A note to my "helper"

Several times, over the past few weeks, I have received comments (presumably from the same person) identifying a certain photographer as the force behind the M.A.L. site. As I've said before, legal considerations prevent me from revealing any unofficial "tips" as to the identity of one or more (if there are more) of the M.A.L.adies. Once the culprit(s) is/are revealed legally, you'll be the first to know.

I would note that my "helper," in making his or her case that "photographer X" is a/the M.A.L.ady, points out that he or she made the accusation in a comment to the M.A.L. blog, and had the comment censored by the M.A.L.adies. Hence, his or her suspicion that "photographer X" must be the guilty party, or else the blog would have published the comment to throw suspicion elsewhere. Unfortunatly for that conclusion, when I went through all the M.A.L. blog comments a few days ago, I found several published comments accusing "photographer X" of being responsible for the site. So, it would seem that the (singular or plural) M.A.L.adies didn't censor some accusations against that photographer -- which leads me to suspect he isn't really the culprit. Close, but no cigar.

One Hundred Days

Yes, one hundred days ago, we issued the M.A.L Challenge, calling on the M.A.L.adies to "put their money where their mouth is" and show us their own photographs, so we could see just how their work compares to that of Marc Adamus and his friends they so despise.

To no one's surprise, the response has been...silence.

I guess the M.A.L.adies realize that, if they had to show their own work, the jig would be up, and the entire photographic world would realize they weren't worthy of carrying a real photographer's tripod case. This way, instead, what we see is that they don't have the guts to stand up and speak for themselves. Again, not a surprise.

I swear, you just can't make this sort of stuff up!

A couple of days ago, the M.A.L.adies offered yet another "proof" of Marc Adamus's supposed lies: This one is such a classic, you really need to go through it bit by bit.

They begin by claiming:

First, Marc starts off his post with an epic amount of bullshit, making this relatively easy hike sound like some epic Himalayan trek. He even throws in gratuitous lies about having a lot of experience hiking "off-trail" in the North Cascades (laughter).

Then a concerned Photosig member calls out some of his shit, and Marc goes into the familiar defensive pattern we're all familiar with (ie, I don't remember what I've said in the past, I do what I want, etc etc). You can clearly tell that Marc is bristling at having been exposed, and he's stomping all over this fellow.

The M.A.L.adies provide a link to this thread, as have I. I strongly recommend you read it, as the actual thread bears absolutely no resemblance to the M.A.L.ady account above. Adamus gives a straightforward account of the taking of the photograph, another member (Tomas Kaspar, by the looks of it) calls it a "beautiful shot," but qualifies that it's not really "wilderness," whereupon Adamus replies that, although a popular hike, it is technically in the Mt. Baker Wilderness area. Then the conversation moves on to other matters. Only in M.A.L.adyland could this civil, mutually-supportive discussion be retold as a near-apocalyptic battle between the forces of light and darkness. But, wait, the best is yet to come!

More importantly, he added another LIE in his little "tirade". He stated that the hike was "about 5 miles in". This is a RIDICULOUSLY transparent lie! The official hike distance is 4.1 miles (USFS, Lake Ann trail).

Yep, you've got that right: In M.A.L.adyland, calling a 4.1-mile hike "about 5 miles" is a grave and unforgivable lie. Most people, of course, would recognize the "about" as meaning it was an approximation, and figure "about 5 miles" was to distinguish between it and, say, a one-mile hike on one hand, and a ten-miler on the other. But not the M.A.L.adies!

Of course, this could be held up as yet another example of the M.A.L.adies making a mountain out of a molehill (except, in this case, it's more like Mt. Everest out of a grain of sand), but I think I've figured out their "logic." You see, you need to ask the question: what sort of person would think the difference between 4.1 and "about 5" miles a huge discrepancy? The only answer I can come up with is "an 'outdoorsman' for whom a 4.1-mile hike is just barely doable, but a 5-mile hike utterly impossible." In other words, someone pretty seriously out of shape, unable to get to locations where much of the best photography can be found. Hmmmm...do you get the feeling we just found out something new about the M.A.L.adies?

Hypocrisy, thy name is M.A.L.ady

Check out the M.A.L.adies' latest (multiple) entries, in which, on the anniversary of the death of Galen Rowell, they capitalize on and exploit Rowell's death in order to criticize Marc Adamus for allegedly capitalizing on and exploiting Rowell's death. Seriously, can they really not see the double-standard in their action?

This just in: M.A.L.adies issue gratuitous insult against Muslims!

In their latest "parody," the M.A.L.adies issue a mock letter from NaturePhotographers.net (an excellent web forum, by the way) supposedly taking to task, in Gestapo-like fashion, someone who declared insufficient loyalty to Adamus. Now, this is pretty innocuous (except for it being a second violation of Godwin's Law), and is even a bit funnier...no, wait, make that a bit less unfunny than their usual slime, except that they take a completely gratuitous swipe against Islam by repeatedly having the NaturePhotographers.net Gestapo refer to "Marc (Peace be upon him)"-- the honorific bestowed on the prophet Muhammed by his followers. I suspect that devout Muslims would not appreciate throwing in a bit of mockery of their religion into a message supposedly coming from a Nazi-like dicatatorial group. So, where's the Ayatollah and his fatwas when we really need them?

And one more thing...

During my survey of comments posted to the M.A.L. blog, I discovered a quite interesting phenomenon: after an early period of time where the M.A.L.adies were controlling the tone of the comments by simply refusing to punish any critical of them, they began to (apparently) back off on the censorship. Since then, the sentiment of the comments has swung wildly against them; leaving off the posts by one of their "staff," the count I came up with was 64 positive, 212 negative.

But there's been an interesting pattern: for the past several weeks, no matter how negative the balance of the comments has been, the first comment on the entry has always been positive. And posted shortly after the blog entry itself. And, of course, anonymous. Boys and girls, can you say "sockpuppet"...? Sure, you can!

A stunning bit of hypocrisy from the M.A.L.adies

Yesterday, we got a plaintive post from M.A.L.adyland, begging their followers to stop posting comments under their own names:

Due to fears of reprisals from THUGS, IDIOTS, & MORONS, we suggest that all fans and supporters post as "anonymous" or under assumed names from now on. The mood of the THUGS & MORONS has become quite ugly, with several threats of violence made in the last several hours.

MarcAdamusLIES.com appreciates your support, but please DON'T compromise yourselves by opening your life to indiscriminate slander and attacks from THUGS & MORONS, by revealing your real names. The first action of a THUG or MORON is to google your name to find any dirt he or she can. Be safe, post anonymously!

And to the THUGS & MORONS, well, you cowards already post anonymously, despite pretending to be innocent victims who were simply minding your own business. No one believes your Marc Adamus worshipping nonsense anymore! Grow up; grow a pair!

I guess they weren't counting on anyone actually going through all the comments on their site. Bad move, guys! (And I use "guys" advisedly.) I decided to check every comment to every post so far, and the results were illuminating, to say the least:

• There has never been a pro-M.A.L. comment on their blog that wasn't anonymous or using a fairly obvious fake name (like simply "Steve," "George," or "G. Pismo Clam") with no link or anything that would reveal their identity. Not one. For their supporters (if any) as well, hiding behind an untrackable identity is the M.A.L. way of life.
  
• As to the anti-M.A.L.adies being "cowards" who "already post anonymously," on the contrary, a considerable number of posts critical of their blog have been signed with the critic's real name. Many of those posters now have their names listed in the M.A.L.L. Honor Roll. Practically all of them have been targets of a M.A.L.ady slander campaign, touching on everything from their competence at work to their relationships with their parents to their sexual orientation. And, in some of those cases, the slander campaign began only after they had posted their negative comments on the blog.

So, when the M.A.L.adies warn people about "...opening your life to indiscriminate slander and attacks from THUGS & MORONS, by revealing your real names. The first action of a THUG or MORON is to google your name to find any dirt he or she can," they aren't talking about anything that's been done by Marc Adamus or his supporters -- they're describing their own despicable modus operandi.

An interesting omission, don't you think?

Over in M.A.L.adyland, while the blog has been full of the usual deranged rants, the main M.A.L. website has been strangely quiet. The same list of supposed "lies" from Adamus (without any evidence to support their claim that they are lies at all, of course), the same lists of "thugs" and "useful idiots" (although they promised that "many more names will be added in the near future," the lists contain the exact same names as when the website was launched), the same list of obviously-fake names of their "team."

There's one item on their page that's notable, though. It's the clickable region reading "what you can do to restore integrity to landscape photography" -- and it's notable because it's the only clickable area that leads nowhere. Even after all these months, it still has no link.

It's nice of the M.A.L.adies to admit that they have nothing at all to say about restoring integrity to landscape photography. If I can help them out here, I would suggest the link should lead to a new page that reads:

Don't believe anything you read on the Marc Adamus Lies website...and don't trust anything you hear from the psychotic clown(s) that run that site and its blog.

With that change alone, the M.A.L.adies could make a key step toward making their website at least partially worthwhile.

Quotes that (almost) don't need comment

Over the past several weeks, the THUGS & MORONS came dangerously close to outing one of our privileged sources. They tried all sorts of disgusting and despicable tactics to paint this person as some sort of lunatic.

Yes, in M.A.L.adyland, I'm sure that telling the truth falls under the category of "disgusting and despicable tactics," since it's something they avoid at all costs.

And the idiocy just keeps on coming...

A few weeks ago, a M.A.L.ady wrote a post deriding Popular Photography and Outdoor Photography (both of which, of course, have notably featured photographs by Marc Adamus) as "loser magazines." Now, that announcement in itself would have been one of the stupidest things written this year in the photographic world, but the M.A.L.ady Code seems currently to be "when you find yourself in a hole, keep digging." And, thus, we get them(?) expanding on that yesterday by declaring Outdoor Photography "a rag" and dismissing Popular Photography as "as low as you can go in photography publishing."

Hmmm....I guess we now know two magazines in which the M.A.L.ady has tried and failed to get published, don't we? (Although I'm sure there are many others.)

Pot, meet kettle... (8/7/09 edition)

After too long of a pause, the psychotic clown(s) is/are back. Presumably Mommy and Daddy finally restored Junior's computer priviliges after suspending them for a couple of weeks after getting their online service's bill. Anyway, his/her/its latest inanity is to claim that Adamus never went on a backpacking trip around Crater Lake, as he claimed to have done, because his famous photo was taken from a location near the hotel. (Note to myself: when returning from a hike, never take a photo within a quarter-mile of the trailhead; otherwise, it will be held up as "proof" that I never went on the hike at all.)

In any event, the M.A.L.ady is "challenging" Adamus to prove him/her/it wrong by releasing other photos from the same trip, taken at locations further along the path.

Now, I'm not going to tell Adamus how to respond, but all I can say is "Are you freakin' kidding me??? You have the nerve to 'challenge' another photographer to show more of their images? Look at the M.A.L. Challenge Counter on this site to see how long you gutless loser(s) have ducked my challenge to show your own photos. Until you've done so, what right do you have to 'challenge' anyone else? Put your money where your mouth is...or shut it."