What's New Friday Apr 11, 2008

WHAT’S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday   11 Apr 08   Washington, DC

1.  NO SCIENCE DEBATE:   CANDIDATES WILL DEBATE JESUS. 
It seemed to be going well for efforts to arrange a debate on science 
issues.  The National Academies, the Council for Competitiveness and the 
AAAS had agreed to serve as official cosponsors; the plan was endorsed by 
all major research universities and scientific societies.  However, in a 
world faced with the threat of global warming, dwindling fossil fuel, 
continuous warfare, disease and starvation on the rise in Africa, 
spiraling food prices world wide, the candidates must focus 
on "solutions."  They have therefore chosen to attend "The Compassion 
Forum" instead, a "wide ranging and probing discussion of policies related 
to moral issues."  It will be held at Messiah College somewhere in central 
Pennsylvania.  Founded by the Brethren in Christ Church in 1909; Messiah’s 
motto is "Christ Preeminent."  It has not been decided whether the 
candidates will remain on their knees during the debate.

2.  QI:  "I DON’T KNOW HOW, BUT ACUPUNCTURE WORKS."  
You will not be surprised to learn that WN got a lot of disagreement about 
the item on acupuncture last week.  As one reader pointed out, "millions 
of people have been treated with acupuncture and say it works; scientists 
should be trying to find out how it works rather than ridiculing it."  
Look at it this way, an even larger number of people around the world say 
astrology works.  If you think they’re right you’re beyond help.  What we 
need to understand is why people think acupuncture works.  If you ask an 
acupuncturist how it works, the answer is “qi.” What’s qi?  I refer you to 
http://www.csicop.org/sb/2000-03/qi.html for a full discussion.   Briefly, 
dissection was forbidden in ancient China, as it was in the West before 
about 1500 AD.   Beheadings, on the other hand, were common.  The carotid 
artery and jugular veins sticking out of the severed neck looked like 
empty tubes, and were assumed to be passageways to let air flow through 
the body.  Blood was thought to fill the body cavity.  As recently as the 
late Ming dynasty (1368 – 1644) the arteries were thought to carry air.  
Qi is the word for air.  

3.  WHY NOW?   IT’S NOT JUST HAPPENING AT MARYLAND.
And it’s not just acupuncture.  In the waning days of his administration 
Bill Clinton created a 20-member White House Commission on Complementary 
and Alternative Medicine, perhaps as a gift to Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), 
a true believer who had been a loyal supporter.  The commission members 
advocated homeopathy, acupuncture, touch therapy, magnets, reflexology, 
crystals, chelation, craniosacral manipulation, echinacea, aromatherapy, 
yohimbe bark and more.  Incredibly James Gordon, who had been a follower 
of the notorious Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, was chosen to head the 
commission.  A Georgetown professor, Gordon predicted the Gordon Report 
would replace the 1910 Flexner report that established medicine as a 
scientific enterprise.  It could happen.  With the candidates talking up 
some form of National health coverage, the push is on for CAM therapies to 
maneuver to be included.  How better to look scientific than to be on a 
university campus.

THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND.
Opinions are the author's and not necessarily shared by the
University of Maryland, but they should be.
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