Harold W. Vadney III is a wannabe translator who lies about his credentials. In August 2007, I exposed him on the now-defunct Network of Independent Linguists’ Discussion Forum. He has now set up a blog devoted to telling lies about me and others. This is my reply. To comment or for further information write to Richard_Benham_AU-StopVadneysLies[at]yahoo.com.

Saturday 29 December 2007

Open challenge to the Vadney

Mr Vadney, instead of worming around trying to discredit me with made-up laws, fanciful speculations and downright lies, why don’t you answer the following simple questions?


1(A): Did you, from at least 2000 until August 2007, on your website bmtconsult.home.att.net and on your TranslatorsCafe.com and ProZ.com profiles, as well as (for shorter periods) on your two campaign websites, claim to have an MA degree? (Clue: Archived and/or cached copies exist and can be subpoenaed.)


1(B): Do (or did) you in fact have an MA degree? (Clue: Starts with N.)



2(A): Did you, from at least 2000 until August 2007, on your website bmtconsult.home.att.net and on your TranslatorsCafe.com and ProZ.com profiles, as well as (for shorter periods) on your two campaign websites, claim to be a Member of the Institute of Linguists, and/ór use the corresponding abbreviation MIL? (Clue: Archived and/or cached copies exist and can be subpoenaed.)


2(B): Were you, at any relevant time, a Member (not Associate) of the Institute of Linguists? (Clue: Starts with N.)



3(A): Did you, from at least 2000 until August 2007, on your website bmtconsult.home.att.net and on your TranslatorsCafe.com and ProZ.com profiles, as well as (for shorter periods) on your two campaign websites, claim to be a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, and/or use the corresponding abbreviation FRSA? (Clue: Archived and/or cached copies exist and can be subpoenaed.)


3(B): Were you, at any relevant time, a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce? (Clue: Starts with N)



4(A): Did you, for a period of several years up to August 2007, on your ProZ.com profile, have selected, under the rubric “Translation degree”, the option “PHD”, and listed, under the associated rubric “School”, “UNY/UV/UL”? (Clue: Archived and/or cached copies exist and can be subpoenaed.)


4(B): Did you ever hold a PhD degree, in translation or any other subject, from any university with those initials, or indeed from any other university? (Clue: No.)




5(A): Did you, for a period of several years up to August 2007, display, among possibly other places, on your ProZ.com and TranslatorsCafe.com profiles, a photographic portrait of yourself wearing a white laboratory coat emblazoned with “Dr. H. W. Vadney”? (Clue: Yes, once again, archived and/or cached copies exist and can be subpoenaed.)


5(B): Were you ever a physician or otherwise entitled to use the title “Dr”? (Clue: No.)



6(A): Did you, in August 2007, progressively alter your website bmtconsult.home.att.net and your TranslatorsCafe.com profile to remove the statements referred to in 1(A), 2(A), 3(A) and 4(A) above, and modify the photograph in 5(A) above to obscure and then remove the name and title “Dr”? (Clue: Archival records exist and can be subpoenaed.)


6(B): Isn’t it a bit of a coincidence that you started to remove these statements within a few days of their falsity being exposed on the NIL discussion forum? (Clue: It’s not really a coincidence at all; just a reflection of what a shifty, gutless, ignominious little worm you are.)




Your failure to give a direct answer to these questions will clearly demonstrate that my accusations against you are true. Similarly, if you answer them truthfully, the result will be the same. On the other hand, if you tell yet another pack of lies, your dishonesty will be easily demonstrated: you and I both know I have ample documentary evidence and can get more....

So which is it to be? Do you want to be exposed as a liar, exposed as a liar or exposed as a liar?

8 comments:

Richard D. Benham said...

Vadney insults readers’ intelligence

Excuse me for commenting on my own blog, but I don’t want to detract from the impact of the main message by including more marginal material.

Vadney criticizes my press kit for, inter alia, containing material “updated some time ago by [him] to ensure its truth and accuracy”. In other words, before it was “updated” it was not true and accurate. Of course, circumstances may change, and information may need to be updated, but, in this case, we’re talking about historical information, such as the MA degree the Vadney allegedly got in 1979.

He removed his alleged MA (along with his alleged PhD and FRSA and MIL) after my exposure was drawn to his attention. The actions of an honest man? Hardly: even if, per impossibile, we suppose that his claims were mistaken rather than lies, he didn’t acknowledge he was wrong and apologize, but rather just changed his profiles and CVs and hoped that no-one would notice.

In other words, the Vadney has admitted his deceit and his clumsy attempt at a cover-up, and then tried to use it as evidence of his honesty.

Bad Religion

Vadney used to list theology as one of his interests, and is always presenting himself as a devout Christian. What hypocrisy! He made no fewer than three venomous postings to his travesty of a blog on Christmas Day. What a way to celebrate the season of goodwill! What a sad, even pathetic, life this stunted little man must have!

As for theology, here is a quote from one of his postings on the IoL Forum, quite correctly deleted by my colleague in another continent, Dina:

Was it Saint Paul who wrote: "The dog returns to its vomit"?


Actually, the very famous reference of a dog returning to its vomit comes from the Book of Proverbs, where it is attributed to Solomon:

As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.


(Proverbs 26:11)

Sounds like a pretty good description of the Vadney’s behaviour, doesn’t it?

More insults....

I hope nobody is sucked in by Vadney’s crap about my allegedly “Fraudulently obtaining disclosure”. In case you were, a few points are in order:

(1) How I obtained the information is totally irrelevant to the question of Vadney’s fraud. So is the question of whether he got a BA or a BS degree. The question is whether, as he claimed, he ever got a master’s degree. The answer is, of course, no.

(2) I do not believe I broke any terms of service. In any case, the Vadney lied about their contents, saying I had to certify that I had his permission in writing to use his personal data. This only applies if I used his Social Security Number, which I didn’t.

(3) If there was any (necessarily unintentional) breach of the TOS, that is a matter between me and DegreeChk.com. It is none of the Vadney’s business.

(4) Once again, the Vadney has alleged a “crime” on my part, without specifying what the crime is or what law I have allegedly broken. In fact, as usual, there isn’t one. Unless of course you count the Vadney Act, an unwritten piece of legislation in every jurisdiction on the planet, under which which doing anything the Vadney objects to is a felony, punishable by imprisonment at His Vadnesty’s pleasure.

Richard D. Benham said...

Here are a few more verses from Proverbs 26 that could have been written with the Vadney in mind (with one exception, noted below):


24 He that hateth dissembleth with his lips, and layeth up deceit within him;

25 When he speaketh fair, believe him not: for there are seven abominations in his heart.


[What? Only seven? Obviously Solomon, for all his wisdom, never met anyone like the Vadney.]


26 Whose hatred is covered by deceit, his wickedness shall be shewed before the whole congregation.


And rounding off this collection, an old favourite:

27 Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein: and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him.

Richard D. Benham said...

The silence is deafening. After publishing 3 messages on Christmas Day, when you might think he would be celebrating with his family (etc.), the Vadney has not posted either here or to his own blog.

The simple fact is that there is nothing he can say. He knows too, that he will be confronted with a similar line of questioning if he tries to sue me, and again will have no reply.

None of this stops me from suing him, of course....

Richard D. Benham said...

Rather than giving plain answers to some plain questions...

the Vadney object has resorted to recycling old lies and meaningless assertions to discredit me and my colleague Scott Horne. I din’t have the time to waste on him. This is just a pathetic attempt to draw attention away from his own defamation, lies, perjury and fraud.

Richard D. Benham said...

Harold William Vadney alias...?

Just a thought. Vadney has claimed that “contrary to Horne's assertions Harold Vadney still maintains a presence on ProZ and has a current profile there” (why does he refer to himself in the third person?).

It is certainly true, as Scott Horne has asserted, that the Vadney’s profile has disappeared from ProZ.com. So he must have a new profile. However, searching for his name produces no results: either he is lying about the current profile or he is using a pseudonym.

Lying is not second nature to the Vadney: it is first nature. But suppose for once he is telling the truth, and does have a profile on ProZ.com, but with a different name. How does he reconcile that with the following: “but to Patels [sic] credit he did not resort to pseudonyms as does Benham”? Presumably, if not using pseudonyms is to Werner Patels’s credit, using at least one pseudonym (two if you count “BG”) is to the Vadney’s discredit....

Richard D. Benham said...

Scherz ist die drittbeste Tarnung. Die Zweitbeste: Sentimentalität ... Aber die beste und sicherste Tarnung ist immer noch die blanke und nackte Wahrheit. Komischerweise. Die glaubt niemand.

Max Frisch, Biedermann und die Brandstifter

Scott Horne said...

Vadney the pious Christian spent Christmas day spitting venom at us? That's pathetic.

Here's another Biblical quotation for him:

חוח עלה ביד־שכור ומשל בפי כסילים

And another:

καὶ ὅταν προσεύχησθε, οὐκ ἔσεσθε ὡς οἱ ὑποκριταί· ὅτι φιλοῦσιν ἐν ταῖς συναγωγαῖς καὶ ἐν ταῖς γωνίαις τῶν πλατειῶν ἑστῶτες προσεύχεσθαι, ὅπως φανῶσιν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις· ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, ἀπέχουσι τὸν μισθὸν αὐτῶν.

Richard D. Benham said...

Thank you for that, Scott. For those of us who are less well versed in the Biblical tongues, let me quote the King James translation:

As a thorn goeth up into the hand of a drunkard so is a parable in the mouth of fools.
(Proverbs 26:9)


And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
(Matthew 6:5)

About Me

I am a professional translator in the combinations French>English and German>English. I hold qualifications from the University of Adelaide (BA, DipCompSc), the Australian National University (LittB), the University of Geneva (Certificat de spécialisation en linguistique), and the the UK-based Institute of Linguists (Diploma in Translation for both my language combinations). I am an implacable opponent of bullshit in all its forms.