This Week's Voltaire Award Nomination

... goes to someone who is definitely not suffering from Novak's Syndrome. Leon Sparx wrote after his part in the riverSbend imbroglio:

"Riverbend is an Iraqi woman who blogs from Baghdad. ... While I disagree with her politics, I sympathize with her status as an Iraqi woman in Baghdad and encourage her to keep blogging. "

let's hope [the faker riverSbend] gets a clue and devotes his time to less fraudulent ends.

Regular readers may remember Leon Sparx as one of the individuals who had their artwork stolen by the riverSbend faker, and who took steps to prevent this after being alerted by Bending Truth. He tells the story in more detail at his own blog at the above link.

Anyway if I was of a mischievous bent I might suggest that anyone who really thinks that poor old "Diego" is getting a hard time and that he's really just a delightfully well-meaning senior citizen, should be expressing this viewpoint to people like Leon Sparx who don't have all that much time for the real Riverbend but aren't going to let that impair their ability to recognise right from wrong.

In fact I think this may be a very fine treatment for sufferers of Novak's Syndrome. I'll try and run up a list of people who do not much approve of Riverbend herself but who have even less time for riverSbend and his underhand smear tactics and suggest that all those Novak's sufferers who think Bending Truth is being hard on "Diego" should take it up with those of the same broad political persuasion who disagree with them.

My suspicion is strong that the nature of their psychological illness will make this very difficult for them to do, but I am quite sure the attempt will nonetheless be very therapeutic.