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.

Wired Writer Wins Bet on Selling Real Goods

This Wired story about the selling of items for MMORPGs was simultaneously fascinating and irritating (sounds like most of the people I dated in college).

Wired writer Julian Dibbell bet that he could make as much selling items for MMORPGS as he was making in his job as a professional writer. Last month he earned a profit of nearly $4,000 or the equivalent of $47,000/year by selling items from games.

Cool. Of course one advantage Dibbell had is that few people do this professionally yet because almost no games actually allow it which creates the same sort of problems that are faced by consensual but illegal acts in the real world, such as prostitution (in both cases, for example, since the transactions occur on the black market, the authorities in each case will usually do nothing to enforce the contract between buyer and seller. Get taken for a ride while trying to buy some item for EverQuest? Sony could care less about your problems).

What annoys me is this insistence that such goods are not real because they are not physically tangible in the same way that, say, a hamburger is,

Since last summer, Dibbell has boldly proclaimed on his blog that on April 15, 2004, he would “truthfully report to the IRS that my primary source of income is the sale of imaginary goods, and that I earn more from it, on a monthly basis, than I have ever earned as a professional writer.”

But a +15 Sword of Whatever is just as tangible and physical as that .99 song download from iTunes which, like the item for the MMORPG, is generally purchased only to be used in conjunction with a program running on a computer or portable device (and the way Dibbell defines it here, I’d argue that even music on a CD is largely “imaginary.”)

Information is real. I spend 95 percent of the time in my job receiving and generating data and information. I suspect my grandfather, who worked in a factory all of his life, would complain loudly that this isn’t really work either since it doesn’t involve creating or shaping or modifying anything that anyone can hold in her hands at the end of the day.

But, just like the +15 Sword of Whatever, I can assure you it is very real (besides, if this stuff was imaginary, my wife wouldn’t always try to swipe it first while we’re playing these games online or on the PS2).

Sources:

Virtual Trader Barely Misses Goal. Daniel Terdiman, Wired News, April 16, 2004.

Chopping Block

The other day, my wife IMed me a few links to Chopping Block, and I’ve wasted quite a few hours this week reading through the archives of this deliciously twisted comic.

I keep reading the back issues thinking, the creator of this strip is a genius, I’m just glad that he’s not my neighbor. Stuff like this and this is indicative of someone with a very strange way of thinking.