- Nov 26, 2011
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An Honest Liar is a biography of world famous magician and skeptic James Randi, a.k.a. The Amazing Randi, nee Randall James Hamilton Zwinge. It's on streaming Netflix.
Randi was born in Canada and became a naturalized US citizen in 1987.
I used to be a big fan of Randi, and even met and hung out with him a few times. I will always appreciate the hard work he has done to debunk the mediums, psychics, and other bloodsucking, evil, thieving, charlatan vampires out there. He's the guy who took down Uri Geller, Peter Popoff, and many others.
I mean "took down" loosely, since these asshole zombies have an annoying way of reviving if you don't shoot them in the head with a silver bullet and drive a wooden stake through their hearts.
It's a fairly good documentary which manages to avoid being a full frontal hagiography. However, I have one serious problem with it.
I simply don't buy the story Randi and his gay boyfriend (now husband) provide for why Jose Luis Alvarez, a.k.a. Carlos , nee Deyvi Pena, stole another person's identity for the past 25 years. Deyvi says he did it because as a 16 year old homosexual in Venezuela, he had to flee because homosexuality is not tolerated there and some anti-gay bigots put a gun to his head.
Okay. Let's stipulate that part is true, for the moment.
So...you leave your home country because it sucks to be gay in South America, and you come to the United States. You are safe now. Why do you then have to assume a new identity?
It doesn't add up. What does add up is that this kid had something to hide.
Or Randi did.
Perhaps, since Randi was a famous personality, an enterprising reporter might have decided to dig into the history of any close associate of his and might have discovered "Jose" was underaged when the two met. A fake identity would certainly put the kibosh on finding out any background on Randi's lover, yes? Such as a birth date.
Rumors of Randi having a taste for underaged boys have swirled around him for decades. There was an incident in New Jersey involving a 17 year old boy he has never outright denied. He always couches his non-denial denial in terms of, "They wouldn't have let me become a US citizen if it was true, would they?"
In past newsletters, he frequently wrote wistfully of his trips to South America. So did Randi really meet "Jose" here in the US, or did they meet in South America?
Was Randi complicit in Pena's identity theft? How old was Deyvi when they became lovers?
Questions to which I fear we will never know the answers for sure, and certainly won't be pursued by his idolizers with the same vim and vigor they used to strip mine Sylvia Browne.
Randi was born in Canada and became a naturalized US citizen in 1987.
I used to be a big fan of Randi, and even met and hung out with him a few times. I will always appreciate the hard work he has done to debunk the mediums, psychics, and other bloodsucking, evil, thieving, charlatan vampires out there. He's the guy who took down Uri Geller, Peter Popoff, and many others.
I mean "took down" loosely, since these asshole zombies have an annoying way of reviving if you don't shoot them in the head with a silver bullet and drive a wooden stake through their hearts.
It's a fairly good documentary which manages to avoid being a full frontal hagiography. However, I have one serious problem with it.
I simply don't buy the story Randi and his gay boyfriend (now husband) provide for why Jose Luis Alvarez, a.k.a. Carlos , nee Deyvi Pena, stole another person's identity for the past 25 years. Deyvi says he did it because as a 16 year old homosexual in Venezuela, he had to flee because homosexuality is not tolerated there and some anti-gay bigots put a gun to his head.
Okay. Let's stipulate that part is true, for the moment.
So...you leave your home country because it sucks to be gay in South America, and you come to the United States. You are safe now. Why do you then have to assume a new identity?
It doesn't add up. What does add up is that this kid had something to hide.
Or Randi did.
Perhaps, since Randi was a famous personality, an enterprising reporter might have decided to dig into the history of any close associate of his and might have discovered "Jose" was underaged when the two met. A fake identity would certainly put the kibosh on finding out any background on Randi's lover, yes? Such as a birth date.
Rumors of Randi having a taste for underaged boys have swirled around him for decades. There was an incident in New Jersey involving a 17 year old boy he has never outright denied. He always couches his non-denial denial in terms of, "They wouldn't have let me become a US citizen if it was true, would they?"
In past newsletters, he frequently wrote wistfully of his trips to South America. So did Randi really meet "Jose" here in the US, or did they meet in South America?
Was Randi complicit in Pena's identity theft? How old was Deyvi when they became lovers?
Questions to which I fear we will never know the answers for sure, and certainly won't be pursued by his idolizers with the same vim and vigor they used to strip mine Sylvia Browne.
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