Geoffrey Falk
And just in case we’re bored with the Abbie and Miranda show, let’s pay another visit to Geoffrey Falk. We’ve visited him only once before, in October 2009, so let’s do it again. He’s been calling me a bitch and assorted other choice names at frequent intervals all that time. Yesterday he did a new one, complaining that he’d just found I had a picture of him here.
As soon as I saw it I emailed him (weirdly, he had sent me a couple of friendly emails before changing his mind and deciding to call me names two or three times a month) and said what, where, I’ll take it down. He didn’t reply, he simply updated his disgusting post with a link – so I found the picture and took it down. He hasn’t updated his disgusting post to reflect the fact that I took it down.
He has a tag for me: Ophelia Benson’s Granny Panties. If you click on it you can see what a regular I am, and what refreshingly amusing and insightful things he has to say about me. There’s a lot about the offensive smallness of my tits, and my ugliness and sexlessness and general repulsiveness.
I’m posting this in order to shame him. He could have just emailed me about the damn picture (which was in a comment, and I didn’t know it was there, or that it was a problem); he could have removed the post once I removed the picture; he did neither. Now I want to shame him.
I might do it again some time, too. You never know.
Good. This kind of shit (complaining about your physique? What the fuck?!) is about as childish as it gets. I’m ashamed to share a sex with…that.
Not to mention Grannie Panties. I wear bikinis, god damn it, and they’re underpants, not “panties.”
Granny panties! ELL OH ELL! Ophelia, will you be my adopted granny? I’m thinking of you as Granny Weatherwax here, of course. :)
I won’t be anybody’s god damn granny. I’m way too immature, and I plan to keep it that way.
The irony is that by making his grievance public in this way, he makes it even easier for people to find his picture by telling them it’s on 123people.com. All you have to do is look for his name and pick the image with the size 141×175 that he himself redacted.
There’s obviously nothing more Ophelia can do as she has removed the link, so not sure what his beef is with her on this instance. 123people.com actually spells out a removal procedure for just these kind of situations: http://www.123people.com/page/reputation
I’d tell Mr. Falk on his own blog, but his comments are turned off.
what a nasty, bitter, poorly educated shit
How about Nanny Ogg, then?
*continues refusal to see any insult in the word “granny”.
I have no idea who this whiny crank is, but I see he has a post complaining about me, too. We share enemies!
It’s too bad they’re such petty, trivial, negligible enemies.
Why shouldn’t you put up a picture of Falk anyway?
Is he worried people might download it and use it for nefarious magic purposes or as a dartboard?
That’s rather disgusting, the implication that men, especially of the white variety, are more intelligent than women or non-whites.
His pet name for PZ is PZero. That is really clever! I imagine PZ’s head on the front of a Japanese fighter, soaring through the clouds. Oh, and “Bitches and Wheels,” that’s really rich. I wonder where he got that. I never would have made such an association. I won’t explain the joke here, though. Most women aren’t in a high enough IQ bracket to understand such things, unlike men (especially unlike white men), let alone speak at an atheist convention. The CFI must have lowered the bar to let Watson in that one time, and we all know how that turned out. That’s the danger of Affirmative Action Atheism for ya, throwing the world to the dogs.
@Roger #9
Apparently he has received death threats due to his “cult-busting writings” (his words). It’s a fair concern. Why hasn’t he been stricter about public displays of his identity until now? Who knows. Must be one of those 98th percentile IQ bracket things. They lose themselves in intellectual matters.
Ugh, I didn’t know this gobshite existed before today, and I regret knowing it now. What is it with these odd fixations people develop for you, Ophelia? I am so, so, sorry for the outsized ration of shit you have to deal with, just for putting your thoughts out into the world. :(
I’d never heard of him before, either. Picking a post of his at random, I scanned it and was informed that stereotypes are mostly true. It so happens that a young white woman was murdered by black thugs; this proves the stereotype that blacks are thugs. On the other hand, if a prospective employer took to heart the stereotype about white men wearing ponytails (a class which apparently contains this Falk guy) being stoners, the employer might miss out on a really good employee, like Falk, or Steve Wozniak. So, you see, um.
I also learned that Neil de Grasse Tyson and Barak Obama only got where they are because they’re black.
Y’know, this utensil kinda deserves to have his picture posted, above select examples of his most hilarious fuckwittery. But then he’d get more blog hits. He wouldn’t realize people were going there to laugh and point, he’d take it as evidence that he’s a sooper jeenyus with lots of fans. Best to forget about him.
He and Gurdur both, fucking saddo losers with no life outside the interwebz.
Gurdur has been a happy little piggie rolling in the mud at ERV; this charmer Falk will fit right in there. Delusions of a superior intellect? Check. Misogynist? check. Zero self-awareness? check.
Who is Gurdur?
As others have pointed out, reacting in such a way against a photo results in a wonderful demonstration of the Streisand Effect – or so google images tells me.
Another random misanthropic guy in the internet apparently hating people at random? Well, who would have thought it. I’m glad to see PZ has also come in for criticism, but he doesn’t seem to have been so especially favoured by a cute posting category like you have, Ophelia. (In fact, only four other people have personalised categories at all on that blog, and the next-most negative sounding is “Seth Roberts’ Quackery” – which might be quite reasonable, for all I know about him: which is nil.)
Geoffrey also doesn’t like someone called Thony Christie, but I can’t work out whether this person is a man or a woman, but in any case it merit any weird category naming.
I wonder why you have been singled out for this special, privileged, treatment? (/rhetorical question; /sarcasm)
There is, perhaps a giggle to be gleaned from this heap of schrecklichkeit. I didn’t really need to know that Ophelia wears bikinis. Brits apparently call all nether underwear “pants” and bifurcated posterior attire “trousers”. Please don’t bother to correct me if I’m wrong. It isn’t worth the effort.
I had my clothes laundered once in Madrid, and remarked the item “pantalones de caballero”, supposing they considered my jeans cowboy attire, only later realizing it meant merely gentleman’s pants.
Were we a saner society our working attire would be less gendered. I’d go to the barricades for T-shirts and jeans (or shorts) as working attire for all.
I’ve never had the particular pleasure of interacting with Gurdur, but he runs a blog/forum(?) called Heathen Hub.
PZ describes his acrimonious history with him here, during the Tom Johnson/You’re Not Helping saga: http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/06/how_not_to_run_a_blog.php#comment-2616070
Back on topic, it would be almost needless to say that Falk’s views on objectification would be quite predictable without requiring the further verification provided by: http://www.geoffreyfalk.com/wp_blog/?p=13779
The man is clearly an out-and-out racist, rather than merely the Bell Curve type of racist I had him down for, as this “article” proves beyond any doubt (The last quoted sentence is something else!)
http://www.geoffreyfalk.com/wp_blog/?p=14458
Black “mob and rob” hits Canada:The “mob and rob” is a phenomenon that has been sweeping across the United State during the past several months. A large mob of black thugs form outside a business. Then they storm the business all at once and loot it. Usually small convenience stores are hit. However, in Birmingham, Alabama, even a Walmart was targeted.
Naturally the Canadian media is CENSORING all mention of race. However security camera footage shows that the mob of thugs is 100% black.
In Ottawa, so it’s gonna be coming to Toronto in the very near future. Starting at “Nigger Central” (i.e., Jane & Finch), presumably, and slowly working its way down, like the cancer on civilization that that miserably inferior race (and culture) is.
There’s another potential reason for his bitterness. A recurring theme throughout the “Ophelia Benson’s Granny Panties” comments, is his aggrieved sneering at your success as an author. You see, Falk is also an author. Unfortunately, his books haven’t met with the same (or indeed any) success. Three of them are published by “Million Monkeys Press”, an organisation that seems to only publish those three books. Another is published by “Blue Dolphin Publishing”, which is a stealth vanity press. I think there’s a touch of envy mixed in with the misogyny.
P.S. Is Falk one of the stalkers mentioned in this post?
What the bloody fucking hell?!? Is this guy in 3rd grade?
It is disgusting, and on top of that belies a desperate naïveté that if you’re getting paid gobs and gobs of money, you must, in fact, have a high I.Q.
…And then I actually noticed this part:
Christ. Now I get why he was up in arms about being held accountable.
Apropos of absolutely nothing.
My grandma met my grandpa, because she was hired to chaperone his sister who was betrothed to one of his good friends. Unfortunately grandma was a pretty modern woman, so there wasn’t much decency around, I gather.
Anyway, one of the ways in which grandma was modern, was her use of
pantiesknickers instead of bloomers – grandpa’s sister wore bloomers./random association
Jen –
Beats me! Falk though is just obviously off the charts loony. There is no “why” there.
hyperdeath – yes.
So one wonders why Mr. Falk isn’t equally mad at Blue Dolphin Publishing, given that they are actually hosting the picture that set him off. It’s not that hard to find, given even the most rudimentary google skills.
Because Blue Dolphin Publishing isn’t an evil feminazi bitch!!!!!!!!!!!!11
LOL – yep. I found the pic easily enough. TBH, it’s an awful pic: the selection has an obvious white matte and it’s overly compressed. In addition, the page it’s embedded in looks like it was created by someone with the web development skills of an 10 year old.
But that’s the level of sophistication of Blue Dolphin Press in general. 1995 called – it wants its web site back.
On the other hand, where else could he get published? I took a quick look at his book, “The Science of the Soul,” and ye gods… it’s tiresome reading. A sample:
“When faced with the question, “How much do you weigh?” most of us tend to give an answer related to the mass of the physical body, indicative of attachment to and identification with the physical form. But this narrow sense of identification is fairly arbitrary. In the literal expansion of consciousness beyond the narrow boundaries of the body, one’s effective “mass,” or region of conscious identification, increases. That is, there is an increase in conscious “mass” in higher states of consciousness. Comparatively, in special relativity too, measured mass increases with higher relative velocities. Further, no material object can ever actually attain the velocity of light: to reach this velocity, the object’s mass would have to become infinite.”
ROFL! If I were to ask someone, “how much do you weigh?” and got a response about “the literal expansion of consciousness beyond the narrow boundaries of the body” instead, I’d back away slowly and scan the room for the nearest exit(s). And that’s just one paragraph… there are 340 pages of this stuff.
Based on a cursory reading of his blog posts about you, as well as his book, it’s pretty easy to conclude that the guy has “issues.” “Off the charts loony” indeed.
I know, Ophelia. Rhetorical question. (Hey, I got me a new gravatar!) Elly, thank you for skimming the book so I don’t need to. Bravely done.
Really; well done Elly!
My reply was kind of rhetorical too, Harald. Nice gravatar! Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee……..
Thanks! I spent some very enjoyable (and quite uncomfortable) minutes on my stomach on a rocky beach getting that image.
Ahhhh wildlife photography. I have a Facebook friend who does brilliant pics of green herons in flight – one green heron at a time, I mean. Beautiful. And Just Al does hummingbirds.
Granny panties?
I suppose think of you more as my fun, witty, cool internet aunt. Cool hats and cocktails.
Which creates an interesting basis for comparison.
Greta Christina is the wacky cousin who moved to San Francisco and who is no longer discussed by the more conservative grown-ups.
PZ Myers is the uncle with the scratchy beard who unapologetically wears horrible sweaters and–if you behave–will let you see the alligator he keeps in the bathtub.
Hemant Mehta is the Good Cousin, as in “Did you know your cousin Hemant just made partner at a law firm, put a down payment on a mansion, and helped a little old lady across the street? And here you are, still working part-time!”, but he doesn’t do it on purpose and is actually a pretty cool guy.
etc. etc. etc.
Ophelia up to this point I hadn’t sexualised you at all. But bikinis and underpants? Hmmmm… :)
Auntie Mame? Hardly. I’m a slob and a nerd, not a glam cocktail-sipper.
I wouldn’t have said a word on the subject, but I will not have it thought that I wear an acre of cloth for underpants. Bikini knickers are just more comfortable, that’s all.
I have to admit that when I opened my RSS reader today, I was not expecting to learn about Ophelia Benson’s underpants preferences. But then again, every day brings unexpected surprises. :)
(Well, because fair is fair: Briefs. I’m not a boxers kind of guy.)
Thanks, Philip, for the info on Gurdur. Obviously I haven’t missed anything.
Thony Christie is a man and has a blog called The Renaissance Mathematicus at http://thonyc.wordpress.com/
Stacy, you’re welcome. I had included a link to the blog but it has been rightly censored: if you want to go looking, you’ll find it without any problem. I’ve been a student of human perversity for some time, but even such a rich source as Gurdur’s hangout doesn’t compel me to engage in further, in-depth study.
Veronica, thanks. My comment should have read, “but in [Thony’s] case it didn’t merit any weird category naming”. Falk’s hate for Mr. Christie is obviously good old honest, mano-a-mano type hate, so naturally he doesn’t need to chuck in any irrelevant details like wearing Granny Panties. Of course.
Well, I’m a fan of the hipster bikini undies, but I do think that Nanny Ogg’s knickers have a lot to be said for them. Specifically, the way they are usually well stocked with scumble.
” I wear bikinis, god damn it, and they’re underpants, not “panties.””
Knickers, surely.
“Nice gravatar! Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee……”
That is a fly, not a bee. It is just pretending.
Nice gravatar! Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee……..
I guess I’ve led a sheltered rural sort of life too long – I didn’t even know there were people like this outside of institutions…..It’s impossible to take seriously the rantings of bigoted paranoiac who cares entirely too much about underwear.
It’s too bad his server is located in the USA so his nonsense is protected by the 1st amendment. In Canada for instance he could be shut down and prosecuted…However, since much of this raving is directed at one individual doesn’t it qualify as Harassing Speech not protected by the first?
Ah, we have a biologist among us? Actually, I knew that, but didn’t bother to make an issue out of it. Maybe I like to pretend, too.
Sailor1031: I think strongly protected free speech is a good thing. Heck, without it, Ophelia might have been shut down! In any case, I much doubt that Falk could be shut down in any western democracy for what he wrote. It is not illegal to be spiteful, and it is hardly libel to claim that some uses an acre of fabric to cover their private parts even if it is not true.
well I think his ravings about women and racial minorities would be considered hate speech. Did you read that crap? And I checked – harrassing speech is not protected.
Oh, it’s a fly, how embarrassing. I didn’t know they wore yellow stripes. The only ones I ever see are all in black (therefore possessed by demons).
Yeah, I read some of it. It’s a cesspool. I feel dirty from just a few minutes of skimming. So no, I didn’t read enough of it, and anyway I am not a lawyer, so I couldn’t really say if it qualifies as hate speech or not. Maybe you’re right, I don’t know.
A cesspool indeed. Makes ERV look like an 18th century Paris salon.
“Oh, it’s a fly, how embarrassing. I didn’t know they wore yellow stripes. The only ones I ever see are all in black (therefore possessed by demons).”
These flies are on the sides of the angels: they help keep the greenfly off your roses.
Come now, Sbutle, only black flies? Why, I’ve seen brown, green, blue, grey and yellow ones even indoors!
On free speech, I tend to favour giving them more rope.
Well, brown, I suppose…but not around here. They must all be black in the Pacific Northwest.
Quoth Elly:
Well … the unfortunate comparison with another certain young-ish white secluded male from a Northern country uninvitedly pokes its head up from recent news. Luckily, it seems so far Mr Falk hasn’t produced 1,500 pages of this stuff. Should perhaps some Body take steps to try and keep it that way, hmm? Meanwhile, it might be best to leave him be and leave him to the Authorities Beyond Belief*.
It just occurred to me that I once upon a time used to come across a young man on the commuter train who tried very hard to blend in with the crowd, by reading a newpaper – only, he held it upside down. Now, maybe he was just showing off that he was so SMRT he could read inverted text. Or maybe our Mr Falk also held his IQ percentiles up the wrong way.
* Not that they will do much this time, either. BTW, there’s a sbutle cloo in there ;-) And I hope they captured Falk’s self-image before he tried to deep-six it. Because that is another worrying indicator. Only guessing here: how many firearms does Mr Falk possess? Fertilizer?
Yes; I’ve always been (selfishly) glad he’s far away. From me.
Stop the hypocrisy.
You rant and rave about how some commentators at ERV are using the term “Twatson” to mock Watson’s own “Dear Dick” campaign, while you yourself have made a number of sexist and hateful comments about Madeleine Bunting over the years, which you still do not seem to have apologized for.
You claim to be a skeptic, yet you have completely ignored every argument put forth by those who disagree with you, and you have been waging a campaign of demonizing and censoring those who disagree so that your readers will not hear the other side, and will be prejudiced in all their dealings with those who disagree with you.
You have co-authored a book on skeptical thought and why it is important, and yet you have gone out of your way to avoid applying skeptical thought to your own actions.
Your behavior is abhorrent and childish. You are not a skeptic; you are just another delusional fanatic, just like the Creationists you so hate.
Oh for fuck’s sake BannedSkeptic. Copy and pasting the same tirade to at least 3 different threads is itself “abhorrent and childish.” As is sockpuppetry (fairly obvious from the nym).
Actually, BS, the commentators over yonder are doing a great job of self-demonisation by being their vexatious, mendacious, and obsessive selves. It looks very much like what The Intersection was like a bit over a year ago while the Wally Smith sockpuppet brigade were ensconced and fulminating away. Anyway, you’re off-topic, and there are several things wrong in your post besides.
Back on-topic. Here’s Geoffrey, continuing to keep it classy with a couple of recent posts on the London riots:
http://www.geoffreyfalk.com/wp_blog/?cat=37
Nathan:
If she is going to keep insulting us, and not give us any opportunity to respond, then I feel that I should make her have to waste as much effort as possible keeping up her suppression.
Doubly so since she is guilty of the same sort of crap she is accusing us of.
Must … not … feed … the … troll …
That’s a lie. Addressing Bunting as “Madders” once and “Cookie” once does not amount to a number of sexist and hateful comments over the years. You don’t want to take Gurdur too seriously. A couple of dismissive nicknames are not the equivalent of bitch and cunt and twat.
The consequence of spending so much time in an echo chamber seems to be that you don’t realize what shitty arguments you’re making–what with everyone agreeing with you and telling you how brilliant you are. There’s so much wrong with the above [now deleted – OB] it’s not even worth the fisking it so richly deserves. It’s just pathetic.
And I’ve deleted 10 or 15 clones of it from other threads. Hooray for reasoned dialogue.
Apparently BannedSkeptic feels that his desire to behave as he pleases trumps your desire to maintain a comfortable environment in your personal e-space.
That sounds oddly familiar, for some reason.
I get the necessity of housekeeping, except now where my #61 says ‘the above’ it looks like I’m referring to your #60, which is not the case. You can delete #61 if you like.
Except that if your #61 is deleted, then your post directly above will also look odd describing posts that are no longer there, so it too perhaps should be deleted… which would consequently make this post look very ridiculous indeed, so it should probably be deleted…
Nah, let’s not go there. Let’s simply say that the original post occupying #61 which the current #61 was in reply to was a pile of BS very similar to Mr. BS’s first post at #55.
He’s also showing signs of obsession. Not healthy.
One of the best things about ERV’s monument is that it has attracted Gurdur, predictably, like a fly to shit.
And he is organising and trying to lead the “dissenters” and their “campaign”. That is such a perfect fit of assholes that I wish them many happy hours of togetherness.
64 and 65 – I just did a tiny informational edit, instead.
Gurdur is rallying the dissenters is he? That’s hilarious. I saw last weekend that he was suggesting an “alternative” conference to be the opposite of the CFI Women in Secularism one, starring Smith&Hale.
Nice edit OB!
Is it me, or does Smith & Hale sound like a mis-matched UK comedy pairing? Alas, Smith without Jones, and Hale minus Pace.
I was thinking it sounded like a cough drop.