DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

In about 1980, musician Scott Ian read about anthrax in his high-school biology class. He thought the word would make a good band name… and over the next 20 years, he built Anthrax into a world-class heavy-metal band, with album sales and fans numbering in the millions.

In October, 2001, adequacy.org resident fool ‘dmg’ failed to understand any of these facts, and accused Anthrax (the band) of taking on the name “to cash in on bioterrorism.” Further, he claims that the band has a “new CD out hatefully entitled ‘Spreading the Disease’” — but this album was actually released in 1985. dmg’s ravings can be found here: Anthrax - Please, PLEASE change your name. [We have removed our local mirror of this article at the request of Adequacy.org.]

I believe ‘dmg’ is trolling. That is, she or he is purposefully writing inflammatory, specious articles, perhaps in an attempt to make a name for him/herself, or perhaps to drive traffic to the adequacy.org website.

This is not a new practice, to invent facts and create fiery accusations based on misunderstandings and rumors. It’s called tabloid journalism, and if your right to publish such opinions is provided by the 1st Amendment, it’s defended by the National Enquirer. So now we know something about adequacy.org that we didn’t know before.

anthrax.com demonstrates the band’s humor. The bandmembers don’t seem to take themselves too seriously. And their response to the 9/11 attacks, and the ongoing anthrax scare, is very human. Check out their Anthrax press release for samples of both.

In contrast, dmg isn’t particularly humorous. He has a lot to say, but little of it is endearing, well-researched, or even true.

In Building your dream PC, an anti-technologist diatribe, dmg accuses anyone who wants to build a beowulf cluster of being a “small-penis compensating weiner [sic].” I wonder if dmg realizes that the current roster of Beowulf cluster users includes most of the brightest physicists and computer scientists in the country, as well as the Center for Disease Control, which is deeply involved in current anti-bioterrorism efforts, including the anthrax scare.

In his tirade against Anthrax, dmg revealed one of his/her biases, perhaps unwittingly. S/he concedes that the bandmembers “seem like decent enough people” … apart from their “unkempt, dishevalled [sic] aggressively long hair.”

Ha! How can hair be “aggressively” long? Maybe this is a “small-penis compensating” sort of comment.

P.S. It fascinates me that adequacy.org’s Terms of Service proclaims “we reserve the right to delete comments deemed inappropriate in tone or factually false.” I can only conclude that this documented quest for truth applies only to comments, but not to staff-written articles.