Healing

You know, when we can watch cult videos like this and all we really want to know more about is, "Where'd a cultist get that outfit?", it's possible we might have followed cultism too long.

Or just given up.

Or the PTSD has passed.

Or we're just becoming "normal" again.

Plus, seriously, we can't win - that's been a theme of this blog from the start:

We can't win.

Not against NewAge.

Remember, the other day, we were talking about how Oprah's exploited Jon Stewart's "Rally For Sanity" event? Well, we've found another story about how some low-level NewAge bullshitters are exploiting (and making fools of) Major League Baseball players, too. Now, if All-American Mom and Apple Pie Major League Baseball is gullible enough (or - being jocks - stupid enough) to fall for this, what hope is there for a really snotty blog to make a dent in anything, but possibly certain individual's lives?

See, when we got into this, we thought it would be simple:

A) Find some pundit, screaming something like, "MALARIA KILLING MORE PEOPLE THAN WE THOUGHT?"

B) Helpfully point out that, over 200 years ago, malaria was the first problem claimed to be "cured" by Samuel Hahnemann's homeopathy.

C) Wait for the whole world to go, "Oh yea, wow, thanks TMR!" (We expected this to take no longer than 3 days.)

D) The entire world-wide homeopathy industry collapses in shame.

We now see that was unrealistic.

Plus skeptics tried it in England (no media outlet covered the story in America) and Britain's NHS got away with saying, essentially, "Fuck you, the NewAgers are paying, so bugger off!" and that was the end of that.

So we can't win.

Instead, we go on, reading one "informative" article saying:

"Homeopathy has no proven clinical benefit for patients. ..."

Followed by another "informative" article entitled:

"13 Benefits of Homeopathy"

And we are unmoved by any of it. Except, if that's how they want to play it, to feeling a little bit more content with the idea of anomie. But - to anyone thinking that's a wrong reaction to have - don't forget, in truth, it's the only "normal" reaction a human being could have. From the blurb on Harry G. Frankfurt's "On Bullshit":

One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize bullshit and to avoid being taken in by it. So the phenomenon has not aroused much deliberate concern. We have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, why there is so much of it, or what functions it serves. And we lack a conscientiously developed appreciation of what it means to us. In other words, as Harry Frankfurt writes, "we have no theory."

Frankfurt, one of the world's most influential moral philosophers, attempts to build such a theory here. With his characteristic combination of philosophical acuity, psychological insight, and wry humor, Frankfurt proceeds by exploring how bullshit and the related concept of humbug are distinct from lying. He argues that bullshitters misrepresent themselves to their audience not as liars do, that is, by deliberately making false claims about what is true. In fact, bullshit need not be untrue at all.

Rather, bullshitters seek to convey a certain impression of themselves without being concerned about whether anything at all is true. They quietly change the rules governing their end of the conversation so that claims about truth and falsity are irrelevant. Frankfurt concludes that although bullshit can take many innocent forms, excessive indulgence in it can eventually undermine the practitioner's capacity to tell the truth in a way that lying does not. Liars at least acknowledge that it matters what is true. By virtue of this, Frankfurt writes, bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are.

Is it "normal" not to address (or to pretend not to see) "one of the most salient features of our culture", though recognizing it's "a greater enemy of the truth"?

Really?

Wonder where that cultist got that outfit?

From Naïveté To Nonsense (To Knocking Heads)

It's not often I can claim to be naive about NewAge, but, when it comes to Homeopathy on the NHS, I've been sillier than most:

I sincerely thought England was going to do the right thing and ban it.

But, now that I think about it, I was foolish. Why would the NHS stop selling water when they've got believers paying $75.00 a bottle for it - and the NHS is cash strapped? I mean, if they weren't above exploiting their patients before, and (as doctors and scientists) they surely knew that's what they were doing, why in the world would they be above exploiting them now?

If they want to so blatantly show they don't give a damn about anything but the bottom line, then they might as well go all the way. Seriously, the next obvious step is going to be NHS Brand Homeopathic Medicines - the "energy medicine" with 50% more "vital energy", right?

And all of it straight from the tap. None of these games, that it was carefully prepared according to certain principles, since it's already been revealed that homeopaths don't know how much shaking goes into it to make the water active. And Tom Chivers of The Telegraph, UK wants voodoo included now as well:

"The time has come. The Government has denied our rights as consumers, and as patients, for too long. My campaign starts here: fund hoodoo folk magic on the NHS.

You might think this is ridiculous, that the African conjuring practices clearly do not work, and that magic and nonsense have no place in the NHS. But you would be wrong. The Department of Health has released a statement about magic and nonsense – in the specific form of homeopathy – on the NHS, and it has come down firmly in its favour.

In the Government Response to the Science and Technology Committee report ‘Evidence Check 2: Homeopathy’, it says that: 'Complementary and alternative medicine, including [magic and nonsense], has a long tradition, and very vocal proponents and opponents'. Well: you can’t claim that hoodoo lacks that. It’s been around since at least 1875, and the African and Christian traditions it is based on far longer.

They add that 'the overriding reason for NHS provision [of magic and nonsense is] to provide patient choice.' I fail to see why this should be limited to homeopathic magic and nonsense. If I didn’t know better I’d say it was cultural bias towards European magic and nonsense. But African and Caribbean magic and nonsense has just as strong an evidence base, and patient choice would be better served by providing it.

And while we are talking about evidence: hoodoo magic and nonsense might not work, but whether or not a medical treatment works is not the only factor to consider in funding it on the NHS, according to the DoH: 'Efficacy is certainly important. Also important, however, are the fundamental principles that underpin the relationships between the Department and the NHS in England, between UK medicines legislation and the European regulatory framework, and between the clinician and the patient.' Well: we have no reason to believe that hoodoo works better than a similarly administered placebo, I must admit. But the relationship between the witch-doctor and his or her patient is very close, just like that between a homeopath and his or her patient."

Under the circumstances, it makes perfect (non) sense. And they'd better hurry:

Believers get angry when they don't get what they want - and you "doctors" don't want to see them angry.

Be Men: Introduce Andrew Lansley To John Galt

This is surely one of the biggest loads of shit anyone has ever laid outside a toilet bowl:

"It has been described as ‘witchcraft’ by no less an authority than the British Medical Association.

But homeopathy spending on the NHS could now rise despite the Health Service facing drastic cuts.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley (above) yesterday rejected calls from MPs on the Commons science committee to ban funding of the unproven treatment.

He effectively gave the green light for spending on homeopathy to go up, because of his plans for patients to be able to ‘shop around’ until they find a GP willing to prescribe complementary therapies.

This means more patients will have access to such treatments. There will be no restrictions on the advertising of homeopathic treatments, he added."

I've said it before and I'm saying it again: if doctors want to gain control over their profession again, they need to stop - cold - and tell bastards, like Andrew Lansley, to get out or people will die, period. The choice is his.

That doctors refuse to do that, because of their oath, is bullshit. Being involved with quackery is not your job. These NewAgers are making a mockery of you, personally, and medicine professionally. If you can't see that, then you're too stupid to be called doctors. Oh, fuck it.

Damn you weak-kneed assholes all to hell. You're worthless. I spit on you for letting this stand.

For shame.

The Cultish Ninnies And Nannies Who Love Nada

"Homeopaths and patients lobbied Parliament this week to push the Government into improving access to alternative medicines.

It came as MPs called on the NHS to scrap its funding for homeopathic treatment, which amounts to about £4 million a year.

Just last year a hospital run by the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust stopped providing homeopathic remedies.

But 27,000 people signed a petition declaring 'homeopathy worked for me' and hit out at critics who claimed alternative medicines are merely a placebo."

-- Kent News, U.K.

Because, of course, it's impossible a mere placebo could be what "works" for them. No, instead, they'd rather attempt to force the entire world into buying homeopathy's magical belief system - at any cost - and then (even though this exact same idiotically rebellious behavior is the basis for almost every cult that ever existed) still not consider them cultists.

Well, all I've got to say to them is, "Good luck with that":

I know what you are - and it's over.

Holding Back The Water

"Homoeopathic medicines should not be allowed to make claims they cannot justify and should not be paid for by the taxpayer, MPs will recommend.

A report from the Commons science and technology committee is expected to criticise the use of NHS resources to fund the remedies based on the current evidence for them.

The committee will also argue that medicines should not be allowed to use phrases like 'used to treat' in their marketing, as consumers might think there is clinical evidence that they work.

During the committee's inquiry, the British Medical Association said the use of homoeopathic medicine could not be justified on the current evidence.

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain said there was no possible reason why such treatments, marketed by an industry worth £40 million in this country, could be effective scientifically."

-- Laura Donnelly, with the good news the end might be in sight for Homeopathy in England - at least in the hospitals - because there's no justifiable reason why taxpayers should be coughing up money for nonsense, especially when it originated before The Telegraph.

The Dilution Of Homeopathy Has Begun

"The campaign against the [NewAge] remedies has had a particular impact on homeopathic medicines, which have been available through the NHS since the health system started in 1948. Prescriptions dropped almost in half to 49,300 in 2007 from 2004, and costs declined to 321,300 pounds from 661,400 pounds, according to NHS Business Services Authority statistics.

'It’s the easiest target -- the medicine that contains no medicine,' said David Colquhoun, a University College London pharmacology professor who writes a blog on what he calls 'dubious and dishonest science.'

Colquhoun said a favorite homeopathic dilution level is so thin that you would need a pill the size of the distance from the earth to the sun to get even a single molecule of the original substance.

...The criticism also has hurt the funding of the country’s five homeopathic hospitals, which had a combined budget of about 6 million pounds a year,...

Royal London Homeopathic’s income from local health authorities dropped 28 percent to 3.5 million pounds in the fiscal year ended in April,...One north London health authority, Brent Teaching Primary Care Trust, ended a contract with the hospital in 2006, saying 'there is insufficient evidence' for the care.

The NHS homeopathic hospital in Tunbridge Wells, south of London, lost its biggest sponsor in July and may close when funding runs out in March."

-- David Altaner and Andrea Gerlin, showing skepticism "works" more effectively than alternative medicine, on Bloomberg.com.

Well, Homeopathy Has "Side Effects" After All,...

"People are starting to realise they are being conned by the whole complementary medicine establishment,..."

Michael Baum, professor emeritus of surgery at University College London, on the cutting of National Health Service funds for homeopathy, which he has described as "cheap and nasty medicine" and a "cruel deception" that causes "cultural and social damage".

As someone who lost his mother-in-law, his 20-year marriage, many friends, as well as his faith in other people generally - including a large portion of the medical establishment - all over a nonsensical belief that water can "heal", I'd say that's an understatement,...:

"Homeopathy, and those that practice it, sell it, believe in it - or are so "open-minded" as to even tolerate it's outrageously bug-eyed claims - create the conditions for Hell on earth", would be a much more accurate description of the magic water's "side effects" on society, if you ask me.