I woke up this morning and checked my email, only to discover that not only had someone named Robert Taber come across my web site, but had also taken the time to email:

while this political junkie was surfing all night, i happened on your "blog." wow. what a surprise a white straight, male, who's not only a conservative but in love with every aspect of their life and have the balls to think we give a s*** about the pictures of you or your house.......you are so far out of touch, thank you for giving us W; we'll return the favor with 8 years of O'Bama.....are there any conservative blogs that are actually updated and not all about "THE BLOGGER"?
the country -- deeply divided and now so regretful -- pushed us not only to the far right but to the crimial facist state that we have.......the swing back will hurt "chip" and perhaps you'll start paying attention to something other than all that is about "chip".
enjoy the next 8 years 😛
tons of love,
robert

Well, my apologies to Robert. You see, I actually have to get up in the morning and go to work, and don't have time to be "surfing all night", and have only limited time to spend blogging. I do not apologize, however, that my family is the most important part of my life. And while you, Robert, might not care to see pictures of my daughter or of our house, our family all over the country does.

And Robert, rather than taking drive-by shots at bloggers, perhaps you should start blogging on your own blog. (You apparently have the time to do.)

Oh, and one final thought, Robert: for someone who is a self-proclaimed homosexual, with strongly held beliefs on the issue of bigotry, you appear to hold a rather prejudiced (dare I say "bigoted"?) opinion of me, without having ever met me and based solely upon my race, sexual orientation, gender, and political views.

Tolerant, indeed.

This evening my humble blog reached an important milestone: a received my very first hate mail.

Using the pseudonym "Elroy Spankster", someone undoubtedly from the Party of Tolerance sent the following [expletives edited]:

For the love of God give it a rest. If he/she wanted you two to be married it would have already happened. Claire McCaskill rocks and your hero Georgy W. sucks Hillary [male reproductive appendage]. ...now [perform fellatio on] that you disgraceful republican [male homosexual].

(I guess I struck a nerve of some sort with ol' Elroy...)

Apparently, "Elroy Spankster" wanted this missive to remain anonymous, as the email address given was an obvious fake; however, a simple google search reveals his true email address to be spankinelroy@charter.net (and, for the curious, he is a technician from St. Louis, and his Yahoo ID is spankinelroy).

I particularly like the "girls rule, boys drool" argumentation method in the Claire McCaskill/George W. Bush reference. And while I'm sure that, to those of his liberal persuasion, "republican" and "disgraceful" are redundant, Elroy should know that using a slang term for a homosexual male in a disparaging manner (in this case, associated with either "disgraceful" or "republican" - my apologies, Log Cabin Republicans) is considered "intolerant", and unacceptable.

Overall, as far as hate mail goes, this one is not a particularly good example. It is neither intelligent nor creative, although it does include the obligatory ad hominem and hypocrisy. Maybe it's the best "Elroy" has to offer, but I consider it a sub-par performance. Better luck next time!