Tickets for the April 19 fund-raiser, which will star Cruise and benefit the New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project, run as high as $100,000 for a table for eight.
The downtown Manhattan clinic offers free Scientology-inspired treatments to firefighters, cops and other rescue workers exposed to high levels of toxins at Ground Zero.
The program - which had received hundreds of thousands of dollars in city funds - hasn't been endorsed by the Fire or Police departments and has been described by some experts as nothing more than medical mumbo-jumbo.
The controversial program, which consists of high doses of niacin, sitting in a steam room, and taking frequent showers has been understandably adopted by many desperate and sick workers, but has been roundly denounced in the medical community as quackery. Ironically, since the programs most ardent spokesman has been Mr. Cruise, one of the benefits that this program claims is an increase in IQ.
I suppose that a joke about that would just be glib, right Tom?
It really frightens me whenever I find myself agreeing with Tom Cruise, but I've seen numerous studies that seem to conclude that diet and excercise are considerably more effective in stabalizing mild emotional disorders than prescription drugs. My own experience supports that as well (this is of course entirely subjective, but includes many years with a diagnosed bipolar partner).
It's annoying to watch Lauer being so polite, not once asking Cruise to back up his claims of expertise or to cite any of the reading he claims to have done about psychiatry. Although I'm only a layman, not an expert like Cruise, I too have doubts about the wisdom of prescribing as many drugs as we seem to, especially for young kids, but allowing Scientologists to participate in public discussion about it muddies the waters.
BGage said:
allowing Scientologists to participate in public discussion about it muddies the waters.
Seriously, it's almost as bad as allowing catholics or women to publicly discuss it.
Your bringing up Catholics and women in the same sentence is amusing, considering that the Catholic church doesn't allow women to hold any real position of authourity - they can't even be priests, let alone cardinals - but I guess that's beside the point.
Over-religious people - and catholic organisations are probably the third-guiltiest of this, after Scientologists and Evangelicals - love to feel like they're being persecuted, so they often respond to criticism or hostility to their faith by equating it with racism or sexism. It is NOT the same thing. Religion is a voluntary state; one chooses to follow rigid dogma, medieval superstition or bad science-fiction; one is not born with it in the same way one is born with race or gender. That makes them fair game for ridicule or casual dismissal. My earlier remark about how they make it difficult to debate rationally the merits of something like psychiatry is underscored by Cruise himself and the gibberish that comes out of him on the subject.
Helter said:
It really frightens me whenever I find myself agreeing with Tom Cruise, but I've seen numerous studies that seem to conclude that diet and excercise are considerably more effective in stabalizing mild emotional disorders than prescription drugs. My own experience supports that as well (this is of course entirely subjective, but includes many years with a diagnosed bipolar partner).
offtopic: it's been my experience AS a diagnosed bipolar that when you are a slave to your mood swings and the only conscious action you are able to perform during an anxiety attack is to curl into a tighter fetal position, medication is a boon. it's also been my experience that the combination of therapy and meds together are the best approach, and having been off meds since the new year, i've learned to recognize symptoms and delusions before they take control, so it's a matter of monitoring them, but if i hadn't learned what "normal" felt like, i'd have no frame of reference and would still be out of control.
on to tom cruise: while it seems a valiant attempt on his part, it has (to me) always been shown that these actions by religious groups, while under the guise of philanthropy, usually are based on some attempt to garner converts or somehow impose their views on others. i guarantee xenu or any other crackpot ideas will not be mentioned, but learning about scientology's "misunderstood ideas" as they will no doubt refer to them, will be encouraged throughout the event.
No one...NO ONE...is going to change anyone's opinion about what happened on 9/11 on this message board. It will always end up in name-calling and stupid bullshit. Just stop arguing about it and get back to joking about how insane Tom Cruise is.
On that note, "high doses of Niacin," eh? I knew a scientologist kid whose family was of the opinion that niacin cured all ailments. It didn't work, but he did have a bright orange skin tone!
Ok, Ok....I agree. It's just frustrating when people argue without actually looking at what is presented on the other side of the fence. There's so much compelling evidence to suggest an inside job...but yeah, this IS like a soft-core porn site..and we're commenting on the blog. We should really get out more.
People are correct. You can't change anyones opinion if they aren't there. But to me personally the forum's or groups on here are more of a round table discussion than a chance to change opinion of the person or people above you.
Tom Cruise is now what he is. He feels that he can do the world some good by sponsoring this crusade to help those he thinks that are in need. I'm not condoning what he does or says as gospel, because like those above me have said, he's just selling snake oil, but he is doing what he feels is right. As bean said "no one" can change the out come of 9/11 but we can all help along the way. And as for Rosie O, you can't fix stupid. She gets paid for her opinion. Right or wrong.
*As a side note I work for a demolition company. Needless to say after it happened a couple of our operators and front end loaders went down to help clean up the mess. When our operators came back they had stories. One of the stories was how when the operator reached in with the machine to grab an I beam of steel he said it pulled off like taffy because it was so hot.*
By the way Rosie...How do you think welding torches work?
forget cruise and forget the ad hominems on rosie, too...and forget censorship. this can be a place where people have interesting discourse, if permitted. facts matter. science, too.
so, any reason previous comments have been censored here re: 9/11 links? the one given was a red herring. some one asked about more scientific research...i posted links. now they are gone. here they are again, minus extended annotation. the environmental disaster at ground zero is as real as cruise is crazy. how's that? i still slammed tom. this is an important issue and someone asked about facts and alternative arguments to official theories...here they are.
on the rest, and physicist steven jones agreed to go on "the view" to discuss his research. controversial, but interesting the more you follow the arguments.
so, any reason previoius comments have been censored here re: 9/11 links? the one given is a red herring. some one asked about more scientific research...i posted links. now they are gone. .
Ummm...you're not new here. You know there are about 200 threads where people are debating 9-11 theories. This isn't one of them. We're talking here about Scientologists trying to cure very real medical conditions with niacin and saunas. The only reason I linked the Rosie story was because of her remarkably retarded belief that fire can't melt steel. No other reason...and I'm really sorry I did, because there is plenty places where you can discuss PM and 9-11. It's not appropriate here, and that's probably why it was removed.
no, i'm not new here. but the headline says dtox 9/11 workers. the wtceo.net covers the toxicity at ground zero better than most sites and is informative and relavant to the piece overall...a fine counter to the way cruise is behaving i'd say. you mentioned rosie. she was going off on 9/11 issues, so that's what the thread was about. if you want a thread on the stupidity of scientology, limit your scope. but since cruise is addressing trouble with wtc fallout, it will open that discussion further as well.
so...as for the other 9/11 issues, that's where the thread was going, so i added my two cents. i see your reasoning, so be it.
as for rosie, yes, she said some things in haste and she is not an expert. the key term missing is "carbon" based fire (jet feul- kerosene) can't melt steel. that's simple science, not a belief. check the links i mentioned. or not. even nist has backed away from their theories and won't make any further public statements about it.
anyway, thanks for clarifying. sorry for the confusion. i appreciate your time.
bravecaptain said:
Ok, Ok....I agree. It's just frustrating when people argue without actually looking at what is presented on the other side of the fence. There's so much compelling evidence to suggest an inside job...but yeah, this IS like a soft-core porn site..and we're commenting on the blog. We should really get out more.
Seriously, stop. It's not that it isn't a worthwhile discussion, it's that it's a subject that has been beaten to death, resurrected, beaten back to death, resurrected again, ad nauseam, for three fucking years here, and never once has anyone said "Oh, wow, I see this whole thing in a new light, thank you for explaining your point of view. My mind is changed." It always ends in flags, warnings, closed threads, hurt feelings, insults, anger, and the occasional booting of someone from the site who has resorted to name-calling for the billionth time after being warned about it. In short, those discussions are an enormous pain in the ass for moderators here, and they serve no purpose at all.
But on a serious note, I see you are from the L.A. area. You are probably familiar with the Sea Org compound (the ugly ass blue building in Hollywood). Back in the 90s, I worked for an insurance brokerage called "Survival Insurance." It is owned and operated by Scientologists. In fact, you weren't eligible to become manager (I worked in customer service) unless you took some courses at "The Org."
TheGringo said:
But on a serious note, I see you are from the L.A. area. You are probably familiar with the Sea Org compound (the ugly ass blue building in Hollywood). Back in the 90s, I worked for an insurance brokerage called "Survival Insurance." It is owned and operated by Scientologists. In fact, you weren't eligible to become manager (I worked in customer service) unless you took some courses at "The Org."
I actually live right smack in the middle of Hollywood, but I'm not familiar with that particular building. The only big blue building I can think of is the Pacific Design Center. But yeah, there's a lot of Scientologist stuff in Hollywood. It's creepy.
bean said:
I actually live right smack in the middle of Hollywood, but I'm not familiar with that particular building. The only big blue building I can think of is the Pacific Design Center. But yeah, there's a lot of Scientologist stuff in Hollywood. It's creepy.
OK, you should totally know this place then. It is (or was in '92) on Fountain Avenue. It was a weird dullish sky blue. I moved to Orange County right after that job and only came back up through that area to visit friends and see bands.
I'm trying to remember other names it has. I just know that the weirdos at Survival called it "Sea Org" and I assume that was because it was blue. Oh, and they had buses that would take the unsuspecting tourists who just got finished taking either a "personality test" or a "stress test."
PointBlank
New York, NY
November 2004
APR 06, 2007 04:34 PM