Meet me in Saint Louie, Louie. Meet me at the fair.

Joe knows because I wrote to him yesterday. My intent was not to dump on him or on plans for a St. Louis conference. I was criticizing the announcement. My point wasn’t even to criticize the Mark Antonacci’s ideas. I have done that in the past and I will do so again just as I criticize Colin Berry or Stephen Jones or Barrie Schwortz or Giulio Fanti or anyone else who pops up on my radar screen. It isn’t easy, HOWEVER, to criticize Joe because he is just too nice, way too trustworthy, way too responsible and way too effective.  He proved that with Ohio 2008.

As I told Joe in a private email, maybe it was because I had just been invited to a neighbor’s home for wine and cheese only to find out after I got there that I had really been invited to meet a political candidate that I would never have voted for under any circumstance.  Similarly, I didn’t like clicking on links that suggested a complete solution to the carbon dating results and how the image was formed. It doesn’t matter that I think it is nutty. Heck, I think every single hypothesis ever suggested for the image is nutty. And, no, I don’t have an idea that is better than any of them.

I trust Joe. But I got an uncomfortable feeling when I started clicking. Maybe it was just me. I would have avoided the links. 

The conference needs a website. Somewhere there should be a tab or something that says “Sponsors.”  There, there should be a “safe” description of the sponsors. And maybe there, there should be a link to their websites. I know the conference will be open and objective. But give that appearance, too.

Okay, I did a crappy job of speaking out yesterday. I apologize to Joe and everyone else. I’ll be there in 2014.