Self Strangulation

If you've tried to visit Conservapedia recently, especially from a location outside the US of A, chances are you've been met by the notice above.  Don't worry, there's nothing wrong with your browser, or your connection - it simply means that Conservapedia's administrators have blocked you from viewing their site at server levels. That's right - not content with banning people from editing their little right-wing hate-blog, they're  now preventing people - especially all those nasty, liberal non-Americans - from even looking at the crap they publish.

Ok, so the actual reason is a bit more complex than that. It would appear as if our friends over at Conservapedia have been one of a number of site that have been under a Denial of Service attack (DoS). What this essentially means is that the host server is flooded with automated requests, which either slow it right down, or cause the server - and linked web pages - to crash.

There appear to be two groups behind the latest swathe of attacks - the first being hacker group Anonymous, who have launched a war on copyright and the other seeming to be extortionist attacks, originating from China. As with most things, those in the know tackle the problem and get on with their lives.

But not Conservapedia.

Oh no, first of all they have to massage their massive persecution complex, because - of course - this DoS attack is all about them. And it's not a bunch of Oriental crooks trying to squeeze them for a dollar, nor is it Anon using CP to make a point. Oh no, as "senior" administrator Brian Macdonald, aka Karajou, puts it:

What this means to the average layman reading this is a DDoS attack is conducted by the liberal left when they are faced with an idea they don't like; There are people who do not like conservatism; they do not like the morals and responsibility and accountability which is attached to conservatism. They cannot stand God, they cannot stand the Bible, and many of them are quick to dismiss "Jeebus" - as they call Jesus - as nothing more than a farce. And most of all they cannot stand anyone who would adhere to any of it. What they did to Conservapedia during the past 24 hours is very typical of their "philosophy", which is to shut down any kind of speech they don't like.

See what I mean about persecution complex? The entire machinery of the "liberal left" has been fired up to take down a two-bit backwater of a hate-blog, because you know, whenever somebody says "God", we just have the urge to do so. How dare people interfere in our site. No doubt, there has been plenty of communication with the FBI over this "vandalism" to CP. Karajou, however, has to go one step further. The DoS attack isn't because CP is a right-wing, fundie, loonie, Birther, hate-blog that liberals hate. Oh no, it's because Karajou drew a pathetic, unfunny cartoon, mocking a professor that most people have never heard of. Now how's that for a persecution complex??

However, Brian's insecurities - as many as there are - aren't the focus of this posting. It's more about Conservapedia's reaction to the DoS attack. You see, it's safe to say that the actual combined PC knowledge of CP's administrators could be written on a pinhead, with enough room left over for a good old Angel square-dance. At least they have enough gumption not to give Ed Poor bureaucrat rights and server access, no matter how many times "User 188" hints at his non-existent expertise.

Now I'm no IT boffin myself, but I'm pretty sure there must be easier ways to fend off a DoS attack than blocking half the world at server level. Otherwise, every time one happened, half the internet would suddenly be off-line. However, if there's one thing CP's administrators know how to do well - and are indeed praised for by Andrew Schlafly - it's blocking. So what better way to fend off an attack by "liberals" than by blocking them? Schlafly has even gone as far as granting server-level access to the remaining admins in his inner circle (well Karajou and Jpatt anyway. I wouldn't trust Ed Poor, Conservative or Rob Smith with an ice-cream cone, let alone a server) in order for them to make 403 range blocks.

As with all things Conservapedia, these are done to extremes, with not only large parts of the world in general and the USA in particular blocked from even reading the crap on Conservapedia, you can also bet that these aren't blocks that will expire with in a day or two, one the attack has stopped. Oh no, especially if Karajou and Jpatt are involved. These two champions rarely block for anything less than 5 years and mostly for infinity.

Which means that the site that constantly cries about conservative thought being censored have effectively cut themselves off from most of the internet, with more likely to follow. So it's somehow liberals' fault that the people running Conservapedia, instead of having the brains to how how to run a site, can only draw the wagons into an ever-tighter laager. Got to love that persecution complex.

Addendum:

Just to prove that Andy Schlafly is a lying sack of shit, in the wake of the massive DoS attack and Conservapedia shutting itself off from the outside world, just how does Andrew Schlafly deal with the matter? Well, delusionally, it would appear, as he proclaims:

Conservapedia has broken its March record for the number of unique visitors

I know today's April Fools, and I really wish I was joking. But sadly, I'm not.  You may now commence beating your head on the desk.

 

Andrew Schlafly - Misogynist

I know, everybody's reading the header and going, "Yeah? So? We know that - don't you remember his 'girls are inferior to boys' exams?" Of course I do, but it's not everyday that Andy "Brother Leader" Schlafly really shows us just what a misogynistic piece of crap he actually his.  In his world, women should be at home, in the kitchen, preferably pregnant and home-schooling the kids.

You know, like his mummy Phyllis did, when she wasn't out doing book signings... or speaking against women's rights... or advocating marital rape... or running her "university"... or...

The fun thing with Andy is that he has so many crazy toes that you're never quite sure just where and when they're going to bring forth another pustule of hate from his bitter, twisted little mind. In this case, it's while discussing the "Greatest Conservative Movies" - remember, in Andyland, everything can be classified into either conservative or liberal. Andy takes exception to the Disney movie "The Princess and the Frog," not because it's an awful film - and thankfully the end of Disney's princesses - but because it's full of rampant feminism. At least he didn't mention the affirmative action princess. Yet.

As with all things Andy, I feel it's best to let his words speak for him, because following on from the rank stupidity (and hate) of the pathetic comments below, I actually have nothing more to say except that the man is a festering bubo, harbouring the kind of insecurities that only come from a man who pretends to be macho, but behind the scenes, his wife handcuffs him to the bed and whips him bloody. Because that's how he gets off and it makes him feel so dirty.

Spotsbunch, I think you have a valid point about the Lion King, but from what I've heard about the "Princess and the Frog," it's feminist claptrap with the woman wearing the pants and doing everything except having children and homeschooling her kids. It's more Disney tripe about a successful businesswoman towing along an inept man, which is hardly typical in the real world. (link)

and

Feminism is unmistakable: it has women acting like men and vice-versa, contrary to reality. Disney cartoons have been ''heavily'' feminist for at least 15 years. ''Beauty and the Beast'', made 20 years ago, was not feminist in any way. But having a "Princess" act like businessman and aspire to run a restaurant is feminist. What's next - Cinderella aspires to be a CEO of a Fortune 500 company??? (link)

Bizarre Stuff

Over on FaceBook, there's a page dedicated to Conservapedia, although ironically, it's meant as a parody page. Clearly the site that Andrew Schlafly thinks is merely used for gossip and breaking up marriages, isn't worthy of having a site advertising themselves in a positive light. Then again, why would they need to - there are plenty of people viewing Conservapedia. Why, there's enough that Schlafly thinks CP is solely responsible for the U.S.'s lurch to the right.  (You see, this is the kind of thing that happens when you surround a megalomaniac with simpering, spineless toadies.)

Now there's a very good reason that I mentioned that the FB Conservapedia page was intended as parody, because there have been some strange happenings going on over there. So strange, in fact, that if I wasn't that familiar with the general what-the-fuckery associated with Conservapedia, I'd write it off as somebody taking the piss and leave it at that. It might still be a classic Poe, or it might even be the true identity of CP's International Mug of Mystery, Ken Demyer.

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.

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...

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

Encyclopaedic?

Andrew Schlafly has long held a grudge against Hollywood, as evidenced by the bizarre Hollywood Values article. This might be because it's full of "liberals" - liberals in this case meaning everybody who isn't Andy, Mama Phyllis or Saint Reagan Himself. Then again, Andy holding grudges is nothing new. He harbours similar grudges towards professors and, of course, against his former boss at the Harvard Law Review, Barack Obama.

What makes it even funnier, is when Andy works himself up into a fine old lather over something and demonstrates for all to see that Conservapedia no longer even vaguely resembles and encyclopaedia, but has merely become yet another right-wing hate-blog, from which Andy and his cohort of losers can spout their bile.

As Classy as Steaming Dog Crap on a Marble Floor

I was going to write an entry on just how classy Conservapedia has been, regarding the tragic shooting in Arizona, but I've decided against it, save to say a few words.

As with most tragedies, Andrew Schlafly and his cohorts have shown the grace and dignity of a steam pile of dog crap on a marble floor. Not content with branding the shooter a liberal and atheist, they've also taken to using his quotes in their "Nihilism" article. So much for reputable sources. He's also jumped on the "liberal" (as in  "they say things I don't agree with") New York Times, which issued a call for gun control. You have to understand that next to classroom prayer, and girls making cookies, gun control is closest to Andy's heart - never mind the fact that people like him shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a weapon. Of even a metal fork for that matter.

None so blind...

Oh yes, Happy Holidays, Merry New Year, Yippie Yule and all that jazz. Now on with the show.

As with all things conservative, Andrew Schlafly - and by default, his right-wing hate-blog Conservapedia - doesn't just toe the party line, he adheres to it with an intensity that often borders on the insane. Actually, more often than not, he veers over the "insane" line, straight into "dangerous wingnut" territory. One such example - ignoring such things as the horror of the Bible replacing "with child" with "pregnant" and "pledged to" with "engaged to" - is the ongoing debate about global warming and climate change.

Firstly, the fact that it's become such a politicised debate is a crying shame and one for which I sincerely hope world leaders (and the morons cheering them on) will be held accountable one day. There's a very simple solution to all this: let's say you impose all the emission restrictions and global warming is false. You're still benefiting from having a cleaner environment.

Of course, Andy and his ilk believe that the Rapture is coming any day now, so they can rape and pillage all they like. After all, God set man to have dominion over everything, so it's theirs to fuck up as they see fit. Seems God forgot to mention "responsibility" when he set things up. Thus they will squeal like the rodents they are when it comes to the whole debate about climate change. In this regard, Schlafly is not alone in latching onto the phrase "Global warming" - indeed he clings on with a tenacity that would make a bull terrier blush - happily ignoring the more inclusive term "Climate change."

Of course, at the root of it is the simple fact that Schlafly - and by implication, his goons, who are to a man too craven to contradict him - doesn't understand the difference between "climate" and "weather." So as a public service, because I know Schlafly and his henchmen read this blog, here's a simple definition of the two. I'm sorry, it doesn't have pictures, so one of you will have to explain this to Ken Demyer please.

• Climate: The meteorological conditions, including temperature, precipitation, and wind, that characteristically prevail in a particular region, as observed and measured over a number of years.


• Weather: What's happening outside your window at this moment in time.

Now, climate can affect weather, but weather cannot affect climate. And yes, colder weather can be as a result of warmer temperatures elsewhere. However, I don't expect your minuscule intellects to grasp that subtle point, so I'll carry on.

Here's a list of Schlafly (and his hand-picked thugs) mocking the apparent contradictions to global warming, whilst proudly displaying their monumental collective ignorance. Any rational human being, would read the news articles and start thinking "What's with all this strange weather?" but not Schlafly et al. Oh no, for them it's all a sign that global warming is just another liberal plot - you know, like healthcare, black holes, the Theory of Relativity and, of course, the Bible.

Warning: All weather-related news headlines are printed as is from CP's. I take no responsibility for any self inflicted injuries, due to an overload of stupidity.

• Blizzard hits New Jersey, and the acting Governor declares a state of emergency. Global warming???


• "Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina declared states of emergency" as a massive snowstorm sweeps across States that are normally warmer.


• "Bethlehem shines as Europe freezes."


• Atlanta will see its "first white Christmas since the Chester Arthur administration" in 1882. Global warming???


• Global warming? Many Europeans have been unable to get home for Christmas due to cold, severe weather. "Bitterly cold temperatures brought problems in Scandinavia" and "Britain's aviation regulator said it had written to several airlines about the 'unacceptable' failure to properly feed and accommodate stranded passengers."


• The lamestream media is not reporting the deadly cold temperatures in the United States, but the press in other nations is not so distorted: "Tuesday Was Coldest Day In Costa Rica In The Last 15 Years," and it is not even winter yet!


• A massive snowstorm causes the Minnesota Vikings' stadium dome to collapse.  The NFL was a big supporter of global warming losers in the midterm elections.


• "The first full week of December was the coldest on record for the period from Dec. 3 through Dec. 10" in North Carolina.  How much harm will be caused by liberals falsely pretending that there is global warming?


• The global warming scare was fun while it lasted, but the joke's over .... As western Europe shivers to a halt and our energy bills soar through the roof, the time has come when we should all start to get seriously angry with our politicians for being carried away by all this claptrap."


• The global warming hoax is deadly, misleading government into being unprepared for a devastating dumping of 32 inches of snow on Buffalo, stranding motorists in the cold for as long as 24 hours.


• As an unusually early snowfall covers Britain this weekend, new liberal claptrap emerges: pollution is slowing global warming! By the way, global temperatures are only a meagre 0.8 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.


• Global warming??? Nearly a foot of snow "causes 400 crashes in Minn; 2 die in Wis."


• Remember all that talk from liberals about how the Earth is experiencing a rapid warming? The last twelve-months have been the coldest temperatures recorded over the past 12-years.


• Get this from the liberal Science News: "Global Warming Could Cool Down Northern Temperatures in Winter."  Translation: it's getting cooler, so claim that is due to global warming too!

Actually I'll end off on that last one, because nothing illustrates more clearly what an imbecile this Harvard and Princeton educated engineer and lawyer is. This prize moron will still be bleating "La-la-la I can't hear you! There's no global warming!" as the glaciers are coming through his front door.

When is Parody not Parody?

The easy answer is "When it carries Andrew Schlafly's stamp of approval." Or any of the Fab Five (or is it Super Six) administrators of the encyclopaedia right-wing hate-blog that is Conservapedia. The most infamous example of this was the so-called "hit list" - a list of U.S. States with Democratic Senators, but Republican Governors. The implication appeared to be that should these Senators meet with an *ahem* untimely end, the Republican Governors would appoint Republican Senators.

Now this page remained on Conservapedia for some time and even achieved credibility by being edited by TWO Conservapedia administrators. It was only after Wonkette highlighted this page and the resulting internet shit-storm that broke out, that the article was deleted for containing "Inappropriate content." The irony is that the administrator who deleted the article, DeanS, was also one of those who edited - and thus validated - this "inappropriate content."

Of course, the more you read Conservapedia, the harder it becomes to distinguish parody from facts. I mean, once you've been past Andy's (and his minions') "Relativity is a liberal plot," "Obama's birth name is Barry Soetoro," "Atheists don't win the World Cup and don't build hospitals," "Belief in black holes could stop people reading the Bible," "The Bible is too liberal, let me make my own;" you're basically ready to accept the Pacific Northwest Arboreal Octopus as the real deal.

So, it's really not hard to create parody on Conservapedia. The sign of a true master, however, is having your parody endorsed by Andrew Schlafly. Second place would be having one of the other sysops approve it. This excludes Terry Koeckritz, however, as allowing parody to stand is all part of his nefarious plot to undermine CP from within.

There're a couple more examples I'd like to highlight.

The first is Conservapedia's article on "Liberal obsession." This cleverly worded article not only played on Andy's trend of creating "Liberal {insert noun} " articles, but also managed to highlight many of the absurd Conservapedia stances, by pretending to list them as items liberals obsess about. Examples include:

• Obsession over celebrities or Hollywood (as evidenced by Andy's fixation with "Hollywood values" and young starlets' breast cancer woes)


• Obsession on censorship of school prayer (this is Andy's standard fall back line when losing an argument)


• Obsessing over Global Warming


• Obsession over the homosexual agenda

And so the list goes. I guess the logic here is that if it looks like Andy and sounds as crazy as Andy, it must be Andy.

Which brings me neatly to my second point. Now, as with most things, Andy has next to no knowledge of football (For the benefit of the uncivilised, I'm talking soccer) At some point during the year, Andy became dimly aware that something called the World Cup was taking place. Once he'd made sure he wasn't getting confused with the World Series, he went on to pontificate that atheistic England could only draw with the USA, because God was on their side. Then he went on to say that Ghana beat the USA, thanks to the power of prayer. So it seems God changed sides - fickle bloke, this God fella. Needless to say, Andy's World Cup commentary - as with most things Andy - went downhill from there.

Now I told you that story, to tell you this one. CP does have a "Soccer" article. There's a few things you need to note about this. Firstly, courtesy of über-troll, Terry Koeckritz, is that soccer is a"'socialist" sport. Thereafter, a user by the name of Danq added an entire section entitled "Soccer and socialism" in July 2010. It's interesting to note that as of 17 December 2010, Danq hasn't been blocked and may even be a sock of Terry Koeckritz (just sayin'!). Now I'm deliberately leaving the text until last, so you can see just what Andrew Schlafly has put his seal of approval on.

On the 16th December, somebody removed Danq's content from the soccer article. Not long after, Schalfly reverted that user, with no comment in the edit summary. Shortly after that, Terry Kockritz blocked the editor for "Removal of valid content." However, that action can be ignored, coming from the biggest troll on Conservapedia.

So, you might be asking yourself, by now, just what has Andrew Schlafly pout his seal of approval on this time? Well, here it is and hopefully you'll realise after reading that as long as people like Schlafly are on CP, you don't need parodists.

The nature and rules of soccer very much resemble socialism in many ways:

• The "no hands" rule can be compared to socialist tax policies.


• The "off-sides" rule prohibits using certain aggressive ("unfair") tactics in the game.


• The game forbids frequent stops, which can be compared to "carbon footprint" efforts to fight supposed global warming.


• Soccer is very bureaucratic, and teams are very much tied to their countries.


• The US is often treated unfairly by other nations in the game, one reason being soccer's lack of popularity in the US - socialism always claimed to favor the absolute will of the majority rather than personal and economic freedom of the individual.


• The World Cup trophy resembles socialist Hollywood's Emmy Award.


• In youth leagues, everyone gets a trophy for their efforts regardless of achievement, and there is no scoring in the game.


• Even the World Cup encourages "achievement" by holding a third-place game for the two losers in the semifinals.


• Union strikes, even during the playing season, are a major issue with soccer.


• Riots caused by "hooligans" - fans of a team which lost a game - often include violent crimes, such as infringement on private property rights.

 

 

A Tale of Two Faces

We all know that Conservapedia in general, and Andrew Schlafly in particular, foams at the mouth at the mere mention of the word "Obama" and will go to any lengths to run him down. These guys don't just stop at the "allegedly born in Hawaii" crap; for some time they also reported that Obama's birth name was Barry Soetoro. At least now it's been "upgraded" to "aka Barry Soetoro."

Likewise, no source is too bad, when it comes to digging the dirt on the guy who used to boss Andy around at the Harvard Law Review - something which clearly riled Andy's Aryan sensibilities. World Nut Daily, 2-bit blogs,  and even Pravda (yes, THAT Pravda!) have been roped in to assist with the ongoing smear campaign.

Ha! Ha! Ha!

As reported on RationalWiki:

"Impotent Rage Department: With no proles left to abuse on CP, TK stokes an old grudge against the only sysop in recent history to stand up to his cretinism and bullying by replacing his signature for hers on the "welcome" message she left for some random user more than 21 months ago."

I've documented more than enough evidence of just what a woman-hater Terry Koeckritz is, especially when having to deal with them on Conservapedia. Of course, it's also fairly common knowledge that Terry's aversion goes beyond the usual misogyny as displayed by Andrew Schalfly and Ed Poor, but this is not the place to talk about his little peccadilloes.

No, it's safe to say that given Terry's interactions with former sysop Jallen and long-time editor HSMom, it's clear that he's incapable of keeping a civil tongue about him, nor can he swallow his contempt for these breeders. However, there was one fair maiden for whom Terry reserved his most precious bile - JessicaT.

Conservapedia - 4 Years On

The internet is a powerful source of information and thanks to Andy Schlafly it has become an educational tool.

So Andrew Schlafly's little project has just turned 4 - which is something like 80 human years. Well, given the advanced state of senility the site finds itself in, it must be something close to that. Sadly, the event passed almost unnoticed on Conservapedia, although their "friends" over at RationalWiki, did put up a pretty "Happy Birthday" banner for them. Not much difference from previous years really, although we did have the awards for most "news" articles back in 2008... when there was still editors to award prizes to. RationalWiki couldn't even be bothered to award the traditional (and we believe much-coveted) "Biggest Idiot at Conservapedia" award - citing general apathy and the realisation that the same idiots would win the same awards for the same reason for yet another year.

Fortunately, loyal minion Jpatt, took it upon himself to pen a small tribute to Conservapedia, in honour of their birthday. Of course, as with most things Conservapedia, it's what the article doesn't say that's revealing, so I thought I'd take a few minutes out of my busy day to have a look at his tribute and add a few comments of my own.

It's Not Parody... Promise!

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Well that "didn't last long last" didn't last long

Ah, I see abnormal service has resumed at everybody's favourite right-wing blog. Once again, the shutters have come down, the wagons are corralled, and the senile residents peer out from behind their metaphorical curtains and the liberal world passing them by.

Ah well, at least this will allow the inhabitants of the assylum the opportunity to feed of each other's insanity (not to mention subtle prodding by parodists - or is that trolls? - such as Terry Koeckritz), without the annoyance of having good-faith editors to bully.

Well, that didn't last long.

Just three days after shutting down open registration, I see Andy's removed the e-mail link from the Main Page and open registration has been restored. Of course, when you take into account that registration is only open for about an hour a day and you realise that we use the word "open" in it's broadest possible context. Still, it's in good company, seeing as how Conservapedia uses words like "honestly', "facts" and "trustworthy" in their broadest possible context.

And the shutters come down

So it's finally happened. No, Conservapedia hasn't closed shop, but probably the next best thing to it.

Now it's been noticed that for the past few weeks "account creation" has been switched off for almost the entire day, and when it is on, it's usually during the times that Conservapedia is in "night mode" - those late night US hours, when only those with editing rights can contribute.

Utterly Repulsive

At this moment, I can't think of any other words with which to describe the new lows to which the Brothers Schlafly have sunk. Then again, given the fact that they were squeezed from between the thighs of Mad Cow Phyllis Schlafly and maybe it's possible they were doomed to being misogynistic morons from the word go.

Now, Roger does occasionally come across as the voice of reason, especially when arguing with Andy about the merits of Relativity. However, be under no delusion that Roger isn't as deranged as his whack-job brother. You need only take a stroll through his blogs, Dark Buzz and Singular Values, to see that this man's worldview is as twisted - if not more so - than Andrew's. He seems to save his special crazy for the latter blog, where he proclaims "Mohammedans" were responsible for the Crusades, the Church promoted science during the Dark Ages, and women are more gullible when it comes to climate change.

Andrew Schlafly and Charity... what charity?

I guess it goes without saying that the Powers that Be at the ultra right-wing blog Conservapedia (I think we can finally dispense with the illusion that it is, in any shape or form, an encyclopaedia) have some very strange ideas about everyday events. One of these would be "chivalry" - which in Andrew Schlafly's world involves setting different tests for girls and boys, because it's not fair for the fairer sex to have to compete equally with boys.

Another is charity.

Now, CP's entry for "Charity" defines it, amongst other things, as "a Christian virtue" before going on to say that "the United States is “a land of charity." It also has some strange "see also" links - Altruism, Greed and Capitalism.

Prophesy Ignored?

As I mentioned in my post below, Conservapedia is already dead in the water, if not floundering at the gunwales. However, it wasn't always so. At the beginning of 2009, it was a vibrant and happening, albeit it odd, little community. There were regularly over 100 different active editors a week, there were conversations and friendly chats going between talk-pages and the sysops were even inclined to enter into a debate - until they started losing said debate, of course.

Roll forward almost two years, and the little community is looking very run down. The long-time residents have effectively put barricades across the roads, allowing none in, except those who sneak past the defences, and are speedily shot, before they can smash any more windows. The vibrant little community has shrunk to a few old-timers (barely more than 40 editors as week - and 90% of those are blocked with in 1 edit), who no longer talk, but peer out at the world from behind their curtains, shotgun close at hand.