And so the cover-up begins

Honestly, I swear I'll never understand just how the minds of those that run Conservapedia work. It's fairly common knowledge that long-time administrator and de facto leader of Conservapedia, Terry Koeckritz, has passed on. Yet, besides a passing comment in the sysops' chat group, where they had to rely on information from RationalWiki, not a word has been said about it. Andrew Schlafly discouraged any mention of it on CP's main page, with vague references to "vile liberal trolls" - kind of ironic, given the number of graves he's danced on in the past.

Where it gets really weird, however, is when Andy and his cohorts - in this case John Patti - actively lie through their teeth and then in true Conservapedia fashion, punish the editor and remove any evidence the question was asked.

Thanks, Conservaleaks

Those with more tech savvy than yours truly, have gone to the incredible effort of not only posting all the previously leaked Conservapedia discussions, but also cleaning them up, labelling them and collating them in alphabetical order, in an easy-to-browse format.

To all those involved, my heartfelt gratitude.

You can visit the collated archives here.

He Who Laughs Last

I've sat here for ages thinking about how I'm going to word this, as there's an awful lot that needs to be said and I don't want to take up too much room saying it. It's also a post I wasn't expecting to be making for some time, but sadly things have changed, and there's really no point in carrying on this subterfuge any longer. Besides, I think he'd want to go with a bang, while he's still fresh in people's memories.

I suppose I should start at the beginning, with the first of many confessions. Although it's probably the worst-kept secret, let me come out and say for once and for all that, yes, I was the charming, funny, courteous and helpful Conservapedia sysop, JessicaT (宜しくお願いします!). Ironically, this will have the CP types who read this up in arms, screaming "Liberal!" and yet, they would be hard-pressed to find one thing that little Jessica did to harm CP while she was there. Except for her constant fighting with one Terry Koeckritz...

Housekeeping

I've decided to go through the archives and remove all posts referring directly to the late Terry Koeckritz.

After all, there's no point in demonising the dead and I'm sure Andrew Schlafly and his remaining cohorts will provide plenty to write about in the months to come.

UPDATE

I must confess, I never expected the strength of feeling that my decisions to "retire" certain posts caused. I guess I didn't really think it through and made the mistake of seperating the man from the institution he ran (into the ground). The final clincher was the closing comment by TGoGJ

Don’t ever let the CP admin forget how badly they got taken by that man. Don’t you dare.

Or maybe I'm just wishy-washy and indecisive. I dunno...

Either way, the posts have been restored, for better or worse.

 

End of an Era

Wow, that was quite a surprise this morning - logging on to find that everybody's favourite internet troll, Terry Koeckritz, has rung down the curtain and joined the choir invisible, to coin a phrase. At least that should quell the ongoing speculation about his whereabouts over the past month, whilst possibly fuelling a new discussion about his current whereabouts. (ooh, did I just say that?)

How do I feel about it? Well, Terry was a source of endless material for my humble blog and his antics will be sorely missed. In a way, I feel a little bad for referring to the "Ding! Dong! The Witch is Dead" song, in my January 17^th post below. The impact he left on Conservapedia will be lasting, if not ultimately fatal. He leaves behind a website which he almost single-handedly transformed from a growing, vibrant, but slightly deranged community, into a barren wasteland, populated only by several highly paranoid administrators. Conservapedia might bounce back, but it will take a combination of time and a relaxing of the rampant paranoia (not to mention rank stupidity) that keeps good-faith editors away.

But how do I feel about Terry passing? Some say the opposite of love is hate. It's not. Those two fight it out on the same face of this particular coin. No, the opposite of love, or hate, is antipathy. And that's what I feel. I'm sorry for his family, especially his mother, for whom this must be very hard, but as far as Terry Koeckritz goes... I feel nothing.

 

Andrew Schlafly, Idiot

Yes, I know, you're all thinking, "So what's new?" but it is gratifying when Conservapedia founder and self-proclaimed home-school teacher, Andrew Schlafly opens his mouth and displays his complete and utter ignorance for all to see. If he's not begging some State's Supreme Court to ignore their constitution because of a "heartfelt" letter George Washington wrote to a family member, then he's banging on about global warming... or the lack thereof.

I've mentioned elsewhere about Andy's penchant for writing off global warming fears as "liberal claptrap" - his new pet phrase since "Godspeed" and "You're clueless" went out of fashion. His basic spiel is to say something along the lines of "Ooh, there's a massive snowstorm in the Midwest today. So much for the liberal claptrap of global warming."

Now, it's understandible that Andy has to follow in Mama S's conservative footsteps, but you'd think he man would have an inkling of how this thing he doesn't believe in works. After all, he does have an engineering degree from Princeton. Now, the easiest way to describe all this would be as follows:

Warmer weather = warmer seas = more evaporation = more water vapour in air = blown inland by air currents = if it's hot, you get floods (Queensland); if it's cold, you get increased snowfall (US & Europe).

Now, before all you techy types start writing me long messages, employing irony, that is the very, very simplified version. I'm trying to phrase it in terms the Conservapedia administrators will understand... although I'll probably have to resort to pictures for a few of them.

Anyway, long story short, Andy posted yet another "It's cold, so global warming isn't happening" story. A soon-to-be-banned user enquired politely is Andy wasn't confusing "weather" with "climate." Ok, so he also called Andy's right-wing hate blog a blog, so he deserved everything coming to him.

This involved local swabbie with anger issues, Brian Macdonald, swaggering over in true Karajou style, blocking the user and instead of addressing the issue, decodes to speak to the dead:

While you're banned as the troll/vandal you are - and since you like reading blogs - I suggest you try reading this one: http://wattsupwiththat.com/climategate/

Once again ignoring that Climategate was blown all out of proportion by right-wing fuckheads like Brian. Don't worry, I'm sure Brian doesn't mind me calling him a fuckhead (although "forecastle's bitch" might make him blow a fuse), seeing as he concluded our last little chat by saying that he'd be laughing in heaven, while I burnt in hell. What a nice fuckhead he is.

Not to be outdone, Andy also feels the need to speak to the dead and it's with his quote that I'll close off. Because really, you can only let such rank stupidity speak for itself:

"PhineasR", snowfall is correlated with cold weather, and much snowfall is a counterexample to the liberal claim of dangerous global warming.  Here we observe events and data with an open mind

Pathetic Parables

This is a silly little thing really, but it does underscore the... well, I'm not sure really - gullibility, rank stupidity maybe? Or maybe the principle that is rife on Conservapedia - why let a few pesky facts get in the way of a good story? Now, I don't mind twisting a few facts to suit one's needs  - we all do that - but when simple irrefutable facts are ignored, one has to raise one's eyebrows.

Such is the case with everybody's favourite swabbie, Conservapedia administrator Karajou (so much for the "use your real first name and initial" rule, hey Brian?). Now Mr Angry, as we've come to know and love him, recently posted a pretty little parable on his talk page. You've probably seen it yourself. You might even know that the whole thing has been proven to be a pretty lame fake. Of course, nothing like this is going to get in the way of Brian wanting to make a point and so he blunders forth.

The parable begins:

This Happened In Germany Years Before Hitler Took Over:

'Let me explain the problem science has with religion. ' The atheist professor of philosophy pauses before his class and then asks one of his new students to stand.

'You're a Christian, aren't you, son?'

'Yes sir, 'the student says."

It then goes on about how this good, clean Christian student goes on to trounce (with very dodgy logic) his "atheist professor." All well and fine, until you get to the clincher:

The student was Albert Einstein.

Once again, I'm left bereft of words to sum up, when Brian has done such a great job illustrating my point. Either the man thinks Einstein is a Christian, which is not beyond the realms of possibility, or he's willing to post anything that conforms to his twisted worldview, or he's just a moron who can do little more than "stimulus - response."