Patterico's Pontifications

6/20/2012

From the “Human Beings Are Stupid” Archives

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 10:05 pm



A very silly painting, which looks like your five-year-old painted it, has been sold for $36.9 million:

Moron.

How Ron Brynaert Lured Me Onto the Phone The Night I Was SWATted

Filed under: General,Ron Brynaert — Patterico @ 9:13 pm



As regular readers will remember, during Weinergate, a Boston woman named Jennifer George supposedly filed a report with police claiming that she had been threatened by Lee Stranahan.

That seemed very improbable. Lee concluded at the time that “Jennifer George” must be lying about him.

In a post that generated 3765 comments, I speculated on another possibility: that perhaps Jennifer George really was threatened, but that the threatener had merely pretended to be Stranahan.

Interestingly, Ron Brynaert tweeted something to the same effect on the night of June 30, 2011:

Brynaert also mentioned on the phone that there was a suspicious person with a British accent that I needed to know about. I was very interested in this because I had knew that the caller from Mike Stack’s June 23, 2011 SWATting had been (incorrectly) described by the police as having a British accent.

It is little wonder that I wanted to speak with Ron Brynaert on the phone on the night of June 30, 2011.

I tried to get information from Brynaert about the Stranahan report, and about the man with the British accent. But Brynaert ranted and raved and shouted, and it was almost impossible to get him to answer any questions. (Anyone who has ever spoken with Brynaert on the phone has likely had a similar experience.)

And he was still on the phone with me in the early morning hours of July 1, 2011, when police showed up at my door.

As a reminder, here is a 12-second clip combining the end of my SWATting call with a few seconds from an interview with Ron Brynaert:

UPDATE: Why am I talking about this? I explain in this comment.

BREAKING: House Panel Approves Holder Contempt Resolution

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 1:34 pm



On Fox News now:

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has approved a resolution holding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress.

The measure now goes to the full House.

Meanwhile, the Obama Administration is invoking executive privilege — a first for the Administration — as a justification for withholding Fast and Furious documents.

Stacy McCain on Neal Rauhauser’s Deceptive Sock Puppet Methods

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 1:33 pm



Stacy McCain continues to expose Neal Rauhauser. His latest post is titled ‘Persona Management’ for Wackjobs: Rauhauser’s Methods of Deception and quotes Rauhauser on the dangers of using sock puppets:

You have habits that include:

The time(s) of day you are active

The language you speak

The situational knowledge you have when interacting with a certain group

The software you prefer to use

Quirks of spelling, punctuation, and other subtle hints as to identity

Whatever objective you have in approaching the venue

The following are some failure modes we’ve personally experienced over the years:

Used a pet phrase from a persona in a venue we frequented — instant outing

Used bit.ly link shortened from a known account via Twitter — instant outing

Disclosed specific software preferred during conversation, not a full outing but it brought scrutiny that made the effort fail eventually

Use of phone number that had a single obscure Google hit — instant outing.

We often feel we’re being clever in constructing a persona but we generally fail miserably due to time constraints.

Indeed. As Rauhauser is soon to learn, he sucks at persona management, and his “failure modes” are far more extensive than he previously realized.

Which is as good a way of teasing my future post on the “Gaped Crusader” as I can imagine.

Also from McCain: Neal Rauhauser: Internet Super-Spy!


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