Reflections on the ?????Apology Letter?????

[_moksha]

Dr. Midgley, since you are following this thread, why not post some of your observations?

[_Dr Exiled]

Yes, please weigh in Dr. Midgely. This board needs someone of your apologetic stature and commenting style to enlighten us as to what happened in 2012. I believe that Romney's imminent nomination and the anxiousness that the brethren had at the time to put on the best face led, in part, to reject attack style apologetics all of a sudden. The brethren probably had some reservations about all the name calling and invective, of which you are a master, for some time, and the heightened emotions involved with the Romney nomination led to pulling the plug. It was probably like a parent driving the car with a bunch of kids fighting in the back and then suddenly losing patience and regulating the situation.

What do you think?

[_Lemmie]

Dr. Midgley, since you are following this thread, why not post some of your observations?

Midgley is a coward. Notice that the only time he posted off Peterson's safe space in recent history (e.g. on Gina Colvins blog), he got his ass handed to him by multiple posters. In response, he immediately retreated to Peterson's blog, from which he continues to trash every poster who responded to him, only because he knows Peterson will protect him. That's a coward. A candy ass coward.

[_Dr Exiled]

Dr. Midgley, since you are following this thread, why not post some of your observations?

Midgley is a coward. Notice that the only time he posted off Peterson's safe space in recent history (e.g. on Gina Colvins blog), he got his ass handed to him by multiple posters. In response, he immediately retreated to Peterson's blog, from which he continues to trash every poster who responded to him, only because he knows Peterson will protect him. That's a coward. A candy ass coward.

I wish there were upvoting on this board.

[_Dr LOD]

Dr. Midgley, since you are following this thread, why not post some of your observations?

Midgley is a coward. Notice that the only time he posted off Peterson's safe space in recent history (e.g. on Gina Colvins blog), he got his ass handed to him by multiple posters. In response, he immediately retreated to Peterson's blog, from which he continues to trash every poster who responded to him, only because he knows Peterson will protect him. That's a coward. A candy ass coward.

Sometimes I wonder if DCP is really protecting him. Or does he like being seen as the good cop?

It is a bit hard to judge Midgley’s mental status. If something is up he hides it well, but I noticed that when he writes a lot on SEN he seems to recycle his arguments quite often even if they don’t really fit what is being discussed.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

It should be noted I’m having a very hard time finding any record of his military service*. I also find it curious his service is never mentioned in any of his bios. I don’t know if he’s quite at the Hugh “I bumped into Hitler” Nibley stolen valor level yet, but it’s head scratching nonetheless.

* I put in a request for his service records about two months ago, and I’m still waiting on a response.

- Doc

[_candygal]

It should be noted I’m having a very hard time finding any record of his military service*. I also find it curious his service is never mentioned in any of his bios. I don’t know if he’s quite at the Hugh “I bumped into Hitler” Nibley stolen valor level yet, but it’s head scratching nonetheless.

* I put in a request for his service records about two months ago, and I’m still waiting on a response.

- Doc

I would love to have the upvote option!

[Guest]

It should be noted I’m having a very hard time finding any record of his military service*. I also find it curious his service is never mentioned in any of his bios. I don’t know if he’s quite at the Hugh “I bumped into Hitler” Nibley stolen valor level yet, but it’s head scratching nonetheless.

* I put in a request for his service records about two months ago, and I’m still waiting on a response.

- Doc

I would love to have the upvote option!

Yeah, something is a little wonky with his stories. He was born in 1931, which would've made him 18 in 1949, when only a little over 9,000 men were drafted into service. He stated in one of his Disqus comments:

I just took what being drafted into the US Army brought, although I loved being able to be assigned to duty in Germany, since that opened the way for my wife and I to be the first couples sealed in this dispensation in Europe.

Conscription according to Wiki was ~21 months. In his official FAIR bio he doesn't mention being drafted into military service which I find bizarre, frankly. Furthermore he states he served a mission in 1950-52 to New Zealand. From his Wiki profile we see this:

Midgley studied at the University of Utah for his bachelor's and master's degrees.[4][5] He took an extended leave to serve as a missionary for the LDS Church in New Zealand 1950–1952.[5] On his mission, he first encountered sectarian anti-Mormon arguments.[6]

He earned a PhD in political science from Brown University. His dissertation focused on Paul Tillich. Midgley taught political science, specifically, the history of political and legal philosophy, at Brigham Young University from 1960

So.

March, 1949 - 18 years old

He ingressed into the University of Utah, but he took 'extended leave' from his studies to serve a mission.

1949 - 1950 - Student at the U of U

1950 - 1952 - LDS Missionary

1953 - 1959 or '60 - Undergrad, Graduate Student, and PhD program at Brown

So, somewhere in there he had to fit in being drafted, going to Basic, AIT, his military service, travel, getting married, AND moving his wife to Germany? What? That doesn't make any sense.

I'm going to search through his Disqus comments for any other mentions of his military service, because right now something isn't adding up. Can anyone in the academic community tell us generally how long it takes, say, a motivated wunderkind to get their PhD out of high school?

- Doc

eta: A little more sleuthing he got married in Switzerland September 16, 1955. He lived in Mannheim, Germany, for ~9 months prior to returning to Salt Lake City, where returned to the U of U, and then for four years in Providence, RI finishing his PhD at Brown.

I'm having a hard time with timelines now. It's possible he was drafted in 1952 or '53. But then he'd have to start school again in '56, wrap up his undergrad, masters, and PhD in just four years. Does a PhD program take four years?

[_Kishkumen]

To go all the way through PhD from freshman undergrad can take 8-10 years.

BYU used to hire people before they had completed their dissertation.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

I'm kind of scratching my head over this whole thing. I'm really trying to make it work because he has some doozies like this:

For anyone who might be at all interested, I must point out that the unit I was assigned to occupied one really impressive old German building at Tompkins Barracks. There were four other similar buildings, and those living there also worked in massive new one story buildings where they were busy fashioning very detailed maps of the Soviet Union from U-2 overflights* we were then undertaking until Gary Powers was shot down. But when I was there a Russians drove up to the gate in an automobile clearly marked as Russian, and were waved through. ??? Four Russians agents were inside this supposedly secret operation taking photographs, until someone noticed that very clear markings on that vehicle, which very soon led to the Russians driving right by those on duty at the gate and escaping. How the “F” would he know that??

Later I drove my jeep to the Headquarters of the US Army in Germany, and searched at the gate by US Military Police. I soon discovered that during the night Russian agents from somewhere in Eastern Europe had driven up to that US military post and shot the MPs dead, and the blown a hole in one building and then gone to a part of that building where they again used explosives to enter the place where codes were stored. ??? Then they had all been shot and killed while they were trying to transmit the information they had gotten into. What?!?!

The American public thought that we only had five army divisions stationed in Germany at that time, but the fact is that we had another five divisions of Polish soldiers that we had trained and equipped to provide necessary support for our divisions. Those Polish soldiers had fled Poland as WW II would down, and were doing their best to become Germans.

Those who enjoyed the old MASH TV series, might like to know that our Dental Units had field Dentistry gear, that we took out into the forest and set up and pretended to be ready to fix teeth. That was sort of fun, or at least a break from the usual routine.

and

All those many years ago, when I was lodged at Tompkins Barracks just outside of Schwetzingen, Germany, which was then the Spargal (white asparagus) center in Germany, where I was assigned to the 8th Transportation Group (Movement Control). In an actual war we were supposed to direct road traffic in Germany, and this unit once ran the Berlin Air Lift. My first assignment was to write a Missions and Functions manual, in which I made up out of thin air what we currently did, which was essentially nothing other than plan our next leave, and also what we would presumably do if we got into a war with Russia. I wish I had saved that hundred page thing I wrote.** Then I was assigned to draft a proposal to reorganize the entire operation. This went through four drafts. When it was finally adopted, it was made Top Secret***, and I could not see it, even though I had in a drawer all the drafts, with the MOS (military occupation specialty) for everyone if and when it was fully staffed, all of which was my invention.

Then, when I went to Zurich to meet my bride to be, so that we could first be married in Bern, Switzerland, and then be the first couple sealed in the Temple in Zollikofen immediately after it was dedicated, I soon found that I had been transferred to the Dental Corp...

that I can't really make fit into a post-1952 timeline that includes a draft, military service, pre-doctorate 'training' at BYU, and then living in Providence for his PhD, AND THEN starting to teach at BYU in 1960. :/ It's all very tight...

* The first U2 test flight was in 1955, which would put Midgley's military service somewhere between '56 and ?? This isn't making sense.

** This makes absolutely no sense that a military unit ran by Officers would let an enlisted man do this, a man in his first assignment knowing absolutely nothing about staff functions, plans, and operations.

*** This is just an outright lie. It's a stolen valor fabrication only matched by Hugh Nibley's BS.

- Doc