Jed,
As before, I thank you for your opinions. And certainly Bill Beatty is wise
and cool-headed enough to notice that I have not made personal attacks
against you, but you have against me.
Steve
At 11:27 AM 10/13/2009, you wrote:
Steven Krivit wrote:
Jed Rothwell and Abd ul-Rahman_Lomax have expressed themselves with a
great deal of rage and outrage . . .
Disgust, not outrage.
Despite their mudslinging and pontification (a popular word here in
Italy), the fact is that Martin's health challenges are far from private.
I learned about Martin's health issues from the CBS 60 Minutes program
earlier this year - as did the rest of the world.
I quote: "Martin Fleischmann, the man who announced cold fusion to the
world, is hindered by years, diabetes, Parkinson's disease, and maybe a
little bitterness. At home, he pulled out an improved version of his
experiment, something that he was working on when he was hounded out of
science."
Mentioning that someone has Parkinson's is not an invasion of privacy.
When you see someone with this disease (or something like it) either in
person or in a video it is obvious. Anyone watching me drink hot coffee
for 20 seconds will see the symptoms. It is nothing to get worked up about.
What Lomax and I object to are gratuitous invasions of privacy such as
detailed descriptions of personal behavior, the choice of therapy, the
fact that some people consider the doctor a quack, or a description of the
caretaker Freilino (who is a nice young man doing a fine job). These
things are all off limits. They are personal; private; none of your damn
business. And who the heck thinks it is newsworthy that a sick man in his
80s decides cancel an appointment?!? This is not surprising, significant,
and a polite person will not mention it except to say, "we had an
appointment but regrettably Fleischmann did not feel up to it." These
ridiculous insinuations that he is being controlled by Freilino are out of
line and completely without foundation.
As I said before, it is bad enough being old and sick. Who the heck wants
to see the details spewed on the Internet? Who needs nitwits coming to
your door and asking nosy questions? Frankly, if I were Bill Beaty, I
would delete this whole thread and ban Krivit if he does not stop this
nonsense.
Krivit apparently never learned grown-up manners or the concept of
privacy, and he makes a mountain out of a molehill. An imaginary molehill!
It is regrettable that this field attracts so many dysfunctional people.
- Jed