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A very serious question

Gord_in_Toronto said:
Randi has replied to e-mails from me in the past and a couple of my comments have showed up in his Commentaries.
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I've also gotten replies from Randi to questions I've posed. Not long responses, but to the point, and I have no reason to doubt that they were written by him.
 
Damien Evans said:
Just out of curiosity, how many people does JREF employ?
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Besides Randi, Jeff and Linda are full time. There are a few people that do some specific tasks, but I believe many of them are either volunteers, or work part time. Jeff, as General Manager, is the one who knows all this.
 
Damien Evans said:
Just out of curiosity, how many people does JREF employ?
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The employees of the JREF are as follows:

James Randi, President
Jeff Wagg, General Manager
Linda Shallenberger, Executive Director
Rich Montalvo, Media Manager
Alison Smith, General Assistant

The board is currently being restructured.
 
RemieV said:
The employees of the JREF are as follows:

James Randi, President
Jeff Wagg, General Manager
Linda Shallenberger, Executive Director
Rich Montalvo, Media Manager
Alison Smith, General Assistant

The board is currently being restructured.
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Cool, thanks
 
arthwollipot said:
A close friend of mine, whose opinions I trust ...

I am Arthwollipot on the JREF Forums and a great philosophical supporter of the JREF, but this particular person (whom I repeat, is a person I trust) is convinced that the JREF and James Randi is a scam and a fraud.
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arthwollipot said:
Agreed. I'm not sure why he never looked at it from Randi's or the JREF's point of view, but he has agreed that he should at least look at the correct site. He now understands how one-sided his information has been, so I count that as a win.
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arthwollipot said:
I have replied, saying that I appreciate his response, and that his response has at least provided my friend with a seed of doubt about the things that he had assumed about the JREF.

Hey - at least he was skeptical, right?
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He sure was; shame you weren't though (sceptical about your close friend's opinion, that is)!!!
 
Crispy Duck said:
It seems that many ill-informed people simply refer to the JREF as the "James Randi Institute". Going back to your opening post, I hope you've learned not to trust people quite so readily.
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My trust in my friend is not based on this. And the fact that he was wrong on this matter makes him no less my friend, and no less someone I trust.

Southwind17 said:
He sure was; shame you weren't though (sceptical about your close friend's opinion, that is)!!!
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I was. That's why I sought more information.
 
It's rather personal. Suffice to say that he is a member of my household, and in all respects a very reasonable person. I consider this particular matter to be an aberration for him. He blames it on James Burke's The Day The Universe Changed. :) We've only argued twice in the twenty years I've known him, and interestingly enough they were both about the JREF. The first time he claimed that Randi didn't have a million dollars. Well, as you know, that particular claim is easy to refute, and I did. Now, two and a half years later, there was this other one which was prompted by the audio cables issue. I asked him to actually read the Commentary and he did. As I stated before, he had never actually been to Randi's website - partially because the address he thought it was was blocked.

This is not a really big deal for him anyway - he doesn't have any vested interest in trying to prove that Randi's a charlatan (and I pointed out that of course Randi's a charlatan - he's said it many times himself) and he has bigger things to deal with. But I did send my original email to Randi, and he responded in such a way that my friend is satisfied that what I had been saying is true.

And let's face it. Everyone argues, even with their closest friends, sometimes. It's not a big deal, and certainly nothing worth jeopardising a valued friendship over.
 
OK - it's just that in your OP you made a particular point, which you saw fit to repeat, and highlight that you were repeating, of stressing that you trust his opinion. It seemed, therefore, that such trust was material to the OP, almost as if to say "... so there must surely be some validity in what I'm about to reveal to you." I could be misinterpreting, though. ;)
 
Yeah, that's possible. I just didn't want people to think that this was some random woo that I'd stumbled over at a party or something. Like I said, I trust this man's opinions, and I was somewhat distressed that he was so one-sided when it comes to the JREF. He isn't normally like that.
 
Perhaps words along the lines of: "... who's opinion I [tend to/usually/am normally inclined to/etc.] trust ..." might, with hindsight, have been better, the inference being that you have some doubts on this particular occassion, as opposed to him probably being right because he's clearly trustworthy. A word or two can make such a difference, don't you think?
 
RemieV said:
The employees of the JREF are as follows:

James Randi, President
Jeff Wagg, General Manager
Linda Shallenberger, Executive Director
Rich Montalvo, Media Manager
Alison Smith, General Assistant

The board is currently being restructured.
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One of my roomates for the Galapagos!
 
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