Hi Vlad,

Your Google knowledge might not be correct. I don't even know how it works correctly. I certainly did not make sure that HL and SEY are popping up in connection to my little blog. That simply happens. I made nothing magically work that way. I even removed the biggest entry towards SEY because he asked me to. And I felt sorry for what my blog has caused so I removed the very first post I ever made 3 and a half years ago.

Answering your initial question on why... well I guess it boils down to the fact that I love magic more than magicians. Hurting magic, by shabby business practice, exposing magic and all the things my blog is about is something I cannot stand. I need to speak out. I remained silent for a long time, and as soon as I spoke about it I felt liberated. I'm not the first one, I'm not creative in that regard. I just love magic and I hate it being treated the wrong way.

Who am I to decide what is right and wrong? Am not deciding, I'm choosing. I choose to speak out expecting the worst. And at times it happened. I have had haters but also people who tell me what I'm doing is needed. They don't always agree with me, but that's not the point. We don't have to agree. We can have different opinions. And we can talk about them. I used to speak out here at the forum. Most threads got deleted. That's why I have a blog. Everyone can participate and tell me his opinion. And you know what. That is a good thing. Most of the time.

That's why I wasn't all that mad about Jerry Lukins. Amused, but not mad. I don't care about my haters. I care about magic.

Forget it, Justin. It's the Café.

I don't even know what this is about, but gotta say that Steven Youell has never been other than gracious and courteous to me... never.

Jim

Maybe because clarification wasn't needed? I didn't think so, for what its worth. Steven picked a wrong example to make a more general comparison, but it seemed pretty clear what he was trying to say. But better to let him speak for himself, should he decide to again post again in this topic.

Really, the amount of hypocrisy in this thread is astounding; anybody who promotes the blog "Larry Horayne" is a complete ******.

With this in mind, you CLEARLY have absoloutely NO RIGHT to critique "Jerry Lukins" and his paedo insinuation(s). Especially in light of the fact that you're all getting-off at the thought of an old man being pinned under a bookshelf ****ting himself. Quit playing the defamatory card - which must, by the way, be a queen - and grow a sack. Believe it or not folks, the "Larry Horayne" blog entails even worse than the above: it includes a number of other members here, and openly degrades them: Vlad, MickyPainless (what the hell did he ever do?), Steven Youell, et al.

So all this ******** about "loving magic more than loving magicians", is well... ********. In fact, no, it's worse than that; It's bull-crap cowering under the pretense of satire. Utterly poor form; If you're going to do it, then do it properly. And this is coming from somebody with NO personal angst against ANY of the members in question.

Maybe all of the magic blogger's should just bugger off; 9/10 seem like they're out to kill, and even then, they suck at it.

Zac

PS - If you can catch the irony of the last four words of my post, then you might be qualified to start writing tasteful satire. I jest, I jest.

And no, I don't condone Lukins' comments... But this is fire against fire.

Getting off? Moi?

If you're referring to a fictional, absurdist character being pinned under a bookshelf (written as an inconsequential bookend to an extremely substantial and well-considered book review), then, um, actually, no. We're not "getting off" at that. Nice try, though.



Ho ho! I get it! It's funny because of gay!



Genuine request--

Would you kindly point out passages in which said degradation of these chaps constitutes as worse than accusing a teacher of young children that he does, in fact, sexually molest young children?

I'm doing a little hunting, and these are the only instances in which those men are mentioned:

(strong language ahead, guys and girls)

--http://larryhorayne.wordpress.com/2012/07/19/whenever-im-on-the-cafe-i-feel-the-need/
--He implies Vlad "can’t do the work, [doesn't] own the books [and doesn't] even understand what is going on." http://bit.ly/RWWqDl (link shortened for profanity in the URL)
--As for the "et al.," he'll occasionally call Café'ers idiots and nerds and variations thereof. Standard stuff. If that kind of "degradation" bothers you, I advise you stay away from pretty much every other forum or blog.



You're getting confused here. How is Roland's statement satire?

Smiling politely,
Justin

Here is my answer.

I'll be in a Bomb Shelter for a while.

SEY

Welllllllll there ya have it...

I like both Steven and Andrew. I hope everyone moves forward in a more positive direction (Or at the very least give eachother some breathing room.)

Wow Thanks Zac for information brother!

Roland, I am HONORED to be a WMF!!! Had Zac not told me, I would never have known. At this point I would like to thank the Academy ...

Seriously Roland, write all you want about me. You don't know me and I don't know you. But, I DO have an idea: we live in neighboring countries. Let's do a positive spin on this and organize a WMF magic show for a charity. I am deadly serious Roland. For all the vitriol in the world maybe some good can come out of it to shed some POSITIVES in the art. Post here Roland if you are interested. There are plenty of charities who would LOVE to have a show. Give it some thought.

In the meantime, I wear the badge of failure proudly and will continue to conduct myself here as I always have. Your approval means nothing to me, but your sense of humanirty in considering to help organize a charity gig either in Germany or The Netherlands DOES.

It's your call.

Oh and Roland?

Namaste.

Vlad

Pathetic.

Wait, when did that happen? Don't spread rumors here!

I guess that answers my question.

Apologies, my last response was jaded by anger at the hypocrisy of this whole affair. Justin, I didn't phrase myself properly. When I said "It gets worse than the above", I was talking about the "Larry Horayne" blog and its defamatory nature. Obviously, implying that a teacher (my own part-time, soon to be full-time profession) molests children is disgusting. I simply wanted to point out the irony however, of trying to take a moral high-ground that is smeared in its own sh*t.

I haven't checked your links because to me, the quantity is irrelevant. Comments about "cock-slapping MickyPainless' Mustache" -- ho ho! I get it, its gay -- are hardly in good jest. The Horayne blog was my target for "cowardice hiding under the pretense of satire", by which some of the bloggers in this thread are (indirectly) implicated. Again, I apologise because I didn't articulate myself effectively. Indeed, perhaps "parody" would have been a better word.

To be honest, I'm pretty disappointed with most of the bloggers mentioned in this thread, from SEY to Andrew Musgrave. I don't have enemies here; Justin I enjoy reading a lot of your posts, same to Cain and others. It's the bitterness of these blogging shenanigans that stings because there's clearly talent out there and I feel like its being poured down the wrong avenues: i.e. the drain. That's the only thing I have against the blogs in question; they're all defamatory and after approving one its somewhat problamatic to disapprove of another that goes "a bit to far". But yes, insinuations of paedophilia -- in my opinion -- cross the line. Not cool.

Again, sincere apologies for the rant. Generally, I pride myself on being composed, but this scenario has been a testing one for everybody. Time to return to helping out others methinks.

Keep calm and carry on,

Zac

I'll take the link down later tonight.

If you want the full text, just download the PDF.

SEY

Despicable.

Reprehensible.

So, what's the thinking on the pass: ie. who's right?


A.

Roland,

Read your own blog and your constant and ironic misuse of the word "Ahimsa" connected with the name Vlad. Continue your Larry Horayne nonsense and I will continue being moribund.

Interesting Roland that you didn't address my idea however.

I think it is a different blog you are thinking of, Vlad, not Roland's.

Shalom.

Exactly. All the name-calling and bickering is juvenile and foolish. I swear, it's like these people are still in high school, scratch that, junior high. Kids in my high school acted more mature than this. People need to grow up.