NewAge: Ancient Man / Ancient War / Ancient Teachings

 Sen. Tom Harkin on the fight over ObamaCare:

"It's dangerous. It's very dangerous. I believe, Mr. President, we are at one of the most dangerous points in our history right now. Every bit as dangerous as the break-up of the Union before the Civil War."

 Tom Harkin, huh? Let's return to the NewAge news from as far back as 2009 - emphasis mine:

Senator Tom Harkin pulls a fast one: 

 Alternative medical practitioners will be part of the “healthcare workforce” under health care reform

Earlier this year, I wrote about Senator Tom Harkin’s attempt to hijack President Obama’s health care reform plans in order to inject quackery in the form of “alternative” or “integrative” medicine into the effort. Specifically, he wants to legitimize quackery by including it in any federal plan under the guise of 

 “preventative care.”

And what was the new Choosing Wisely list from the American College of Medical Toxicology and The American Academy of Clinical Toxicology saying again (Yes, again - emphasis TMR):

1. Don’t use homeopathic medications, non-vitamin dietary supplements or herbal supplements as treatments for disease or preventive health measures.

I tell you, study NewAge, and this shit becomes so clear:

Where would Harkin be in this fight, now, if his beliefs had been derailed by Republicans in 2009 or before?

Figure it out, Folks:

We're - literally - being undone by mental midgets,... 

 

I Can't See Why It's Hard To Find Fraud In Government

"The degree to which nonsense has trickled down to every aspect of this office is astonishing... It's the only place where opinions are counted as equal to data."

- Barrie Cassileth, The Development of the Office of Alternative Medicine in the National Institutes of Health, 1991-1996, p.282.

They Laugh At Me, I'm Laughing At Them (Hilarious,...)

“The forces of graft and unrighteousness are peculiar to no country or clime, and they have their champions in the high places and the low. Until the people themselves are better educated concerning the danger and iniquity of quackery, they must be protected from the forces that prey. The popular understanding of these matters is becoming better every day, and, aided by proper laws, the time will come, perhaps, when quackery will be unprofitable.”

That's a wonderful quote to summarize what we've learned (so far) about "the forces that prey" - politicians like Mitt Romney, Orrin Hatch, and Tom Harkin, as well as cult groups like the Mormons, and the other NewAgers in the various supplement (and "alternative" medicine) industries.

Because the citizens of this country (and others) are so ignorant of the rank quackery laid before them, under the guise of "health freedom," these influential individuals and the cult groups they belong to are allowed to promote "graft and unrighteousness," posing as "their champions in the high places and the low."

One of these corrupt loons is even headed to the White House.

I spotted the quote, which is actually from the year 1912, as the lead-in to a Steve Novella blog post on the longevity of quackery. Afterwards, he ends with his own words which, to me, are just as troubling:

Our perspective tends to exist in a temporal bubble – we think that the conflicts of today are unique to us, and that we innovated the ideas we use to defend our causes. History, however, tells a different story.

And why is this? Because, as I've been saying as long as I've been online engaging with doctors, they refuse to try a different tactic. They keep repeating what does not work, year after year, expecting a different result. Little wonder the medical profession has lost some credibility.

I am sure Dr. Novella is aware of the NewAge Movement. I'm not so sure he's aware many of the most vocal anti-vaccinationists, such as Jim Carrey, are a part of it.

I am sure Dr. Novella is aware of the supplement industry and DSHEA (He mentions both in his blog post on quackery). I'm not so sure he's aware the Mormon "church," and it's cult followers, such as Mitt Romney and Orrin Hatch, are responsible for them.

And I am sure Dr. Novella is aware of homeopathy. I'm not so sure he's aware it, too, is a cult, and not just a water-based preparation that some people seem to behave bizarrely over - for some reason few in medicine seem willing or able to put their finger on - even to the extent of ending their own lives and the lives of their loved ones.

But armed with his ignorance, like almost every other medical professional I've discussed these matters with, Dr. Novella writes as though there are few answers to quackery when, clearly, identifying cultism as a culprit is one answer left on the table - despite the overwhelming evidence of it's ubiquity in his field.

The late Jef Raskin, cognitive psychology researcher, creator and leader of the Macintosh project at Apple Computer Inc., identified cultism in Nursing Theory as far back as the year 2000 with little-to-no response from the medical community, though a nine-year old girl did get into JAMA for debunking the cult's theories.

But what of the various cults themselves? They carry on in the hospitals, reciting the Hitler Youth phrase "Mind, Body, and Spirit" right under the good doctor's noses, without a care in the world, because - when it comes to cults, cultish thinking, and the long-standing issue of cultism - the medical profession is filled with more "shruggies" than can be found anywhere, since - in this instance - they are thinking of anything but the welfare of their patients, who have been turned into hand-waving, water-drinking, nonsense-spouting mental slaves.

Long ago, a cultist warned me that "We're in the hospitals - we're getting legit - you'd better 'get' it before it's too late!" and those words could not have been more prophetic over the ensuing years. But, I'm sad to say, the doctors and nurses these cultists are attacking are as much to blame, for the cultist's success, as the cultist's themselves - because the doctors are wearing cultural blinders just as restricting to their view.

Stop repeatedly identifying quackery, and explaining how it works until we're dying of boredom, and start identifying who these groups are - not just the individuals within them. Abandon the softly-softly, non-judgmental, "respectful insolence" approach and pick up a rhetorical baseball bat, as such true leaders as Panda Bear, M.D. and Dr. Graham Sharpe have, and start swinging for your own survival.

Or - if I understand your profession correctly - finally start doing it for mine,….

 

You're So Bain, Part II (The Vetting Of Mitt Romney,...)

When Nutraceutical was founded in the early 1990s, it joined a natural products industry in Utah that had a long and colorful history. For example, in a 1979 article, writer Elaine Jarvik said that six Utah herbal companies were not only "the first companies in the world to put herbs in capsules, but they now account for 85 percent of the nation's herb business,…"  

In 1998, the Los Angeles Times ran a four-part series on alternative health. The third article focused on how Utah became what writer David R. Olmos called the "Silicon Valley of herbs." He pointed out that the state's herbal and supplement industry was "bigger even than the skiing trade." In addition to entrepreneurship, Olmos credited Utah's Mormon culture. Although the LDS church had long accepted modern scientific medicine, many of its members used herbs and other forms of alternative healing, partly due to the church's "Word of Wisdom" found in founder Joseph Smith's Doctrine and Covenants. Thus, herbalism, capitalism, and religious factors all took part in creating the history of Utah's herbal products industry.

When we left off, we were unpacking the quote above - in the context of Mitt Romney's ownership of Nutraceutical International through Bain Capital, Inc. - so let's continue putting the quote away (along with the claim Mormons are Christian) by focussing on it's second half:

In it, a claim is made "the LDS church had long accepted modern scientific medicine" but it is "partly due to the church's "Word of Wisdom" found in founder Joseph Smith's Doctrine and Covenants," that "many of its members used herbs and other forms of alternative healing."

This is a schizophrenic statement to say the least (How can someone, both, accept modern medicine yet also go against it, and do so because of a religious con man's anti-science revelation?) It clearly puts LDS members in the same ideological category as NewAge anti-vaccinationists who - because of ignorant revelations from the likes of NewAgers Jenny McCarthy and Suzanne Somers - adopt an anti-science posture while saying they're doing so in the interest of same.

Also, reinforcing the NewAge angle, reader PW sent a link showing Joseph Smith's wasn't the only "Word of Wisdom" the LDS church was fond of.

But wait - how can taking supplements be "anti-science" you ask? Well, let's look at what science has been telling us about this market, which was worth $23.7 billion in 2007 but is expected "to Reach US $107 Billion by 2017":

Diet Supplements or Nutritional Supplements: A Ruse by Any Other Name is Still a Ruse 

Taking vitamin E supplements may actually WEAKEN bones, study shows

Supplements: Not mystical anticancer magic

Health supplements 'could cause cancer': Study finds some products may increase chance of getting disease

Calcium supplements increase the risk of heart attacks, study finds

Soy [Supplement] Shows No Blood Pressure Benefit 

Little cognitive benefit from soy supplements for older women 

Ignore all that hype about antioxidant supplements: Why daily vitamin pills can INCREASE your risk of disease 

And this is the business Honest Abe - I mean, Mitt Romney - made his $250 million dollar fortune in. Boy, considering he loves and looks out for us that much, I can't wait to see what else he does for Americans! But it gets better. According to the original link PW sent me on Nutraceutical, it's "beginnings date to 1993, when Bain Capital, Inc.--a Boston-based private equity company--paired with senior management to organize Nutraceutical and consolidate what its leaders thought was a very divided nutritional supplements industry." And what great timing they had because, fortunately for them, according to the Science-Based Medicine website's article, "DSHEA: a travesty of a mockery of a sham":

In 1994, Congress enacted the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA).

Isn't that brilliant? The laws surrounding supplements were changed one year after Mitt got into the business! Why, it's almost as if he knew it was coming. But how could that be? Was it possible another member of the cult was given a heads-up?

[DSHEA] allows for the marketing and sales of “dietary supplements” with little or no regulation. This act is the work of folks like Tom Harkin (who took large contributions from Herbalife) and Orrin Hatch, whose state of Utah is home to many supplement companies.

Tom Harkin and Orrin Hatch. Well now. A member of the Democrat wing of the NewAge cult and a member of the NewAge Mormon cult, working together on something another of their kind has already heavily invested in. Who'da thunk it? And, considering the Clean Gene credentials of these two great political leaders - and the respective spiritual/religious/cult groups they're involved in - the integrity of the new regulations must be iron-clad, right? Right?

DSHEA has a couple of very important consequences (aside from filling the pockets of supplement makers). 

What does the FDA require of “supplements”? 

Under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA), the dietary supplement manufacturer is responsible for ensuring that a dietary supplement is safe before it is marketed. FDA is responsible for taking action against any unsafe dietary supplement product after it reaches the market. Generally, manufacturers do not need to register their products with FDA nor get FDA approval before producing or selling dietary supplements.* Manufacturers must make sure that product label information is truthful and not misleading. 

To paraphrase: “sell whatever you want, just don’t let us catch you.”

That's just the way NewAgers roll.

Now, since I just did a post on Tom Harkin - and this is supposed to be an investigation into the mayhem behind Mitt Romney and Mormonism - let's focus on that other great Mormon leader involved in the supplement industry for a moment, and by that I mean Orrin Hatch.

He should be called I-Can-Help Hatch because, it seems that, wherever his cult or a cult member needs a helping' hand, ol' Orrin appears to give assistance. Consider:

If the government had been as effective in eradicating religion from public life as George W. Bush likes to insist it has, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS) would not have been able to turn public park benches into church pews. But that's pretty much what happened in 1998, when LDS leaders secretly persuaded then-Salt Lake City Mayor Deedee Corradini to sell a block of Main Street to the church for $8.1 million. The church had been coveting the downtown land for years, as it slowly snatched up all the real estate surrounding the Mormon Temple, its religious capital. 

Initially, the church said it would remove the street and build a landscaped park that would "bring a little bit of Paris to Salt Lake," complete with reflecting pool. The city planning commission approved the deal on condition that the new plaza be regulated as a public park. But the city council signed off on a slightly different proposal, which quietly granted the church exclusive rights to proselytize in the park and to keep out those it found undesirable. 

As a result, people crossing the plaza on their way to Nordstrom can now be bombarded with religious brochures and broadcasts of LDS church president Gordon B. Hinckley droning on about the evils of "so-called gays and lesbians." Passersby, however, can no longer use the space to protest (as they did during the debate over the Equal Rights Amendment), listen to music, sunbathe, skateboard, smoke, or do any of the other things they used to be able to do on the city street and sidewalks. Mormon security guards will ensure that the poor schmuck smoking a Newport and sporting an "I'm with shithead" T-shirt finds another route to the mall. 

…Not everyone in Salt Lake was thrilled with the Mormons' "little piece of Paris." The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the First Unitarian Church sued the city, arguing that the deal gave the "indelible impression that the LDS church occupies a privileged position in the community" and blurred constitutional distinctions between church and state. So far, though, they haven't made much headway. But what did they expect? The federal judge hearing the case was a Mormon, hand-picked by fellow church-member Sen. Orrin Hatch.

What a guy - and what a cult. They said they wanted one thing - which no one could argue with - but "signed off on a slightly different proposal," that no one wanted but them,...with Orrin's "help."

Orrin also played everyone (like a piano) on the hosting of Utah's 2002 Olympic games - led by (who else but) Mitt Romney - which,…Oh Hell, read on:

Olympic officials, increasingly frustrated with the U.S. response to their [illegal supplement] concerns,...blamed the surge in nandrolone tests on a single U.S. senator: Orrin Hatch (R-Ut.). Hatch was the chief architect and sponsor of DSHEA, which among other things, prompted supplement makers to flood the market with vitamins, herbal remedies, amino acids, and other "natural products" like andro without any federal safety or purity guarantees. "[Hatch] is directly implicated in this affair," said Prince Alexandre de Merode, chairman of the IOC medical commission. 

The IOC criticism was particularly biting given that Hatch's home state will be hosting the next winter games in 2002, and that one of the games' major sponsors is, in fact, a supplement company. Utah had already produced a major Olympics bribery scandal; all it needed was a reputation as the world's steroid capital just as the IOC was arriving with its drug-test lab.

That's right - an anabolic steroids AND bribery scandal, in the same event, which was lauded by the press as "successful" - are Orrin, Mitt, and their "church" good or what?

Yeah - as good as the journalists who've repeatedly failed to put any of the "nice," salt-of-the-Earth, and filled-to-the-brim with integrity behavior of these so-called "spiritual" groups together. My hat is off to them all.

 To be continued,...

 

The Best And Brightest (At Wasting Time And Money)

Some scams can't be more clear: 

First we discover homeopathy isn't a cure for malaria - the original problem it was "invented" (and claimed) to treat - and now comes news there are allergy-related health risks associated with bee pollen, which, specifically, was the basis for President Bill Clinton's (and especially Senator Tom Harkin's) multi-billion dollar "alternative" medicine boondoggle, The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM).

It should also be noted that, despite years of our taxes being blown on it's anti-science "research" agenda - and Washington D.C.'s supposed interest in this all-important honey of a topic - bee pollen's health risk wasn't even discovered by NCCAM.

Correct-o-mundo, Einstein.

Now once again, repeat after me, despite the pain and embarrassment: 

 We are NOT failing from individual laziness, but from collective stupidity,…

It's The Times: Americans Will Swallow Anything

We don't know what it is about contemporary Americans, but there's something about waiting for a disaster to strike that seems to be the only way to bring a message home:

More than a dozen college football players are hospitalized—all suffering from muscle damage. One of those players is from Baltimore, and his father—a local football coach—wants to know what happened.

An investigation is underway to determine what made the players sick. Yet the manner and number that became ill is raising concerns about supplements.

A scare for players on the University of Iowa football team and their families. Thirteen athletes went to the hospital after what’s being described as an intense workout.

Now doctors believe the players came down with a condition known as rhabdomyolsis. 
 
“Rhabdomyolsis happens when you have a breakdown of the muscle tissue,” said Dr. James Williams, St. Joseph Medical Center.

Williams says rhabdomyolisis combined with dehydration and the possibility of supplements is dangerous.

“You have muscle breakdown from intense workouts. You have dehydration and then supplements which are nephrotoxic are damaging to the kidneys directly. That’s a perfect storm for kidney failure,” Williams said.

Supplements? You mean those pills everyone takes, unnecessarily, that are made by criminals? Naw, they can't mean those - those are sold in Health Food stores, and Whole Foods, and have the backing of Tom Harkin and Orrin Hatch - what could be wrong with supplements? Click here to find out - but be warned:

It ain't pretty.

But then, stupidity never is.

A New Approach (Before Anybody Walks Away)

I've been trying, for the longest, to get Glenn Reynolds to see the wisdom of The Macho Response to politics, but he still wants to play like I'm crazy, or so naive, I can't understand it on his level.

Well, maybe this'll show him:

"CARSON CITY — Surging Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle has had to defend her support of a prison program that her opponents linked to Scientology. Trying to head off that theme, Angle has eliminated from her campaign website mention of prominent members of the church, whom she worked with on other legislative efforts.

Angle has removed the claim that she, along with actresses Kelly Preston and Jenna Elfman, approached Sen. John Ensign to sponsor legislation prohibiting school employees from requiring students to take psychotropic drugs, such as anti-depressants.

Preston and Elfman are high-profile members of the Church of Scientology, which does not believe in the use of psychiatric drugs.

The apparent scrubbing of her website of the potentially controversial issue — critics of Scientology call it a cult — comes as Angle gains ground in the Republican primary, which has narrowed to a three-way race to take on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid."

Isn't that special? Openly tie a politician to their cultish endeavors and - BAM! - you get a response. And that response is, invariably, to hide and lie.

Not-cool.

Actually - it seems to me - an angry grassroots political movement, determined to take the country back, could use that.

Seems to me, if one wanted to purify the American political scene (as the Tea Party seems intent on doing) this would be like shooting fish in a barrel; much easier than the way it's being done now.

For instance: want to get rid of a powerful Democratic senator, like Tom Harkin? Then tie him directly to his NewAge quackery, his NewAge fruitcake friends, and NCCAM. It ain't hard to do - Harkin's been at it for over a decade.

Here, I'll let the late, great Martin Gardner supply some ammo, from all the way back in 2001:

"Elizabeth Targ is now the acting director of the Complementary Medicine Research Institute (CMRI). It is part of the California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC), in turn part of the University of California School of Medicine. Her institute is devoted to investigating such alternative forms of healing as acupuncture, acupressure, remote healing, therapeutic touch, herbal remedies, meditation, yoga, chi gong, guided imagery, and prayer. The institute’s literature does not mention homeopathy, reflexology, iridology, urine therapy, magnet therapy, and other extreme forms of alternative healing. Apparently they are too outlandish to merit investigation.

The NIH, through its National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), has provided funding for Ms. Targ to conduct a three-year study of distant healing on 150 HIV patients. The funding for the first year alone is $243,228, with a starting date of July 1, 2000. The NCCAM has also funded a four-year project to study the effect of distant healing on persons with a brain tumor called glioblastoma. The starting date was September 18, 2000, with a first-year grant of $202,596. Both studies, Ms. Targ said, will be double blind. It looks as though Ms. Targ, over the next few years, will be receiving more than two million dollars of government funds for her research on remote healing, the cash coming from our taxes."

That's money this quack (now deceased) got from one of our most nutty senators, all because Harkin thought bee pollen cured his asthma.

Not only that, but he's now spent almost a billion of our tax dollars on this foolishness.

I'd think, with the Taxed Enough Already crowd, that would make this weirdo ripe for the picking.

If that's not enough, how about Harkin's bullshit guidelines regarding herbal supplements - which he drew up with Utah's Republican senator, Orrin Hatch?

Both politicians were told, when they first drew the guidelines up, the rules weren't strong enough, and the manufacturers were crooks who would break the guidelines with impunity - but without penalty - which they've been doing with abandon. Now we read:

"Hatch said existing regulations, many of which he helped write, are adequate to handle any rogue supplement companies that want to make claims they cannot back up with science. The senator said the problem is that the FDA doesn't have enough resources to implement dietary-supplement laws or to aggressively pursue wrongdoers.

On Tuesday, Hatch introduced his latest dietary-supplement bill, which would boost FDA funding in this area and require the agency to provide Congress with an annual report about the progress made. The bill is co-sponsored by Iowa Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin."

Yea, yea. Sure, sure.

Does anyone in the Tea Party think - with exposure of the fact these two creeps are taking billions of our tax dollars and giving them to cranks and criminals to rip us off - the American people need these two foxes guarding the political henhouse any longer? I don't.

And there's tons of woo-woo out there to use against them.

I'm talking about the kinds of nonsense that, when grilled precisely, it's impossible for them to have a responsible explanation - so they're gone - without months of rallying or even waiting for an election.

Like Gandhi said of the British, they'll,...just,...leave.

Or am I so crazy, and naive, I'm not ready for politics in the big leagues?