Caution: mental turbulence - full protective suit and chunder-bags required.
The real hate sites, racked, stacked, and awarded...
Abstracted from Google 21/07/06
Corrected: 28/7/06, 19/8/06
Edit: 6/3/07
Currently there seems to be some sort of shakeout going on in the blogsphere, so I decided to don my bio-hazard suit and wade into the Wierd and Wonderful World of HMI to have a look around.
The Contestants
HMI - “Holloway Media Inc” - is shorthand for those who are pushing the idea that everybody is guilty.
Species recognition:
Lots of BLOCK CAPS and exclamation!!! marks giving the impression of a yelling hysteric having a manic break. Lurid colours everywhere. Crap spelling, crap grammar, crap thinking. Threatening. Gross images. Overtly prayerful and American patriotic. The hysterical extreme of the American Religious Right (with a couple of notable exceptions).
The mode is strident assertion and rhetorical and loaded questions. Selective and mis-quotations, mis-representations, as well as blatant fabrications, abound as The Truth. What one blogger called “Ugly American v2.0”.
Fiercely opposed to the expression of any opinion other than the strict and narrow HMI Party line and in enforcing this conformity of opinion they seem to exceed the excesses of Communist governments of the Cold War; never mind American law and Constitution. And more Pol Pot than Stalin at that.
A lynch-mob fueled by wall-to-wall hate and bile directed against just about everybody, particularly J2K, and everything Aruban and Dutch.
They know what they believe and won't be confused by mere facts. It's blind Faith pitted against Reason.
The paradox is that the more strident and narrow these blogs become the narrower their audience appeal. Normal people end up more disgusted at the blogger than the issue - you start to feel it is you the reader that is being shat upon, not the nominal target; that you have been tricked into reading what is nothing more than a pile of vile abuse.
I note that 1400 Dutch are fighting the Taliban in one of the hottest zones of Afghanistan as part of G.W.Bush's so-called War on Terror, now supported by Australian Special Forces.
It is a revisiting of the Faith against Reason debates, typified by the Stopes Monkey Trial; Creationism; so-called “Intelligent Design” and the Dover school case; Right to Life; and stem-cell research, among many other radical-Right touchstones.
The Flying Turd Award - scoring
This is a list of sites that popped out of Google blogsearch and websearch that make you want to go and have a shower to wash the muck off.
They are rated roughly according to a blockhead index. Points are scored for both presentation and content.
Presentation includes a total lack of site design, extensive use of block caps, huge type, lurid colour schemes, and an inability for the reader to repond, even privately, to the admin.
Content includes threats, abuse, name-calling, selective and mis-quotation, fact-inversion, fact-ignoring, and faith-driven banana-logic.
We literally have it asserted that a huge and increasing number of people are covering up for Joran in a vast conspiracy, now even including the FBI, and a total refusal to even consider the possibility that Joran might not actually know anything.
A sane observer is moved to turn from the Holloway case itself to consider the antics of those who style themselves as Holloway supporters, and what on earth they think they are doing, all too often literally in God's name.
I received my Secondary education in a Methodist college, including RI and choir, and this is a brand of “Christianity” I simply don't recognise, not forgiving but primative, fearful and filled with venom and spite.
The Renfro Statement
There has just been another attempt to fabricate evidence, the
Scared Monkey'sBlogs For Natalee (BFN) Renfro Statement. There is now enough data for a pattern to emerge that some individual (apart from Beth) really has it in for Joran. And the source of much of the most spectacular “credible” evidence (Carlos I & II), and which has turned out to be bogus, is Diario publisher Jossy Mansur.For a change Joran isn't the direct target, but Julia Renfro, publisher of Aruba Today newspaper, and close associate of Beth's during the initial weeks. We can only guess at the motivation behind this transparent attempt to discredit Renfro as some sort of a paid police informer, but it is clearly not flattering in intent. (see 4a for more)
The Aruba Boycott
Which brings in another main theme - damaging Aruba. The Aruba boycott idea has actually been counter-productive to the on-the-ground and investigative search for Natalee Holloway; and is now very clearly way off-target and a silly idea for Beth. So who's ends does it serve?
Whatever happened to Natalee, an all-out and very public assault on Aruba as a whole is somewhat curious because it is off-topic to the supposed main aim of finding (what happened to) Natalee. It's a distraction. It not only doesn't help, it has actually obstructed (e.g. getting Equuisearch banned from Aruba).
And seems to me to be singularly un-Christian in punishing the very many innocent with the few being presumed guilty.
So I am left wondering; assuming Beth really is serious about finding her daughter, why does she continue to support a boycott that was a bad idea, ill-directed, and has actually damaged relations between Arubans and her family, and people like Texas Equuisearch who where so helpful, all for no useful outcome?
If this is not simply insane, a form of paranoid autism, we must assume that there is some sort of a payoff for Beth that makes the costs worthwhile.
But moving right along...
The Flying Turds!
It's been a hard field to choose from with so many good contenders. Certainly the top half-dozen or so are hard to tell apart when it comes to blind blood-curdling hostility.
Points would have been deducted for wit, black humor, or self-awareness if any had been found. But a number scored very well on unintended irony, as well as breathtaking hypocracy.
Scared Monkeys must get two special mentions, one for breaking new ground by incorporating their blog as an LLC, after losing their archives, presumably as a rearguard action against defamation suits - but futile as a visit to Google's cache will show. (see also HyScience/NH on devestment and the 2 year rule)
But particularly for its front page 4th of July sanctimony in stark contrast to its everyday message sentiments.
The blogs at least reflect a total fixation with one scenario; variations of Beth's Story that J2K raped and murdered Natalee. “Fanatical” is the word. Impervious to any reason or established facts.
So here are the current rankings (Alphons, the envelope if you please...)
(drum roll)And the winner of the Flying Turd is...
MarySpiteCrazy!!!
http://maryspritecasey.blogspot.com/
Mary continues to be the most consistant producer of a torrent of pure un-reasoned bile, reproduced in a billious colour scheme. A bit like a screen saver with a bad hangover, and makes about as much sense.
Here is a sample of their award-winning, rainbow-coloured, work (sadly in monochrome);
JORAN,DEEPAK,SATISH, CAN YOU SAY CRIMNALS ? SLIMBAGS ?
Posted by SOCIETYISPATHETIC
THE LAST 3 KNOWN TO BE SEEN WITH NATALEE HOLLOWAY ! Poor BETH, Look what you did to her Joran, you liar. You have no soul, no heart. You are empty inside. A BEAUTIFUL YOUNG LADY. WHERE IS SHE URINE ? <--THIS FAMILY KNOWS THE TRUTH.
http://arubadirtypolice.blogspot.com
Deech, known as “Ditch” to his detractors, has established himself as the real Prince of Poo, a previous Flying Turd winner and was a very strong contender this time around. He seems to be some sort of anti-police-and-authority anachist.
http://reallycreepypeople.blogspot.com/
Another steady performer, it again scored strong points for unintended irony of the way it appears in Google;
http://reallycreepypeople.blogspot.com/NATALEE HOLLOWAY, DAVE HOLLOWAY, BETH TWITTY
...and when you visit, the name seems aptly spot-on. These are not the people you would invite into your family home. More Manson Family than Addams Family.
http://www.scaredmonkeys.com
The Paranoid Monkey's is a message board that also scores well on unintended irony, and carried off the Flying Turd Hypocracy Division.
But they also scored well with the Renfro Statement fiasco, and sending Dave an “important clue” that turned out to be a planted mixed Dutch-English document gullibility-test, a sting they failed, big-time.
Also noted for losing their message archives stuffed with defamation; and incorporating as an LLC, possibly the first blog ever to do so.
The rest are a close-run pack of camp followers;
http://blogsfornatalee.com/
http://joranvandersloot.blogspot.com/
http://arubanboycott.blogspot.com
http://justicefornataleeholloway.blogspot.com
http://newdatinggame.blogspot.com
http://nataleehollowaytimeline.blogspot.com/
http://arubassilence.blogspot.comwww.nataleeholloway.com/
www.natalee-holloway.com/
www.natalee-holloway.org/
www.courttv.com/news/holloway/
www.al.com/birminghamnews/missing/
www.crime.about.com/
www.drphil.com/
www.amw.com/
www.americasmostwanted.com/
www.michellemalkin.com/
Failed to qualify
These sites failed to qualify for entry into the Flying Turd Awards.
http://getagripmonkey.blogspot.com
Aruba Getagrip - supplies translations of articles written in
PiamentoPapiamento (Aruban) into English. Mostly material from Diario, it is not clear what, if anything, its agenda is. [6/3/07] Now stopped translating.
http://www.riehlworldview.com/
Riehl World View - an open messageboard by Dan Riehl. Contains all views, currently with little civility or mutual respect. [6/3/07] Dan seems to have lost interest and the current message stack is unworkably large at over 1000 posts deep.
www.hyscience.com/archives/natalee_holloway/
A discuss-it-with-Harry type blog. Wide-ranging, free-thinking, imaginative, ascerbic, grumpy, informed, something to offend everyone. [6/3/07] Very quiet now.
www.opsporingverzocht.nl/
A Dutch TV programme modelled on AMW, did a feature on the case.
http://www.rjames.com/
The Bushy Haired Stranger blog of R.St.James. Half way between discuss-with-RstJ, and a message board. [6/3/07 DNA testing now shows that it was the truth, there was indeed a “bushy haired stranger” that raped and bludgioned the wife]
http://www.refugeesunleashed.net/
Refugees Unleashed - characterised by HMI supporters as a Natalee-hater site for its diversity of views and tolerance of posters with HMI views. [6/3/07] Items from HMI blogs are frequently echoed here for discussion and vivisection.
http://freedomofblog.com/
Freedom of Blog - a van de Sloot support site; discussion tends to be slower and more thoughtful at length. Some of the more interesting ideas have originated here and is often first with developments. [6/3/07] Maintains a commentry on other blogs.
http://www.scrux.com/
Scrux has
closed[6/3/07] reopened with a new forum for new postings. The discussion archives are still available. So too are a number of very useful archive sections containing information related to the Holloway case, statements, transcripts, etc, and discussions. Cool, calm, reasoned, dispassionate discussions and arguments. This has naturally earned the wrath of HMI for raising questions about Beth and the Mountain Brook students.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_white_woman_syndrome
This Wikipedia article deals with the news media, the viewers, and the Missing White Woman Syndome.
This aspect has also been discussed by different blogs from several angles. In the year since Natalle went missing over 300 people, about one a day, went missing in Natalee's home state of Alabama, but even if of tender years they lacked one or more of being; female, white, blond, pretty, from a rich and influential family.
http://www.aruba.com/nholloway/index.htm
An extensive listing of what Aruba actually did do to try and find Natalee Holloway.
www.kuro5hin.org/
Home of an early incendiary article that still rates high in the search engines. It questions the balance of the media in dealing with this case, and what other reasons it may have had for giving it saturation coverage when other big stories critical of the conservative agenda were breaking - domestic wiretapping, and an alledged atrocity by American soldiers in Iraq.
http://www.hbeeinc.com/
A blog from a British point of view which compares the Holloway hysteria with the Princess Di hysteria. [6/3/07] has opened a satirical KillForNatalee blog.
http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/seekinfo/holloway.htm
Finially, what the FBI itself says about the case;
“It should be noted that this information is provided for investigative purposes only and no accusations of guilt or criminal involvement are [to be] inferred. No person(s) has been charged in Natalee Holloway's disappearance, and under United States law all persons are considered innocent until proven guilty.”
(my emph.)They confuse “infer” with “imply”, but never mind, they're Americans and we understand their difficulties with the English language.
Notable exceptions mentioned above are a couple of heavy-duty Christian sites that take issue with parenting issues. These commentators are not willing to overlook the role of Natalee's parents in directing her as their child, particularly “father-ship”. They not unreasonably draw critical attention to the group activities in Aruba, and the lack of responsibility shown by the parents, chaparones and students.
http://member.telpacific.com.au/rolyroper/NataleeHolloway/page11a.htm | 24/07/06 | Last update:
12:12 12/03/07
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