Today is the eleventh blogaversary of Whirled
Musings, which began life in July 2006 as a humor blog targeting
New-Wage/selfish-help/McSpirituality/alt-health scams and
scammers. I didn't have any particular expectations for the blog
and figured I would continue writing it as long as it continued
to be at least marginally entertaining for me and for a few other
folks. And for quite a long time it was enormously entertaining,
at least for me, and for the most part I kept things on the light
side. Then things took a rather serious turn in the latter part
of 2009 with the James Arthur Ray "sweat lodge" deaths, which brought home the point that Scamworld has its
dark side too.
Still I continued my attempts at humor in between the serious
stuff, and even managed to work in a little bit of journalistic
reporting regarding matters such as the ongoing saga of serial scammer Kevin Trudeau
and the civil and criminal cases against him. Real journalists
even contacted me while working on their own Trudeau stories, not
that I ever received any public credit as a source, but that's
just the way things go.
In 2012 my Whirled began colliding with one of Trudeau's former
boyfriends, cancer quack and faux-doctor Leonard Coldwell, who tried
for years to silence me by posting lies and doxing me, and
eventually suing me (unsuccessfully). But the Whirled kept
spinning.
And it spins even today, although not everyone likes the spin,
particularly as I've become more frequently political,
despite the fact that Whirled Musings is not a political blog,
except when it has to be. Some former pals who were disillusioned
with the likes of Trudeau and Coldwell were, as it happened, fans
of the Scammer-in-Chief, Donald J. Trump, and didn't like my expressions of disdain for the
#NotMyPresident.
Trump famously said in a private meeting back in 2013 that he was
going to "suck all the oxygen out of the room" once he really decided to run for president. And he
did, and he continues to do so, as well as continuing just to
suck in general. I fear that he has sucked a lot of oxygen out of
this blog as well, for since last year I've been spending far
less time blogging my normal beat and more time with political
posts on social media.
But I still haven't forgotten or abandoned my original beat, and
I have plenty more to write. Thank you again for your support
over the years, and if you feel so inclined, blogaversary gifts
in the form of donations are always welcome.
Eight years ago today, on July 25, 2009, a
46-year-old woman named Colleen Conaway died at a San
Diego shopping mall after attending a "wealth creation"
seminar by James Arthur "Death" Ray, convicted killer and star of the New-Wage moviemercial
for magickal thinking and McSpirituality crapitalism, The Secret. Most of
you who have been following this blog and/or the blogs of several
others who have written about it -- especially Salty Droid and Yakaru of Spirituality is No Excuse -- know Colleen's story well. But it is a story worth
mentioning again, in the service of never forgetting.
If you don't know the story, a good place to start is this 2012 Whirled post, which
contains links to more detailed accounts. From that post:
Colleen, who reportedly had no history
of emotional or mental problems, apparently had a psychotic
episode at a James Ray event in San Diego in July 2009, and
she leaped to her death from a third-story shopping mall
balcony. After Ray found out about it, he and his top minions
apparently worked to cover it up, shielding the rest of the
attendees from the unfortunate event, and they all partied on
that night. If you don't know Colleen's sad story, my pal
Yakaru has written a good summary of this tragedy, linking to several Salty Droid posts.
At the time Colleen died, Death Ray was not yet a convicted
killer. That distinction came in 2011, in the form of three
convictions for felony negligent homicide, not for Colleen's
death but rather for the October 2009 deaths of three other people -- Kirby Brown, James Shore, and Liz Neuman -- in a
Sedona, Arizona faux-sweatlodge/torture chamber. For
these three deaths, Ray served a disgustingly short term -- less
than two years -- in an Arizona state prison. And while he has
reportedly settled with Colleen's family (I still don't know all
of the details there), he was never criminally charged, tried, or
convicted, and therefore has never served prison time for, her
death. In fact, Colleen's story, though reported in local
newspapers, didn't really become widely known until after
the Sedona story broke months later.
In the years since Ray was released from prison, he has been
trying his best to make a comeback, and has worked
the Sedona deaths into his narrative,
painting himself as a hero/martyr who has survived a trial by
fire and has emerged stronger than ever, prepared to charge
others for his hard-earned wisdumb.
In 2009, after rising to the top of the
industry, James was involved in a terrible incident that
claimed the lives of three of his clients who he cared about
deeply.
True to his own teachings, James maintained an attitude of
personal responsibility coupled with resilience. James is
constantly focused on extensive study of great philosophers,
as well as an in-depth analysis of himself. As a result,
he has defined a new approach that will radically disrupt
traditional thinking and present a fresh and dynamic approach
to being successful in both life and business...
...James’ personal and business experiences have caused him
to be considered an expert in leadership, entrepreneurship,
mental toughness, resilience and emotional strength. His
experience has proven time and time again…that it’s the
challenges, adversity, and often crisis, that present the
ultimate opportunity for growth and greatness if we’re only
willing to utilize them in that way.
Ray even tried to get his three negligent
homicide convictions overturned, but he was unsuccessful. He did
get his rights to vote and hold office restored, however.
Meanwhile, he continues to push his shtick, and though his crowds
are considerably smaller now than they were in those heady post-Secret,
pre-Sedona days, he still seems to have a loyal following of
dolts who either don't know, don't remember, or don't care about
his reckless past and unrepentant ways.
And in other, related news, the Transformational Leadership Council, the New-Wage/selfish-help cartel that Ray helped found
but that booted him out after the Sedona story broke, is getting ready to convene in yet another seekrit place on July 26-30, 2017 to bolster each other's egos. Their
summer event always takes place around the time of the
anniversary of Colleen's death, which is why I remember it. The
TLC used to publicize their events, and the locations, well in
advance, but in the past few years have been much more
circumspect -- at least on their official site. But another
co-founder, Jack Canfield, reveals on his site that the
event will be in Tucson, Arizona.
And so it goes. Death Ray natters on, and the TLC continues to
hold events where members congratulate themselves on being
masters of the universe, and Scamworld hums away: the dogs bark,
but the caravan goes on.
But that doesn't mean the dogs should give up on barking.
And once again, my heart goes out to the people
who loved Colleen Conaway. Never forget.
PS ~ While some folks have all but given up on the
self-help industry having any integrity, there are good people
working to improve the industry. One example is the Ginny Brown,
mother of Ray victim Kirby Brown. Following Kirby's death, Ginny
and the Brown family founded a non-profit called Seek Safely to
try to make the industry more accountable, guide consumers to
make safe decisions, and track legislation affecting the
industry. Check out Seek Safely here.
Related on this Whirled:
Oh, good Goddess, it's hot, and probably growing hotter all the time. But the intensifying heat hasn't stopped the scammers
from scamming, and once again I've been negligent about even
trying to keep up with all of it on this blog. But I feel that I
have to make a stab at it and so, despite the torpor imposed by
the brutal Texas summer, I have heroically dragged myself to the
keyboard to natter on about just a few of the scammers and scams.
Understand that I would much rather be sitting on my breezeway
sipping lemonade or a peach smoothie and re-reading The Wind
in the Willows (the 1980 Michael Hague illustrated edition is my current favorite), or Christopher Moore's Sacre Bleu or some other delicious bit of escape literature that
is far removed from the roiling scams and political scandals, but
I have a responsibility to the three or four people who read this
blog. I am doing this for y'all. You're welcome. And I apologize
for redundancy if you've read any of this on my recent Facebook
posts.
Little Hitler strikes again
For a guy who is constantly whining about his own free speech being censored, Mike "the Health Ranger" Adams, disingenuous alt-right conspiracy peddler, frauduct
pusher and Donald Trump a$$-kisser, sounds disturbingly like a
dedicated enemy of free speech -- almost Nazi-like -- when he
advises his readers, in a July 5, 2017 post on Natural News, to "burn the leftist-scripted newspapers."
But he may just be playing the part of rabble-rouser, as he has a
gleeful tendency to do. More importantly, in the above-linked
post he paints #NotMyPresident Donald J. Trump
as some sort of hero who will save all of us from the evil
machinations of Big Pharma. Adams predicts, without offering any
real substantiation, that Trump is poised to order the Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) to ban direct-to-consumer advertising
of prescription drugs on TV. And he gleefully speculates that
without Big Pharma ad revenue, "fake news" outlet CNN
will collapse and go bankrupt, which of course will be a triumph
for Trump and for all good people who are tired of fake news and
seek the truth from reliable sources such as Adams, Alex Jones,
Breitbart et al.
Several things are wrong with Adams' reasoning, apart from the
obvious fact that he fails to acknowledge that numerous other TV
news outlets such as Fox News -- not to mention a wide variety of
print media, including conservative print media -- also benefit
from Big Pharma ad revenue. First, let's imagine that CNN or any
of the other outlets were to suddenly be deprived of those creepy
ads in which hapless consumers move in slow motion through
surreal worlds, while being stalked and harassed by their upset
stomachs, overactive bladders, or irritated bowels, whilst also
battling their plaque psoriasis and/or new or worsening
depression. Would these media outlets collapse? It's highly
doubtful. Absent Big Pharma ad revenue, the outlets would no
doubt sell more ad time to other big spenders, such as car
manufacturers, beer brewers, big food companies, and so forth.
It's not as if Big Pharma is the only industry that buys ad time
on TV.
Second, and perhaps even more important, Adams' insinuation that
Trump will do much of anything to rein in Big Pharma is absurd.
Even though Trump has made derogatory comments -- during the
campaign and since the election -- about the pharmaceutical
industry, particularly in regard to exorbitant drug prices, he
has demonstrated time and again that overall he is a friend to
big business and industry, with his main agenda being to get rid
of "onerous" regulations that he apparently believes
prevent companies from realizing their full profit potential. As a March 2017 piece on the USA Today site points out:
...while President Donald Trump said he wants to reduce
the high costs of prescription medicines, he is also expected
to encourage fewer government restrictions on the development
and marketing of drugs.
Third, Adams seems to be insinuating that this is a
left-vs-right, liberal-vs-conservative issue, with the
leftists/liberals being on the side of the wicked, greedy Pharma
monsters, and the rightists -- particularly the alt-rightists
like Adams -- being the heroes who, with the help and support of
their superhero Trump, are fighting to protect the people from
those monsters. In reality, the "leftist, liberal"
press has been on Big Pharma's case for years and years, probably
since Adams was in elementary school. Certainly, liberal-leaning
outlets such as NPR are addressing the issue. Here's a doctor (yes, a real medical doctor), writing on
NPR.org about the true dangers of direct-to-consumer Rx
advertising.
Moreover, pro-bidness conservative types are far more likely to
be tolerant of drug manufacturers' (or any other business's)
obsession with profits over people. And left-of-center
politicians such as Bernie Sanders have been very
outspoken about the greed and bad practices of Big Pharma.
Granted, politicians on both sides of the aisle have accepted Big
Pharma money, with Hillary Clinton having received millions in
contributions. But overall, the big drug companies have poured more into GOP coffers. In an article published on STAT just before the 2016
U.S. election, back when most people still believed that Clinton
would win the presidency, Dylan Scott wrote:
The drug industry has
traditionally leaned Republican, and this year more
Republican members are at risk than sitting Democrats. Even
so, 2016 appears notably lopsided. Drug makers this election
cycle have supported Republicans in those closest campaigns
by a 6-to-1 margin, while giving the vast majority of their
dollars in competitive open seats with no incumbents to
Republican candidates...
...The dangers that a Democratic wave would pose to the drug
industry are no secret. Biotech stocks are already stagnating over fears of such a sweep; one stock analyst
called it the “worst-case scenario” in a note to
investors last week.
Among other proposals, Clinton has raised the possibility of
setting up a government panel to penalize companies for
egregious price hikes. She wants Medicare to directly negotiate
the drug prices it pays, a now-standard stump line for
Democrats, and to limit tax breaks for drug makers...
...The drug lobby “is pretty scared of what a Clinton
[presidency] could do to the industry,” one source said,
“and relies heavily on lobbying power with Republicans to
block damaging legislation.”
The STAT analysis shows that, even in competitive House races
with no incumbent, if the industry has donated any money,
almost all of the dollars have gone to Republican candidates.
Left-leaning media outlets and politicians
aren't the only entities who have groused about the industry,
including about the ubiquitous drug ads. Numerous consumer groups
-- not to mention mainstream medical organizations such as the
AMA -- have been complaining for years about direct-to-consumer
Rx drug advertising. All things considered, Adams, in his railing
against the business practices of -- and aggressive marketing by
-- the big drug companies, can neither claim originality, nor can
he or Donald Trump lay claim to the moral or political high
ground regarding any legitimate complaints against the
pharmaceutical industry. The operative word here is
"legitimate." Trump's complaints about the industry are
clumsy and half-hearted attempts at demagoguery. He'll say what
he thinks his base wants to hear, whether it's griping about high
prices (a legitimate complaint) or waxing alarmist about the
dangers of vaccines (a mostly bogus issue). And Adams' protests
are tainted with his own agenda and histrionic extremism; he
steadfastly refuses to acknowledge that pharmaceutical drugs have
also been lifesavers for millions of people.
Finally, Adams' insinuation that Trump's critics are the real
enemies, and Trump fans are the only decent, civilized folks
remaining in America, is worse than ludicrous. But it's typical
of the spin you'll find on his many web sites.
One devout anti-Semite eulogizes
another: LoonyC mourns Ryke Geerd Hamer
Speaking of little Hitlers: Longtime Mike Adams
ally Leonard Coldwell -- phony
doctor, cancer quack, and the stupidest and most evil man in
Scamworld -- recently used his German-language Facebook page to post
a eulogy (or "Epilogue," as he would have it) for Ryke
Geerd Hamer, founder of "German New Medicine." Hamer died at the age of 82 on July 2, 2017 in
Sandefjord, Norway, where he had been more or less in exile
during the latter part of his life.
I've really not written anything substantial about Hamer to date,
though I did mention him in passing in this August 2014 post, after a
reader and defender of Coldwell mentioned Hamer in a comment to a previous Whirled post about "heroes" and
martyrs of the alt-health movement.
And now the good ex-doctor is gone. Here's a snippet from the
Bing-enabled translation, helpfully offered by Facebook, of
LoonyC's tribute:
My Epilogue:
Dr. Hamer as the founder of the "New Germanic
medicine"
Thank you very much, he was a very big one.
The real cause of cancer and its treatment on
Psychological Base. The pharmaceutical industry is concerned
with
Know the fraud base, and this is people's murder!
His persecution by purchased pharma idiots
And the European authorities spoke volumes. Already alone the
Tracking Dr. Hamer at the instigation of them exposed them
As a liar and a murderer! Would an honest act like that?
This really happened as in the case of Bruno gröning.
His more armored letters to the courts,
Authorities and Jewish-khazar intrigues that he put him in
prison
Brought. He really went through the wall with his head!
... and did this for us too! Beware of a lot of courage!
He only spoke the truth and who the truth
Says he needs a damn fast horse!
His demise, I find a great loss for all people,
The chemotherapy as a lie and alternative medicine as
You know the truth. For everyone else you can see how
Seduced and brainwash they are - often from comfortable own
Blame.... the responsibility to the doctors....
And the pharmaceutical industry is stuffing your pockets!
Deserves to be paid to the sick and dying billions - and to
the
Healthy Nothing! So?
We miss him and his letters and comments against the lobby
and
Conspiracy about genocide by chemotherapy!
He had world class! .... Real theater ripe!
He went on the roofs and cried out the truth.... no matter
To his own person, the as he was!
De mortuis nil nisi bene !
About the dead only good....
About these dead - understand! ....
It reads like really, really bad poetry
("He had world class!...Real theater ripe!"), and is
nearly impossible to understand without knowing a bit about
Coldwell's shtick and, more importantly, about Hamer's. Actually,
it's pretty difficult to understand anyway, which is no big
surprise, considering who the writer is, and as I've mentioned
here before, a couple of my pals who are fluent in German tell me
that Coldwell's writing is nearly as incoherent in his native
language. And I can vouch for the fact that his English-language
offerings are similarly amusing. So we can't totally blame the
clumsy machine translation.
But an understanding of Hamer's bigotry, as well as Coldwell's,
is also necessary. The phrase that really sticks out for me in
the above passage is "genocide by chemotherapy." Pair
that with the mention of "Jewish-khazar intrigues,"
and the picture becomes clearer. He's not talking about genocide of
Jews or of any other ethnic, racial, or religious minority group.
Rather, he is referring to an imagined genocide of non-Jews... by
Jews.
That Coldwell is anti-Semitic (and
he's a racist as well) is no
secret, for he proudly displays his hatred on Facebook
whenever he can, which is the primary reason his account is repeatedly suspended. While Lenny has at times protested that he is not
a hater, even going so far as to unsuccessfully sue me a couple
of years ago for insinuating that he is
(much more about that matter can be found here), I don't
think that even the lawyers who took and then
dropped that ill-fated flawsuit would now deny their former
client's anti-Semitism and racism.
And the departed Hamer was clearly no fan of Jews either. From RationalWiki:
Hamer purported that his method is a
"Germanic" alternative to mainstream clinical
medicine which he claimed is part of a Jewish
conspiracy to decimate
non-Jews. In this Hamer follows the antisemitic "Neue
Deutsche Heilkunde"
propagated in Nazi Germany. More precisely, he asserted that chemotherapy
and morphine are used to "mass murder" Western
Civilisation, while such treatment is not used in Israel
where nearly no people die of cancer, according to him.[9][10][15]
He promoted the idea that most oncologists in Germany are Jewish and that "no Jew is
treated with chemotherapy in Germany". According to him,
hypodermic
needles are used during
chemotherapy to implant "chips" containing
"chambers of poison" that can be activated by
satellite to specifically kill patients.[16]
He proposeed that the swine
flu vaccination campaign
of 2009 was also used to mark people with those
"chips" and denies the
existence of HIV.[17]
Hamer also believed that the denial of recognition of his
theories and the revocation of his practitioner's licence is
due to a Jewish conspiracy.[15]
In 2008, Hamer presented a document where one
"Chief Rabbi" "Esra" Iwan Götz confirmed the
existence of a conspiracy among Jewish oncologists to use the
"torture" of chemotherapy on all non-Jewish
patients, while Jewish patients were to receive the
"correct" treatment of GNM. Iwan Götz is a German
holocaust denialist active in the German Reich
revivalism scene who has
been repeatedly convicted by German courts on counts of
holocaust denial,[18]
fraud, defamation, misuse of academic titles (the title
"Chief Rabbi" is not legally protected in Germany),
falsification of documents, among others.[19]
Apart from his prejudices, however, was there
any validity to Hamer's work? It would seem not. Here's more from
RationalWiki:
Following the death of his son in a
shooting incident in 1978, Ryke Geerd Hamer developed
testicular cancer. His wife also developed breast cancer at
around the same time. Hamer came to believe that both cancers
had been directly caused by shock at their son's death, and
that they could be treated by resolving this emotional
conflict. Despite that, he received a
conventional operation for his testicular cancer in 1979, while his wife was treated by Hamer himself,
as the first patient of his New Medicine, and died in 1985. [Sort
of reminds me of another much-loved (including by Lenny)
alt-cancer quack, the late Hulda Clark, who, as I mentioned
in passing on an October 2016 Whirled post, died of cancer. ~ CC]
Hamer announced the creation of his "New Medicine"
in 1981. Despite his theories being rejected by the
scientific establishment, he opened a series of cancer
clinics between 1982 and 1985, all of which were closed down
by the authorities for illegal practices. The vast majority
of his patients died at these clinics, although Hamer
continued to publicly present his treatment methods as
successful.
In 1986, Hamer's medical licence was revoked. He has
continued to practice illegally in various European countries
ever since, in between prosecutions and stints of jail time.
Unsurprisingly, courts have found him to be mentally
unstable, and thus unfit to practice medicine. Alarmingly, he
has been supported and defended by some of those to whom he
has been peddling his false treatments.
And for good measure, here's a July 2009 post from a
blog that takes a critical look at "alternative" cancer
treatments.
Undaunted, in the following years Hamer
opened various illegal clinics in Germany. He treated large
groups of patients, including his own wife Birgit who
suffered from breast cancer.
Birgit died in 1985. Hamer claimed this was because she was
sceptical about his GNM. Later he would maintain that he ‘cured’
her of breast cancer no less than five times.
By the end of 1985 charges were brought against Hamer because
of the scandalous goings on in his private clinic in
Katzenelnbogen. Less than a year later his medical licence ws
revoked. However, to this day this hasn’t stopped Hamer
from continuing to ‘treat’ patients and the number of
victims of the GNM has reached frightening proportions.
And here's another 2009 post on
the Science Based Medicine blog, written by my favorite physician
blogger, Dr. David Gorski (who currently blogs under the name
Orac on the Respectful Insolence blog).
You get the idea.
"But, Cosmic Connie," some of you might be saying,
"in order to be fair and balanced, you should also post some
positive stuff about Dr. Hamer!" To which I will say that
you can find plenty of that stuff on the Internet. Believe it at
your own peril.
Lest you wonder, as I initially did, whether Coldwell believes
that Hamer was murdered, and his death another chapter in the
ongoing "dead holistic doctors" conspiracy narrative --
which I initially wrote about in this August 2015 post, and then again in July 2016 (under "Dead
holistic docs conspiracy rages on") -- he does not seem to
be making that claim outright in his long, rambling
"Epilogue." On the other hand -- and again, I'm going
by the awkward translation -- Coldwell does appear to insinuate
that the stress Hamer experienced from years of
"persecution" may have hastened his death. He also
leaves open the possibility of murder, suggesting that Hamer might
have been poisoned.
For Clarification:
Dr. I don't think hamer was killed, he was 82 years old, too.
But the trouble, in which he, unfortunately, has always
increased emotionally too much, has
5 years of his life....
Subject to the fact that you have not poisoned him yet - who
knows?
I don't trust them!
However, I do not know the details now, so subject to....
Diagnosis of poison I can now ask myself without celebrated
doctor
To be, so much experience I have in it.... (if the body
becomes black, then it's poison)
LoonyC never met a conspiracy tale that he
didn't like. Especially if it centers around a Brave Maverick Doctor, as
Loony fancies himself to be.
Mother Russia revisited
Finally, I'd like to remind you that this week Stephen Colbert,
who has helped many of us maintain our sanity in Drumpf's
Amerika, will be presenting his much-awaited "Russia
Week," highlighting his recent
trip to Mother Russia.
Due to the whole Trussia thing,
there's a lot of serious talk about Russia these days, but I
think we should never forget that Russia has its silly side too,
which I celebrated extensively here years ago. Here's a link to some Russia-themed posts from the
Whirled archives.
I think I used to be a lot funnier than I am now.
That's it for now. I'll be back soon to celebrate this blog's
eleventh (!) birthday, which rolls around on July 27. For now,
I'm going back to spend some quality time on the riverbank with
the Mole and Ratty and Mr. Toad, or perhaps with Toulouse-Lautrec
and gang in nineteenth-century Paris. And who knows, in between
all of that, I might even get some real work done. If more of you
would donate to this blog, I might
not have to work, but it is what it is, and it isn't
what it isn't, and as you know I don't spend a whole lot of time
begging, except when I do. Anyway, I'll
see you next time.
