I was invited to be on the Murnaghan programme on Sky News this morning – which I always find a great deal more intelligent than the Andrew Marr alternative on the BBC. I declined because I did not want to get up and get a 7.30am train from Ramsgate on a Sunday morning. I had a meeting until 11.30pm last night planning a conference on human rights in Balochistan [I still tend to say Baluchistan], and I have a newly crowned tooth that seems not to want to settle down. But I am still worried by my own lack of energy, which is uncharacteristic. Is this old age?
I also have some serious work to do on my Burnes book, and next week I shall be staying in London to be in the British Library reading room for every second of its opening hours. So there may be a bit of a posting hiatus. I have in mind a short post on an important subject on which I suspect that 99% of my readership – including the regular dissident commenters – will strongly disagree with me.
This is a peculiarly introspective post, perhaps because my tooth is hurting, but I seem to have this curmudgeonly spirit which wishes to react to the huge popularity of this blog by posting something genuinely held but unpopular; a genuine view but one I don’t normally trumpet. The base thought seems to be “You wouldn’t like me if you really knew me”.
Similarly when I wrote Murder in Samarkand I was being hailed as a hero by quite a lot of people for my refusal to go along with the whole neo-con disaster of illegal wars, extraordinary rendition and severe attacks on civil liberties, sacrificing my fast track diplomatic career as a result. My reaction to putative hero worship was to publish in Murder in Samarkand not just the political facts, but an exposure of my own worst and most unpleasant behaviour in my private life.
I am in a very poor position to judge, but I believe the result rather by accident turned out artistically compelling, if you don’t want to read the book you can get a good idea of that by clicking on David Tennant in the top right of this blog and listening to him playing me in David Hare’s radio adaptation.
Anyway, that’s enough musing. You won’t like my next post, whenever it comes. Promise.
G’nite Clark, et al..,
Chris,
I already mentioned that, a few times. Blasting out opinions without checking is arrogant and self-centred. Billy owes me an apology, just like if I directed you towards random nonsense, and it turned out to be harmful because I hadn’t bothered to check.
Haven’t you seen those TV sketches? “You don’t want to do it like that! Here, do it like this!
Crash
The next line should be “Sorry”.
What can I say, you were asking for clarification, I tried to give some from my POW. You and others come back with the sentiment “screw you”.
I’m not trying to impose anything on you, basically “if the shoe fits, wear it” otherwise discard it.
Your religion of the reductionist mechanical view of the world is no different from my religion that there is a transcendent cause to the creation. Both are based on faith. You believe in scientists and I believe in God.
The crucial point is not on what medium the doctrine is written, it’s what is says.
Whatever method of remedy your friend applies to mitigate her decease there is no guaranteed outcome, you know that. I’m sorry if I upset you, that was not my intention.
Sunflower, I am not Glenn; you seem to have amalgamated us somehow. But I’m sorry he was rude to you. Supporting a theory that the vast majority of medical staff are either evil conspirators or unwitting dupes abusing and eventually murdering their patients is far more offensive to him, I would say. Where does your “religion” stand on fraud? On lying? On transmitting falsehood inadvertently?
Sunflower, do you accept dualism, that mind and matter are separate? This was what Descartes proposed. Do you also believe that all is one? You can read some of what I think here:
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2012/02/question-of-the-day/comment-page-2/#comment-341282
Sunflower, what is a POW?
Please think again. Some more about what you might call my “spiritual” outlook is here:
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2012/07/president-john-atta-mills/comment-page-1/#comment-348949
Sunflower, have you ever asked yourself if it is possible for individuals to exist in the realm of spirit? What would mediate their free will?
Sunflower, there is a huge difference that you haven’t recognised. Religions are belief systems. The endeavour of science is a disbelief system. If you do not know what I mean, ask questions, and I shall try to explain.
Ben, I think I may be getting an inkling if what has gone wrong. The original Hippy movement, those Flower Children of peace, who put themselves in the path of police bullets to protest about the US war on Vietnam; that movement grew into this “New Age” stuff. But the New Ager’s reject the Hippy sacrament and its ritual: the psychedelic experience.
Chris Jones, the other mistake you are making about the elite is that they are a cosy club, that they’re happy to exploit all the ordinary people, but when it comes to each other, they always cooperate and are totally open and honest with each other.
What inner motives do you suppose drive the elites to exploit and enslave ordinary people? Remember, these elites accumulate wealth and power vastly beyond the point of satisfying their every physical and social need or want.
The masses form an important part of the elite individuals power base. Yes, individual members of the elite may cooperate when it suits them. But do you think for one minute that one of them wouldn’t take another’s power and wealth if they got the chance?
So by what means do you think each would use to protect and increase their personal empire? Answer: by any means available. Technology is just one aspect of those means. Another is a compliant and obedient population.
A member of the elite may well wish to depopulate the sphere of another member of the elite, but he would be damn stupid to depopulate his own. Where would his cannon-fodder come from? Who would tend his machines of war?
What do the elite do when the people show signs of organising and cooperating against the elite? Well, they exaggerate ideological differences so that they can send their populations into war against each other. And that is exactly what we see Lorraine Day and her husband doing:
Of course, the use of sodium bicarbonate is widely used in oncology as a buffering agent. Recently the University of Arizona received $2m from the National Institute of Health to further investigate the role of bicarbonate in cancer treatment (they have been running a program for the last 10 years).
http://www.imva.info/news/sodium-bicarbonate-baking-soda-cancer-treatment.html
But Clark has the forensic tools of Google and Wikipedia at his disposal so he echoes their ridicule.
As for Lorraine Day – she successfully recovered from breast cancer without the orthodox protocols because she, as a renowned orthopaedic surgeon, had “insider knowledge”.
Whatever her husband’s political position or her other views, I see as utterly irrelevant with regard to the above. They do seem to have elicited prejudice from Clark.
Well that’s your problem, Clark, not mine.
And you seem to think I have something to apologise for – are you suggesting I am guilty of thought crime by expression?
Good grief 🙂
Scouse Billy, this would seem to be an abstract from a related research paper:
http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/69/6/2260.abstract
Billy, Lorraine Day is a very dangerous person. You only need to check out her website to see that. Or do you approve of that sort of thing?
Looking into her story more, it would appear that she has undergone some degree of excision more than once. But I see no more reason to trust what she tells us about her cancer treatment than the sort of lies she publishes on her website. Why do you?
Scouse Billy, I want you to know that I find this very distressing.
Please tell me how you feel about it.
Billy, I feel angry, and slightly physically sick. I feel like I wish to self-harm.
Please tell me your emotional feelings. We are not face-to-face, so the only way to judge our human interaction is through honest reporting of our feelings.
I am sorry, Clark but I am not emotionally involved which you clearly are.
From the article I linked to, I think this passage is relevant:
“There are no real medical precedents to draw on when it comes to the use of sodium bicarbonate; it is that useful, safe and effective for a wide range of illnesses. But it seems that much of the medical debate over its use has more to do with illogical thought processes than reality, that is at least what sociologists are finding or saying in the public debate about universal health care. People often work backward from a firm conclusion to find supporting facts, rather than letting evidence inform their views.
A totally rational person would lay out – and evaluate objectively – the pros and cons of sodium bicarbonate and its use in cancer treatment but even the best professionals get attached to their beliefs. We form emotional attachments that get wrapped up in our personal identity and sense of medicine and health irrespective of the facts of the matter making our theories more potent than pragmatic answers.
Just about everybody is vulnerable to the phenomenon of holding onto our beliefs even in the face of evidence to the contrary. It is a challenge to reevaluate world views and medical belief systems but we have to do it to continue to be of service to our patients. Patients depend on us to offer the latest and the best information. Our egos do get in the way though, and some doctors are known for their great egos.
No matter what your ego says, the world of fungi and all the problems they bring are important in medicine and only irresponsible practitioners will ignore them. Sodium bicarbonate’s action dramatically changes the intracellular environment and this is wonderful when conditions are acidic.
Its action is, for all intent and purpose, instant and as a cancer treatment one course runs about two weeks. Some people are able to kick cancer off their back in one round though we can well see that for many it will be several rounds or constant rounds and of course maintenance rounds. In the end bicarbonate is not a healthy alternative or substitute for a alkaline diet and good alkaline water.
Sodium bicarbonate – that simple white stuff called baking soda we can buy in any supermarket in the world is a world class anti-fungal. You want to punch a late stage infection of any kind in the face use bicarbonate. You want to wipe out fungal, yeast or mold colonies baking soda is your number one bet and every good doctor knows this. If we are not good we can make ourselves good fungi fighters with bicarbonate in our hand and that is exactly what Dr. Simoncini does with the stuff. He uses it like a fire extinguisher spraying tumors as well as he can with it as directly as he can, though when used orally and transdermally it reaches cancers in all parts of the body through systemic effect.
Traditional anti-fungal drugs are ineffective in treating tumors because the solid colonies can be attacked only on the surface of their volume, and after the first administrations they become resistant. A solid tumor with fungal infection is powerful and they resist attack and adapt quite readily to pharmaceutical drugs. After all fungi love to chew on rocks and they eat mercury for breakfast so you got to hit them correctly in a all out frontal attack with sodium bicarbonate.
Dr. Simoncini is the medical genius who has identified the substances uniquely able to penetrate these volumetric tumors: for cancer of the internal organs it is sodium bicarbonate; and the best substance to eliminate skin cancer is iodine when it is spread onto the growth. Other doctors use iodine internally in high doses and this does have the same effect on internal cancers. Combine with bicarbonate and we have two panzer divisions we are letting loose to mop up cancer no matter where we find it in the body.
Bicarbonate, when used in conjunction with other equally safe substances, can form the basis for a natural chemotherapy, which will prove itself in the end compared to vastly more toxic interventions. Everyone knows in their gut the horrors that await those who travel down the chemo, surgery and radiation roads. Why travel down these pits to hell when safer, vastly more inexpensive, natural and potentially highly effective answers like sodium bicarbonate are there on the supermarket shelves for the taking?”
I really hope your friend does recover whichever route she chooses.
Clark – its quite simple: its down to money and power (and a hefty dose of extreme racist superiority doctrine) There may even be a misguided element of trying to do what’s best for humanity and the world in there.Yes – there is inner competition between various competing factions and yes they are rather good at exaggerating the ideological differences of the plebs and sending us all into wars against each other.
I’m sure you’ve come accross him before but have an open minded listen to what this guy has to say.He has one of the most messy websites around but that shouldnt matter in this case http://www.cuttingthroughthematrix.com/
Scouse Billy, how do you feel when engaging in this argument. You don’t turn into Mr Spock, you must feel something.
Billy, that is not any kind of research article. We must exercise responsibility when we’re evaluating life-and-death choices.
I am currently writing up my complaints about the “Free Energy” video. I’ve taken about an hour to get to 07:35, and I have eight problems with it already.
1:43 “Theoretically and mathematically proven” – this betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of science.
2:20 “Our finite reserves of oil and gas will be completely exhausted by 2025…” – even standard “peak oil” theory projects a one century decline.
05:30 “Tesla was well on his way to transmitting electricity without wires…” Evidence? There’s plenty that it can’t work.
06:00 “Tesla.. In harmony with nature… Conflicted…” Emotive over-simplification.
06:20 “Tesla was deleted from the historical record…” But we’ve all heard of Tesla. What is “the” historical record, anyway? Wikipedia has many detailed and referenced articles about Tesla.
06:46 Thomas Valone “J P Morgan prohibited Tesla from distributing power overseas it changed the course of history, and for 100 years we’ve been suffering under that profit motive” But I have no evidence that such transmission was possible, and plenty to believe otherwise.
07:25 “The groundwork that would lead to free energy” Like free energy has actually been done.
07:35 “the Earth, whose rotation around a molten metal core keeps the planet spinning…” Nothing is required to keep Earth spinning. There is hardly any friction, and the Earth has massive angular momentum.
I don’t know if interventions from other (concerned) individuals will help here, but I’ll try. This topic is emotional, since it is personal, and has non-abstract consequences.
Scouse Billy, as a non-mod, I implore you to exercise a great deal more sensitivity to Clark. You can easily see the hurt done by insisting upon your views – which give great succour to the kind of anti-science and anti-medicine choices Clark’s friend is making – but you push on regardless. Your freedom of speech is not tempered at all by appropriateness or humanity, which in turn is a cause for concern to people you affect in this blog community. It seems that you have a great psychological need to be right – and thus you are more emotionally involved than you state – and that does your various causes no good at all.
Clark, I don’t think you’ve fully internalised how much it is not your fault that your friend is taking a crazy route. You need to work on that, in my (very humble) view. If you have the strength to do so, I would advise contacting her, and promising never to raise the subject of treatment unless she does. That way, you will both have the emotional support of the other at a difficult time, even though you’re just talking about the weather.
Clark; It is a corm of sacrament which has made into a pejorative. The one thing I am upset with Leary about is that he went rogue. If he had remained in the Establishment, and ceased with the Circus, we would have grown exponentially with it’s use in therapies, IMO. We need a bit of mass altered consciousness. That’s what the Authoritarian fears.
Chris, I’ve just looked at Cutting Through the Matrix, and I can’t even find any statement that is clear enough to test for truth or falsity. Maybe you could link to a page that seems to make sense to you, and I’ll tell you what I think of it.
yegads. ‘a form of sacrament…’ .
Jon, my friend may well be reading this. This is a public blog, and I’ve told her about my connection to it. Scouse Billy, Sunflower etc. could be influencing her directly.
This is also a very popular blog. They could be influencing many other people anywhere in the world, too. Accuracy and responsibility should always be exercised. I try to never assume that I am right. Sources need to be checked, from pro- and anti- sources.
Ben Franklin, I agree. The psychedelic experience is a threat to all authority, because of the direct connection to… What? There is no word for it. But the connection is undoubtedly personal.
The suppression of substances that induce the psychedelic experience is right out there in the open. In the UK we recently had a scientific enquiry into drug prohibition. Professor Nutt was sacked, because he didn’t return the verdict of grave danger against the drugs that the government wishes to remain illegal.
But grand conspiracy? No one has been able to hide knowledge of the existence of the substances. They just suppress its use with threats of punishment.
Clark, for goodness sake it was a documentary made in 1997 – I didn’t make it nor do I have an attachment to it – just thought it might be of interest to you.
Shoot the messenger if you must – it’s your perogative.
I don’t get emotionally involved it iterferes with reason and objectivity.
btw Rupert Sheldrake does a pretty good job of questioning the dogmatic assumptions of materialist science in The Science Delusion. He spoke about this recently at The Lincoln Center, here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XcfhGxdZ3Y
Nextus would meet his match if he came up against Sheldrake 😉
Clark – scroll down to where he lists the topics of his daily radio shows and listen/download. He also has the direct links to all the areas he covers. He rationally discusses/analyses most areas covered here
Jon, I have made my views perfectly clear and will refrain from restating them but please do not suggest that they are anti-science – do you not understand the expression Nullius in Verba?
Nobody has to take my word for anything and I don’t ask or expect that.
But it cuts both ways – The Royal Society were right that everything should be questioned no matter how “established”.
Empiricism would suggest that I may have a point but others should do their own research and come to their own conclusions.
I am not asking anyone who disagrees with me to apologise or be humiliated – I take the position of Voltaire.
Scouse Billy, what do you think of the way The Sun newspaper covered the Hillborough disaster? There is a messenger that should have been shot. Would you be happy with me recommending The Sun, and calling it truthful?
” The psychedelic experience is a threat to all authority, because of the direct connection to… What?”
Loss Of Control. They can’t monopolize production, and it’s use runs counter to the goals of Industry and Government. Mellow does not auger well for productivity.
http://psypressuk.com/2010/03/24/literary-review-‘the-politics-of-ecstasy’-by-timothy-leary/