JB IN "THE TIMES" - 1975

[ham]

Quote:Bear is the master con man, always reinventing himself and switching sides.

the problem is not that John Bear made money selling herbal viagra or 'secret forex trading schemes of the weathy'n'powerful'...the problem is that some think he is a 'moral authority' or something entitled to judge others, and clowns interviewing him ignore authoritative information freely available a few web searches away.
Now keyboard sociopaths like uncle Janko who seem obsessed with some operetta version of morality should apply what famous Jewish polemist, Hannah Arendt, stated about the 'banality of evil'.
In fact, clique members 'trivialize' and 'relativise' the exploits of their mentors, protectors and mates: they typically get all hot and bothered attacking those who buy degrees on ebay, fabricate glamorous accusations (E.G nazi ) and lead the chorus of the unwashed through grotesque drama...
YET
when the sordid past (or present) and the 'less-than-adamant' activities of the clique pundits are brought forward, they prove more elusive and more 'ethically situational' than any 'nazi revisionist'...
Thomas Chip White can troll queer sites describing in very graphic terms the content of the 70+ gay teen porn DVDs he produced or oversaw, Gus Sainz can have legal troubles as a result of some careless business, Gregg DesElms can be a brothel addict (ok, massage parlor ) who then claims to be 'researching a book', finds god and turns into an 'authority' to have a say about other people's morality...
So what, retorts the clique?
'It is in their past' or -in the case of Thomas Chip White (owner of degreeinfo.com )- 'in their very present', but hey...it's legal... well, even the Nazi regime was legal and voted into power repeatedly.
Yecch!

[Brian Crawford]

Don Dresden Wrote:

ham Wrote:WRONG.

Not to belabor fine points, but I did say "at least" 1975.  Also, while the Time Magazine article describes Bear as "spoofing honorary degrees" it doesn't quite go so far as to call him a "pedlar of bogus degrees" (at least not directly).

But it's fair to say that Bear has been engaged in suspect conduct related to less-than-wonderful degrees since 1967, and I'm sure we all appreciate your showing with precision just how long he has been "spoofing" the gullible for his personal gain.

Hi Don,

The article did not have to, it was there based on his description today of that which he calls a "diploma mill" is.