Sometimes, very strange mail makes it through my spam filter. (I use the server-side program SpamAssassin to simply reject obvious spam, then I filter the rest via my mail program based on SpamAssassin’s score. That works fabulously well.) Here’s a recent head-scratcher that made it into my inbox:

Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2008 19:42:41 -0400
From: “I will be a total Sheriff”
Subject: Clarification. Herbert West III, Candidate for Sheriff.
To: [email protected]

..I have shown and will continue to show, that I will remove and expose any and all corruption and problamatics. I refuse to give anyone, to include those who feel their stature as a cop places them above the law, any different special consideration. I will be a total Sheriff, not a paid puppet who protects corruption….

[mysterious link which I won't reproduce]

Um, okay, dude. Best of luck with that.

Here’s another bit of stranger-than-fiction news story: Dad arrested after dispute over which gang right for baby.

When Mom wears one set of gang colors and Dad wears another, conflict over how to raise the baby can cause irreconcilable differences. At least that’s what happened for one Commerce City couple.

Commerce City police were called to a disturbance Saturday at a Hollywood Video on East 64th Street, where a man reportedly was harassing his ex-girlfriend, who was working there. The man knocked over a computer and a magazine stand and yelled obscenities at her, witnesses said. He left the store before police arrived.

When officers questioned the woman, they learned that the two had been together for four years and were the parents of a child. When police asked the woman why the two had separated, she said they have “different ideas about how the baby should be raised,” according to a police report. When officer Daniel Swift asked the woman what she meant by that, she said that the two belong to different street gangs. “They could not agree on which gang the baby would claim,” Swift said.

Joseph Manzanares, 19, was arrested later at his home. He was taken to the Commerce City Police Department for processing and then transferred to the Adams County Jail, police said. Manzanares pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct, and a harassment charge against him was dismissed. He owes Adams County Courts $810 in court, processing and probation-supervision fees. Manzanares wasn’t available for comment.

Um, shouldn’t this incident be grounds to remove the child from the custody of these obviously unfit parents? (Via Ari Armstrong.)