When is it fair to call someone a liar? Do they have to have admitted they lied or can you go by the evidence?

If a man said to you he was going to call his web page UFO Magazine even though UFO Magazine already exists, would you find that kind of sketchy? Like maybe he's riding the coattails of the real UFO Magazine?

And if you called him on it and he denied it, would you believe him? If he claimed he didn't know UFO Magazine existed until after he co opted the name but he's been into ufology for a good chunk of his life, would that ring true? Can you study Michael Jackson and not know about the sequined glove? Is it possible?

I found out about UFO Magazine after I bought the domain name, because I bought a book sponsored by them.

Really? Is that possible given that at least two websites you personally linked to your own are run by writers for UFO Magazine?

The douche baggery doesn't end there, oh no. He then goes on to claim that it doesn't matter anyway because he's not planning on making money off this website. It's just a hobby. Cut to the next day and he's advertising to hire writers with pay.

Where does that pay come from, his hobby fund?

He whines about how the publisher of the real UFO Magazine treated him on the phone, thus setting up a David & Goliath story wherein he is the hero taking on a giant corporation in a legal battle he must...not...lose. Coincidentally, he went through this with Radio Shack when they tried to sue him for infringement--but please don't see a pattern there. Just a coincidence. Move along.

Is he a liar yet?

He conveniently uses the hostile phone conversation as an excuse to file for a trademark on UFO Magazine so that his actions will be justified in the minds of all two of his fans. They want war? I'll give them war! - Except he claims that's not what he's doing. Additionally, he ends all of his correspondences with the passive-aggressive "Have a great day!" And he goes on any blog where UFO Magazine writers have been taking him to task to alert them that he does, in fact, have a pending trademark on the words UFO Magazine.

But none of this is for anger or money or fame or anything. So what is it for? What is his hobby again?

What if I further told you that he published an article on his pretend website trashing me because he'd just figured out that I, who had been taking him to task, am the same man he thought was full of shit during a pod cast he'd listened to recently?  He'd heard a radio interview with me that he thought sucked and believed I was a con artist. He visited my website and that sealed the deal: I'm all about making money.  He's mentioning it now, even though the interview took place in May 2006, because...well...because he just figured out who I am.  Granted, in one of my postings to him I gave my website address saying something like,  "the .net version is available if you want to buy it for no particular reason." But that's not how he found me. He didn't go to my website and then do a little digging for ammo; according to him, he already knew who I was. (If true, he would have known I write for UFO Magazine and therefore that UFO Magazine exists, but I digress....)

So if he told you all of that would you believe him? Could you? Is it at all possible he's NOT lying?

Would you be friends with this guy?

Would you trust him?

Would you mine his website for truth or facts?

My favorite part of his article about me was when his instinct told him that Farah Yurdozu. the famous columnist for UFO Magazine and interviewer whose work he admires, sounded like she didn't believe a word I said because I was clearly ducking questions. It's my favorite part because Farah and I became friends that night and remain so to this day. So even his instincts lie.

I'm not going to bother naming the offending assclown because I don't want to give him publicity. I don't want him to be able to claim that he's not a liar, he's controversial. He's edgy. He's taking on The Man, corporate greed, and the writer-minions who feel we must do the bidding of our corporate slave masters by defending their position.

Since he went through a similar debacle with Radio Shack he should know the law well enough to understand that by law, if you trademark something and you find a perceived infringement you have to alert the perceived offending party or else you lose that trademark. So there's no corporate boogie man here and he knows it. Believe me, I wish there were--I'd LOVE to be able to write for a living. I'd sell out in a heartbeat to defend my corporate slave master. I'd assume the position.

Sadly, for yours truly, that's not the case. This is just good ol' fashioned right vs. wrong and the one who is wrong is trying to take down the very people he should be in support of--given his love for ufology--and who, regardless, are in the right.

So he's a liar. And an assclown. And if you do decide to seek out his site, be sure to leave him a nice message addressed to "Assclown." He's a big fan of that.