Month: August 2006

State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America

State of Emergency: Third World Invasion and Conquest of America[rating:5/5]

Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I would agree with Pat Buchanan. However, with his latest book, State of Emergency, I can’t help but hope and pray that he’ll run for President again – this time, I’ll vote for him.As a native Californian (from Los Angeles County, no less), I have watched the onslaught of illegal aliens destroy our once Golden State – our schools WERE the best in the nation and we were once the envy of the world. We have now become a third-world dung heap where Los Angeles merely mirrors Tijuana, only on a much grander scale. Our schools and medical institutions are in shambles – one can no longer go anywhere without being inundated with the Spanish language (even though I do speak Spanish [and yet there is no Spanish ancestry in my background], I find the need to have EVERYTHING translated into it to accommodate illegal aliens repugnant). Mexifornia is now a welfare state that, as Pat Buchanan coherently describes, will cease to exist – sooner, rather than later at the current rate.

As far as the bigots who whine that the United States is a “nation of immigrants” that should allow the never-ending, unmonitored flood of lowlife that is now flowing in unheeded, I would like to suggest that they look in a mirror. On my father’s side, I am just a second-generation American and yet EVERYONE in my family took great pride in becoming an American – all of them learned English and pledged allegiance to the United States of America. In fact, I never heard my grandparents speak anything other than English – which was NOT their native tongue – they always insisted that they were AMERICANS and took great pride in that fact. Unlike the millions of illegal aliens, as well as many of the legal immigrants now flooding in from third-world countries, who refuse to assimilated into American culture, my grandparents and father were proud to be AMERICANS. Never did they protest in our streets waving the flags of other countries, never did they demand that others speak their native tongue, never did they violate the laws of this country by sneaking across the border. Instead, they worked hard to become AMERICANS. As my great-grandparents also came to this country, legally, they too strived to EARN their citizenship. My great-grandfather wasn’t spoon feed everything in his native tongue, instead, he LEARNED ENGLISH as a requirement to gain his citizenship. In fact, it took three attempts for him to gain it because his English didn’t meet the requirements. Did he quit? No. Did the government kowtow to his language barriers? No. he had to work hard to EARN it.

It’s time to bolt the doors tightly, take the suggestions that Pat Buchanan provides and send every last illegal alien back to Mexico (or wherever) now! If we don’t do something immediately, all will be lost – forever – and America will be no more.

Healing Power of Neurofeedback: The Revolutionary LENS Technique for Restoring Optimal Brain Function

Healing Power of Neurofeedback[rating:3/5]

I purchased this book based upon its title, “The Healing Power of Neurofeedback,” while noting its subtitle, “The Revolutionary LENS Technique. . .” To be honest, these are misleading as they should have been inverted. It would have been better to have named the book, “The Lens Technique: One Approach to Neurofeedback.” The book, sadly, reads like an infomercial for the “LENS Technique” created by Len Och and was written by one of his disciples, Stephen Larsen, who expounds upon the wonders of this interesting, but certainly controversial approach to neurofeedback that uses extremely low-level radio ways to help “drive” each individual’s EEG. Dr. Larsen constantly refers throughout his book something to the effect that “Len Och says this” or “Len Och says that.” It almost seems as if Len Och should have written the book, rather than Stephen Larsen. Interestingly, “treatments” are often no longer than one second (!) in length which would appear to be almost nothing.While the book contains some truly amazing stories where the LENS treatment has allegedly worked wonders, it does, as noted above, read like an advertisement for this approach. Unless this approach does provide a panacea for treating so many illnesses and disorders (which, for all I know, it may do), it would have been appropriate for Larsen to to adopted a more academic tenor as this is the introductory book on LENS.

Another disturbing factor is that neurofeedback DOES seem to offer many, many benefits that are not yet fully (or rightfully) recognized as a genuine treatment modality for a variety of health issues. It is for this reason, alone, that books that focus on various methods of neuro/biofeedback need to be extraordinarily cautious in reporting on their benefits. While Larsen, generally, attempted to do so, he did stray into areas that raise BIG RED FLAGS to those that are skeptical of Neurofeedback. Specifically, he discusses how the LENS allegedly helped bolster a patient’s “chakras,” may enhance “ESP”, and references questionable sources such as, “Vibrational Medication,” by Richard Gerber. Having just read Gerber’s book, my suggestion is that readers should RUN not walk from anything written by Gerber as he appears to be a real quack. It doesn’t serve the Neurofeedback community well to reference such New Age mumbo-jumbo.

While the book is, overall, quite interesting, I would very much like to see others conduct genuine studies on the efficacy of the LENS approach.

Practical Guide to Vibrational Medicine: Energy Healing and Spiritual Transformation

Practical Guide to Vibrational Medicine[rating:.5/5]

Vibrational Medicine is allegedly written by someone with an M.D. With that being so, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect that the author had a fair amount of education and was capable of writing a book that while potentially controversial (nothing wrong with that per se) but was supported by real research which, of course, would also be listed in a well-written bibliography. Don’t expect anything like this; however, from Richard Gerber – the guy is a real QUACK!

I originally had high hopes for this book – with the topic being “vibrational medicine” there is an incredible wealth of information on all kinds of related topics – including the complete sound spectrum and the electromagnetic continuum. Obviously an enormous amount of time could be spent on examining readily (and empirically) identifiable uses of such waveforms but that seems to be expecting far too much from Gerber.

Instead of science, Gerber decides to spew forth endless pages of New Age quackery beginning with a seemingly never-ending discourse on chakras and other such garbage. He refers to “research” conducted by clairvoyants, psychics, faith healers, “medical intuitives”, and a whole plethora of other euphemisms as the basis for his drivel. This appears to be designed to legitimize the fact that he can’t support the bizarre ideas he presents.

While one can’t help but wonder if Gerber must have missed his thorazine when he wrote this nonsense, he covers many of the most ridiculous modalities of “healing” but ignores many, many valid ones. For example, Gerber doesn’t even mention the use of sound – a treatment modality that has found uses in essentially every culture and yet he goes into such bizarre topics as long distance “color therapy” where the healer merely “thinks” of a color while projecting his/her healing thought upon a patient who happens to be miles away.

In fact, this book contains so much meaningless tripe that it might be best to sum it up by hypothesizing a visit to Gerber’s “medical” practice. For example: suppose you are in the midst of a massive heart attack. After reading this book, it is easy to imagine that Gerber would tell you that his on-staff “medical intuitive” took the day off in order to find some more snake oil. As a result, he needs to call the psychic hotline first (because he can’t read your aura) and will need the so-called clairvoyant at the other end of the line to bathe you in “indigo” in order to unblock your chakras. Let’s not forget that you will need to be facing west, during your heart attack, and have magnets placed upon your chest as you sniff the essence of dandelions that have been fermented in a green room (shaped like a pyramid, of course).

While there are so many promising approaches to healing that use legitmate techniques for overcoming sickness, books like this do nothing but harm those who are doing real research into alternative medicine modalities. If you have any sense, at all, avoid this unscientific pile of excrement behind … after all, you wouldn’t want to block your chakras!