It is indeed possible to be admitted to Mensa with something other than a standard "IQ" test. The Graduate Record Examination is an example, and there probably is a Navy equivalent that works equally well to admit one to membership in a boring organization. More than 200 tests qualify. It is not clear whether sleeping in a Holiday Inn Express qualifies.

Remember that an estimated 1 in 50 persons in the U.S. qualifies for membership. While Mensa makes membership sound really exclusive, 2% of the population is not all that exclusive. What is exclusive is, for example, the group of people who have actually read Hawking's A Brief History of Time -- one of the most purchased, least-read books on the bookshelves.

What is even more exclusive is the small group of attorneys and assorted hangers-on who have punched holes in every Birfer "legal" argument, exposed every Birfer lie, discredited every Birfer "expert," and driven some Birfers to gibbering rants. If Sammy Sewell qualified for membership in that exclusive club, he might have something about which to brag.

What a sad little man. Must have nothing going on in his life if he has time for childish, petty, and may I say stupid little vendettas like this.

Raises hand... (I actually read it.) My project for next winter is The Road to Reality by Roger Penrose. That one has been on the shelf for a few months.

I went to a seminar he gave when I was at Cambridge. I was totally lost. But then again, there were plenty of lectures at Cambridge that kind of lost me somewhere in the introduction. Unsurprisingly, I did not get a first.

OK, back to the Hun.

Ditto and ditto - except my copy of Penrose's book has been on the shelf for a few years rather than months!

It's one thing to have a high IQ. It's another thing to use it. Remember that genius is 2% inspiration and 98% perspiration.

... and the Hunnybun is about the most intellectually lazy 'high IQ' piece of crap I've ever run across. He doesn't seem to have bothered with any higher education. He wrote a 10,000 word screed about birferism in April 2009 (the OMG moment) and he's been pumping it ever since. More than two years later, you can still feel it ... that OMG moment is just around the corner. Can't he come up with something new, or does thinking about it make him tired?

He seems to have a plan -- to bullshit his way through life, instead of actually doing anything. And as far as high IQ, you can check out his posts here. He had 20 of them (under 'AristotletheHun') before he realized we were kicking his ass; then he randed away with his high IQ tucked between his legs.

Loser, and moron. Only thing I'll admit, he's one a them 'high IQ' morons.

I'll bet you've got a better shoe collection than anybody in the entire organization!

I would be willing to bet that my fantastic high heels and big confused blue eyes have got me a lot farther in life than my amazing knowledge of women's history in 15th century England. And that is what my Mensa IQ taught me!!

So what's been holding O'rly up? She has those great black eyelashes and that totally hawt blonde hair that men like so much.

She certainly still tries. Her interactions at the Lakin trial with Dwight Sullivan can only be described as coquettish. Shockingly, he and Phil were able to resist and did not immediately join as her co-counsels.

As a follow up -

I did contact the Gifted Youth Specialist at Mensa's national headquarters about Sam's email.

I got this as a response (names redacted)



I would be curious to see how Sam tries to explain this away.....

prolly get somebody to lie for him.

And reply #2



*Chuckle*

Not very bright these mensa types , are they?

Just a snippit - Sam also uses the @aa099.org email address for the Theological Center of Naples which he seems to be President of.

Did you contact anyone in his local group?

I like the way that person answered!

We also know that "Dr." claimed by Sam is from an institution that apparently no longer exists. Mensa has no concern with the degrees claimed or not claimed by its members. I would go out on a limb, however, and speculate that there is a higher proportion of Mensa members claiming postgraduate degrees that they obtained through some kind of diploma mill than we would find among non-Mensa college graduates. That sort of goes along with needing to label oneself "Mensa."

I'm certain that there are Mensa people who are everything one would ever want them to be and that they have found people like them within the membership. Whether they would have had an easier task within some other organization is a question.

Hmmmmmmmm..... the Presbyterians are not casual dispensers of divinity degrees. They are known to demand rather high levels of academic achievement, and their ordination exams are quite tough.

I smell a rodent.

When I first heard of Mensa as a teenager, if didn't interest me much. Partly the reason was that they wanted you to pay to take their own test (and all the testing I was getting as part of an academically-advenced high school wasn't worth anything to them), and I was very selective about what my money went for. But also, I went to a school where all of the students would have qualified. So big deal -- what was exclusive about Mensa?

But later in life, on several occasions, someone that I had either had a few casual dates with or was working colleagially with on a project would pull me aside and ask me earnestly, "have you heard of Mensa? I think you could qualify for membership."

A couple of times, early on, I allowed myself to be dragged to a meeting. Or maybe it was just once. I remember attending one, and coming to the quick conclusion that the people there were a bunch of losers who thought that having a higher-than-normal IQ should make them somehow special and reward-worthy on its own, and who had a bit of a chip on their shoulder that the rest of the world did not see them the same way.

I'm very much a believer of my grandfather's mantra, "it's not what you have, it's what you do with what you have," and my mother's "by their works, you shall know them." I know that the person suggesting I should join Mensa means well and considers it a compliment, but they don't realize what a label they've just put on themselves with me by doing it. Plus that furtive, "have you heard of Mensa?" reminds me of someone recruiting for an MLM.

He's not even close to being a Presbyterian minister. His Church is WOW! in Naples, FL -- a church without walls. It is "post-denominational."

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Cn61JM4kNR8/SvCPAsm7N7I/AAAAAAAAAuQ/smuyJmiMLAE/s1600-h/church+WOW+Banner.JPG

He lies under any faith. He's just a liar.

According to the FL State Dept, the Sewells have a company "Interfaith Ministries Inc". It was registered in 1990 as "New World Presbyterian Church Inc" but was renamed in 2002.

http://www.sunbiz.org/scripts/corevt.exe?action=DETNAM&inq_doc_number=N37613&filing_type_fld=DOMNP

From the annual reports I can see it's been the Sewalls' since at least 1995 and probably right from incorporation. So it seems that once, at least , Sam was or was passing himself off as a Presbyterian minister.

BTW on a few sites I see Bunny referred to as "Rev" too.