The whole dumb story (Was: B'Jorn Again)

[jorn@MCS.COM (Jorn Barger)]

>>Jorn? Would you like all these nice people to know what's behind all
>>this? At this point, I'd be *more* than happy to enlighten them. Perhaps
>
>Please, yes.

Better yet, so as not to drag this out, here's what I know:

[This is messy, folks.  I wouldn't do this if this whole fiasco hadn't
been *the most painful experience of my life*.  I *need* you all to
follow this with responsible, caring concern.  I have taken so much
shit this year, I really feel I have a right.  Vickie, even though
you say you're ready to tell all, I've left the sensitive part for you
to fill in however you like.]

Vickie's had a rough life, and for the last couple of years she's been
trying to make peace with some very painful memories.  I tried to be
supportive, to the extent where last March I sat and listened for several
hours *at my insistence* to things she'd hardly told anyone.  Knowing
how risky this is, I phoned her the next day to make sure she felt okay 
about it.  She said yes-- no 'maybe' about it.

A couple of weeks later, I phoned Chris to brainstorm about how I/we
might start a radio station.  He was so violently down on the idea,
unwilling to give it the tiniest credibility, that I finally, after several
warnings, hung up on him.  A few days later the "Magic wars" broke out on
Gaffa, with Chris staying mostly on the sidelines.

At some point in here, Vickie sent me worried email saying she'd never felt
such violent vibes in her life, and were they coming from me?  *She signed
it with e-hugs.*  I replied that, no, I was not feeling violent, and I hinted
that they might somehow be from Jeffy, then as now the gaffan whose vibes
towards me have seemed the most negative.  I hadn't yet realized how
full of hate towards me Chris still was.

The Magic wars escalated until I was hounded into unsubscribing.  I
gradually mounted a campaign of totally positive messages, posted
blind at first.  Chris and I meanwhile had some very unpleasant
skirmishes on a local BBS, but he was the first to break the peace on
rmg, saying something like "broadcasting from planet jorn..."

I imagined that people would notice this, and I very much wanted some
gaffan(s) to step in and mediate.  I replied to chris's planet-jorn
post with an email to him that simply quoted the most appalling lines
from the long 'anonymous' message he had posted earlier (I believe for
Jeffy).  Chris's response, again by private email, was seething with
hate.  I forwarded this reply to a dozen people I hoped might be
willing to get involved.  It would not have been obvious to people who
didn't notice the planet-jorn snipe, what it was all about, but I
figured anyone who cared would ask.

Uli's response was the most welcome, saying (paraphrase) "Chris, Jorn has 
absolutely not said anything on rmg to merit this."  But Uli then left
for a vacation.  This must have been June, and it was only at this point
that I got Chris's 'secret reason' for hating me: Vickie had told him
that that night in March, she had told me an especially painful scene
and I had responded in a horribly callous fashion.

I will let Vickie decide how she wants to tell her side of that story,
but the version I heard was not at all how I remembered it, and the
story being told was utterly inconceivable for me... but I still
immediately sent Vickie an apology for her hurt.

It was here that Chris invaded both my *and* Vickie's privacy by putting
a message in his .plan that contained intimate details from each of us.
I noticed that Chris was accessing that account via Northwestern, and 
wrote Chip Lueck that if Chris didn't remove the plan I would report Chip's
role in getting the Northwestern account.  (This after *pleading* with
several others to intercede.)  I believe Chris's whole reason for using
the .plan trick was that he thought I wouldn't be able to check on it,
and this gave him a sadistic power gratification-- this theory was confirmed
when I got a memorable enraged phonecall from Chris, asking where *my*
'secret' account was.  The conversation ended:

"Chris, you're acting like I couldn't have any life except what *you* know
about me..."

"YOU DON'T!!!"

At which point I hung up, not needing *that*...

And then he hijacked the tapetree, saying I'd treated poor Paul and poor
Mike Mendelson truly awfully... (which is the email I was offering,
showing exactly what I said to Mike, and how *he* was awful first).

And Gene Haldeman bravely volunteered to mediate, but bowed out 
mysteriously, *I believe* because Chris was totally unreasonable.

Etc etc etc...

Wap.  Bam.  Bom.

Welcome to "Love Hounds"...

How bout we try to forgive and forget?