There’s an old German cabaret song called “Life’s a Swindle.” 

Papa swindles, Mama swindles, Grandmama’s a lying thief. We’re perfectly shameless, but we’re blameless, after all, it’s our belief: nowadays the world is rotten, honesty has been forgotten; fall in love, but after kissing check your purse to see what’s missing.

Life’s a swindle, yes it’s all a swindle, so get what you can from your fellow man.

I didn’t intend to spend the day today trying to figure out what the shitbird who hacked my website last night has done to it.

This pushes the limits of my patience and my skill set. If it doesn’t have a select-and-click or plug-and-play or websites-for-dummies-type fix, I’m pretty hopeless. I don’t read code. And although everything appears to be  uncompromised, I’m not likely to know until something blows up.

So next I’m going to have to invest in some kind of website security software to keep these people’s fingers out of my small-potatoes book links and excerpts and archives, which makes me feel just a little uncharitable towards the kind of person who does this kind of thing. (As in, they should roast eternally in a hell of their own making.)

I mean, seriously, why should we have to navigate–every bloody day!–people we’ve never met (and don’t want to meet!) trying to scam, phish, hack, embezzle, and find myriad other underhanded ways to make life miserable? Thank you, internet. Now someone half-way around the world can stick his hands in my pockets and try to nick my wallet.

And yet, there are still kind, honest, delightful humans beings out there… who shouldn’t be victims. Not only of hackers and scammers, but of my own corrosive attitude. 

So I hope you’re one of those kind, honest, delightful people, and that this holiday season you encounter other people like you, and no one tries to scam you, and that you’ll do something kind and thoughtful for someone else. Or, at least, show them the respect for their dignity that everyone deserves.

And if you’re one of those who thinks life’s a swindle, I hope your schemes blow up in your miserable face.

Have a nice day.