Writers That Write About People They Don't Know

[kurtm]

I hate it when someone writes about someone else and doesn't even do any background checking, or fact finding. And then does a nice job of slamming that person written about at the end!

The new Front Sight magazine on Page 57 has an article written by Mr. T ( a pseudonym because this isn't a character assasination ) about the melding of Iron and scope scores at SMM3G. First off he points out how USPSA is superior in thier scoring than IMGA, OK it an USPSA magazine so that OK...I guess. Next he tells how good Taran Butler is... thats OK, because he is! Next he states that Kurt Miller ( a pesudonym for KURTM ) has been "improving greatly"...well damning with faint praise so on we go. Then he ( Mr. T ) spikes a nerve. it seems that Kurt Miller is shooting against cripples ( Bennie Cooley, not a pesudonym) and low skilled individuals that are "no real competition" ( my brackets, not a quote) such as Tom Carpenter, Bruce Piatt, Craig Underdown, and Kelly Balmores to name a few. He then launches into how tough the crowd Taran shot against was, yep some darn fine names there...too, as well.

Now I must admit that by now I am a bit piqued. He ( Mr. T. ) then goes on about how Taran "meaningfully outpaced everyone else using tactical equipment". Now I will digress here for a moment and tell you right up front that if Scope and Iron hadn't been score seperatly and then melded together at the end Taran would have beat me by a very "MEANINGFULLY" 13 whole match points.... TOTAL, scoring the match heads up. and the two stages that he really made the points on me were both shotgun only stages and had NOTHING to do with a rifle sight. Next he imparts the idea that Barb was in a quandry of how to score the match. No big guess here! Barb scored it JUST LIKE THEY HAVE FOR OVER 8 YEARS! Then at the end he makes it seem if I was given a gift of the match. I disagree as you might guess, but that is in the relm of perception.

Greatly improving? Well lets just see shall we, since SMM3G began I haven't finished out of the top 10, ever. For just this match from 2000 on I have finished 6th (scope), 1st in 2001 ( with a scope, beating Taran who shot a scope) 4th(scope) in 02, 6th ( iron) in 03, 2nd ( iron) in 04, and won again in 05. Improving? I don't know. I do know that if Mr. T had bothered to check he would have found out that my skilll level is on par with beating Taran occasionally, I DON"T NEED GIFTS! This may be hard for Mr. T to comprehend, because I am not a big name in USPSA circles, but all he had to do was drop a dime or drop a line! and get a little background, befor saying I was "given the match"!

If I were Tom Carpenter, Bruce Piatt, Or a host of others I would be a bit "put off" as well.

The part about the revolver guys shooting woefully inadiquate with a handgun and winning, and then saying that SMM3G had the same scenario is a direct INSULT TO ME! I don't ever recall moistening Mr. T's Cheerrios with uric acid, but he must have a case of the --- with me!

I did enjoy the picture of my brother ( the left hand of the Devil ) Who, just for Mr. T's records hasn't finished out of the top 10 at SMM3G since the 98 either. Maybe its time someone "GAVE" him a match as well! Kurt A. MIller

[AikiDale]

I can hardly wait to read the article!

Stiff upper lip and all that Kurt. The only bad publicity is no publicity.

Wonder what Benny thinks of the article?

[XRe]

The new Front Sight magazine on Page 57 has an article written by Mr. T ( a pseudonym because this isn't a character assasination )

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It's a shame when stuff like this happens. One thought, though - giving us the publication and page number, and subject of the article, sort of negates any attempt at "protecting" the individual that authored said article, don't it???

[Gwhiz]

Kurt,

you can't catch a break. Either you are "sandbagging" or being given matches.

Couldn't be that you are just a damn fine shooter. Hold your head high, you are nothing but a straight shooter. More ways than one.

Bill

[John Dunn]

I love the line, "In the end they stuck to their announced scoring plan...".

I would certainly hope so.

[kurtm]

Page number was given, along with magazine title, just so people could read it for themselves and see if I had a point or not. I had a few people read it befor I even posted anything, and they all seemed to think it was belittleing the win. I hadn't even really made the conection about the revolver shooter part untill one guy, a friend of a friend who doesn't even know that the article was about kurtm, said " boy if you read this right he is calling that Kurt Miller guy a woefully inadiquate shooter." I reread it a few times and darned if I didn't see his point! ( btw this guy doesn't even shoot except for a little bird hunting, and was amazed that there was a magazine for such shooting)... Anyway by the time you have page and publication, the Pesudonym does become pointless! I was very careful not to say anything bad about Mr T on this little forum ( except that I hate the writing without background). This forum will reach far fewer people than Mr. T's article, and they will all be left with the impression that I was the poster child for incompetence. Media is a funny thing. He put it out in a publication, and I put it out in a hate rant which is where this kind of stuff belonged in the first place

[EricW]

I called HQ in Sedro, and they said that they were going to keep "trashing on Kurt Miller's good name until he gets his s*** together and starts trashing Taran Butler with regularity."

Then the guy rambled on about something about "tough love" and if "he doesn't like it, the big wussy should just quit."

(OK kids, it's just a joke....you can throttle back the portable incinerator now.)

Kurt,

I've met "Mr. T" briefly, and I don't think there's a malicious bone in the guy's body. Regardless of how the article came out (I need to re-read it), I seriously doubt that "Mr. T" intended to disparage you in any way, shape, or form. It's just not his style. I think you owe it to yourself and "Mr. T." to put in a call to Sedro and talk to him about your concerns directly.

Let's face it, if USPSA held petty grudges, they would have wisely refused to run my ads. Fortunately, they're bigger people than that.

[BigDave]

Kurt,

Great post and kudos to you for speaking up.

Dave

PS - weakhand loading is the shiz!!!

[mike.45]

The mag turned up this morning and after reading Kurts message I had a good read of the article, three times.

In conclusion I think he is on the money, it clearly reads, a number of times that he didnt deserve to do as well as he did, and any competition in iron sight was not worth ****, where as in Tac scope...well lets not go there.

I read what you say Eric about Mr T's persona but Mr T is a seasoned article writer and if he didnt mean to run down 'Miller' then maybe he should have at least read his article, or got someone else to proof read it before publishing it to everyone in the USPSA.

'Miller' is big enough to defend himself, but thats just wrong.

[kurtm]

I E-mailed Mr. T right up front! I let him know that I had started this here deal on this here forum. I don't hold any "petty animosity" here. I really HATE IT!! Hence the forum it's in. In any event, it won't make me "go away", but it does dim my already somewhat jaded view of USPSA even a few shades further. I think I may let the old membership lapse and then join another IPSC area so I can still go shoot overseas. UKPSA here I come, ahhh but on second thought, they probable wouldn't want me either

Eric:

I do apreciate the humor! No blow torch from this side BTW pact finaly camr through and I got it back in time to time a few drills yesterday. Thanks for the offer though.

[EricW]

Kurt,

I re-read the article. I think "Mr. T's" error was in naming names. If he had simply used the scores as an example and said "Competior A," "Competitor B," etc. the article as written would have been fine. I think this is a case of an article becoming too "real-world" for its own good.

Good to hear about your timer! Someday when I get my crap together, I'll come down and watch you shoot in person and learn about this goofy weak-hand stuff. Little birdie told me the other day that we might be putting together a kick-butt 3-gun match up here in N. Idaho in 2006, so maybe I'll see you up this way.

[kurtm]

I have now recieved a failure notice from AOL that My message to Mr.T didn't go through! I tried the address that was on the USPSA Member section once again and got the same notice. I feel bad about this as I want this to be as "heads up" as possible. Does anyone have a better e-mail for Mr. T? Please PM me if you do I promise to keep it confidential so you won't be charge with aiding and abetting

[John Heiter]

Maybe if it was my name and reputation being bandied about in Front Sight I would see things differently so I'm not saying you're wrong but the article just didn't seem to be that horrible to me. I didn't see anything in it that said USPSA scoring is better than anyone else's...just that USPSA has encountered problems in the past trying to equate scores from different divisions and that SMM3G faced similar problems. Also, if someone said I was improving greatly I would take it as a compliment. I mean I could take it that they were saying I used to suck but now I'm marginally better or I could take it as a positive because every year that goes by the equipment gets better and the shooters get better so if someone wants to consistently place in the top ten at a big event then they would need to "improve greatly" each year just to maintain. If the very next sentence said I "dominated" then I would probably lean more twoard a half full glass than a half empty one.

I do agree that Mr. Taylor could have been a little more diplomatic in his efforts to point out the issues involved with scoring large multi-gun matches. This is a huge issue and probably deserved way more space than the one page/three columns he was given to discuss it. Maybe then he could have been a little clearer in defining his arguements.

John

[Chriss Grube]

I read the article and really don't see what has you so upset. It was basically a discussion on different scoring methods being used more than a report on the match. The part about the rev. shooter is true. You get one guy that is ok and beats a couple other shooters on every stage he gets all the points. That was pretty much the point of the article. The guy gets 100% of the match points where as the Open guy has to split the points with the other stage winners. The scoring system then becomes the victim of the lets make a division for every type gun which splits the top shooters off rather than competeing against each other. The only solution is to not combine any of the scores or you get these kind of comparisons.

[Duane Thomas]

Okay, just let's get it very clear that "Mr. T." is NOT Duane Thomas.

[BigDave]

Guys - remember where we are - retorts are not welcome here.

[ErikW]

And it's a questionable topic in the first place...

Posts involving firearms or shooting related manufacturers, such as but not limited to - IPSC, IDPA, USPSA, the NRA, or other shooters - are specifically NOT PERMITTED.

If your hate rant has to do with shooting then it needs to be directed towards yourself.

I'm sorry for this restriction, which may limit a few reasonable hate rants, but I don't feel it's appropriate for the forum's well being or content in general.

[kurtm]

I can't picture Mr. Thomas with a mohawk So therefore he can't be Mr.T

I didn't bash any entity or manufacturer, it isn't about shooting, it is about getting written about, so how is this "marginal"?

Mr. Grube:

lets just say you worked your a#$ off and shot an outstanding match with NO no shoots and no misses and no errors (of which all the other top shooters in tactical had because it wasn't a "easy" match) at one of the biggest matches in the country and then had somebody print it was just because you shot against the lame and lazy, and no one very good. I'm sure you are a much bigger person than I by not getting upset. It sure seemed to me that when it was stated that the only competition I had was Mr. Cooley, and he could hardly compete at full steam it was belittleing what I accomplished. I guess I should take that as constructive criticisim?? The tone that Taran almost always beats EVERYONE including the open shooters, and that I was greatly improving sure tends to make one think how could this lowly guy ever beat the king unless the match was given to him. That wouldn't bother you at all?? You are TRUELY EXCEPTIONAL

Patches:

Taken in the out of context way you are putting them wouldn't have bothered me a bit, but when the "Dominated" is coupled with a "however" and the injured Bennie cooley part, while COMPLETELY ignoring the other REALLY GOOD shooters that I faced in iron sight class ( Bruce Piatt, Tom Carpenter, Craig Underdown, Kelly Balmores) it became a bit of a slam on my skill level. Now I know some of these names may be completely unfamilier to USPSA shooters but I can assure you that 3-gunners know them really well, It seems to me that at least Bruce Piatt would be somewhat recognised in the USPSA circle, but maybe not. Anyway...HAlf full?...Half empty?.... Maybe the glass is over engineered! KURTM

[Ron Ankeny]

Well at least this thread got me to read the article. Like Big Dave said, this isn't the forum for "retorts". Let's just say I saw the article more as an example of scoring issues than personalities or ability levels.

[Chriss Grube]

KurtM,

In my line of work if I got pissed off everytime somebody said something bad about me or some other negative it would be a long time of being mad. I personally didn't take the article as a hit on your ability. I think you maybe reading more in to it than was intended by the writer. I took it as a scoring issue nothing more. I better quit before one of the moderators gets there panties in a bunch.

[GeorgeInNePa]

KurtM,

In my line of work if I got pissed off everytime somebody said something bad about me or some other negative it would be a long time of being mad. I personally didn't take the article as a hit on your ability. I think you maybe reading more in to it than was intended by the writer. I took it as a scoring issue nothing more. I better quit before one of the moderators gets there panties in a bunch.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Chriss,

Actually, just the BAD things your shooting buddies say about you would take up most of your day!

[Flexmoney]

Folks, this is the Hate Forum. Nothing sucks more than having to defend your position when all you want to do is vent.

[kurtm]

Mr. Grube:

You may be right, but my perception is plainly different as is the perception of quite a few pms and e-mails I have recieved supporting my post. I will give you a little something to think about however. If it had been Bennie Cooley that had beat Taran the article never would have been written, and if it had it would have been a very different tone. BTW were we supposed to guess at your line of work?? KURTM

[Robin Taylor]

With apologies to the moderator, I'm the Mr. T metioned in this thread. Please take a moment to read my response, I believe you'll find it appropriate.

As EricW observed, in no way did I intend to malign anyone associated with or participating in the 2005 Superstition Mountain 3-Gun. I'm highly gratified that people saw that in my prose, and rose to point it out.

The USPSA and SMM3G scoring systems have real problems that need to be addressed. If I've rubbed Mr. Miller and his friends wrong in my efforts to point that out, I apologize.

Because of a personal conflict I couldn't make it to the SMM3G, so I asked Pat Kelly, Nyle Leatham, and Barrett Tillman to cover it for me. I'm currently angling for a chance to cover the USPSA 3-Gun Championships later this year. The decision hinges on things beyond my control, but I hope to meet the Miller brothers there.

Robin Taylor

Front Sight magazine