Crowd turns out for Tax Day Tea Party

At Asheville’s version of the Tax Day Tea Party, they chanted. They cheered. They phoned the White House. And above all, the 500-plus protesters pledged to pull America back from the precipice of out-of-control taxation, spending and insurmountable debt.

Similar protests were held around the country and across Western North Carolina, including Sylva, Franklin and Waynesville. The tea parties — held on the deadline day to file federal income taxes — were promoted by the conservative nonprofit advocacy organization FreedomWorks based in Washington and headed up by former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey, who now works as a lobbyist. The gatherings were also touted by conservative commentators and bloggers, who hit a nerve with people angry and worried over an economy in recession and the response in government spending.

Filling the steps of the Buncombe County Courthouse Wednesday evening, the group cheered on speakers who talked about state sovereignty, stopping wasteful government spending, reining in an escalating national debt and protecting the U.S. Constitution. A number of people carried handmade signs with messages such as “Stop Obam-unism + Over-taxation” and “Taxed Enough Already.” Some came dressed as patriots. One woman was decked out as Lady Liberty.

Speakers included Bernard Carman, the former head of the local Libertarian Party; a retiree; a small business owner; Paul Perdue, an unsuccessful Republican candidate for a state House seat in Buncombe County last year; and organizer Erika Franzi, a political activist and mother of four in Weaverville.

At one point, a speaker asked everyone to pull out their cell phone and call the White House, as well as Rep. Heath Shuler, to register their displeasure with government spending. Franzi urged the crowd to keep up their activism by getting involved in local elections, contacting their elected officials and keeping the energy of the protest alive. Franzi said she’s planning another rally for July Fourth.

Click here to see a photo gallery of the event.

— Jason Sandford, multimedia editor

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262 thoughts on “Crowd turns out for Tax Day Tea Party

  1. Todd

    So we are protesting because the top 1% does not want to pay their fair share of the taxes?

    Let’s remember that if you are making less than 250K, your taxes went down.

  2. chops

    We should have done this during Bush’s term, during which he increased spending by 50%. (that’s a TRILLION dollars!!!)

    2002 Federal Budget: $2.0 Trillion
    2009 Federal Budget: $3.1 Trillion

    p.s. – The cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan… now approaching one trillion dollars. hmmmm.

  3. Anne Craig

    Gosh, where were these folks when Bush was getting us into a military invasion of Iraq costing at least 10 Billion dollars a month, handing out no bid contracts to corporations who then ‘lost’ a portion of the money or didn’t do the work they were supposed to, lowered taxes on the richest of the rich, rang up a debt and deficit of phenomenal proportions, violated the Constitution by spying on citizens, etc. Now, these people are concerned about their country? I can’t help but think they are pawns of people who don’t have their interests at heart. And, 500 of them. Geesh!

  4. Jim Donato

    These people are insane. My taxes went way down this year and my income increased moderately. It must be real sweeeeet for the RNC to have such willing tools to make life easier for the elite class who don’t want to pay their share of the public commons they use far more than the middle class.

  5. “Gosh, where were these folks when Bush was getting us into a military invasion of Iraq”

    Gosh, the views I hold now are the same ones I held eight years ago.

    Anything else?

  6. Piffy!

    Anything else?

    yes.

    why werent there any “tea parties” during in the past decade?

  7. Matt Howard

    While you butt heads with alot of people Tim, I credit you with being more consistent in your principles than what passes for the conservative mainstream.

    Dosent change the fact that a whole lot of people wanted a pointless war that was fought on credit. Iraq is part ( I admit only part ) of why we are in the current financial mess.

    Many people have compared the war on terror to WW2, but back then americans seemed willing to sacrifice to get through the war and do what needed to be done.

    Not seeing that today. Obviously a broad description dosent cover everyone in a crowd, but I think many of the teabaggers are hypocrates.

  8. nuvue

    I also have the same views, why the %$#&* did we go into Iraq???
    I don’t mind paying my fair share of taxes, but hate to see the $ go to big banks that got us into this debacle, and I hate my dough going into killing Iraqis. I do think the Afgan taliban ousting is far more important, hate the invasion of privacy and utter disreguard for the Constitution the so called “Patriot Act” creates.
    I do love cruising on the Interstates with my propped up oil price, and paying for that. I do love the fact we have good education, and think it should be better with my tax dollar. All in all I love the US, and after visiting many other countries would rather be here than anywhere else. The fact that we can hit the streets and protest anything is amazing…..

  9. gm.shoemaker

    My political views don’t change depending on which party is dominant at any given time.

    I was opposed to GWB when he lied us into the occupation of Iraq (I did think getting bin Laden in Afghanistan was a good idea, but not the “nation building” fiasco in Kabul.) and I am opposed to Obama continuing the occupation of Iraq and expanding the war Afghanistan.

    My question to those who were not at the Asheville Tea Party, why weren’t you there?

    Are you giving Obama “a pass” on the wars, excessive spending, the staggering debt, continuing renditions and torture, stepping up surveillance of Americans and not prosecuting the war crimes?

  10. for everyone’s info, we HAVE been holding “tax day tea parties”, and other related events, for a very long time. they just weren’t always called “tea parties”.

    however, Ron Paul made political history during Tea Party ’07:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKZmIzEMUN8

    what i find very humorous are the posts here criticizing our very successful AVL Tax Day TEA Party as being some kind of partisan agenda.

    like, DUH! — who doesn’t think certain individuals and political party groups won’t try and hijack a good movement to further their own agendas?

    after all, ‘both’ major political parties have been hijacked by authoritarian philosophies over the last Century: the Republican Party by Fascism, and the Democratic Party by Socialism — BOTH enemies of LIBERTY!

    however, if people would concern themselves with the truth of a matter, they would certainly realize that the message of the TEA Party was NOT a partisan message.

    so the real question is, do We the People want to nurture the LIBERTY movement, or allow it to be strangled by Fascists/Socialists?

    the future of America currently hinges on a very fine line. and honestly, i don’t personally believe we are even living in “America” any longer based on what i see during my life.

    word to the wise: “united we stand – divided we fall,” is a very true statement.

    8-)

    bbc

  11. PS: i forgot to include what i feel to be the most important ongoing “tea party”, mandating limited government and its accountability to the Constitution and rule of law.

    over the last decade or so, the efforts of the We the People Foundation have lead to the Petitions for Redress of Grievances lawsuits against the Federal Government infractions of the Constitution.

    to view & sign these petitions, visit:

    http://www.givemeliberty.org/RTPLawsuit/SignPetitions.htm

  12. Piffy!

    “the future of America currently hinges on a very fine line. and honestly, i don’t personally believe we are even living in “America” any longer based on what i see during my life. ”

    I’m curious how you define “America”, here, bbc.

  13. kucinich

    gm.shoemaker: “My question to those who were not at the Asheville Tea Party, why weren’t you there?”

    My personal answer is: because I have been there fighting this battle for so many years, without people like you with me, and no other support, that I gave up participating in these silly little useless protests.

    Here’s a question for you: Why weren’t YOU there last year?

    Also, check out this website:
    < http://wartaxboycott.org/

  14. Betty

    Why criticize people for finally waking up? (For those of whom that shoe fits, that is….)

    Why not be glad instead?

    We don’t have to agree on every fine detail, but we can agree on principles of liberty.

  15. gm.shoemaker

    Kucinich,

    It is true that I did not do it last year. I was ill on April 15th 2008. I was out there on many April 15ths over the last 30 years standing in front of post offices in various cities in Pennsylvania. Don’t be so quick to judge. Just because you gave up, doesn’t mean that I am new to this fight.

  16. Piffy!

    “Are you giving Obama “a pass” on the wars, excessive spending, the staggering debt, continuing renditions and torture, stepping up surveillance of Americans and not prosecuting the war crimes? ”

    By not showing up to a pseudo-event manufactured by Fox news and attended primarily by a bunch of fearful yocals spouting cliches wrapped in lies?

    There are far more effective avenues to deal with the ills you list that dont involve promotion from Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity.

  17. John

    PK – your Fox derangement syndrome is showing. They didn’t start the Tea Party fad, they just attached themselves to it once the idea already had traction. It had plenty of traction on its own.

    The stimulus was filled with long term spending programs. Why was that necessary when all the economy needed was a bump? Pelosi wrote the whole bill in her office, circumventing the committee process, then told her folks not to read it. She told them not to read it!!! Not to read it!!??

    I was an economics major. The Keynesian idea of gov’t stimulus is to stop/cut back the spending once the economy is back on its feet. I’ll bet that that won’t happen. The DC spending machine has hit the lottery. We are looking at a new, much bigger Federal budget that’s funded by debt that will dwarf what W did. One inflationary period and we are all screwed.

  18. gm.shoemaker

    Ok PFKap. What are those “far more effective avenues”? Presumably, you voted for Obama, now what? Are you going to give him “a pass” on the issues I mentioned?

  19. Mysterylogger

    The Tea Party was great Looking forward to the next one. Oh and for those with a one track mind, Im not a Fox fan either just a individual fed up with the zoo Elephants and Donkeys spending way too much money.

    And now go back to blame Bush, Blame Fox and give a pass to your favorite politicians.

  20. Piffy!

    “You forgot to mention how they’re all racists piffy. ”

    Yeah, you’ve repeatedly tried to put those words in my mouth, despite the fact that i’ve never said it.

  21. Piffy!

    #”Presumably, you voted for Obama, now what? Are you going to give him “a pass” on the issues I mentioned? “#

    Well, to be fair, that is an Assumption, not a Presumption, and a very inaccurate one at that.

    I have never said anything to imply I voted for the man, it really shows your own baseless assumptions quite clearly for you to assume that i have merely because i find oyur little protest nonsensical.

    bobaloo voted for him, though. You should ask him.

    As for “giving him a pass”, i find that quite absurd as well, since it implies that standing around with a bunch of people holding signs is an effective response to this current economic shake down. I’m 30-something. I realized that stuff like that was masterbatory and childish about 15 years ago.

    Today, I prefer more, DIRECT measures to deal with what i perceive to be problems with our “Government”. As well as recognizing that the power structure of our Federal government leaves little room for the kind of dramatic change you would appear to desire, and that an administration that has been in power for about 3 months really cant be expected to change the entire course our country has been on for at least 6 decades.

    To be honest, the kind of “Change” you seem to want will come from years, if not decades, of serious participatory work within the system, and not just holding silly little “tea parties” promoted heavily by a highly partisan Fox network.

  22. bobaloo

    Yeah, you’ve repeatedly tried to put those words in my mouth, despite the fact that i’ve never said it.

    Pardon me, you’re quite right. Racists and bigots.

    [quote author=”The (PFKaP)” date=”1239954262″]
    I bet only 2/3rds of that 300,000 are right wing militant racists.

    the rest are closeted bigots and basic retards from what i can tell.[/quote]

  23. PFKaP: so then, what are these DIRECT methods to which you speak in your post criticizing We the People for standing up against tyranny and oppression in such a “masturbatory and childish” event?

    i also prefer a more DIRECT method of dealing with a tyrannical and oppressive government which was advised by those who penned the First Amendment:

    “If money is wanted by Rulers who have in any manner oppressed the People, [the People] may retain [their money] until their grievances are redressed, and thus peaceably procure relief, without trusting to despised petitions or disturbing the public tranquility.”

    — 1774 Continental Congress regarding Petitioning for Redress of Grievances

    Simply put, the founders’ advice in dealing with an oppressive unlimited government is: NO REDRESS, NO TAXES!

    it is through these “masturbatory & childish” events that We the People might help to educate one another and build a coalition of Americans who stand up for liberty and will mandate Constitutionally limited Federal Government.

    after all, we know the media isn’t going to do it, nor the Federally controlled public education system (another infraction of its Constitutionally granted powers).

    oh, i define “America” by having a CONSTITUTIONALLY LIMITED government accountable to the RULE OF LAW, rather than rule of whim. i apologize if i have yet to make that perfectly clear.

    perhaps anyone here who would rather criticize and verbally attack those of us who are at least TRYING to make SOME kind of difference might like to get to know some of us better in order to learn the TRUTH of a matter rather than being deceived by the general media or other deceivers.

    LibertyAsheville meets every Tuesday evening @ Natural Import Company in the Biltmore area. visit LibertyAsheville.org for more info.

    in liberty!

    8-)

    bbc

  24. Yes, Mr. Planet, I too would like to hear more about these mysterious DIRECT methods of which you speak.

    How about tonight at LibertyAsheville? 9 Reed Street, 7PM.

    That is, unless you would think it too masturbatory or childish.

  25. Mysterylogger

    If those in charge are going to Change the big question is WHEN? It was promissed that he would wouldnt allow wasteful spending and turned around and passed 2 Stimulus bills FILLED with pork and Earmarks. The change could of happened with a “VETO” but no he signed it on through.

    Someone talking years of change but that promissed so called change could of came immediately but still the bill went through because “It was imperitive to the Economic Crisis” So it was signed and he jumps on a plain waits till TUESDAY and signs it. I thought it was dire straits important and needed passing immediately.

    This Administration has plenty of time to at least put forward some change but hasn’t for some reason. Its really been business as usual except its one side in charge spending our tax money on pork. Its always been a problem but its just keeps getting worse.

    And yes keep telling yourself that its all fox propaganda, and blah blah blah. Thats only the real attack and defense you have. The media couldnt control it so they made fun of it.

    The people are coming together against wasteful spending and its about time.

  26. gm.shoemaker

    Tim Peck said:

    “Yes, Mr. Planet, I too would like to hear more about these mysterious DIRECT methods of which you speak.

    How about tonight at LibertyAsheville? 9 Reed Street, 7PM.

    That is, unless you would think it too masturbatory or childish.”

    He has been a “no show” on all of my questions, you didn’t really think that he would show up at Liberty Asheville, did you?

    The (PFKaP) seems to prefer discussing whether I have presumptions or assumptions. Actually, I had a reasonable belief dictated by probability, a presumption, I was not assuming that it was true, an assumption, that he voted for Obama.

    (PFKaP) misses the point that it is not my little Tea Party. The point is that a very disparate 775,000 people all over America got together to oppose the direction this country has taken.

    I don’t think anything like this has happened since Dr. Martin Luther King said he had a dream.

  27. entopticon

    Well then Tim, you might enjoy this video from another Texas tea party. I suppose the guy holding up the “SAVE WHITE AMERICA!” sign and spouting off white supremacist rhetoric isn’t a racist either:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8500HxYv-FE

    Don’t get me wrong. I am very, very pro tea party. If I could donate money to the cause, I would. It has been an absolute pleasure watching radical right-wing extremists push the GOP further and further into the fringes of obscurity. I hope they keep up the great work. The more tea parties, the merrier.

  28. … and so, when a handful of racist nut balls show up to an event, it makes everyone at the event become a racist nut ball?

    unbelievable “logic” being presented here indeed! 8-)

  29. bobaloo

    Yes infinity, to entop this is incontrovertible, undeniable proof that the whole thing was racist.

  30. entopticon

    infinityBBC, speaking of unbelievable logic, your claim is a complete fabrication. Either you were lying, or a bit logically challenged yourself, because I never said any such thing. Your fallacious argument exists only in your head, and that’s a fact.

    I offered proof of racism at the tea parties, not proof that all tea party attendants are racists. As you probably know, there were many such documented instances of documented racism at the tea parties. Does that mean that every single person at the tea parties was a racist? No, it doesn’t. Does it imply that there could be racist undertones in the rhetoric of the tea parties that should be acknowledged? Of course it does.

    I’ve been to countless rallies and marches, and I sure as heck haven’t ever seen people holding up white power signs, or anti-muslim signs, or offensive caricatures of black people at any of them, and all of those things have been seen at tea parties.

    It is always amazing how the far right loves to blather on endlessly about taking personal responsibility, but they are always so darned quick to wriggle out of taking responsibility for themselves. If there were racist hate groups holding up signs and spouting hate rhetoric as part of a rally that I was attending, I would certainly be concerned about it.

  31. entopticon

    bobaloo, I can’t say it is surprising to see you spouting the same old logically challenged nonsense and dishonest fabrications that you always do.

    I dare you to prove your pathetic, cowardly lie. Go ahead bobaloo… show me where I said that the video I linked to “is incontrovertible, undeniable proof that the whole thing was racist”

    You and I both know you can’t, because you and I both know that you just talking crap. It really would be nice if one of your endlessly futile attempts to be clever actually succeeded, so even though that hasn’t happened yet, don’t give up trying. Even a broken clock is right twice a day after all, so you never know, it just might happen for you someday.

    Have a nice day.

  32. John

    You guys should know by now … anyone who thinks that the Fed Gov’t is biting off more than it can chew and wastes too much of our hard earned tax dollars is a right wing extremist racist. Won’t you ever learn?

  33. EXPLAIN

    Obama Disses Black Farmers
    Associated Press | April 21, 2009
    http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hTyNjxLD4WoFQoyJoU3PMMblaJRQD97MN1100
    As a senator, Barack Obama led the charge last year to pass a bill allowing black farmers to seek new discrimination claims against the Agriculture Department. Now he is president, and his administration so far is acting like it wants the potentially budget-busting lawsuits to go away.

    GM, Chrysler to get $5.5B more
    Associated Press | April 21, 2009
    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090421/ap_on_bi_ge/us_auto_bailout;_ylt=AiMfcNgUHLerF289a4vtk6J34T0D
    General Motors Corp. could get as much as $5 billion more in federal loans, while Chrysler LLC could get $500 million as they race against government-imposed deadlines to restructure, according to a government report filed Tuesday.

  34. gm.shoemaker

    John said: “You guys should know by now … anyone who thinks that the Fed Gov’t is biting off more than it can chew and wastes too much of our hard earned tax dollars is a right wing extremist racist. Won’t you ever learn?”

    You know until “our” Department of Homeland Security put out this “Right Wing Extremist” (I have never been a racist. Don’t screw with me on this!) bulletin, I felt so all alone. Now 75% of America has been profiled as Right Wing Extremists. Wow! What a pump.

  35. gm.shoemaker

    entopticon said: It’s always amazing how the far right loves to blather on endlessly about taking personal responsibility, but they are always so darned quick to wriggle out of taking responsibility for themselves. If there were racist hate groups holding up signs and spouting hate rhetoric as part of a rally that I was attending, I would certainly be concerned about it.”

    I would too! There were no hate groups holding up signs in the Asheville Tea Party. None!

    Now what do you suppose that I could do sitting here in Asheville, a week later watching some bigot on TV in Texas?

    C’mon let’s get real here.

  36. “I offered proof of racism at the tea partie”

    No, you offered proof that someone was holding a sign.

    Since (1) the theme of the tea parties was greedy, unbridled government and (2) we know that critics organized to disrupt and discredit the parties, I find this far from proof. In fact this fits the profile of a tea party disrupter perfectly.

    Wishing won’t make it so.

  37. bobaloo

    I dare you to prove your pathetic, cowardly lie. Go ahead bobaloo…

    Surely one of the multiple masters degrees you received that you love to talk about taught you to recognize snark.
    Of course, you have to write a 250 word response to a sarcastic comment.

  38. John

    Both political parties have small factions that are embarrassments. Focusing on them is a distraction to the topic at hand.

  39. entopticon

    Tim, as a matter of fact I did offer proof of racism at a tea party. Holding up racist signs and disseminating racist rhetoric is in fact racism. I never said that that was proof that every single person at those silly tea parties was a racist.

    If you wanted to practice the rhetoric of taking personal responsibility that libertarians preach, you would take the instances of racism at the tea parties seriously. You can hold onto the ridiculous notion that all of the people holding up racist signs at the tea parties were really secret counterspies, but as you said, wishing won’t make it so. I’m not going to try to convince you otherwise, just as I won’t try to convince you that socialists aren’t hiding secret messages in your alphabet soup.

    Of course, every conspiracy theory has a grain of truth; here is a picture of liberals that made their own nefarious signs for the tea parties. They say things such as “I Shaved My Balls For This!?” and “Bring Back Crystal Pepsi!”:
    http://www.shortsshortsshorts.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/i-shaved-my-balls1-300×225.jpg

  40. entopticon

    John, I guess I should be flattered that you have taken the time out of your busy schedule to cyber-stalk me on the internet. I will sell you some of my used underpants to wear on your head if that makes you happy, but please don’t tie me up in your basement or anything like that.

    By the way, I stand by my words on humility. You should try it sometime.

  41. entopticon

    boobaloo… No, it doesn’t ring a bell. What is this mysterious “snark” thing that you speak of?

    By the way, by my count my response was only about 130 words. Is that still over the special super-secret boobaloo limit? As for the remaining 120 words, I assume you pulled them out the same part of your anatomy that you pull most of your posts from. Must be remarkably roomy up there. Golly, it’s a good thing I’ve never heard of that snark thing that you are so fond of, now isn’t it?

  42. entopticon

    gm.shoemaker, whether or not it happened at your particular rally, if it was me I would be seriously concerned if a group that I was a part of displayed those sorts of signs. Then again, I would be pretty concerned, or more aptly embarrassed, if I was at a rally where people were foolishly misguided enough to be conflating a right-wing political construct such as fascism with a left-wing construct such as socialism, but hey, whatever floats your boat.

    Considering the fact that right here on the Mountain Xpress blogs, posters have repeatedly pushed the rhetoric and writings of infamous members of registered right-wing extremist white supremacist hate groups, such as Thomas DiLorenzo of the League of the South (a registered white supremacist hate group), I do take it seriously in this community as well.

  43. John

    Now even Bev Perdue, who at one point was all for every dime she could get, is saying how “complicated and convoluted” taking the stimulus money is.

    The feds ‘lower case on purpose’ make you spend half the money you get on bureaucracy. Seems like most of the jobs they are creating are government jobs.

    Listening to them brag about the Visitors Center in DC finally getting done – 1000% over budget – shows us how they define efficiency. They acted proud.

    It is truly a sad state of affairs.

  44. Mysterylogger

    I so glad that I can make my own mind up and judge whether the the Tea Parties where about racism or not without a failed actress telling me how to.

    You look too much into anything your going to find stuff you don’t like, might be your plan.

    Yes let a couple bad apples ruin the crop, but thats your idea. “If one or 2 people where racist at this thing then they all must be”

    How Smugly and Snarky Progreasive of you with your “Don’t see my way your wrong” attitude LOL

    Thats what it boils down to right just like everyone’s buddy George Said “if your not with us your against us” Sounds like the Typical Asheville Attitude when you get in a debate, because Heaven forbid someone has their own views that are not a exact Carbon Coby of yours.

    Got to love that Progressive mindset, its so Inside a box . . . LOL

  45. bobaloo

    by my count my response was only about 130 words.

    Wow. You actually counted them? Er, point to you, I guess.

    I assume you pulled them out the same part of your anatomy that you pull most of your posts from. Must be remarkably roomy up there.

    My sexual preference is none of your business.

  46. Piffy!

    *””You guys should know by now … anyone who thinks that the Fed Gov’t is biting off more than it can chew and wastes too much of our hard earned tax dollars is a right wing extremist racist. Won’t you ever learn? “”*

    1 year ago you would have been calling someone protesting the government a communist.

  47. entopticon

    Yes boobaloo, counting is quite a handy skill. Don’t worry, keep trying, you’ll get the hang of it some day. I believe in you.

    Your sexual preference? Umm, sure, OK, whatever you say there boobaloo. Whatever gets you through the night.

  48. killarue

    Geez, I think that y’all have taken things a wee bit too far. Simply, the former administration as well as the few before them got us into this mess and it will take a long time to straighten things out. No,I don’t think that President Obama should get a free pass, like the idiot before did. Change is difficult for all of us but it can lead to better things. Most political activism is good so both sides should acknowledge and agree with the parties rights to protest. This is no time for partisan positions only American positions. With that written, where were the protests by the repubs to challenge the last president. I have heard more willingness to be fair and balanced on Air America than one would Ever hear on Fox or Rush or Glen or Michael or etc. However, I will admit that I am enjoying the repubs new zeal with challenging their government, as we have lost more rights in the past eight years than, probably, ever before.

  49. John

    PK – talk about putting words in someone’s mouth. Didn’t you get upset about someone doing that to you earlier?

    I completely support the right of peaceful protest. It’s one of the fundamentals that makes America great.

    Staying on topic, the Gov’t spent way too much money and was way too corrupt all during the last administration. Both parties equally shared in both problems. We have a bunch of career politicians in DC now who look out for #1 before the good of the country and their constituents. I would have supported those protests whole heartedly as long as they are based on facts and not emotions.

  50. Matt Howard

    “No,I don’t think that President Obama should get a free pass, like the idiot before did.”

    Well put.

    I voted for Obama, but am concerned about the bailout spending. But its too early into his game to tell if he really knows what he’s doing. If he screws up, four years from now may be a good time for an independent who’s not Ralph Nader to run.

    Remember, many of the same people who are screaming the loudest about everything Obama does are the same ones who were saying that in a time of crisis the patriotic thing to do is support the president no matter what…… back when the president was Bush.

  51. bobaloo

    Your sexual preference? Umm, sure, OK, whatever you say there boobaloo. Whatever gets you through the night.

    You’re the one talking about things in my butt.

  52. entopticon

    Ahh, I see boobaloo… I guess you aren’t familiar with the phrase, “you must have pulled that out of your ass,” which is a euphemism meaning that you were talking crap. I was referring to the fact that you talk a lot of crap without ever saying much of substance. I was not referring to your sex life, but I do find it pretty funny that the image of pulling things out of your ass makes you think of your sex life. Hey, more power to you, chief.

  53. bobaloo

    Are you sure you understand snark and sarcasm? My God you take yourself seriously.

  54. entopticon

    I already told you boobaloo, I have no idea what this mysterious snark you speak of is. Are you sure you are doing it right? Is it supposed to be funny? Because if it is, you definitely aren’t doing it right. Maybe you just aren’t cut out for it, or maybe you are just trying too much at once. First try to master counting. Use your fingers and toes, it will help you.

    I often take myself seriously, but don’t worry, I would never, ever, under any circumstances take you seriously. You really have left no room for that whatsoever.

  55. Piffy!

    #My God you take yourself seriously. #

    He’s a genius. Geniuses have a hard time conveying things to us commoners. Like Kanye west.

  56. Mysterylogger

    That sign generator is a hoot. You know if their were racist signs at these the media would of been on top of them in a heartbeat.

    LOL.

  57. entopticon

    travelah, good to see that you are still hard at work on your Forest Gump impersonation. You just get better and better at it all the time. The “LOL” was a particularly nice touch. Now if you just ease back on it a bit you will have it nailed. You just have to be careful of overkill, because even Forest wasn’t quite that bad.

  58. entopticon

    Oh, and by the way travelah, the “Save White America” (Texas) sign as well as the “I shaved my balls for this!?” and “Bring back Crystal Pepsi” (widely reported on in WA state) were real. Seriously, do you ever get tired of being wrong? You really do make being wrong an art form, I’ll give you that.

  59. bobaloo

    Are you sure you are doing it right? Is it supposed to be funny?

    I’m certainly not laughing with you.

  60. entopticon

    Have no fear boobaloo… I laugh at you more than enough for the both of us.

  61. entopticon

    So mysterylogger, you are saying that the video of the the guy holding up the racist sign saying “Save White America” at a Texas tea party was created by a sign generator?!? I don’t know how to break this to you gently, but that is insane.

    Like it or not, the media has reported on many instances of racism at the tea parties. Here is yet another example… The sign that the couple in this photo are holding is plugging the white supremacist hate group, the National Alliance:
    http://www.cincinnatibeacon.com/index.php/contents/comments/white_supremacy_at_cincinnati_tea_party/

    Here is an excerpt from the National Alliance’s mission statement:
    “In spiritually healthier times our ancestors took as theirs those parts of the world suited by climate and terrain to our race: in particular, all of Europe and the temperate zones of the Americas, not to mention Australia and the southern tip of Africa. This was our living area and our breeding area, and it must be so again. After the sickness of “multiculturalism,” which is destroying America, Britain, and every other Aryan nation in which it is being promoted, has been swept away, we must again have a racially clean area of the earth for the further development of our people. We must have White schools, White residential neighborhoods and recreation areas, White workplaces, White farms and countryside. We must have no non-Whites in our living space, and we must have open space around us for expansion.”

  62. travelah

    entop, no I am saying you are the biggest fraud on the boards. Basically, you are an underemployed Florida or whatever nobody transplant trying to pass yourself off as an intellectual achiever, falsely claiming to be a published expert, multi-degreed and frothing all over your chin at everybody and anybody who sees through your charade. You tucked tail and ran at least three times when your fake academia world was challenged and examined ….

    Froth away with the last word. You are at best the cheapest entertainment.

  63. Fred Keister

    Thank Gpod the “activists” this time are regular hard working, taxpaying Americans. So much more relavent than the usual professional protesters of the leftwing who are just plain stuck on whining. Cudos to the Tea partyers!

  64. Piffy!

    Fred, here in the South we dont demean the Lord by calling him G-pod.

    Sinner.

  65. entopticon

    travelah, I already proved to you that I had been published in an academic journal. I even supplied you a link to one such article, so where you come up with your bizarre fantasy that I turned tail and ran is beyond me.

    I’ll tell you what though, I will gladly prove to you that you are a liar. I am guessing that they may not have taught you what a falsifiable claim was at bible college, but your claims are indeed falsifiable.

    In exchange for you publicly admitting that you are a an idiot, a coward, and a liar along with an agreement to never litter this site with your dimwitted opinions again, I will gladly provide you with proof of an ivy league Master’s degree.

    So what’s it going to be travelah? Are you going to put your money where your mouth is and take the wager, or are you going to slink off and hide behind a smokescreen mumbling and grumbling and backtracking the way that you always do?

    You have argued yourself into a corner that you can’t get out of. I can easily prove you a liar, so you can either wimp out of standing behind your lies, or you can take the bet. Something tells me that you will take the cowardly route as always.

  66. travelah

    entop, you poor pitiful dummy. I researched the journal reference you provided after you changed your claim from being a published and peer reviewed author to being a reviewer. The journal you referred me to had two reviewers, both academics employed as such, living in California and you were not either one of them.
    My academic background is in the business field, both undergrad and grad, and not awarded by a bible college. I have not attended Seminary.

    This is the internet. You could not prove you wiped your nose as a kid and no, I am not leaving regardless of what fraudulent claims you post up next. You have been run off three times by three different people …. it is almost time for a fourth, you silly fake. :)

  67. entopticon

    travelah said: “cluck-cluck-cluck-cluck”

    I thought you would chicken out. Cowards always do. I have been run off three times before?!? Now that’s rich.

    I never changed any claim. As opposed to you, I may have plenty of flaws, but one thing I am is fiercely honest. As I have pointed out in the past, you clearly don’t know much about academic journals and that is why you keep making these asinine assertions.

    You are the one who told me on repeated occasions that your expertise in in Christian apologetics. Last I checked they don’t teach that in business school, but whatever; I learned to stop expecting continuity from you a long time ago.

    As I already stated, your lies are easily falsifiable. For one thing, the head of the multimedia department at UNC Asheville went to the same ivy league grad school with me, on my suggestion. As a matter of fact, she has read the review article that you claimed doesn’t exist.

    Your lies just keep backing you further into a corner. When are you ever going to realize that? Internet or not, it is not hard to prove that you are wrong. Proof of the review article is just a click away. As a matter of fact, I could kill two birds with one stone there, because the journal wouldn’t have published a review article by someone without an advanced degree.

    It just gets worse and worse for you. As a matter of fact, the moderator here is friends with my closest friend in town, who is currently abroad for meetings relating to his doctoral program. And as a matter of fact, the review article that you claim doesn’t exist was on work compiled by the head of his doctoral program. And as a matter of fact, we attended a prominent academic conference together that was sponsored by that journal. And as a matter of fact, I refereed articles for that journal before, which is actually considered to be an honor because that job is generally reserved for the most qualified people possible. And as a matter of fact the head of that journal became a friend after working with him and getting to know him at conferences over the years, so he once stayed at my house for a week on a visit to the US.

    Not surprisingly, I have been helping my friend flesh out his ideas for his doctoral program. Helping people with their master’s and doctoral work is something that I do on a regular basis, and before you go claiming otherwise, you should keep in mind that that is easily verifiable as well. I am remarkably inept at a great many things, but I am not too bad with a handful of academic areas of interest, and I am usually glad to help those in need.

    I just found a link to the review article that you claim doesn’t exist, and as a matter of fact it mentions that I have a master’s degree as well. Game, set, match.

    So what’s it going to be travelah? If you aren’t a cowardly liar, you have absolutely nothing to fear from accepting my wager. You would only have to admit those things and promise never to litter this site with your bile again if you are proven to have been lying. You have boxed yourself into a situation that you can’t win, travelah. You are either a coward or a liar. So which is it?

    Heck, I will will even go to the extra trouble of bringing my master’s degree certificate and an academic journal that I have been published in into town to be verified by an agreed upon third party, if on top of the existing wager, you agree to admit that a warmongering, bigoted, social Darwinist, right-wing extremist like you has no business calling yourself a Christian, since Christ was an ardent pacifist who commanded that you give to every single person who begs from you.

    Now we get to see who the real silly fake is.

  68. Jon Elliston

    Folks:

    Thanks for the passionate dialogue, but please refrain from calling each other names, be it “dummy” or “coward” or the like. I know we can all critique each other’s ideas without descending into name-calling.

    Jon Elliston
    Mountain Xpress

  69. Mysterylogger

    As I mentioned before you look too much into anything your going to find A) What your looking for, B) What you dont like.

    And this is the internet where we are all doctors and lawyers and have been published many, many times and the FACT that we come on a message board under a handle to brag, Talk, tell people makes us much better people. Or to reassure ourselves.

    Just mad that some people woke up to wasteful goverment spending thats been going on WAY too long. Got to paste something about it negatively then why hasn’t MSNBC, CNN, BBC, ABC, AP, Reuters or even the inquirer caught on to these racist meetings you so condem . . . .

  70. entopticon

    What is that faint clucking noise I hear?

    Travelah, the challenge was laid out and you showed your true colors. If you had been truthful, you would have had absolutely no reason whatsoever not to stand behind your false accusations.

    You can hide from the challenge, but you will always carry the shame of being exposed for what you really are with you.

  71. entopticon

    Mysterylogger, I would love to respond directly to your post, but that was just too unintelligible to address in full. I provided concrete evidence of racism at tea parties, and there is much more where that came from. As I have already stated, it doesn’t make every right-wingnut at the tea parties a racist, but it is certainly a legitimate concern.

    If you don’t think much of the tea party rhetoric mirrors the rhetoric of white supremacist hate groups, here are a few Timothy McVeigh quotes to humor you:

    “I believe we are slowly turning into a socialist government. The government is continually growing bigger and more powerful, and the people need to prepare to defend themselves against government control.”

    “Taxes are a joke. Regardless of what a political candidate “promises,” they will increase. More taxes are always the answer to government mismanagement. They mess up. We suffer. Taxes are reaching cataclysmic levels, with no slowdown in sight … Is a Civil War Imminent? Do we have to shed blood to reform the current system? I hope it doesn’t come to that. But it might.”

    “Go ahead, take everything I own; take my dignity. Feel good as you grow fat and rich at my expense; sucking my tax dollars and property.”

  72. Mysterylogger

    Timothy Mcveigh, Timothy Mcveigh, Timothy Mcveigh, Timothy Mcveigh, Timothy Mcveigh, Timothy Mcveigh, Timothy Mcveigh, Timothy Mcveigh, Timothy Mcveigh, Timothy Mcveigh, Timothy Mcveigh, Timothy Mcveigh, Timothy Mcveigh, Timothy Mcveigh, Timothy Mcveigh, Timothy Mcveigh, Timothy Mcveigh, Timothy Mcveigh, Timothy Mcveigh, Timothy Mcveigh, Timothy Mcveigh, Timothy Mcveigh, Timothy Mcveigh, Timothy Mcveigh, Timothy Mcveigh, Timothy Mcveigh, Timothy Mcveigh, Timothy Mcveigh, Timothy Mcveigh, Timothy Mcveigh, Timothy Mcveigh, Timothy Mcveigh, Timothy Mcveigh, Timothy Mcveigh, Timothy Mcveigh, Timothy Mcveigh, Timothy Mcveigh, Timothy Mcveigh, Timothy Mcveigh, Timothy Mcveigh,

    I can do that too, and no it wasnt a racist event nor did it have racism in mind no matter how much you twist around. That rhetoric is getting old, so claiming one person goes off the deep end it means you can classify everyone the same way. For examples, Not all Muslims are evil, Not everyone that opposes wastefull spending is a Timothy Mcveigh.

    Nice thinking outside the box in your oh so progressive thinkinig, can’t stray from the party lines eh, that would be outside the box.

    This might be why when someone who steps outside the party lines is immediately tarred and feathered, How progressive. But I thought being “Progressive” was about thinking outside the box. . . .

    Love the progressive battle cry – “If you don’t agree with us then you are against us”

  73. Mysterylogger

    No Entop in his infinite wisdom and brainwashing is only caught up with the Everyone one who protested this was a racist.

    Must be nice to be so open minded

  74. entopticon

    Aha bobaloo… Am I equally concerned with antisemitic propaganda at other rallies? Yes, I find anti-semitic propaganda and Zionism to be of concern too. I have plenty of criticisms of the far left as well. As a matter of fact I am extremely concerned about both the far left and the far right coming together in support of the shamefully bigoted, xenophobic isolationism and social Darwinism of Alex Jones’s misguided right-wing extremist conspiracy theories. If I found that the rhetoric of the anti-war movement on the whole reflected the rhetoric of anti-semitism, I would be even more concerned than I am.

    I’m glad you are a fan of the tea parties and you aren’t concerned about so many white supremacist groups embracing them. I feel differently. As evidenced by the Timothy McVeigh quotes above, the socialism this, socialism that, anti-tax rhetoric of white supremacist hate groups and right-wing extremist militias is often indistinguishable from the tea party rhetoric, and that concerns me. McVeigh’s rhetoric doesn’t just reflect a few kooks in the audience, it hauntingly reflects the rhetoric of most of the speakers as well.

    Frankly, I think calling Barack Obama a socialist, communist, and a fascist is completely insane, and I think the anti-immigrant rhetoric of many of the tea parties is downright terrifying. If you feel differently, that’s your right.

  75. entopticon

    You are just so right mysterylogger, Timothy McVeigh’s rhetoric was nothing at all like the tea party rhetoric. What oh what could I have been thinking? I’m gonna have to run on down to the next right-wing extremist tea party to stop the commie takeover.

    Hilariously, you said: “That rhetoric is getting old, so claiming one person goes off the deep end it means you can classify everyone the same way” and even claimed that I am ” caught up with the Everyone one who protested this was a racist.”

    John wants me to try to be nicer, so I will refrain from asking if you have been working a bit too close to toxic fumes, but seriously, I have said the exact opposite of that over and over again, so perhaps you should try actually reading the posts. You are going to need a new line of attack because it is getting more than a bit silly.

  76. These petty charges of racism at the tea parties focus on non-essentials and serve as a diversion for the critics who are unable to address the essentials on their merits.

    The Unites States federal government is out of control and is plunging this once free nation into fascism, economic collapse and xxx. This is true whether it be a Bush administration, an Obama administration, or whatever administration is to come.

    “President Obama showed his hand this week when The New York Times wrote that he is considering converting the stock the government owns in our country’s banks from preferred stock, which it now holds, to common stock.” http://snipurl.com/gvgzo

    Anyone who understands the ramification of this fascistic power play and wants to join other patriots who are dedicated to taking our government back from the greedy, unbridled statists and returning it to the people are welcome to join us at the next tea party.

    Otherwise, you may stay at home, in bed, and in peace. And may your chains set lightly upon you.

  77. John

    I say that maybe up to 5% of the folks at the tea parties were racist idiots. Most rallies on the left and right have much bigger portions of ‘radicals’. The other 95% were regular folks who live and work and have to be seriously motivated to protest. If you disagree, what percentage do you think were the racists?

  78. travelah

    entop, identify yourself as a published academic and stop playing with dung. You either are who claim you are or you are not. As of now you are merely an anonymous internet entertainer whose previous claims were refuted.

    There is nothing open minded by these leftist zealots. They are by far the most bigoted group of individuals in the political spectrum today.

  79. entopticon

    travelah, your assertion that my past claims were refuted is a flat-out lie. They couldn’t have been refuted, because they were true. Stop your lying.

    It couldn’t be more simple. I will prove that I have a master’s degree despite your false claim to the contrary
    and I will prove that I have been published in an academic journal despite your false claim to the contrary, if you accept my wager.

    Are you going to accept the wager, or you going to chicken out? If you were right, and you hadn’t been lying, you would have absolutely nothing to fear by taking the wager. You can keep wriggling here all you want, but you only further humiliate yourself.

    You are in a no-win situation. If you take the wager you will lose and I will prove that you have been lying. If you continue to chicken out of it, you will show that you have been lying and that you were lying. At least if you take the wager you will show the integrity of standing behind your assertions, rather than taking the cowardly way out. So what’s it going to be?

  80. entopticon

    John, you may be right about the percentages. I don’t know what the breakdown is one way or another. That said, I am extremely concerned about the way that bigotry has worked its way into the rhetoric of the right-wing, and not just the radical fringes. The anti-Muslim rhetoric, the unconscionable nonsense about Obama’s birth certificate, and the nationalistic immigrant bashing all make me shudder.

  81. John

    Don’t let the minority represent to you the entire population. There are always kooks on the fringes of every issue and they very seldom get their way.

    You have to admit that impressing on Raleigh and Washington to be more prudent with their budgets is a point that needs to be reinforced occasionally.

  82. Mysterylogger

    Still your great little defense of you agree with Timothy Mcveigh makes you a racist and terrorist is getting a little and in fact silly.

    The point behind thiese tea parties were not racist nor a racist activity. But it must be so great to be so progressive that you look inside the box. Heaven forbid you stepped outside party lines and thought for yourself.

    I have read your little rants lots of symbolism over substance.

  83. Piffy!

    “You have to admit that impressing on Raleigh and Washington to be more prudent with their budgets is a point that needs to be reinforced occasionally. ”

    Absolutely.

    Like protesting an illegal war that has cost this country nearly $700 billion dollars so far.

    http://zfacts.com/p/447.html

    “If we don’t stop extending our troops all around the world in nation-building missions, then we’re going to have a serious problem.” — George W. Bush, Jan. 2001.

  84. John

    I support the right of peaceful protest no matter how much you don’t want me to.

    The war cost way too much money. W’s war plan was a disaster. As far as illegal goes, 3/4 of both houses of congress voted for the Iraq Resolution and no court has deemed it illegal. Go complain to congress.

  85. Piffy!

    “The tea parties… were promoted by the conservative nonprofit advocacy organization FreedomWorks based in Washington and headed up by former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey, who now works as a lobbyist.”

    Someone might want to send them a notice that Dick Armey is a LOBBYIST!

    I thought conservatives hated lobbyists and special interest groups?

  86. travelah

    entoptee, there is no wager. You can either identify yourself a such with evidence or you cannot. Until then, you are just another internet bot with a tall tale to tell. I researched your claims and found you were neither of the two reviewers in the journal you cited …. now, if you want to make up something else and give it a go, by all means proceed.

  87. entopticon

    Holy cow travelah, your rationale is even more cowardly than I had imagined. There is a wager, I made the wager, you just wish there wasn’t a wager. Anybody here can simply scroll up to see that that is the case.

    You did not research my claims and find out that I wasn’t one of the reviewers, as you fallaciously claimed. That is a flat-out lie. I know this for an absolute fact because I most certainly am one of them. And that brings us back to the wager…. If you are willing to stand behind your fallacious claim you will accept the wager.

    If you weren’t lying, you would have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to fear by taking the wager. There is absolutely no reason for you not to take the wager unless you have been lying. The reason that you keep trying to chicken out is because your claims have been entirely dishonest.

    If you have even the slightest shred of integrity you will stand behind your words and take the wager. If you don’t you have proven to everyone here that you are not willing to stand behind your fallacious claims.

    Whatever the case is, you can’t get away with saying that there is no wager, because anybody can simply scroll up and see that that is a lie. I will gladly provide you the evidence that you want asked for if you accept the wager. If you continue to chicken out, you will always have to live with that.

    I will not “make up something else” because I never made up anything in the first place. You did, and I can prove it. If you really believe that I made something up you will stand behind your slanderous lie and accept the wager. Anything else is pure cowardice.

  88. John

    “I thought conservatives hated lobbyists and special interest groups?”

    What on earth made you think that? Both parties use both liberally. No pun intended. Thinking they could not exist is naive. Its not the concept of them, its the honesty and integrity of each. Some are good, some, not so much.

    The big issue now with lobbyists is that Obama promised to get them out of the white house and broke that promise the day after he made it. The liberals should be really mad about that, but surprise, they are not.

  89. gm.shoemaker

    “The tea parties… were promoted by the conservative nonprofit advocacy organization FreedomWorks based in Washington and headed up by former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey, who now works as a lobbyist.”

    Dick Armey, nor Freedom Works headed up the Tea Parties. Like other advocacy groups, this one tried to get out in front of the grassroots parade. The Tea Party got started because of a TV interview rant by some fellow on the Chicago exchange. He called for national Tea Party in Chicago. Then the idea spread.

    Unlike most folks voicing their opinion about this article, I actually was at the Tea Party in front of Buncombe County courthouse on April 15th.

    I saw no racist signs, the crowd was primarily conservative, but I saw very few people that I know from the county GOP. Folks were protesting being over-taxed, pork as usual, too much federal debt and the corporate bailouts. There were also protests against funding the ongoing wars and empire.

    I was involve in organizing the fund raising and advertising for the Asheville TEA Party. Erika Franzi pretty much did all of the other organizing. I know that she refused requests from various politicians to speak at our event. Erika also pleaded with partisan folks who had signed up, to NOT make this event into an issue of Obama’s first 60 days. Everyone who had anything to with organizing the event agreed that the problems that we are addressing started long before January 20th of this year and that this would remain a non-partisan event. I do know the local folks in Freedomworks. They were not at our Asheville TEA Party, they were in Raleigh on that day.

    In full disclosure, I am a Republican. I am opposed to out-of-control gov’t, deficit spending, massive national debt, currency debasement and the domestic war against our liberties. I did not vote for Bush or McCain and my views on these issues have not changed in the last 8 years. I consider myself to be a Jeffersonian Republican and I believe the answers to most of our problems can be found in returning to the best ideals of our founding fathers and framers of the U.S. Constitution. (Yes, slavery and Jim Crow were a blight on that vision. Le’s take the founding vision to a higher standard.)

    I’ll only reply to those practicing civil discourse on this message board.

  90. travelah

    entoptee, I do not see anything from you demonstrating your respected and published professional standing in whatever field of study you wish to claim. Are you supposing that having a college degree grants you such license?

    There are medicines for this I am sure.

  91. entopticon

    travelah said: cluck-cluck-cluck-cluck-cluck

    travelah, I can only imagine the extreme immensity of the shame and humiliation that you must be feeling at this moment. You have been publicly humiliated beyond redemption, but you only have yourself to blame for it.

    You had the opportunity to stand behind the slanderous lies you have been telling about me here. If you had been telling the truth there would have been ABSOLUTELY NO REASON for you not to take the wager and stand behind what you said.

    The only way for you to lose the wager was if you were lying, and that is why you chickened out of it for all to see, because your slanderous accusations were indeed lies.

    If I was in your shoes the shame and humiliation would be absolutely overwhelming. I would never be able to look myself in the mirror again. Good luck with that. That is why I don’t lie; so I don’t end up in the extremely unenviable position that you have landed yourself in.

    For the rest of your life you will have to live with the humiliation of being called out for your flat-out lies on a public forum, and even worse, for the rest of your life you will have to live with yourself, knowing that you chickened out from the opportunity to stand behind your own words, and instead you took the most cowardly way out imaginable.

    Oh, and to answer your question, yes, I do suppose that having college degrees gives me the right to publicly call you out for your shameful, fallacious claim that I do not. It is not my fault that the truth came back around to bite you in the ass.

    It really is particularly amusing that right-wing extremists like you love to blather on endlessly about your Christian virtues, despite the fact that you completely ignore the commandment about not bearing false witness. Your hypocrisy has no limits.

  92. travelah

    entoptee, still nothing for all your blustering? The issue isn’t whether you have a degree. It is instead your presenting yourself as a respected and published authority in any field at all. Pfffft.

  93. entopticon

    travelah said: cluck-cluck-cluck-cluck-cluck

    It is extremely entertaining watching your cowardly wriggling. You claimed I don’t have degrees. You claimed I haven’t been published in an academic journal. Both of those statements are slanderous lies, and you have been exposed for what you are.

    You can make up new issues till you turn blue in the face, hoping that nobody will notice your cowardice and dishonesty, but it’s too late for that. You have already been exposed.

    The wager was made. Rather than having enough integrity to stand behind your slanderous fabrications and taking the wager you continue to play the coward’s game of trying to wriggle your way out, but you have trapped yourself in with your own lies, so there is no escape.

    The wager is still out there. I will gladly provide you the proof that you claimed doesn’t exist if you accept the wager, but you have already shown your cowardice. You and I both know that if your claims weren’t slanderous lies, you would have had absolutely no reason not to accept the wager.

    Coincidentally, Pffffft is the sound of your credibility waving goodbye. You can pretend like you aren’t extremely humiliated, but you and I both know you are. Keep clucking travelah, I love it.

  94. entopticon

    I wish I could take you seriously dave. Try as I might, I just can’t. As foolish as travelah is, you make him look intelligent by comparison. That is a promethean feat in itself, I will give you that.

  95. bobaloo

    Slander is spoken, libel is written.
    Just so you know for the coming lawsuit.

    And technically trav only stated you weren’t a published academic and your original wager, which he has yet to accept, was for you to prove you were indeed published.

    *eats popcorn*

  96. entopticon

    I suppose that’s true bobaloo. That’s where the blogging medium leads to a fuzzy area because it is a written medium that actually has more in common with natural language. Unfortunately, that often leads to much confusion and even animosity. That’s actually why emoticons were invented, to compensate for the lack of intonation in emerging mediums such as blogging, which take on a conversational tone without the befit of intonation. I did some consulting about this issue years ago for researchers addressing the problem of using graphic representations to represent conversational intonation in online communication. Far better minds than mine have written about the issue in much greater depth.

    I’m not sure I understand what point you were making with your second paragraph. I agree, travelah stated that I have never been published in an academic journal and I challenged him with a wager to stand behind that lie. He also stated that I was lying about having college degrees, and I challenged him on that lie as well. With one link I can easily prove he was lying on both counts. All he has to do is accept the wager, but he keps chickening out because he was lying all along.

  97. travelah

    entoptee, still nothing for all your blustering? The issue isn’t whether you have a degree. It is instead your presenting yourself as a respected and published authority in any field at all. Pfffft.

  98. travelah

    entoptee, to add further, I never wager. It is not something I do in my faith. However, I would think you would be proud of your accomplishments and would like to share with everybody just how respected an authority you are in whatever professional field of endeavor you would like to claim today. Come on sport, bask in the glory!

  99. entopticon

    Nice try travelah. you chickened out because Jesus told you too?!? Problem is, there is no money involved, only your pride, so faith can’t be an excuse. If your faith meant anything at all to you, you never would have spread those lies in the first place.

    I’ll tell you what… I’ll make it even easier for you. Instead of calling it a wager, it will be an agreement. I will provide you the evidence that proves you were lying, in exchange for the terms of what we used to call a wager, and are now calling an agreement. Come on mr business guy, you are allowed to enter into agreements.

    Your attempt to change “the issue” is particularly pathetic. As if I couldn’t just scroll up to catch you in another lie. This is what you said travelah:

    “entop, no I am saying you are the biggest fraud on the boards. Basically, you are an underemployed Florida or whatever nobody transplant trying to pass yourself off as an intellectual achiever, falsely claiming to be a published expert, multi-degreed and frothing all over your chin at everybody and anybody who sees through your charade. You tucked tail and ran at least three times when your fake academia world was challenged and examined ….”

    How you live with yourself and why you call yourself a Christian is beyond me. I just caught you lying again and that is incontrovertible proof of it. Christians aren’t supposed to lie travelah. I may not be a Christian, but at least I don’t lie.

    I don’t see you giving out your private info here travelah, and with all the offensive venom that you spew, that is probably wise. To prove my case I have to give out my private information. In exchange for that, I want you to agree to my terms.

    Once again travelah, if you weren’t shamefully lying, you would have ABSOLUTELY NO REASON not to enter into the agreement. You are chickening out rather than standing behind your false aspersions because as you and I both know, you were lying and now you are being too cowardly to just admit it.

  100. entopticon

    That’s right dave, I am your god, and if you are not careful I will smite you again.

  101. travelah

    entoptee, I am guessing nobody is going to see the anything substantive from you in this because it’s all a sham? If what I am stating was so easily refuted, you would have already done so, probably in CAPITAL letters and 3,000 vitriolic words. You wouldn’t be able to stop yourself for all the glee. … by all means have the last word (unless of course you are going to substantiate your grandiose claims which is what some of us have been pushing for all along).

  102. entopticon

    travelah, even you are not THAT thick. Your lies are indeed THAT easily refuted. All you have to do is agree to the terms of the deal.

    If you weren’t lying, you would have ABSOLUTELY NO REASON not to agree to the deal. ABSOLUTELY NONE. If you really were actually pushing for it, you would simply agree to the terms of the deal.

    I already told you, I would rather not make my personal information public, but in exchange for your commitment to the agreement, I will do it.

    Why on Earth would I even offer the deal unless I was telling the truth?!? The reason that I am not at all afraid of the deal, but you continue to chicken out of it, is because you are lying, and we both know it.

    You are out of wiggle room travelah. You have shown your true colors, and they are all yellow.

  103. Piffy!

    i really would love to see this “proof” entop speaks of so often, as well. I think he has been posting about it for over a year now, without a shred of evidence to date.

    < *Steals some of bobaloo's popcorn*>

    (This is sort of like the crying game or something.)

  104. Piffy!

    “[b]I wish I could take you seriously dave. Try as I might, I just can’t. As foolish as travelah is, you make him look intelligent by comparison. That is a promethean feat in itself, I will give you that.[/b]”

    It is quite apparent you take yourself seriously enough. Especially name-dropping Prometheus, and all. Perhaps I have brought fire to man by being “more foolish than travelah”?

    Perhaps you might benefit from not taking yourself so seriously?

  105. travelah

    Seriously, I think several of us would like to see this. I already saw some of his earlier fabrication and checked him out. It was a fraud. However, if he can show he is a published author in a professional journal, as he claims, then I will apologize for casting doubt (that doesn’t mean a letter to the editor). As for his idiotic “wager”, he is tripping over his hightop sneakers. I am guessing there is some reason why he isn’t offering up his credentials after over a year of posing.

  106. entopticon

    PFKaP, although I am not thrilled to share my personal information here, I will gladly oblige; all you have to do is talk travelah into standing behind his claims by accepting the deal.

    Think about it… why would I be pushing travelah to accept the deal if I was not telling the truth? It would reflect just as badly on me as it does on him. It is not just a coincidence that I am pushing for the deal and he chickening out.

    There is one, and only one reason for travel not to agree to the terms of the deal: he’s lying. If he wasn’t lying, there would be absolutely no reason for him not to agree to the deal.

    All travelah has to do is stand behind his own words by accepting the deal and it will all be over for good here for him.

  107. Piffy!

    entop-If you are not “thrilled” to do so, then why have you made such a claim, numerous times, over the last year or so?

    Your “Claim” goes far beyond this most recent charade regarding a “deal” with travelah.

    I, for one, have seen nothing to imply there is even a shred of evidence to your claim of academic notoriety, much less a semblance of sanity on your part.

  108. entopticon

    You are still lying travelah. You never saw some earlier fabrication, as you just fallaciously claimed. That is a flat-out lie, and I can easily prove it. Again, if that was true, you would have absolutely nothing to fear by taking the deal.

    Not only can I show I that I’ve been published in an academic journal, I can show that I was published in the very journal that you have repeatedly claimed to have proven that I wasn’t published in.

    I’ve told you why I would rather not share my personal information here unless the deal is sweet enough.

    You cannot tell us why you won’t agree to the deal unless you have been lying. That’s because you have been lying. You could easily end this all right here.

    It could be the silliest deal in the world, and it wouldn’t matter one bit if you were telling the truth. If you weren’t lying, you would have absolutely nothing to fear by not taking the deal. If you had any integrity at all, you would have no fear of standing behind your own words.

    I can only imagine the humiliation that you must be feeling, knowing that you are too chicken to stand behind your own lies.

  109. entopticon

    C3PO, sorry, but I never claimed that I wanted to publish my personal information. That is a lie. It seems more than a bit hypocritical of you to even make such a ridiculous criticism, considering that you go by a moniker. What’s your name? Is your address in the phone book?

    You haven’t seen a shred of evidence to my non-existent claim of academic notoriety? What are you, 12? Sorry sport, but you are way out of your depth.

    I have never claimed anything except the truth. I have studied a number of subjects because I am intellectually curious. I worked hard to get an ivy league Master’s degree and I have studied a number of subjects at the Master’s level, but I am by no means the greatest thing since sliced bread in academic in the world, and I have certainly never said otherwise, contrary to your false aspersions. If there is an area that I have studied which gives me knowledge or insight, I am open about that fact. That’s it.

  110. Piffy!

    So, here’s a new bet, i will prove to you i am a 12-armed millionaire monkey-king if you prove to me you are everything you have ever claimed to be.

    If i lose, i will invite you to my house for dinner, and will listen in respectful awe as you amaze me with your incredible intellect.

    Care to take the bet?

  111. entopticon

    Sorry TCBY, unless you are Ferran Adria or one of my favorite chefs, dinner at your house is not worth giving up my privacy. The difference between that and the deal offered to travelah is, if he isn’t lying, he would have absolutely nothing to lose. I would lose my privacy.

    I’ll tell you what though. I really want $500. For $500, I will gladly take your bet.

  112. entopticon

    Oh, and R2d2, if you really were a 12-armed millionaire monkey-king, you would have nothing to lose by taking that bet.

  113. Piffy!

    The thing is, entop, you have previously made this claim of academic notoriety many, many, many times, without any “bet”. But you have never, ever supplied a shred of evidence to support such a claim.

    My question is, why make the claim if you have no desire to back it up? (this predates your travelah wager so please stop using that as an excuse. Anyone can search your posting history and see you throwing this around as proof of your genius starting, at least, last fall)

  114. Piffy!

    [b]if you really were a 12-armed millionaire monkey-king, you would have nothing to lose by taking that bet.[/b]

    Are you calling me a liar? Why would i make such a claim unless it is true?

  115. entopticon

    WD40, Why make what claim? You are talking out your butt. People have asked me what my background is and I have answered honestly. That’s it. If it’s so easy for anyone to find proof of me talking about what a genius I am, why don’t you just do that? I have been honest and consistent about my achievements, as well as my shortcomings all along. You are just making crap up.

    Your argument, that I should not be allowed to mention my academic background unless I am willing to publish my personal information on a site full of right-wing extremists that would love to see harm come to me, is completely asinine. It is particularly hypocritical coming from you, especially since I asked you to post your full name and address here, and you still haven’t done it. If you have no problem with it and expect me to do the same, why didn’t you just publish your name and address here when I asked you to? Your hypocrisy is laughable.

  116. Piffy!

    “”Your hypocrisy is laughable. “”

    You should try laughing some time. It feels good.

  117. entopticon

    RU486 asked: “Are you calling me a liar? Why would i make such a claim unless it is true?”

    Yes, we have already established that you weren’t being honest. You made the claim because you had nothing to lose. When the wager became too big for you, you chickened out of the bet.

    If you had been telling the truth, there would have been absolutely no reason for you not to take the bet, just as if travelah had been telling the truth, there would be absolutely no reason for him not to take the wager offered to him.

    If you want to take the $500 bet, I am definitely in.

  118. Piffy!

    Oh, dude. I’m all over it. Lets bet 500.

    I am a 12-armed monkey king millionaire daughter of ann coulter.

  119. entopticon

    Don’t worry NC17, I have no problem laughing. Thanks for sharing that video by the way. I am not the fan of Noam Chomsky that I once was, but it was interesting to see nonetheless.

  120. Piffy!

    yeah, i dont necessarily endorse chomsky’s analysis, but it is certainly relevant to the conversation.

  121. John

    I loved his comment about April 15 that the left is glad to pay and contribute on tax day.

    Is that why a bunch of Obama’s cabinet nominees, who actively advocate bigger government and higher taxes, cheated on their own taxes? That includes the current Treasury Secretary … incredible!

    They were NOT tax mistakes either. Those guys were actively trying to reduce their tax bill by claiming earned income as non-earned income and welshing on the social security and medicare components. Is that their plan to save SS and Medicare? That is the absolute height of hypocrisy.

    What planet was he talking about?

    Also, the interviewers question about why don’t the people on the far right move to the far left. What a ridiculous question. One could ask, whey don’t they move right some? What a lame softball of a question.

  122. travelah

    There is a much stronger tendency for people, as they mature, to move from the left to a moderate or more conservative viewpoint. That is not so much a function of party affiliation as it is a social and economic outlook.

  123. John

    “If you are 20 and are not liberal, you have no heart. If you are 40 and liberal, you have no brain”

    Winston Churchill

  124. Piffy!

    I’ll wait until Obama nationalizes it from you and distributes it to me, bobaloo.

  125. Piffy!

    [b]Yes, we have already established that you weren’t being honest. You made the claim because you had nothing to lose. When the wager became too big for you, you chickened out of the bet.[/b]

    dude, for someone to “chicken out” of a bet, a bet has to be made.

    Are you really trying to say that I am not a 12-armed monkey king millionaire daughter of ann coulter?!?!?!?!?

    I’ll see you in court for slanderous libel, you libelous slanderer, you!!

  126. entopticon

    Where did all this court stuff come up? Slander isn’t just a legal term. If someone makes false claims about you, as travelah did about me, it’s perfectly reasonable to call that slanderous.

    If you think I don’t have a sense of humor, you need to watch the angry baby travelah preacher video again. As disturbing as it is, you must admit it is absolutely hilarious yet disturbingly apt to think of the angry baby preacher in the video as travelah.

  127. John

    Entopticon – The problem with that video is that it elicits more of a ‘troubling, crazy’ laugh instead of a ‘man, that’s funny or witty’ laugh. This might explain why you took the above posts of humor/satire/snark as something else more serious.

  128. John

    Here’s another reason to be miffed about how Raleigh and DC operate. Raleigh is having a problem with the State Employee Health Insurance Trust. No surprise there, all the Fed and State Health plans are operational/financial nightmares.

    Anyhow, where are they, Bev Perdue, getting the money to ‘bridge the gap’? The Highway Trust Fund! Our roads and bridges are in dire need of the maintenance the politicians promised long ago and here they are raiding the Highway Fund again. Business as usual. If Raleigh was a business, you’d have to fire everyone.

  129. entopticon

    John, you should really just stay away from the business of analyzing humor. There is a reason that not one single great comedian in history has been a right-winger: conservatives are not funny. Sorry, but that’s the truth. If right-wingers had a sense of humor, which requires intelligence and empathy, they wouldn’t be right wingers.

    As a matter of fact, a very interesting new study about right-wingers’ complete inability to understand humor just came out. The study showed that astonishingly, many conservatives can’t even understand that Steven Colbert is laughing at them, not with them:
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/27/colbert-study-conservativ_n_191899.html

    On the bright side, you need not worry…. there is absolutely no chance whatsoever that I will ever take you seriously. Perhaps you were projecting.

  130. John

    I understand this humor:

    “I’m a lyrical genius!”

    Kane “Entopticon” West

  131. John

    Here’s some more humor:

    Entopticon the Limbo King!

    Nobody’s better at lowering the bar!

  132. entopticon

    Hypothesis: right-wingers should avoid trying to be funny.

    Proof: “Entopticon the Limbo King!… Nobody’s better at lowering the bar!”

    Your comedy stylings have quite a future on the borscht belt if you ever want to take your act on the road there John.

    Thank you for incontrovertibly proving the verity of that study about how right wingers don’t understand humor very well.

    By the way, once again I am flattered by the fact that you have taken time out of your busy life to cyber stalk me on the internet, but the thing you are still getting off on was a passing comment about how it was nice that Kanye West could take the ribbing that he got in a South Park episode. I did not say anything about wanting to be Kanye West, or even liking his music, which I am not a particular fan of. I just thought the South Park episode was funny and and I pointed out that his newfound humility would serve him well creatively. Why you are still getting off on that is beyond me.

    Again, I am flattered that you have been stalking me, and I will gladly sell you a used pair of my underpants to wear on your head for a mere $500. Sorry, skidmarks will cost you extra.

  133. travelah

    John, if you want an even greater laugh, compare his personal writeup about himself as some kind and gentle lover of truth with the vitriolic stuff posted here. On top of that, any guy who creates a web page painting a loving and kind portrait of himself and then turns around and accuses people who actually look at it as being internet stalkers is taking the wrong color pill. I am guessing a lot of his friends might be sockpuppets or don’t read the MX? Gotta be one of the two.

  134. entopticon

    travelah said: cluck-cluck-cluck-cluck

    We already established your lying and cowardice travelah. Apparently you still haven’t figured out that along with the public humiliation that goes along with that, you never get to be taken seriously again.

    What personal write-up are you talking about? I don’t recall writing a personal write-up here. Perhaps I forgot. John tracked down a comment that I made on a completely different website, which is indeed a bit creepy. I hope you have better things to do than google strangers on the internet.

    It is particularly hilarious that you would say that my friends don’t read the Mountain Xpress. Barely a week goes by when I don’t have multiple friends featured in the Mountain Xpress.

    I seriously doubt that you or any of the other right-wing extremists that try to bully all of the actual Xpress readers off of this site on a daily basis have ever picked up a copy in your lives. Why would you? Do you support cutting edge music or art in Asheville? Do you go see experimental theater? I don’t make you for a yoga guy and you certainly aren’t exploring alternative spirituality. I don’t expect to run into you at some poetry slam.

    It is a paper that is geared almost entirely towards liberals. The vast majority of the actual readers are liberal, the vast majority of the advertisers are liberal, the vast majority of the cultural listings are liberal. If you had actually picked up a copy once in a while you probably would have noticed that. As a matter of fact the comics make fun of people like you every single week. Here is this week’s example, which is particularly relevant to this thread:
    http://www.mountainx.com/cartoons/2009/042909molton

    They feature Rob Brezny’s Real Astrology here, the same as most every other liberal weekly in the entire nation, not Christian affirmations for right-wing extremists.

    The reviewers are liberal. The content is liberal. The paper is liberal. The only reason that you troll here all day long despite the fact that the paper doesn’t represent your interests, politics, or lifestyle and in fact mocks people like you on a weekly basis, is because the hollow emptiness of the cultural vacuum of the far right scares the hell out of you.

    I seriously doubt that you read the paper and I even more seriously doubt that you support many of the businesses that keep the paper alive. Like it or not, my friends run many of the businesses that run ads here, and I sometimes know the designers who made the ads, and I sometimes know the models in the ads as well. Not because I am special, just because as opposed to you, the actual people who read this paper, the people that this paper is geared to, are my peeps, so to speak.

    Right-wing extremists like you read this paper and support the businesses that keep this paper alive about as much as liberals read the right wing weekly, the Asheville Tribune, which is to say, barely at all and only for laughs. You will never see articles representing your views here. No articles denying global warming. No articles about Barack Obama being a secret muslim. No articles about secret Marxist conspiracy theories. In other words, none of your favorite topics. You can find those articles every week in the Asheville Tribune, but what would a right-wing extremist like you do if he couldn’t leach onto a liberal website all day like a parasitic tick?

  135. entopticon

    The tea party people here from the extreme right, Chad of the Stompers, travelah, Tim the Libertarian etc, certainly have the right to feel good about their tea parties. They were probably a good representation of their views.

    These groups of photos from the tea parties illustrate why they were extremely off-putting to the type of people who actually read liberal weeklies such as the Mountain Xpress:
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/16/10-most-offensive-tea-par_n_187554.html

  136. Mysterylogger

    Is this because the huffington post is such a beacon of honest reporting?

    Look to much into something your going to find something to ruffle your feathers.

  137. entopticon

    I definitely don’t expect you to like or respect the Huffington Post any more than you would expect me to like or respect Pajamas Media. Just as the Mountain XPress is a liberal weekly, nearly identical to countless other liberal weeklies across the country, the Huffington Post is indeed a liberally slanted news source. I think it is just fine for some media sources to be slanted towards a conservative or liberal perspective, as long as they are open about it. I find it unconscionable for something like the Huffington Post, Fox News, or the Mountain XPress for that matter, to pretend to be unbiased when that is clearly ludicrously untrue in any of those cases. It’s fine for them to cater to a particular audience with a particular perspective, as long as they are honest about it.

    That said, I didn’t have to look too far to have my feathers ruffled. For me, the signs in the photo from the local tea party at the top of this article are ridiculously asinine. The conflation of communism, socialism, fascism, and Marxism, and the suggestion that a small tax increase for the wealthiest of the wealthy is somehow tantamount to all of those systems is unconscionably ludicrous. I am embarrassed even to know that that happened in my county. I honestly do respect your right to feel differently though.

  138. Mysterylogger

    How many times are you going to repeat that this is a liberal weekly? The insuating rhetoric that this is a Liberal weekly and you don’t belong here is getting old and looks petty.

    I thought being liberal was being open minded and tolerant to other peoples opinions.

  139. gm.shoemaker

    “I didn’t have to look too far to have my feathers ruffled. For me, the signs in the photo from the local tea party at the top of this article are ridiculously asinine. The conflation of communism, socialism, fascism, and Marxism, and the suggestion that a small tax increase for the wealthiest of the wealthy is somehow tantamount to all of those systems is unconscionably ludicrous. I am embarrassed even to know that that happened in my county. I honestly do respect your right to feel differently though.”

    Does this mean that you are for communism, socialism, fascism and Marxism no matter how “small” or “large” the tax increases for the wealthiest of the wealthy? (or the rest of us poor slobs.)” International socialism or national socialism, what difference does that make? Either way, the individual is servant to the state.

    You don’t have to be embarrassed by my signs. They are MY signs. “Stop the Endless Wars!”, “Honk if you are paying my mortgage.”, “No more corporate bailouts”, “Stop Torture Now!”, “No more Gitmos!”, “No more Pork!”, “No trans-generational debt!”, “Free the telephone companies and hang those that read our emails!”, “Obama; Bush’s third term!”

    I do hope that you respect my right to “think” (not feel) differently.

    Gary

  140. entopticon

    Sorry Gary, I’d be lying if I said that I respected your thinking on this, but I do respect your right to feel as you do.

    You asked: “Does this mean that you are for communism, socialism, fascism and Marxism no matter how “small” or “large” the tax increases for the wealthiest of the wealthy? ”

    No, it means that it is absolutely ludicrous to misuse those terms, which have virtually nothing to do with our system of government, about our government just because a bunch of right-wing extremists are angry that a black Democrat was elected President.

    Speaking of pork, ironically, I see that some of the tea party supporters here are the very same people who were supporting Sarah Palin a few short months ago! Now they are all up in arms about government pork, but just a few months ago they were supporting the Governor of the state that took in vastly more pork than any other state per capita. More than 100% more than the next closest state. More than 22 times that of Obama’s state! And now all of a sudden the tea baggers are born again against pork, and many of them still even support Sarah Palin!

    I think we are in a very difficult situation and there are no easy solutions, but in my opinion, laissez faire economics is the worst idea possible.

  141. gm.shoemaker

    “I think we are in a very difficult situation and there are no easy solutions, but in my opinion, laissez faire economics is the worst idea , possible.”

    For those who don’t know “laissez faire economics”, we ARE in a very difficult situation. Our government gives us more debt for too much debt, It gives us more spending for too much spending and it gives us too many dollars for printing too many dollars.

    Does anyone here believe that the disease is the cure for the cause?

    Gary

  142. entopticon

    Gary asked: “Does anyone here believe that the disease is the cure for the cause?”

    Stop for a second and think about where you are Gary. You are on a liberal weekly’s website, which makes your question kind of absurd. Imagine if a radical leftist went to Fox News’s site, or even the local right-wing weekly, the Asheville Tribune, and asked if anyone there really believed that Marxism wasn’t the best answer. It’s true that quite a few right-wing trolls hang out on this site, but in the end it is still the liberal weekly’s website. If XPress readers believed in laissez faire economics, they would read the Tribune, certainly not the liberal weekly, the Mountain XPress.

    Unlike you, many of us don’t feel that government spending is inherently bad. In fact, many of us feel like Paul Krugman, that there is not nearly enough. Believe what you will, but if I felt like you do, I would be on the Tribune’s site, or maybe Fox News, but certainly not here.

  143. travelah

    Gary, for those people who have to actually financially support the disease, your comments hit home. There is an even larger disease layered on top of this called “free money mentality”. It is the notion that if I can just take out of your pocket and put into mine we will all be better off and if either of us runs short, our uncle will just print some more money to get us through the month. There is no grasp of sound economic policy among these souls and the truth is many of them have no idea of the train wreck coming their way from all their excessive economic meddling.

    Of course, some blustering fool will now step up and sh*t all over himself about how insane it is for anybody who doesn’t think like him or her to post on an open and diverse discussion forum.

  144. bobaloo

    You are on a liberal weekly’s website, which makes your question kind of absurd.

    Translation: “I want an echo chamber where everyone agrees with everyone else.”

    If MX wants to limit the opinions that are posted here, I’m sure they can handle it. Until then, quit worrying about non-progressives posting.

  145. entopticon

    There goes that incessant clucking again.

    Completely oblivious to the comically hypocritical irony of his statement, travelah said: “Of course, some blustering fool will now step up and sh*t all over himself about how insane it is for anybody who doesn’t think like him or her to post on an open and diverse discussion forum.”

    The fact that you don’t even realize that you just described your own post with laser-accurate precision is just too hilarious.

    We’ve already established that you having been lying your ass off here travelah. Just like you always do. Why on Earth you would think your words are anything more than laughable remains a mystery.

    Think about it… if your right-wing extremist culture of gay-bashing, immigrant-bashing, muslim-bashing, liberal-bashing, anti-environmental insanity, and laissez faire trickle down economics was so great, you wouldn’t spend all day, every day, trolling the site of one of the most liberal of the liberal weeklies in the entire nation.

    Face it, your own vacuous, intellectually bankrupt, amoral culture completely repulses you to the point where you have to spend all your time on the website of a liberal website that is appropriately full of liberal content that pokes fun at people like you on a weekly basis.

    Wish as you might you will never find an article here about global warming being a hoax, or secret black Marxist conspiracies to turn us into a communist nation, or how immigrants are ruining American culture, or how evil gay marriage is, or how atheists are destroying Christmas, or about how great laissez faire trickle down economics is. In other words, your views are not and will never be represented here, so you aren’t here for the supposed diversity of opinions that you keep citing. That that has no basis in reality because this is, has been, and will always be a liberal weekly.

    It’s almost as funny as it is sad. I can only imagine the self-loathing that drives you here.

  146. entopticon

    Actually no bobaloo, but if you think that it is unreasonable for liberals to come to the website of a liberal weekly for liberal perspectives, you are even more challenged than I had imagined. Call me crazy, but I come to a liberal weekly’s website for liberal perspectives, the same as virtually anybody else who actually reads this paper, as opposed to the right wing trolls who spend all day here because of the hollow banality of their own media.

    You’ve made it clear that you have one foot in the center left and the other foot in the far right and you have already discussed you affection for the right-wing extremist site Pajamas Media in the past; it would be just as insane for me to go to Pajamas Media looking for diversity of opinion. Not all media represents all perspectives. It’s the job of the Citizen Times to objectively represent both sides of the issues. That’s not the job of the Asheville Tribune or the Mountain XPress.

    I do take amusement in the hilariously hypocritical irony of you trying to tell me what I can and can’t be concerned about, in the very same breath that you were chiding me that I should be more tolerant of diverse opinions. That truly is a level of hypocrisy that only a rare few such as you have mastered.

  147. travelah

    entoptee, unless you suffer from a mental illness that causes you to think you are a “we”, you haven’t established a thing except your inability to establish any credibility. I think “we” (and that means more than just myself) can rest assured knowing you never will. … rail on, blustering one ..

  148. John

    Mountain Xpress mission:

    http://www.mountainx.com/info/about

    To build community and strengthen democracy by serving an active, thoughtful readership at the local level – where the impact of citizen action is greatest.

    • We report independently, fairly and in-depth on local news and issues affecting Asheville and the surrounding region.

    • We chronicle the area’s vibrant arts-and-culture scene.

    • We treat our readers as participants in an ongoing civic dialogue.

    • We honor diversity.

    • We encourage excellent and innovative work in an equitable, respectful and collegial environment.

    • We offer exceptional and affordable media opportunities for local businesses, professionals and nonprofit groups to promote their goods and services.

    Local matters!

    MX does the best job in town discussing what’s happening in Asheville and the surrounding area. From movies to chickens and some politics. The liberal and conservative slants occur in the comments sections, not so much the content of the articles.

  149. entopticon

    Fine travelah, you brought this on yourself.

    All you have to do is tell us your full name here, and I will provide you with incontrovertible proof that you are a lying sack of @#$!

    I have to give my full name in order to prove it, so it is only fair that you do so in kind. Your bible actually has a passage about that if you recall.

    So what’s it going to be travelah? Are you going to put your money where your mouth is and stand behind your lies, or are you going to chicken out and take the cowardly route out the way that you always do?

  150. Jon Elliston

    Hey now,

    Please folks, desist from name-calling, as in “lying sack of @#$”

    Thank you,

    Jon Elliston
    Managing Editor

  151. entopticon

    John, are you afraid of travelah? Because your double standard is bizarrely hypocritical. You didn’t say a word about travel saying this about me:
    “Of course, some blustering fool will now step up and sh*t all over himself…,” or his saying that I suffer from mental illness, but you chose to single out my comment, which was purposely written to mirror travelah’s comment. That is why I even purposely used the @#$!@ which is LESS offensive than travelah’s “sh*t,” which is why you will see @#$! used in children’s cartoons, and certainly not sh*t.

    There is definitely a pattern here. This is certainly not the first time that you have chosen to arbitrarily ignore the right wing comments and single me out for merely mirroring insults. Do you even understand that by doing what you are doing you are saying that it is perfectly fine for the right-wing extremists to insult me however they want, but I am not even allowed to defend myself with with virtually identical language? Is the outlandish hypocrisy of that completely lost on you?

    If you disallow travelah et al from that sort of language I will gladly not use it as well, but for you to continually allow it from them and reprimand me for using virtually identical language is absolutely unconscionable.

  152. John

    Not a problem. I am enjoying your discussion with Trav from the sidelines and am interested to see the outcome.

  153. entopticon

    John said: “The liberal and conservative slants occur in the comments sections, not so much the content of the articles.”

    Either you have never picked up an actual copy of the Mountain XPress, or you have no idea of what you are speaking of. I’m sorry, but to say there is no liberal bias in the Mountain XPress is just plain ridiculous. It’s a liberal weekly that is nearly identical to countless liberal weeklies across the country. Any legitimate, intellectually honest assessment of the paper would find a liberal bias across the board. That’s not a bad thing and it doesn’t mean that people of many different backgrounds can enjoy it, but it is what it is.

  154. John

    I didn’t say no liberal bias. I said ‘not so much’. MX is not the huffington post. That is a liberal site for sure. The above article was completely unbiased with zero slant either way.

  155. gm.shoemaker

    What right wing extremists are insuling you, entopticon? I haven’t seen any of those here. If I were to insult you, you would know it.

  156. entopticon

    Gary, I thought that I made it pretty clear that in that particular case I was referring to travelah. I did not say that *every* right-wing extremist here has insulted me; sorry if you took it to meant that. I do agree with you that I would probably know it if you were insulting me.

  157. Jon Elliston

    Entop,

    You make a good point that we should not be calling each other “blustering fools” and the like here. I didn’t read travelah’s words as singling you out with that insult, but if he was, he shouldn’t have.

    Let’s play nice, now,

    Jon

  158. travelah

    entoptee, you are free to build your credibility any time you wish. Don’t let me hold you back. :)

  159. entopticon

    Gladly travelah. You have disparaged my character countless times now for not making my name public. All I ask is that you do the same. After all that are you really going to slink away from simply doing what you have criticized me for countless times?

    I understand that after the countless times that you have offensively insulted people here you may be a bit hesitant to share your real name here, but since you have maliciously criticized me countless times for hesitating to share my personal info here, it would be surreally hypocritical for you not to be willing to do what you have had no problem asking of me so many times.

    My credibility is not in jeopardy travelah, because unlike you, I am fiercely honest. You have repeatedly claimed that I was lying about having been published in an academic journal and you claimed that I lied about my college degrees. That means that one of us is lying, and since I have been telling the truth all along, I know that you have been lying all along.

    Previously I provided a link to an academic journal that published a review article that I wrote, and you claimed that you researched the link and proved that I was not really one of the authors in that journal. You have have reasserted that shameful lie here over and over again.

    I called you out on it. I gave you a chance to stand behind your lie, where you had absolutely nothing to lose if you had been telling the truth, but not surprisingly, you chickened out because you knew that you have been dishonest.

    Now I have lowered the stakes. All you have to do is the very thing that you have asked of me over and over and over again. There is absolutely no way for you to weasel your way out of this.

    All you have to do is to share your full name here and everybody here will know who it is that has been lying all of this time once and for all.

  160. entopticon

    Jon, I will try harder to play nice. If you read the thread, of course travelah was referring to me. All I ask for is a level playing field. It’s not fair to repeatedly single me out for the very thing that others were given a pass for. I’ve been careful to merely mirror the insults against me. In fact, that has been the case every time that I have been singled out.

    I openly admit there is a very silly side to battling travelah’s lies about me and that is probably lost on most people, it is my Andy Kauffman-esque fun, but I should have the right to defend myself against someone blatantly spreading lies about me.

  161. travelah

    entoptee, you cannot get anything right. Nobody is disparaging you for not making your real name public. Heck, all anybody has to do is go to your facebook page, Glen. It’s all your other crap that questionable.

  162. entopticon

    travelah, you have disparaged me for not making my info public, which is what it will take to show that you have been shamefully lying all of this time. Over and over you have spread your lies. So much for the commandment about not bearing false witness.

    You’ve asked me over and over again to share my private info here and now you are even going to be so cowardly that you won’t even do what you have asked so many times of me?!? Seriously, how do you look yourself in the mirror?

    Are you going to share your name with us here or are you going to take the coward’s way out yet again, and again, and again?

    I’m not asking you you anything that you haven’t asked of me. I will give my personal info and incontrovertibly prove that you have lied here over and over and over again. All you have to do is stop the cowardice and tell us all your name.

    What’s it going to be?

  163. bobaloo

    Actually no bobaloo, but if you think that it is unreasonable for liberals to come to the website of a liberal weekly for liberal perspectives, you are even more challenged than I had imagined.

    Actually no, entopticon, I didn’t say that. Please point to where I did. I said you wanted an echo chamber, which you do.
    You don’t like people other than liberals posting here. It’s an undeniable fact that you want this, and for you to claim otherwise is laughable.
    You should probably read that mission statement that was posted.

    You make a good point that we should not be calling each other “blustering fools” and the like here.

    That’s what the forums are for.

  164. bobaloo

    You’ve made it clear that you have one foot in the center left and the other foot in the far right

    Even thought you’re wrong, it’s still better than having your entire head crammed into the far left.

  165. entopticon

    Actually boobaloo, I would just like for these boards to at least vaguely represent the actual readership of the Mountain XPress, rather than being completely dominated by you and a handful of right-wing extremist yahoos that probably never picked up a copy of the Mountain Xpress in their lives. Again, it is not unreasonable of me to want that. Your nonsense about an echo chamber is just you talking out of the lower part of your anatomy, the way you always do.

    Yes, I come to the liberal weekly’s website to share in the liberal community that supports it. If I wanted to read the crackpot opinions of local right-wing extremists I would read the Asheville Tribune. That’s what it’s for. I’m sure the Tribune, the Stompers, the Ayn Rand cult, or the tea parties wouldn’t like it if liberals completely overwhelmed their communities either.

    You can keep saying that it is unreasonable for me not to want my local liberal weekly’s website not to be overwhelmed by right-wing extremist crackpots, but that won’t make it true and it certainly doesn’t make me closed-minded, despite your asinine claim to the contrary.

  166. John

    Entopticon – I think you are making invalid assumptions about the readership of MX. No where in their mission statement does it imply they have anything like the target audience you suggest. Regular people read MX because the ACT just doesn’t get the job done. Just because liberals like MX doesn’t mean centrists and ‘right wingers’ don’t read it also. 80% of what MX writes about applies to everybody.

  167. entopticon

    John, I agree that there are things in the XPress that may interest a wide range of readers from time to time. That said, any way you slice it it is a liberal weekly, virtually identical in form to countless other liberal weeklies across the country.

    I’m sorry, but I think it would be an extreme rarity for someone from the far right to actually read a liberal weekly on a regular basis. just like it would be extremely rare for a liberal to read a right-wing weekly like the Asheville Tribune on a regular basis. If the XPress didn’t have an overwhelmingly liberal slant, they would lose 99% of their readership overnight.

  168. travelah

    No, entoptee, you are not being disparaged for not sharing private information. I could care less. It doesn’t change the truth that you keep trying to pass yourself off as somebody you are not. It’s just empty internet blustering.

    Secondly, how in hell would you know who reads the MX and who doesn’t??

  169. John

    E – you are polarizing local, current events that all of Asheville attend. Asheville is a very diverse community that mixes very well on the streets. Lots of people use the MX web site especially to keep informed of Asheville happenings. Asheville is a very unique town and can’t be compared to others in the region or even the nation.

    As much as you like to ‘discuss’ things, I can’t believe you want to eliminate diverse opinions. Nobody has all the answers.

    Jon Elliston – have you ever collected demographics on your readers of the paper or the web site? I imagine the web site has a more diverse readership.

  170. entopticon

    travelah, it has been an absolute pleasure exposing you for your lying and cowardice.

    Over and over again you asked me to prove my claims, which would of course require my personal information, and over and over you have attacked me as a fake and a liar because I was hesitant to give my personal info.

    And when all I asked of you was the same that you have asked of me, you showed the true depths of your cowardice.

    Since your cyber-stalking clearly lead to my name, I will share it with you and prove to everyone here that you have been shamefully lying through your teeth once and for all.

    Here is the proof. Right on the introductory page you will find my name (first name Glenn, last name English, a former address is listed) and as an added bonus it even mentions that I have a Master’s degree, despite your fallacious claim to the contrary.

    Most importantly, you have repeatedly claimed that you researched this journal and proved that I couldn’t have really been one of the reviewers in it. You even claimed that you exposed me for lying and that I ran off with my tail between my legs.

    No matter how you slice it, those are BIG, FAT LIES. According to your bible, the punishment for bearing false witness is eternal damnation in a lake of fire, unless you repent and beg for forgiveness. I actually hope you don’t beg me for forgiveness because I look forward to you spending the rest of your life with the fear of eternal damnation on your shoulders.

    This is the link that proves your shameful lying once and for all. Read it and weep:
    http://books.google.com/books?id=0m123m6_OAcC&pg=PA151&lpg=PA151&dq;=“glenn+english”+art+and+the+brain&source=bl&ots=oBKHckvAXo&sig;=-hvgVXGFr0J2ijGQ582xx35u4sE&hl=en&ei=LccBSteVFJzItgevpbWVBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1#PPA4,M1

    Game. Set. Match. Thank you for playing.

  171. entopticon

    Oh, and by the way travelah, as for your question about how I know who reads the local liberal weekly, the Mountain XPress, that is like asking who reads the Asheville Tribune. If you really don’t know you are even more clueless than I imagined.

    Now go hang your head in shame since your shameful lying has been exposed for all to see.

  172. John

    E – The Tribune and MX are not comparable the way you suggest. At least 80% of the articles in the Tribune begin with their political position. It is a political paper with a bit of ancillary information. MX is the opposite in that the vast majority of their content is local news and events without any political leanings postured in the article.

    Demonstrate for us how the MX and Tribune hold equally strong, but opposite opinions. Look at the articles on both site right now. That is a fair sample of each site’s work.

  173. entopticon

    John, it’s true that the Tribune is more blatantly political. Right-wing extremists have never been known for their subtlety. That does in any way change the fact the the XPress has been, is, and probably always will be a liberal weekly, just like the countless other liberal weeklies across the country that it emulates.

    It would actually be hilarious to see the XPress drop their liberal bias. For one thing, there is no shortage of right-wing equivalents to the left-wing cartoons that the XPress publishes every week. I would love to see the faces of actual XPress readers (as opposed to the right wing trolls that completely dominate these boards) when they saw the right-wing cartoons making fun of gay marriage, global warming, immigrants, equal pay for women, etc, etc, right next to the Tom Tomorrow!

    I would love to see actual XPress readers’ reaction to a Michael Medved type right-wing extremist movie critic right along side cranky Hanky.

    I would love to see actual XPress readers’ reaction to Rob Brezny’s Real Astrology being replaced every other week with fundamentalist Christian affirmations.

    I would love to see actual XPress readers’ reactions to 5% of the articles having a right wing slant!

    I would love to see the look on the average XPress reader’s face when the cultural listings were equally divided between left-leaning and right-leaning media. That would be too hysterically funny.

    And the list goes on and on and on. It would be very easy for the Mountain XPress to stop being a liberal weekly that networks with and emulates countless other liberal weeklies across the country. The only small problem is they would lose nearly their entire readership over night.

    Unless the XPress took at least a few of those steps, it would be absolutely ridiculous for them to pretend to be anything except for the liberal weekly that it is.

    Some people just don’t get that the biggest problem with Fox News isn’t the right-wing extremist bias, it is their absurd claim that they are being fair and balanced in their reporting. Like many others, I would have far less of a problem with them if they just had the integrity to admit that they have a heavy right-wing slant. Nobody is fooled.

    Like you John, I actually have many friends from across the aisle. That doesn’t change the fact that I can appreciate a local liberal weekly that is geared to the liberal community. I don’t go into an Italian restaurant for Vietnamese food or a vegetarian restaurant for a steak either. A weekly has no more obligation to be all things for all people than a restaurant does.

    There is a place for objective balance, and that is the Citizen Times. There is nothing wrong with enjoying the community of a liberal weekly, or a right-wing weekly for that matter, if that’s what floats your boat.

  174. bobaloo

    I would just like for these boards to at least vaguely represent the actual readership of the Mountain XPress, rather than being completely dominated by you and a handful of right-wing extremist yahoos that probably never picked up a copy of the Mountain Xpress in their lives.

    First of all, I read the MX weekly, you presumptuous know-it-all.
    Second, it ain’t my fault the HuffPo faction doesn’t dominate the blog.
    Don’t you have some friends you could import over here to berate people who don’t agree with you?
    Third, if it bothers you so much, come on over to the forum. The liberal leaners are about 10 to 1 there.

    Again, it is not unreasonable of me to want that.

    Yeah, it is. It’s a public blog and forum. Welcome to the internets. Bitch and moan all you want, IT WON’T CHANGE.
    I bet if you didn’t spend all your time wringing your hands over “right-wing extremists” in yur base you’d find some people that agree with you.
    Want those people to go away? QUIT ENGAGING THEM.

    Your nonsense about an echo chamber is just you talking out of the lower part of your anatomy, the way you always do.

    I can make my butt talk, but it’s just pretend.
    My penis not so much.

    You can keep saying that it is unreasonable for me not to want my local liberal weekly’s website not to be overwhelmed by right-wing extremist crackpots, but that won’t make it true and it certainly doesn’t make me closed-minded, despite your asinine claim to the contrary.

    Do you even realize that you just keep saying the same things over and over?
    And you are close-minded, you don’t like debate, I’ve never seen you say you’re wrong and you stereotype more than anyone I’ve ever read on a blog. Not to mention you somehow manage to turn nearly every thread into a conversation about you.
    Actually, I think I’ll stop that now.
    Have fun in your little world. If you want to continue this start a topic on the forum.

  175. travelah

    poor entoptee … having the name Glen English and having a degree in Fine Arts no more legitimize your fantastic claims than claiming a mouse has fur.

    Now, the MX is read all over the area and on-line by a wide range of people with widely varying viewpoints. I have picked up a copy nearly every week at a small cafe in Fletcher for some time and every time I do, I see several others reading it as well. The reason it has a wide readership rather than one limited to the kook far fringe you seem to wallow in is because it is geared towards local interest, activities and discussion. If somebody wants to know what is going on this weekend, it is an excellent resource. If we want to know what the hot button issues are for the week, the MX is a good source for it. Because it welcomes a diverse expression of opinion, it is a good exchange of ideas (obviously the expression of the kook far fringe thought process tends to dimwit the free flowing exchange of ideas but that is just the price to pay for a diversity of opinion). I doubt there are any serious voices in agreement with you regarding your narrow and absurd viewpoint of who should be participating in these forums not to mention being in agreement with your insulting and vitriolic demeanor. For some it might be highly offensive. For myself it is simply further evidence that you are not what you claim.

    Now, for the intelligent and well mannered participants, what happened to the discussion about citizens tired of having their resources stolen through excessive taxation?

  176. John

    E – no matter what you say, many demographics read the MX. It is not the polar equivalent to the tribune. The tribune hardly touches local issues.

    The Huffington Post, left wing extremist site that also has no issues being blatantly political, is the polar equivalent to the tribune.

    Anyhow, I’ve never said it didn’t lean to the left. I said it did. You are the best at making a mountain out of a mole hill.

  177. John

    E – You should be proud and thankful that the leftward lean of the MX is read and accepted by a wide demographic. Instead, you want them to find someplace else. What’s up with that?

    I would think that the more people read MX the more they would appreciate things you support. Is that not what you want? Or do you just want to complain for the sake of it?

  178. entopticon

    boobaloo said: blah-blah-blah, yada, yada, yada

    I didn’t say you didn’t read the Mountain XPress boobaloo, you presumptuous know-nothing. I said you *and* a handful of right-wing extremist yahoos that probably never picked up a copy of the Mountain Xpress in their lives. I believe that you do read it. I actually think your personal icon (what appears to be a pig-man wrapped up in an American flag) sums you up perfectly. Excellent choice.

    It really is hilarious how you can never resist whining and whining and whining and whining and whining about me in the very same breath that you accuse me of whining. At least you are certainly consistent.

    As usual, your argument is ridiculous. I never said that the right wing extremists here don’t have the right to completely dominate a liberal weekly’s blogs, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it, and if you think they wouldn’t be equally offended if liberals completely dominated some public forum of theirs, then you are even more clueless than I had imagined.

    It actually wouldn’t be such a bad idea to put that to a test though. There is a plan for another tea party on the 4th of July. It would be interesting to see how the teabaggers would respond to having their protest completely overwhelmed by a horde of liberals. It’s a public event after all.

  179. gm.shoemaker

    “It actually wouldn’t be such a bad idea to put that to a test though. There is a plan for another tea party on the 4th of July. It would be interesting to see how the teabaggers would respond to having their protest completely overwhelmed by a horde of liberals. It’s a public event after all.”

    That would be a great idea. You are welcome!

    Bring your “peace”, “end the endless wars”, “end torture”, “repeal the patriot and military commissions act” signs and protest all of the other things that Obama said he would do, but didn’t.

    This really is about Bush/Obama and the drift our country has taken toward fascism and empire. If you guy don’t come, that proves that your really “just don’t get it”.

    We’ll keep a light on for you.

  180. John

    GM – don’t forget about Lobbyists in the White House and Obama, Biden and Clinton’s stance against gay marriage. You would think they would take big heat for their gay marriage positions, but they get a pass.

  181. entopticon

    travelah, what the hell are you talking about? You have NO shame. Are you insane? It’s over. I proved that you were lying through your teeth. Exactly what part of that don’t you understand?!?

    That link most certainly does prove that I was published in that academic journal, contrary to your lies. It is ABSOLUTE PROOF that you were lying all along.

    The funniest thing is, you even claimed that you researched that very journal edition and proved that I couldn’t have been one of the writers. You told that shameful lie here over and over and over again.

    You even went so far to say that after you proved that I hadn’t really been one of the contributors in that journal, the exact journal that I just proved that I was published in, that I was frightened off and ran away with my tail between my legs.

    Considering the fact that everybody here knows that that is BLATANTLY UNTRUE since I have proved that you were lying, your claims have devolved from lies to insanity.

    The gig is up travelah. Your lying and cowardice have been exposed, and you can never undo that.

    Here are just a couple small samples of your own words that incontrovertibly prove that you have been lying all along:

    “Basically, you are an underemployed Florida or whatever nobody transplant trying to pass yourself off as an intellectual achiever, falsely claiming to be a published expert, multi-degreed and frothing all over your chin at everybody and anybody who sees through your charade. You tucked tail and ran at least three times when your fake academia world was challenged and examined ….”

    I just proved that I have an ivy league Master’s degree and that I have been published in an academic journal. That means YOU WERE LYING. Obviously your claim that I tucked tail is another lie, because I just proved that it was YOU that was lying all along.

    And here is more absolute proof that you were LYING:
    “entop, you poor pitiful dummy. I researched the journal reference you provided after you changed your claim from being a published and peer reviewed author to being a reviewer. The journal you referred me to had two reviewers, both academics employed as such, living in California and you were not either one of them.”

    Everybody here can read that my name is listed right there as one of the contributors, which means that your fallacious claim was a flat-out LIE.

    By the way, if you weren’t so embarrassingly clueless you would know how ridiculous your misunderstanding of what a review article is is. It’s actually considered to be a pretty big honor, reserved for people who are considered to have particular expertise in the relevant fields, and the review article means it was both a review and an article, which they asked of me because they had to turn down many of the submissions in that case. If you had bothered to learn about it, you would have noticed that the other contributors in that issue are among the most renowned cognitive neuroscientists, artificial intelligence researchers, and philosophers in the world. I have lot’s to learn, but I was honored to be among them.

    It’s over travelah. You have been exposed for what you really are.

  182. entopticon

    Oh and travelah, we can’t forget my favorite example of you being busted by your own blatant lies of all:

    ” I already saw some of his earlier fabrication and checked him out. It was a fraud. However, if he can show he is a published author in a professional journal, as he claims, then I will apologize for casting doubt.”

    As I just incontrovertibly proved, that never happened. You made it up. It was a flat-out lie.

    I just proved that I was indeed published in the very journal that you just claimed you researched and proved that I wasn’t published in. Yes, that means you were caught RED-HANDED in a lie. There is no way out of it.

    So where is your apology travelah?!?!

    I love your euphemism for lying.. “casting doubt.” Now that’s rich.

    At some point it is going to sink in that you have been exposed for lying and there is no way for you to squirm your way out of it. You brought it on yourself travelah, and now you have to go on living knowing that everybody here knows about your lies.

  183. entopticon

    Gary, there is definitely some agreement there, but I was thinking of signs something more along the lines of:

    Calling Obama a Communist is Completely Idiotic!

    Isolationism is Sick!

    Universal Healthcare NOW!

    Laissez Faire Economics is as Insane as Ayn Rand Was!

    Tax the Rich, End Offshore Tax Shelters!

    More Money For Schools!

    There Is No Marxist Conspiracy!

    The Immigrants You Keep Bashing Are Direct Blood Relatives of the Indigenous People of This Land, And Most of You Are NOT!

    and my personal favorite,

    Teabag This!

    A great rule of thumb is, if Chad Nesbitt loves, loves loves your political stance, you are definitely on the wrong track and heading for disaster.

  184. travelah

    Entoptee, you have my apologies. You are indeed published as a reviewer in this publication. Now do those people know who you really are?

    The journal you provided to me earlier was not this one.

    (I did note that you have since turned your myspace page private)

  185. entopticon

    Thanks for the apologies travelah. It’s a start.

    Yes the people behind that journal know very well who I am. I have actually gotten to know them quite well over the years. As a matter of fact the Managing Editor is an ordained priest that has degrees in science and theology from Oxford. He once came and stayed at my house for a week with members from his church. I’ve also known some of the other contributors for many years, one particularly well. I have also refereed submissions for that journal in the past because they felt I was the most qualified person for the job.

    Disappointingly, you went on to say:

    “The journal you provided to me earlier was not this one.”

    As a matter of fact it was, and I can prove it. I can see that stopping lying is going to be a hard habit for you to break. For all of our sake and your own, please put a little more effort into it.

    No matter how many times I warn you, you always seem to forget that the truth can come back to haunt you here because it is all archived. The original link I gave was on May 4th, 2008 at 3:03PM. Read it and weep:
    http://www.mountainx.com/news/2007/hendersonville_next_stop_for_hillary/

    And this is the link that I provided:
    http://www.amazon.ca/Art-Brain-II-Investigations-Science/dp/toc/0907845126

    Same exact journal. My name is right there. No matter how you slice it, that incontrovertibly proves that you have been lying once again. You fabricated all of that nonsense about proving me to be a fraud, and I have proven it once and for all beyond any shadow of doubt.

  186. entopticon

    John, I have no problem with conservatives reading the XPress. You are creating a straw man argument. I just don’t believe that many right-wingers actually read it because it doesn’t represent their views or culture, and it literally mocks them on a weekly basis with its cartoons etc.

    You want me to be happy about the fact that the website of a liberal weekly is completely dominated by right-wing extremists, but that is not going to happen. I am not sayhing that they can’t be here, but I don’t have to like it. I don’t go to right-wing sites all day and complain about right-wingers, and I don’t complain about right-wingers dominating right wing sites. It is not unreasonable for me to come to this website hoping that the discussions would at least vaguely represent the demographics of the readership. If you think right-wingers dominate the readership as they do this site, you are out of your mind.

  187. John

    Maybe the fact that there are hardly any ‘left wing extremists’ commenting on this site says something. They are certainly not barred from entry.

  188. travelah

    entoptee, you have my apologies again. I suspect I researched a different volume than you supplied. (it should also be pointed out that writing a review does not make you a published academic. It means you reviewed someone’s work who is a published academic) Now, do those people know what a vitriolic hate filled soul you represent yourself as when dealing with people whose opinions differ from yours?

  189. travelah

    “Right wing extremists” do not dominate this site. That is simply absurd. In fact, I don’t know of any right wing extremists posting here unless they are posting as extreme left wingers trying to make leftists look really bad with their vitriolic hatred.

  190. entopticon

    travelah, along with your issues with lying, you have a whole lot of work to do in the apology and integrity departments as well.

    For future reference, when you are caught red-handed in a lie the correct response involves self-deprecation and pleading for forgiveness, not smarmy derision.

    You did not research a different volume than I supplied. That doesn’t even make any sense because I supplied a direct link. You have been busted red-handed in a lie. If you had any integrity at all you would own up to it, because the facts speak for themselves. You are like a small child covered in icing claiming that you didn’t eat the cake, but you aren’t 3 years old so you have no excuse. It’s too late. The facts have been proven.

    You continue to further embarrass yourself with your arrogant ignorance of the facts. For one thing, I already explained to you that a review article is in fact both a review and an article, and it most certainly was published in an academic journal.

    For future reference, you only make yourself look embarrassingly foolish when you sanctimoniously bluster about something that you clearly know absolutely nothing about whatsoever. By all means, continue to embarrass yourself if you need to.

    To answer your asinine question, yes they do know about my lack of tolerance for dishonesty and poorly reasoned garbage. They trust my bs detector, and that is why they had me referee papers for the journal. They have actually said some pretty flattering things over the years.

    It really is absolutely hilarious that your hypocrisy is so astoundingly outlandish that you actually had the gall to say: ” Now, do those people know what a vitriolic hate filled soul you represent yourself as when dealing with people whose opinions differ from yours?”

    Seriously, have you, the king of personal attacks, ever even read one of your own posts? You just described yourself to a tee, you _______ (you can fill in the blank yourself since I am trying to play nice). As opposed to you, I have no problem admitting that sometimes use harsh language when I engage shameful lies like yours, but at least I am honest. You should try it sometime.

    You will forever have to live with the public shame of being proven to be a liar here, and when you meet your maker you will have to account for bearing false witness. Since you clearly don’t know what it means to be truly repentant for your sins, the odds don’t look too good for you.

  191. entopticon

    Let me fill you in on a little secret travelah. Right-wing extremists don’t think of themselves as extremists. But don’t worry they are always quite easy to spot because they use completely idiotic terms like “Obamunism” and they are suspicious of the President’s birth certificate because his middle name is Hussein.

    If you want to know where they are hiding out, I can show you a particularly heinous one right now. Just go into your bathroom and take a look into the shiny glass panel just above the sink. You may find this seemingly simple act to be remarkably difficult because of your ongoing dishonesty, but don’t give up. Take a long, hard look at that guy and see if you can’t find some long lost integrity hiding deep down in inside him somewhere.

  192. bobaloo

    I didn’t say you didn’t read the Mountain XPress boobaloo, you presumptuous know-nothing. I said you *and* a handful of right-wing extremist yahoos that probably never picked up a copy of the Mountain Xpress in their lives. I believe that you do read it.

    Okay, I said I wasn’t going to respond to you anymore, but this is too much.

    So. You said I’ve probably never read it in my whole life, yet you believe I do read it.

    DO YOU HEAR YOURSELF?

  193. bobaloo

    And that’s Captain America, you elitist, not some pig person. I’m sure comic books are above you.

  194. entopticon

    Exactly what part of *and* don’t you understand boobaloo? They even use that word in comic books, chief. Think of it this way, because it might help you…. You, the apparent soulmate of the comic book guy from the Simpsons who reads the XPress sometimes and frequents this site with your sanctimonious and less than clever nonsense… *and*…. a bunch of right wing extremists who have probably never read the XPress in their lives do too. I wasn’t calling you a right wing extremist. As I already said, you seem to have one foot in both camps, and frankly I have more respect for them than I do for you.

    Sorry, but your icon honestly looks like a pig-man wrapped in an American flag to me, so I will always think of you that way. Can’t say I was ever a fan of Captain America, in fact I think he kind of sucks ass, but hey, enjoy your comic book hero. Golly, how elitist of me. I even pick up a book without pictures in it once in a while.

  195. entopticon

    Oh, and boobaloo the non-elitist Captain America fan, I don’t recall ever starting up with you and you know perfectly well that I am not going to let you get away with attacking me with your nonsense yet you keep doing it anyway, so don’t pretend that you weren’t asking for it. I enjoy getting your goat, but only because you start it over and over again without provocation.

  196. travelah

    entoptee, you are “trying to place nice” but you have to be Asheville’s biggest failure at it. I still think you are a complete fraud. The idea a group of oddball “academics” would trust your judgment on anything is astounding. Even the MX doesn’t trust your judgment, you know, that weekly right wing dominated newspaper pretending to be liberal.

    Now about those tax protests.

  197. gm.shoemaker

    What tax protests? That was on April 15th in Asheville, NC. Why talk about that now.

    Go back to your juvenile bickering. You all do it so well.

  198. entopticon

    Let’s get this straight travelah… After I incontrovertibly proved you to be lying on several counts for over a year now, you are calling me a fraud?!?

    Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaahaaaaaahaaaaaahaa!

    Today I proved that that you have been lying your head off for the last year and I was telling the truth the entire time. When you call me a fraud you just compound your hypocrisy and humiliate yourself even further, and you probably shouldn’t push it because today you suffered the ultimate public humiliation. You were proven to be lying for the last year in front of all of these people. Clearly you are still in denial, but at some point the profound depths of your humiliation is going to catch up with you.

    Many times over the last year you claimed that you proved that I didn’t have a review article in that journal. I proved you wrong, which means that it is a FACT that you have been bearing false witness against me for over a year.

    According to your bible, the punishment for bearing false witness is eternal damnation in a lake of fire. Enjoy.

  199. travelah

    Yes, your entire presentation of yourself is a fraud. You are actually just a little nobody over in Candler blustering your way through life and irrelevant to just about anything except yourself. Just read your crap and see.

    Now about those tax protests

  200. entopticon

    travelah, you can keep calling me a fraud all you want, but the difference between you and I is that no one can dispute that I have incontrovertible proof that you are a fraud, and all you have is hot air.

    Where you accused me of being a fraud, I proved that I was telling the truth all along and you were flat-out lying, so for you to call me a fraud is absolutely hysterical. Everybody here now knows you have been lying your head off for over a year.

  201. entopticon

    And by the way travelah, you sure do seem to get off on saying my name and the town I live in here, but I’ve noticed that you are still too crippled with by your own cowardice to do what you exactly what you asked me to do time and time again, and give your name as well.

    I guess you never noticed that your bible commands against that too.

    Do you need a memory refresher travelah? …. “entop, identify yourself as a published academic and stop playing with dung. You either are who claim you are or you are not. As of now you are merely an anonymous internet entertainer whose previous claims were refuted.”

    Your cowardice is only exceeded by your hypocrisy.

  202. bobaloo

    Oh, and boobaloo the non-elitist Captain America fan, I don’t recall ever starting up with you and you know perfectly well that I am not going to let you get away with attacking me with your nonsense yet you keep doing it anyway, so don’t pretend that you weren’t asking for it. I enjoy getting your goat, but only because you start it over and over again without provocation

    Heh, I’m not the one who’s written two trillion words on this blog to prove how awesome and smart I am.

  203. entopticon

    No doubt. I especially liked the parts where travelah was caught red-handed in blatant lies that he has been telling here for over a year. They were just hilarious. And his cowardice rather than having some integrity and begging for forgiveness, even after he was exposed for lying beyond any shadow of doubt, was an absolute riot.

    But the funniest thing of all was where after he was flat-out, irrefutably exposed for lying and I was completely vindicated he turned around and said that I was the fraud. The fact that travelah thinks that he can get caught blatantly lying and get away with calling me a fraud is absolutely hysterical. Few things are more amusing than travelah’s astonishing hypocrisy.

  204. entopticon

    Heh, boobaloo, apparently you haven’t been reading your own posts, but don’t worry, I will never, ever, ever make the mistake of believing that you are either awesome, or smart.

  205. travelah

    entoptee, do you really believe a book review printed in the academic version of a comic book grants you any sense of credibility? Come on now, the printed words of kookery remain just that. :)

  206. entopticon

    travelah, do you really believe that disparaging one of the most renowned journals on the scientific study of consciousness in the world is going to somehow lesson the fact that your shameful lying and complete lack of character has been exposed for all to see?

    Unless you are mentally deficient or outright lying, you would not be calling that journal the academic version of a comic book. Let’s take a look at a few of the authors in that particular issue:

    V. S. Ramachandran is probably one of the top 5 most important neuroscientists on the planet. He is a regular on science programs on television. Newsweek named him one of the 100 most important people for the next century. The President of India conferred on him the second highest civilian award and honorific title in the nation. His books have been translated into nine languages. He has published over 180 papers in scientific journals (including five invited review articles in the Scientific American) and formed the basis for a two part television series in the UK and a one hour PBS special.

    Alva Noe is a household name in science of mind circles. His work with Kevin O’Reagan has profound implications for the scientific study of the sensorimotor role of perception. His MIT Press book is one of the most important books cognitive neuroscience books ever written.

    Joseph Goguen, who was also Editor in Chief of the journal before his death, is world famous for his artificial intelligence work in advanced mathematics and algebraic semantics.

    Larry Hardin wrote one of the foremost books on the philosophical questions in cognitive neuroscience ever written. It was one of the central texts in one of my cognitive neuroscience courses at UPenn.

    Amy Ione, an old friend of mine, is one of the foremost academics studying the intersection of art and cognitive neuroscience. Together with her writing partner Chris Tyler, the inventor of the random dot stereogram (the science behind those magic eye posters) she runs the Diatrope Institute.

    Erik Myin is one of the most important AI researchers in the area of sensorimotor perception.

    Jennifer Church, of Vasser, is world renowned in the philosophy of mind.

    Robert Solso is a world renowned cognitive scientist who wrote one of the most important books ever written on art and cog-sci.

    Richard Taylor’s work on fractals in visual science, particularly electronic and optical nano devices, is among the most important in the field.

    In other words, you have a hell of a lot of nerve lying to everybody here again. How quickly you forget that the biblical punishment for bearing false witness is eternal damnation in a lake of fire. Your lies just dig you in further, and further, and further…

  207. entopticon

    Oh and by the way travelah, since you just referred to a world renowned journal with several world renowned academics, including one who Newsweek called one of the most important people of the next century…

    What exactly is it that makes you so God damned superior?

    Since even V.S. Ramachandran. Alva Noe, Larry Hardin, Joseph Goguen, and Jennifer Church’s articles are just comic book academia by your right-wing fundamentalist crackpot standards, exactly what is it that you have done that is so God damned superior to their work? Should I be looking for you as a world renowned expert in the newspapers and on TV?

    Or did you just trip yourself up in your sanctimonious lies and hypocrisy, just like always?

  208. entopticon

    Oh, and travelah….

    You should probably alert all of the Nobel Prize winners, Pulitzer Prize winners, and National Medal of Science winners who took time out of their busy lives to write papers for the journal that you just disparaged that you are just so much smarter and more advanced than all of them.

    Now tell us travelah, since all of those Nobel Prize winners, Pulitzer Prize winners, and National medal of science winners are all just the comic book version of academics by your rigorous standards…. What EXACTLY is it that you have done that is so God damned superior to all of them?

  209. travelah

    Ha … entoptee, I am guessing that really struck a nerve or two … are you affiliated with glolady in any fashion? I am still trying to figure out what your degree in fine arts has to do with neural-science and quantum physics. :)

    Now about those tax protesters…

  210. entopticon

    travelah, to answer your query, my graduate work had to do with the intersection of cognitive neuroscience and the arts. And subsequently I did quite a bit of writing and consulting on the syntactical structures of mental imagery as well as visual and lexical modalities of communication.

    Physics is not my field, although I have studied the implications of quantum physics for the study of human consciousness with some of the world’s leading researchers in the field and nonlinear dynamics with the head of the nonlinear dynamics lab at Los Alamos National Laboratories. I did give a short lecture on the implications of string theory for cognitive neuroscience and the study of consciousness downtown last year, but it was very general. I was recently approached about giving a presentation on advancing ideas in the intersection of the arts and cognitive neuroscience for the upcoming Asheville TED talks.

    Now are you going to answer my question? Either you were bearing false witness, or you really believe that one of the world’s most renowned journals, which has published Nobel Prize winners, Pulitzer Prize winners, and National Medal of Science winners is comic book academia by your standards.

    So which is it…. were you you lying yet again or have you accomplished something that makes it reasonable for you to claim that Nobel Prize winners are comic book academics by your standards?

    Of course, we both know that the answer is that you were caught flat-out in a disgraceful lie yet again.

  211. travelah

    I already addressed your flat head question by pointing out that a couple of the smartest people I know were lunatic mad hatters. Eat some pie and ponder it. I am “sure” you have studied and chewed the fat with the best and the brightest. … man, put a new screen door on that trailer over in Candler, boy.

  212. entopticon

    Bwaaaaaaahhhhahhhahhhaaaaaaa! Your argument is that Nobel Prize winners, Pulitzer Prize winners, and National Medal of Science winners, all of whom have published in the journal that you call comic book academia, are “lunatic mad hatters’?!? Newsweek named VS Ramachandrwn one of the top 100 most important people of the next century even though he is a lunatic mad hatter?

    You lie and you lie and you lie and you lie… And even after you have been flat-out busted on your lying, on numerous occasions now, you just keep lying. How you look yourself in the mirror is a mystery. You have disgraced yourself over and over.

    It is reasonable to assume that at very least you have published in academic journals that you consider superior. So give us some evidence. Come on travelah, what academic journals have you published in? ANSWER THE QUESTION!!!

    Speaking of mad hatters, members of a 2000 year old Roman cult that worships a magical giant who floats around in the clouds and meddles in the outcomes of football games probably shouldn’t be calling other people lunatics.

    Oh, and don’t forget to tell us what makes you so superior that you look down on Nobel Prize winners as comic book academics.

    And by the way, I found the trailer park dig to be very interesting coming from you.

  213. gm.shoemaker

    There will be an Asheville Declaration of Independence Rally in front of the Buncombe County Court House at 3 p.m., you guessed it, it is on July 4th. This is being sponsored by the non-partisan group known as the Asheville Tea Party.

  214. entopticon

    oh and travelah, as for your persistent trailer park digs at Candler…. I’m pretty fortunate, but some of my neighbors do live in trailers and they are very fine people in my experience.

    One old friend of mine, a former BU Professor who used to run a forum on art and neuroscience with me, lives right down the road from me here in Candler now. Before he moved down here he was in an MIT/BU think tank. We co-curated a joint project with MIT’s Center For Advanced Visual Studies a little over a decade ago. I guess they are lunatics too, eh? His wife, a wonderful old friend as well, is from an old NC family that has a town here named after them.

    Maybe it’s not such a good idea for you to keep generalizing and assuming, because you only dig yourself in deeper and deeper.

    Don’t forget travelah… you opened the door… Now what academic journals have YOU published in?

  215. entopticon

    oh and travelah, as for your persistent trailer park digs at Candler…. I’m pretty fortunate, but some of my neighbors do live in trailers and they are very fine people in my experience.

    One old friend of mine, a former BU Professor who used to run a forum on art and neuroscience with me, lives right down the road from me here in Candler now. Before he moved down here he was in an MIT/BU think tank. We co-curated a joint project with MIT’s Center For Advanced Visual Studies a little over a decade ago. I guess they are lunatics too, eh? His wife, a wonderful old friend as well, is from an old NC family that has a town here named after them.

  216. entopticon

    oh and travelah, as for your persistent trailer park digs at Candler…. I’m pretty fortunate, but some of my neighbors do live in trailers and they are very fine people in my experience.

    One old friend of mine, a former BU Professor who used to run a forum on art and neuroscience with me, lives right down the road from me here in Candler now. Before he moved down here he was in an MIT/BU think tank. We co-curated a joint project with MIT’s Center For Advanced Visual Studies a little over a decade ago. I guess they are lunatics too, eh? His wife, a wonderful old friend as well, is from an old NC family that has a town here named after them.

    Now tell us… What academic journals have YOU published in? You are just an anonymous internet user who could be anybody, blah-blah-blah, yada, yada yada….. Sound familiar?

    So what’s the answer travelah?

  217. entopticon

    oh and travelah, as for your persistent trailer park digs at Candler…. I’m pretty fortunate, but some of my neighbors do live in trailers and they are very fine people in my experience.

    One old friend of mine, a former BU Professor who used to run a forum on art and neuroscience with me, lives right down the road from me here in Candler now. Before he moved down here he was in an MIT/BU think tank. We co-curated a joint project with MIT’s Center For Advanced Visual Studies a little over a decade ago. I guess they are lunatics too, eh? His wife, a wonderful old friend as well, is from an old NC family that has a town here named after them.

    Now tell us… What academic journals have YOU published in? You are just an anonymous internet user who could be anybody, blah-blah-blah, yada, yada yada….. Sound familiar?

    So what’s the answer travelah?

  218. gm.shoemaker

    ‘And by the way, I found the trailer park dig to be very interesting coming from you.”

    I am pretty sure that no one else has found any of this exchange between the two of you to be of any interest at all.

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