Presenting the "Lipstick On A Pig" Award.

[mr blur]

Presenting the "Lipstick On A Pig" Award.



First one presented to the ear candling woos:

My wife and I were out in town yesterday and we popped into the health food shop to buy some nuts for the squirrels (aww...!) and in among the notices for Reiki seminars and Karmic Realignment gift vouchers I spotted this one:




Along the line of "you can put lipstick on a pig but underneath it's still just a pig" we have "you can call it Thermo Auricular Therapy but it's still just sticking a lighted candle in your ear". Or A Woo by any Other Name would take in Even More Suckers.

More finalists needed!

[Warpy]

1. The "candle" is a hollow tube

and the theory is that the flame creates a vacuum to suck out all the nasty ear wax.

Well, that part is sound, but it generally doesn't shift much wax and there have been a few cases where the eardrum has been nicely perforated when there's been a good seal in the ear canal.

If you've got an earwax problem, use mineral oil to dissolve it.

[realisticphish]

2. Duhhhh Duh........ Duhhhhh Duh

R_A, I think you know what's coming :evilgrin:

[TZ]

4. heh. I was thinking about that myself...

bu.....:evilgrin:

[WoodrowFan]

7. duhduhduh duhh!!!

At least it's not a ...

BUTTCANDLE!

[realisticphish]

8. and we hear, from far across the ocean

a blood curdling shriek of horror

[WoodrowFan]

11. heh heh

heh heh :evilgrin: my work here is done.

[beam me up scottie]

3. Gah. This is why I avoid health food stores.

I'm a vegetarian and buy supplements and such online because I don't want to subsidize more woo.

Seriously, I do frequent local stores whenever possible, the amish get a good chunk of our money because they have the best organic produce and baked goods in town.

[realisticphish]

5. oh god

being a skeptical vegetarian must seriously suck, though probably not as much as being a skeptical vegan.

[beam me up scottie]

6. you have no idea...

As if I couldn't find dozens of reasons to hate myself already.

[Warpy]

9. Skeptical vegetarian here

but it's because I don't like meat and don't particularly fancy how I feel when I've eaten it.

I know people who feel like crap when they don't eat meat. They can have my share.

[WoodrowFan]

10. ty

I know people who feel like crap when they don't eat meat. They can have my share.

thank you (shows canines)

I know and respect vegetarians, but damn, animals are tasty!

[mr blur]

12. And another one here (nt)

[LeftyMom]

13. You'd be surprised.

While people who make silly, unevidenced arguments for veganism (that eating animal flesh means absorbing the distressed vibrational energies of slaughtered animals or some stupid crap like that) are definitely the minority. The only popular current author/speaker I can think of pushing that kind of stuff is Will Tuttle, and I don't personally know anybody in the vegan community who doesn't laugh at him, though presumably somebody buys his books and attends his speaking engagements. :shrug:

A better source of diet woo would be raw foodists. Oh my lack of god, their enzyme worship and focus on "living foods" is strange in the extreme, and generally not even supported by common sense, let alone evidence. Also, their food tastes horrible. I was given some "raw chocolate" which hadn't been tempered (since that would require heating it above 110 degrees or whatever the magic number is) and was thus too bitter to be overcome by the agave nectar used to sweeten it. I actually threw away a hunk of chocolate the size of my hand. I mistrust people who can make even chocolate taste bad.

The Weston A. Price people are also a great source of diet woo. Apparently high serum cholesterol is good for you. People also need to eat more organ meats. Oh, and raw milk is totally safe, even for babies- their rationale for why it's illegal in many places moves into conspiratorial directions. My favorite though is the meat-based infant formula (seriously, it was various organ meats thrown in a blender and made into a slurry) I found on their website once. http://www.westonaprice.org/children/recipes.html :scared: There's one of them in action in the health forum.