Trying to Clear It Up

Since Calladus and I started asking for evidence of the allegations against P-Momma, I've done some looking around at other places on the internet. There are some things I want to address to make sure everyone understands the situation.

1. This is not an example of Christian vs. Atheist.
I realize that many of us unbelievers have seen a disturbing pattern, but I could find no evidence that this was the cause of this fiasco. I found only one mention of P-Momma's atheism in a post from those making the accusations, and only three in the comments. Trying to bring it into the mix is a red herring and non-sequitur. That's why I haven't addressed it, at all.

2. Why am I defending P-Momma?
For one, she's a friend. The allegations made against her are serious, and since people are attempting to drag a friend through the mud I took it upon myself to deal with it.

3. Why isn't P-Momma dealing with it herself?
Perhaps she trusts friends like Calladus and I with her back, so to speak. This ordeal blindsided her, and she didn't know what was going on. She called me in a panic, and I'm the one who locked her blog. If everyone will notice on my last post concerning this, she even left a couple of comments herself (which one commenter seemed to miss).

Of course, there's also the issue of those who are making the allegations not listening to what she has to say, or even letting her defend herself. On their blog, they aren't even letting us defend her. They're more intent on "get[ting] back to business and mov[ing] forward". Sorry, but they've made some serious claims and they need to prove it.

4. What will it take to prove the allegations?
Well, I'm a skeptic. The greater the claim, the greater the evidence needed to prove it. It took a while for people to actually get the idea and start giving me links to the claims. Before that, all of the links were to hearsay, or a forum from those making the claims. The problem is that none of the links that were finally provided did anything to back up their claims. If anything, it seemed that they were so desperate to be right that they were grasping at anything that might come close to giving them a reason.

Okay, now I'm going to review the evidence that was shown to me:

1. The "Munchausen's Booklist": That was just pathetic. Two books out of thirty-two, and that was supposed to somehow support the allegations. Further, I'd love to find out if anyone with a psychological disorder actually studies it while they aren't being treated for it. (FYI, the claim that she's doing all this for research for a TV show smells of desperation)

2. The P-Family Tree: This one I got via email. They claimed that P-Momma's distant relative didn't exist, because it didn't show up in her lineage on Geneology.com. Unfortunately, the research they did was on her dad's line, and the distant relative in question is from her mom's side. Yet, they still said "THEY DO NOT EXIST PERIOD!"

3. P-Momma's LiveJournal Profile: Supposedly if she claims a group as friends, then she must be one of them. I find that interesting because that would also mean she's an ex-mormon. [sarcasm]Damn it... She lied again. She's been saying she was Catholic [/sarcasm]

4. Something she said on a private board: Well, since it's private, I can't read it. They sent me a cut/paste, but I'm not taking that as evidence. That doesn't prevent quote mining, taking things out of context, or even just typing everything up from scratch the way you want it to be.

5. P-Momma's Sockpuppetry: There's been some talk of P-Momma sockpuppeting, but no evidence other than hearsay about some IP addresses. Considering the claims bein made, and the number of people who didn't use their own account, or even a name (I got more anonymous comments in that post than I have since I've been blogging) I find that deeply ironic. The really funny thing is that also went for the email. Granted, the person making the claim does not have any effect on the claim itself, but I find it hypocritical that those so willing to publish the information on P-Momma were so reluctant to let me know who they actually were.

Basically, I'm to the point of getting pissed. No one making the claims is willing to back it up. They even wanted me to do the legwork for them, in quite a few cases. Now, it seems they just want to drop it. Unless they want to type up a full retraction of the allegations, then they'd better back them up with evidence.