Early in February of 2003, NAWBA spokesman Jan Rifkinson delivered yet another of his famous self righteous internet diatribes, this time directed at Louise Paquette and Rosalie Kent, that have become his stock in trade for dealing with those who take notice of his ignorance. Apparently his confrontation with Robin Henner at NAWBA was just a precursor, a warm up for this frontal assault.
As a review, his commentary to Louise is highlighted as follows:
"Your comment is so very stupid, I'm amazed. I had thought
more of you as a person until now. You disappoint me but I
don't know why I am surprised & it doesn't make any
difference anyway."
To Rosalie he says:
"I'll tell you what, Rosie: why don't you just shove that
overbearing attitude of yours up your wrinkled old ass."
This harsh rhetoric is typical of Mr. Rifkinson's random alternation between
the fawning, phony nice guy persona and the uncontrolled slashing out we see
here. The fundamental fact of the matter is that Jan Rifkinson stands for
simple minded ignorance in the Bouvier world today, and for the censorship
that is the inevitable consequence of those who have been nowhere and done
nothing in their pathetic grasping for power.
His first claim to fame was his installation by Kathy Helineman as censor for the NAWBA list, which he immediately closed so that its messages would be secret and so that to gain access you had to prostrate yourself before the great censor and beg for admittance, thus basically killing that list.
An interesting sidelight is that Jan has actually cross posted Rosalie's commentary on his own list, so that he could have the pleasure of slashing out there also. Not only is this clearly in violation of his own rules, it demonstrates that the purpose of his list is not good manners and high level discourse, but rather an environment where he has ultimate authority and can "win" in a way that he has found impossible in real life.
As we learned from the Nixon experience, there is nothing quite like the perception of secrecy and power to bring true colors to the surface. The super secret "New NAWBA" list, where the elite of the ignorant gathered to save the breed through the purity of their collective ignorance, quickly degenerated into plotting against their own "enemies list." But of course this list leaked like a sieve as various members immediately forwarded everything, to the point where their primary focus was on a desperate quest to find a plumber to plug the leaks.
And who are Mr. Rifkinson's associates, his fellow travelers in arm chair expertise and the uncanny power of the virgin opinion unimpeded by experience and accomplishment, uninfluenced by the struggles of life ?
We of course have Kathy Heilenman, who finds him convenient for doing the dirty work and saying the things even she would find embarrassing. And so for others, such as Chris Redenbach.
Mr. Rifkinson has gone to great lengths to belittle the Schutzhund trial as a sport and breeding test, and extol in it's place Ring and the Dutch police certification. Aside from the fact that even he admits to his ignorance of breeding and training, he actually has advised Americans to train KNPV (Dutch police) when there is in fact no such training or trial program in America.
Where is this coming from ? A primary source is Chris Redenbach, another member of the New NAWBA elite, who has almost invented the role of arm chair Bouvier working expert. At one time she would prattle on about how her dogs were almost ready for Schutzhund or about how they would do so well but those stupid people in the Schutzhund clubs would not listen to her and so forth and so on. As this wore a little thin she discovered French Ring, where everybody could be an expert and there was nobody actually titling dogs to belie the hollowness of the posturing.
Her one and only, low level, Ring title came years ago in Florida when she was living with a French Ring judge; your speculation is as good as any as to who actually trained the dog. ( It has never been clear if they brought in an outside judge for the trial or just used the in house talent.)
The Dutch police trials, Belgian Ring, French Ring, Schutzhund and IPO are all good trial systems, capable of serving as part of an evaluation system to guide working dog breeding. Those actually training and titling dogs generally do not engage in disparagement of other trial systems, though they no doubt are partial to their own sport.
It is those who can not produce titles in a particular sport, such as Schutzhund in this instance, who make the great discovery that it was not they, their training or their dogs which have proven inadequate, but the sport itself. Were they to go on to another sport which they find more viable and achieve top level titles there would be some credibility in their commentary on their experience.
But most of the people disparaging Schutzhund in the Bouvier world today are doing so as a smoke screen to divert attention from their own inadequacies. This is clearly the case with Mr. Rifkinson and Ms. Redenbach.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this latest episode is that Mr. Rifkinson has his very own list, censored with his righteous iron hand, where he can play Grand Pubaugh until his heart is content.
But of course for those such as Rifkinson, appointed by the gods to save the world , incomplete censorship is worse than no censorship at all, for those who tend to seek out the open forum and leave the closed forums to the lackeys and dilettantes continually demonstrate that the real reason for censorship and secrecy is to cover up weakness, ignorance and stupidity.
The ultimate question, of course, is why the NAWBA board chooses to be represented
by Mr. Rifkinson, and in fact entrusts him the responsibility of control over
the NAWBA E Mail discussion list. Are his words and his actions, and his attacks
on some of the most influential people in the breed, really the image they
want to project ?
Jim Engel, February 2003