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.
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Comments
aleksa
Tacoma, WA
April 2006
APR 06, 2007 10:02 PM
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Korea, D.P.R.
June 2004
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Charleston, SC
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Austin, TX
October 2003
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OLD SKOOL
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OLD SKOOL
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STAFF
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I'm lost
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