A couple of months ago a moribund Kelly related forum stirred, as if it was coming back to life, made a few unpleasant comments about me and some of the others who contribute to this Blog, called for this blog to be boycotted and then sank back into its death-bed and hasn’t moved a muscle since. I was rather rudely referred to as ‘BO’ ( Blog Owner ) – but Ive been called much worse, so that’s not an issue – and much of what was posted isn’t worth reading, but some of the commentary requires a response to set the record straight.
1. “The BO legitimately created the said Blog page as a personal vendetta against the owner of the NKF and other individuals.” Well no, that’s not why I created the Blog. I created it to break the monopoly that the opinions of Kelly sympathisers had in the on-line world. I joined a forum to make my views heard but was bullied and then expelled; I then created my own Forum but it was sabotaged and deleted by a Ned Kelly Forum member who repeated this act of virtual vandalism when I made a second attempt on the same platform ( ProBoards , you suck! ) Finally with Blogger I have a more secure site that’s been growing for nearly two years. The reasons for its existence are stated at the top of the Page.
2. The mastermind and sole blame must go to all but one, whom has close ties with the owner of the NKF. I lay blame onto him, for it was he that woke the sleeping giant. The said persons acted on what they believed was a cause worth pursuing. It is clear they have failed and the consequence is now where it stands.On behalf of those of us that refuse to be a part of any malicious and vile attacks on the Blog page and to it’s followers; we have since distanced ourselves from such persons.” I have long asked why no Sympathiser ever attempted to stop this bully, because even blind freddy could see that his ignorant blundering and bullying was damaging the sympathizer ‘brand’. Its now apparent that though some in the sympathiser ranks disapproved of his behaviour, nobody was game to take him on, or was it perhaps they deliberately looked the other way while he went about doing the dirty work for them, hoping his ‘malicious and vile attacks’ would result in me going away. Whatever their motivation was for doing nothing – either lack of a moral backbone or hypocrisy – or both – when he failed they turned on him! However as this writer says, he did worse than fail because he instead woke ‘the sleeping giant’ and ‘the consequence is now where it stands’. They’ve finally distanced themselves from him, but they left it much too late. Yes, the sleeping giant is awake and its name is Dee!
3. “I call all contributors to cease making any future contributions. Your intentions as a contributor or shall we say going in to bat for Ned will be in vain. Continue to do so will prove more disastrous than what we are currently experiencing.” Here we have a remarkably frank admission from the Sympathiser camp that the effect of the Death of the Legend Blog on their mythology has been ‘disastrous’ and so he is sounding the Bugle to announce a retreat, a withdrawal from engagement. This is good news because it reveals they have lost confidence in their ability to defend their mythology – though it has to be said that hardly any of them even tried.
4. Was I supposed to let half-truths or lies or incorrect things stay unfixed for others out there to be misled by? Yes, You helped grow Dee’s blogpages to where it is today. It was only a matter of time before Dee’s blog would have been a thing of the past. This is perhaps the only reprintable extract from a long and disgraceful personal attack on Sharon. Here we see perhaps the most sickening thing of all : these sympathizers reserve their most hateful vitriol for one of their own, a self declared “fully fledged Kelly sympathizer” who as she explained, contributed to the Blog to correct ‘half truths or lies or incorrect things’ How ON EARTH could any reasonable person object to that? Many more unkind and slanderous things were written about her, which reveal their jealousy, their disrespect, their misogyny and their total lack of concern about historical truth. I’ve previously alluded to the similarities between some Kelly sympathisers and Religious fanatics and its perfectly demonstrated here – their Dogma is more important than the facts. Its really disgusting. These personal attacks are an outrageous and sickening disgrace, and that writer owes her an apology.
I am sorry that Sharon seems to have disappeared from all Kelly discussions over recent weeks and I would be even sorrier to think it’s a result of this horrendous bullying. Her knowledge of Kelly history is second to none, her contributions were always on the mark, helpful informative relevant and free of any interpersonal animus, and she ought to be respected and honoured for her longstanding commitment to the Sympathiser cause, not threatened and bullied in Cyberspace by fanatics.
Another leading intellect in the Sympathiser camp that has been silenced by bullying from within is Brian McDonald. Honourable NKF members, if there are any should not just distance themselves from the bully that tipped McDonald out of the NKF, and silenced Sharon, they should expel him in disgrace.
5. Takes no Einstein to figure out the relics in Sutton’s possession is the real McCoy.Dee, I’ll put my money where my mouth is, prove Sutton wrong and I will deposit $5,000 in an account (Charity) of your choice. Thats a great offer, but its a trick because even if I could comprehensively disprove every argument Darren made for believing he had a piece of Joes original armour, that would still not prove that he didnt! This is simply a truth about the way in which logic and argument work, something I have said before on this Blog – scientific claims can never be disproved, they can only be proved, and its up to the proponent to make his case and convince us.So if this person intends to only pay up if I can prove that Darrens metal is NOT from Joes suit, then his money is safe.
On the other hand if all I have to prove is that SUTTON is wrong – which is what he actually wrote but I suspect is not what he really meant – then that might be possible, because what I will simply have to show is that his arguments and reasoning are wrong. We will have to wait and see what they are when he launches his book in four months, but the thing he has to explain is the presence of lead in Joes suit, and the complete absence of lead in the metal he found. This important difference is the reason ANSTO concluded his finding had not come from the same metal that Joes armour was made from. His argument will have to be a valid scientific demonstration of how lead completely disappeared from his piece or else how it got into the suit. The lead related to a bullet fired at the suit is a red herring because there is lead throughout Joes armour, not only at the place where the bullet struck.
Sutton has repeatedly alleged that the ANSTO testing was ‘flawed’ – 6 years later he has had more than enough time to prove the truth of that allegation so I will be looking for a scientific expose of these flaws.
6. Thus far Dee has masterfully and shamelessly exposed major inaccuracies on a number of topics. I congratulate you. Well, he got one thing right! Nothing needing correction there! Thanks for the complement.
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