Anyone seen this? James Randi, JREF and all the moderators and administrators have been sued (really, seriously) by a nut (whoops – I guess I just added my name to the list) who claims that he was insulted by posts/posters in the JREF Forum.
George R. Simpson is the pecan in question, and he has interesting academic credentials, but I can’t make much sense out of the major claim on his web site, ET Corn Gods.
The only thing I can figure out is he claims to have been handled a code from an outer space visitor 22 years ago, something like the “Bible Code”, which allows him to decode text in any language and the decoded text is vital to our existence, just for starters. There’s lots more gibberish available.
That would be funny enough (it’s hard to tell if anyone in this game is serious), but after a thread that he started in JREF went badly, he tried to have all posts removed that criticized him, and when that failed, he filed in US District Court.
So it looks like we have moved past whooshdom unless he is rich enough to prosecute a court case just for fun.
Simpson looks like Geller gone mad. Why is it that these dipshits think that attacking someone who doesn’t agree with them is the next logical action to take? I hope it costs him dearly.
Oh yeah, I remember that loon on those forums. That guy was seriously unbalanced. He would just give ‘translations’ of words, generally gibberish, and then expect everyone to just get it. When people asked questions and he didn’t answer, or he gave obviously wrong or contradictory answers, the guy would just give the usual ‘None of you understand I R A jeeyus’ kind of crap.
Just in case anyone is wondering (hey, I did!) if the official-looking document on the etcorngods.com web site is fake, I verified it with the So Fla District Court’s PACER system (costs $). The form appears genuine (but I didn’t compare every page or every letter).
However, it was amended on Nov 29, 2007. The one change I spotted right away was the “Relief Requested” section. The original action called for $10,000,000 in damages. The amended complaint (I have a copy if anyone wants it, email me) replaces that demand with (slightly edited for brevity)
[quote]
…the Plaintiff prays for the following relief:[ol][li]An order by the Court to shut down the JREF until it can prove to the Court that it has set-up the proper personnel and controls to be a responsible, law abiding internet forum which protects the rights of all posters to free speech, due process and constructive dialog.[]An order by the Court reinstating the ET Corn Gods Language tutorial thread and supervise the thread with the proper personnel and controls to be a responsible, law abiding internet forum thread.[]A order for compensatory damages…greater than $75,000.[*]An order for punitive damages…[/ol][/li][/quote]
Note that a jury trial is requested.
I wonder if courts regularly get crap like this thrown at them or this is out of the ordinary. Don’t judges get pissed at people like this who misuse the court system?
Saved him not only a bundle of money, but kept him from the humiliation of a lot of lawyers laughing at him as they took his money.
Well, see, the profits from his language machine haven’t quite rolled in yet, but once they do he’ll be able to afford a lawyer. Not that he needs to, mind you. He’s got it all wrapped up as it is.
An order by the Court to shut down the JREF until it can prove to the Court that it has set-up the proper personnel and controls to be a responsible, law abiding internet forum which protects the rights of all posters to free speech, due process and constructive dialog.
Color me confused. Isn’t this what he is suing about?
There’s a big difference between that forum and this. Here, when we get a loony, we get someone who is reasonably sane and coherent. Over there, the lunacy goes off the scale.
That part I can understand. If you make the rules, you can translate War and Peace into Phyllis Frilly’s Fantastic Fudge Cookbook.
But what exactly is the point? Where’s the justification for anything encoded in anything else? And even if it is, so what? Why does something “obscured” become more valuable knowledge than something more obvious and open?
This shit’s getting too deep for me. I need my boots.
How seriously can a lawsuit be taken if it demands free speech in a non-government forum? Isn’t that grounds right there for dismissal, since the Constitution only demands free speech protection from government institutions?
The Constitution clearly states that non-governmental areas of communication also fall under the rubric of free speech.
To find this clause, first you have to change all the letters in the first amendment to numbers, remove all the zeros, add 66, convert the arabic numeral string into roman numerals, take those letters and convert them into Arabic numbers…
