In the 14 July 2000 issue of the Austin Chronicle, Austin Access (ACAC) was covered at great length. Not just Jones and his brigand of rag tag conspiracy nuts with guns and more biblical scripture than you can shake a stick at, but Austin Access as the dysfunctional community that is usually is.

But not all is wrong at ACAC. As is the case in most instances, a handful of radicals manage to steal the recognition and merits from others by tainting the entire organization. I have to give special recognition to The Reel Deal for not just an outstanding show, not just for being a shining example of diversity and tolerance, not just for being good enough to go pro (at least two of their crew do movie reviews for a local affiliate), but for showing that a group of people with a common goal can produce a really outstanding show and raise the bar of excellence for others to emulate.

The article can be found here. It is kind of long, but worth the time to read. Here is an excerpt regarding what has become known as "The Parking Lot Incident", which is covered at length in the first part of my comments on Jones.

In addition to creating tension between Sotelo and Jones, Thumbleson's Web site alleges the fight exacerbated a feud between Jones and "Steve's" friend, Clayton Counts. Counts is notorious, for lack of a better word, for making prank calls to ACAC call-in shows, especially Jones' show. Counts, who still maintains an Internet account on the server of the now-defunct bookstore Fringeware, said he suspects that Jones then called in the FBI and made bogus claims that Counts was a terrorist and possessed child pornography and got the bureau to raid Fringeware to get Counts' address. According to the Web page, the bureau later dropped the investigation.

Just so it's clear, my last name is not "Thumbleson", though the story is in reference to my website. In reference to my conjecture that the Jones camp is obsessed with what other producers say and do ( for the sake of finding a reason to "bust" others for any infraction). The article goes on to say:

The anti-Jones camp claims that if a fellow producer crosses Jones, he will watch their program obsessively until he finds a violation and turn that person in. Seeming to support that contention, Jones' producer Mike Hanson turned over dozens of hours of videotape of Side's show to the Chronicle, and said he had more.

Now, these are just two minor excerpts that i'm using to draw a point. I really cannot urge you enough to take the time to read the entire article and draw your own conclusions. Unlike Jones, i cannot... will not say that i am somehow divine enough to know the categorical and unquestionable truth in things. I offer my thoughts, some resources and expect you, as adults, to decide for yourself.

In closing this section of my thoughts, i offer the following comment on all radicals, be they left or right. It has been my experience that anyone who is so polar, so fanatical that they believe they are divine recipients of knowledge and truth, are also the first to proclaim that they are victims. The best example i can give of this in recent times is how anytime someone wants to maintain the separation of church and state, or insists that secular, scientific, plausible theories be taught in the classroom (as opposed to mythical parables that were designed for humanity when it was in its infancy), it is the extremist religious types who take it as an affront to their beliefs and consider sharing such thoughts (and subsequently dismissing the mythologies of their religion), who cry and bemoan at how they have become victims and are being oppressed. Without getting too sidetracked, it reminds me of a spokesman for the Catholic League who said Catholics were being opressed by Kevin Smith's Dogma.

Yea, right.

In that spirit, Jones makes the following comment in the article:

"I am the abused one here," Jones responds. "I am not part of any rivalry. I'm just attempting to do my show. I just want to be left alone."

Let me be very clear... Jones is as much as a victim as someone who wears a KKK outfit, stands in a ghetto and screams racial slurs. This comment (above) is wrong on three accounts. One: he is not simply interested in doing his show. He is interested in promoting his website and encouraging people to buy his "crockumentaries". Two: he does NOT want to be left alone. He craves any and all attention and will use any attention to draw more people to his website (again, see: "Buy my Crockumentary!"). Three: Jones' saying that he's not part of any rivalry is just plain laughable, silly and frankly... it's disturbing. Ask Christian Side (read the article for about Jones' lawsuit against Christian Side). Fanatics need to think they are being persecuted and opressed to reinforce their belief that their self righteousness is ordained by God Himself. (See also: Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Taliban, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Ralph Reed, Fred Phelps, Donald Wildimon, etc...) .

As a side note, i can't help but to notice it's only been as of recent times that somehow the act of discovery and invention has become parallel to "satanism". Indeed, some of the most brilliant scientific minds, including but certainly not limited to the German engineers who built the American space program and Albert Einstein himself were scientists who saw their secular careers as extensions of their faith. But this too, is a discussion for another time.

Please, take the time to read the article and Louis Black's Page Two editorial. When you're done with all of this (whew!), come back and check out the fallout.

Click here for Part Three.