Updates made to The Millenium Project during 1999

A child dies. Who cares? 3/7/99
Tyrell Dueck is dead. The name may not mean anything to you, but Tyrell was a Canadian teenager who had cancer. He was "treated" by a pack of parasites called American Biologics (now calling themselves International Bio Care), who hide their disgraceful, murderous behaviour by operating in Mexico. Devoid of any scruples or even a hint of morality or conscience, these bastards will murder children and take the parent's money to do so. Of course, they don't work alone – they are encouraged and assisted by gutless politicians who won't stand up to quackery and by ignorant media commentators who treat these lying vermin as if they had something worthwhile to say. Tyrell's death shows why I need to run this web site, why I insult people and ridicule them and call them names. Expressing disgust and pointing at the horror is sometimes the only thing you can do.

Hulda Clark (6/10/1999)
Renowned cancer quack and unlicensed pretend medical doctor Dr Hulda Clark, who was listed here back in April 1999, was arrested in September and spent some time in the slammer where she couldn't hurt anyone for a while. Unfortunately, she is now out on bail. For people who say there is never any good news in the papers, you can read some here. You can follow the story on Dr Terry Polevoy's excellent Healthwatcher site.

The case against not-a-medical-Dr Clark was dismissed, not because she was found not to have been practising medicine without a licence, but because of the length of time since the alleged offence. Her supporters immediately started saying that the court had vindicated her by dismissing the charges, and at the same time claimed that they would have preferred the court to actually proceed to hear the charges so that she could be vindicated. Such sophistry is typical of quack medicine promoters. At any time, her legal team could have withdrawn their motion to dismiss the charges and let the case go to trial, yet they chose not to do this.

Speaking is a crime? 27/10/1999
An Australian citizen, Dr Fredrick Toben, was arrested in Germany in April 1999 and will go on trial in early November. Toben is a Holocaust revisionist who runs The Adelaide Institute, a site which has been featured here for some time. It is apparently that web site (located in Australia) which has triggered his arrest. I have no time for Toben's opinions, but I believe that his arrest is an outrageous assault on free speech. That someone can be charged with a crime in one country for an opinion published in another country of which he is both a resident and a citizen should frighten anyone who puts their words on the Internet or in a book.

People might ask why I object to Dr Toben's arrest when I was overjoyed at the arrest of not-a-medical-Dr Hulda Clark. The difference is simple. Toben's opinions may be offensive buffoonery and misguided nonsense but those opinions can't hurt anything except people's feelings. What Clark says and does can actually kill people by deceiving those with terminal or serious illnesses and encouraging them to give up proper medical care.

Off to prison 15/11/1999
Dr Toben was sentenced to 10 months in prison, but the judge ruled that, as he had already served seven months since his arrest, he could be released upon payment of a $5000 bond. The odd length of the sentence, which just happened to allow immediate release, and the small financial penalty (bond, no fine) suggest that the judge was doing the minimum he had to do to comply with the ludicrous laws and keep his job.

Clark lawyers up (18/11/1999)
Supporters of Dr Hulda Clark have been threatening people with lawsuits for saying nasty things about her. The following was sent to an Australian doctor. Please note the formal mode of address used to send a threat to someone the writer does not know. Also note the word "lible", which suggests that no lawyers were used in the preparation of this letter.

From:          "Tim Bolen"
To:            "Peter December"
Subject:       Lible

Dear Pete:

Could we get your address for legal service? I know how eager you are to put your views forward. My recommendation to the Clark team is that we let you defend your statements in Superior Court in San Diego, CA, Dr. Clark's place of business.

Couldn't have given your network any more warning than I did.

Hurry please. I've been waiting just for you...

Tim Bolen

Entering into the spirit of the occasion, I sent the following light-hearted suggestion:

From:          Peter Bowditch
To:            "Tim Bolen"
Subject:       RE: Lible <sic>
Date sent:     Mon, 15 Nov 1999 09:42:40 +1100

Dear Mr Bolen,

Dr Peter December has passed on to me your communication to him. You may like to consider a reverse class action (one claimant, multiple defendants) against all Australians called "Peter" who have ever had anything bad to say about not-Dr Clark. My own contribution can be found at https://ratbags.com/rsoles/editorial.htm where I announce the good news of her arrest and my subsequent disappointment at her release on bail. I know of at least two other Peters who think not-Dr Clark is a quack.

My personal details are:

<snip>

Correspondence should be sent to the above address, but replies will most probably come from my solicitor, who works for the firm Farr, Gough and Dye. Look for that name on any further correspondence relating to this matter.

Yours etc
Peter Bowditch

To which I received the squelching reply:

From:          Tim Bolen
Subject:       RE: Lible <sic>
To:            Peter Bowditch <rsoles@ratbags.com>

(yawn)...

My thoughts on this were:

I can only assume that this means that he has no intention of taking any legal action against anybody and is just blowing smoke and trying to frighten the gullible. Put another way, threats of legal action from Tim Bolen have about as much chance of coming true as Hulda Clark has of curing anyone's cancer. Which is none.

Follow-up: Mr Bolen may have given up on me, but he hasn't given up completely. Someone made an offer on a mailing list to appear in court for the Australian "Peters" and save us the trip to San Diego. Mr Bolen followed a web link in the lady's email signature and contacted her supervisor, demanding that she be disciplined for harassing not-a-medical-Dr Clark in work time. Mr Bolen might like to track down where I work and get my boss to threaten me too.

990 sites! 24/12/1999
There are now 990 sites listed here and the final ten to make up the millenium will be added on New Year's Eve.

I would like to wish everyone a very happy Christmas, whether or not the festival means anything to you or your particular religious faith or lack of it. I intend to spend the day with my family and friends and forget for a while the people I don't like. I wish everyone could spend a day not disliking anyone. Maybe a lot would forget to start hating again, and then half the newspapers and TV news shows would be blank.

(Note to religious fanatics, obsessed atheists, political correctness vigilantes and other scrooges – don't write to tell me why I shouldn't wish people Merry Christmas unless you include a web address for inclusion here next year. I will create a special Curmudgeons category just for you.)

Significant positions:

Entry number 250 – Shaklee Corporation
Entry number 500 – World Church of the Creator Women's Frontier
Entry 666 – Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition (I though Pat would like that)
Entry 750 – IKA – Realm of Georgia

1000 sites! We made it! 31/12/1999
I would like to thank all the people who have visited this site over the last ten months, and it is encouraging to see more visitors each month. I would also like to thank all the people who wrote to me about the site. I apologise for not answering every email, but one of my new year's resolutions is to answer all the mail next year (well, the polite mail at least). Many people wrote with compliments and suggestions, and these are appreciated because they show that I am not just amusing myself. Even the complaints are appreciated, because they show that someone thought enough of what I am doing to tell me what they think of it (and me). Thank you all.

People have been asking me what will happen to the site next year now it has reached the 1000 mark. It will continue but the emphasis will be on reviewing the list, maintaining the links and adding some commentaries. I know without looking that some of these sites have changed since they were first listed here and could be removed. Others will have changed locations or disappeared completely (I expect the Y2K sites to fade away as prophecies remain unfulfilled), so I have to keep the links up to date. I will add some commentaries (not to the whole thousand!) to make it clearer why I don't like some things, and I will add to the art collection because great pictures often make the point better than words ever could. I hope to make this site into a useful reference point to remind people of what Edmund Burke was warning against when he said: "All it takes for evil to prosper is for good men to do nothing."

The 1999 Awards The Millenium Awards for1999 have been announced. See the Awards Page for the winners.