Chairman Mao would be delighted, if he were alive to see it. He has now got the U.S. government buying into arguments that he used to hoodwink his own people, decades ago. Never mind that the arguments are all bogus.
This morning, the front page of The Baltimore Sun describes how the U.S. Veterans Administration is using acupuncture to treat chronic pain in veterans. The VA especially likes something called “ear acupuncture,” the creation (out of thin air) of a VA doctor who claims that a few needles inserted in your ear will cure pain anywhere in your body. The VA also calls this “battlefield acupuncture,” and it is not only fake but also dangerous, so much so that in 2011 I labelled it the worst quackery of the year.
