Charlatan

I sometimes refer to my girlfriend as a charlatan (though this is meant as a cute nickname.. as her name is Karly, and it sounds similar... it's a manner of teasing.. which is reciprocated regularly, believe me!!) It's a fun little thing we do around the house, and a way to liven up our day. This however got me thinking about the true meaning of the word....

According to Dictionary.com

char-la-tan [shahr-luh-tn] -noun

a person who pretends to have more knowledge or skill than he or she possesses; quack

Looking at this definition, makes me wonder why I would say these things about my girlfriend. I know this is a "pet name" (I suppose....), but Karly is nowhere close to a charlatan in reality. She is a loving, caring individual who puts others first in every aspect of her life (sometimes too much!!).

That being said, I wanted to discuss what I find to be a true charlatan. If you look up the synonyms for this word, you'll find things like cheat, con artist, fake, and swindler.

As I stated in my "introduction" post, the main reason for this blog is my disdain for all of the lies being spread about me and my situation to the internet world. Even if no one reads this, I will undoubtedly feel better, knowing that I was able to at least post the truth (or at least my side of things) here. In this post, I want to clearly define why I feel the way I do about this word.

Recently, I have struck up a conversation with someone I truly believed to be an "enemy" on many fronts. My daughter's mother was married shortly after our brief and horrific life together, to a man whom I barely knew. No issue there, as I felt she was his problem, and not mine. But having a child, I knew that I would have some contact with this guy sometimes. Truth be told, he was always a good father figure to my daughter. A better parent in reality than her own mother, which I would come to learn later.

After many arguments with her while I was stationed in Iraq, I tried to reconcile the relationship with my daughter's mom, in hopes to re-establish a loving family for my kid. The husband was out of the picture at this point (several years had past). We tried, and albeit eventually failed, but during this time, several stories about the ex-husband came out of her mouth. Many of these involved child abuse, molestation, gambling problems, financial instability, and several other things which made me instantly despise the man.

I thought to myself, "How could this woman make up so many horrible stories about this guy? they must be true!" But alas, my relationship ended (another VERY quick mistake in my life I may add) and I came to find out exactly how she could. Sure enough, on her own blog... posted out there for the whole world to read... I was a deadbeat dad.. an abuser... a cheat.. a liar... whatever else could be said about me...

After some time of this, and once my own life had moved past the hurt and sorrow that I had felt from my own failed relationships and heartbreak (I was married at one point and she had someone else's child while I was serving my country), I decided to find this guy and hear his side of it. This was a real healing experience, as I found someone else who was lied to and about...

We compared stories, and needless to say.. we've both realized how crazy she is.... He is truly disabled, in the sort of way that is clearly labeled by the US government. He is unable to perform certain tasks that some of us more "able-bodied" people can perform. I do not think this is something to belittle, or lie about... simply stating the facts. I am angry... and here is why...

This woman... this charlatan... is now declaring herself disabled... (which I may agree with, except it is out of convenience...) Here are some of her most recent claims/shams/ flat-out lies:

1. She is too disabled to cash a check when I ask her to, but not too disabled to travel halfway around the world to visit family... convenient...

2. She recently started a feminist blog for disabled women. She is attempting to be a champion for the disabled women of America whilst mocking their very existence with her lies. To me, this is downright madness and should be brought to light...

3. She claims to be disabled, yet has not, to my knowledge, filed for any sort of government assistance for her "condition". Hmmm... kind of odd.. but ok... maybe she's just proud...

4. She recently got a new cane and likens herself to "House"... defending his addiction to pain medication as a very unfortunate example of the way that society views pain management.... it's a FREAKING SHOW.. not a social commentary....

5. She claims to be open-minded and progressive, yet whenever a comment is left on her blogs that challenges her opinion, she will delete it and publicly humiliate those that left it... stating her "public" blog is no longer a "safe place". What's the matter, she can lie about people, but if they call her to the carpet, she can't let people read that?

Anyway, that's enough of my ranting... I just felt it was an important thing to air some of this for all of us who have been lied about, or humiliated by these phonies...

these internet swindlers...

these modern-day charlatans....

Have any of you out there experienced being lied about, or stories made up that were so far off-base that you felt the need to just scream?