Start smiling. The “skeptic” operation is in deep trouble – and they did it to themselves.
Opinion by Consumer Advocate Tim Bolen
I have been pointing out, for some time, how the so-called “skeptics” (pseudo-skeptics) prefer anonymity, lashing out nastily from a hidden position, usually using a fake internet identity.
I suspected, quite correctly, as it turns out, now, that there were good reasons for that secrecy. I also knew, from reading their recruiting literature, that the central unit sought out society’s flotsam, ne’er-do-wells, weirdos, and rejects.
But last week all that was topped after I was sent two articles from the Broward County Sun Sentinel – one called “Celebrated South Florida artist Jose Alvarez accused of identity theft” and the other ‘”The Amazing’ Randi, renowned supernatural investigator, immersed in mystery about partner’s alleged ID theft.”
What those articles were telling me was that I had miscalculated. I had thought that all those creepy “skeptics” were using fake internet names to cover up their real identities. But, that’s not true. At least some of them (and maybe ALL of them?), according to official reports, were using “fake” names in real life.
Oh my…
Those two Broward county articles were informing the world that the world’s top skeptic, the self-styled “Amazing Randi,” had a long time live-in lover who everyone THOUGHT was named Jose Luis Alvarez, but US Federal Agents had determined otherwise – and arrested “what’s-his-name” on various “Identity Theft” federal criminal counts. Alvarez, or whomever he really is, is on the James Randi Educational Foundation Board of Directors.
THAT certainly trumps a fake internet ID. The feds, right there on the spot, handcuffed “what’s-his-name,” and dragged him off to the poky.
A Federal Grand Jury had indicted “what’s-his-name.”
And then the plot thickened…
Time for a laugh…
Get this – Randi’s group then began a letter-writing campaign asking that “what’s-his-name” be let out on bail using the excuse (get ready) that “what’s-his-name” was doing good work as a “skeptic” exposing hoaxes and frauds. (insert belly-laugh here). A bail hearing was set for September 21st, 2011.
Well, Florida-based Federal Judges aren’t as dumb as James Randi thinks they are I guess. Because the Judge rescheduled the bail hearing to October 4th, 2011, giving Federal Agents time, I think, to personally question some of those letter writers, asking probably every one of them to produce LEGITIMATE identification, themselves. And, I suspect, to inquire what THEIR role in the “Jose Luis Alvarez” hoax might be.
As it turns out “James Randi” isn’t really “James Randi, but “Randall James Hamilton Zwinge.”
Oh my, my…
What next? I suspect there is a very large, expanded, federal investigation going on.
Gee, I wonder how that could have happened?
Stay tuned.
Tim Bolen – Consumer Advocate