“Spin”.

No, I’m not talking about that feeling you get when you get off the roller coaster or when you’ve had one beer too many.

The context of ‘spin’ I’m thinking about really came into popular use and practice back in the 90′s, when Bill Clinton was in office, and whatever shenanigans he was up to was ‘spun’ into a positive for him.

The practice has been around for a very long time…Jesse James was a nasty, thieving bastard who was brought down ignominiously by one of my relatives, Robert Ford.  However, Jesse wrote his own dime novels and other popular media of the day, always depicting him as a good guy.  So much so that years after Jesse’s death (he’s dead, trust me) that my hapless relative was gunned down himself for killing Jesse James.  Rest assured, my particular branch of the Ford family has gone on from Robert’s low point to distinguish themselves in honorable pursuits like Law Enforcement, Military Service, and paintball writing.

Today, Robert Gibbs has the unenviable task of trying to make our current president look competent, and pro that he is, I fear he’s in over his head.  The practice of ‘spin’ is fairly commonplace now, even in the sport we all love, Paintball.

Spin in paintball terms can be illustrated like this:  That paint you bought online for $20 isn’t hard as a rock, it “Won’t Break In Your Gun”.  That’s Spin.

2009 has been a challenging year for just about everyone, including me.  I for one plan on being morosely drunk, probably naked, and likely being scolded by my wife for my state of nudity and inebriation on New Year’s Eve as I flip 2009 the proverbial bird and welcome 2010.  Among those challenges this year was an assault on my credibility and my friend Mike Phillips’ credibility on the august paintball forum M. Carter Brown.

See, Mike and I are friends, and as such we talk on a regular basis, comparing notes and following up on leads that we give each other.  We saw this whole 50 caliber thing as a up-and-coming thing that had some serious horsepower behind it, including the participation of another friend of mine, Mike Spurlock.  Mike was doing his thing, rattling bushes and making noise, and in a moment of clarity I realized that Mike Spurlock and Richmond Italia were friends, and had been for some time.  I also remember having a conversation cut short with Spurlock at an event so he could go have a meeting with Richmond.  These two unrelated bits of trivia burst forth from the miasma of my mind and on a whim I dropped Spurlock an email asked him directly if he was involved in some fashion with G.I. Mil-Sim.

Mike opened up a thread on MCB about the potential of the .50 Caliber movement early this year…he was roundly criticized and flamed for his seemingly off the wall information.  I stuck my nose in a little, trying to confirm what Mike Phillips was saying , and next thing you know the allegation is made that Mike and I are trying to drum up traffic for our websites by making these baseless allegations.

Fast forward to World Cup 2009.  GI Mil-Sim is on site showing off their pretty extensive line of paint, markers and other gear, all based on a .50 caliber round.

Oops.

Mike Phillips, being the no-nonsense, straight talking kind of guy he is, recently made a video where he speaks out on .50 Caliber, and specifically on his experiences with MCB and their nay-saying.   A recent thread there expresses dismay that a reprobate like Mike Phillips would dare talk back to the all-knowing fraternity that populates MCB.

If you look here (http://www.techpb.com/images/mcb.pdf) you can see the entire thread made earlier this year, and see what users, moderators and even Carter Brown himself was saying about the existence of this new push for .50 Caliber paintball, and the attacks on Mike and I’s credibility.  Over on MCB, they’re in a bit of an uproar over Mike’s response to this assault on him months later now that GI Mil-Sim is here and it’s a for real company.   Check that out here:  http://www.mcarterbrown.com/forums/dead-zone/98706-mike-techpb-ranting-about-50-cal-mentions-mcb-11.html .  Now, I can understand why they’d be upset at Mike’s response, since Mike puts it all in perspective in his own unique, direct fashion:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0LiXrraJdE

Along with the spinning going on in the MCB thread, Carter made a .pdf in response to Mike’s video and the .pdf posted over on TechPB, which can be seen here:  http://www.mcarterbrown.com/carter/mcbposts.pdf .   You’ll notice that there’s no affirmation whatsoever that Mike was right…but you can see the questioning as to why he’d feel strongly enough about something to comment on it at length months after the percieved offense.  There’s even a cute little poke towards The Ford Report in there, which is great…if you’re talking about me, then you’re thinking about me and what I do.

The sad thing is, a little humble pie or perhaps an apology would have smoothed this whole thing over…instead a lot of time and energy was wasted on Spin, so as to preserve whatever sense of infallibility that seems to infest the users of a lot of forums.

Spin is a fact of life these days, right or wrong, it’s a part of the landscape and it has to be dealt with.  Reality is a wonderful antidote to Spin.  Reality isn’t always pleasant or pretty, but it’s real, not the fantasy of “Spin”.