The Prime Quack has been identified: Andreas Moritz. He has admitted to getting Wordpress to pull Michael Hawkins’ blog, and is also threatening me, now.

Michael Hawkins,

You may blame me for having your blog pulled. WorldPress had to remove your blog because otherwise it would have faced a hefty lawsuit, given the nature of the defamation campaign you had launched against me, and having positioned your blog link second place on the search engines.

http://www.google.com/search?q=Andreas+Moritz&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

I have not yet decided whether to sue you for defamation. I have asked my attorneys to assess the damages your defamation campaign has done to my work, business, and reputation since your blog has been up. I know that they are significant, but if they turn out to be an excessive loss of revenue and reputation and/or if I see any more defaming publications by you or your blog friends against me or Dr. Makoney, I will not hesitate to launch an expensive lawsuit against you that you will not forget for a long time. I have collected all the data of your blogs and publications involving me. Your last email to Dr. Makoney clearly shows that you are instigating a new defamation campaign, at least against him.

My investigations show me where you live and where you study (Augusta, Amine), and if I hear or see any further activities that involve me or Dr. Makoney you will need to hire a good attorney to defend your slanderous actions and campaigns.

My close friend, Dr Deepak Chopra, who in addition to Dr Makoney and myself have been viciously attacked by your friend, the fish zoologist, PZ Myers, are considering a lawsuit against him. Slander is slander, whether it is done online or offline. If your friend is wise, he will immediately remove those blogs from his site.

Just in case you are not aware of it, below are stated the laws that protect people like me against people like you.

Sincerely,
Andreas Moritz

I had never heard of the quack Andreas Moritz, but it’s nice to see him exposed for the quack he is.

??? — How about a Topic of — You are not representing my views — ???

Hello,

I am writing regarding an article in the St. Louis Business Journal - http://bit.ly/74D6qS

Please stop trying to suppress scientific and medical advancements because of your personal religious beliefs and in my mind warped sense of morality. My neighbor with Downs Syndrome is a person, half a dozen cells in a petri dish is not.  Given a choice of analyzing those cells with a chance of improving her quality of life, or destroying those cells with no benefit, I’ll take doing the research.

There is also a very real economic impact of your proposed legislation.  “The economy of the City of St. Louis is closely tied to the City’s image as a cutting edge center for medical research,” auditors wrote. “The City of St. Louis ranks 12th in a listing of the Top 100 Cities for grants from the National Institutes of Health, with $441 million in grants flowing into the City in 2005 from NIH sources. This $444 million represents 85 percent of all NIH support flowing into the State of Missouri. These grants support our hospitals and medical schools (Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis University, Barnes-Jewish Hospital, and St. Louis Children’s Hospital), and, assuming that 60 percent of the funding pays salaries, account for approximately 5,300 jobs in the City. If only half of these jobs are lost — and it is a given that many of these jobs will be lost over time if this amendment is passed — the City will lose $1.3 million in revenue each year.”

Only one year left of her bane on Missouri Politics.

There is two thing that government could do that would affect nearly every citizen in a positive way:

1) Put a cap on fees for early cancellation of services - in my mind the fee should never be more than 1 month service.
2) Put a cap on interest rates that credit card companies can charge - In my opinion 10% APR.

Below is a letter I recently sent to DirectTV about an unfair cancellation fee that they refuse to do anything about…

Direct TV
Attn: Billing Disputes
P.O. Box 6550
Greenwood Village, CO 80155

Account Info:
Name: JAMES HOFER
Account Number: 123456
ph: 123.456.7890

Hello,

I have been a Direct TV customer for over 10 years. A little over a year ago (08/28/08), my Tivo DVR was having problems and I considered switching to Cable. Someone in your retention group convinced me to stick with Direct TV - they said they would throw in a Free HD DVR. I specifically asked if there was an addition contract commitment and they said there was not. I called to cancel my Direct TV today, and the 3 people I spoke with said that there would be a nearly $200 charge if I canceled now. I WOULD NOT have remained a Direct TV customer in 2008 if I had been told that there was a 2 year commitment involved - the technology changes too fast for any commitment longer than a year.

At this point I am switching to Cable for my TV viewing with a 1 year commitment. In a year I plan to investigate U-verse and satellite again, but if we can not resolve this billing dispute, Direct TV will not be considered.

James Hofer

Account Info:
Name: JAMES HOFER
Account Number: 123456
ph: 123.456.7890

Hello,

I have been a Direct TV customer for over 10 years. A little over a year ago (08/28/08), my Tivo DVR was having problems and I considered switching to Cable. Someone in your retention group convinced me to stick with Direct TV - they said they would throw in a Free HD DVR. I specifically asked if there was an addition contract commitment and they said there was not. I called to cancel my Direct TV today, and the 3 people I spoke with said that there would be a nearly $200 charge if I canceled now. I WOULD NOT have remained a Direct TV customer in 2008 if I had been told that there was a 2 year commitment involved - the technology changes too fast for any commitment longer than a year.

At this point I am switching to Cable for my TV viewing with a 1 year commitment. In a year I plan to investigate U-verse and satellite again, but if we can not resolve this billing dispute, Direct TV will not be considered.

James Hofer

p.s. I will be posting a copy of this letter on my Blog and on Facebook along with your response.

• I don’t know what’s worse, that I felt compelled to do research to understand a comic strip or that I felt bad for not understanding it right away.  The mouse over text should have been enough to give it away.
• I’m off to Toronto next week.  I have to catch a cab to the airport at 4:30 am next Wednesday.  Wee fun.

• Taking the boat to the lake in 4 hours.