'A touch of the God complex'

Senor Solomon the Angry Twit™ -- already displaying extreme paranoiac insanity the past week -- crossed over into what we think is libelous territory today.

In his week-long rambling “discourse” that lamely attempts to tie together highly selective slices of U.S. history to “prove” his thesis that treasure hunting fraud is a uniquely American tradition, Solomon has veered from the Puritans, to the Southern Planter class, to the Salem witch trials, the Mormons, the Masons, William Randolph Hearst, and whatever else he could find in the kitchen sink. In other words, in our biased eyes the man has gone a long way toward confirming his already bat-shit crazy reputation.

But now he’s also taken a step closer to outright libel, in our opinion. (Remember, as we’ve said before, it’s much easier to be charged with libel and defamation in the UK than in the U.S.)

Solomon: “…this is the mechanism of Odyssey's business plan: start a rumour, pump the stock, make a buck. It isn't about making a profit from salvage. (It certainly isn't about history and archaeology.)”

So he’s now accused a publicly traded company of using lies (a more direct word than “rumor”) to artificially inflate its stock price for illicit gain. Note there’s no “in my opinion, or “it would appear that…,” or any of the other usual disclaimers one would expect to use when trying not to slander a company or person.

He adds:

Solomon: “Time to look under the rock and see the ignorance, bigotry and sheer bile of this group which pumps Odyssey stock without disclaimer from the company.”

(Funny the Angry Twit references “sheer bile,” considering you can almost feel the man’s spittle hitting you as you read his words, but never mind.)

He then lists a few posts from anonymous Yahoo posters (none of whom are regular contributors to the board) that vent understandable frustration about Spain’s behavior toward Odyssey. As if this is conclusive evidence of the opinion of an entire nation, or even a wide margin of Odyssey investors. And, what is this ridiculous nonsense about holding Odyssey responsible for the comments of a bunch of unnamed, unknown individuals who post on an obscure financial forum?

Would Solomon like to take responsibility for Doc's libelous comments about Odyssey? Perhaps he should? Can Solomon truly be this dumb? We think so.

Even some of the HHI hoi polloi seemed to be tiring of Solomon’s and Doc’s endless obsession with bringing down Odyssey. One member writes (the emphasis in red is ours, for obvious reasons):

Don Jose.... I am thinking there is a reason these discussions have stopped in their tracks...in fact some of us have chatted about it when we actually get together... The owners and or mods of this web site seem to have a touch of the god complex so it makes it hard to carry on a decent conversation. Unless the vatican opens their doors...or time travel is invented....i think most of us american treasure hunters will never have enough proof to satisfy those mentioned above. In fact before i posted this reply to you i was reading a few posts here and there and i think i'll rest my case with this quote...."Today, another bunch of ignorami are spending millions on this futile quest. And they are all Americans. Solomon"… Anyways....don jose my friend....come visit the old gang at the ALT forums.... ~ DW

Let’s see how long it takes for this comment to be removed, or this member to be threatened with banishment (or just simply banished) for daring to question and criticize the words and actions of the Great Leaders.

The level of stupidity and hypocrisy of the HHI brass never fails to amaze us....

UPDATE (5/21/08): We know you will find this very difficult to believe, but the "God Complex" comment has been deleted from HHI's website, replaced with another droning treatise from Solomon about Plato's left testical (or some such thing, we quickly lost interest). There's also no trace of the poster -- he's undoubtedly been sent straight to HHI purgatory, where if he's a good boy, they might let him wax Doc's back on his way back to their good graces. So much for the openness and honest debate Solomon makes so much about.

Gosh, yet more evidence of history poseur hypocrisy. We're simply shocked we tells ya!