Day: April 17, 2004

Spam Problem (Mostly) Solved

A few weeks ago I was whining that I was to the point of pretty much ignoring my e-mail because of the inundation of spam. Earlier this year it got to the point where I was receiving 400-500 spam per day on some days, and the filtering I was doing was not proving effective (far too many spams were still getting through).

A combination of Seth adding server-side spam filtering with Spam Assassin and upgrading to the latest build of Mozilla Thunderbird has largely solved that problem for now.

I’m only seeing 8 or 9 spam in my inbox each day now, with almost no false positives.

Still, I’d like to see some of these spammers get the Michael Fay treatment someday.

Victim of Recovered Memory Psychologists Receives $7.5 Million Award

In the 1980s, psychiatrist Bennett Braun was at the center of the hysteria over Satanic cults and recovered memory. Through his practice at the Rush North Shore Medical Center, Braun convinced otherwise rational women and men that they were part of Satanic cults that were killing babies and committing other crimes. Braun told the individuals that they had repressed their memories of these events, and he used a number of dubious techniques to convince his patients that they had participated in these activities.

In February, Braun was once again at the center of the Satanic hysteria but in a different role — as a defendant seeking to settle a multimillion lawsuit brought by former patient Elizabeth Gale, 52.

Braun, and co-defendant psychologist Roberta Sachs’, actions were particularly pernicious with Gale. After checking into Rush for mild depression, Braun convinced her that she was part of a Satanic cult and had given birth to children who were used as human sacrifices in the cult. Braun and Sachs convinced Gale to voluntarily sterilize herself to prevent the cult from using her to produce future such sacrifices.

Gale’s attorney, Todd Smith, told the court that,

[Braun and Sachs] convinced Ms. Gale she had dozens of different personalities which had been created as a result of the horrific trauma they told her she suffered as a child. . . . [they] convinced Ms. Gale she was a member of a worldwide secret . . . satanic cult . . . that Ms. Gale was a ‘breeder’ for the cult and that she had sacrificed her previous children, when she in fact had never had children.

Braun and Sachs had previously settled with former patient Patricia Burgus for $10.6 million. Braun and Sachs convinced Burgus that she was some sort of high priestess in the worldwide Satanic cult.

If there were any justice, Braun and Sachs would be sitting in jail for their fraudulent and repulsive actions, but the only attempt to hold them criminally responsible failed to garner a conviction.

Source:

Not in cult: Woman gets $7.5 million. Abdon M. Pallasch, Chicago Sun-Times, February 12, 2004.

Why Would Anyone Lie About Rape?

When trying to assert that the feminist greatly underestimate the rate of false claims of rape, the usual rhetorical question posted by feminists is “Why would anyone lie about rape?” Well, in the case of three preteen California girls, they did it in order not to get in trouble for being late getting to school.

And their victim, a 36-year-old homeless man, spent eight months in jail before the lie was discovered.

Apparently fearful that their parents would be angry at them for being tardy, the three 11-year-olds told their parents and then police that transient Eric Nordmark had assaulted them in a nearby park. Nordmark was arrested, charged with seven counts of assault and child molestation, and incarcerated for eight months.

The girls were able to finger Nordmark through a police screwup. All three girls were shown the same photo lineup of possible suspects, allowing them to easily agree on which one they would identify and get their stories coordinated.

The Orange County district attorney’s office dropped the charges against Nordmark the same day they discovered the assault charges were false and have referred the three girls to juvenile court for making the false accusations.

Source:

Homeless man jailed 8 months on preteens’ bogus attack allegation. Associated Press, January 28, 2004.

9/11 Made Her Do It

Pamela Kaichen, 44, robbed six banks in New York and Connecticut over a 48 hour period in May of 2003. She pretended to have a gun during the robberies, and when she was arrested more than $42,000 was found in her apartment and car.

A judge sentenced her to just 4 years in jail — despite federal sentencing guidelines that call for 7 1/4 years for crimes similar to Kaichen’s. The judge bought Kaichen’s claim that she suffered from a mental condition that was worsened after she volunteered at Ground Zero after the 9/11 attacks and that she only stole the money in order to give it to 9/11 victims. During at least two of the robberies she told bank tellers that she had either lost a loved one or personally “went through” the 9/11 terrorist attack, both claims that were false.

In giving her a lenient sentence, U.S. District Judge Ellen Bree Burns said,

It’s clear this defendant was acting under significant mental disabilities trigger by her horrendous experience at Ground Zero . . . When Ms. Kaichen saw the sheer magnitude of grief as a result of 9/11, she began to feel like a failure. It is not a stretch to say if it was not for what Ms. Kaichen experienced on 9/11, we would not be here today.

Sources:

“I Went Through Sept. 11”. Associated Press, May 28, 2003.

9/11 experience drops ‘Blond Bandit’ sentence. Associated Press, February 3, 2004.

Malaysian City to What Non-Muslim Women Can Wear

While France and other European countries spend their time passing rules to prevent Muslim women from wearing burkas or headscarves, a Malaysian city decided in January to restrict what non-Muslim women can wear to work.

Kuala Terengganu’s city council is dominated by members of the Islamic PAS party and in January passed a law designed to prevent women from wearing “revealing” clothes to work. According to a BBC story on the new law,

Even non-Muslims will be banned from wearing short sleeved blouses, tight jeans, skirts with slits, or skirts cut above the knee.

Muslim women will have to wear a tudong, a headscarf drawn tightly about the face.

The traditional loosely draped Malay headscarf will be banned and the rules will apply to all work places.

Source:

Malaysian city rules on women. Jonathan Kent. The BBC, January 5, 2004.