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Motivational Speaker Faces Child Porn Charges
I’m about a month late on catching this news item, but it seems that art does in fact imitate life - or the other way around. For anybody who’s seen Donnie Darko, this story ought to sound pretty familiar:
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — A nationally known motivational speaker is facing child pornography charges.
Police in Arkansas arrested Michael Fortino — a man who lives in Pittsburgh, but travels the world.
Fortino’s Web site has been shut down, but a cached version of it showcases him as a motivational speaker.
He was apparently in Arkansas to give one of those speeches when he was arrested.
“For every one time somebody does something wrong, it takes four rights just to break even,” said Fortino on a clip on his Web site.
Now, police have charged him with three counts of possessing child pornography.
So, I guess that means he’s got at least twelve “rights” that he’s gotta come up with fast! For fans of ritual abuse conspiracy stories, the article also features this gem:
Former President Bill Clinton once praised Fortino, and President George W. Bush has called him a role model for future generations.
I’m not sure which website they were talking about in that article, but you can still find plenty of ironic material online about him. From the X-Treme Speaking Business Kit:
Who Else Would Like To Learn The Secrets that Motivational Speaker’s Use To Earn Unlimited Income?
“I will personally show you how you can travel to luxurious places, help people improve their lives, receive standing ovations and earn incredible amounts of money.”
Gotta wonder what the “X” in X-Treme stands for now, huh? The FortinoGroup.com website also advertises that X-Treme thinking involves “Innovation, Creativity, Responsible Risk Taking, and Achieving New Heights.” Guess those risks weren’t so responsible after all.
So is this just another example of a person who got too much money, became too inflated for his own good, or is he some kind of shill in some weird child porn exploitation conspiracy ring? Anybody have any other good research done on him and his connections? Anybody ever been to one of his workshops or been exposed to any of his motivational materials outside of this?
[Found this in the comments to a thread at Rigorous Intuition someplace]
- Check this out
- Ding!
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- Push those tribal buttons
- I just thought of something
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January 15th, 2006 at 10:05 pm
Omigod, as soon as I saw the headline, I immediately thought Donnie Darko, and there it was in your second sentence!
January 15th, 2006 at 10:12 pm
Yeah, the whole thing’s pretty freaky, just for that reason alone - nevermind the rest!
January 16th, 2006 at 2:04 am
I was actually going to rent Donnie Darko today because I’ve never seen it, but then I remembered that only losers and queers like that movie.
January 16th, 2006 at 2:22 am
I’m sure you’ll love it!
January 16th, 2006 at 9:22 am
Hey, Dakota:
I’m not doin’ anything today, so if ya wanna come over and watch Donnie Darko with me that would be cool. I’ll make the popcorn. You might have to bring your own Yoohoo and Red Vine, though. Unless you don’t like Yoohoo and Red Vine. Or if you don’t wanna watch Donnie Darko, we can watch whatever movie you want. Any suggestions?
Sneer at me if you’re interested. Don’t worry, we don’t have to even hold hands or nuthin’ if that makes you feel too loserish–or queerish?–you know what I mean.
I’ll be waiting by my computer reading Left Behind, book one. Hope you contact me soon! It’s been awhile since I’ve hung out with a real individual.
Love,
Daddy P.
January 16th, 2006 at 10:06 am
And your problem with queers is…?
Seriously, dakota (or J.R. or whatever your name is). Have you ever asked yourself why you have an insatiable need to visit websites you don’t like and insult the people who are there earnestly discussing topics that interest them? I mean, why don’t you go visit Little Green Footballs or something and hang out with your own kind there?
January 16th, 2006 at 11:45 am
I wonder sometimes if this is a similar situation to the abuse by some of the clergy that comes out. I am more suspicious of people who claim to be holier than though and these positive thinking gurus than anyone because we are human and by not acknowledging our own imperfections and dark side we create one hell of a shadow like a man who stands to close to the sun. I think thats what donnie knew in the film. Saying that this guy could have got to where he did by sharing such dark interests with influential high flying like minded people but i doubt it because they dont usually get caught or seen.
January 16th, 2006 at 11:48 am
P.S. Enjoyed the rigorous intuition link.
January 16th, 2006 at 12:39 pm
RigInt is the best thing going in conspiracy-land. Wells and Gorightly++
January 16th, 2006 at 4:03 pm
Child pornography charges? I just wish more people would see this ‘red herring’ for what it is.
Want to disagree with the gubmint? Child pornography charges!
Want to protest? Child pornography charges!
Want to leak information? Child pornography charges!
Step too far out of line? Child pornography charges!
Once the ‘label’ is on you you’ve been rendered ineffective!
Like the ‘jew’ label under the Nazi’s, or the Anti-Semitic label by Israel.
Give ME the POWER to put a LABEL on YOU and YOU’RE TOAST!
January 16th, 2006 at 8:56 pm
I would be inclined to agree with you, were I aware of any information which suggested this guy disagreed, protested, leaked or stepped out of line. None of the above have come up in my limited research.
January 16th, 2006 at 9:57 pm
I usually would question the validity of these things but to be honest i wanted to move the topic back on track, i should think that is the type of tactic the authorities may use and whilst all i know is all i read here this guy seemed to be no threat.
January 17th, 2006 at 8:33 am
“I would be inclined to agree with you, were I aware of any information which suggested this guy disagreed, protested, leaked or stepped out of line. None of the above have come up in my limited research.”
Well that’s the whole point now isn’t it? It’s not as if the propaganda media that reports on these Child pornography ’suspects’ are then going to report anything else about them.
And think of how bizarre it is that the same propaganda media that gave us 9/11 and Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq is the exact same one that we ‘depend’ on to give us this information!
You are left with only one choice…..DISBELIEVE EVERYTHING THEY SAY! Period.
Once you adopt that mindset you’d be surprised at what you’ll begin seeing in everything they print and say.
They are like mind spiders spinning their webs in peoples minds until all that is left is a population totally cobwebbed in their thinking because everything sticks to everything else……and also sticks to nothing at all!
But the life sucking propaganda media will soon devour ever mind they get their web into.
January 17th, 2006 at 8:45 am
Being a ‘good Amerikan’ (whatever that really means) I’ve started with the premise on this guy that he’s completly innocent and is being framed by the gubmint.
So what can 5 minutes of Google searching reveal about this guy to make this premise possible?
Well, how about this:
This guy found out ’something’ dark and sinister about the true and evil nature of the Internet and how it is in fact a New World Order creation to bring into this reality a new type of being….a Gloal Brain that will subsume all of humanity for its evil ends!
Here’s the ‘evidence’:
There is an Internet… “e-Mergency”
By Michael Fortino (the alleged Child pornographer)
Jun 24, 2002, 16:17 PST
Knowing that the Internet can simultaneously bring significant benefits-and lethal problems-to your company isn’t nearly enough. You must know how to live with this monster, and that means knowing its power source. Most importantly, you must know how it can overpower you.
* Generation Y is 34% more reserved in their social skills than the previous generation
* Mindless Internet surfing results in more than 400 hours of wasted time per employee, per year
* The average Internet user will click a mouse approximately 42.2 million times in a lifetime
* We will type more than 300,000 e-mails during our lives, but hand write only about 265 love letters
* The average Internet user will spend more than one year of their lives reading banner ads without any interest whatsoever
* The average Internet user will misfile 120 pages of information and 33 folders each month
* 72 percent of Internet users had more confidence and were more aggressive when communicating over the Internet as compared to real-world confrontations
* 92 percent of Generation Y users admitted to counterfeiting their identity online
* Generation Y is 22% less physically active than the previous generation
http://www.expertmagazine.com/artman/publish/article_14.shtml
The Global Brain Concept
The parallels between biological brains and the global Internet has been discussed in some details in [28]. In this section we want to summarize some elements and provide some recent examples and applications.
In 1983 Russell [42] proposed a Global Brain that might emerge from a worldwide network of humans who were highly connected through communications. He based his argument on the observation that throughout evolution qualitative transitions to a new level of organization have been observed to occur in several instances where a system attains approximately 10 billion (ten to the tenth power) units that are tightly but flexibly coupled. Examples include the number of atoms in a bio-molecule, the number of molecules in a cell, and the number of cells in the cortex of the human brain. Since the world population (5.7 billion, 1994) is within an order of magnitude of ten to the tenth and growing, the threshold for a new level of organization, by his arguments, could be reached soon. Thus Russell saw the network of interconnected humans forming a Global Brain; we expand the concept to include computers — not only as communication links between humans, as Russell used them, but as active information-processors alongside humans. Simulations in this environment will have to include life-like, agent based elements (see e.g. [20]).
http://www.santafe.edu/~gmk/MFGB/node14.html
January 17th, 2006 at 10:48 am
Granted, after reading this link you do have a point because ive thought these things myself and hes touched upon something that would definately make him a threat. I was recently watching the news and thinking about how they ask people with a video phone to send footage in, if you were paranoid you might think what a perfect way to get society to police itself. These things lead to many trains of thought but needless to say i now see youre point and thanks for link.
January 17th, 2006 at 11:32 am
“These things lead to many trains of thought but needless to say i now see youre point …”
Another convert!!! Praise be to God! (Or Elvis, take your pick) All in all good Brother Nemesis, stay out of the clutches of the Mind Spiders! And the ‘tried and proven’ through the centuries method to do this is to disbelieve EVERYTHING!
And to be sure you KNOW what I’m talking about when I say EVERYTHING, let’s follow the word:
EVERYTHING: All things or all of a group of things
then leads to ALL
ALL: Being or representing the entire…
then leads to ENTIRE
ENTIRE: Having no part excluded or left out
then leads to….well, you can figure the rest out!
January 17th, 2006 at 11:58 am
Being a convert leads to EVERYTHING
EVERYTHING leads to ALL
ALL leads to ENTIRE!
I agree but saying convert to an individual doesnt quite marry.
God is the spoonfull of sugar that helps the medicine go down and the vehicle that shall kill many in the name of peace.
It is better to live for 10 seconds a free man than to spend a lifetime in slavery, lucifer rebelled in heaven so gods way must be free will as it is in heaven.
January 17th, 2006 at 12:30 pm
yeah, as long as you’re absolutely sure the guy isn’t actually doing sick shit to little kids.
January 17th, 2006 at 12:59 pm
You’ve got Mind Spiders jp! You can tell because you’re not sure what to believe…and in being not sure you’re able to be confused and manipulated!
Remember…don’t believe ANYTHING they say! Do that and the Mind Spiders can’t get you!
You can’t have it both ways you know….either you believe the propaganda media that Oswald killed Kennedy, Arab Terrorists did 9/11, Iraq had WMD’s, vaccines don’t cause Autism…etc, etc, etc…..or EVERYTHING they say are lies.
January 17th, 2006 at 1:01 pm
By the same logic, we don’t need to believe anything you say and then we’re all set. We’re back to determining the truth based on our own compass and investigations. You’re asking us to dig until we find the truth. But if we dig past the layer you’re suggesting, we can just keep digging forever. And then it becomes a matter of how do we spend our time: do we spend it questioning news stories to an infinite level, or living our lives?
January 17th, 2006 at 1:03 pm
“God is the spoonfull of sugar that helps the medicine go down and the vehicle that shall kill many in the name of peace.”
Another Mind Spider attack Brother Nemesis!
For one to believe in the God of the Bible one also has to believe in what he says, and which is:
This world is an illusion…it’s been captured by evil beings…it’s been judged and sentenced to death….the only freedom for mankind is seeing and understanding that what we believe to be true is in fact all a lie.
January 17th, 2006 at 1:06 pm
There isnt a worse crime than that in my opinion but i thought he had images on his p.c. which is bad enough but thats the problem with such a disgusting act as child abuse. Its the medium i was speculating on and shouldnt have lost track of the topic but thats the problem with governments and media as it is. I guess we just dont or ever will know but the measure of a civilisation should be how it treats its most vulnerable, especially children. I still dont like positive attitude gurus anyway so fuck it!
January 17th, 2006 at 1:07 pm
“We’re back to determining the truth based on our own compass and investigations.”
And isn’t that exactly what we’ve all been put here for in the first place!
No Mind Spiders attacking Brother Tim now is there!?!
January 17th, 2006 at 1:08 pm
The mind is a spider though.
January 17th, 2006 at 1:14 pm
“do we spend it questioning news stories to an infinite level, or living our lives?”
Or…are our lives meant to be spent in the discovery of truth? In this example here, and as I’ve previously pointed out, there is a viable alternative to the propaganda media information…that’s enough to show/prove that the possibility exists of an alternate explanation of the events/facts as reported.
So, with that being so the ‘level’ becomes not ‘infinite’, but rather finished for those seeking truth.
For the truth isn’t in the discovery or explanation of the events, but is rather in the knowing that alternate possibilites exist.
January 17th, 2006 at 1:19 pm
“The mind is a spider though.”
The ‘top’ mind is, but not the ‘true’ mind! And where one puts his(or hers) attention(focus) is what determines which ‘mind’ will rule them!
Complex and Hidden Brain in Gut Makes Bellyaches and Butterflies
Ever wonder why people get “butterflies” in the stomach before going on stage ? Or why an impending job interview can cause an attack of intestinal cramps ? And why antidepressants targeted for the brain cause nausea or abdominal upset in millions of people who take such drugs ?
The reason for these common experiences, scientists say, is that the body has two brains - the familiar one encased in the skull and a lesser known but vitally important one found in the human gut Like Siamese twins, the two brains are interconnected ; when one gets upset, the other does, too.
The gut’s brain, known as the enteric nervous system, is located in sheaths of tissue lining the oesophagus, stomach, small intestine and colon. Considered a single entity, it is a network of neurons, neurotransmitters and proteins that zap messages between neurons, support cells like those found m the brain proper and a complex circuitry that enables it to act independently, learn, remember and, as the saying goes, produce gut feelings.
http://aikidoaus.com.au/dojo/docs/2nd_braina.htm
January 17th, 2006 at 1:20 pm
Bullshit! Alternate possibilities always exist. And that’s “true” but it’s not the *Truth*. I do think however, from my own experiences, that the Truth isn’t to be found by chasing an endless chain of facts. And in your case, you haven’t even offered facts, you’ve offered speculation and a line of logic that says if one thing reported by media isn’t true then all things reported by media aren’t true. Nothing is so black and white. By your own words, we should recognize that alternate possibilities exist in between: 1) it’s all lies, and 2) it’s all true. The evidence doesn’t support either assumption, but it does support that it’s a complex mix of lies and truths, fact and fiction.
January 17th, 2006 at 1:22 pm
That’s just the spider spinning out a web of rationalization in self-defense!
January 17th, 2006 at 1:26 pm
The devil quotes scripture and how do you know god said that? do you think that misinformation is a new thing or does it only happen within mediums that suit youre personel belief?
January 17th, 2006 at 2:02 pm
man, ‘who cares,’ way to spin webs of complexity over a simple issue.
a) the guy is a paedophile, or
b) he is not– he is being framed.
we don’t have evidence one way or the other, because we’re all a bunch of dopes with keyboards and internet access who can’t know anything more about the situation. if it turns out that he’s actually a paedophile, then lock him up and toss the key. if he’s being framed by the sinister government, then i hope it comes out. that’s all, end of story.
who cares about who cares, anyhow? fuckin’ wannabe guru assholes.
January 17th, 2006 at 2:46 pm
Honesty is such a rare thing and i definately am just a dope with a keyboard, couldnt be a guru because im to confused with my own shit, the difference is i know i aint got a clue. That made me laugh, well said jp.
January 17th, 2006 at 3:06 pm
Yeah, I don’t have any idea either. I just thought it was an interesting news story. It’s one of those classic ones that’s appealing because 1) it parallels a movie and 2) targets somebody i love to hate as a generic class: motivational speakers. I had many bad experiences going to school-sponsored events by people like this growing up and hearing bad things happen to them - deserved or not - fills me with secret juvenile glee.
January 17th, 2006 at 3:21 pm
It feels nice though dont it, i kinda wear mine right out there on the sleeve just to piss them off some more.
January 17th, 2006 at 9:45 pm
“I would be inclined to agree with you, were I aware of any information which suggested this guy disagreed, protested, leaked or stepped out of line.”
Funny thing is, all available evidence points to Fortino being a Bush supporter. Do your own research on it– I’m not providing links.
The right-wingers ar ALWAYS sicker than the lefties when it comes to s-e-x.