Rick Springfield
kiwifarms.net
While browsing eBay a few months ago I discovered a rather bizarre listing for a "Fake News" kite of unusual construction. I was expecting the seller to be a run-of-the-mill Donald Trump supporter, but what I found was far stranger, and honestly kind of a sad story.
Meet Edward McWhirter, retired taxi driver from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1995, an article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review about Mr. McWhirter and his hobby of making kites from styrofoam coffee cups:
Unique, but not particularly Farms-worthy. However, the story gets more interesting. Upon doing an internet search for "Styrowing" as suggested by his eBay listing, I discover his webpage, www.styrowing.com. However, most of the site content appears to be about some bizarre medical conspiracy theory rather than kites or fake news. What on earth could this be about?
On September 10, 2011, McWhirter's common-law wife Rita Conley died after a long period of hospitalization. Mr. McWhirter came to the conclusion that a Pittsburgh area hospital chain is engaged in a vast organ harvesting conspiracy sponsored by the IRS, the Bilderberg organization, the Federal Reserve, and a litany of other real and imaginary organizations. Never mind that while my sympathies go out to Mr. McWhirter, his wife was 53 years old, overweight, and had a 35+ year history of smoking, hardly a prime candidate for organ harvesting were such a conspiracy going on. Nonetheless, Mr. McWhirter explains his theory, and includes scans of her medical records on a subpage of the site. Included on this page are gems such as: "Allegheny Health Network's ultimate REAL GENOCIDAL TERROR... because you live in Nazi Germany TIMES." At the moment, styrowing.com's homepage is back to being about kites, but not that long ago was filled with his various conspiracy theories (http://archive.md/aoY3A), and the old homepage still exists, having been renamed to "indexindex.html."
Quotes featured on this previous homepage include:
"The Fraternal Order Of Police (at all levels, including the FBI) runs a Mafia Protection Racket for all Al-Qaeda Terrorist Doctors, such as AGH Al-Qaeda Terrorist Doctor Syed Rasheedullah Hussaini"
"PGH FBI SUCKS AL QAEDA/MAFIA TERRORIST DICK"
"Because, Media and All, YOU LIVE IN A POLICE STATE, AT THIS VERY MOMENT!
That's why you have people like Piers Morgan GOING AFTER YOUR GUNS, so that the Police State will be here to Stay!
And Why you have people like Alex Jones PROTECTING THE RIGHTS YOUR FOUNDING FATHERS FOUGHT FOR, FOR YOU!"
In real life, McWhirter is often seen driving around the Pittsburgh area in a 1980s Cadillac with various messages spelled out on it in duct tape. Poking around a bit more, I found his YouTube account, which mostly features videos of kites, blackjack playing, and large cars, although most of the video names and descriptions are dedicated to discussing his organ harvesting conspiracy theory.
Here's an example video,
featuring a little under three minutes of shaky filming of a different 1980s sedan with one of McWhirter's kites attached to the roof accompanied by some generic background music, and a lot of ranting about Flight 93 and organ harvesting in the description.
Honestly, I feel sorry for this guy. Compared to a lot of people I've read about on this site, he seems like a decent enough human being who just got pushed over the edge by a tragedy.
Known online presence:
PittBird on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/styroyou/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ed.mcwhirter
Change.org petition to stop the supposed murder of healthy people for organ harvesting in the United States.
Most English-language things mentioning Styrowing or StyroHawk have something to do with McWhirter.
Meet Edward McWhirter, retired taxi driver from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1995, an article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review about Mr. McWhirter and his hobby of making kites from styrofoam coffee cups:
Unique, but not particularly Farms-worthy. However, the story gets more interesting. Upon doing an internet search for "Styrowing" as suggested by his eBay listing, I discover his webpage, www.styrowing.com. However, most of the site content appears to be about some bizarre medical conspiracy theory rather than kites or fake news. What on earth could this be about?
On September 10, 2011, McWhirter's common-law wife Rita Conley died after a long period of hospitalization. Mr. McWhirter came to the conclusion that a Pittsburgh area hospital chain is engaged in a vast organ harvesting conspiracy sponsored by the IRS, the Bilderberg organization, the Federal Reserve, and a litany of other real and imaginary organizations. Never mind that while my sympathies go out to Mr. McWhirter, his wife was 53 years old, overweight, and had a 35+ year history of smoking, hardly a prime candidate for organ harvesting were such a conspiracy going on. Nonetheless, Mr. McWhirter explains his theory, and includes scans of her medical records on a subpage of the site. Included on this page are gems such as: "Allegheny Health Network's ultimate REAL GENOCIDAL TERROR... because you live in Nazi Germany TIMES." At the moment, styrowing.com's homepage is back to being about kites, but not that long ago was filled with his various conspiracy theories (http://archive.md/aoY3A), and the old homepage still exists, having been renamed to "indexindex.html."
Quotes featured on this previous homepage include:
"The Fraternal Order Of Police (at all levels, including the FBI) runs a Mafia Protection Racket for all Al-Qaeda Terrorist Doctors, such as AGH Al-Qaeda Terrorist Doctor Syed Rasheedullah Hussaini"
"PGH FBI SUCKS AL QAEDA/MAFIA TERRORIST DICK"
"Because, Media and All, YOU LIVE IN A POLICE STATE, AT THIS VERY MOMENT!
That's why you have people like Piers Morgan GOING AFTER YOUR GUNS, so that the Police State will be here to Stay!
And Why you have people like Alex Jones PROTECTING THE RIGHTS YOUR FOUNDING FATHERS FOUGHT FOR, FOR YOU!"
In real life, McWhirter is often seen driving around the Pittsburgh area in a 1980s Cadillac with various messages spelled out on it in duct tape. Poking around a bit more, I found his YouTube account, which mostly features videos of kites, blackjack playing, and large cars, although most of the video names and descriptions are dedicated to discussing his organ harvesting conspiracy theory.
Here's an example video,
Honestly, I feel sorry for this guy. Compared to a lot of people I've read about on this site, he seems like a decent enough human being who just got pushed over the edge by a tragedy.
Known online presence:
PittBird on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/styroyou/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ed.mcwhirter
Change.org petition to stop the supposed murder of healthy people for organ harvesting in the United States.
Most English-language things mentioning Styrowing or StyroHawk have something to do with McWhirter.
