Ever since an illiterate, ranting blogger by the name of Iain Hall stumbled across GrodsCorp in November 2005 he’s been a favourite target of ours. In the two-and-a-half years since that fateful day Iain has discovered the spellcheck function in Microsoft Word (set to US English, of course) and refined his blog design somewhat, but has continued to maliciously stalk anonymous bloggers (Jeremy Sear, Bridgit Gread etc.) and threaten those whose identities are known (by calling their workplaces etc.)

A couple of weeks ago Ant revealed how easily he tricked Hall into outing him as an imaginary person, and today Random Brainwave and GrodsCorp’s John Surname has proven, once and for all, how much of an unethical, stalking scumbag Iain Hall really is.

For the record, we were planning a very special group photo shoot and special edition GrodsDrink podcast episode (emailed directly to Hall) if the scotch arrived, but it was not to be. I tells ya, I could taste that scotch.

It’s worth noting that Hall put the scotch bounty on The Happy Revolutionary’s head in response to Hap allegedly calling him a paedophile; apparently this was justification enough for the stalking and the harassment and the rest. However, here is Iain Hall writing about me at his (now archived) Being Nice blog.

I understand that you are training to be a teacher can you give us some thoughts on that? Do you get close to your students?

The Editor is going away on a teaching placement to an aboriginal settlement called Anangu in deep outback South Australia for three weeks and hopes desperately that things will be back to normal when he gets back on May 23. Please use this time to peruse anything that works on the site and maybe fire off a few nasty emails to “Da Shop” on our behalf. Anyway, touched a 15 year and 10 month old girl’s breasts with her consent, . But now, in the climate of fear over pedophilia this “outstanding teacher”, as described by his principal, staff and students, has lost his job and had his career, and probably life, destroyed.

Hypocrite?

But why is this post entitled “End of an era”? Well, I always intended the scotch reveal to be the last official mention of Hall on GrodsCorp since a man of his calibre ultimately deserves to be completely ignored and, frankly, his presence on GrodsCorp cheapens us even more than Fleshlights (if that’s possible.) So unless the scotch does arrive in the mail this will be the last ever Iain Hall post on GrodsCorp.

Truly the end of an; era.

The Australian blogosphere’s most unctuous bottom-feeder, Andrew Landeryou, has proved once and for all the maxim “if you sleep with imbeciles, you’ll get dribbled on”.

Acting on a tip-off from Queensland’s most pernicious™ semi-literate blogger, Iain Hall, Landeryou last week “outed” me as one George Athanasi.

Partners in grime: blogging superheroes Rapunzhall and Bankruptus Maximus

The revelation raises several questions about blogging ethics. Leaving those aside, however, the most important question it raises is this: who is George Athanasi? Because it sure as hell ain’t me.

Several weeks ago I decided to test Iain Hall’s oft-repeated claim that he’s not a malicious net-stalker by setting him up. I sent him an email from my Ant Rogenous Gmail account, but changed my name to another fictitious one: George Athanasi.

The premise of my plan was that any decent, ethical person would ignore the name at the top of the screen and content himself with responding to the body of the email. If Hall did this, it would go some way to demonstrating that he is indeed the unassuming “respected conservative commentator” he has claimed; if, however, he chose to focus primarily on my “identity” and threaten to reveal it, it would provide conclusive proof of what most people already suspected: he is full of shit.

Predictably, Hall couldn’t resist the urge to go after “George”. His response began:

George
Thank you for sending me an email and is that really your name?
[…]

The fish was nibbling at the bait; it was time to set the hook. I changed my name back to Ant Rogenous and replied:

Never mind what my name is, Iain.
[…]

Hall’s response came quickly:

George
That must be your name as you have now very hastily changed the name that appears to recipients of emails from this account.
Would you care to offer an argument that makes a case for my discretion in the matter of who you actually are?
[…]

Hook. Line. Sinker.

Two sets of correspondence ensued in which I played up my indignation, eventually making a ludicrous counter-threat that Hall predictably construed as blackmail (more on this later).

Incredibly, Hall resisted the urge to reveal George’s identity outright, publishing instead a password-protected post at his ScroteWatch blog, where he merely reproduced our correspondence alongside my photograph and fake name. The password, imaginatively enough, is “George”.

Despite Hall’s claim that “compassion stayed his hand” in deciding not to out me, he clearly shared the information of my “identity” with at least two other people: fellow wingnuts Leon Bertrand and Andrew Landeryou. The former turned up in the comment thread of the ScroteWatch post, obviously having been given the password by Hall; the latter, of course, revealed all about George on his own blog, naming “conservative Queensland blog patriot Iain Hall” as his source.

Landeryou’s post is ridiculous, even by his usually embarrassing standards. In addition to beating up the non-existent story and quoting an obviously satirical, pun-laden biographical note about Ant Rogenous from Meet the GrodsTeam, he tracked down two real people by the name of George Athanasi and published their addresses.

He owes both of these men a public apology.

As a part of his beat-up, Landeryou also wrote the following about my “blackmail” attempt on Hall:

Legal insiders tell the OC that the threat made by George Athanasi is almost certainly a breach of s.87 of the Victorian Crimes Act, which sets out the offence of blackmail and prescribes a maximum sentence of fifteen years imprisonment for offenders.

So, what was the threat? Here’s what I wrote (since Landeryou conveniently didn’t quote it, preferring instead to make a vague reference to “software privacy (sic)”):

Hi Iain
I trust that your copy of Photoshop is a registered and legally purchased version, as software piracy is a very serious offence. It’d be a terrible shame if you’d obtained the software illegally and someone from Adobe received a tip-off and began asking you some difficult questions.
The easiest way around this tricky situation you might find yourself in is to delete the “Who is Ant Rogenous” post from Scrotewatch and undertake never to refer to me as George again — publicly or privately.
[…]

It’s clearly a preposterous threat, but “blackmail”? Hardly. The section of the Victorian Crimes Act to which Landeryou links hoses down that shrill claim itself:

… a demand with menaces (”blackmail”) is unwarranted unless the person making it does so in the belief-
(a)  that he has reasonable grounds for making the demand; and
(b)  that the use of the menaces is proper means of reinforcing the demand.

Since Hall was threatening to reveal, without my consent, an identity he’d gleaned from my private correspondence, any claim that my threat constitutes blackmail is laughable.

Landeryou’s “legal insiders” seem to be as daft as his source for the information about “George”. But just who are these legal heavyweights to whom he defers? The GrodsInvestigationUnit has narrowed the suspects down to two:

1. The customer-service professional at Brunswick KFC who once patiently explained why Landeryou could not legally use eight two-for-one Colonel Burger vouchers in a single transaction. It is believed that Landeryou was so impressed, he immediately entrusted this 16-year-old with his legal counsel.
2. Self-proclaimed superlawyer Leon Bertrand (pictured below).

“Goo-gah-brrrrrrrr. The prosecution rests”

So, what have the events of the past couple of weeks taught us?

First, Iain Hall is a malicious, unethical net-stalker who, in the absence of an ability to debate intelligently or in good faith, goes after the personal lives of his political opponents, and will swallow the most tenuous bit of bait — which any sane person would recognise immediately for a hoax — if he fancies it’ll give him some leverage. Brigid Gread demonstrated this some time ago with her (admittedly far more complex) sting. Already once bitten, Hall showed that he’s not intelligent enough to be twice shy.

Second, Andrew Landeryou is a miserable, odious peddler of bullshit whose inability to conduct his own research or even rely on that of credible sources gives a good insight into why his business ventures were doomed to abject failure.

In short, we’ve learned nothing we didn’t already know.

People who reside in several safe-houses
to avoid creditors shouldn’t thrown stones

Game off.

PS: Elsewhere, I note that Landeryou is threatening to reveal the identity of another blogger, Chief Bastard (CB) of Bastards Inc. Despite the fact that CB is a malicious, contemptible turd himself, I don’t condone what Landeryou claims he’s about to do. Hopefully “George Athanasi” has taught him to keep it in his pants — or, at the very least, get his facts straight if he’s intent on waving it around.

Click on the cover for the music.

Welcome to Flavour Country.

It’s a big country.

And don’t forget to visit 100% accurate http://www.iainhall.com.

The fake Bridgit blog is no more. I’ve been informed that it was suspended for breaching Blogger’s terms of service on several counts: specifically, those relating to copyright, impersonation and hateful content. Tsk tsk.

UPDATE
The fake blog has re-emerged at Wordpress in much the same form. And within a couple of hours there’s a link to it posted you-know-where. Such is the speed you can work at when you don’t have a job…

Final proof the Bridgit Gread blog is written by Iain Hall.

From the Bridgit Gread About Me section:

“I’m a “stupid lefty” and/or a “leftard“

From Iain Hall’s own vandalism of the IainHall.com page:

“Iain and his wife have done what many feminists and leftards advocate”…

Emphasis on “leftard” mine.

How likely is it that two different people would stoop to immature and obscure insults such as “leftards”?

When are you going to admit you wrote the blog, Iain? Keep in mind that I’ve taken screenshots so there is no point in deleting the evidence.

Many of us have said that Iain; Hall couldn’t sink much lower - now he has.

Not just content on creating a ridiculous fake Bridgit Gread blog and then denying it, he is now linking to the fake blog from his own blog posts to try and make it look like it’s actually hers.

Oh, the transparency.

Iain has lost every argument he’s ever had with Bridgit, and now the only way he can discredit her is with a fake blog full of made-up crap - unlike IainHall.com which features only the facts.

And there is also this, in case you needed any more proof that Iain created the page.

Update: Iain continues to deny the page is his:

It should also be noted that the blog has posts in it that date back as far as october (sic) 2005, some time before I even began blogging.

Because it’s not like you can’t backdate posts.

To quote The Ed - Iain is a lying liar who lies.

On this first day in Rudd’s Australia, it’s amusing watching right-wing bloggers trot out all the hackneyed excuses and you’ll-be-sorry conniptions they can conjure up. A quick whip-around the Interpipes shows:

Timmeh Blair is noticeably subdued: the best he can come up with is picking on Rudd’s turn of phrase and choice of campaign music. Not so Timmeh’s swarm of commenters. American and true believer in democracy ‘El Cid’ informs all Aussies “of the right mind” (I think he means the 46.5% who didn’t vote for or preference the ALP - how insulting!) that “…stupidity falls under its own weight“. Terminal dingbat Richard McEnroe says that “if America hadn’t had Carter, we’d never have gotten Ronald Reagan” … which I hope doesn’t mean our next PM will be Paul Hogan. MikeW asks all the big questions (”So, did Gillard lap dance Rudd when the Bow-chicka-bow porn music was playing?”) while ‘Pedro the Ignorant’ lives up to his monicker, losing a couple of grand betting on the election then proclaiming “Graceful in defeat? Fuck that. The war just started.”

The Rudd-love is a bit more guarded at A Wrestling Heart, where resident buffoon ‘MK’ seems to think John Howard is dead (”You must be so relieved to be free, free at last from all the hate and hostility from the left and the media, you’ve earned your peace…”). He goes on to forecast a litany of things that will go wrong under a Rudd government, such as the decline of public education, the Internets and “storms, heat, cold and drought” (I didn’t realise Kruddy was so omnipotent). ‘Tiberius’ earlier decried the election-day shenanigans of “typical leftist filth”, pointedly ignoring reports that former immigration minister Kevin Andrews tore down the posters of another candidate, while Oz journo cum electoral-interferer Caroline Overington bitch-slapped Labor candidate for Wentworth, perhaps because earlier this year he rejected her clumsy e-mail advances.

Lastly, after spending the last week telling all who dare read his blog not to vote for Rudd, orthographic abstract artist Iain Hall declares that the Ruddster is, in fact, a conservative. But he still pledges to hold him to account anyway (”Tomorrow is indeed another day and this blogger will keep fighting the good fight for the things that he believes in.”) Phew, what a relief! Hally cheers the probable demise of Kerry Nettle in the Senate, however it’s worth noting that Greens preferences helped oust Liberal member Peter Dutton from Hall’s own seat of Dickson. And the new ALP member for Dickson is - wait for the delicious irony - a teacher, a unionist, a woman and blonde. We all get the politicians we deserve, and so has Iain.

GrodsCorp’s Bridgit Gread has confirmed to me via email that she is not the author of the seemingly eponymous Bridgit Gread blog that has recently appeared on the internets. Bridgit may be a latte lefty but she’s not a neo-Nazi nor an anti-Semite.

Somebody (not to name any names) obviously has too much time on their hands and is trying to smear Bridgit’s good name. This anonymous person has cut-and-pasted all of Brigit’s posts from GrodsCorp into the fake blog, along with some charming quotes about Israel and Nelson Mandela. For instance, the only non-Grods post on the fake blog, Hitler was a good Socialist, is lifted straight from here.

Want any more proof it’s our unemployed Queensland friend? If you click on the tag About me . (sic) you are presented with the following semi-literate prose.

Ah yes in (sic) the it’s (sic) been claimed that…

– I’ve never done anything of note in my life
– I’m a Marxist and/or a psuedo (sic)-Marxist
– I’m a “stupid lefty” and/or a “leftard”
– I suffer from cognitive dissonance
– I suffer from a personality disorder
– I’m “completely nasty”
– I’m a gay activist
– I’ve “plumbed new depths”
– I’m ‘wankwoman’
– I “know a million words but can’t tell them apart”
– I think Clarence Thomas is a “darkie” who should never have left the plantation
– I should be ashamed
– I’m a “lazy, worthless, condescending oxygen thief”
– I have danced on Kerry Packer’s grave

All true.

I am an evil vampire

I find Some (sic) might be moved to say ‘oh how she loves to hate’.

I hope that’s true.

UPDATE (18/11): In further attempts to paint Bridgit as a man-hating lesbian and hard-core communist Iain has also lifted this lesbianism post from here, and this post on Trotsky from here.

Iain;Hall’s post on silicone “tits” contained a line that defies explanation:

My opinion on this issue was made even more certain when I acquired a load of silicone implants courtesy of a retired plastic surgeon.

What the fuck? Retired plastic surgeons just travel the country handing these out? And why Iain? Was he planning to do his own surgery, but changed his mind?

Update:

The female in question.

TAP!

I’d consider myself a political junkie — I actively seek out political news from a range of sources constantly throughout the day. But even I have had trouble getting into politics this week because the neverending false campaign is killing me. If I’m feeling twinges of disengagement just imagine what Joe Voter out in Voterland is feeling.

I’ve also become aware of the almost wall-to-wall government advertising on TV and in the press and it, excuse the pun, drives me up the wall. One campaign that makes me particularly angry is the online safety series of ads. Talk about whipping up fear and taking advantage of widespread ignorance about the intertubes. But this new version of the government’s “Talking Online can lead to Stalking Online” ad is interesting.

1) Samuel Gordon-Stewart, Independent
Independent candidate for Fraser, Samuel Gordon-Stewart, has launched his campaign with a press release and the unveiling of his campaign website. Some of Samuel’s policy positions include:

* The nationalisation of education and health, with plans to move government funding from the private sector to the public sector, and provide bulk billed health and dental services in as many areas as possible. Samuel is also committed to ensuring the ACT education system, particularly the college system, is used as the basis for the national education system.
* Bold new initiatives to stave off drought and replenish the farming sector, and therefore make the economy better, and improve the standard of living for regional areas.
* The acceptance that Climate Change is a mostly natural phenomenon, and that we need to plan around the natural climate cycle.
* Economically sustainable targets for the reduction of pollution, and the introduction of renewable energy to improve the air quality, and therefore our standard of living.
* A majority government owned national fibre-to-the-node high speed broadband network, and the urgent provision of broadband services to all areas of the nation that do not currently have them.
* Oppose the Tralee development in favour of a Googong development to prevent excess aircraft noise over Canberra.
* A speeding up of the rollout of digital radio, and government assistance to ensure that no broadcasters are adversely affected by the change.

2) Stalker turns stalked
Iain; Hall, the internet’s most illiterate blogger, has threatened another blogger with police action over alleged “cyberstalking”. Of course, anyone who’s been following the actions of Iain (Nice;person) Hall since his early days in the blogosphere will laugh heartily at the irony of this development.

3) Ahhh, memories
Do you know how sounds can summon powerful memories? Well I found this video on the YouTubes the other day. It’s the opening titles from the UK Sky TV’s Sky Sports News. I was freelancing as a director at that channel between 2000 and 2002, and I had to listen to those opening titles a dozen times a shift. Took me back is all I’m saying.

The guvment is considering a “consultation blog” to engage folks in the democratic process. It’s all about e-government, Web2.0 and other funky buzzwords:

Government agencies in Australia have traditionally involved citizens and community in the processes and decisions that affect them. With the advent of e-government and the increasing use of information and communication technologies to enhance government service delivery, opportunities arise for agencies to engage and involve citizens and communities through new channels.

[…]

The rise of new multimedia broadband technologies such as Web 2.0 bring a stream of digital innovations that are transforming the way people use the Internet and the way in which they communicate. Specifically, Web 2.0 provides amongst other things, real time interaction, democratized web spaces, user generated content and citizen journalism. People’s use of these new innovations is driving expectations for new approaches to the way government interact. Governments cannot ignore these changing social dynamics, especially in relation to citizen engagement.

Sounds like a great idea on the face of it. However, perhaps these Web1.0 bureaucrats should spend some time reading political blog comment threads to see how little they resemble reasoned, intelligent debate. Just as only fanatic, partisan people and organisations bother to write submissions for government inquiries, only fanatic, partisan people and organisations will bother to engage with the e-forum. Plus there’s the added Godwin’s factor and the Iain; Hall factor.

And finally, blogs that don’t have pictures of cats can’t be taken seriously.

Iain; Hall QC lays down the law:

[T]o my mind bearing false witness is right up there with Rape [sic] itself and should actually carry an equally harsh penalty.

I dare him to tell a rape victim that.

Much has been made recently of the website Wikiscanner which allows users to track the Wikipedia edits made by an IP address or range. Australian newspapers this week went nuts over the fact that government employees altered a number of Wikipedia articles, conveniently ignoring the edits made by their own staff.

After a few days of exhaustive research GrodsCorp can reveal the following controversial Wikipedia article edits that have been made by prominent bloggers:

Andrew Bolt
- The Greens (”eat the fetuses they have forcibly aborted from mothers at 26 weeks gestation. Hat tip: Tim Blair“)
- Climate change (”the dinosaurs died out and they didn’t drive cars! Hat tip: Tim Blair)
- David Duchovny (”dude is seriously hott”)

Timmeh Blair
- The Greens (”eat the fetuses they have forcibly aborted from mothers at 26 weeks gestation. Hat tip: Andrew Bolt“)
- Climate change (”the dinosaurs died out and they didn’t drive cars! Hat tip: Andrew Bolt)

MK
- Homosexuality (”something much more meaningful than just a beautiful lifestyle choice”)
- Guns (”for men with small penises”)

Jeremy Sear
- Cats (”rock”)

Andrew Landeryou
- Red Rooster (”pale KFC imitation”)

Mikey
- John Howard (”a truly great man”)

Iain; Hall
- McDonalds (changed article title to “Fine; Scotish; Restuaront”)
- English language (”constentley; Evolveing”)
- Islam (”the one Tru caling;”)

John Surname
- Emo (”the one true calling”)

Have you found any edits made by bloggers that you’d like to add to the list? Leave ‘em in comments.