I don't know. I've heard a lot of people saying no native English speaker would speak in this manner- but I frequently do. Every time I write a letter, in fact. I wrote a columnist the other day (he was deserving a nasty gram) and that's just how I started it- "Dear Butthole Writer"... Also used frequently- "Dear Congressman" and "Dear Editor".
Also, I am a native English speaker and I didn't know it was bad to call a policeman a policeman. Have Americans quit using the words actor and actress as well? (just curious). Odd that.
The way I see it, the guy didn't want to write a holiday postcard on his Tarot thingy. He was brief and to the point. I can well imagine he feels like God when he is deciding whether or not to take somebody out of this existence or not. The victim doesn't even know. The killer sits distant, deciding in an instant who gets to continue living and who will die. From his perspective it must be an incredibly powerful feeling. I have heard people in my life use that expression "I am God" or "I am a God" in relation to totatlly innocuous things- like running the table in a pool game. I find the message sinister in this case- given the circumstances, but there is just not enough there to assume it is a foreigner. The guy talks like I do and I'm an American.
On the other hand, the anthrax letter- "We have this anthrax"- it did sound a bit stilted and would point to a foreigner- but not necessarily so- it could've been a personal joke among the conspirators or an expression one of the perps heard elsewhere and decided to use. At any rate- I think before we just cross "home grown nut" off the list (and potentially let the real perp run free as a result) we need to be really certain.
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Check out the Google result for "Dear Mr. Policeman" + "I am God":
The whole page is quite interesting, but go to the 2 highlighted parts, both further down the thread. I think the perps are too smart to leave the police a message with stuff they wrote on the internet, so I'd assume the perps have been lurking on that site and got the idea for their message from the posts . They could be trying to set them up too...
Excerpts:
**SNIP**
I've said all along "Dear Mr. Policeman: I know where you live, where your wife shops and where your kids go to school. Have a nice day!" ......
Do ya'll remember Detective Mark Fuhrman during the OJ Simpson trial? (He's the one who lied about saying the "N" word)...Remember what he said? "Out there I AM God!".... ALL cops think alike. Those who don't, quit.....
**SNIP**
The first letter is the letter that started the whole thing.
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Once again, it doesn't rule out ME, but the message AS IT WAS LEAKED TO US is NOT why we should suspect they're foreigners...