Resume Inflation
I have been making fun of the group "Scholars" for 9/11 "Truth", because despite their claims that 84% of Americans believe in their conspiracy, their group only managed to increase the number of "Full Members" from 76 to 77, since I first counted in May. They have added more new members during that time, but it was offset by all the members quitting, usually accusing the group of academic fraud, or even being part of the conspiracy itself.
Well now it appears they have managed to bump up their ranks a bit, to 93, although this seems to be mostly through ignoring, or at least "loosely interpreting" their own definition of "members (FM), who have or have had academic appointments or the professional equivalent". Here are some examples of these new members.
Virginia Abernethy (FM) Prof. Psychiatry, Vanderbilt University (ret.)
Seriously, does this group really need another psychologist? Well OK, maybe for internal use...
Joseph G. Buchman, Ph.D. (FM) Associate Professor of Marketing, Adams State College
Yeah, because we all know how essential marketing is to studying terrorist attacks and building collapses. Maybe he can do a focus group?
Jacqueline F. de Gaston, Ph.D. (FM) Family Science (BYU-prior)
What the heck is family science? I could claim my mom has a PhD in that.
Jack Keller (FM) Civil Engineering, Irrigation Engineering, Agricultural Engineering
Anytime they have someone with a qualification involving "engineering" it always becomes as vague as possible. No PhD's or teaching position, just "Irrigation Engineering". What does that mean, he sets up sprinkler systems in Provo?
Gera Rosy (FM) Sociology, taught at University of Texas at El Paso and Metropolitan State College in Denver
Hey, a sociologist with no degree, who taught something once. You never know when that might come in handy!
Kenneth Sowden (FM) Mathematics, West Hills Community College
Yes, that elite West Hills Community College. I think I saw them in US News & World Report ranked right next to Stanford.
Grant Williams (FM) Commercial construction with emphasis on seismic and structural engineering
OK, so the guy works in construction. My cousin is a carpenter. Does this make him a "scholar"?
Maybe they should just change their name to "People with vague job titles for 9/11 truth"?
posted by James B. @ 11:47 AM
11 comments
11 Comments:
There should just be a dossier devoted to updating the member list and verifying the status of members in this group while pointing out the resume' padding and misleading job titles as relevant to actual work and academic experience.
I had to search around a few days ago for something similiar and found the '76 to 77 post' on here where someone said they'd wanna start a blog on that if they had time.
I'd totally wanna do the legwork with help. A full-on NWO style "hit piece" just pointing out the enormous gap in credibility just so I never have to see a list that begins with some french dude who thinks aliens from the Planet Ummo talk to him again cited as being the "relevant" figures.
Everything from news reports to searchable credential databases to searches of published works, etc could be used and just once and for all shatter the illusion of their grandeur.
The high profile figures are easy enough to tear down since they damage their own credibility with their insatiable need for publicity and attention, but more can be done.
Note that these 'scholars' are listed as 'Engineering' not 'Engineers'. If they were actual engineers, as opposed to hobbyistic dabblers, they would have a small alphabet soup next to their degree and title.
I would like to see them produce one, just one, civil engineer PhD from a top school in America...just one.
TAM
Once again, we see how strongly the 9/11 Truth movement isn't taking hold in America.
According to news aricles, there are 280,000 tenured professors in America. If one percent of them were Scholars for 9/11 Truth, that would be 2,800 people. As it is, they're counting construction workers and scholars with irrelevant degrees just to break 90.
It also appears the Robert D. Steele has some resume problems, although in this case it is an omission. Remember when someone hyped his allege military service?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_D._Steele
Well, I gave his comments on Synthetic Terror a less than sterling review and he had a very thin-skinned response (see comment #10 from him in response to comment #5) in
http://www.amazon.com/gp/discussionboard/discussion.html/ref=cm_rdp_st_rd/102-0134598-5092136?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0930852370&store=yourstore&cdThread=Tx2ZU8WJJKCVSEV&reviewID=R1LNNW9GMEILN5&iid=0930852370&displayType=ReviewDetail#wasThisHelpful
Many of his followers are equally uptight; I guess if your world view is founded on hate, you are bound to be humorless! In any case, Steele’s comment #19 is very revealing.
“Folks, I have spent 18 years building back my credibility from being called a lunatic in 1992 for publishing in Whole Earth Review my vanguard comment that open sources were better than secret sources.”
Seems to me that 1992+18=2010, maybe he is talking to us from the future. No matter, 1992 was also the end of alleged his time in military. Assuming his assertion of past service is accurate, perhaps his illustrious military career has a less than illustrious end. Maybe that explains his hatred for America, he was forced out of the military for being a loon.
Sorry, the whole URL does show up. Just go to Amazon, look up "Synthetic Terror" (a very stupid book) and look for Steele's review among the 36 customer reviews and then the comments on his review.
Tym, I have considered doing a more detailed analysis of their membership, but it is actually rather difficult to find out anything about them. Many of them don't have any academic affiliation, and even then it is at a second rate college. You could pick 100 names out of the phone book of any college town and find a more distinguised group. So you can't find out much about these people, from the usual sources such as university websites, academic papers and conferences, news articles and such.
93 members, eh?
Does this mean that they now have as many members as the number of Flight 93?
Spooky!
When they reach (or, if they reach) 175, it will be the same number as Flight 175!
More spooky!
Wow, is this amazing!
Now, I found this even more frightening coincidence!
Count the number of letters in these names:
Alex Jones - 9.
James Fetzer - 11.
9/11! Can you not see it!
Pure science! This means something! Of course! That's the ticket!
Like, hey man, I worked in constuction, and look at me, I'm a film maker now!
I mean, Loose Change, is like, somebody else's stuff with my name on it.
Like Louder than Words, we got to dress up. It was fun. I got to hold a bull horn.
Ha ha ha ha ha Boxcutters.
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What is that song again from Styxx?
Dedicated to JB:
He's got Too much time on my hands, its ticking away with his sanity
He's got too much time on his hands, its hard to believe such a calamity
He's got too much time on his hands and its ticking away from me
Too much time on his hands, too much time on his hands
Too much time on his hands
Well, He is a jet fuel geniusn - He can solve the worlds problems
Without even trying
He has dozens of friends and the fun never ends
That is, as long as Im buying
Is it any wonder Im not the president
(hes not the president)
Is it any wonder Im null and void?
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