Subject: Re: No Rats or Cats at Palmer Florida --Why are these people laughing (revisited)
Date: January 24, 2003
To: chirosci-list
You're always making a good point, Dr. Perle :'| The article said that PETA had alerted the media about their concern regarding Palmer's Florida campus' _intent_ to test the spines of cats --like the research into "chiropractic" that's ALREADY taking place at the Palmer University campus in Iowa. Excellent distinction, Dr. Perle. In a Chiropractic Byzantium, you really can't BE too careful, it seems.
Recall that the URL for the article I forwarded to the list about chiropractic researchers doing animal testing was in response to the cartoon picturing a chiropractor "adjusting" a rat in a lab. Very funny --right? ---hehehehe--- Are we on the "same page" yet? If so, here's the thing. From the same article:
"Palmer officials said the school currently uses live cats to study the effects of stimulating the feline nervous system. No further details were provided. School researchers also insert metal implants into the spines of rats and monitor their organs."
"Stimulating nervous systems," Dr. Perle? "Monitoring ORGANS?" I wonder if you notice something horrifyingly "chiropractic" about this undertaking --what you might, out of another corner of your chiropractic mouth, criticize as being straight "chiropractic" trying to "prove" itself. I realize that each of us has a different sense of humor, and so we all may have a different response to the same joke. Moreover, some audiences don't "get" the joke even as the punch-line is explained to them.
After all, we may well ask once again, "Why ARE these people laughing" when looking at the cartoon of a chiropractor "adjusting" a rat --especially, when it references a current reality being acted-out at Palmer University. PETA, for better or worse, argues it's "cruelty" while chiropractors advance tired arguments and platitudes about Serving Humanity (tm). Not funny enough, yet?
Bill Meeker references the NIH's support as "proof" that what's going on at Palmer is a legitimate enterprise, totally ethical, and on the "up-and-up," generally. But, testing for the existence of the Chiropractic Subluxation -- the effect(s) of "Thuh" Adjustment on the Chiropractic Nervous System and Organ Function --this is precisely The Chiropractic Assertion and Argument that already underpins and informs many practices today. In other words, what exactly is being investigated above and beyond
this sort of chiropractism?
In a society with limited health care resources, spending money on bullshit is, in a word, bullshit. The pretense of "science" that sits atop chiropractic imbecility is even more bizarre and disgusting. Frankly, and I say this with all due respect, I wouldn't expect you to notice this. That's one of the reasons you actually pointed out the fact that there is no animal testing going on at Palmer's Florida campus without noticing the meaning and implications of the funded work already in place at another Palmer campus. The "humor," if you will, of the chiropractor adjusting-a-rat cartoon, is lost on you.
Incidentally, here's an article that I believe puts Palmer's enterprise and chiropractic cartoon in perspective. It approaches the issue more broadly animal testing in a Chiropractic Byzantium --even more broadly (dare I imagine) than the issue of a "chiropractic" itself. The article is, "The Alternative Universe," by Wallace Sampson. The last sentence concludes, "More public money for investigating methods with negligible promise is foolish economics and even more, is unwise public policy."
Since I doubt anyone can argue with this conclusion, the only possible reply from a chiropractic peanut gallery is to hold-out that such promise CONTINUES to exist in a Chiropractic Byzantium. My opinion is no secret. We know enough about "chiropractic" and chiropractors already to euthanize the whole enterprise. Everyone would be better off --including, I would argue, chiropractors themselves. I fully realize the unpopularity of such a solution to the chiropractic problem and also, that personal and professional necessity in the context of chiropractic narcissism discourages, and even prevents this sort of insight. But, hey --that's the way I see it. Bluster, if you like.
Anyways, here's Dr Sampson's article --worth reading and considering, in my opinion: The Alternative Universe by Wallace Sampson
~TEO.
Dr. Stephen Perle: Nowhere in the article does it say that there are animals on the Palmer FL campus. IN FACT it is says their aren't any.
Recall that the URL for the article I forwarded to the list about chiropractic researchers doing animal testing was in response to the cartoon picturing a chiropractor "adjusting" a rat in a lab. Very funny --right? ---hehehehe--- Are we on the "same page" yet? If so, here's the thing. From the same article:
"Palmer officials said the school currently uses live cats to study the effects of stimulating the feline nervous system. No further details were provided. School researchers also insert metal implants into the spines of rats and monitor their organs."
"Stimulating nervous systems," Dr. Perle? "Monitoring ORGANS?" I wonder if you notice something horrifyingly "chiropractic" about this undertaking --what you might, out of another corner of your chiropractic mouth, criticize as being straight "chiropractic" trying to "prove" itself. I realize that each of us has a different sense of humor, and so we all may have a different response to the same joke. Moreover, some audiences don't "get" the joke even as the punch-line is explained to them.
After all, we may well ask once again, "Why ARE these people laughing" when looking at the cartoon of a chiropractor "adjusting" a rat --especially, when it references a current reality being acted-out at Palmer University. PETA, for better or worse, argues it's "cruelty" while chiropractors advance tired arguments and platitudes about Serving Humanity (tm). Not funny enough, yet?
Bill Meeker references the NIH's support as "proof" that what's going on at Palmer is a legitimate enterprise, totally ethical, and on the "up-and-up," generally. But, testing for the existence of the Chiropractic Subluxation -- the effect(s) of "Thuh" Adjustment on the Chiropractic Nervous System and Organ Function --this is precisely The Chiropractic Assertion and Argument that already underpins and informs many practices today. In other words, what exactly is being investigated above and beyond
this sort of chiropractism?
In a society with limited health care resources, spending money on bullshit is, in a word, bullshit. The pretense of "science" that sits atop chiropractic imbecility is even more bizarre and disgusting. Frankly, and I say this with all due respect, I wouldn't expect you to notice this. That's one of the reasons you actually pointed out the fact that there is no animal testing going on at Palmer's Florida campus without noticing the meaning and implications of the funded work already in place at another Palmer campus. The "humor," if you will, of the chiropractor adjusting-a-rat cartoon, is lost on you.
Incidentally, here's an article that I believe puts Palmer's enterprise and chiropractic cartoon in perspective. It approaches the issue more broadly animal testing in a Chiropractic Byzantium --even more broadly (dare I imagine) than the issue of a "chiropractic" itself. The article is, "The Alternative Universe," by Wallace Sampson. The last sentence concludes, "More public money for investigating methods with negligible promise is foolish economics and even more, is unwise public policy."
Since I doubt anyone can argue with this conclusion, the only possible reply from a chiropractic peanut gallery is to hold-out that such promise CONTINUES to exist in a Chiropractic Byzantium. My opinion is no secret. We know enough about "chiropractic" and chiropractors already to euthanize the whole enterprise. Everyone would be better off --including, I would argue, chiropractors themselves. I fully realize the unpopularity of such a solution to the chiropractic problem and also, that personal and professional necessity in the context of chiropractic narcissism discourages, and even prevents this sort of insight. But, hey --that's the way I see it. Bluster, if you like.
Anyways, here's Dr Sampson's article --worth reading and considering, in my opinion: The Alternative Universe by Wallace Sampson
~TEO.