But probably not.
Senile old Bastard, no, not Janko this time... Wrote:http://www.degreediscussion.com/viewtopic.php?t=5449
The "Stolen Valor Act" -- can it apply to fake deg
I was intrigued by a big story on the evening news here in Los Angeles last night, about a well-known politician who, it turns out, lied about being awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. The reporter suggested that he could be sent to prison for a year under the Stolen Valor Act, a federal felony crime. I was not familiar with this relatively new law, relating to falsely claiming medals and honors (http://tinyurl.com/6bydzv). Seems to me it wouldn't take much to broaden the interpretation to include falsely claiming degrees.
Mr. Bear, how about broadening the interpretation to selling them ?
Not even his stooges support him on that one.
Quote:Mr. Bear, how about broadening the interpretation to selling them ?
Not even his stooges support him on that one.
oh stop it.
it's ok as long as it is a thing in the past, ok?!
Let's ask mr. Bear about the receipts of all the funds he contributed to that UK children charity...
ham Wrote:Let's ask mr. Bear about the receipts of all the funds he contributed to that UK children charity...
Children's charity? Did his kids need the money to but dad a Rolex.
D00bie Wrote:Mr. Bear, how about broadening the interpretation to selling them ?
Not even his stooges support him on that one.
What is with these old codgers who do any damn thing they feel like when they are young, and then when they get decrepit want the feds to prosecute people for doing the same damn thing?
Plus he equates the fairly mundane activity of pursuing an education with the fairly uncommon activity of risking life and limb for one's country. Something tells me the notorious Mr. Bear never served his country in the military, or he wouldn't hold it in such contempt.
Next he'll want the feds to use that law to prosecute gals with boob jobs.
Don Dresden Wrote:D00bie Wrote:Mr. Bear, how about broadening the interpretation to selling them ?
Not even his stooges support him on that one.
What is with these old codgers who do any damn thing they feel like when they are young, and then when they get decrepit want the feds to prosecute people for doing the same damn thing?
Plus he equates the fairly mundane activity of pursuing an education with the fairly uncommon activity of risking life and limb for one's country. Something tells me the notorious Mr. Bear never served his country in the military, or he wouldn't hold it in such contempt.
Next he'll want the feds to use that law to prosecute gals with boob jobs.
With that as an annalogy, why wouldn't George Gollin and Alan Ezell be charged with criminal impersonation as distance degree experts. The same could be said true for most of the DI crew.
Let's take it one step more by saying is Bruce Tait to be charged with pretending to be a police officer in Quincy, MA?
Along that same vein, John Bear, George Gollin and the rest of the DI gang should be charged with child endangerment by posting and supporting DI. After all, Bear advertised his books on that child predator site.
Quote:John Bear himself suggests that riding a horse, eating at an exotic restaurant, "applying statistics to gambling" (I like that one - a subscription to Racing Form ?...Bear is nothing if not droll) and reading his [Bear's] books "could" be worth credit for life experience learning (Bear's Guide 10th Edition).
hmm
I suppose he should mind his memory...
oh, but i forgot the current edition of the book is probably 35th, so a lot changes over time, eh doctor Bear?
Try malt liquor...you might find you've changed your opinion before formulating the current one.
Don Dresden Wrote:Something tells me the notorious Mr. Bear never served his country in the military, or he wouldn't hold it in such contempt.
Klempner was born in 1938, so he would have turned 18 (draft age) in 1956. At that time (up until 1969) college students got draft deferments. So you can guess why Klempner was so gung ho about getting that PhD, which he received in 1966.
Might this be the true explanation for his mysterious name change, from Klempner to Bear, at the height of the Vietnam draft era????
Don Dresden Wrote:Plus he equates the fairly mundane activity of pursuing an education with the fairly uncommon activity of risking life and limb for one's country.
Bear clearly disrespects the brave soldiers that the Stolen Valor Act was designed to protect.
But isn't getting a degree from one of Bear's crappy schools an act of valor?
Look what he said about CPU in this document he wrote: ""
Information Prepared by Dr. John Bear Exclusively for his Counseling Clients"
Quote:Three things impress me about Columbia Pacific, in comparison with all the other non-residential universities now operating at the undergraduate and graduate level.
1. The quality of the people involved. The President, Richard Crews, is a psychiatrist with his M.D. from Harvard University. The co-founder and Dean, Les Carr, Ph.D., was, for many years, President of a large traditional university in Illinois. No other school of its kind has officers with such impressive backgrounds.
2. The facilities. Unlike many new schools that start out with small rented offices and no permanent foundation, CPU is being built on the foundation of an existing and large entity, the Wholistic Health and Nutrition Institute, which has its own large building, a national clientele and reputation, and a good staff. This close interaction, between University and Institute, is reflected in CPU's emphasis in areas related to health sciences, nutrition, wholistic health, rehabilitation counseling, and the like. However, with an adjunct (part-time) faculty of more than 80 persons (nearly all with earned doctorates), degree work is available in dozens of fields, including business, psychology, aviation management, law enforcement, fire sciences, and economics.
3. The costs are quite low, CPU apparently feels that while it is not wrong to make a profit running a school, it need not be an exorbitant profit. The cost of degree programs has been set well under those offered by any of the other schools operating under California's $50,000 law (i.e. if you have that much in property, and meet other minimal requirements, you are authorized to grant degrees). The typical degree programs cost around $1,600 to $1,700.
...Among the unaccredited universities we continue to rate CPU among the best.
Mr. Bear left out the part where he disclosed that he was an owner of CPU and had a total conflict of interest while writing those glowing reports about it in his books and elsewhere.
Maybe Mr. Bear figures that taking a chance on one of his recommended "good choices" is the equivalent of getting shot at by foreign enemies.
Armando Ramos Wrote:Might this be the true explanation for his mysterious name change, from Klempner to Bear, at the height of the Vietnam draft era????
I believe it was because Bear's father, John Klempner, was blacklisted by Hollywood for his Communist activities.
Here is Bear's spin on it:
Quote:My father, John Klempner, was an accountant for 25 years at Westvaco. He started writing novels in his 40s. 20th Century Fox bought the rights to his Letter to Five Wives and hired him to work on the screenplay. This man who had literally never been more than 30 miles from Times Square suddenly had a bungalow and two secretaries on the Fox lot in Hollywood. While he worked on the screenplay, Joseph Manckiewicz did the lion's share, and won the Oscar for best screenplay for it. My father got a mention at the awards ceremony.
And then he was blacklisted. This was the McCarthy era, and, while I don't think he ever joined anything, he played bridge and tennis with the 'wrong' people. For a year or so, he got some work, including turning his novelette Three for Jamie Dawn into a low-budget movie (but with real stars of the time: June Havoc, etc.). He only wrote one other movie (yes, Gus has tracked that one down, too!), and then went back to being an accountant.
When our first book proposal was accepted (by Harcourt Brace) in the late 60s, we told my father about the name change, suggesting (among other things) that two authors with the name John Klempner was perhaps one too many. His immediate and unexpected response was, "No, two to many. I've always wanted to change my name, but I never had the courage to do it." He even had his new name picked out, and applauded our courage for doing it.
http://forums.degreeinfo.com/showthread....198&page=2
But like most of Bear's fractured history and apologia, the story doesn't quite measure up to the actual facts.
Before daddy Klempner worked with Mankiewicz to convert his story into a screenplay, he worked with another writer, Vera Caspary.
Quote:Caspary made it a practice only to accept jobs of adaptation; she found it more creative and fun, as in the case of John Klempner's book a Letter to Five Wives. To streamline the film, one wife was eliminated by Caspary, and when the script reached production, Joseph L. Mankiewicz removed another one.[2] Due to a loophole in the Academy Awards nomination rules, Mankiewicz alone was nominated and won the Oscar for Best Screenplay. However when the same screenplay won the Writer's Guild of America award for Best Written American Comedy, Mankiewicz was forced to share the award and credit with Caspary, the original adaptor.[7]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_Caspary#Igee
Caspary was an admitted Communist who hosted party meetings in her home, held party fund-raisers, attended party committees, worked on party initiatives, and even visited Russia to confirm her beliefs.
Quote:Caspary joined the Communist party under an alias...she claimed to have confined her activities to fund-raising and hosting meetings.[2] Caspary visited Russia in an attempt to confirm her beliefs...she continued to contribute money and support similar causes. ... Though claiming to never actively trying to recruit anyone, she admits performing Party chores such as fund-raising and hosting the fortnightly Confidences Club meetings at her home....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_Caspary
Quote: It was while working in Austria on the musical adaptation of Daddy Long Legs, Caspary learned she had been added to the gray list and told to abandon the project. If you had appeared before the HUAC committee and refused to name names, you were blacklisted, if your file indicated that you had signed pledges, attended congresses or contributed to doubtful causes, you were graylisted.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_Caspary#Igee
Clearly this was not a case of "playing bridge and tennis with the wrong people." Daddy Klempner was disgraced for consorting with avowed Communists and for refusing to come clean about that fact.
When junior Klempner decided to follow daddy's footsteps and become a writer, he had the shameful burden of his father's disreputable baggage to overcome. It wasn't, as he tells it, his wife's unpronounceable, inconvenient to hyphenate Russian name that prompted him to jettison his father's name. Rather, it was the fear that he would be identified either as the offspring of a detestable, blacklisted communist or mistaken for that very person himself.
Bear seems to think that if you tell the same lie over and over that eventually people will believe it is true. Not here, Comrade Klempner!
Don Dresden Wrote:I believe it was because Bear's father, John Klempner, was blacklisted by Hollywood for his Communist activities.
Interesting stuff, Don. Bear certainly has a lot of baggage in his life about which to be embarrassed.
But are you sure this isn't just another one of Bear's tall tales? The only source I can find who says Klempner was blacklisted is Bear. For example, the Wiki article
Hollywood Blacklist names the people known or believed to have been blacklisted, citing a variety of authors and sources, yet the name Klempner is nowhere to be found among them.
Klempner had three of his works made into motion pictures, which is about three more than any of us ever will have. The blacklist is said to have begun in 1947, but
Give My Regards to Broadway (1948),
A Letter to Three Wives (1949), and
Three for Jamie Dawn (1956) were all released during "the height of the Red Scare." For supposedly being blacklisted Klempner didn't seem to have much trouble getting people to buy his stuff.
Could it be that Klempner just wasn't a very good screenwriter? Or at least not prolific enough to earn a consistent living? In some circles the notion of being "blacklisted" has an appealing revolutionary aura. It certainly sounds a lot more exciting than being "unemployed."
I'm sure there is some highly embarrassing reason other than his wife's un-hyphenability that caused him to change his name, but I'm not sure this is it.