George Irvine was arrested during this time for making death threats to a well-known figure in scuba history during an Internet discussion. He had used a sock puppet to do it, but the person receiving the threats saw through the ruse, and the evidence was on the computer when he was arrested. He may have been responsible for your death threat as well.
I am sure you know I remember that well. His attacks mostly came from his claims of NAUI superiority rather than CMAS. It was, fortunately, his all-too-brief work in the CMAS administration that enabled us to stop him and gain a respite.
What do those two have in common?
They both used the same strategy: making vicious attacks on their opponents through gross exaggerations and outright lies about the opponents' qualities, characteristics, and policies. The gross exaggeration strategy was so pronounced in the Irvine crowd that it became a cliché to summarize their arguments as "You're gonna die!" One example was a ScubaBoard regular who used to claim (what follows is no exaggeration on my part) that in ALL cases in which people use a traditional alternate air source rather than a long hose/bungeed necklace), the alternate comes loose, drags in the silt, and becomes so damaged that it can NEVER work when needed.
The second person used outright lies and distortions, and it is actually the more maddening, because it is the one that persists to this day. He (and others) repeated the same lies over and over and over again, even after being corrected over and over and over again. I have a reputation as being a PADI defender, but I am actually a defender of the truth. Every time someone repeats an old lie about PADI, I feel compelled to correct it. It keeps me very busy. I am tired of it. Just a day or so ago someone repeated the old lie that PADI instructors are not allowed to add to the course content, and I didn't even bother to respond to it. I'm just plain too tired of doing it.
