If We Sell The National Center For Complementary And Alternative Medicine We Can Give The Money To Blacks

Think about it: This nice white lady will have to get a real job.

TMR proposes renaming it The National Center For The Study Of How White Folks Can Pay Off They Debts!

That Curve I'm Ahead Of? (Far Off In The Distance Now)

I think, it's safe to say, when it comes to NewAge quackery - the former focus of TMR - the battle is (almost) won:

"The US National Institutes of Health’s Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), a perennial punching bag, no longer wants to be ‘alternative’." 

Now, when it comes to stopping white guys from celebrating their graduation by making banners saying "NIGGA WE MADE IT"? 

 That battle has just begun,…

 

Passing Thoughts (2U) Without Ever Moving My Mouth

Alright, let's open our minds a little bit, enough to accept tech workers getting weird "on the path":

“It’s going to be a place on Earth that becomes a sacred space for growth and development. The people who need love will end up here. We want the world to be a part of this. It’s not a secret journey, but you still have to go on that journey to get here.”

If you need a refresher before you take off, here's more on how we got here from wherever there was:

“In the United States, similar elite lobbying efforts to institutionalise nonsense were firmly launched in 1991 (a couple of years before the Prince formed the Foundation for Integrated Health) when the Senate Appropriations Committee -- which is responsible for funding the National Institutes of Health (NIH) -- set in motion a chain of events that led to the formation of the Office of Alternative Medicine. The 'prime mover' behind this momentous turn of events was Appropriations Committee chair, Tom Harkin, a Democrat from Iowa, who 'had been urged to take this legislative step by two constituents, Berkley Bedell and Frank Wiewel.' All three men having personally witnessed the alleged curative power of alternative medicine, and were therefore keen to use their political clout to advance their wacky personal beliefs. 

So it was that a Congressional mandate forced mysticism upon the very heart of the medical establishment, with initial members of the Office of Alternative Medicine's advisory panel including best-selling New Age authors Deepak Chopra and Bernie Siegel, not to mention Bedell and Wiewel. Unfortunately the Office of Alternative Medicine has gone from strength-to-strength, and in 1999 was re-established as a full NIH center known as the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM). This is not, however, to say that they have done anything useful (yet), other than prove that the utility of alternative therapies have no material basis. On this matter a recent study actually demonstrated that after distributing some $2 billion of funding the Center had made 'no discoveries in alternative medicine that would justify the current annual expenditure of $134 million' to maintain its existence.”

Speaking of things we can get rid of, I don't see how Peggy Noonan's winning anything (except in the Charlie Sheen sense) but everything else seems accurate:

"What’s strange about the column is that Noonan somehow takes the evident toll of the allegations against the IRS as proof that the Obama administration has gotten away with something: that this was a real and damaging scandal that is being dismissed by the media as overhyped. But what she is describing is in fact proof of the exact opposite: the allegations have taken a great toll on the agency (and, polls suggest, on Obama himself) precisely because they were overhyped and not dismissed by the media. In other words, Peggy Noonan won. She just doesn’t seem able or willing to admit it. 

The fact is, the more we learn about the scandal, the more egregiously and irresponsibly overwrought the initial coverage of it appears."

Fuck Peggy. I've got my own problems. One of 'em is everybody needs to grow up. Here's but one of the topics I'm struggling with - and, I think, the fact I so rarely see it addressed can have multiple meanings, good and bad:

"Where is the diversity of popular voices in Rap that give voice to being/acting like an adult? Perhaps I’m asking for too much. Maybe Rap is supposed to stay young—it’s a youth movement. Maybe I’m supposed to outgrow Rap as an art form while maintaining my love for Hip-Hop culture. I refuse to believe that’s true, though. But is Rap ready for the “' take care of my family and it’s difficult at times/I’m trying to pay my bills while simultaneously writing these rhymes'” record?"

I just don't know. Consider the man I mentioned in one of my songs, appearing (for the umpteenth time) to validate every word I said:

“Hip hop star DMX was arrested for driving under the influence in South Carolina this past week. Despite attempts by the rapper's publicist to deny reports of his arrest, it has been confirmed that X reportedly failed a sobriety test after being stopped by state troopers on July 25th. 

The South Carolina Highway Patrol told HipHipWired that DMX was arrested after being identified as a "possible DUI driver" in a 1978 Plymouth station wagon and was stopped for driving erratically. He failed a field sobriety test. He was also charged with not having a driver's license and not wearing a seat belt. 

Footage also surfaced of the arrest.”

 

I can't wait. Just as I can't wait for a new book out with a very provocative title:

“My Life in a Love Cult: A Warning to All Young Girls, My True Life Story by Marion Dockerill, High Priestess of Oom, 1928.”

1928? Wow. She was obviously a member of the NEW NewAge,...

 

Homeopathy: Just Another Kind Of "Stimulus"?

James Randi is up to his old tricks again - except, this time, the government's exposed:

James Randi launched a bold challenge Saturday that aims to debunk so-called homeopathic drugs. The fraud-busting magician even offered $1 million to any manufacturer who could prove they work as directed.

Finding science and medicine experts to defend homeopathy isn't easy. The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine offers a primer complete with an explanation of homeopathy regulation, the status of research and more.

That reference to The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine is significant, because they're the federal government.

Amy Alkon calls homeopathy "a scam".

English doctors call it "witchcraft".

Both of these descriptions make sense to us, since - along with a lot of what some consider mainstream in our NewAge-emersed society - they go hand-in-hand with the occult:

The Occult Bookstore has been offering guidance and books in alternative approaches to spirituality and self-healing since 1917, according to the store's website. It stocks titles on topics such as homeopathy, Zen Buddhism and old Hermetic magic. Though the store carries an array of used books, largely collected from old libraries, it specializes in rare, hand-bound books, such as Aleister Crowley's "The Book of Lies," which can cost up to $2,000. Crystals, amulets and other accessories are sold to complement specific spiritualities, and the store hosts readings, signings and classes that range from spiritual jewelry making to fire eating.

Let's see if Randi's offer gets to the bottom of a question we've been asking for years:

Why the American government "offers a primer" on a quack cure "scam", labeled as "witchcraft", that's sold by purveyors of "the occult"?

A Crippled Black Cat Crosses Our Sacred Path

Here's another post, real quick, to point out another aspect of NewAge in our lives - the homeopathic principal. Let's start, again, with Thomas Sowell:

"All the current political theater about 'international sanctions' is unlikely to make the slightest difference to Iran. Nor is the administration itself likely to expect it to. What then is its purpose? To fool the American people into thinking that they are doing something serious when all that they are doing is putting on a charade by lining up countries to agree to actions that they all know will not have any real effect."

Doesn't that sound familiar to "Here - drink this glass of water, America, in the total belief it'll cure your cancer"? Or, more to the point, how about this:

"NCCAM has spent $3.1 million supporting studies of Reiki, an 'energy healing' method. Not surprisingly, the $3.1 million has so far failed to produce any evidence that Reiki works. But because there was never any evidence in the first place, we should never have spent precious research dollars looking into it."

How many times are we going to keep doing things that are already acknowledged not to work? And how many more times will we run across articles, written by people who ought to know this shit doesn't work, asking - no: demanding - we do more shit that we already know doesn't work?

I say, as long as we have a NewAge based-culture, driving us insane.

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?

Homeopathy Is Water (And The Tide Is Turning)

"According to the BBC, the Brits spend about $6.25 million annually on homeopathic medicine. The NHS has sanctioned homeopathy since 1948, and surveys have found that a large percentage of British doctors recommend homeopathic remedies to their patients. The NHS currently supports four homeopathic 'hospitals,' although those facilities have been shrinking and are now mostly outpatient clinics.

But that's nothing to what we spend on homeopathy here in the U.S. As the Associated Press has reported, almost 4 million Americans (2 percent of adults) spend an estimated $830 million on homeopathic products each year. And although Americans pay out of pocket for their homeopathic treatments, the National Institutes of Health's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) did spend $3.8 million on homeopathic research from 2002 to 2007.

But NCCAM has apparently abandoned its research on homeopathy. 'The evidence is not there at this point,' the center's director, Dr. Josephine Briggs, told the AP.

Nor is that evidence ever likely to appear, for as NCCAM’s own website notes, 'a number of [homeopathy’s] key concepts are not consistent with established laws of science (particularly chemistry and physics).'

Now there’s an understatement."

-- Susan Perry, bringing the fight against homeopathy to the United States - without even mentioning Whole Foods or France - but further proving the jigg is up, at The Minneapolis Post.

A Political Cultist Accidently Admits Everything

"One of the purposes of [the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM)] was to investigate and validate alternative approaches. Quite frankly, I must say publicly that it has fallen short. It think quite frankly that in this center and in the office previously before it, most of its focus has been on disproving things rather than seeking out and approving."

-- Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) - the man most responsible for the spread of quackery in modern America - admitting A) quackery is all "alternative medicine" has been proven to be, and B) his multi-billion dollar, taxpayer funded, center's job is to "validate" that quackery, and C) he doesn't understand the first thing about science, on Orac's Respectful Insolence.

From TMR To Orac: Welcome To The Dark Side

"What's an advocate of evidence- and science-based medicine to think about the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, better known by its abbrevation NCCAM? As I've pointed out before, I used to be somewhat of a supporter of NCCAM. I really did, back when I was more naïve and idealistic. Indeed, as I mentioned before, when I first read Wally Sampson's article Why NCCAM should be defunded, I thought it a bit too strident and even rather close-minded. At the time, I thought that the best way to separate the wheat from the chaff was to apply the scientific method to the various 'CAM' modalities and let the chips fall where they may.

...Developments over the last several years have led me to sour on NCCAM and move towards an opinion more like Dr. Sampson's.

They don't want truly rigorous scientific studies to determine if these therapies work. They want studies that assume that these therapies work and then simply look at utilization and cost-effectiveness. They want funding of fellowships in CAM (taught, of course, by true believers). In brief, they want CAM promotion."

-- Orac, bravely admitting his past foolishness regarding the cultism of NewAge beliefs within science and politics - and why he's now giving them (and their defenders) what they deserve: Respectful Insolence.

Ethics? NewAgers Don't Need No Stinking Ethics!

"NCCAM has a budget of over $120 million a year and has spent over $1 billion so far researching, but also promoting CAM. Worse, it is funding trials that are not only scientifically dubious but arguably downright unethical; for example, the TACT trial of chelation therapy for atherosclerotic coronary artery disease, the trial of the "Gonzalez regimen" for pancreatic cancer, and the proposed trial of chelation therapy for autism. Adding an approximately equal money to the pot of CAM funding is the National Cancer Institute, which funds over $120 million a year worth of CAM research related to cancer."

-- Orac, covering the lunacy journalists should be working on (since we've gotten nothing in return for that $1 billion dollars) for Respectful Insolence.

A Democratic Love For Quackery Started It All

"Political pressure from the woo brigade can result in the NIH acting contrary to good science and even medical ethics to fund scientifically dubious studies if enough people (or, more importantly, enough of the right people) apply pressure or threaten its budget. It's exactly the sort of pressure that was applied in the early 1990s by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) to "persuade" the NIH to start the embryonic Office of Unconventional Medicine when the scientific leadership saw no reason why there needed to be a separate office to fund such research. Harkin then helped nurse its development into the current $120+ million a year money pit for bad science that has become the NIH National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM)."

-- Orac, giving us quackery's lay-of-the-NewAge-land in America (while equally outraged by the chelation therapy story) on his blog Respectful Insolence.

CULT WAR!!!

I am happy to report that, along with TMR and ANONYMOUS, there's been another call for a Cult War. Dr. R.W. Donnell writes:

"Although the rising chorus of voices against pseudoscientific medical education is encouraging the chorus is small, and the situation, from where I sit, is not good. At this late point nothing short of all out war on quackademic medicine will be effective. It can be done."

Indeed it can. I was treated as a mad man when I first proposed that war was the only answer to this problem but, now that skeptics are being attacked and doctors are waking up to the infiltration of hospitals, the fascistic tendencies of the cults are finally having the desired effect: Moving for a call to action.

And it's about time.

But what form should it take? We're talking about an enemy that's organized, years ahead of us, and, like Al Qaeda, fractured. So I think, like Anonymous, the Enlightenment's actions against the New Age should be multifaceted as well.

Many of the things that are necessary will not seem to make any more sense than what the enemy has proposed - like working with organized religion - but that's the nature of the beast: This is a war on a nonsensical enemy. And, as war, everyone must be prepared to do things that, on the surface, don't seem rational; that, maybe, go against their better natures - even their oaths as doctors. (It's unheard of, for instance, that surgeons would go on strike, but, since nurses do it - and nursing is part of the problem - it should seriously be considered.)

Obviously, NCCAM must be destroyed. And, yes, Bill and Hillary Clinton - as the two people who gave New Age credibility, and power, and as two of the chief purveyors of nonsense - must be defeated.

Clearly, Oprah's gotta go, too.

Health food stores, especially Whole Foods, yoga studios - they all must be directly challenged on what the hell they thought they were going to do to us. I know it sounds crazy but so is the enemy. And we gotta do what we gotta do:

Such people won't stop on their own.