A SlimVirgin Close Encounter, ...of the first kind Options

[TabulaRasa]

If you followed a link on O-Smear to get here, please be sure to read this topic for some more recent commentary on this whole situation. Thanks!

UPDATE: We'd also like to apologize for the fact that the topic referenced earlier was the wrong one, and was, indeed, a dead link until just recently. The topics are referenced by number, and the admin adding this note (who has since been severely punished) originally typed "8623" instead of "8263." (The link was dead until the new number came up and was taken by an RSS-fed media topic.) OOPS! Normally we're more careful than that... sorry! Anyway, the purpose of linking to the other topic was simply to help keep people up-to-date on what we're discussing, and the gist of that was that Wordbomb is not "Joey," at least not according to our IP data, analysis of posting patterns, writing style, attitude, known history on Wikipedia, and just-plain common sense. Sorry about that too, but it's our story and we're sticking to it.

Also, putting notes like this in threads that are linked to by other sites is hardly "unprecedented." Half the time we delete such threads completely, just to piss people off... we're just like that! In this case, we simply want to make it clear that while Wordbomb is generally well-tolerated here, and Gary Weiss is generally disliked, that doesn't mean we have any real desire to get in the middle of their little feud, or whatever it is. Most of us are only concerned with how it plays out on Wikipedia, not elsewhere. That's our "purview," you see. (The site is actually called "Wikipedia Review," not "The Gary and Judd Review"...)

Anyway, thanks! We hope you enjoy the site!

The Management, Apr. 17, 2007

Antisocialmedia.net has found the actual person who might be partly responsible for Linda Mack's slow descent into SlimVirginity. If the story weren't so unbelieveable I'd discount it, but trust me: you can't make this stuff up.

The first half of the post is mostly a rehash of things we've read here, but the second half is where Slim comes in and that's what you really need to read. If it's all true, then SlimVirgin mythology has just taken a huge step forward. It's at http://www.antisocialmedia.net

[Herschelkrustofsky]

I'd like to offer some observations concerning the Patrick Byrne disclosures about SlimVirgin. They tend to reinforce some hypotheses and hunches I 've harbored for some time.

She tended to come to the pub in beautiful gowns that would not be out of place in a Dickens novel.

Halfway through the term she started speaking with an English accent that seemed pretentious, but she explained that she had had one English parent...

I have suspected that she was something of a fantasy-ridden Anglophile, not the sort that reads the tabloids and thinks of QEII as roughly equivalent to a Hollywood celebrity, but rather the sort that admires an oligarchical system, finding it so much more exciting and refined than a republican one. This is the sort of personality that aspires to be a courtier. A bright girl from a provincial Canadian background would certainly be susceptible to this sort of thing. I have already called attention before to her Wikipedia article on the Cambridge Apostles. Jimbo would probably seek out persons with these inclinations to be part of his retinue.

But now she was the center of attention, and over time, became invested with a new kind of bustling self-importance. We did have opportunity for a few civil words over a pint, and she spoke of “the families” and “our negotiations” as though she were emerging in a leadership role, and of meeting with news bureaus and intelligence agencies.

Her use of the expression "the families" is of particular interest here. It is possible, but unlikely, that this refers to the Lockerbie families; if Mr. Byrne is reading this forum, perhaps he might clarify this. In the context presented, I am assuming that she uses "the families" in the oligarchical sense, as I have seen it used by other admirers of the oligarchical approach. There are Families, who either by virtue of their aristocratic bloodlines, or by having ascended to a certain exalted rank in the financial world, consider themselves to be those who are qualified to administer the political and commercial affairs of the world, choosing and cultivating assorted politicians as surrogates for their discreet purposes. I kid you not. Think of the mafia approach, but with more education, better manners and classier wardrobes. It is very déclassé to discuss this if you are not one of the insiders -- you will generally be dismissed as a conspiracy theorist. On the other hand, if you are an insider or a wannabe, the use of the term "the families" is considered way cool. Persons who yearn to orbit around the celestial brilliance of "the families" often seek employment as journalists or intelligence operatives, or both, so that they might make themselves useful

Now that we have the benefit of Mr. Byrne's insights, I suggest we return to the SlimVirgin: Agent of Influence? topic and reexamine it with fresh eyes.

[Somey]

In the context presented, I am assuming that she uses "the families" in the oligarchical sense, as I have seen it used by other admirers of the oligarchical approach. There are Families, who either by virtue of their aristocratic bloodlines, or by having ascended to a certain exalted rank in the financial world, consider themselves to be those who are qualified to administer the political and commercial affairs of the world, choosing and cultivating assorted politicians as surrogates for their discreet purposes. I kid you not.

Okay, you kid us not, but I've gotta say it anyway: That still sounds (to me) much less realistic than the idea that she idealized and projected her short affair with this guy at Cambridge to such an extent, that she began to consider herself a member of the "Lockerbie families" despite not having married him. As I recall, way back in the mists of time, that's pretty much the only thing the media called them - it was a catch-all term, probably meant to include girlfriends, fiances, and star-crossed lovers of the victims in general.

And to be honest, I think it explains her subsequent behavior a lot better, too... We may just have to agree to disagree on this one!