Guitars Play In The Background (Just Like The Children)

 

 Come on, admit it - it's better this way: 

 

Although hostility to, and conspiracy theories about, MMR vaccinations are common to many parts of the quack business, homeopathy is notably dubious. In a 2002 study by Ernst and Schmidt, featuring an online query from a fictitious anxious mother, not one out of 77 practitioners advised her in favour of the triple jab. Since when, while Wakefield has been discredited, sympathetic homeopaths have prospered: a few months ago, Ainsworths, the homeopathic pharmacy endorsed by Prince Charles, had to be ordered by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency to cease advertising its own, alternative – and content-free – "vaccine" against measles. 

Mercifully for Ainsworths, what is considered dangerous by one part of government can still be cherished by another, and not only via the appointment to the science and technology committee of Britain's foremost adherent of homeopathy and remote healing, the Tory MP David Tredinnick. It was Mr Tredinnick, astrologers will recall, who once had to repay £755 for constellation-based health software he had included in his parliamentary expenses. 

After some recent controversy, when its content was discovered to have been interfered with by one of Prince Charles's many colleges of Charlesology, the NHS Choices' re-re-revised homeopathy page still makes it clear that this branch of magical thinking remains very much a part of the modern NHS. While it asks the public to put science first in organ donation, and swears never again to ignore hospital data, the NHS tolerates, for instance, referrals to the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine, where Hahnemann's absurd system is still passed off as respectable treatment. "Medicines which can produce an illness matching the one from which the patient is suffering are prescribed," it informs homeopathy patients, "aiming to stimulate the body's own healing." 

Summarising the discipline as "rubbish", the chief medical officer, Dame Sally Davies, has told Mr Tredinnick's committee: "I am perpetually surprised that homeopathy is available on the NHS." Concerned, perhaps, to make her arcane language comprehensible to Mr Tredinnick and his fellow homeopathy fan, Jeremy Hunt, the outgoing chief scientific adviser, Sir John Beddington, characterised NHS homeopathy, more recently, as "mad". 

With the greatest of respect to the government scientists, "rubbish" and "mad" still seem kindly descriptions of a licensed, potentially harmful idiocy,...

 

 I'd feel pretty weird if they weren't. Like I was one of the people I find myself arguing with:

 

WHEN Tom Kendrick's mum Anstey was diagnosed with breast cancer she refused to have chemotherapy and opted instead for a raw garlic-based diet. 

Three years later she went to her doctor suffering lower back pain, which was diagnosed as secondary cancer and killed her months later. 

Her son is now urging people with cancer not to reject conventional medicine in favour of alternative therapies.

 

 I mean, I don't mind looking stupid. But actually being stupid? I mean, really, really stupid? 

Disco Ball stupid? Uh-uh. 

I'd never make it.

 

While Olympic ski champion Lindsey Vonn is cheering on Tiger Woods again at the Masters, her ex took a shot at the new couple on Twitter. 

Woods was penalized two strokes on Saturday for an improper drop in the second round, hurting his chances to win a fifth green jacket. The problem started when a television viewer called in to question whether Woods had followed the rules. 

Thomas Vonn tweeted, “No problem Masters tournament happy to call in and help. You always have to keep an eye on those cheaters.” He added a smiley face to his comment. 

Somehow, we get the feeling that neither Tiger nor Lindsey is smiling.

 

 But everybody should smile - it really is better this way,...

 

One Public Petition I'd Like To See Quickly Submitted To The White House For Action (And It's From The Dead,...)

We Can't Win (For The Losers We're Stuck With)

This isn't intentional, we're sure, but there are some days when we read Glenn Reynolds and all we can do is give him the Picard face palm.

Like when, during the Tiger Woods fiasco, he posted Frisky articles by hookers (?) that were supposed to give us enlightenment on how to maintain relationships. WTF?

They could've just wrote "Pay Me."

Or like,...well, yesterday, when Reynolds put a Hot Air Reader Poll up, stating "Fiscal issues trump social issues by … quite a lot." right behind another Frisky article (?) by Susannah Breslin called "30 Things I Wish I’d Done Before I Turned 30."

So what's the problem? Well, from where we sit, it's pretty clear that what we, as a nation, have been doing and thinking socially obviously informs how disastrously we've behaved fiscally. Our financial house wouldn't be in this shambles if our politicians - and our people - weren't so fucking foolish with our beliefs, time, and money. Or, put another way:

It would've been impossible for Bernie Madoff to do what he did if all those people, (pretty much all Democrats) who started off in life so much richer than we did, were ever thinking clearly. (Isn't Reynolds practically bragging he put $100 down on a Nissan Leaf and ain't got shit to show for it? Real fucking smart,...)

Here's three things on Breslin's Frisky list that every reader of TMR knows gets our goat:

18. Been More Spiritual.

22. Figured Out Who I Was.

23. Mastered Yoga.

Gawd. Every one of them an Extreme Time-Waster, a sign of a barren intellect, and a Guaranteed Money-Sucking Machine.

Don't know who you are, Miss Breslin? Here, let us help:

Look at the name on the article - it says, "Susannah Breslin" - there, figured it out yet, you fucking dip?

Is it any wonder we can't get our economic house in order when the writers hired (or, in the case of Glenn Reynolds, self-elected) to inform us can't even make the simplest of connections and/or have such warped priorities? How are Americans supposed to get out of this recession when so many have got their heads stuck in their navels trying to be "More Spiritual"? What-in-the-fuck is being "More Spiritual" anyway? We'll tell you what it is, it's becoming this idiot:

And, as far as "Yoga" is concerned, Oh Susannah, find a fucking chair and bend yourself over it - Ta Da! - you've now entered the wonderful "spiritual" world of stretching, you fucking moron. You're welcome:

We just saved you years of time and tons of money.

Now, we're sure, both Breslin and Reynolds (if they're bright enough to care) are asking themselves, "Well, who is this to be saying we don't know shit?" It's someone who had already accomplished 20 of the 30 things on that stupid fucking list you two find so ripping important in a recession - and did them by the age of 30 - that's who.

Listen, telling our politicians to stay away from social issues is smart. The last thing we need is more San Francisco-style halting of Happy Meals or the Mayor of New York determining how much salt we eat or where we can play chess. The same goes even more for the dips in Washington - we can handle it, folks.

But, by the same token, the last thing the rest of us need is to be engaging further in any more useless "spiritual" endeavors that bleed our wallets and do nothing for our national well-being. If you want to blow money and feel good about yourselves, then here's what you do:

Find someone less fortunate than yourself (and fuck this "volunteering" shit, like your punk asses don't know anyone, personally, who's not doing as well as you are) and GIVE THEM SOME FUCKING MONEY! HELL, DONATE TO THIS BLOG IF YOU FIND IT TOO DIFFICULT TO FIND A FRIEND IN NEED: THERE'S REAL PEOPLE - MINORITIES EVEN - ON THE OTHER END OF YOUR COMPUTER SCREEN, RIGHT NOW, ASSHOLES - GIVE US SOMETHING! WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU? ARE YOU FUCKING BRAIN DEAD? OR ARE YOU GOING TO KEEP HIDING BEHIND THAT "TALK NICE TO US WHILE WE WATCH YOU STARVE" BULLSHIT?

You wanna know what we wished we had figured out by the time we were 30? How many dumbshits there are in the world, who they are, and how much damage they'd have been able to cause by now, that's what. Because it certainly wasn't us who turned our economy or our society into a shambles; it was people who thought like these two self-satisfied back-scratchers, that's who. And now they want to give guidance to the rest of us on how to get out of it? Puh-leaze!

If you ask us, an apology - for ever getting the rest of us into this shit - would go a hell of a lot further, right now.

The Devil's In The Details (That's What They Say)

"Tiger Woods’s confession on Friday was a forced conversion to the Oprahite religion of emotional openness and making public one’s miseries and failings."

-- Brendan O'Neill, making me wonder how many times Oprah's name is going to be mentioned - in a negative light - before it's decided her NewAge influence has been harmful to Western culture, somewhere other than The Christian Science Monitor.

You Guys Make It Really Hard Not To Hate You

"'Finally, there are many people in this room, and there are many people at home, who believed in me. Today I want to ask for your help; I ask you to find room in your heart to one day believe in me again.'

Whew, that's a tall order. Believe in what? The squeaky-clean Tiger Woods whom people believed in does not exist. All that's left is the two-faced, womanizing, narcissist Tiger Woods who is working hard to become a better person. He's like so many other pro athletes who were caught in a lie.

People shouldn't believe in anything about Woods other than his superior golfing skills.

He's not a proper role model.

Tiger did seem genuine in expressing remorse and wanting to get on with his life, save his marriage, and reunite with his children. Here's wishing him success with that, and with continuing a fine career. But, please, don't ask people to believe in what never was."

-- The Philadelphia Inquirer

O.K., I can't believe it, but this "belief" stuff is beginning to get even sillier:

As a nation, y'all will "believe" in established religion, NewAge, quackery, scams, con men, global warming/climate change, other forms of pseudoscience, politicians even - any number of dumb and totally unbelievable things that no intelligent person has any reason to engage in - but let a solitary man stand in front of you and confess his sins, ask for your forgiveness and support in his endeavor to be a better human being, and all of a sudden "belief" is out of the question? How dare you? Do you think this enhances the credibility of the NewAge culture you created? If you do, you're a bigger bunch of fools than I've given you credit for - and that's saying a lot.

Here's my take - not on Tiger, but on the rest of you - from the heart:

You are the biggest bunch of irrational, hypocritical, contradictory, and cruel generation of Americans in the history of this country. You willingly "believe" in nonsense, and will torture anyone (or even anything) that represents good in this world, based on completely arbitrary and superficial notions that are as outlandish as the things you do attempt to convince others to "believe" in. You let Tiger get away with this stuff, as long as he kept up a false image, but let someone swear while standing up for the right things, like I do, and that person will instantly become persona non grata and unworthy of your time, respect, or - yes, love - because they refuse to put on the false front you so crave. (Ain't Lady Gaga a major talent, worthy of all the adulation you give her? Sure.) Like I said, you're a bunch of flaming hypocrites who wouldn't know truth, or honor, if it was snake ready to strike.

Where was this call not to "believe" when Obama was running for office as "The One"? Where were you as Oprah Winfrey spent 25 years pushing one stupid, harmful idea after another - culminating in the election of the worst president in history and the death of 3 people in a "Harmonic Wealth" con man's "Spiritual Warrior" sweatlodge? Surely not telling the American public not to "believe" in that crap. Homeopathy is sold in stores, Kevin Trudeau's sorry ass does a brisk business on television, and so much more, but now - now, when you've got a wannabe-honest man in the crosshairs - you want to pull in the rug and say, "no, not for this?" Figures:

It's no wonder that I can no longer "believe" in anything y'all say.

Tiger's got more credibility than the rest of you.

And, Buddhism or no, he's still a much, much better role model. And he got more sex.

And he's definitely a better golfer, too.

Reaching Out To A "Higher" Power Don't Work

"The echoes of religion are everywhere."

-- Ann Althouse, on what's wrong with Tiger Woods' apology - "Spiritual life, balance, centering... therapy displaces and partakes of religion" - which is why his words still ring kinda hollow, in the Althouse.

Religion's Recklessness Really Ruins Reality

"Brit Hume’s comments on Fox News Sunday — 'I don’t think that [Buddhism] offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith,' and, 'My message to Tiger [Woods] would be: Tiger, turn to the Christian faith, and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world' — have unleashed a torrent of criticism from the Left, including the various circus acts over at MSNBC and the Washington Post’s Tom Shales.

Shales’s criticisms in particular are manifestations of a mind that is enraged and slightly unhinged; they are ad hominem and, in some respects, unserious.

One cannot help but think that if Hume had recommended that Woods embrace Transcendental Meditation, the philosophy of Deepak Chopra, or the New Age movement, instead of Christianity, Shales would not have been so offended."

-- Peter Wehner, further confirming, for me, that this is now a NewAge nation, and the already-discredited media - through it's acceptance of these already-discredited modern day beliefs and the already-discredited spiritual con men behind them - has now also become the already-discredited enemy within, while writing for The National Review.

Prey

So let's start with The Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan, since she threw her hat in the ring with the Democratic Party's NewAge Obama cult:

"Something tells me this [current American discontent] isn't all about money. It's possible, and I can't help but think likely, that the poll is also about other things, and maybe even primarily about other things.

Sure, Americans are worried about long-term debt and endless deficits. We're worried about taxes and the burden we're bequeathing to our children, and their children.

But we are concerned about other things, too, and there are often signs in various polls that those things may dwarf economic concerns. Americans are worried about the core and character of the American nation, and about our culture."

Hmmm. Now what about "our culture" could be off - that isn't showing up in political polls? Maybe something spiritual?

"The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life released a report [that]... points out that many Americans are now choosing to 'blend Christianity with Eastern or New Age beliefs',..."

Weird. But let's not forget the #1 movie out there is alternately described as "stupid", "anti-American", and "distinctly New Agey". Do we have any other evidence it might be NewAge that's warping our culture beyond recognition? Chris Locke, AKA "Rageboy", author of The Cluetrain Manifesto (amongst other books and articles) and my fellow NewAge blogger, says he's been telling "the unlikely story of how America slipped the surly bonds of earth & came to believe in signs and portents that would make the middle ages blush".

A strange choice of words that, I would think, would be quite revealing to Roger L. Simon of Pajamas Media:

"On the last day of COP 15, staring at a Jumbotron where Hugo Chavez was addressing the conference, something was nagging at me besides the obvious (that half the audience was enthusiastically applauding a maniac). I was trying to figure out what it was about the conference that so perplexed and disturbed. And then, before the Caudillo had concluded his tedious remarks and long before the 'meaningful deal' between the world leaders was announced, I realized what it was. We had returned to the Middle Ages.

A high tech Middle Ages, of course, but still the Middle Ages. Forget the Renaissance, forget the Enlightenment, forget Spinoza, Locke, Galileo and everybody else, we had returned to our roots as gullible and idiotic human beings, as willing to believe in the primacy of anthropogenic global warming as we would in the sighting of the Madonna at a river crossing twelve kilometers south of Sienna in 1340."

Wow - he can't be serious - do modern humans really think like this? Hard to tell because, as "Rageboy" says, "nobody wants to be seen as New Age because nobody wants to be seen as irreparably stupid." But if you look at how even non-NewAgers talk, you can tell something *different* is going on, something most Americans might not be aware of. It's time for Slate.com's Jack Shafer to take a turn at the mic - and, remember, he's talking about golf:

"Given how desperately we want to believe in a human god, it didn’t take much peddling from Team Tiger for us to accept Woods as a modern deity. With every new tournament victory, every new product endorsement, his divinity grew. His marketers made him a symbol of tolerance and brotherhood, and his father, Earl Woods, spoke gibberish about his son being a creature of destiny. Getting married and having children only added to Woods’ marketability. I’m divine and monogamous and the center of a happy nuclear family. And we ate it up. So now that the 'real' Woods has been revealed … we’re embarrassed by the gap between who we believed Woods to be and who he really is."

I could go on but, boy, that sure sounds like NewAge language, behavior, and beliefs to me - and also a lot like Peggy Noonan's "other things" - as well as her observation that we're worried "about the core and character of the American nation, and about our culture", doesn't it?

Doesn't it?

Get a clue, people:

This is NewAge cultism in full bloom.

Oh, Yes! I'm The Great Pretender,...

"I have no words to explain what I have done to her and her family. I guess I would be deeply sorry for never considering her during the whole process--and him not bringing her up was just a way for me to pretend that he didn't have one (wife) and for me not to deal with it. I'm not going to ever say what I did is OK."

-- Jaimee Grubbs, one of Tiger Woods' bimbos, apologizing to his wife - something almost unheard of in this age of depravity - which I doubt is a sign of The Times.

Golf: It Was About The Bitches All Along

"Porn star Holly Sampson last night became the seventh woman alleged to be a mistress of golf star Tiger Woods."

-- Pete Samson, explaining why blacks have, historically, been kept out of country clubs - it certainly wasn't business connections - but a chance to be The Sun.