100 bags of manure = A whole lot of B.S.

Today, "Sam Forman" (another one of the alter egos living in the M.A.L.ady's head) announced proudly that the M.A.L. blog had reached the milestone of 100 posts.

In a related story from Central Park in New York City, "Crazy Bartholomew the Prophet" celebrated his ten-year anniversary of preaching that the world will end tomorrow, but I digress...

Anyway, the fictitious Mr. Forman declared that, although they had been "defamed on multiple venues" (much as Rev. Jim Jones undoubtedly told his followers while mixing the kool-aid), "our mission is true" (much as Rev. David Koresh undoubtedly told his followers while pouring the gasoline) and "just" (much as the "Heaven's Gate" leaders undoubtedly told their followers while passing out the pills and vodka).

By the way, in case you're wondering, here's the M.A.L.ady scorecard for the last four months:

Number of lying, mudslinging posts: 100
Number of photographs good enough to show the public: 0

That just about says it all, doesn't it?

Bad news, M.A.L.adies...

The Photographer You Love To Hate is now a published author as well. Yes, Marc Adamus is a part of the writing team that put together Mountain Trail Photo's just-published The Ultimate Guide To Digital Nature Photography.

I've seen a copy of the book, and, at first glance, it seems one of the best guides currently available. But what makes it especially memorable is, as one might expect, the collection of beautiful photographs accompanying the text -- and those who wish to spread the myth that Marc Adamus's photos are some sort of wild, unrealistic product of Photoshop trickery are going to be in for a rude awakening. Throughout the book, Adamus's images are among the most restrained and realistic. Compared to contributors like Ian Plant, Nye Simmons, or George Stocking, Marc Adamus comes across as pretty much a strict purist of classical nature photography.

So, Marc Adamus is now among the ranks of published authors. As to your own attempts to become widely-read author(s)...well, I'm afraid I have some bad news for you there, too. You see, the janitor down at your local Wal*Mart has just cleaned the graffiti in the men's room stalls. So, I guess you're back at square one on that whole "author" bit. Pity.

A new definition of "Having No Life"...

It appears that the main M.A.L.ady site was down for a couple of days this week. (I was unaware of it, since it's even more petty, ridiculous, juvenile, and boring than their petty, ridiculous, juvenile, and boring blog site.) But there's an explanation! As the M.A.L.adies write (all typos left intact, by the way):

Due to a billing issue that occured while we were at a retreat (discussing the Marc Adamus problem), our site was down for several days. It is now back up and running again!

A "billing issue" -- I believe, in normal English, that means "failing to make your payments." Predictable. But what turns this into a real howler is the notion of a retreat to discuss "the Marc Adamus problem." Leaving aside the obvious attempt to fool people into believing that there really is more than one M.A.L.ady running the show, isn't the notion of spending your time in "retreats" considering the "problem" of how to run an envy-driven, mudslinging campaign against a talented and well-respected photographer pretty much the textbook definition of "having no life?"

Furthermore, the M.A.L.ady continues:

During our discussions, we also received capital commitments sufficient to keep MarcAdamusLIES.com going for a very long time.

Now it becomes clear what this "retreat" was about:

• M.A.L.ady gets disconnect notice from his ISP for failure to pay his bills for several months.
• M.A.L.ady runs to Mommy and Daddy, whining about how meeeeeeeaaaaan old Marc Adamus and all his meeeeeeeaaaaan friends are beating up on him. (M.A.L.ady probably mentions this site as an example, and erroneously claims that Bryan Swan is behind it, as usual.)
• M.A.L.ady gets Daddy to write check for a year's worth of server-space rental for further mudslinging.
• M.A.L.ady returns to the basement to stare at his Hannah Montana poster collection and wonder who else he can call a homosexual for not sharing M.A.L.ady's (lack of) taste in photography.

I think that's probably a pretty good summary of the "retreat," don't you?

We can only wonder what might have happened if M.A.L.ady had taken the "capital commitment" and used it to improve his own photography instead of wasting it sliming those better than himself. On second thought, forget that line of thought: funding an attempt to improve M.A.L.ady's own photographic skills would probably be a textbook definition of a different phrase: "throwing money down a rathole."

Hoisting yourself with your own petard, the M.A.L.ady way

Another classic post from the M.A.L.adies, in which they accuse Adamus of pathological lying for saying that the water in Eagle Creek in early March was "30-something" degrees. Nonsense, snort the M.A.L.adies, for everyone knows that snowmelt water "usually" only reaches the "low forties." Yeah, Marc...being off at estimating water temperature (without a thermometer) by five degrees or so is proof-positive of utter dishonesty and depravity!

Unfortunately for the M.A.L.adies, they provide a link to the post in question. And, if you bother to look at it (and I recommend it), you'll see why Marc Adamus is gaining a reputation as one of America's leading landscape photographers, for it includes four of his latest images, each of them utterly stunning. When you contrast the excellence of Adamus's work versus the total absence of any photographs from the gutless M.A.L.adies, you are left with one unavoidable conclusion: the real reason for their (?) crusade against Marc is jealousy for not being able to figure out how to make photographs that look even half as good as his.

P.S.: And, to top it all off, the M.A.L.adies don't even stop at criticizing Adamus for not knowing the exact water temperature of Eagle Creek; they also claim he wasn't there at all!

...we seriously doubt Marc even waded out in the stream. The water is quite deep there, up to the neck in places, and the current strong, especially with a lot of runoff.

Oh? Then would you care to explain the first of his photos at the link above, taken at the very spot where you claim he never was in the first place?

Keep it up, M.A.L.adies. In this world of war, poverty, and despair, we need all the comic relief we can find...even if that comedy comes from laughing at the ravings of people with obviously diminished mental capacity like you.

With enemies like these...

Too funny! The latest excitement among the M.A.L.adies (in other words, all one of them) is the BREAKING NEWS that "a team member" (in other words, all one of them) practiced a bit of "espionage" by taking a Marc Adamus workshop sometime this spring.

What brilliant thinking! What this means is:

a) Adamus should have a much easier time of identifying at least one (in other words, all) of the M.A.L.adies by simply looking over his attendance sheets from the past several months of group tours, and

b) that particular M.A.L.ady (in other words, all one of them) showed his dislike for and disapproval of Marc Adamus by giving him $600-$800 of the M.A.L.ady's (supposedly) hard-earned money. (Gee, if I start offering Tarzan Wilcox Workshops, will you pay me $800 or so so you can spill the "dirt" about my tours, too? There's this new telephoto I've got my eye on...)

And what was the breathless revelation about what happened at the group tour? Stripped of the usual M.A.L.ady invective, it boils down to, well, the news that group members respected Adamus and sought to learn from his instruction and example. Why, I'm shocked, shocked, I tell ya!

EXTRA! Proof that Marc Adamus lies...except that it actually proves he's telling the truth.

So now the psychotic clown(s) have a new idiocy -- claiming "proof" that Adamus lied about his trip last year to the North Rockies because he said that he had "hiked hundreds of miles of trails." To which the M.A.L.adies gleefully pounce: "there simply aren't hundreds of miles of trails in the Canadian Rockies National Parks, except in the tourism promoting 'guidebooks'."

I hope you caught those last six words.

For, in fact, the guidebooks (you know, written by people who, unlike the M.A.L.adies, actually know what they're talking about) list eight-hundred and fifty miles of trails in the Glacier-Waterton Lakes complex alone. And that's not even talking about the largest series of national parks in the Canadian Rockies, the Banff-Jasper-Yoho complex. "Hundreds" of miles of trails? More like "thousands."

And, by the way, M.A.L.adies, Adamus wrote about the "North Rockies," not just the "Canadian Rockies."

Of course, we can probably cut the M.A.L.adies some slack. For, by "trails," he/she/they/it probably mean "trails that are easy enough for us to hike." And there probably aren't hundreds of miles of quarter-mile-or-less, perfectly-level, paved loops just off the parking lots at various tourist traps.

M.A.L.adies...have I got a job for you!

Dear M.A.L.adies:

As you may have heard, I've managed to get myself in a tight spot with my attempts to "engineer" my re-election, and now half of Iran is calling for my head.

My Ministry of Propaganda has been of no help to me. In fact, some of them have complained that "no one in the world could lie so thoroughly as to justify your position."

For a moment, I thought I was sunk. Then, I remembered your site! Truly, you have a talent for unashamed, bald-faced lying that is unequaled anywhere in my country, if not the entire world. I could certainly use the skills of men like you in fighting off this inconvenient "democracy" movement.

So, how about joining my team? I mean, it's not like you've got anything else (like, you know, photography) going on right now.

Sincerely,
Dr. Mahmood Ahmadinejad
President, Islamic Republic of Iran

P.S.: Can I call Mousavi an "unemployed homosexual loser" too?

The M.A.L.ady Way: When caught it a lie...

...lie some more.

To wit, their trumpeting of the "scandal" that Adamus's photos haven't sold at the Capture Gallery, despite the fact, as I pointed out before, that they were purchased as part of Capture's permanent collection -- in other words, not for sale. But such inconvenient facts won't deter the M.A.L.adies; no, they simply respond to having this pointed out by plugging their ears (can't you just hear them shouting "nyah-nyah-nyah, we can't heeeeeear you"..?) and repeating their disproved lies yet again.

Sorry, M.A.L.adies. While one of the most notorious and evil propagandists the world has ever known is famous for his quote "a lie repeated often enough becomes the truth," in the real world, truth counts for something. Too bad you can't seem to recognize it.

M.A.L.ady "Logic" 2: Did you ever wonder...

...why being mistaken as to which branch of a gallery your photos were being exhibited at is a high crime against truth and integrity, but lying about someone's sexual orientation because they happen to like a photographer you don't is just harmless fun?

M.A.L.ady "Logic" 1: Did you ever wonder...

...how the psychotic clown(s) can target people whose only "crime" is expressing a liking for Marc Adamus's photographs, dig up (or, more often, make up) as much tabloid-style dirt as possible on each of those people, subjecting them to ad hominem attacks on everything from their supposed performance in their day jobs to their relationships with their parents to their sexual orientation (while themselves hiding behind a shield of cowardly anonymity, of course)...and then describe the recipients of their mudslinging as "thugs"...?????

How to make a mountain out of a molehill, M.A.L.ady-style

Last August, Capture Fine Art Gallery, with branches in Sausalito (a tourist mecca in the San Francisco Bay area) and Healdsburg (a tourist mecca in California's wine country) purchased several Marc Adamus photographs for permanent display. Adamus noted this on his website back at the beginning of last August, and said they would be on display at the Sausalito gallery.

Since then, Capture has decided to display Adamus's photos at their Healdsburg gallery instead. So, of course, the M.A.L.adies are claiming that Adamus is intentionally misleading the public into thinking that he has a display at a more prestigious location than he actually has. They mustn't be too familiar with California tourism, or they'd know Healdsburg is anything but a step down from Sausalito, especially during wine-harvesting season, which is when Adamus's photos were put on display there. Needless to say, the M.A.L.adies are building this up into the biggest scandal since Watergate and Monica Lewinsky combined. But wait, there's more...

The M.A.L.adies apparently tracked down the fact that none of Adamus's photos have sold at Capture, and are trumpeting it as "proof" of his artistic failure. Guys (and I use that word loosely), are you familiar with what the term "permanent display" means? You've got it...it means those images are not for sale.

Of course you wouldn't know that, because, although you want to make a mountain out of a molehill in this case, I'll bet you yourselves have never had any photos exhibited in a reputable gallery. Want to prove me wrong? Show us your photos, and tell us where they've been exhibited.

Talk about the sound of crickets chirping...

M.A.L.adies run afoul of Godwin's Law

In a recent screed, the M.A.L.adies display this picture as an example of "people who think Marc Adamus is the best photographer in the world."



So, apparently Nazis from the late 1930s were able to jump forward in time seventy years to see current photographs? Gee, I've always heard rumors about the Nazis trying to harness time-travel; but this is the first I've heard of them actually succeeding.

But there's a bigger problem for the M.A.L.adies (aside from their psychosis and dishonesty, that is): Godwin's Law, which holds that the first person in an Internet dispute to try connecting their opponent to Hitler and/or the Nazis automatically loses that dispute.

So, sorry, M.A.L.adies, but you're the losers. So what else is new?

The M.A.L.adies: liars, cowards...COMPUTER CRIMINALS???

Recently, the M.A.L.adies practiced some of their by-now predictable mudslinging at photographer Mark Metternich, for the sole reason, as usual, that he considers Marc Adamus his "favorite landscape photographer."

Somehow, that name rang a bell. A little research took me back to this post from Metternich on the FredMiranda.com site last year. Talk about an eye-opener!

You see, in the weeks beforehand, someone had hacked their way into Metternich's account on that site and, posing as Metternich himself, posted slanderous attacks on Marc Adamus (sound familiar?) and, moreover, apparently stole other people's images, modified them in Photoshop, and presented them as their own work.

Now, I'm not going to say that the anonymous person(s) who did that is/are the same as the person(s) running the M.A.L. website...but there is a certain similarity to their M.O.s, don't you think?

By the way, unauthorized access of a computer (including assuming another person's identity) is at least a misdemeanor in every state in the nation; in many states, it is considered a felony. If apprehended, the perpetrator of such an act may be facing a long stint where the only "landscape" he gets to see consists of the tattoos on his 400-pound cellmate, "Bubba."

Hmmm...maybe we now have a better idea of why the M.A.L.adies hide behind pseudonyms, and don't want anyone to see (and possibly identify) their own photographs?

Meanwhile, it's worth noting that it has been twenty-four days since the issuance of the M.A.L. Challenge, with no sign that the gutless wonders will respond by showing us their own photographs.

The M.A.L.adies jump the shark

Having drawn nothing but well-deserved ridicule for their juvenile vendetta against Marc Adamus, the psychotic clown(s) have reacted as they usually do: by upping the ante on their obnoxiousness. Now, they're not only devoting a blog to sling mud against Adamus, they are starting new blogs to do the same against other photographers who express admiration for Adamus's work.

You heard that right: if you have said nice things about Marc Adamus, you might reasonably expect a blog will soon appear devoted to personal attacks against you.

(One might wonder where this will all end...maybe with attack blogs against every other photographer in the world except the M.A.L.adies themselves? Oops...my mistake. I called the M.A.L.adies "photographers," while no evidence exists that they even know how to take a snapshot.)

And I would note that, although they seem to be developing their own Nixonian "enemies list," I don't see a blog devoted to this site yet. Come on, M.A.L.adies! Where's your Tarzan Wilcox Watch?

Meanwhile, it's worth noting that it has been twenty-three days since the issuance of the M.A.L. Challenge, with no sign that the gutless wonders will respond by showing us their own photographs.

Wrong again, M.A.L.adies!

It looks like the psychotic clown(s) have woken up from their mental haze long enough to denounce the campaign of "lies and intimidation" supposedly being spread against them by Bryan Swan. The thing is, since I haven't seen Bryan post a single comment about the M.A.L.adies in months (and, of course, the M.A.L.adies stay true to form and refuse to cite any examples for their charges, but merely sling mud without evidence), and virtually every photo site I'm aware of has chosen, after an initial burst of ridicule, to ignore the M.A.L.adies and refuse to dignify their lunacy by acknowledging their existence, I can only assume that the clowns are referring to this site.

Wrong, as usual!

Aside from my pleasure at knowing that "the truth hurts" even psychotic clown(s), I have to point out, once again, that Bryan Swan has nothing to do with this blog. I am the one person running this place, and I have had, at most, a very few e-mail or message-board exchanges with Swan over the past few years. I've never met him (nor any of the other Adamus supporters you single out for attack on your sites, for that matter).

M.A.L.adies, I suggest that you grow up, adjust your attitude, and stop making statements that can be proven false in a court of law; that way lies pretty hefty libel judgments, particularly when you make up lies about a private citizen's sexual orientation to boot.

Meanwhile, it's worth noting that it has been twenty-one days since the issuance of the M.A.L. Challenge, with no sign that the gutless wonders will respond by showing us their own photographs.