I Cannot Comment

Thanks to reader "Not THE Harry Harrison" for alerting me to this:

At first I thought maybe this was Ken's extreeeme attempt to deprive me of material. But no, it's about all of his blogs, not just Dump Bachmann:

At first reading it is tantalizing for what he doesn't say -- not I don't know, or There are technical difficulties, or even That god-damn Blogger. What it sounds like to a reasonable person is I've been told to keep my mouth shut.

And here is his explanation for public consumption:

Wow. The "Dump Bachmann" blog (and all of Ken's blogs) has been retired with Bachmann yet-to-be-dumped.

The Speculationing. Yes, SPECULATIONING.

Let's note that in general "I cannot comment" is a very legalistic expression. People say it when they're in trouble. They say it when arriving at the police station to assist with their inquiries.

Maybe litigation is occurring, or is in the pipeline, about something or things Ken has written in one of his blogs. Something serious and with merit, otherwise those blogs would still be up and Ken would be blogging about it. Of course, libel can be libel even if distribution is limited.

This is the "case" mentioned by AnitaMaria, but I can't believe that has any merit, coming as it does from a right wing whackjob. I certainly wouldn't pull down my blogs in face of a nuisance suit from such a quarter (unless I had written something that -- oh never mind).

Or maybe Ken simply doesn't understand that to be of value an archive needs to be accessible to would-be researchers. ANY researchers. Otherwise your archive enters the realm of conspiracy theory-style 'secret knowledge.' Yes, Stupidity would be the simple explanation.

More later (I suspect).

Don't hold a wake for the Laffable Luddite's blogs yet, though:

His Jan. 2008 blogging retirement

April 2008 unretirement

Later in 2008 re-retirement

April 2009 - He's back

gPRT
I suppose I COULD treat it as a victory

Underwhelming response

Here it is, April 14, 2009, and the comment areas on all my blogs remain distinctly non-flamey. This despite the Minnesota anti-PRT propagandist's March 5, 2009 long-winded call to his followers to man the barricades:

I invite our readers to go to Gow's many blogs and ask him questions about Bachmann and PRT. Source

For those of you playing along at home, the 100% lack of response to this marching order serves to confirm either of two alternate theories:

1) no one reads Kenjob
2) no one who reads him is paying attention.

What was it all about? Let's look at the operative passage in his post:

I invite David Gow to explain in the comments why PRT promoters thought it was a good idea back in 2005 to have Bachmann, Olson and Zimmermann promoting PRT and why Gow and his cohort ATE have all that crap on the web about me...
. . .
For example... [ellipsis in original] what is this PhotoShopped image of me as George Bush with Bachman's face on the seal from one of "Mr_Grant's" blogs supposed to mean?
Source*

Huh? As I recall he was right there (figuratively) when all that rigorous debunking and top-flight funny was being written! Was that not he, clomping Fudd-like through the cyberspace forest in search of 'Pewsonal Wabbit Twansit' ^{1, 2}?

Oh, he remembers all right, no one could be living that far out of the moment. That leaves one explanation: TICK-TOCK!! Here comes PRT Cottontail hopping down the guideway, in the form of the ULTra and 2getThere projects, and Kiln Ovendoor is bailing.

Rodiva doesn't have the courage of his convictions. By pretending not to know that he was the impetus for "all that crap," he's signaling a desire to revise history-- as in, "Anti-PRT? Moi?" But his is a futile hope, since (1) I would never remove any analysis, satire or graphics because his readership attacked me, and (2) his readership obviously doesn't care.

Here's the truly pathetic thing: He's not even acting like a real "skeptic." If I were an anti-PRT foamer like the Propagandist (or even a normal skeptic), the existence of operational PRT systems would do nothing to shake my questioning of the technology.

PRT projects are human-engineered projects, with sizable system integration requirements. A real skeptic would realize there is risk of failure in any such endeavor, sit back, and wait for the error reports to come in.

In the past Kenwood has mounted the most obsessive of propaganda campaigns against PRT, and hasn't been afraid to go on record claiming truth of even the most transparent falsehoods. He has had no compunction calling PRT supporters a multitude of offensive names.

But with respect to politics, why can't he take a position on one of the easiest questions of all?

At the Dump Bachmann blog, Labridor's "blogging" lets others do the hard work, regurgitating reportage by other bloggers and the news media. Little or none of it are his own opinions -- that would require command of facts and cogent analysis, and he's shown himself capable of neither.

Last month he noted that Rep. Michele Bachmann had another "eruption" during a radio interview -- but which I call tantamount to a call to armed insurrection.

Now, Bachmann is easy pickings. The more she acts as a GOP-approved talking head, the more chances she has to be stupid in public. And she does. She's the de facto leader of the Kongressional Kinda Krazy Kaucus, so it's Insert Foot almost every time she opens her mouth.

Yes, should be easy pickings. Yet all Kennel Ration can do is politely ask "Should Bachmann Be Censured for Her Recent Remarks?" and "I hope reporters ask Bachmann... whether her recent remarks should also be censured."

"Should"?
"Hope"?
"Whether?"

Come on Kenmore, it's a blog -- take a position already! This is the easy stuff! Here, let me show you: Yes! Michele Bachmann should be censured! Do it! Do it now!

There. Jeez.


Read the funny

* Since we're on the subject, here is my comment on Bachmann, Olson and Zimmermann getting their cooties on PRT: even broken clocks are right twice a day.

gPRTThere is no Ken Avidor Easter Egg in this post

Microchip reunites man with pet theory

Modern technology reunited a Minneapolis man with his pet conspiracy theory yesterday, bringing a happy end to a five month separation.

Ben Boridor, of Brand Street in Minneapolis, became separated from his pet theory when he moved to Reality last October.

The theory, an adorable belief that Personal Rapid Transit is a right-wing conspiracy, has been Boridor's faithful pet since 1989. Or 2003; or possibly 2004.

Luckily, Mrs. Boridor had taken the precaution of having the family veterinarian implant an identification microchip under her husband's skin. "The vet recommended the chip, since we were doing the neutering at the same time," explained Mrs. Boridor.

"Boy, am I sure glad I did it," she went on to say.

She said that when they moved to Reality, Ben became separated from his pet theory. The theory was depressed for weeks. Then on Thursday a vet called to say she had found a stray man, and his microchip was registered to the Boridors' phone number.

"The vet dropped off Ben yesterday afternoon, and boy you should have seen that theory lick his face all over. Now it's like old times, they've been playing in the back yard embroidering the conspiracy," said Mrs. Boridor.

"It's great having a little bit of unreality back in our lives," she said.

And where does she think her husband was for all that time? "We think he may have been in Alameda," Mrs. Boridor said.



gPRT
Go to a shelter to adopt a Ken -- don't buy from Avidor mills!

The Sleeper Awaketh

After months of inactivity on the PRT front, the Minnesota anti-PRT propagandist has emerged from self-imposed semi-"retirement" and posted a rambling whine-o-thon at Dump Bachmann.

You might also enjoy:
ATRA's New Teambuilding Protocol
Sweeps The Business World (satire)

gPRT
A Very Idiotic Denial Of Reality (AVIDOR)

Rehab

What do you do when you need to hide from your embarrassing past? Why, you "retire," then get someone to write a puff-piece on you to rehabilitate your image!

That's what a blogger named Roz has done, making the Minnesota anti-PRT propagandist the subject of the first of a series about "creative people I admire" (Update, 3/6/09. Months later, the only other person she admires appears to be Gumby -- not that there's anything wrong with that).

Roz lists a whole mess of stuff about Kenwood that makes him sound like a modern day Albert Schweitzidor -- down to the interest in parasites and disease! Roadkill Bill, blogging, bicycling, and civic participation are all mentioned.

But wait -- Roz doesn't mention anything about Labridor's greatest claim to fame, that for which he is known on at least two continents. That's right: nowhere does Roz mention Kennel Ration's vendetta against Personal Rapid Transit, and his smear campaign against its supporters. Just like he forgot to mention PRT when he "retired" from blogging in January of this year.

I guess you didn't know about that, Roz. That's OK. Maybe he doesn't talk about it in the meatworld. Here's a secret -- I don't really talk about it either. Anymore. Because when I used to talk about it, people would be flabbergasted at the way Kenmore uses smear and Talking Points like he learned them at the feet of Karl Rove.

That's what your hero has been doing for the last five years, Roz -- making up stuff about a technology about which he knows nothing, and alleging a a decades-long conspiracy he tries to blame for everything from community blight in central England, to the failure to build light rail in Minneapolis in the 1970s.

A "commentator"? His record of inaccuracy is laughable. And yet he has never admitted his mistakes, even when caught.

Then there're the smears. There are lots of them, but for my money the most despicable was the time Ovendoor blamed the wrong company for a multi-fatality rail accident -- simply because the company's co-founder sits on the board of a PRT company.

In second place is Kenny-Boy's repeated use of guilt by association to attempt to discredit Prof. Ed Anderson, whose only sins are that he helped oppose the Reagan administration's MX missile policy, and now wants to improve public transit.

I guess if I had done all that, I'd want to bury it too.

New - Ovendoor is shocked, shocked to find that Smoochy Bachmann uses guilt by association!

gPRT
Ken Avidor -- English for cajones grande

That Was Fast (or, This Also Sounds Familiar)

A mere two weeks after writing --

I'm not going to be wasting time following the pathetic antics of... the Personal Rapid Transit pod people anymore.

Source

(In other words:)

Now lo and behold, here comes Kiln Ovendoor out of retirement with more of his reheated anti-PRT propaganda Talking Points.

This time his smears -- innocuously titled A Brief History of PRT in Minnesota -- are on the site of Minnesota 2020, a progressive think tank. Why Minnesota? I thought Kennel Ration said he lives in Alameda.

This time he's again trying to fool people into thinking that because some PRT supporters hold certain political positions on transit, all PRT supporters in the whole wide world must believe the same things.

The result is Kenwood's usual slanted and biased view of PRT. It's sad that someone with his record of willful, repeated distortion and inaccuracy (documented by multiple writers) has the nerve to call anything he writes about PRT a "history."

Welcome MN2020 readers: debunking the "PRT promoters helped to block the MTC proposal" lie

gPRT
Ken Avidor can't afford to retire -- his karma is bankrupt

It sounds familiar, somehow...

Yes, it's another end of another era for Kiln Ovendoor the Minnesota anti-PRT propagandist:

The Dump Mark Olson Blog Going Back Into Mothballs

...I'm not going to be wasting time following the pathetic antics of Rep. Mark Olson or his pals the Personal Rapid Transit pod people anymore.

Source

I know, he's declared victory so many times that his latest announcement of retirement from blogging is more underwhelming than usual.

The last time was when A Transportation Enthusiast and I called Kenwood on his kid-glove treatment of conservative Democrat Elwyn Tinklenberg. This followed on the heels of his embarrassment over the Ray Cox Affair, as well as Poolgate and a smear on Cornell University.

Kennel Ration needed to lay low for a while, so he claimed a New Year resolution (more then 2 weeks after Jan. 1) to spend less time on the internet, and made himself scarce.

It lasted until June.

As for the newest 'retirement,' I had several premises to choose from for this post. There was:

"Regulators seize Dump Mark Olson - Value of
blogger retirement sinks on repeated erroneous prediction
of foes' demise"

Topical -- but too wordy. I could also have gone with:

"End of the Propagandist - A Transportation Enthusiast
orders flags to be flown at 99.999-hundredths staff"

Or:

"A&E starts 15-year countdown clock to
Propagandist's where-are-they-now retrospective"

Or even:

"Propagandist quits to spend more time with Michele Bachmann"

But I think one image is all we need:



Will he be back? Of course he will! He's gonna be bogged down in his ill-conceived War on Gadgetbahn for a hundred years!

Read Part II

gPRT
You won't have Ken Avidor to kick around anymore

Normalcy

Lately I'm sort of feeling like all is right with the world. In fact, the universe seems to be back in alignment, what with Avismore the Minnesota anti-PRT propagandist breaking his New Year Resolution to spend less time on the internet.

Not only is he posting his anti-innovation smears on Daily Kos and shadowing my environmental posts on Viropop, he's even back on Wikipedia trying to bias the PRT article there.

His appearance at Viropop is especially funny, because his very first post there is oh so quintessentially smeary:

Personal Rapid Transit is so Bogus
Posted by [Humidor] on June 11, 2008 at 6:24pm in Environmental Issues

The Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) pod people are coming to Ithaca, NY in September

Video of James Howard Kunstler talking about "the PRT guys"

More videos about PRT here

Light Rail Now article on PRT

It's nice that Labridor has found a kindred spirit in Kunstler. While his views on sprawl and land use are generally on the right side, Kunstler's reputation is just as prickly as Kenwood's:

You quote Kunstler on PRT? He doesn't even believe in renewable energy - casually dismissing renewables as a "stopgap". His solution to peak oil is for everyone in the world has to start living like the Amish. Source

Kunstler has such a bleak view of things that I am surprised he hasn't hung himself. I was unable to finish the Long Emergency.
I am too much of a "tempered" optimist to buy into his vision. Source

I don't think Kunstler is right in his overall vision although he does correctly see many of the problems. But it's colored by the tendency of his opinions to be morally judgmental at base. Certain things are just bad in his view and should fail, so therefore they will fail. Makes for interesting reading but doesn't strike me as good prediction. We'll see. Source

HEY KENWOOD, you agree with Kunstler that PRT supporters are cranks and nuts. Well do you agree with Kunstler on this too? --

...and also, you know, the Segway was a good idea for people who are disabled, let's say, for one reason or another, too old. But the idea that normal people need a kind of prosthetic extension for walking around, you know, that was also kind of nuts.

Kunstlercast #13
at :03:35

Segways are okay for people who aren't normal???!!! Time for a little reject, renounce and denounce action, Kenwood. Are you going to distance yourself from such a repugnant attitude? Are you going to demand he apologize? Of course, you're the one who has a problem with overweight people, street alcoholics, and teenagers. As always: I'M WAITING for your corrections/retractions.

Yep. Everything with Ovendoor is back to normal all right.



gPRT
depending on what is normal for Ken Avidor

Game On (or, So Much For New Year's Resolutions)

Hello, disciples of accuracy and objectivity. It looks like Cartoon Boy has bagged the spending-more-time-on-his-art excuse that he whipped out last January, when he needed to run away from his embarrassing record of hack 'journalism.'

That's right -- the Minnesota anti-PRT propagandist has apparently gotten over his hypocritical, amnesia-riddled promotion of the candidacy of pro-gun, anti-choice, anti-gay marriage, highway-promoting Elwyn Tinklenberg. Kenwood has popped up on Democratic Underground, attempting to interfere in the congressional campaign of Debbie Cook (CA-46).

The Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) promoters usually have some publicity stunt to prop up their politicians just before an election.

They've just announced a "Podcar Conference" in Ithaca, NY.

One of the speakers scheduled is Congressional candidate Debbie Cook:

http://www.podcar.org/ithacaconference/sessiona.html

It's disappointing that Debbie Cook would support PRT.

Here's a recent Treehugger blog post about PRT:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/03/prt-techno-drea...

Not surprisingly, the rest of it is the same old shtick, repeating debunked talking points he originated, and trying to create the impression PRT is criminal.

Or "totally bogus." And how does a picture of Smoochy Bachmann planting one on Dubya do that? It doesn't, unless you're into Guilt By Association. Saying PRT is bogus because Smoochy supposedly supports it is like saying environmentalism is fascist because Hitler liked animals.

Making its debut is the hit piece in Treehugger. I bet Lloyd Alter thought that Ode to Cartoon Boy was just a one time thing. Sorry, but Kenmore has placed it firmly in his propaganda rotation. Treehugger's linkage to one of the most laughably erroneous fear/smear campaigns of recent times is here to stay. Congratulations, Lloyd.

Hello Debbie Cook & staff -- welcome fellow green progressives! Get started learning about the MN anti-PRT propagandist's long history of inaccuracy and odd notions by exploring our Fact Check category.

UPDATE (Aug. 22, 2011)- Lloyd Alter has changed his views!

gPRT
Ken Avidor is the April Fool

End of an era for Personal Rapid Transit

I love that headline, because the Minnesota anti-PRT propagandist used it in 2006, on the occasion of a failed attempt by the ineffectual Rep. Slappy Olson to attach PRT to a bonding measure. A dramatic headline to be sure, but he forgot to indicate what era, exactly, had ended. It was just a chance for him to list a number of setbacks for PRT, and sneer 'losers' at its backers.

Now, however, "end of an era" could never be more appropos. For last Sunday our old Luddite friend announced, announced and announced that he was taking a break from all his worries. At Dump Mark Olson:

If Anyone is Still Reading....

In keeping with my New Years [sic] resolution not to spend a lot of time on the internet, I'm not going to blog here anymore.

The statistics don't justify me posting and nobody is paying me to flog a dead horse for the few readers who bother to read DMO.

I probably will add one more update when Rep. Mark Olson is officially dumped at the polls.

Until then, the blog will remain as a resource for opposition research.

At Dump Bachmann:

Hello I must be going...

I made a New Years [sic] resolution to spend a lot less time on the internet and get more artwork done.

What I found out is that it wasn't that easy to cut down. Somebody would send me something wacky about Bachmann and there I was composing, uploading... instead of drawing and inking.

I have to go cold turkey... so I've asked Eva to take away my ability to post on DB.

I began blogging at DB because the media was not reporting all the bizarre, wacky spectacle [sic] stuff Bachmann did and said.

The Dump Bachmann Team has done an amazing job of setting the record straight on Michele Bachmann and I'm satisfied that I have achieved the goals I had when I started blogging on DB way back.

The good news is that DB has excellent contributers [sic] from the 6th CD now. More good news is that there are two strong candidates in the DFL. Either Elwyn Tinklenberg or Bob Olson has a good chance of defeating Bachmann in November.

It's been interesting... but, I must be going....

[ellipses in original]

At Lloydletta:

Back to the Artwork...

...Eva has been gracious for letting me post non-Bachmann stuff on Lloydletta also.

Awww, cute. He's resigning to spend more time with his cartoon family.

But wait -- what's missing from Washingdor's Farewell Address(es)? That's right: he forgot to mention his vendetta against personal rapid transit!

That's really an amazing omission. What's it been -- five years? From his first anti-PRT cartoon, to the Light Rail Now disinformation paper Cyberspace Dream -- the Code of Hammurabi of anti-PRT propaganda -- to the Roblog skirmishes, his wholesale vandalism at Wikipedia, the time-wasting Wikipedia adjudications, the smears against PRT proponents, objective journalists and progressive officials, to the breathtakingly error-riddled and biased "reporting," the man has expended a massive amount of energy lobbying against innovation. Or amassed a huge store of bad karma.

Kenwood quitting blogging and not mentioning PRT is like winning an Oscar and forgetting to thank your spouse. I like this metaphor; I'll keep it.

You try to make up for it later at the post-ceremony confab, but the tabloids, Entertainment Tonight and People talk up the gaffe and, inevitably, it's Splitsville.

The problem is, the estranged spouse supported you for all those years before you became Big, and now this is how you say thanks?

Him being Big is the reason. He's Big because of PRT. All over the internet he's the PRT Skeptic! Perhaps the leading skeptic! An expert! In Minnesota politics he's the guy who only cares about how candidates stand on PRT!

I think I was right -- he sees the first PRTs are coming to England and Sweden, and he's nervous (Tick tock, 12/18). All his past claims -- especially PRT doesn't exist -- are about to become as obsolete as a rotary phone. Who can blame him for wanting to put some distance between himself and his anti-PRT past?

Yes: if he really means it, his exit is the end of an era indeed. PRT systems will launch; some will succeed, some will fail -- like all things man-made. Some PRT will achieve policy objectives, some won't. That's life.

PRT will also be discussed and debated. But one thing is virtually certain: it now has the chance to be discussed accurately, on its merits, rather than as a political bogeyman.

So now what? He's not the only one tired of battle; so am I. I for one would be curious what the ex-Propagandist thinks about other important issues of the day. Maybe someday we'll meet. We might talk about art, politics, or travel. What kind of light system does he have on his bicycle? What does he think makes a good cocktail?

I may buy his book.



gPRT
Farewell, Ken Avidor, we hardly knew ye