"124.
When the audacity of a antagonist’s case is no longer tempered by faith or
facts, but by ego, the protagonist will soon be furnished, at no effort, with
the refutation of the argument, there by, from the antagonist’s own lips."
- From 125 Original Aphorisms of Mike Restivo posted by
him at his web site! (It has been suggested that he has no CD collection or
pictures of a cat so he posted these instead.)
FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
In order to provide
some background for understanding the tryingly repetitive venomous and inflammatory charges
Mike Restivo makes when he posts to alt.freemasonry, we've decided to organize a
simple FAQ. As time progresses, we'll add the questions we most commonly
encounter both publicly and privately. We recognize that the
page is long but remember: it's certainly not the hundreds of megabytes Mike
Restivo would have you read by doing a power search at Deja News! 
Are
you (is anyone) trying to silence
Mike?
Why would Mike's beliefs about Freemasonry
upset you?
Have
you ever tried to extort Mike Restivo?
Is Mike active online anywhere else?
Are you supported by a Grand Lodge
as Mike claims?
Is Mike bothered being the object
of the 'attention' he receives?
Has Mike posted negatively
about Freemasonry in the past? He says no....
What's this about supporting Nazis or
Neo-Nazis?
I don't understand this stuff about hotel security. Can you explain?
Mike writes that you hide your Shrine membership? Huh?
Did you steal material (his pornography) from Mike's web site?
Mike Restivo accuses Mike Poll of "fleecing Masons": what's THAT about?
Are you - or is anyone - trying to silence Mike Restivo?
Of course not! We could really care less what Mike writes except when he attempts to portray Freemasonry as something which conforms to his perceptions but which has little connection to reality as found in 'real life'. When someone criticizes Masons or Masonry, we believe that they too are subject to similar assessment. In this vein, Mike Restivo's online behavior is evaluated. Please feel free to let us know if there are items about his demeanor which have not been addressed appropriately here.
Why would Mike's beliefs about Freemasonry upset you?
It's not Mike's beliefs or opinions we find troubling. We believe that his authoritarian, domineering, paternalistic, and - sometimes - mistaken positions, pedantically presented in turgid prose with pretentious affectation could well mislead those who are unfamiliar with Mike's pedantry. If Mike were to simply present his opinions with the disclaimer that he has attended only three Masonic meetings in his life and is not an actively involved Mason, we'd have no objections. His homilies, however, are bereft of any riders or qualifications. When posters on alt.freemasonry note the divergence between Mike's position and current 'mainstream' Masonic thought, he reacts as if it were an acutely personal attack thereby creating a further impression of accuracy. Berating his critics with ad hominem attacks, he engages in a battle of volume until the Mason capitulates, usually through disengagement and further silence. It's the intimidation which comes packaged with Mike's ideological positions which we find so objectionable.
Have you ever tried to extort Mike Restivo?
Of course not! This ludicrous and bizarre charge stems from a casual remark in a posting as follows:
MR: If the high ideals of Restivo, which Ed King and his associates hate, are those of the Blue Lodge (i.e. Craft) Freemasonry, and they are, Ed king and his dupes and dopes are explicitly warring against Masonry and enabled and supported by idiots to enthralled with mob mentality to actually think logically over why Restivo is being attacked for years, and why he takes extreme measures to carner <sic> evidence of criminal activities against him.
Ed King replied to this paragraph by posting: Do you even know what you're writing about? Get out of the gutter and into grace. Say, maybe now we should send that letter to your Bishop and ask what HE thinks of your high moral writings, huh?
Subsequently, Mike has added - without any justification - claims that we have attempted extortion by reporting him to his Grand Lodge (which is clearly indifferent to his aberrant behavior as a demitted member for 20 years) or to obtain money. A review of all archived messages will disprove this ludicrous claim Mike regularly now makes.
He now attempts to add credibility to the slanderous charge by adding that "...five attempts have been made....". Mike Restivo apparently believes this sincerely: he is, however, just as wrong in this as he is in believing that it's appropriate for a Christian to create a "trap" for the unsuspecting by writing pornography for "bait".
Where else is Mike active online?
Nowhere! Surprising, isn't it? And the other thing which we find truly amazing is that Mike could end all of the seeming discord and strife by one simple act: leaving the alt.freemasonry newsgroup! It's clear that he's never going to win in the war of words (even if his output equals that of a dozen others combined) nor will he ever be 'vindicated' in a manner befitting his convoluted desires. We've suggested many, many times that Mike thrives on the attention he receives in that narrowly-limited venue where speculative opinion can sway the argument. It apparently allows him to somehow believe that he has been unjustly vilified.
Curiously, though, as we reached the second year after his bizarre attempts to 'trap' Masons and his stature was still 'in the gutter', Mike began behavior which, it appeared, would cause more grief for Masons (and perhaps even find him a supporter) by cross-posting to newsgroups like alt.conspiracy and alt.religion, a practice he previously eschewed. Even in those groups, however, he has failed to garner any support whatsoever. One would think that someone with such a strong argument would find many to encourage him: alas, in Mike's case he continues to stand alone, tilting at those windmills.
Are you supported by a Grand Lodge as Mike claims?
No. In fact, typical of Mike's inaccuracy in things, until the issue was addressed here on this web page in July, 2001, he was ignorantly and blissfully unaware that the only lodge in Maine in which I hold membership is the Maine Lodge of Research. It's one of over a dozen research lodges to which I belong. It's among the many shoddy and inaccurate accusations Mike Restivo repeats ad nauseum.
So how does Mike arrive at his assumption that a Grand Lodge might support this site (which - despite over 250 pages which have no reference to him at all - he believes is completely dedicated to castigating him)? In his own words to another Mason, Rick Reade, he wrote about me:
He's the most active Masonic enforcer on alt.freemasonry. You are a mere wannabe. The Grand Lodge of Maine is unconcerned with his behaviour. They will not confirm or deny his membership. They sanction his Masonic hate web site thereby and his personal hate attacks against me.
So because the Grand Lodge of Maine would not confirm or deny my membership {Probably after listening to Mike rant on the phone for a few minutes, they were quite eager to have him gone and would not want to subject anyone to his behavior!}, this - in Mike's mind - somehow sanctions this website. Curious, isn't it?
Similarly, Mike constantly claims that twice Past Master Eugene Goldman is supported by the Grand Lodge of California. Mike apparently contacted both Maine and California's Grand Lodges to complain about posts appearing on alt.freemasonry and comments on this website which he felt inaccurately portrayed his behavior. He was told that he had absolutely no grounds on which to pursue Masonic charges - and he has become enraged at being marginalized, totally blind to the frivolity of his claims. In fact, Mike HAS made the claim that world-wide Freemasonry is supporting an effort to discredit him - as if his foolishness warranted more than a casual chuckle over coffee after a meeting.
Every time Mike makes the charge of Grand Lodge support (hundreds of times since about 1998), most people ignore it - as I have. When he's been asked to prove that these Grand Lodges provide support, his answer is that they refused to address the erroneous and inaccurate information various Masons have written about him. Mike's personal opinion seems to be that Masons have been unfair by marginalizing what he believes is the importance guidance he can offer.
Is Mike bothered being the object of the 'attention' he receives?
Our very subjective opinion is that Mike Restivo seems to need constant and ongoing controversy which will garner him attention - and, it seems, a forlorn hope that he will ultimately triumph over what he perceives as a litany of lies manufactured against him to make him look foolish. If there is anything Mike Restivo cannot forbear, it's clearly shown to be any suggestion that he might be wrong.
As noted above, Mike is simply not involved anywhere else on line. He is clearly unable, however, to detach himself from ongoing interaction with those whom he fancies are his antagonists.
What is more remarkable, however, is that Mike somehow feels that escalation of his attempts to prove all Masons are aligned against him will ultimately result in some sort of 'victory'. For Mike Restivo, this has become a jihad; for those watching him, it is the quest of Don Quixote, absent the noble goal! As he proceeds like a person obsessed, he pursues an unnecessary quest to 'clear his good name' from the slings and arrows perceives himself as having received at the hands of "rogue, cult, enforcer-Masons". In fact, Mike's litany of name-calling and antagonism has consistently escalated as Masons were less and less willing to accept his proclamations as being gospel. He has lashed out against those in particular who have noted the fallacy or weakness of his arguments. Each time one of his claims is refuted, he becomes all the more intent upon proving that he - in fact - has always been right in all cases. It appears that nothing (even a full apology) can now ever right the damage done by his having been labeled "wrong".
In September, 1998, he wrote the following in his typically tortured prose:
You keep forgetting that your attacks and those of your rogue mason associates always fail and rebound upon yourselves. what need of pity for one such as I would marvels <sic> at how many individuals can write self-condemnatory communications? That I am attacked is self-evident. That I
am not hurt thereby is also self-evident. You know that I have repeatedly written your attacks harm Freemasonry with the exemplification of cult behaviour and un-Masonic conduct and plays into the hands of anti-Masons. That counsel has fallen on deaf ears and seared consciences with no harm to me, only to Freemasonry.As a stark proof of Mike's insensitivity to anyone/anything save his own 'reputation', Mike has likened his imagined "persecution" to that of victims of the Holocaust. The enormity of such a bizarre claim was totally shocking to everyone who read it. Thinking that Mike had not really meant what we read, several questioned his words. Mike confirmed that this was exactly what he was claiming....
And as still further proof of Mike's self-absorption and insensitivity to the suffering of anyone when compared to his imagined travails, during the afternoon of the terrorist attacks on the US, Mike flooded the alt.freemasonry newsgroup with at least 44 absolutely identical huge messages, similar (and in some cases repeats of) ones that had been posted two days earlier in which he bemoaned his treatment at the hands of Masons. A Mason from the UK told Mike that in light of the unfolding descriptions of death and destruction, another time would certainly be better for his complaints. The response? An accusation that the poster was part of the concerted effort of Masons to defame his character.... At that time, with tens of thousands of people believed dead or dying, Mike Restivo's sole concern was that of himself. In typical Restivo obfuscation and surely designed to enable him to point out that he was concerned, he posted one sole message expressing regret. 44 about Mike - one for humanity: the facts speak for themselves.
We find it simply inconceivable that Mike can believe his marginalization is the equivalent of the suffering of those in either the Holocaust or the attack on America. He has, however, clearly indicated that all three have equal stature as to suffering.
Has Mike posted negatively about Freemasonry? He says no....
In the pages originally published about Mike Restivo on this site in 1998 and subsequently removed during attempts at rapprochement, we noted that he had posted negatively about Freemasonry. Mike reacted quite strongly to that characterization. In January, 1999, I asked him in a newsgroup message: "Are you now saying that you don't post negatively about Freemasonry?" In typical Restivo-speak, his reply speaks volumes and would bring jealous tears to a person who might use the argument "It depends on what the definition of the word _is_ is."
I had in mind unjustified criticism vs. justified criticism. "negative" in and of itself fails to convey the complete picture. I should have been more precise by rejecting the term "negative" completely as inappropriate due to its over-simplification to the point of misrepresentation. I am now.
Further, though, from the beginnings of Mike's online involvement, he has regularly and continuously cast Freemasonry in less-than-desirable terms, all the while claiming that he was engaged in 'pro-Masonic' postings. Consider, for example, the copyright disclaimer he put on various lengthy tomes he wrote for the Compuserve Religion Forum:
Summary: This ASCII DOS text file is an excerpt from the Christian apologetics, cult awareness and Christian discernment writings of Mike Restivo. Copyright (C), 1997 by Mike Restivo. All rights reserved. Submitted by Mike Restivo.
What's this about supporting neo-Nazis?
Ah, yes: the oft repeated claim that Masons supported a neo-Nazi while only Mike Restivo stood in defense. Here's the short story:
Mike Restivo writes: "Your defence of Dr. Wagner is done by ignoring his anti-Semitic propaganda, which you still do as a moral coward, and attacking me according to your anti-English eccentricities." You can find it on Google here. So it's not an act of commission that Mike is whining about; it's an act of omission. No explanation for why he omits engaging in such battles on newsgroups like alt.revisionism but that's another story we suppose.
But there's really a more detailed full story. You'll likely want to read on....
Klaus Wagner was a known internet "kook". His exploits online were well documented. As an example of Klaus' crazy logic, one needs only look at this message from October, 1997:
A poster wrote:
> I don't know if you read Klaus's post of a few weeks ago
> when he suggested that the massacre at Dunblane could
> have been god's punishment for him getting arrested and
> sent to a mental hospital for tests. Now THAT's
> disturbing.....
To which "Dr." Wagner replied:
"I would never suggest such thing, because I can't prove it. I am just stating facts: On 7th March 1996 I was arrested for showing a placard suppporting <sic> Diana against the beastly "Queen". The next day a train crash happened, 2 days later Diana had a car accident in London trying to escape photographers, 3 days later the Dunblane massacre happened. Nobody can prove or disprove a connection between these events. <snip>
Therefore if you write an abusive Usenet article full of lies about me and the next day an earthquake or a hurricane kills a few hundred people in Timbuktu, you have indeed contributed to these disasters.
Diana knew about the points I was making regarding Press abuses against her. She also knew about my arrest on 7th March 1996. Therefore she could have understood her car crash 2 days later as a warning by God. If she had taken the right conclusions from this possible warning, she would probably still be alive today.
So it's THIS Klaus Wagner who appeared about a year later in the alt.freemasonry newsgroup on September 21, 1998 to begin a thread titled "Clinton, Jews and Freemasons" which stated:
The current campaign to topple Freemasons President Clinton
after he dared to put some pressure on Israel towards a peace in the Middle East is a historic development in the relationship between Freemasons and Jews.
The idea that Antichrist Prince Charles along with King Hussein of Jordan heads an International Freemason conspiracy against Israel as expressed by Jim Searcy <Masonicinfo: an anti-Mason convinced that the Taxil Hoax isn't a hoax!> under: http://www.dccsa.com/greatjoy/index.html is probably a bit over the top, but it also shows Jewish feelings in the current historical situation and exposes some cracks in the relations of Freemasons and Jews who have just become allies united by the common enemy: Hitler. For some time in the past Jews were not allowed to become Freemasons nor were Freemasons allowed in the Catholic church. The three important International groups kept themselves separate
from each other: Jews dominated the world of finance, Freemasons dominated politics, especially in countries with the colors: red-white and blue in their national flags, while the Vatican was left with influencing Catholic countries such as certain regions of Germany, Italy, Spain, etc.
Recently it looked as though these three groups had somehow settled their differences to form one Allied International Ruling Class, but the political development in Israel after the assassination of Rabin and the current Financial World Crisis has opened a completely new game.
W h e r e w i l l i t g o ? ____________________________________________________
E II R can be calculated into 666 : 666 = 37 × 18, R is number 18 in the alphabet, and E, letter No 5, and the 2 ( from II )
can be calculated into 37 in the following way: 3=5-2 ; 7=5+2.
Immediately thereafter, Masons Richard Jackson and Manny Blanco took Wagner to task for his claims (and that of Searcy). Messages from others who were disgusted by his claims were also being posted from and to other newsgroups.
That day too, Mike Restivo started a thread titled "False Prophet Exposed" arguing with Wagner about who controls the world and not addressing in any way Wagner's anti-Semitism. Richard Jackson proceeded to call Wagner a Nazi and made suggestions about his possible affiliations with Hitler. Mike Restivo - notably - did no such thing merely making subsequent disdainful comments about Wagner's gemantria (the study of numbers).
A poster from another newsgroup sent along the following advice:
Dr Wagner is a long-time eccentric inhabitant of the uk.* groups. Experience indicates that there is no point in attempting to discuss anything with him; he merely repeats his numerological, er, data again and again. It's difficult not to get fairly annoyed with him, but I would suggest, without a lot of hope, that ignoring him is a better policy.
Two days later, Mason Aubrey Brown posted the following comment (after dozens of messages in the two threads had begun to focus more on Clinton than on Wagner's anti-Semitism):
Excuse me but is this alt.freemasonry or alt.politics.politicians. politics and religion. Has someone changed the NG in the couple of days I've walked around in a daze due to a head cold or something. Or am I suffering a delusional state for taking too many over the counter cold medications?
Mike Restivo went on the attack. Seizing on the opportunity to condemn Masons once again, he wrote in reply:
If you are unable or unwilling to exemplify the moral virtues for which Freemasonry stands, against Neo-nazis, then get out of the way of men whose righteousness allows no venue behind which evil works its propaganda and lies. It must be rebuked immediately, with authority and relentlessly, else the holocausts of history will be repeated.
I cannot think of a better way to commence the Jewish New Year than by kicking some Nazi butt! "Never Forget."
Mason Eugene Goldman - a Jew (Mike Restivo is Roman Catholic incidentally) replied to this by writing:
I can, in meditation and prayer. I guess we each seek our own interests.
I too replied to Mike's threatening and - to me at least - disturbing comments by writing:
While the Nazi concepts are abhorrent to any right-thinking person, vigilante action and illegal behavior are improper - regardless of their motivation. When we allow lawlessness to overtake things, then we too can become the victims of prejudice and violence.
It is indeed pleasing to see that you are not a 'one-trick pony' and only wish to chastise Freemasonry. Perhaps you should devote some of your energy as shown above into adding the 'Doctor's' theories and current Nazism to your ostensible
anti-cult site, eh?
For someone who demands the right to be heard even where his input is neither necessary nor desirable, this position of yours is a bizarre contradiction.
Further, even in the midst of an action which some might instinctively applaud, you lace your post with pompous self-righteousness and condemnation of others by saying:
> If you are unable or unwilling to exemplify the moral
> virtues for which Freemasonry stands, against
> Neo-nazis, then get out of the way of men whose
> righteousness allows no venue behind which evil works
> its propaganda and lies.
What a shame you feel the compulsion to cut others down in order than you might appear big.
> "Have courage and fight like Hell, for your enemies are
> trying to destroy you." - final message from a father
> to his son from Auschwitz.
And an appropriate message for Freemasons to remember as they too shared those chambers there and elsewhere about Germany during those horrid days. They also have suffered persecution at other hands as well and accordingly, your message is timely and worthy of remembrance - despite it being unintended in this context!
Mike Restivo found the perfect excuse for aggrandizing himself once again. He replied:
It is obvious that I was, am and will, speak on the plane of thought, not physical violence. {Masonicinfo Note: It's not important what others understand is "obvious". They should be clever enough to deduce Mike's meanings!} It is your mischaracterizatrion <sic> that I meant anything else. Typical of your lies, that you side even with Nazi sympathizers in order to make a disgusting spectacle of yourself and your anonymous web site. Your deception and deviousness has evaporated any credibility that you think you have except among fools.
Why don't you counter Mr. Wagner's propaganda yourself? Too busy libeling Masonic critics?
What is bizzare <sic> is your lie that I make any "demands" to post, freely at that, on the Internet. No permision <sic> needed. Your description that I am "demanding" is your fantasy and just as flawed.
E.K.<<Further, even in the midst of an action which some might instinctively applaud, you lace your post with pompous self-righteousness and condemnation of others by saying:
> If you are unable or unwilling to exemplify the moral
> virtues for which Freemasonry stands, against Neo-nazis,
> then get out of the way of men whose righteousness allows
> no venue behind which evil works its propaganda and lies.
I write the same words to you, O Nazi sympathizer, Mr. Edward L. King of Maine.
In a subsequent message, Mike posted:
I have abundantly proven your lies on my web site. Your support of Dr. Wagner indicates otherwise. {Masonicinfo Note: WHAT support? That I didn't waste a lot of time responding to a person who thinks that God ordered an automobile accident for Princess Diana because of his being arrested?} It is you who used Neo-Nazi-ism as an occasion to attack me. You got in bed with it the moment you decided to defend him and attack me. {Masonicinfo Note: And yet - as the links prove - I never wrote to Wagner, others having done the job quite adequately - and particularly in light of his prior incomprehensible posts.} Deal with it. So now you write that you are not Neo-Nazi sympathizer. I don't believe you. Prove it. All I see is you attacking me the moment I begin refuting Dr. Wagner. Talk is cheap.
So Mike makes a claim that I'm a Neo-Nazi and a Nazi sympathizer but I'm apparently supposed to prove that I'm not?
And thus derives Mike's oft-repeated claim that I am a Nazi sympathizer. Pathetic, isn't it? Links for Deja News search have been provided above. Check out the entire threads for yourself and you can decide if there's misrepresentation here. We could recount the Restivo claims that Gene Goldman supported using gold from the teeth of Jews but that claim comes down to the exactly the same sort of aberrant Restivo logic. Yes, arguing about numbers with an off-the-wall usenet 'loonie': just the type of Nazi-fighter Mike Restivo really is.
Mike - in both postings to the alt.freemasonry newsgroup as well as on his website - claims that he, in fact, did counter the arguments of Wagner. Did he? Well, here's the powerful response that Mike gave to the very strange Wagner:
I don't give credibility to hate web sites. Both your Gematria and your Biblical acumen are bogus. I need not visit a garbage site to determine that it is full of offal. The stench, at this distance, already disuades <sic> me from even one visit. † Mike Restivo
Pretty impressive, isn't it? Read the whole thread right here and we suspect you'll readily conclude that Mike was FAR more eager to argue with Masons than to get involved with someone spewing anti-Semitic hatred.
And as a post-script to this whole sad scenario: in the November and December, 2001 time frame, a variety of Holocaust deniers began cross-posting on alt.freemasonry. Totally absent from the debate against their disgusting claims was none other than - you guessed it - the proud Nazi fighter, Mike Restivo. Perhaps he was too busy comparing himself to Holocaust victims to have noticed these other threads but it is awfully strange that he would condemn others for omissions and yet be so totally absent himself when a real 'situation' arose. How very convenient, eh?
I don't understand this stuff about hotel security. Can you explain?
The 2000 Semi-Annual
Meeting of the Philalethes Society was to be held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada -
the life-long home of Mike Restivo (who lives today, 55 years later, in the same
house in which he was born and raised). As the meeting date approached, Mike seemed
more and more agitated that there would be an opportunity for those whom he
believed were posting lies about him to meet there in his home town -
particularly with many
members of the Lodge to which he had belonged for three months some twenty years
ago as attendees as well.
Frequent paranoid assertions were made that we would all be there talking about
him - as if people would travel hundreds (or thousands) of miles/kilometers so
we could do that.... 
At one point, Mike remarked in a alt.freemasonry usenet thread titled "Hate Crimes":
"Maybe I can protest at the Philalethes Society meeting in Toronto where you attend? Maybe the Toronto news media would like to hear of Bro. Goldman and Bro. Edward L. King's anti-Restivo hate agenda? Would that be good for a laugh? Maybe yes, maybe no."
My initial reaction to such foolishness was to dismiss it as typical Restivo hyperbole. Within a few hours, though, a Mason commented (in relation to other silly rants by Mike): "So, might I suggest that perhaps his accusations are best left unanswered, and his commentary deleted, as the worst thing you can do to a meglomaniacal sociopath is ignore them and deny their rather distorted vision of their own importance."
That comment took on further significance when one realized that Mike had also written in closing that same message and in response to another's remarks about court action:
> No, but when there is a REAL cause, they take swift action.
"Restivo will personally ensure that this is the case."
Mike Restivo had previously tried to liken comments about him as suggesting that he might be a person who would be shooting people from a tower (another of his martyr-like self-characterizations unsupported by fact). That, when coupled with the observation by another person who characterized Mike as a 'sociopath', began to trouble me. I sent a message to a small group of online friends asking whether they thought there was any issue of safety involved. No one was quite certain what to make of Mike's comment but certainly the tenor of his postings in the immediate aftermath of the withdrawal of his petition for reaffiliation coupled with strident claims that he'd been the target of persecution by "hate-Masons" caused me to wonder what jeopardy the meeting attendees might face there at a hotel not far from Mike's house and in the neighborhood where he was born and had lived all his life. As a result, I advised the President of the Philalethes Society, Nelson King, of the comments made by Mike Restivo. Nelson, who is also a resident of Toronto and has known Mike for several years, took the comment as a threat. He immediately prepared a registered letter advising Mike Restivo that both law enforcement and hotel security had been notified.
During this time too, Mike was writing things like:
"Maybe your should be denied access. I'll confer with the RCMP."
When confronted by several Masons over what many came to thing was a thinly-veiled threat, Mike backpedaled very quickly. Using his own interpretation of his words (as he is so often wont to do), he claimed that he'd only planned to stand outside with a sign "perhaps". He claimed that it was his right as a Canadian citizen to protest. He claimed that he'd never threatened the meeting. In fact, Mike made a number of demurrals all of which attempted to minimize what he realized others were seeing in his original words. He wrote:
"I didn't make the suggestion that I would *do* it. It is my right of expression of free speech however, of the property. Who are you to deny free speech. I asked Edward L. King what his intentions were, and he refused to answer. clear enough. I asked questions. He refused to answer. Is it his intent to cause trouble *himself* at the Philalethes Society convention and thereby try to incriminate Restivo? I'm still asking questions. If a bunch of anti-Restivo hate mongers are going to have a Convention and regale themselves with anti-Restivo hate lies, it is well within my legal right to protest LEGALLY. Got it? when Edward L. King makes suggestions that I will kill somebody there that is okay is that it? Answer me! You're talking to the wrong guy. Try Edward L. King."
Sound rational? It sure didn't as I packed my bags for the trip.... Why would others have thought Mike Restivo would be capable of capricious and/or violent action? After following his raving claims of persecution for even a short time, the answer seems obvious.
Fast forward to today: There was no problem during the meeting and Mike Restivo was not on the agenda, probably to his total dismay.
Now, though, Mike regularly claims that Nelson King
never contacted either hotel security or the police and that he himself had
confirmed that with them. ("Did anyone warn you that I'd be making a
disturbance at the Philalethes meeting? Answer me!!!!"
"Why no, Mr. Restivo. Of course not." 
) I commented
publicly that members of the RCMP were aware of the problem to which Mike replied
with great flourish, that the RCMP were absolutely not so advised - and, in fact, were
not even present at the meeting. He has
confidently, however, chosen to ignore the
photo of the meeting which appears on the web showing an RCMP sergeant in dress
red at the meeting! He also conveniently ignores the fact that there were both serving and retired
RCMP and Toronto police present at the meeting (in some cases, they were Masons
who belonged to the sponsoring Philalethes Chapter there in Toronto). During the meeting, there was some joking that all of the officers should surround me and
hold up their badges in a group photo: we really should have done that....
And when, during the course of those message exchanges, I'd written about my reasons for having concerns (the same as those stated above), Mike shot back:
"Ok that's it. I'm complaining to the RCMP now and your ISP. That's a criminal allegation against me and totally false. It is sinister and sick."
To date, we've heard from neither party. Did Mike - the person who claims that those who said they'd made certain parties aware of his threats - then go ahead and make the complaint which he said he would? Who knows....
Why even include this story here? Well, because Mike brings it up on a very regular basis as (to him at least) an example of "hate-Masonry" in action. (Mike makes a threat, we respond, yet we're guilty of defaming him in some way.... Go figure!).
Mike writes that you hide your Shrine membership? Huh?
Here's a very typical example of how Mike regularly twists and turns comments made by others to suit his own ends.
On September 19, 2001 in the wake of the 9/11 Attack on America, I responded to an alt.freemasonry 'regular' (Jinn) who had asked if Shrine Masons were concerned over their membership in the Shrine due to its Middle-Eastern emblems possibly being subject to panicked misunderstanding. I wrote in response:
I too have one of those decals on my car - and I too have been wondering if there'll be some hot-head who's oblivious to its meaning.
Two days later, September 21 at 6:42PM Mike - in one of his always endearing posts - wrote:
"Pervert Ed King needs to provoke others into attacking Restivo but now finds less publicity utility in advertising his shine membership. Coward. Use freemasonry when it's of profit to him then hide it when a moral stand is required."
Now of course there was absolutely nothing in my remarks which would have given any indication whatsoever that I had any intent of hiding those decals. I wanted to be sure Mike understood that clearly. I replied on the same day at 10:14 PM that:
My Masonic memberships are ALWAYS visible, Mike. Your characterizations reflect only your jealousy of an organization which does so very much good in this world. My fez sits proudly on an end-table here, worn quite regularly in public. In fact, its frequent use has me considering buying another. Don't be jealous because you sit at home while Shriners are out enjoying each other and the world, Mike.
This explanation notwithstanding, at 2:44 AM the following morning, Mike writes:
Can't keep your propaganda straight. One minute he needs to hide his membership car decals, the next he claims that he is proud of his membership.
Did he not read what I'd written? Is his hatred so blinding that he's incapable of understanding that there was no hint whatsoever that I was planning on hiding my Shrine membership? Even though I corrected him, he wanted to spin the matter to his own ends. Within a few months, we suspect Mike will be trumpeting the "fact" that I hid my car decals, as he continues his frequent revisionist history saga. Stay tuned. We'll put the message right here when he writes it - and it probably won't be too very long before it happens (even if he reads this page!). It is so very typical.
Did you steal material (his pornography) from Mike's web site?
As pressure intensified
on Mike to explain his very queer actions in writing pornography to prove his
morality, he sought to deflect criticism with a charge that I had stolen
material from his site. Each and every time he made the charge, 
I would
challenge him to provide the proof. Some log showing that I had downloaded the
pages, perhaps (is that possible? I don't think so....) or something to support
his claim. An e-mail or a mention from another Mason saying I'd sent them a copy
even.
(An impossibility since it never happened!). Mike evaded my demands for proof each and every time.
After a while, I began numbering them: "This is the x-time I've asked
you to prove this, Mike. Will your proof be forthcoming shortly?" In a
bit of totally sheer irony, after I posted my THIRTY-THIRD numbered request,
Mike deigned to answer indirectly in a response to another poster that
"Prior to
entering the erotica directory he knows that by viewing his browser will make a
copy of the pages in cache alone." All that bluster and fuss to make
a grossly misleading charge of theft. We notice that he now rarely repeats his other
charge that "(I) sent copies to (my) friends for their self-abuse
enjoyment. That's copyright infringement.". We're surprised, frankly,
that Mike wants to proudly claim copyright of these sordid, disgusting and
debasing stories. As to his claims of what action I took or his nonsense that
his material is being used as 'bait', it's like all the rest
of Mike's stories: total garbage! (Of course, one need only look back at
the origin of the sado-masochistic porn which Mike used for his 'trap' and
consider one of his early explanations that it was written for 'a few lady
intimates' to wonder if this isn't really a case of the pot calling the kettle
black.... Think about it!)
Mike Restivo accuses Mike Poll of "fleecing Masons": what's THAT about?
Again, no basis in reality. Mike Poll runs a respectable Masonic publishing business which sells Masonic books and other material. This site's owner has personally bought material from Brother Poll and was extremely pleased with the transaction. Please see for yourself by visiting his site at www.lostword.com Perhaps it's jealousy which causes Mr. Restivo to make foolish statements like "What does freemasonry say about your mercenary motives in making a business out of masonic connections and drawing in mason suckers to your trinkets and materials that you solicit under false pretences?" Can it be that he feels no Mason should sell Masonic materials to other Masons? Since he's never ordered anything from Mr. Poll nor has anyone every publicly complained about the material Mr. Poll sells, it's hard to understand the issue here - unless one realizes that it's just another of the meaningliess rants of Mike Restivo.
We suspect there will be more need to add additional FAQ items here as time goes on. Mike's strong propensity for historical revisionism can cause considerable confusion but we'll record it as it happens so there will be no question! Stay tuned....
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