Unruly Women's Threats, Demands: Criminal Fraud or Postpartum Psychosis?

Crazy Postpartum Moms Make Company Rethink Generous Return Policy

By: Fat Lester

This article began as a comment in response to an article written by Jennifer Moyer about postpartum psychosis.

Reading Ms. Moyer's article left me wondering whether or not a disgusting behavior I've experienced at work far too many times is the product of a sociopathic scam artist engaging in criminal, fraudulent behavior; or a mentally ill woman desperately in need of some help. Prior to reading Moyer's article, I had always presumed that the behavior was the former, never even so much as considering the latter.

I work for a company that sells maternity and postpartum supports (orthopedic undergarments designed to provide physical support to women during and post-pregnancy).

We often receive requests for refunds months after women order a maternity support such as the Prenatal Cradle. The obvious suspicion here is that these women want to have their cake and eat it too, using the product until it is no longer needed, then attempting to return it for a full refund after giving birth.

These women all seem to have one thing in common: a mentality that that they deserve and are entitled to receiving their money back despite our company totally fulfilling our obligation for the initial transaction. It's not like these requests come days or weeks after the orders are placed (we do receive such requests, but these often are eligible for an exchange or refund).

The ones that come months afterward are those to which I am referring. The women will call with a tone-of-voice clearly meant to bully the person on the other end of the line. They threaten everything from writing negative reviews to filing chargeback disputes with their credit card companies (we've yet to lose one when they follow-through on these requests). Each time, it appears as though the woman genuinely believes she's the first to ever think of the idea, and thus should be able to pull the wool over our eyes without any problem.

When informed that requests made so long after the initial transaction are ineligible for a refund, they have been known to become so abusive that the owner of the company ordered all customer service personnel to immediately discontinue such calls when the customer becomes abusive and/or threatening.

Anyway, do you think that this behavior would fall into the category of postpartum psychosis? That certainly would explain this rage-fueled mentality that until now we've only been able to explain by writing them off as lunatics, bullies and/or scam artists.

The question is whether or not they planned to attempt to get their money back prior to giving birth, as that would answer the question of whether or not they are simply scam artists who have realized that they can often have their cake and eat it too by threatening online retailers, many of whom simply give in to such uncivilized behavior. My employer stands firm on principle, insisting that such demands constitute fraud, and has even suggested that the act is criminal in nature.

What is your opinion about this? Are these women really merely suffering from a legitimate mental illness or are they simply dishonest scam artists who have figured out how to abuse the system successfully?

Vitamin D3 and Chronic Hair Loss

Vitamin D3 May Help Reverse Chronic Hair Loss

By: Peter Egan

Chronic Telogen Effluvium: Can Vitamin D3 Reverse It?

A particularly interesting post appeared on the Vitamin D3 blog Wednesday, April 24, 2013. Unlike the other articles and news stories detailing scientific research and clinical trials in terms normal people can understand, this post was actually a lengthy comment submitted by a reader in response to an article confirming a link between vitamin D deficiency and alopecia, a form of premature hair loss.

The lady detailed her experience with Chronic Telogen Effluvium, a hair loss condition considered to be among the most severe, with little known about the condition, its cause or how to fix it.

According to "Elle", she had tried every solution under the sun to try to regrow her hair after being diagnosed with chronic telogen effluvium to no avail. She checked her own records from all of the blood tests she'd had conducted over the years, and was shocked to learn that despite her doctor(s) never once mentioning anything of the sort, her vitamin D levels were alarmingly low in each test in which they were measured.

For the past three months, she has been on an intensive vitamin D3 supplement regimen, and claims that her hair has not only stopped falling out, but also has started to grow back.

Gun Ban News: Tulane Students Cite "Widespread Rape" in Calls for Security

Tulane's Campus Gun Ban Leads to "Widespread Rape" of Female Students

Tulane University's female students have been among if not the most commonly raped demographic of people in the entire world for at least a decade now. When I was a student at the institution, I took note of this, and being a women's rights advocate did the only rational thing I could think to do: request the school eliminate its campus-wide gun ban in an editorial which was featured I the campus newspaper.
Thinking I'd done a good deed in helping protect the poor women being victimized while leaving campus, you can imagine my surprise the next week when I saw this: http://www.thehullabaloo.com/views/article_5021235c-7d42-56b3-9425-f25942f0800a.html.

The paper received a record 450 responses by the print deadline and countless more afterwards. They dedicated the entire op/ed page to the least vulgar of the hate mail that poured in for weeks afterwards. I received one email from a fellow student who commended me for standing up to the liberal institution and fighting for what is right.

For what it's worth (for those who read the hate mail linked to above), Kira McAllister refused to accompany me on my walk home from campus. I did email her and request that she do so.

The fact that this has gone on for a decade because the criminal waiting two blocks away have guns and the students do not is heinous and I hope that eventually one of those rape victims has the courage to sue the school for the physical and psychological harm she had to endure because Tulane threatened to expel her if she dared protect herself.

For anyone interested, I wrote a more in-depth and more general dissertation of the problem in which I posed the question of whether or not universities are actually encouraging such violence by placing the students at a disadvantage. Anyone wishing to read it can find it here: Do Colleges, Universities Encourage Violence Towards Women?

I think the answer to that question is patently obvious. Please share your thoughts on the matter should you feel strongly enough about the issue to do so.

Please don't take my word for it though. If anyone thinks this is even remotely exaggerated, please see the following, which I had no part of: http://jezebel.com/5877160/tulane-university-students-invoke-widespread-rape-in-calling-for-increased-off+campus-security 


"I'm pretty paranoid in general.  I carry around pepper spray with me everywhere I go,” said Tulane University student Angie Baroffio." http://www.projectnola.com/the-news/news/42-fox-8/177260-off-campus-crimes-have-loyola-tulane-students-on-edge

Gun Control Debate Finally Settled: It Doesn't Work

Gun Control Definitively Proven a Failure, Debate Finally Over

In light of the recent strategy involving yet another school shooting and yet another balls-to-the-wall effort from democrats to exploit the tragedy to advance their gun control agenda, the debate has reared its ugly head once again for the first time since the 2004 election cycle.

Following a NOLA.com story involving yet another Tulane University student being robbed at gunpoint (thank God at least this time the victim was male, and there was no rape accompanying the armed robbery, as is typically the case), a former Tulane student who was enrolled in late 2003 and early 2004, a time period during which rapes and armed robberies of (mostly) female students walking home (or to their vehicles) from campus had reached epidemic proportions, dared to speak out against the violence against women by way of an editorial published in The Hullabaloo, the Tulane student newspaper suggesting his theory as to why so many students were being violently attacked while leaving campus.

His theory: a campus-wide firearms ban prevented students from adequately defending themselves in one of America's most dangerous cities, and one in which the criminals are keenly aware of the fact that these campus-wide gun-free zones exist. He went on to suggest that unless the university did away with the policy either voluntarily or following litigation initiated by the victims of these crimes seeking monetary compensation sufficient to account for damage to person and property, as well as punitive damages; the trend would only continue. He was right.

The week following the debut of his editorial appearing in the Hullabaloo, the paper received a record number of submissions of what ultimately were better classified as hate mail rather than legitimate letters-to-the-editor attempting to refute the student's editorial appearing the week before. An editor for the paper at the time all this was going on reportedly told the student that the paper received more than 600 total letters in response, and 450 or so by the deadline for print the following week. The overwhelming majority contained language rendering them unsuitable for print.

The week following the student's letter suggesting the gun ban on campus was if not the problem at the very least counter-productive towards any viable solution, the Hullabaloo devoted its entire op/ed page to the least vulgar of the letters written in response, published under a page-wide headline at the very top reading "Re: Peter Egan Jr".

Obviously, Kira McAllister, one of the students whose retort was published the following week, had never been raped while walking home from campus. She suggested better alternatives such as traveling in groups. Oddly enough, in an email exchange that ensued, Ms. McAllister denied Mr. Egan's request for accompaniment on his own walk home from class.

Well, with the issue back in the news both because if the attack on the Tulane student, the recent school massacre and the regime's efforts at removing the final obstacle barring the implementation of a full-fledged totalitarian police state, the story resurfaced. First, it appeared on the personal blog of the pro-women's rights student, Peter Egan. Later, a scaled-down version appeared at a social news site called Thruzt, a link to which later appeared on Facebook. It was in this Facebook status update containing the link to the story at Thruzt in which the debate was finally settled decisively, definitively and once-and-for-all.

In the follow-up post to this one, the debate that ensued will be published in its entirety for all to see. In it, each and every argument in any way related to the issue came up and was settled in favor of the pro-freedom crowd --- and by a wide margin at that. Each and every argument used to support arguments in favor of gun control was surgically dismantled with a degree of precision not seen in political communication since the heyday of Ronald Reagan.

In any case, the merits of the issue have now been decided. Anyone who wishes to may see for him or herself the extent to which from a debate standpoint, this one was quite the blowout. Anyone who believes in gun control can easily access facts that more than adequately refute the agenda-driven "studies", illogical and fallacious arguments used to support the systematic dismantling of arguably the most critical component of any free society.

After reading the entire conversation, the only way one could still support gun control is through either A) Blind Faith; B) Belligerence; or C) A desire to disarm the civilian population of a free society in order to transform it into a totalitarian state in which only police are permitted to possess weapons.

Here is the argument that decisively won the gun control debate: http://lamesubdomain.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-discussion-that-won-gun-control.html

Mississippi Gulf Coast: Great Beaches, Better Prices

Mississippi Gulf Coast: Great Beaches, Better Prices

As those with whom I am closest are already aware, in early 2012 I made a fairly significant move from Covington, Louisiana to Long Beach, Mississippi. The move was motivated by a desire to reside literally ON the beach, and have the luxury of walking outside and fishing, sunbathing, etc.

For the first six months or so following the move, I was commuting to-and-from Covington from Long Beach, a round-trip that comes out to approximately three hours per day.

Needless to say, it wasn't long before I'd grown weary of the excessive drive time, not to mention all of the lost productivity that comes with it. I decided within weeks of the time I began residing along the coast that I would eventually be taking my talents and my business interests to Long Beach. A little over half a year later, that process is well underway, a commercially-zoned piece of property secured in downtown Long Beach to go with the beachfront condominium in which I've been residing was the missing piece. I am presently in the process of moving all of the inventory and equipment from Covington to my new "home town".

Long Beach is everything I had hoped it would be and then some. While the fishing isn't always great, it's not altogether bad either. There are days when the fish are biting and days when they're not.

Likewise, there are days when the beaches are full of local talent (and/or tourists), and days when the only females on the beach are their with their husbands and/or children.

The change has done me some good. The increased sun exposure has led to significant weight loss on my behalf, which is likely the result of increased testosterone levels, a little-known side-effect of men soaking up the sun's natural rays on a regular and consistent basis.

About a month ago, a beautiful girl came into my life from literally out-of-nowhere, and as much as I tried to fight it I fell in love with her immediately. She couldn't help but comment repeatedly during our first couple of outings together that the physical attraction she felt for me was unlike anything she's ever experienced. While I may otherwise overlook such remarks as pure flattery, I've seen myself in the mirror lately and quite frankly I can see where she's coming from.

The sun exposure coupled with stress and a lot of exercise has me in the best shape I've been in since high school, and the combination of factors has me as happy as I've ever been in my 30 years on earth. I just thank God for the past six weeks (and in a more general sense the past 7 months), and hope and pray that the string of recent blessings continues.

Oh, one other thing worthy of mention is the fact that Long Beach is effectively a ghost town where the pre-Katrina homeowners cannot give away their property, so anyone looking to snatch up a nice house, apartment or condo on or near the beach may want to take a close look at Long Beach. I did, and as of today it ranks among the very best decisions I've ever made.

New Business Communities Stare Down Manta, Merchant Circle

StoreBoard, ShowMeLocal and CrunchBase Making Waves

CrunchBase

A handful of new business communities have popped up in recent months and appear poised to make a serious run at traditional kings of the small business directory/community Manta and Merchant Circle.

One of these is CrunchBase, which appears to be the business affiliate of TechCruch.

CruchBase is slightly different from the others in that anyone can suggest an edit, and anyone can add anyone else to the site (it's also for the people who run the businesses). However, it has a unique look and feel to it, and it's the only site in its class that allows a company to list literally ALL of its presences on third-party and social networking sites.

CrunchBase Information

Egan Medical Equipment

Information provided by CrunchBase

Storeboard

Another of the three communities to really raise some eyebrows is Storeboard, whose membership is growing faster than America's national debt. While Storeboard hasn't been around that long, the site is clean, highly functional and for the most part well-patrolled for spam.

Storeboard has a comprehensive set of features, as is evidenced by the photo below of a typical Storeboard profile: 

In addition to their main profile page (pictured above) Storeboard allows companies to host their own blog, post news stories, post links, add photos and videos, list their Facebook and Twitter info as well as chat away in the new-to-debut Storeboard Forums.

Like most sites of this nature, both Storeboard and the below-described ShowMeLocal.com allow users to post products, coupons, deals, jobs and classifieds to the site.

ShowMeLocal

Finally, the third of the three online communities for business owners, entrepreneurs and professionals that appears poised to mount a serious challenge for marketshare in the online world of small business directories / business owner communities is called ShowMeLocal, with the emphasis on this one obviously being the local aspect.

ShowMeLocal profiles are too large to include in this post with a single screen-shot, but they're nearly as full-featured as are Storeboard's.

The bottom line with all three of these sites is that their platforms, technology, features and staff all seem to be at least equal to if not better than the two dominant players in the business, and any of the three could emerge as a long-term competitor that will draw significant humans and resources away from the other two, dramatically altering the landscape for years to come.

If you own a business and care about how well it does or whether or not it succeeds, having a profile on each of these sites is absolutely imperative.

Phone Stalkers Do More Harm Than Good

As anyone who has ever made the mistake of signing up to receive information about online colleges and traditional universities with extensive online course offerings knows all-too-well, the ensuing harassment undertaken by the telemarketers acting on behalf of the various "institutions of higher learning" can be a major detriment to one's quality-of-life. The callers have no regard for the privacy of their victims, calling seven days a week, and numerous times each day at that.

Their goal is to get the victim to agree to attend their substandard self-proclaimed educational institute for the sole purpose of persuading the telemarketers to leave them alone.

I have been called by online universities and payment processing companies as early as 6:30 am, give or take five minutes, as late as 9:00 pm, not to mention on weekends, when for a period of several months I would receive several calls each day without exception.

I know I didn't sign up for this harassment. But how then would they get my information and what would lead them to believe I had any interest whatsoever in attending their bogus universities or switching to their payment processing service that has to rely on cold calling  in order to generate leads. This tells me that their service must not be very good if mass media plus word-of-mouth is insufficient to generate attention, and if they must resort to calling me hours before I'd otherwise wake up on a Saturday in order to inform me of their company's existence, I will continue to interpret that as their way of saying that neither their service nor their company meets my standards.

The most important lesson to take from this is that if you have an enemy (or enemies), and you'd really like to get at them good, sign them up unknowingly for information about taking college courses online and/or hiring any one of a large number of payment processing companies which all appear to use the same telemarketing service to inundate unsuspecting would-be customers with unwanted phone calls.

Man's Weight Loss Secret 'Exposed'

WARNING: This Weight Loss System Only Works for Responsible People Who Are Not Lazy

Little did I know when I made the decision to keep a stray puppy who showed up at my medical equipment store and chased away my customers for four days that the decision would ultimately turn out to be among the best I've ever made - at least as it pertains to my own personal health and fitness.

The puppy, who appears to be some variation of a golden retriever mixed with chow, originally appeared during the heart of winter, antisocial and severely malnourished. She would not allow people to come within about 30 feet of her, but for whatever reason hung around the store, which is located along a very heavily trafficked thoroughfare in Covington, Louisiana.

It's a miracle that she wasn't killed by a passing vehicle during those days before I was able to catch her. Well, turned out she was a runaway, almost certainly due to abuse sufferd at the hands of her previous owner. Extremely skittish, while not aggressive, she would snap in defense when anyone made any attempt at touching her - particularly her head, neck and face.
This made her "unadoptable". The Humane Society wouldn't take her, and I refused to bring her to the pound because I know what they do to dogs there (they systematically and methodically kill them). Thus, I decided to take her home with me and work on establishing a bond of trust with her in hopes of taming her enough to find her a good home.
Well, she grew on me, as I did her. While she still has her moments, and is still hyper-sensitive to any agressive talk or movements, she's come an awful long way for a dog that everyone else had left for dead (with many advising me to bring her to the pound and let them murder her).
She's also had a bit of an unexpected impact on me personally, and my relative degree of health and fitness, to be specific. You see, I live in a condo with no backyard in suburban Long Beach, Mississippi. Dogs occasionally have to "go". In fact, for those dogs that reside primarily indoors, they must be walked several times a day, 4-5 at the absolute minimum. They also have what to humans seems like an infinite amount of energy to burn off, which lends to the walks being very fast-paced, occasionally graduating into outright jogging.
I moved to Long Beach about 8 weeks ago. Prior to that, I had lived in a rural community where the dog had plenty of green space to roam about as she saw fit without any leash or restraint. With the move, I had inadvertantly taken on the responsibility of walking and exercising the dog.
When I moved, my clothes also fit me --- quite well in fact. That has changed so much that this past weekend I came to grips with the reality that I'm going to have to buy an entire new wardrobe. While fishing in the surf along the Mississippi gulf coast on a beach that while not crowded, is frequented by enough people that it is by no means isolated, and certainly not private.
One can imagine the thoughts going through my head after wading out about 100 feet into water about 4-6 inches below waist-deep. The first real wave that came along brought the water level to my chest, and my bathing suit to my ankles. This was a bathing suit that had fit rather well when I first moved to the area, so I had no reason whatsoever to suspect that the weight from the water added to the suit itself as a result of being wet was sufficient to prevent the shorts from staying in place. It was so bad in-fact that I had to literally hold them up by grabbing the waistline of the shorts with my fist and holding it around my hips. Luckily, there were no children around to witness the traumatic spectable.
The worst part was the walk back. I had to carry two fishing poles, a large tackle box and an ice chest, having to pause every few steps to pull up my shorts before they fell too far.
While certainly not a pleasant experience (briefly losing my britches in plain view of everyone on the beach), and without a doubt anything but a pretty sight (at least for most), the flip-side is that I'm in the best shape now that I've been in since my early 20's, and I have my rescued dog to thank for it. All those walks, runs and jogs have definitely paid off in terms of my health.
Sure, she's put a pretty big drain on my wallet, but I'll gladly trade the money it costs to feed and care for her along with the cost of my new wardrobe, not to mention being put in a bit of a compromising position for the better part of an hour in exchange for peak fitness.
So, if you're struggling to lose weight or have a desire to lose weight, are a responsible and caring person, and are not inherently lazy, you may want to consider visiting your local animal shelter and adopting a dog. This goes for anyone, including both men and women experiencing weight gain - so long as the individual is responsible and motivated enough for such a long-term physical commitment.
A pet is a major responsibility, and is not right for everyone --- especially those with anger issues, who lack empathy or who are downright lazy, narcissistic or irresponsible. However, if you do qualify as someone suitable to become a pet-owner, a puppy can be a wonderful way to improve your quiality of life, a loyal companion whose love is truly unconditional, and on top of all of that a pretty darn good way to motivate oneself to exercise and lose weight.
It sure worked for me. Just ask everyone at the beach whose vision was forever scarred by an untimely wave that left no room for doubt that I am in fact in far better shape than I was two months ago, with at least four inches gone from my waste that had been there as recently as February.