You don't want to read this, but you must

Glens Falls champions celebrated; Jimmer is heading to the Paris Olympics

Mark Bankston asked Alex Jones in a Texas courtroom to read along with him.

"All the other bodies were inside the bathroom or in the entrance to the bathroom," the lawyer read to Jones in August 2022.

"An adult victim was lying across the mass of bodies inside the bathroom," Bankston continued.

Jones, the bombastic InfoWars host and chronic conspiracy theorist who insisted for years the Sandy Hook shootings were a hoax, seemed to be reading along with the lawyer.

"Sgt. Carrio began to lift bodies off of the top of the pile and many of the bodies had injuries that were obviously fatal," Bankston continued. "As Sgt. Carrio began to empty out the bathroom, it became apparent what had occurred due to how efficiently packed in the bathroom the children were."

It was about here that Jones pushed aside the paper, apparently, not wanting to read along anymore.

"It appeared as if the teachers in the room immediately upon hearing the gun shots began to pack the children into the bathroom. The children that were sitting on the floor of the bathroom were packed in like sardines. One little girl was sitting, crouched in between the toilet and the back corner of the room. I thought she might have the best chance for survival. As the pile got higher it appeared that there was a mad scramble to get into the bathroom with people stepping on one another and climbing on top of each other. The teachers would not have been able to get into the room even if they wanted to. The teachers appeared to have been shepherding the children into the room and were then probably going to shut the door."

This was the matter-of-fact report from the Connecticut State Police investigation.

I read it for the first time in December 2017.

I wrote a column then called "You don't want to read this."

I immediately recalled the report when I saw the scene of Jones in court in the new HBO documentary The Truth vs. Alex Jones.

The observations are just as horrific today.

"They did not close and lock the door to the classroom for some reason and were interrupted by the shooter as they attempted to fill the bathroom with children. The shooter then opened fire on the mass of children and adults. As Sgt. Carrio got to the last bodies, it was clear that no one had survived."

Alex Jones got millions of people to believe that never happened.

That the state police report was fiction.

That 20 families did not suffer the death of a child.

While he made millions of dollars from the products he sold.

But what became clear in Dan Reed's documentary was what Alex Jones did to the Sandy Hook families may have been worse than the loss of their child.

That's incomprehensible.

What this documentary also revealed and chronicled in some detail is the ability of so many to lie so convincingly about events that have no basis in facts. It may be the most dangerous phenomenon we are now facing in our country.

The people insisting there is fake news are actually the ones perpetuating it; people like Alex Jones and too many politicians to possibly name.

The Sandy Hook families won defamation lawsuits against Alex Jones in both Texas and Connecticut.

He was held accountable.

He admitted promoting the hoax about Sandy Hook, but refused to apologize for it.

The jury in Connecticut ordered him to pay the families $1.5 billion.

He declared bankruptcy.

So far, he has not paid a penny.

And maybe worst of all, he is still on the air.

"The Truth vs. Alex Jones" will make you as angry as you've ever been.

It will make you wonder about humanity in general.

Director Dan Reed concluded this about the pathological liars we are seeing in our country who will say anything for money and power:

"It's about how if you lie with enough charisma, and you're funny enough, and you're a big enough personality, and you come across as authentic even if you're not because you're trying to sell the product, that people don't want to believe that you're lying because you're entertaining them,” he said.

It's the worst of humanity.

Three different champions were paraded through downtown Glens Falls Wednesday afternoon.

Champions honored

After 18 inches of snow last weekend, the location to honor Glens Falls region champions had to be switched to Heritage Hall at the Cool Insuring Arena.

Members of the Adirondack United girls hockey team, the Glens Falls boys basketball team and Glens Falls alpine skier Piper Dock loaded into two flatbed trucks and with a police and fire escort were taken from the high school to the Cool Insuring Arena in a light drizzle Wednesday afternoon.

Approximately 200 showed up to cheer on their accomplishments.

The Adirondack United girls hockey team was only in its second season and won a state title. Piper Dock, just a freshman, won the slalom at the state championships at Whiteface Mountain to become the first female alpine skier at Glens Falls to win the state championship.

The Glens Falls boys basketball team was unbeaten with a 27-0 record and wrapped up its dream season last weekend at the Cool Insuring Arena. Four of their five starters are returning next season.

"What we saw on Friday morning at 9 o'clock was just a miracle," coach Rob Girard said. "We had the day off from school, but to have that many people there on a work day was just amazing. Then when I was told we had to delay the game 10 or 15 minutes because people were still lined up out to the circle was amazing.

"The support you gave to the boys was unbelievable," Girard said. "This team played together and cared for each other all year. The word `team' fits these guys more than any other team I have ever had."

Glens Falls Coach Rob Girard addresses the crowd at the Cool Insuring Arena Wednesday.

Jimmer Olympic bound

It's been reported for some time now that Glens Falls' own Jimmer Fredette will be on the United States Olympic team this summer to compete in three-on-three basketball.

It was made official this week with an Associated Press story by Tim Reynolds, an Indian Lake kid who worked in The Post-Star sports department for a time.

"It’s really fun to be able to look back and see it all, from high school to college to being a lottery pick to being an MVP overseas and then ultimately being able to go to the Olympics,” Fredette said. “This is just the cherry on top. And not a lot of players have been fortunate enough to be able to say that they’ve been able to do these things.”

What was maybe even more impressive was what his Olympic coach told Reynolds about Jimmer.

"You know, you hear all these stories about guys being great guys,” USA men’s 3x3 coach Joe Lewandowski said. “But listen, Jimmer is way above that. I mean, it is incredible what type of person he is. I tell everybody the same thing: Jimmer’s really a ridiculous basketball player, but he’s a better person, and that’s hard to beat. Trust me.”

It's also a great reflection on Hometown, USA.

Thanks for Donation

My hopes about lighting up the DeLong House at the Chapman Museum got a nice boost on Wednesday with a $250 donation from one of you readers. Thank you again.

That gets us more than a quarter of the way toward our $1000 goal.

Another reader reached out to me to donate some of their family Christmas decorations to go toward the museum's decorating effort.

If you have decorations to donate, contact me at tingleykenneth4@gmail.com. If you would like to give a monetary gift of any size, you can do it through the Chapman Museum website. Make sure to put in the notes that the donation is for holiday decorations.

Clemson, Girard advance

Joe Girard III and the Clemson Tigers advanced to within one game of the Final Four in the NCAA Basketball Tournament Thursday night.

Sixth-seeded Clemson knocked off No. 2 seed Arizona 77-72 Thursday to advance to the Elite Eight on Saturday against Alabama.

Girard scored just four points, but had six assists and four rebounds.

Alabama knocked off North Carolina later in the evening. Clemson beat Alabama earlier this season.