Bolenator celebrates destruction of alt health Usenet board!

[David Brown]

This week saw the demise of "misc health alternative", in a rather
dismaying instance of an ISP first refusing to take simple action
against one or a few miscreants and then harming many more people for
the wrongdoings of those few. But in Bolenator-world, this depressing
incident is being celebrated:

“Google, the owner of the famous search engine, also runs a series of
Discussion Groups, called `Google Groups.' For as long as anyone can
remember there has been a Discussion Group called
`misc.health.alternative.'  But no longer.  Yesterday, Google shut it
down, claiming the group violated Google's Terms Of Service.
“It was never known who started the group, nor who managed it.  But it
was always clear that it was a forum for bashing cutting edge health
care, for the most part by posters using a fake name, and more often
than not, those posters viciously attacked, using the most offensive
language and suggestions of odd sexual preferences.”
As always, Bolen blows out the irony circuits. But the bit about
“offensive language” and “sexual” references is particularly
interesting. Language? Bolen's “reports” have freely used words I
avoid spelling out in violent science fiction. Sexual content? Bolen
is the one who insisted on injecting the sexual orientation of James
Randi into his “reports” about DDI v. Barrett, even though RANDI HAS
NO KNOWN ASSOCIATIONS WITH BARRETT OR THE CASE.

“Some of the internet's nastiest posters got their start here.  "Orac
the Nipple Ripper," for instance, reveled here, belittling his betters
until, of course, his identity was revealed, and the attack on him was
reversed.  Avoiding the sting, he ran for his own Blog, where he could
control the posted comments about his writings.”
Let's see, this is from the guy who used a sock puppet to try to
convince readers at “Respectful Insolence” not to donate to Barrett's
defense fund by LYING that the fund could be seized through the
purchase of a debt that wasn't for sale and wasn't owed by Barrett (if
it even existed), and to threaten and attempt to silence them by LYING
that they could be added as defendants in the case merely for
commenting publicly about it.

“But Google shut it down, quite ceremoniously...
"`Ratbags,' Peter Bowditch, a man of no particular importance, but a
nasty mouth, wallowed here  Bowditch is the head of the so-called
Australian Skeptics, and clearly VERY CLOSE to James Randi, the
Skeptic' s originator.  Keep this in mind for future articles about
the quackbuster organization.”
And speaking of, a reference to James Randi. Note that in Bolenspeak,
“clearly” can mean “on the basis of no evidence whatsoever”.

“I always strongly suspected that it was here, on this Discussion
Group, that the quackbusters (and there are not that many of them)
perfected their technique of adopting multiple fake identities to
bolster their crude arguments against cutting-edge health care. 
Bowditch, who, I believe, has the easily recognized writing skills of
an over-sugared fourth-grader, appears to have used up to thirty
different identities.”
So says the man whose social development appears to be arrested at the
level of a fifth-grade bully, and who has not only used sock puppets
routinely, but even exchanged “replies” with his own socks.

“More, it was here that Ilena Rosenthal challenged this nasty
operation, and got sued for her efforts by Stephen Barrett  and Terry
Polevoy.  As you know Ilena Rosenthal cleaned their clocks in the
California Courts, and at least one of the group still owes her over
$450,000 in attorney fees awarded by the California Court.”
So Bolen keeps saying, without offering the slightest proof. And
incidentally, when Ms. Rosenthal was spending all that money defending
herself from a suit Bolen provoked, how much money did HE donate to
her defense?

“For years the so-called misc.health.alternative Discussion Group was
a dueling ground between the clearly-of- lesser-intelligence
quackbuster/skeptics, and supporters of cutting-edge health care.  You
could always tell when, and this always happened quickly, the
quackbuster/skeptics became mentally overwhelmed, for they would
resort to the multiple identities, sometimes cross-gendering, and the
over-the-top sexual innuendos.”
More translation of Bolenspeak:
“Cutting edge”: “Useless at best, dangerous at worst.”
“Multiple identities”: “Random accusations of...”
“Over-the-top”: “Only mentioned to make fun of Bolen when HE brought
it up.”

“It is very possible that Barrett's support network, through whomever
was actually running it as a bashing service, petitioned to shut it
down, for it contained about fifteen years of evidence of quackbuster
online activity.  A few years ago, I recall, Barrett erased all the
archived back years of the so-called `Healthfraud Discussion Group,' I
suspect, as soon as they realized that, there too, was a repository of
evidence that could be used against them.”
Wow, this is mindboggling even by Bolenator standards. By posting to
“misc health alternative”, Bolen greatly increased his “footprint” on
the web, with his posts there not infrequently appearing higher in
google searches than his own site. He used this resource not just to
spread disinformation and defamation, but to threaten people with
action by DDI and others he he had no authority to represent.
Throughout that time, nothing was done to stop him. Now, however,
google has shut the group down, for what I deem more than 90% likely
to be the s*krieg between the “Mad Spammer”, believed to be Michael
McAllister, and myself. Said action was taken after google refused to
take much simpler and reasonable actions like shutting down the gmail
accounts the Mad Spammer created as usenet puppets, often stealing the
names of those he defamed. As gratifying as it might otherwise be to
see the Mad Spammer and the Bolenator both lose a major stomping
ground, this is one time even an Evil Possum can only turn away in
disgust. But Bolen has already rewritten history to declare his long-
time haven a “bashing service” by the very people he was able to
defame with impunity, and to speak of its demise as if it were a
victory rather than a disaster for him, and for once for the authentic
exercise of free speech as well.

“Of course, the people over at Doctor's Data v Stephen Barrett Federal
Court case, are EAGER to get into Discovery - and, it is also obvious,
that Barrett and company are desperate to keep evidence away from
them.”
More translation:
“EAGER to get into discovery”: “Wishing the case wasn't about to be
dismissed.”
“Desperate”: “Amazed this case wasn't dismissed last Summer.”
“And, no matter what, of course Google keeps a copy of the archive...”
As if everyone didn't already know that.

“I love it. 
“Stay tuned...”
... For Bolen to be discredited and humiliated worse than usual.