The Identity of Mr. Scratch

[_Imwashingmypirate]

;D XD i will get back on this.

[_moksha]

I can tell Mr Scratch is either not a church member or is inactive from this thread alone. Or maybe an ExMormon. Mr Scratch does not like to look stupid either. ; D

I suspect that if you hold Mr. Scratch up to the light, you cannot see through him.

[_Imwashingmypirate]

You cannot see through most people. Doesn't mean you can't tell their position on some things.

[_The Nehor]

I can tell Mr Scratch is either not a church member or is inactive from this thread alone. Or maybe an ExMormon. Mr Scratch does not like to look stupid either. ; D

I suspect that if you hold Mr. Scratch up to the light, you cannot see through him.

When you look into the Scratch the Scratch looks back at you.

[_Imwashingmypirate]

I can imagine. But how would he know you are looking into him? Or does he just look back at you anyway?

[_Bond...James Bond]

Yes, and Quinn is sleeping on a futon at his mother's house....

Really....that's sad. I feel reallybad for him. Hope his luck turns around. :(

[_Imwashingmypirate]

You know plenty about me on the basis of my posts.

Have you been published?

Yes.

If so, where?

I'm not going to say. My publications don't really have any bearing on any of the discussions we have here.

What is your academic background, if any?

I hold four degrees. I can't imagine how or why you would need to know more than that.
Four degrees wow. Do you have any phd's? I am studying for a degree just now.

Are you American?[/quote

Yes.

Are you male, or female?

This doesn't matter, and, as I have said elsewhere, it is a bad idea to disclose your gender within such a highly patriarchal culture such as Mormonism.
He is male. He writes in a masculin manner.

Are you a member of the Church? Active? Inactive? Exmo? What?

I was born into the Church. I will leave it at that.

Told you so. He no longer is active. It doesn't take much to notice that.

Are you married? Do you have children?

My instinct says he has grandchildren but from his reply and the fact that he has 4 degrees would suggest he doesn't but it is very probable he once had a wife.
This is totally irrelevant to anything.

These are some basic questions I know about most other posters I've posted with over the years.

I sincerely doubt this, Ray. For example, what is Bill Hamblin's wife's name? How many kids does Juliann have? What is Wade England's mother's name? Etc.

Some of them have been subjected to ridicule, true. You know about my daughter, you know about my ex-wife, you know about my Church status, you know far more about me than I know about you. Yes, these are personal questions, and you don't have to answer. But you are constantly scrutinising other people, and you have "informants".

Id be a bit worried if I thought you knew about any daughter of mine. Unless I told you so of course. But if one is willing to put things online then one must expect people will find out about it and it is therefore one's own fault.
So what?

What do these informants do for you?

I don't want to say too much, since I appreciate these little "tidbits" they provide me with. Sometimes it will be merely a kind of "heads-up," where I am directed to an interesting thread on MAD; other times people point me to a significant issue of some kind. Mainly, these are just people who would like to see me deal with some facet of Mopologetics, and I'm generally happy to do that.

I doubt he has informants. I think people say things and he put's the peices together.

Obviously gather information on others, even if it comes from the Internet (and I doubt all of it does,

It all does.

This suggests he is proud of being able to gather information. But really he isn't in the way you think he is. He is just building the jigsaw, you are giving him the peices. But there is slight mockery in there in that you have to trust in what he is saying and he knows it. The thought is here but I cannot find the right words. Basically by telling you it comes from the internet he is telling you he is looking things up in an attempt to superceed and intimidate. Nah im not getting the right words. i will leave this part here.

and I still have a question mark over my Z. letter, which was private information, but I still copped it fair and square).

What the hell are you talking about? *I* never posted any letter of yours! Are you talking about your infamous MISSIONARIES remark, or something else?

You have already stated the reason you don't want anyone to know about you - because you fear criticism.

I don't fear criticism at all, Ray. If you'd like to criticize or condemn or comment upon my posts, they go ahead, by all means. I don't want people prying around in my personal life---I.e., I don't want people visiting my residence, or calling me, or whatever else. I hardly see what's wrong with that.

Erm yes hmmm... I think Mister S might have had problems in the past. Mr S why would people want to pry in your private life. You choose how much you give away. It is nice for people to feel a sense of aknowledgement of who they are talking to. It helps people feel less insecure. Also there is nothing wrong with not wanting people visiting but people have no reason to visit. This also MIGHT suggest Mr S has something to hide.

I put it to you that this is not even in the spirit of D. Michael Quinn himself, who has been very open about his own life. Quinn has hidden nothing. And in his PBS interview he revealed even more. You don't impress me, as Quinn does.

Seems someone is taking the whole thing a little too far and even a little obsessive.

Yes, and Quinn is sleeping on a futon at his mother's house. He cannot get work in academia, no thanks to the Mopologists and Church hierarchy, who have successfully tarred his career and reputation. I think it's real charming, Ray, that you applaud Quinn's integrity even while you neatly overlook the suffering he's had to endure.

I'm not. I am laying it on the "climate" that stems fro Mormonism's absolutism.

This is one reason I say you don't know much about Mormonism. Most of your ideas seem to come from reading commentary, not actual scriptural sources. You also don't seem to have much knowledge of the D&C, and very little of Church History.

This is a dumb comment, since we both know that very little of actual Mormon culture (read: "climate") is genuinely based in the scriptures. The behavior of TBMs on MAD, such as juliann, or Pahoran, or Calmoriah, hardly counts as "scriptural," imho.

Whoever said the above is not an active church member.

No, Ray. You are overlooking the most important point here, which is that the Mopologists destroyed someone's life. Own up, mate.

I presume you're referring to Quinn? If so, where does Quinn say that the Church destroyed his life? I don't want your words, I want to see what Quinn has said. And specifically, I want to know if he has implicated DCP, as you do.

You can read the Wall Street Journal article for yourself, Ray. Quinn is sleeping on a futon in his mother's house, and cannot even afford health insurance. If that's not a "ruined life," then I don't know what it.

Ray was saying prove it was mopologists that put him there. Not prove he IS there.

Does he name DCP as a "culprit", or some kind of puppeteer behind everything? No, and neither do I. Nowhere have I ever said that the Good Professor was the "chief engineer" behind Quinn's downfall. Has DCP engaged in smear tactics and gossipmongering against Quinn, though? Yes; I believe he has

[Jersey Girl]

Yes, and Quinn is sleeping on a futon at his mother's house. He cannot get work in academia, no thanks to the Mopologists and Church hierarchy, who have successfully tarred his career and reputation. I think it's real charming, Ray, that you applaud Quinn's integrity even while you neatly overlook the suffering he's had to endure.

Ah, the burden of pursuing complete rather than faith promoting history. I trust history itself will be more kind to him.

[_Ray A]

Yes, and Quinn is sleeping on a futon at his mother's house.

According to the last report I had, a fund-raiser was organised for him, and by his own account he's well on his way to more independence, and re-establishing his life. But we'd need to look into a lot more detail as to how this happened in the first place, rather than squarely lay blame at the Church. You can blame the Church for all sorts of things. Academia is not the only field one can be employed in, even if one has ten degrees. I know men with doctorate degrees working in other fields in which they are far overqualified, and they don't starve.

So seriously, Scratch, before we lay blame, let's look at this much more carefully. I really wonder what Quinn himself would make of all this "performance" on this forum about him. My strong feeling is he would object to it. After all, does he do this sort of thing, and accuse other people, or even the Church??? I really don't know.

That's all I have time for today.

by the way, thanks for your very frank replies. I appreciate it, and wish I had more time to reply, but I don't.

[_Mister Scratch]

Yes, and Quinn is sleeping on a futon at his mother's house.

According to the last report I had, a fund-raiser was organised for him, and by his own account he's well on his way to more independence, and re-establishing his life. But we'd need to look into a lot more detail as to how this happened in the first place, rather than squarely lay blame at the Church. You can blame the Church for all sorts of things. Academia is not the only field one can be employed in, even if one has ten degrees. I know men with doctorate degrees working in other fields in which they are far overqualified, and they don't starve.

So seriously, Scratch, before we lay blame, let's look at this much more carefully. I really wonder what Quinn himself would make of all this "performance" on this forum about him. My strong feeling is he would object to it. After all, does he do this sort of thing, and accuse other people, or even the Church??? I really don't know.

Uh huh. Sure, Ray. I recall you saying that you were going to send Quinn a letter, asking him about all of this. Did you ever do that? Gee, I wonder...

That's all I have time for today.

by the way, thanks for your very frank replies. I appreciate it, and wish I had more time to reply, but I don't.

Whatever, Ray. It's been clear all along that your "interrogation" has far more to do with your own head trip than anything else.

Cheers!