Of course I'm Pat!

After some thought, I realize some show of authenticity is in order. As much as I'd like to oblige with a scanned photo, I don't feel comfortable with that at this point. However, here is a copy of my profile at the James Randi Educational Forum:

Username Brainster's Avatar">Brainster About Me No information to display. My Interests No interests yet. Meebo Instant Chat Meebo Profile Not Setup. Contact Info No contact information available.

Photo Brainster's Profile Picture" border="0"> Forum Info Join Date: 26th May 2006 Total Posts: 1,271 (4.22) posts per day Find all posts by Brainster Find all threads started by Brainster Quick Comments Add Comment No discussions to display. View All Comments Add Comment Recent Blog Entries No entries to display View More Blog Entries

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Toussaint Tatsugi ldmitruk

That should settle any lingering questions.

Comment Moderation Enabled

Everyone can thank both sword of truth and col jenny sparks and their inability to keep their online feud civil. There is no reason to allow the comments to be filled up with "he said/she said" irrelevant garbage. For the same reason, all their posts attacking each other have been deleted.

Some might wonder why I'm being this firm. Many of you are thinking that at Screw Loose Change everything appeared to be acceptable. Firstly, this is not true. Every so often James and I would delete a post that went a little too far. Secondly, our recent adventure with fake "Nico" ended in a decision to delete his posts, an action few questioned when they should have. More on that later.

As for the actual enabling of comment moderation, the naive think the reason we did not do this at Screw Loose Changewas a love of free speech. That was not the reason. Comments are not moderated at Screw Loose Change and similar blogs because the result is more chaotic and divisive, preventing any genuine honest debate. James and I laughed ourselves silly that it took some twoofer sites years to understand this principle. Open, unmoderated, anonymous commenting sounds ideal, but, like many liberal ideals, it is a fantasy. There are three reasons a controversial blog is unmoderated in any way:

1: naivete
2: testing the waters; the purpose of the blog is to record what people are thinking on a subject
3: to generate confusion and acrimony

Still, the idealist in me had to give it a chance. I know better now.

Much ado about ... Everything!

I had no idea my statement would cause such a brouhaha! Or would go so far and so wide, so fast! And I find it troubling that many of my fellow skeptics apparently approve of dishonest tactics.

Still, I'm pleased to hear skepticism from both sides of the 911 debate. This is how skeptics should act. As well as any "truthers" who wish to be taken seriously. Everyone is absolutely correct to have doubts about who I am and the agenda behind this blog.

My name is Pat Curley,(not Curtiss, as some have stated) and I was born on March 4th, 1955. That may not alleviate any suspicion in and of itself. A determined individual with sufficient resources could find this out. But it was not something I spread around where twoofers were likely to visit. This is not a publicity stunt to promote Screw Loose Change. Unfortunately I must reference my former blog to illustrate my points. I'd rather leave James out of it if I could. He was, like me, only following the agenda. It is no reflection on his personal character how deeply he was trapped in the program I have left.

I'm still not ready to go into details, but broadly, we were approached by a Mr. Jordan who had learned about us from our political commentary. He allegedly shared our concern that the twoof movement showed so signs of abating, especially with the growing popularity of Loose Change. Mr. Jordan worried this would become a divisive media issue and invited us to join his collective of blogs that would network and coordinate to expose Loose Change, as well as offering easy access to resources of fellow allied blogs. Note, not all of these are part of Mr. Jordan's collective. And the informal organization through free providers makes connecting these dots almost impossible. Still, we were excited to find a fellow traveller and jumped on board.

It was only later we realized we should have been at least as skeptical of Mr. Jordan as we were(and still are) of Loose Change.

Note: A thank you to all who've offered there help and shared their concern. But, for now, it is better for me to do this alone.

A new day, a new dawn ...free of agendas

It's a new day for this Brainster. For those of you who haven't heard already, James and I have decided to go separate ways. I wish him luck. We had a great run with Screw Loose Change, made a lot of waves, shook up the Internet, but, due a difference of opinion about approach, this is for the best.

I know this blog appears to be attacking my roots. Well, I guess it is, but not the mission of exposing the propaganda, but the MEANS we used. It seemed reasonable at first, all's fair in love and war, as they say. But then we lost our way, drifting from exposing "Loose Change" and it's distortions, that now even the creator's admit, to attacking any 911 truther for any reason whatsoever.

Two events were a water shed for me; the Arizona conference and Nico Haupt. At the twoofer con I couldn't help cringing at the mix of wackiness on parade. Chemtrails mixed with for more reasonable, if incorrect research, and it was abundantly clear to me that most participants also felt ambivalent about the diluting of their message. I remain grateful for Stephen's helping me get in, but, frankly, was embarrassed at his antics. I know this didn't come through when I blogged it, but then I had to adhere to guidelines, which I am not free to disclose at this point. And this is not to mention the push to all but invent the crisis of Holocaust denial among the twoof movement, though in fact, it is no more prevalent there than anywhere else.

In the same vein we were to tolerate Nico Haupt and I'd been explicitly advised to visit his news aggregator. At the time it seemed odd, but I then I saw so much that seemed to confirm the "truth" movement was a scam. I should have been more suspicious, but as this was where my head was at the time, I only saw it as validation. This was a point of contention between James and I: first I was supposed to push Nico's 911Blogger parody, that included Nazi imagery as amusing, then I was told I must acknowledge it's offensiveness but defend Nico's free speech rights.

I didn't get into this project to defend someone like Nico Haupt, and I said so. That was our first serious argument and, while avoiding the gory details, suffice it to say, it all went down hill after that.

So here I am, by myself, to expose how our efforts to educate the public were hijacked by other entities. I truly do wish James well; I have no personal animosity towards him or Screw Loose Change as a blog concept. But we made a Faustian bargain and this is the only way I can see out of it.

So fasten your seat belts, hombres: as soon as all my material is together, I'll be showing you what REALLY happened behind the scenes at Screw Loose Change over the last year.

Assuming THEY don't get me. Ha, ha!