Ew
Update: Thursday evening: that part could well just be Kwokkian fabulation. In other words, bullshit. Sheril isn’t entirely clear about it, but I think that’s what she’s saying. If I learn more, I’ll say more.
Oh gee, I was just a little premature with that. I was unaware that Kwok had claimed that Sheril Kirshenbaum herself had fed him an article about me (the recent Observer article). So it’s not just a matter of passively failing to remove comments including one that calls me a bitch, it’s a matter of actively helping the notoriously (and widely-banned) obsessive and vituperative and out of control John Kwok. They turn out to be bottom-feeders. I’m a little stunned…
O, I’m with you in extreme distaste for Kwok, and for Chris and Sheril’s behavior vis a vis comments. I would take Kwok’s claims with a grain of salt, though, until we know otherwise.
Chris and Sheril have demonstrated very clearly that they are intellectually dishonest hypocrites, quite aside from whether Sheril actually “fed” Kwok material about you. Having watched their gyrations and smarmy self-regard for more than a year, I’m actually surprised that you’re as surprised as you are (just an observation, not a dig).
Josh, yeah, that’s why I’ve been including an attribution when I mention it.
Oh but I haven’t been reading them, so I don’t know. I associated Chris with Nisbet so I just didn’t go there any more – until all this came up a few weeks ago. I’m ignorant…
A little perspective: two of Kwok’s “very good friends” have written to me privately to let me know that Kwok does NOT speak for them, and they are a little disturbed that he continues to drop their names. One, who is very frequently mentioned by Kwok, even told me that he barely knows the guy — that ‘passing acquaintance’ would be overstating their relationship.
One also cc’ed to me a scathing letter he wrote to Kwok, telling him to knock it off.
So, on the one hand, he does greatly overstate his degree of familiarity with people…but on the other, Chris and Sheril are giving him free rein, which is a little worrisome. Are they really that desperate for sympathetic commenters?
Sorry Ophelia, for assuming you’re inside my head, reading the same things I read every day:)) This isn’t a surprise to me, and it’s why I’ve been so plainspoken about being “uncharitable” about the two of them while you and Russell were trying very hard to be fair-minded. For me, Chris and Sheril had gone way past the point of legitimate disagreement and benefit of the doubt territory…
I say this as a person who really liked The Republican War on Science, and had no idea Chris was going to go in this direction. My distaste grew when I wrote a long comment on his blog months ago (yes, it was tartly worded and probably included a “goddamn” or “shit”, but it wasn’t just a profane tirade) when I asked him to explain this turnaround to a reader who genuinely admired his work . When he moderated it out of existence – almost certainly out his prissy priorities about “tone” – I knew all I needed to know.
I don’t mean that to sound so self-important. I’m a nobody in this field, just some guy on the Internet. I’m not a colleague he needs to take seriously. But it still seemed revealing.
Thanks for mentioning that, PZ. I had to suspect (and was really hoping) that was the case with Kwok. If I were any of those well-known people whose name he drops so chummily, I’d be upset indeed.
Thanks for the perspective, PZ. Maybe I should start pretending to be his best friend! That would disconcert him.
Just kidding. Not gonna.
That would be risky. Kwok can be a rather obsessively stalkerish type. Don’t encourage him in any way, or next thing you know, he’s demanding a camera from you.
And then saying it was a joke, over and over and over and over again…
Kwok says to P.Z. Myers,
“I also expect you to refrain from criticizing religions, especially the Roman Catholic Church.”
Me-thinks Kwok is a closet OD fan.
“(Bill is Bill Dembski): 12/12/07
Dear Bill:
You have until NOON EST tomorrow to have Amazon.com reinstate my review of the ‘The Design of Life’. If you do not, then I will write to Dr. Robert Zimmer (Stuyvesant HS ’64), formerly Provost, Brown University, and currently, President, University of Chicago, to insist that he initiate a course of action that will result in having you stripped of your 1988 Ph. D. degree in Mathematics for an ongoing series of actions – of which this is but the latest – which demonstrate that you lack the moral turpitude to retain possession of this degree.
You should also be aware that I have bcc’d copies of this e-mail to two reporters from prominent USA newspapers : The New York Times and The Washington Post. I have also bcc’d a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, and a fourth journalist as well.
Respectfully yours,
John Kwok”
This sums it all up!
Oh pleeease don’t paste Kwokkery in here – there’s plenty of it elsewhere. I don’t have time to delete it now.
All Kwokkery is bwoken.
And no, I don’t know why that struck me as funny or why I felt compelled to share. I suspect it’s just because I’m a bad person
Shouldn’t it be “All Kwokkewy is bwoken?”?
I’m a little stunned…
Well, if it’s any consolation, I’m pretty sure Kwok is a lot stunned…
Also, as moral support, I just thought you should know the Barbary Popes, a certain well-known Bonaparte (ne Buonaparte, but I can’t mention the actual name, you understand… he’s shy), Blackbeard, Elton John, the founding members of the Backstreet Boys, King Lear and an equally famous and fictional moody Dane (no, not Marmaduke… oh, okay, yes, it’s Marmaduke, you got me) are all close personal friends of mine, went to preschool with me, and they’ve got my back. So if Kwok wants ta mess with anyone present, he’s gonna be in a world of social one-upmanship, if ya catch my drift…
Heehee –
but the way to do it is to say
‘as I learned from my high school English teacher, whose best-known work is probably the best-selling Bridges of Madison County, and also my neighbor whose life was portrayed in the movie A Beautiful Mind, and alluded to by my dear old playmate who’
and so on.
Kwok studied English under Danielle Steele! Get out!! Colour me awestruck!! That’s just so…
Wait… No… Wrong Harlequin series, right?…
(Hey, it’s not my fault… Been at a loss ever since that first time Oprah folded the book club. What can ya do.)
I do like the idea that you must display a certain amount of moral turpitude to be allowed to hang on to your Ph.D after it’s been awarded. I’m now working on this with appropriate sinful relish.
Since I have two of them – i.e., Ph.Ds – I’ll be required to work especially hard at it. I may even need to call for assistance.
I notice that Kwok characterises himself as ‘a former invertebrate paleobiologist,’ which may account for his turpitude. Lack of moral fibre is very often spoken of in terms of backbone, which, on his own acount, Kwok apparently lacks. Or did he get it back after he stopped researching the paelobiology of invertebrates?
As for your problems, Russell, whether they have PhD’s or not, Chris and Sheril may give private lessons. And Kwok clearly has some of the skills skills involved.
The new perils of the democratic interwebs: being stalked by morons. “you lack the moral turpitude to retain possession of this degree” indeed. Cretin.
Oh, that Kwok.
“Lack the moral turpitude to retain possession of this degree.” I love it! He doesn’t know what turpitude means!
I know I’m less of a person now that I have my degrees. Once I complete my PhD I’ll be a complete scoundrel. One has to earn one’s bad reputation you know.
Frank Mc Court, ya must know, indirectly, has a lot to answer for all the bwoken kwokkewy!
It sure is raining on kwokkewy’s parade!
I only have a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics. Do I need moral turpitude to keep my degree, or is mere moral laxity sufficient?
It is risible that he doesn’t know what turpitude means!
And it’s turpible that he pwobably doesn’t know what risitude means, either.