Comments on: The “most gullible man in Cambridge”?

By: Julie near Chicago

Julie near Chicago — Mon, 05 Aug 2019 20:45:35 +0000

Hmph. Look at how many people voted for our last two illustrious con-men, Messrs. Clinton and Obama. Meanwhile, speaking of con-guys & -gals, I hope everybody has seen House of Games with Joe Montegna and Lindsay Crouse. Most interesting movie, and one on my not-too-short list of favorites.

By: Delilah

Delilah — Thu, 01 Aug 2019 14:34:19 +0000

I would bet $1000 Haider is the father of all of Shuman’s children. The fact that the courts have not ordered DNA tests after all this time is ridiculous. Hay is an idiot, not “gullible” to have gotten involved in all of this.

By: JHCorcoran

JHCorcoran — Tue, 30 Jul 2019 23:16:54 +0000

It reminds me of the movie “The Best Offer” starring Geoffrey Rush, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Best_Offer However, the con was much better in the movie.

By: Sharon W

Sharon W — Tue, 30 Jul 2019 18:18:26 +0000

Jane Alexander, a wealthy widow who was scammed, lost her home, and set up an organization to help families solve the murder of their loved ones. Her aunt was brutally killed by her con-artist boyfriend, for what would be her inheritance . I’ll never forget watching the documentary on this story. One of the most compelling parts was, rather than become a burden to her adult children (and it was their lost future inheritance from her that she most regretted) she got a job, lived in a one-bedroom loft and set up that agency and worked successfully with the police to pursue justice. About the book:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_Jane_(book)

By: Mike K

Mike K — Tue, 30 Jul 2019 15:57:30 +0000

I had won a million bucks but needed to send $2000 for “transaction” costs. I actually spent half an hour wondering if it was worth the risk.

I listed some furniture on Craig’s List, well known for scams. I guy offered the asking price and sent me a cashier’s check for more than the price. He wrote that rest was for “Transportation” and asked me to pay the “transporters” out of the excess. I went to a branch of that bank in Tucson and they told me it was a forgery.

A friend of mine was conned out of her house by a man who pretended to love her.
This happened to a woman I know, the ex-wife of a friend. She married this guy and after about two years he announced he had refinanced her house and was leaving. She had a hard time getting that fixed.

By: huxley

huxley — Tue, 30 Jul 2019 15:54:44 +0000

I am trans-mother. Hear me roar!

Tragically, transgender women with children often eschew the term “mother,” resigning themselves to society’s reduction of motherhood to reproductive organs. Or else they accept some hyphenated version of the term, placing themselves secondary to the person who carried and birthed their children, regardless of the living truth of their families. For many, though perhaps not all, I suspect that abjuring the language of motherhood is done reluctantly, as a result of social coercion. How dare they call themselves mothers when they possess neither ovaries nor birth canal?

I am a mother, and those with presuppositions to the contrary must lose them. I am the real, entire, and, in my case, only mother of my children. My motherhood is without hyphens, qualifications, or apologies, the injudicious prejudices of a blinkered society be damned. Such prejudices wound not only families with transgender mothers or other LGBTQ mothers. Even cisgender, heterosexual mothers who adopt, for example, face similar styles of questioning and are not considered their children’s “real” mothers. Alas, our supposedly advanced civilization continues to foreground the most ancient rites of flesh and blood.

–Mischa Haider
https://www.advocate.com/commentary/2016/9/13/i-am-trans-mother-deal-it

By: Fractal Rabbit

Fractal Rabbit — Tue, 30 Jul 2019 15:37:53 +0000

huxley said, “Unfortunately for him two of her other sons were criminals. They broke his legs and got back most of the money. I try not to like that ending.“

There ain’t nothing wrong with that ending. Years back it would have bothered me. A bit. Now I just smile.

By: huxley

huxley — Tue, 30 Jul 2019 15:29:49 +0000

I knew a guy whose mother was a Pentecostal Christian. She had sold a house and had a nice nest egg. She met a fast-talking smoothie at a church meeting who said his God-given mission was to help widows. Indeed, he helped himself to a substantial portion of her money.

Unfortunately for him two of her other sons were criminals. They broke his legs and got back most of the money. I try not to like that ending.

By: om

om — Tue, 30 Jul 2019 13:50:18 +0000

As Jordon Peterson has noted, every life has it’s tragedy and there is evil in the world, and there are some people out there who actively want and do to hurt others (Peterson said it much better). Hay found his own two evil bastards.

By: Sarah Rolph

Sarah Rolph — Tue, 30 Jul 2019 12:59:11 +0000

A friend of mine was conned out of her house by a man who pretended to love her. They had been a couple for at least a year before he took off with the money. I met him when I attended the surprise party he threw for her 40th birthday; I remember wondering why he didn’t realize she wouldn’t appreciate a surprise party. He didn’t study her quite well enough to figure that out, but he sure managed to get her to think she was important to him. She had a nice little house in a very nice town. The plan was that they were going to buy a new house together and then move in together and eventually get married. They found the house, and then he managed to get her to trust him to take care of all the details. They sold her house first, and then he took the check for the full amount to the bank, he said, to make the down payment on the new house, but instead he skipped town with all her money. Nobody could believe it. Her parents spent a fair amount of their own money tracking him down and trying to sue him or get him to face criminal charges but somehow he escaped all that. He must have gone to a different country. Eventually she learned that he had done it before! She ended up speaking on the phone to the other woman he had cheated out of her money, and apparently it was the same basic story. Oddly enough, it made her feel better to have that conversation. Because as bad as it is to lose a whole lot of money, being fooled in this way is much worse emotionally. You wonder how you could possibly have missed the signs, feel ashamed at having been so desperately needy, etc. That someone else had fallen for the same con made her feel a bit less stupid and crazy. She was finally able to see the situation for what it was and blame the perpetrator for his crime.