilvaded." How childish!

I think it's laughable how hypersensitive liberals pretend to be regarding race and ethnicity, but think nothing about perpetuating stereotypes themselves. Notice that Mr. Mullen-Schultz' attributes my alleged misogynism to my Brazilian upbringing (Since he is ignorant of so many things, I will kindly assume that Mr. Mullen-Schultz does not know that I am a naturalized American citizen either). Mr. Mullen-Schultz seems to be saying that all Brazilians are misogynists. That looks like prejudice to me. Could it be that such an enlightened liberal mind would harbor such ignorant stereotypes? By the way, I like women so much that I married one of them.

Speaking of prejudice, have you notice that few things irritate liberals more than a Black conservative? Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, economist Thomas Sowell, former University of California Regent Ward Connerly, former Secretary of Education Rod Paige, former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland Michael Steele, Supreme Court associate justice Clarence Thomas among a legion of others, are an open and consistent target of liberal derision. It is as if the only "real" Blacks are the ones who still bow at the altar of the liberal Democratic elite. "Clean" and "articulate" (a reference to Senator Joe Biden's "complimentary" words toward Senator Barack Obama) Blacks who neither parrot nor say "Amen" to said elites are viewed as traitors to the cause. How condescending!

Trust me, I have seen more than my fair share of kids throwing temper tantrums before. Mr. Mullen-Schultz's rival them all, however. Thank Gore for spam filter. My system will mercifully spare me Mr. Mullen-Schultz's xenophobic and prejudiced rants from now on. Hopefully he will save his egocentric bile for his childish blog. Feel free to visit it and leave your comments there.

I wouldn't normally give this non-issue the time of day. It is disturbing, however, to be the focus of someone's misguided obsession. It feels like I am being cyber-stalked, in a way. You've heard about people who stalk celebrities, former spouses, teachers, students, peers, co-workers, perfect strangers and so on. At first they become obsessed with the person, then they start writing about them, then to them. Before you know it, they start calling then show up at their door. I have no idea what Mr. Mullen-Schultz's mental state is but decided to create a record just in case. The more people know about it, the better. I have even considered contacting the police to express my concerns. Maybe I should do it.

Even otherwise respectable and professional people snap on occasion. Sometimes it's the people you least expect. I won't be taking any chances.

It doesn't look good for Hillary right now

The picture above, lifted from today's Drudge Report, tells the story. Hillary is down. The aura of invincibility (or was it just heavy makeup?) is gone. Is Hillary's run for the White House over before it began? Let's hope so. America deserves better than another President Clinton.