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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Answering the Friday mailbag: Morgellons disease “expert” Marc Neumann is very unhappy with Orac

It’s been a busy week between blogging about Andrew Wakefield and covering the Winkler County Nurse trial, which ended with the jury’s acquitting Anne Mitchell, RN after less than an hour of deliberation. Consequently, I’m a bit tired today. Fortunately, there’s the mail bag, the perfect lazy blogging tool that will allow me to generate an amusing post in mere minutes, given the sheer hilarity of the “feedback” I’m about to show you. While it may be true that PZ gets the best crank mail, I do get my share.

Remember how I blogged about Dr. Arafiles, the doctor whose chummy relationship with the Winkler County Sheriff allowed him to have his good buddy track down who had made the anonymous complaint against him to the Texas Medical Board? Remember how I wrote a typical Oracian-length post describing how Dr. Arafiles had done a special about Morgellons disease and hawks colloidal silver for H1N1 on his website? Remember how during my discussion I deconstructed some of the mythology of Morgellons disease and, as part of that deconstruction, had a bit of fun posting videos featuring Dr. Arafiles and Marc Neumann, as well as examining Marc Neumann’s Morgellons Research Organization website?

It would appear that Mr. Neumann was none too pleased. The morning after my post, I got this e-mail from him. Note that I’ve cleaned up the text a bit, and this is the complete e-mail:

or you remove all morgellons videos from your site and my texts too or i will charge you.

i never gave permission to copy it, as far the videos are free to embed but not if i refuse explecit as owner that you can`t.

So remove the embedded videos or i do it over youtube and don`t forget the text.

Regards Marc Neumann


I was puzzled. For one thing, it didn’t look to me as though Mr. Neumann is the legal copyright holder of the videos. For another thing, he posted them on YouTube, fer cryin’ out loud! If he didn’t want anyone to embed them, then he should have turned embedding off. In any case, I decided to respond politely, in case this was a case of cluelessness:

Dear Mr. Neumann:

Thank you for your feedback.

Before I can respond to your demands, I must ask you a question first: Are you the lawful copyright holder of the five YouTube videos in question? As far as I can tell from your YouTube channel, you do not appear to be the owner. God’s Learning Channel appears to be the owner. Consequently, I will not even consider your request until you provide me with proof that you are the lawful copyright holder. I would also remind you that if you do not hold the copyright to these videos it it is very possible that it is you who are violating copyright by posting them on YouTube, not me for embedding them on my blog.

Finally, regarding the text from your website, the use of a small amount of text is permissible under the “fair use” doctrine (specifically, commentary about the text), and that is why I will not accede to your demand to remove the text, nor will I pay any charges.

Sincerely,

Orac

Pretty reasonable, wouldn’t you say? After all, he put the videos on YouTube, and picking a couple of small paragraphs to cite in the course of a deconstruction of the contents of Mr. Neuman’s website strikes me as being pretty clearly fair use. I also thought it very reasonable to request that Mr. Neumann prove to me that he is the legal copyright holder. Of course, the very fact that he posted the videos on YouTube means that anyone who can access YouTube can view or embedd them, but I was trying to be nice. In retrospect, I was foolish to think I could reason with Neummann:

Dear Borac,

I am the poster of the youtube videos with the permission of GLC. I can do whatever I want with these videos, ok?

Just look on the first displayed message of the first video and on youtube the name of the poster “marcmro”.

Short term for Marc + Morgellons-Research-Organization.

I blocked now all videos so you can see that I can block them or not allow to embed them whenever I want.. Can you dig it now?

Regarding my texts, if I wrote you officially as owner and author to remove them from your site because i don`t agree with your useless and discriminating pseudo medical blog writings about me and you have to respect my wish as author. Blaming my work or efforts to help US sufferers is a great work from you!! Yes, mostly US afflicted because USA don`t care anymore about their own citizins. Anyway it is a country which never cared about any rights of humans or nature, and so you now. On the top, I don`t need donut dummies like you which are treating me in a ridiculous way in a public blog using even my own texts therefore and laughing about my English spelling. I don`t need that and I don`t like that. You can criticize me but not offending me in public. And now you write me in your pussyfooter style, oh dear Mr. Neumann, bla, bla, bla…

I am sorry that my English is not enough, but I speak actually 4 languages and English is not my best but probably better than your German, right? I think my laywer in NY will take care about you if you don`t follow my gentle advice of removement. Who do you think who you are? The big writer who is actually a nobody but writing stupid things to pull down others reputations?? Are you unemployed with a lot of time to write the whole day rubbish? Probably you are fat and more than overweight sitting between cheesburgers and coke, right?

Anyway, I don`t care about Dr. Arafiles or any other physicians but me…But I have to ask you, why are you blaming Dr. Arafiles?

Do you know him personally or that he is a QUACK? Just because he is selling some supplements? Or are you a friend of the nurses? I feel sorry for them but they could also fix that problem first with the director of the hospital instead doing all behind the doors and now thy cry loud about.

To let you know; Morgellons disease is caused from a biological insecticide, spread from US companies without any care if immunocompromised humans or animals gets sick from it. If you want i can send you a few medical reports about such infections, exactely with the same type of fungi used from pesticide industry. So many are suffering from this disease and killing themself after a long painful fighting. Most from USA…So forgive me that I help them as a German and not as an American!! I am sorry also that some sentences of my articles are not uptodate etc., less time and helpers to correct my bad English. I just work every day 14 hours to help your neighbors instead writing silly things on blogs!!

Also, I am fighting for you and all the others which are not yet contaminated without being a member of GREENPEACE or any other big organizations. Please inform yourself more accurate about morgellons or stop writing about things what you can`t percept.

Remove the videos and my text til friday or I will charge you with 100.000 US dollar because you violate the copyright, on the top insulting me and my work in public!! Who needs such a bullshit?

In your case I would remove them if you still have a brain after all that good GMO food consumption…Nobody wants American mass products made without any brain or quality!

Best regards and wishes
Marc Neumann

You know, it always amuses me to no end when someone finishes their e-mail to me with “Best regards and wishes” or something similar after a prolonged tirade in which he hurls insults at me, calling me fat, brain damaged (from GMO food, of course!), and of writing stupid things. (Well, he may have a point on that last one; I do sometimes write stupid things. However, not in this case.) Another hint: I don’t need to know Dr. Arafiles personally to know that he practice dubious medicine. Dr. Arafiles’ website is more than enough evidence, as I discussed.

Over the last five years, if there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s that a very reliable indicator of a crank is his reaction to criticism. Very frequently, the first reaction of a crank to criticism is to try to suppress it, to try to shut up the person making the criticisms. If the blogger is anonymous, often the crank will try to out the blogger, something that’s happened to me numerous times throughout the years, beginning with William O’Neill of the Canadian Cancer Cancer Research Group way back in 2005, continuing with certain anti-vaccine bloggers throughout the years and even creationists like Dave Scott. Indeed, what most changed my view of anti-pharma activist Doug Bremner from viewing him as just extreme to viewing him as a crank was when his reaction to criticism was to out me with a rather silly Photoshop effort. Not only was it exceedingly childish of him, but it was a classic crank move. Not surprisingly, the most prolific and repetitive practitioner of the art of “outing” me is J.B. Handley of Generation Rescue, who has done it at least three times. My next observation is that if the blogger is not anonymous or doesn’t care much anymore about being “outed” (rather like me), then the next most common tactic is to issue vacuous legal threats. Finally, I’ve even seen it escalate (not with my blog, thankfully!) to the level of denial of service attacks. What is consistent in all these reactions is that the crank, when confronted with criticism, can’t handle it and tries to suppress speech that criticizes him by any means necessary. Skeptics, in my experience, virtually never react in such a manner to criticism.

It’s been about as consistent an observation as I’ve been able to make over the years, and Mr. Neumann fits the picture quite well.

ADDENDUM: Foolishly (I know, I know, don’t tell me I’m an idiot for doing this; I know it was a mistake), I e-mailed him back asking why his first reaction to criticism was to bluster and threaten legal action to silence me. This is the response I got back:

Borac,

I have lyme and clamydia p. infection. What do you expect from me? Hope you understand what that means?

On the top morgellons.

You don`t believe in morgellons, like ants don`t believe in humans, they just can see a huge shadow that`s all.

Let me put it in this way regarding critics; I am not sensitive to criticism as i wrote you already, but it seems to me that you can not distinguish criticism from diffamation or insultation. It is anyway an American habit among others….Most in Europe think all Americans are fat and stupid, that is also a wrong thinking by the way.

As well I must say that i don`t like the fact that you seeked and found among 100 pages some errors on my site to have some ammunition for your cheap blog. I made this site not for doctors or scientist, not even writing all in their difficult medical language. I could do so, but why should I do it? I never wanted to write a doctor work just to feel important.

I made all in a very simple way to make it understandable FOR NORMAL PERSONS. And normal persons did also correct my articles, even with some errors. Many US people are writing me daily and it seems to me that they are not able to write a good English, too. Anyway, the tv-show was made over a long-distance call from Germany to Texas with delayings and indeed with an incoherence regarding the whole context. It was to me a huge effort doing it having brain fog etc. and without any control monitor! Also the whole concept with Dr. Arafiles was out of order!! So I had to improvise because he did not ask me the questions which been appointed. And indeed, I was asking myself too, why Arafiles is doing such a show with me and others. My first thought was that he is a quack jumping on the morgellons train to make more money out of the sufferers as many others too.

So far so good, maybe you can understand me better now and that you would not have made it better doing an interview in German, ok?

Therfore I don`t need small brains like the people on your blog if they have no empathy for the situation and my daily work.

Only losers can criticize others, because they can not doing such a work. Oh my god, history is full of such jar heads…

I am tired after 5 years doing actually the job of those who get payed for it; the physicians!! So don`t worry i had to take a lot of criticism during these 5 years of helping people with a so called Delusional parasitosis.

But how can anybody claim this with a lack of knowledge? Only stupid ignorants. Just watch the pictures of the sufferers and you must agree that such sores etc. are not just imagination or neurodermatitis, but a mycotic infection, not UFO, chemtrails or other US conspiracy rubbish. What should I say now? Just remove my text which was also not corrected well and as author I can force you do do so! It is my work and you have to respect my wish as author. I can give copy permissions and also restricting it again, as much as I want. That is copyright law if you did not knew it ask a copyright laywer before you have to pay me. If you think that America is still the wild west and the internet too, then you are wrong with your simply mind thinking! I can track your IP address and finding out over your provider who you are, to send you the charge…

Why you don`t start to analize morgellons on your blog without declairing all others nuts who work on the problem. Man, do you really think me and others are idiots and doing it because we have nothing better to do? Why you don`t start to work on that if you have such much time for stupid blogs…

The morgellons problem is real and we are in the same situation as with AIDS 30 years ago. Did you know how difficult it was for afflicted 30 years ago to recognize AIDS and getting treatments? Same problem now. I think you don`t care if many are committing suicide because doctors can`t use their brains anymore to help them. It is too much work etc., so they just declair them as DOP patients. I hope you never get Morgellons…Even afflicted doctors with morgellons are being treated from their colleagues as DOP patients. If you are sitting on the other side of the desk and someone needs your help you feel anyway like God, that`s the problem!

To let you know; Dr. Arafiles did lost the trial against the nurses. It sadisfies me but it makes me sad too. Actually i do understand also doctors and their daily stress, but they don`t understand their patients anymore. They can`t hear, see or reacting anymore. They are just sellers for the pharmaceutical industry, you too? By the way I don`t like colloidal silver or any other crab medication too.

Remove my text now it`s friday and let me know if you are interested to post clear evidences what morgellons are and where they are coming from. If not, then forget it I don`t have time to prove anything for some pseudo scientific blogs. My life and time is too precious to waste it with brainless ignorants who knows all better…

Take care and watch out for morgs in your food…

Marc

I think I’ll stop now. There are just too many straw men here. He also sent me a line from his website’s log file that showed a referral from my original post to his website with an IP address that resolved to pharmaceutical company’s network and concluded that my readers and I are all on the payroll of big pharma.

The dude is clearly disturbed, which is why I’ll stop.

By Orac

Orac is the nom de blog of a humble surgeon/scientist who has an ego just big enough to delude himself that someone, somewhere might actually give a rodent's posterior about his copious verbal meanderings, but just barely small enough to admit to himself that few probably will. That surgeon is otherwise known as David Gorski.

That this particular surgeon has chosen his nom de blog based on a rather cranky and arrogant computer shaped like a clear box of blinking lights that he originally encountered when he became a fan of a 35 year old British SF television show whose special effects were renowned for their BBC/Doctor Who-style low budget look, but whose stories nonetheless resulted in some of the best, most innovative science fiction ever televised, should tell you nearly all that you need to know about Orac. (That, and the length of the preceding sentence.)

DISCLAIMER:: The various written meanderings here are the opinions of Orac and Orac alone, written on his own time. They should never be construed as representing the opinions of any other person or entity, especially Orac's cancer center, department of surgery, medical school, or university. Also note that Orac is nonpartisan; he is more than willing to criticize the statements of anyone, regardless of of political leanings, if that anyone advocates pseudoscience or quackery. Finally, medical commentary is not to be construed in any way as medical advice.

To contact Orac: [email protected]

148 replies on “Answering the Friday mailbag: Morgellons disease “expert” Marc Neumann is very unhappy with Orac”

LOLs:

I think my laywer in NY will take care about you if you don`t follow my gentle advice of removement.

Remove the videos and my text til friday or I will charge you with 100.000 US dollar because you violate the copyright

One hundred thousand dollars” [raises pinky to corner of mouth].

Yes yes, but what’s a factor of ten between friends?

Was that this Friday, today? Keep us informed, please. 🙂

I also note that Mr. Neumann says that the nurses could have gone to their hospital administration about Dr. Arafiles. It’s my understanding that they did, before going to the medical boards so I wonder if that would make any difference in Neumann’s opinion of them? Probably not – he’d just come up with some other rationalization to condemn them.

Wow, Neumann has really thrown his toys out of the pram today. What a tit. As always, another great smack down Orac.

To be fair to they guy, I believe in some places the usage of the comma and period are reversed, so what we might render as (say) $1,000.00, they would use $1.000,00.

With regards to everything else, I agree with Luna; complete nutter.

Someone get this guy out of my country. PLEASE.
*facepalms and denies German nationality*

I can do whatever I want with these videos, ok?

Cranks always seem to have this weird power trip… “I dictate the terms! Whatevah! I do what I want! Respect my authoritah!”

To be fair to they guy, I believe in some places the usage of the comma and period are reversed, so what we might render as (say) $1,000.00, they would use $1.000,00.

Yeah, I was going to point out that in many European countries numbering they use a period instead of a comma and vice-versa. So Mr. Neumann is demanding $100,000.

I loved the little Orac –> Borac (a la Borat).

Alex, I’ll take childish insults for $200.

I just love the 9/11 truth, chemtrail, and H1N1 conspiracy links on Neumann’s site. What a crackpot.

Wow, Neumann has really thrown his toys out of the pram today. What a tit.

I don’t even know what the means, but it sound awesome.

As for Neumann, sure, there’s some crazy there, but I’m not even sure he elevates to the Tim Bolen-level, much less the Nancy Luft gold standard.

@Dave Ruddell: you are correct. In many European countries, a period is used where the United States uses a comma in numbers.

This guy is really nuts. And how kind of him to help all the poor, gullible Americans rather than those Europeans who live near him (who aren’t as gullible, maybe?)

And yes, as Dave Ruddell said, in Europe the usage of the comma and period are reversed in decimal quantities. There is plenty to criticize about Neumann, but his use of “$100.000” to mean one hundred thousand dollars is totally legit.

We should try hard not to make fun of his English difficulties, hilarious as they may be at times. I would probably sound just as dumb if I tried to write a legal threat in, say, Spanish, which I have only a fleeting knowledge of.

The confusion between YouTube poster and copyright holder, the complete inability to understand fair use, the crank-tastic response to criticism, the gonzo legal threats, the governmental conspiracy-mongering, etcetera…all of these things are plenty enough to criticize him, without having to resort to those things which are just a result of him being a native German.

Oh man, my brain hurts after trying to read that second e-mail. Need to go read someone’s thesis – maybe that will help purge the effects of the stupid.

BTW, the infamous in-press monkey study has been “withdrawn” at Neurotoxicology. Is that a new development.

Yeesh, the spelling mistakes & typos hurt my eyes! It’s so badly written that I would have a hard time taking anything he claims seriously at all, and I find it difficult to believe that anyone does.

You kind of don’t really need to say anything more, he just made your case for you all by himself.

I hope his lawyer in New York, assuming he has one (and there are a lot of lawyers here, so it’s plausible) can explain to him the difference between “I have permission to use these” and “I can stop other people from using them.”

Of course, he can stop you and anyone else from linking to or embedding those videos by taking them down altogether. Or, at least, he can if “God’s Learning Channel” [I seem to recall warnings about hubris in the Christian as well as pagan Greek traditions] hasn’t put them up elsewhere, and even then, the web will be without his commentary. But to have it both ways, he’d have to host it somewhere else, with login-only access, and probably rack up hosting fees.

It does upset that he tarnishes one of the great names in high end vocal recording microphones, Neumann, by association. I’ll never be able to look at one again without laughing.

debaser, in many countries, the period and comma are switched in currency, so that the amount Americans would write as $120,000.50 would instead be written as $120.000,50. Neumann is very likely just writing the amount as he would be inclined to do so normally, so that’s not really any reason to mock him. There are plenty of other reasons to criticize, of course.

We should cut Mr. Neumann a break. It is difficult to type and scratch feverishly at the Morgellonian GMO organisms at the same time.

Of course it is possible that he does indeed speak four languages, all badly.

@LK PhD (#16):

After searching for a little I’m also seeing the paper as withdrawn. It seems this happened just this morning since I could only find a couple of posts about it, both dated to less than two hours ago:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6W81-4XC57CT-1&_user=907668&_coverDate=10%2F02%2F2009&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C00004778

In light of the “show me the monkeys” nonsense from yesterday this is especially delicious.

Don’t you love it when they try to hide the evidence of their crankery? Keep publishing the e-mails, Orac — let’s see if Neumann has any sense of shame.

Oh, and put up a screenshot of the e-mails, with full internet headers, so he can’t say that you “faked” or “altered” them — because you know that’ll be his next move.

“What is consistent in all these reactions is that the crank, when confronted with criticism, can’t handle it and tries to suppress speech that criticizes him by any means necessary.”

Which is why it’s so amusing to see them rant away about censorship. They’re projecting their own impulses and desires onto their foes.

*Mein Gott in Himmel*!!First,Dieter, now Herr Neumann!!(actually, I was imagining his words being read *by* Dieter)But seriously, why are woo-meisters so obsessed with “cheeseburgers and coke”?** We should be hearing them on Mr. Clinton’s diet soon: Adams will post a four-part series; Null will do an investigative report into burgers and Big Government corruption;Weil & Ornish will be interviewed on CNN;Mercola will have product tie-in by Tuesday next.Ex-president’s ills are not off-limits if you have people to scare and products to sell.**(FYI: I haven’t eaten “red meat” for about 20 years, but not for woo-ish or PETA reasons)

Ung, yes, I know he meant One Hundred Thousand dollars. I think its more ridiculous to demand such an absurd amount of money than to demand your hundred dollars to the thousandth. Forget standard/decimal, where’s all sense of proportion?

*hoots* I hope he doesn’t think he has improved his public image by that little tirade. I’d hate for him to be disappointed, after all.

As for the “100.000” thing, this is because of the language issue. Most European countries, including Germany, use the decimal where we would use the comma, and vice versa. He means “one hundred thousand”.

Now, to deconstruct his little rant:

Dear Borac,

Oh, a name distortion! What a brilliant piece of repartee! I’m sure *nobody* would *ever* think of something like that. But it’s quite good writing, really, because your opening should always alert the reader to the intellectual level of the material to follow. This certainly achieves that.

I am the poster of the youtube videos with the permission of GLC. I can do whatever I want with these videos, ok?

Don’t be so sure. If GLC has indeed given you permission, Mr Neumann, then you have license to repost. But it is unwise to assume this to be an unlimited license. They would probably be offended, for instance, if you chose to make and then market a derivative work.

And one thing you definitely can’t do is defend their copyright. You have admitted you do not own these videos; therefore, you do not have any legal basis for asserting copyright over them.

Just look on the first displayed message of the first video and on youtube the name of the poster “marcmro”.

Yes, I think Orac is aware that you are the poster. That’s why he said you were more likely to be the copyright violator, as it is you, not he, who posted them to the Internet.

I blocked now all videos so you can see that I can block them or not allow to embed them whenever I want.. Can you dig it now?

Congratulations! You have learned the basics of YouTube! *golf clap* Of course, you did so after Orac advised you that it was a simpler way of getting what you wanted, so I don’t think this indicates you’re much of a “power user”.

Regarding my texts, if I wrote you officially as owner and author to remove them from your site because i don`t agree with your useless and discriminating pseudo medical blog writings about me and you have to respect my wish as author.

Nope; he does not have to respect your wish as an author. He has to respect your copyright, but he has done so; he reproduce only small sections of text, sufficient for commentary, with full attribution. This satisfies the “fair use” doctrine. You would not prevail should you choose to sue him.

Yes, mostly US afflicted because USA don`t care anymore about their own citizins. Anyway it is a country which never cared about any rights of humans or nature, and so you now.

Really? America is one of the more libertarian nations on Earth, which is part of the reason why people can get away with exploiting the desperate for so long. Hint: just because people want to be cured of their ailments doesn’t make it right to promise what you can’t deliver and then happily take your money. You’re like a lawyer who happily takes a fee from someone trying to sue for violations of a copyright which he does not hold, without informing his client of the indefensibility of his position. (Which means that maybe you will be meeting someone rather like yourself soon.)

It is *legal* to do what you do. And I guess financially, you are fortunate of that.

On the top, I don`t need donut dummies like you which are treating me in a ridiculous way in a public blog using even my own texts therefore and laughing about my English spelling.

While it is true that grammar/spelling flames are among the lowest sorts of criticism on the Internet, Orac was mostly criticizing your content. The best response you have is a pretty ineffective attempt to muzzle him. That strongly suggests to me that you don’t actually have any real counterarguments, and thus you’d prefer people didn’t ask you inconvenient questions. You’re like the great and powerful Oz telling Dorothy to pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

I don`t need that and I don`t like that. You can criticize me but not offending me in public. And now you write me in your pussyfooter style, oh dear Mr. Neumann, bla, bla, bla…

Orac? Pussyfooter? BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! This is “Respectful Insolence”. Sounds like you’re asking for some to be dished right in your direction. (The last one was really aimed at Dr Arafiles, not you. You just took some collateral damage.)

I realize you are not a natural-born American, and so some aspects of our culture are unfamiliar to me. I also know that Germany practices censorship, so perhaps you are not prepared for one of the greatest principles of American society:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

That is the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. Study it well, for it is very significant to the copyright claims you have made. Freedom of speech. Orac can say whatever he likes. So can you. That’s just it — freedom of speech goes both ways, and you have no right to not be offended. If you don’t want to be offended, pull the Ethernet cable out of your computer, turn off the TV, turn off the radio, lock the doors, and never go outside.

I am sorry that my English is not enough, but I speak actually 4 languages and English is not my best but probably better than your German, right?

Stop apologizing for your English. It’s not perfect, but it’s as good as a lot of folks on the Internet, and you certainly speak well enough to be understood. We know what you’re saying, well enough to call it out as bullshit. Don’t hide behind language barriers which frankly don’t exist — you speak well enough to be considered fluent. So what if you have an accent? That’s not important. What’s important is that you are saying nonsense.

I think my laywer in NY will take care about you if you don`t follow my gentle advice of removement.

If your lawyer is willing to charge you money for that, you’re being cheated. Or, you’re a bully and so’s your lawyer, but just so you know, that particular strategy only works if you’ve got a wimp on the other side.

Are you unemployed with a lot of time to write the whole day rubbish? Probably you are fat and more than overweight sitting between cheesburgers and coke, right?

Orac is verbose, but he’s not unemployed. He’s a professional scientist and a surgical oncologist. I’ve seen a picture of him (real him, not the plastic blinky box); he’s actually in very good physical condition. And quite good looking, I must say.

Anyway, I don`t care about Dr. Arafiles or any other physicians but me…But I have to ask you, why are you blaming Dr. Arafiles?

So, I take it you did not actually read anything Orac wrote on the subject? That might explain why you think you have a case — you haven’t bothered to actually examine any evidence.

Let’s see, why attack Arafiles?

* performs surgeries at a hospital where he doesn’t have surgical privileges (including skin grafts, which are a pretty delicate procedure requiring special care before and after)

* performs untested surgical procedures, still in a hospital where he’s not supposed to be doing those

* treats confidential patient information as his own personal direct-mail advertising list (a direct violation of HIPAA and several other ethics rules)

* uses his ER presence to push his own products rather than concentrating on patient needs

* conceals the impaired status of his medical license

* exploits political connections to ferret out and punish those who call him out on his misdeeds

On top of all that, he’s selling stuff that has never been scientifically tested for efficacy, dose, or safety at a huge price markup, and you can see all that right on his own webpage. You don’t have to know him to know he’s a fraud. You just have to look at the evidence laid out in the criminal case against the nurse, and at the claims he himself makes.

I feel sorry for them but they could also fix that problem first with the director of the hospital instead doing all behind the doors and now thy cry loud about.

If you feel sorry for them, you should at least bother to learn the facts. They *did* go through hospital channels first. The hospital did nothing. They had no choice left but to file a complaint with the state medical board. That’s called going up the chain of command.

To let you know; Morgellons disease is caused from a biological insecticide, spread from US companies without any care if immunocompromised humans or animals gets sick from it. If you want i can send you a few medical reports about such infections, exactely with the same type of fungi used from pesticide industry.

You are aware, are you not, that pesticides are meant to *kill* fungus? I would be interested to see your reports, but from what you’ve said so far, I’m not very optimistic that they’ll contain actual evidence. I am willing to be proven otherwise.

So many are suffering from this disease and killing themself after a long painful fighting. Most from USA…So forgive me that I help them as a German and not as an American!!

Most from USA? Are you aware that Morgellons was first recognized in France? Strange, that. And due to pesticides, eh? The first case was in 1690. Maybe the recent surge of interest in Morgellons is tied to the organic food industry, since they’ve been returning to older, more “traditional” pesticides. That would be ironic indeed. Though perhaps less marketable for you. It is quite fashionable to find diseases tied to modern life. It helps ease the guilt of living in a land of such astounding wealth as the US to pretend that there is some horrible affliction that results from this wealth.

In truth, though, I do not deny that people are suffering greatly who have been labeled as “Morgellons sufferers”. The really sad thing to me is that this does not appear to be a real disease but rather a collection of people with various problems who have found their way to quacks who group them together for convenience rather than for their benefit. How many of them really have undiagnosed diabetes? Cancer? Allergies? (The last are probably the most easily treated, yet if you treat them as if they have parasites, they’re not going to get better.)

Remove the videos and my text til friday or I will charge you with 100.000 US dollar because you violate the copyright, on the top insulting me and my work in public!!

Good luck with that. Insults are permissible; there is overwhelming case law behind that.

In your case I would remove them if you still have a brain after all that good GMO food consumption…Nobody wants American mass products made without any brain or quality!

If you care about American people, why do you want us to avoid American products? Outsourcing is a major reason why so many Americans are out of a job right now. And no brain or quality? Are you saying Americans can’t make good products?

Huh. And you’re the one who claims to care about Americans.

BTW, GMO food couldn’t have caused Morgellons in 1690. Though I’d be interested to hear what it is that makes GMO food able to cause illness, or what the magic is that makes laboratory manipulation of genes deadlier than the old fashioned kind (aka “husbandry”). I mean, talk about Frankenfood — have you even *seen* wild corn? No? Exactly. There’s no such thing. It’s an entirely manufactured species. Thousands of years of selective breeding have produced something so utterly unrecognizable compared to its wild relatives that you’d never think they were even related.

(By the way, how’d you get from pesticides to fungus to GMO as the cause of Morgellons? These are all quite different beasts. One would think you were just grabbing whatever seems to be fashionable to fear at the moment, rather than actually doing research.)

Best regards and wishes
Marc Neumann

Taken and returned in the spirit intended, I’m sure.

BTW, for an instructive example of what to do if a *real* cease-and-desist letter arrives, witness what Fail Blog did when the Guinness Book of World Records objected to their appearance on Fail Blog. They removed the one item for which there was a real basis of IP complaint, kept the commentary, and made it far more visible. 😀

http://failblog.org/2009/07/08/record-breaking-fail/

One fun game to play with cranks when they start waving the “Ooooh! I’ve got a scaaaaaaary lawyer” flag is to remind them that barratry is against the law. You’ll then have to educate them as to what barratry *is*, mind you, but at least it makes a change from whatever other “argument” they’re using.

There’s no such thing as “fair use” in Germany. All use is unfair there. Also, will he accept 100k in Deutsch Marks.

Please inform yourself more accurate about morgellons or stop writing about things what you can`t percept.

P.S. You are keeping the videos, right? Pleeeeezzzzeeee! Maybe you can make him go into an even bigger hissy fit!

What I don’t understand is why Morgellans symptoms patients and crank-doctors are so eager to claim fungal infection (which always makes me think of thrush or athelete’s foot) or ecto-parasites rather than some sort of neurological cause. Come on, parasites and fungi are hardly glamorous or socially acceptable. (Personally, I think I’d be happier admitting to outright delusions rather than parasites!)

Hey Wes: Even if Orac were somehow misinformed about Morgellons, what does that have to do with his right to post the aforesaid videos and text? Hell, even if he was criticizing a legitimate study about an actual disease, his point would stand: no copyright holder and “fair use” means there’s not IP abuse.

What I don’t understand is why Morgellans symptoms patients and crank-doctors are so eager to claim fungal infection (which always makes me think of thrush or athelete’s foot) or ecto-parasites rather than some sort of neurological cause. Come on, parasites and fungi are hardly glamorous or socially acceptable. (Personally, I think I’d be happier admitting to outright delusions rather than parasites!)

I love Morgellons, I really do. The anti-GMO cranks couldn’t pin any real ailment on genetic engineering (not that that stopped them), so they made one up! Morgellons is sort of like the Wakefield thing: You would think the craziness of the Wakefield study would be a blow to the anti-vax movement by showing people the kind of rubbish they’ll follow, but so many of them still believe it. Same with Morgellons. You would think inventing your own novelty disease would damage the reputation anti-GMO movement, but here again, a lot seem buy into that one too. I guess it’s like they say; when you open yourself to one crank idea you open yourself to lots of other crank ideas.

“if I wrote you officially as owner and author to remove them from your site because i don`t agree with your useless and discriminating pseudo medical blog writings about me and you have to respect my wish as author.”

Can someone mail him a few picture books about copyright laws, free speech, and similar simple legal matters? It appears he learned everything from his kindergarten playground.

Please do post your response to Mr. Neumann’s magnum opus of stupidity. I was having a poor day, and this just turned it quite around.

His prowess as an Intellectual Property attorney is exceeded only by his knowledge of medical science.

James Sweet writes:

I would probably sound just as dumb if I tried to write a legal threat in, say, Spanish….

…or if one tried to write a legal threat, in any language, knowing nothing about the law. This lack of knowledge of law, medicine, science, whatever, is no handicap for the True Crank, though, as long as he yells loud enough (or the exclamation point/caps lock equivalent).

igor writes:

There’s no such thing as “fair use” in Germany. All use is unfair there.

This sounds a bit like a German version of a Yakov Smirnoff joke. (“In Soviet Russia, law unfairly uses you!”)

But seriously folks, I have no idea whether German copyright law would apply in this case. We are dealing with the World Wide Web, after all.

I would probably sound just as dumb if I tried to write a legal threat in, say, Spanish….

…or if one tried to write a legal threat, in any language, knowing nothing about the law. This lack of knowledge of law, medicine, science, whatever, is no handicap for the True Crank, though, as long as he yells loud enough (or the exclamation point/caps lock equivalent).

Tengo un pleito contra tu madre para la infracción de derecho de autor de mi Johnson.

“Only losers can criticize others, because they can not doing such a work. Oh my god, history is full of such jar heads…”

The mind boggles…

@Calli Arcale #31,

Man, if Orac’s use got some good ol’ lawyer threatenin’, I wonder what your use will do? Cranksplosion maybe?

Are you unemployed with a lot of time to write the whole day rubbish? Probably you are fat and more than overweight sitting between cheesburgers and coke, right?

He forgot to add, “… blogging from your mother’s basement.”

Hilarious!

“I have lyme and clamydia p. infection. What do you expect from me? Hope you understand what that means?”

That you are a butt of many jokes from people who don’t know the difference between chlamydia trachomatis and chlamydia pneumoniae?

“It was to me a huge effort doing it having brain fog etc. and without any control monitor! ”

I’ll say.

But Morgellon’s is real! Dark thin fibers have been growing out from my back during the last few years.. oh, wait.

Actually, why do these guys always use the same tactics? “I’m smarter than you -> I somehow know that you’re unemployed and fat -> You’re infringing my copyright -> I will send my lawyers after you.”

Neumann: “My first thought was that (Arafiles) is a quack jumping on the morgellons train to make more money out of the sufferers as many others too.”

Maybe his “brain fog” isn’t so bad after all.

Don’t you know that it’s time to get on board
And let this Morgellons train keep on riding, riding on through
Well, well
People all over the world (send us your money)
Join hands (wear gloves)
Start a Morgellons train, Morg train

Hope this doesn’t precipitate nasty e-mail from the O’Jays.

Calli Arcale @31

What got into your cornflakes this morning?

I also know that Germany practices censorship

Citation please. I am not aware of that, with the exception of promoting certain things from World War Two.

That is the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. Study it well, for it is very significant to the copyright claims you have made. Freedom of speech. Orac can say whatever he likes.

Copyright claims is more commercial law rather than freedom of speech issues; rights under the First Amendment have some restrictions (Flag burning, I believe); and Orac is restricted by defamation laws.

Outsourcing is a major reason why so many Americans are out of a job right now

Huge topic, again, any citations?

Marc Neumann is clearly a crank, but I interpreted his remark

USA don`t care anymore about their own citizins

as a reference to the health uninsured in the U.S., which exceeds the population of Canada. ( 43.6 million uninsured in 2008 whereas population of Canada was 33.3 million )

When you think about it, the strange thing is that he wants you to remove the videos in the first place. So what if you’re criticizing them? If he made the videos — and he thinks they’re well done, and convincing — then this allows your readers to view his best case.

Imagine the opposite situation: you and/or the folks at Science-Based Medicine make some informational videos on, say, the benefits and safety of vaccines. You’re proud of them, you send them to u-tube hoping they get popular. These videos subsequently get embedded and posted on Age of Autism and whaleto. — where they are then deconstructed and mocked.

You would be amazed and thrilled! They posted the pro-science videos. People who go to those sites can actually watch them, and not just get the strategically filtered strawman version of “what skeptics believe.”

It wouldn’t happen, of course. But, given the hypothetical situation, the very last thing you’d do is protest. If you could, you’d send them more videos.

Marc Neumann seems to be tacitly accepting the fact that his argument is so weak that it needs a sympathetic, receptive audience who is lead gently by the hand and urged in the right direction. Does he not even hope for a convert, on the merits of his case alone? Evidently, no.

By the way I don`t like colloidal silver or any other crab medication too.

Wow, I hadn’t heard of THAT use of colloidal silver!

Shawn Smith: ROTFL!!!! He is welcome to try. Mind you, I can’t remove anything from Orac’s blog, including my own posts…

I want to go at his addendum now (though I wonder if I should first hop over to his site to see what he makes of my IP address, which isn’t a pharmaceutical company’s network — aw, shucks, I just did and got nothing more htan a “Page Not Available” note suggesting he’s decided to take it down.)

I have lyme and clamydia p. infection. What do you expect from me? Hope you understand what that means?

That you have itching and burning in sensitive locations, making you rather irritable?

Let me put it in this way regarding critics; I am not sensitive to criticism as i wrote you already, but it seems to me that you can not distinguish criticism from diffamation or insultation.

Really? You’re not sensitive to criticism? You have a funny way of showing it.

As well I must say that i don`t like the fact that you seeked and found among 100 pages some errors on my site to have some ammunition for your cheap blog.

Blame Dr Arafiles; Orac found your site while investigating him to see if he was merely incompetent or something more.

Many US people are writing me daily and it seems to me that they are not able to write a good English, too.

Tell me about it! I have a degree in English, and it frustrates me daily to see how poorly my fellow Americans manage the English language. I have no problem whatsoever with foreigners having difficulty. English is not the easiest language to learn. I really don’t think you need to apologize for your English. It may not be perfect, but you speak well enough to be understood. Well enough for us to comfortably criticize your content, which I note you still have not attempted to defend.

My first thought was that he is a quack jumping on the morgellons train to make more money out of the sufferers as many others too.

I’m convinced that he is. If he can find a condition, real or otherwise, which he can use to persaude people to buy grape juice from him at a markup equivalent to fine French wine, then he will use it.

*per volume, I think Clos Vouegeout is roughly equivalent, though I haven’t bought any of that in a while and may have the price wrong

Therfore I don`t need small brains like the people on your blog if they have no empathy for the situation and my daily work.

I have tremendous empathy for the people who suffer. For people who prey on them, however, I have no sympathy at all. I do not know whether you personally prey on Morgellons sufferers. However, your behavior does not fill me with confidence.

Only losers can criticize others, because they can not doing such a work.

Is that why you criticize Orac and the people who comment on his blog, then?

I am tired after 5 years doing actually the job of those who get payed for it; the physicians!! So don`t worry i had to take a lot of criticism during these 5 years of helping people with a so called Delusional parasitosis.

Are you seriously suggesting that a) you are able to fill the job of a physician (which involves more than just treating people with Morgellons, and involves knowing what other conditions can trigger similar symptoms) and b) you aren’t getting paid for it? If not, how are you making a living?

But how can anybody claim this with a lack of knowledge? Only stupid ignorants. Just watch the pictures of the sufferers and you must agree that such sores etc. are not just imagination or neurodermatitis, but a mycotic infection, not UFO, chemtrails or other US conspiracy rubbish.

I have seen pictures of Morgellons sufferers. It is unquestionable that they are suffering, and in some cases suffering greatly. They’ve developed massive patches of eczema, and some of them look quite painful. As to what’s causing the eczema, well, I’m not a doctor. I’ve also seen pictures of fibers. I only know what I’ve educated myself about, and that limits the options I can imagine. But they aren’t all limited to “I don’t know what this is, so I’m going to assume it’s some kind of infestation.”

I think the biggest tragedy with Morgellons is not that mainstream doctors don’t always believe their Internet-aided self-diagnosis. It’s that the patients themselves get so attached to the diagnosis that it becomes impossible for anyone to find out the real problem. And there are “practitioners” who will feed that attachment in order to keep them coming back for more “treatments”.

Did you know that itching alone can lead to eczema? It can. Delusional parasitosis can indeed lead to lesions such as these. The way it works is this: person thinks they have bugs under their skin, so they scratch, which damages the skin, which makes the skin irritated, which makes them itchy, so they scratch more, so the skin gets damaged further, and round and round it goes. Really, anything that makes you itchy (imagined or not — and the imagination is extremely powerful when it comes to itchiness) can thus lead to eczema. While that likely doesn’t describe all the cases you’ve seen, if you have an ounce of ethics in your body, you will consider it when diagnosing patients. After all, giving antifungals to a person without a fungal infection is not good for them.

What should I say now? Just remove my text which was also not corrected well and as author I can force you do do so! It is my work and you have to respect my wish as author.

You are wrong. If Orac were reprinting your entire website or substantial portions of it, you could order him to take it down. But he is not doing that. He is quoting your text for the purpose of commentary, and that is allowed under the law.

If you think that America is still the wild west and the internet too, then you are wrong with your simply mind thinking!

America is not the wild west, but you seem to think it is, by thinking that you can rule by threats.

I can track your IP address and finding out over your provider who you are, to send you the charge…

I already know who Orac is, and I didn’t bother tracing his IP address. As far as finding his provider, well, it shouldn’t take a mental giant to work out that it is ScienceBlogs.

Why you don`t start to analize morgellons on your blog without declairing all others nuts who work on the problem. Man, do you really think me and others are idiots and doing it because we have nothing better to do? Why you don`t start to work on that if you have such much time for stupid blogs…

Project, much? Orac didn’t even discuss the reality of Morgellons — only that there is a high degree of crank magnetism associated with it. If you are protesting, it can only mean that you identify with the crank aspect.

The morgellons problem is real and we are in the same situation as with AIDS 30 years ago. Did you know how difficult it was for afflicted 30 years ago to recognize AIDS and getting treatments? Same problem now.

AIDS was impossible to ignore 30 years ago. Granted, not everybody believed it was associated with HIV. But the syndrome itself was and is unmistakable. It is not the nebulous entity that Morgellons appears to be.

To let you know; Dr. Arafiles did lost the trial against the nurses. It sadisfies me but it makes me sad too.

Lost the trial against the nurses? It wasn’t him against the nurses. It was the state against the nurses. Granted, Arafiles was the one pulling the strings, by getting his cronies (the sheriff and district attorney) to illegally find the anonymous complainants and pursue absurd criminal charges against them, so in a sense, this was his war against the nurses rather than the actual pursuit of justice which it should have been.

They are just sellers for the pharmaceutical industry, you too?

Strictly speaking, no — doctors are not supposed to sell medication (though there are some medications which have to be administered by the clinic — vaccines, injectable birth control, etc.). They refer patients to pharmacies, which sell the medication. Of course, some doctors do want to get in on that action, usually by selling “supplements” which can fly under the radar of regulatory bodies on the lookout for conflicts of interest.

By the way I don`t like colloidal silver or any other crab medication too.< ?i>

This may be the first time I haven’t understood you. What do you mean, “crab medication”? Perhaps there is a false cognate tricking you? I don’t know.

Colloidal silver is generally a scam, so I’m glad you don’t like it. Silver can be very effective as a topical antiseptic, and indeed, some companies will silverplate medical equipment to exploit its antimicrobial properties. (Only drawback is that it oxidizes rapidly, and the silver oxide forms a patina over the metal which protects microbes from its germ-killing powers.)

Remove my text now it`s friday and let me know if you are interested to post clear evidences what morgellons are and where they are coming from. If not, then forget it I don`t have time to prove anything for some pseudo scientific blogs. My life and time is too precious to waste it with brainless ignorants who knows all better…

Yes, I can see you are *very* passionate about sharing information about Morgellons, with an attitude like that.

Take care and watch out for morgs in your food…

Wait, I thought you said they were caused by pesticides doing something to immunocompromised people? Or was it fungus? GMOs? Um . . . you might have better luck if you pick something and stick to it. Might help you give the impression you actually care enough to do real *work* to find out what your clients really have.

I think that Mr Neumann may have started to appreciate that no all publicity is good publicity, and that not all attention by so called “health care” professionals is advantageous.

Dr. Arafiles is a quack, and the attention of a quack is of no positive value. If Morgellon’s is a real disease or disorder, it won’t be successfully treated by quacks. Those who suffer from it will only be expoited.

I admit my confusion…

I swear that Dr. Egon Spengler was able to demonstrate conclusively that the treatment for fluorescent ecto-parasites involved high voltage electricity and proton accelerator backpack treatment devices.

but then, I think I remember that the Morgellon’s were the people that had been waging war for generations using computer simulations, against the planet VENDICAR?

Help me…. Spock. Help me…

Barak:

note first was awesome of made. two bad you are to fat and eated of the mcdonald too see that people who are harder working than you fat lazy american can better than you be

Best regards and wishes,
Marc von Yodann

I don’t know…this is a bit too much like making fun of the crazy street person who stands on the corner and yells at people.

I don’t know…this is a bit too much like making fun of the crazy street person who stands on the corner and yells at people.

Exactly why I am not going to post any of the additional e-mails he has sent to me. Enough’s enough. Mr. Neumann deserved a public slapdown, but anything more is piling on. In fact, I’m tempted to remove my addendum because that may have been one step over the line for me.

By the way I don`t like colloidal silver or any other crab medication too.

“Wow, I hadn’t heard of THAT use of colloidal silver!”

Hah, you mocking ignorant stupid American, don’t you know that colloidal silver kills all known pathogens within minutes? Aundrea Adams, Naturopathic Consultant says so. She is Board Certified.

Here’s her list of what colloidal silver treats, abbreviated for the short American attention span:

Acid Reflux [Caused By Intestinal Candida]
Adrenal Exhaustion
AIDS
Anthrax
Bad Breath [Halitosis]
Cancer
Cholera
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Dandruff
Head Lice
Heart Disease
Jock Itch
Ophthalmology
(note: this is an especially nasty ailment)
Pruitis
(the abridged form of pruritus)
SARS
Teeth That Are Loose Or Shifting
Trench Foot
Wounds

That’s some powerful stuff. Think I’ll get me the gallon size.

as per #68 from the Dangerous Bacon….

WOW!!!
if that is only a partial list of the myriad benefits of colloidal silver… one can only imagine (the mind BOGGLES!) at what we can accomplish with Colloidal Gold… or perhaps Colloidal Oatmeal?

can you treat West Texas chainsaw medico-legal idiocy with colloidal silver… ’cause there seems to have been an outbreak in WINKIE County Sheriff’s office!

oh my… I did some more online reading…
and so far have been able to resist purchase of natural cures, nutraceuticals, and the like.

but I have figured it out….. for many years, one complaint of those suffering mental illness was the sensation of tiny bugs felt and sometimes seen on the skin. Now apparently, the etiology of that symptom is not neurologic somaticized symptoms, or a result of uninhibited scratching, but the realization that there really ARE invisible mites causing this syndrome, and apparently pooping out little blue fibers?

BUT THERE IS A CURE, apparently:
Para Stat (60 capsules) $24.95
ParaStat is world class nutraceutical formula for intestinal support and deep seated parasite cleansing. Used by hundreds of U.S. doctors to promote intestinal cleansing with stunning results.*

My daughter has a loose tooth, I have a corn on my foot, and my wife has eyes. Will collodial silver help us?

i think not spam at #64

I think a spoof like parody of the grammar and syntax of the original postings of Mr Marc Neumann. the #64 poster may have entered his thoughts into an on line YODA-speak translator..
because sounds it like backwards he speaks!

Hah, you mocking ignorant stupid American, don’t you know that colloidal silver kills all known pathogens within minutes? Aundrea Adams, Naturopathic Consultant says so. She is Board Certified.

How is colloidal silver “naturopathic”?

These are the same clowns that rail against mercury and aluminum? Yet, they love silver? Can’t tell a naturopathic metal without a scorecard…

@58

Bein’ nit-picky…flag burning is protected free speech.

Especially important as a pyre is the proper way to dispose of an old flag.

As a German, here a few clarifications:

Yes, 100.000 in Germany is the same as 100’000 in Switzerland and 100,000 in the USA. Making fun of a 2nd language is not good, but even I winced about the spelling. Germany also has freedom of speech in its (temporary) constitution, which declares that “Eine Zensur findet nicht statt” (censorship does not occur). This has tighter limits than in the USA (I can’t even translate `volksverhetzende Schriften’ into English), but to say that we have censorship is not appropriate.

I am ashamed for my country…

LovleAnjel @75

Stand corrected, Flag Desecration Amendment. Remember the House passing things, forgot the outcome, so maybe a little colloidal silver could be added for memory enhancement in addition to a few of the other things I need it for, as listed by Dangerous Bacon

It ain’t an amendment until it’s passed the whole process. AFAIK, it hasn’t even passed the House yet. It would have to pass the House and the Senate and be ratified by the states. And strictly speaking, the amendment would not make flag burning illegal. Rather, it would grant Congress the authority to ban flag burning as a form of political protest.

How sad for me in my mockery researching. Herr Doktor is take away the pages with the Englishes for safe removation of special quotes.

The answer to the problem of morgellons is easy, simply remove the “gell”.

Calli Arcale @ 79

Rather, it would grant Congress the authority to ban flag burning as a form of political protest. prohibit all forms of flag desecration.

Fixed

Answering the Friday mailbag: Morgellons disease “expert” Marc Neumann is very unhappy with Orac

Explanation: Most anti-mercury/preservative/ government endorsed vaccine people are. There are perfectly good alternatives to some dangerous medications and proceudres, but the fruitcakes of the world try to censor it becuase big pharma might lose money over it.

—————————-

“While it may be true that PZ gets the best crank mail, I do get my share.”

Explanation: I am sure you do. I reiterate. Stop supporting Big Pharma and their censorship techniques and the crank mail will probably cease. PZ gets cranks mail and deservingly so. He goes around fornicating polls all the time and making people mad about his mini tirade of hatred on religion. No wonder he makes so many enemies. He hates everyone who refuses to be a mommy’s basement science nerd. His evilution views are beyong pathetic and are quite amusing. Everyone knows evilution is not true. Why they tryt o force evilution on the rest of us, I’ll never know. I guess for the same reasons they force unholy matrimony on us (so called gay “marriage”)and the HELLthcare bill, crap and trade, and all other manners of evil on us. I am asuming they actually want to destroy the country. These things can only do that. They surely can;t help anything.

—————————

“hawks colloidal silver for H1N1 on his website?”

Explanation: There you go again dismissing the amazing capabilities of colloidal silver. I asume you do not know it was and still is used to treat wounds as well as protect against viruses including FLU virus. The H1N1, or SWINE FLU as we normal people call it, was spread all over the place, but was far from a pandemic. The whole “pandemic” game was a hoax. Many people got sick and some were even paralyzed by taking the vaccine. Some even died from the vaccine within hours of taking it. H1N1 was not really a real flu anyway. It’s effects were more like a nasty cold than the flu, and the stupid lame stream media failed to report that over half the people who died from the swine flu already had major health concerns to begin with. It they had been healthier, the swine flu would have passed and not killed them. Stupid media. Thank God for FOX News. They are the only ones who ever report what goes on in the world.

Stupid media. Thank God for FOX News. They are the only ones who ever report what goes on in the world.

I was going to respond to the rest of the ignorance but this is all anyone really needs to hear. Enough said.

“I(f) they had been healthier, the swine flu would have passed and not killed them

A classic example of the altie fixation on blaming the patient.

Just like when people suffer permanent blue-gray skin discoloration from using colloidal silver, or suffer the health consequences of using any number of supplements – “it’s their fault – they weren’t doing it right!”

“Enough’s enough. Mr. Neumann deserved a public slapdown, but anything more is piling on. In fact, I’m tempted to remove my addendum because that may have been one step over the line for me.”

Nah, leave it up, Orac. It serves as the classic confirmation of his nuttiness. One wacky e-mail could just be chalked up to the guy’s current mood, but three in a row? And of such amazing quality? In this case, it demonstrates just what sorts of people are among those who most often attack you and attack science.

he is awful proud of his chlamydia infection. reading mr neumann’s diatribes is giving me the worst secondhand embarrassment

“Foolishly (I know, I know, don’t tell me I’m an idiot for doing this; I know it was a mistake)”

I know it’s cruel but I love provoking cranks. The more they are provoked, the less sense they make. After a few minutes, you’re arguing against a 5 year old, basically. Of course, Neumann sending a tsunami of straw men in your direction had to be expected. Please don’t remove the addendum, it is priceless. Ironic that this retard shares his last name with one of the most brilliant mathematicians of all time.

I can understand bad grammar from somenone working in foregn language, but Mr Neumann is TSTUASC (Too Stupid to Use a Spell Checker).

Ooohoohoo! That’s hilarious! “I’m threatening you with my non-existent lawyers because the clamidia made me do it!” Aaahahahaha! Usually god makes them do it – and sometime the devil – but this is the first time I’ve heard the clamidia excuse. 🙂

That gives me an idea for another excuse: “I was threatened with Aspergillus Niger!”

Stop supporting Big Pharma and their censorship techniques and the crank mail will probably cease. PZ gets cranks mail and deservingly so. He goes around fornicating polls all the time and making people mad about his mini tirade of hatred on religion.

So Mr. Palm, you admit that you and your fellow purveyors of spittle-flecked, frothing emails are, in fact, cranks. I’m gathering from your colorful prose and poor command of grammar that English is not your first language either. Fornicating polls? Really?

back in the 70s I injured my knee — skinned and cut it up fairly badly. not bad enough to require stitches, but bad enough. cloth fibers from my pants, my pajamas, bedclothes and even my bath towel would stick to the wound and even appear to be growing out of it. It was not “Mogellons”.
It was just freakin cloth fibers that got stuck to the blasted wound. painful to debride, but not spooky or even the slightest bit mysterious. why am I still awake and writing replies at this hour?
Goodnight, folks.

Lol… If I decide to join the ranks of ‘Men who have sex with men’ I know who not to say a oral hello to. Good luck with the clap, Marky Mark.

A search on Copyrights in the US under the name Marc Neumann turned up ZERO results, ZERO results for MRO, ZERO results for M-R-O, ZERO results for Morgellons Research Organization.

I did get 2 results for morgellons under the name of George Robert Schwartz.

It is possible that he’s filed under a different country, Germany to be more specific, but I’m having trouble finding a database to search German copyright records

Nah, Orac is right — it’s really time to stop mocking Neumann. It’s really starting to look like picking on the kids on the short bus.

Seriously, some people have brain issues, and this is no more their fault than pancreatic issues would be. It’s not ok to pick on people with bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, either. No-one has any real idea what’s happened in this person’s life for him to end up here.

Oh…my.

I usually don’t post on Morgellans, since I immediately get a boatload of irate emails and comments. But this one may tempt me back into the shark-filled waters…..

And colloidal silver? He should have his license revoked.

Thanks for covering this, Orac.

Dammit! Here I am, a proponent of science/evidence-based medicine and I’m *still* not getting those payoffs from Big Pharma! What’s the deal here? I haven’t even got the Sooper Seekret Decoder Ring yet! I wish those pharma-folk would get their act together. And while I’m a frequent visitor at Pharyngula and have participated in many, many totally unscientific and utterly worthless polls, P.Z.’s never asked me to fornicate one. Not even once not being that way inclined.

@Harry Palms

Okay, I’m thinkin’ Poe, but just in case…

There are perfectly good alternatives to some dangerous medications and proceudres, but the fruitcakes of the world try to censor it becuase big pharma might lose money over it.

You mean they censor like this?

Here is a hilarious example of a colloidal silver snake oil salesman being “censored with extreme prejudice” by 5 dragons.

Hat tip to “Chris” for originally posting this link.

Mr. Neumann’s website seems to have disappeared.

Orac appears to have more influence with the black helicopter folks than we suspected. Be careful what you say here folks! 🙂

DisGRUNTled wrote: It is possible that he’s filed under a different country, Germany to be more specific, but I’m having trouble finding a database to search German copyright records

Copyright is automatically granted on your creations (exceptions according to Urheberrecht apply), thus no central database exists here… other forms of protection trademarks, Gebrauchsmuster, patents, etc are a different affair.

Copyright is automatic in the U.S. as well–we’re signatory to the Berne Convention–but registering a copyright means you can get statutory damages for infringement, rather than having to prove actual damages. (Even this blog comment will be copyrighted when you see it. That doesn’t mean I have a chance of getting anything if someone reprints it elsewhere–nor do I care, if they do so accurately.)

Hairy Palms @82:

There you go again dismissing the amazing capabilities of colloidal silver. I asume you do not know it was and still is used to treat wounds as well as protect against viruses including FLU virus.

Well, there you go again, confusing topical use with internal use.

@Hairy Palms:

Stop supporting Big Pharma and their censorship techniques…

You owe me a new irony meter.

OPEN INTERNET LETTER TO ORAC FOR ALL LYME BOARDS, BLOGS AND TWITTER.

DEAR HONEY-BUNNY ORAC,

Why should I not be amused about your postings? Who told you that? Do you have occasional delusional conceptions? Man, I think I have still more humor than you, and I love any publicity, even bad publicity, to start a discussion about Lyme and Morgellons diseases.
Thanks, pal. I really appreciate your promotion efforts. Nevertheless, here is my answer to your fecal smut-slang postings…Enjoy it!!

After your big excremental blog show, I got lots of emails from all over the world, including from sufferers and physicians. All have the same opinion about you: that you are not such brilliant (useless melanocytes research) and never interested in the truth and have no ambitions to learn more in order to help people, and that you are just paid by BIG PHARMA companies. Many doctors have had enough of them, as they corrupt medicine.

Maybe you don’t have the ability to recognize that you just show the world how evil, uneducated, narcissistic and unethical you are. Or should I say all doctors? I won’t, as most doctors do have a brain and are not so infantil (childish) as you. Also, to let you know, I am updating anyway my site now, so I don’t have time to react always to all your provocative kindergarten postings from your poor students.

On the contrary to you, I have a work every day to do! I don´t even have time to review errors on my English site all the time, after cheap Google translations and despite having helpers around to correct it. But what a miracle, thank God, I have you and your friends now who can find errors and correct them, line by line, in my favor. Actually, I have to thank you for that. Thanks, buddy, I will send all my new articles to you first, ok? And all for free, wow…

Regarding my copied text (copyright violation), I told you already to remove it from your blog, but you don’t respond. I just don’t want to repeat it again, do we have to play the lawsuit game now? Anyway, I am a gambler too, so let’s play the game with your own rules.

The only one who can lose this game is you, Baby! I have lost already everything in my life and nolens volens (nilly-willy) I have to do research on my own because the medical and scientific community does nothing to help us!! And now you have the nerve to blame me therefore in public??

You have caused for such a long time a tremendous pain to many people with your disgusting and disinformative blogs. And since you have started ridiculing me on your blog, my site has been spammed from your bloggers and some tried also to hack my network. Sorry, no chance for them!! Ooh la la, and they don`t even know that I have all their IP-addresses.

Man, what`s actually going on here?? It is getting almost criminal now and making me feel threatened by you (not really, watching your picture!).

But to remind you, I don’t have anything to lose but you. It`s just your own reputation!! And many wrote to me that you should at least lose face once and be blamed in public, as you do daily with others. They wrote also, that you just deserve more visitors and I don`t agree with that in no way, to make it clear!! (also to avoid some Internet virus from
your blogs). I don`t want to be in the middle of any old or new war against you (yuk)!!

To let you know, allmost all Lyme and Morgellons organizations, doctors, nurses and patients want to stand by my side, even lawyers. I can`t count the emails anymore…Man, you have started an avalanche, off-putting yourself as final result (clever!).

Many want to start now a D-DAY against you. If thousands of users do visit your blogs your server will collapse. Actually, this is even legal. They are doing nothing wrong, just posting on all your blogs. What if they visit by the tens of thousands, or even 100,000 or more per minute? Very scary! By the way, is my comma position correct now, darling?

Anyway, may I ask you again, as in my previous emails to you (which you did not post first? Ouchhhh!), what happened in your life that made you so evil and unsatisfied? Or are you just a natural born maniac who has never achieved much in life and so started this and other blogs to have a voice, finally, and to release all that anger inside you? Don’t be a coward. Let us all know your pain! Nobody who has a brain is visiting your blogs. Did you knew this? Most of your daily bloggers are probably just oafs…

Everybody with a psychological education can recognize that something went wrong in your life. Tell me what? Small willy, Mr. Ugly in person or a bad childhood? Or are you gay and your friend Jim or Mike has left you? Come on, take it easy, TEX. You will find another one! Tell me, what`s your favorite song? “I AM YOUR BOOGEY MAN”? I assume hardly that it`s “YMCA”, correct? Some whistleblower wrote me that…

Hope that this is not offending your feelings. HO, HO, HO, to cite your own words: “If you are such a gentle flower who cannot handle criticism, perhaps the Internet is not the place for you. It’s rough out here, and you don’t appear to be suited for it.” (Druit Orac Oracle, the Internet philosopher of the year).

Let’s see who is suited for it or not, BILLY BOY. I don’t have to fear a hypocrite like you and I have the right of free speach too…You do have an insane misunderstanding about criticism, you confuse it with ridiculing and blaming others. May I laugh about your personal picture now?

What would you say if somebody is posting it together with your hospital phone number, perhaps just for fun, on all gay, leather, latex or spanking blogs? HO, HO, HO!! Would you like that? Isn`t that exactly your definition of criticism or fun? Hope you can see the difference now…

As you can see, I have done some little research on you, too. May I continue later? Checking perhaps all gay boards in Detroit and around, just to see if I can find something more about you. Do you want me to do that? I can have fun too, and I think I should post this little article on my site and the Lyme and Morgellons community does it on all other

worldwide blogs and Twitter. It`s the freedom of speach, David!! “It’s rough out here and if you are such a gentle flower…”.

So let’s see further:
What is actually your main problem?
You blame, provoke and offend persons in public with a passion, this seems to me not normal but abnormal and insane. What kind of surgeon has so much time to dedicate to blogs, day by day, hour by hour? You should rather take more care for your patients, if you have any left.

You have the nerve to call me a coward in public and furthermore to claim that I write emails to you as Dr. Arafiles?? Again, do you have delusional disorders? My tip! Please call 911…Or take your time and have rather a chelation treatment or take a ride on some psychologist’s couch (you need it definitely!!) before accusing me of falsifying identity or documents.

There is no need for me to use pseudonyms to write you emails. I do it under my real name because I have nothing to hide. The only one who needs pseudonyms is you Orac Borac —Profiting from the cancer industry while disparaging effective treatment? Or are you perhaps the alter ego of Dr. Offit for Profit (new lover??), the misleading front man of vaccine companies?

http://www.michaelgitter.com/?p=1109&cpage=1#comment-3262

Wow, what a handsome womanizer (pardon manizer) you are…

Also, you write bad articles first, and then you and your smart student friends log in later as regular bloggers to comment your own articles in order to promote your own blog to attract more bloggers. What is the real purpose of this blog, come on tell us all? It has nothing to do with science! Anyway, it’s a cheap pusher trick, but it is already old, buddy. Get updated man, we live in 2010!

Actually, I think that you are just a bully who blames people systematically, perhaps for money? It reminds me to the “Organized Crime” (medical Mafia?). “Mamma mia, ho davvero paura adesso!!”. Apparently it`s a big business to destroy others reputations, perhaps organized over a worldwide network of blogs.

No normal person would waste so much time on it without getting paid. I think it’s called “RENT A BLAMER” to destroy others’ lives, right? I just believe that you get paid to do so, and you do pay your rat pack of uneducated students as ghostwriters.

Oh my goodness, or do you pick somebody to blame every week just for fun, because you are a cyber-stalker and sick little monkey with a small willy? Oh David, I feel so sorry for you, that you really never had fun in your life and now you act like a little J. Edgar Hoover. Or are you even the reincarnation of Machiavelli? Oh boy, you do really look like him!! Not??

http://www.online-literature.com/machiavelli/

You don`t have any reason to target and blame all kind of U.S. doctors, Dr. Arafiles or me. Who works, makes errors, also physicians, and this, day by day. Just because nobody is perfect, omnipotent or GOD. This world don`t need new inquisitors like you!! We have already enough problems on this planet to face.

To remind you: In former times ALL doctors were called quacks, no matter what they have used as medication. Most, but not all doctors are today just sellers of pharmaceutical companies, and also from these products many patients had severe side effects or have died.

Hmm, let’s see, who is interested in discrediting and destroying my or Arafiles’ life and blaming Lyme and Morgellons sufferers? Is it the pesticide or pharmaceutical industry that pays you? Or perhaps the nurses which you use as instrument to exploit the situation?

https://www.respectfulinsolence.com/2010/02/answering_the_friday_mailbag_morgellons.php

After your postings, I saw a few pharmaceutical companies in my server statistics coming from your blogs. I traced them to see what kind of products they are selling. Bingo!! Many manufacture bio-insecticides. Ooh la la. Fine, they will get the bill sooner or later. Every big company or university visiting my site gets registered and checked automatically. Just to let you know, that’s my hobby.

Last but not least, regarding the comment on your blog that Lyme, even the cystic form, is gone after 3 weeks of antibiotics is such an ignorant point of view from idiots (this is no science!!), and this statement helps only the pharmaceutical industry. Otherwise, nobody would use their uneffective antibiotics, only alternative medications, which are banned by the FDA, doctors and BIG PHARMA companies. Make an educated guess why?

Don`t be a coward and let this letter be posted on your blog. Or is this answer to your crap articles too unpleasant? It`s simply the truth about you and you should recognize it asap, dude!! Otherwise, “Sic transit gloria medici”.

Hope my English was good enough for you? If not, correct it please!!

Sincerly yours (PUAH! NO WAY, YUK!!)

Marc Neumann

{Orac note: There have been a couple of redactions in this, but I have the original version in the e-mail Movable Type sends to me containing the original text. I’ve also forwarded it to a friend.}

Dude, if you’re trying to show that the Morgellons folks aren’t crazy, you’re doing it wrong. Even though I couldn’t finish the word salad course, I did notice a threat of a denial of service attack, which I’m pretty sure is a crime.

Ooh. La. La.

(And a disgusting homophobe, too. How surprising.)

The only one who can lose this game is you, Baby!

Dirty Dancing 4: It’s On

The fact that people take medical advice from someone who thinks and behaves like Marc Neumann here is a horrifying notion.

That reads like a Nigerian prince email.

I take back what I said earlier about not picking on him. If the kid from the short bus is the one who picks the fight himself….

‘Dear Dr Orac. Hello, I am a representative of the recently deceased Nigerian prince Ossran…’

“I just believe that you get paid to do so, and you do pay your rat pack of uneducated students as ghostwriters.”

WHERE’S MY CHECK ORAC.

Let’s see…

Conspiracy theories about Big Pharma and FDA? Check.
Outing Orac? Check.
Infantile insults? Check.
tl;dr post? Check.
Harassment and threats? Check.

Why, yes, I do believe we have a crank.

Orac, I do believe you’ve struck a nerve.

All have the same opinion about you: that you are not such brilliant (useless melanocytes research) and never interested in the truth and have no ambitions to learn more in order to help people

Really? You’re the one who isn’t interested in scientifically studying Morgellons, nor in exploring alternate explanations for the afflicted. You’ve got a name, and stuff you can sell people, so you’re content to leave it at that.

Regarding my copied text (copyright violation), I told you already to remove it from your blog, but you don’t respond. I just don’t want to repeat it again, do we have to play the lawsuit game now?

You’ve been told, and your lawyer ought to tell you also, that the fair use doctrine (which is well established case law) protects Orac in this case. It is permissable to quote material for the purpose of commentary. Go ahead and sue; he’ll countersue to recoup legal costs, and the only people happy will be the lawyers. You’ll end up paying for all the expenses. Assuming, that is, you can find a lawyer unethical enough (or stupid enough) to take on an unwinnable case.

You have caused for such a long time a tremendous pain to many people with your disgusting and disinformative blogs.

Orac almost never discusses Morgellons. You appear to have an inflated opinion of yourself.

It is getting almost criminal now and making me feel threatened by you (not really, watching your picture!).

Are you seriously saying that disagreeing with you constitutes a threat?

If thousands of users do visit your blogs your server will collapse. Actually, this is even legal. They are doing nothing wrong, just posting on all your blogs. What if they visit by the tens of thousands, or even 100,000 or more per minute?

Denial of service attacks are illegal; however, a phenomenon similar to “slashdotting” a) is not and b) would be great! You do realize, don’t you, that Orac gets paid (a very small amount) for hits to this blog?

Small willy, Mr. Ugly in person or a bad childhood?

Project, much? Seriously, it’s very revealing that what you offer in response to Orac’s questions is not answers but rather personal attacks. This strongly suggests you don’t actually have any defense for your beliefs pertaining to Morgellons.

You do have an insane misunderstanding about criticism, you confuse it with ridiculing and blaming others.

Pot, kettle.

Or are you perhaps the alter ego of Dr. Offit for Profit (new lover??), the misleading front man of vaccine companies?

Interesting; nobody but you has mentioned Dr Offit. What relationship does he have with this situation at all? Why did you bring him up? Are you an anti-vaxxer offended that he asked inconvenient questions to which you lack answers?

Actually, I think that you are just a bully who blames people systematically, perhaps for money?

I think you are confusing Orac for Dr Arafiles.

After your postings, I saw a few pharmaceutical companies in my server statistics coming from your blogs. I traced them to see what kind of products they are selling. Bingo!! Many manufacture bio-insecticides.

I don’t think you know what server logs actually mean. The hits aren’t all from Orac; in fact, they are mostly from other people (readers of his blog). He is not employed by a pharmaceutical company. Oh, but you said you dug up lots of information on him, so surely you know that. So why did you say that? Either you are lying about having dug up lots of information on him (which is hilarious given that’s incredibly easy to work out who he is), or you’re making up the Big Pharma stuff.

Last but not least, regarding the comment on your blog that Lyme, even the cystic form, is gone after 3 weeks of antibiotics is such an ignorant point of view from idiots (this is no science!!), and this statement helps only the pharmaceutical industry. Otherwise, nobody would use their uneffective antibiotics, only alternative medications, which are banned by the FDA, doctors and BIG PHARMA companies. Make an educated guess why?

Oh, really? The alternative medications are all banned by the FDA? Most of what I’ve seen recommended is actually not only *allowed* by the FDA but even *licensed as a pharmaceutical*. Chelation therapy, for instance, usually uses FDA-approved chelating agents. Pharmaceuticals. Hmmm…. You seem to think anybody who promotes a pharmaceutical must be in the payroll of a pharmaceutical company, yet in this thread, the loudest promoter of such a thing is . . . you. Odd, that.

Don`t be a coward and let this letter be posted on your blog.

Dude, you posted it on his blog yourself.

RMM Barrie @ 58:

What got into your cornflakes this morning?

Truthfully, I was enjoying myself. I let myself go every now and again. 😉

I also know that Germany practices censorship

Citation please. I am not aware of that, with the exception of promoting certain things from World War Two.

That’s precisely what I had in mind. While I can understand the reason why the enacted censorship of Nazi-related material, I think in the long run, it does more harm than good. A better response to Nazis is not to silence them but to do this: Clowns Take Down Neo-Nazi Hate Group

Copyright claims is more commercial law rather than freedom of speech issues; rights under the First Amendment have some restrictions (Flag burning, I believe); and Orac is restricted by defamation laws.

Flag burning is actually still protected; there has been a proposed amendment granting Congress the right to restrict such things, but last I heard it still hadn’t cleared the House. Defamation laws do also restrict speech, though I do not consider this the same as censorship. More importantly, I do not believe what Orac has posted here would qualify as defamation.

Outsourcing is a major reason why so many Americans are out of a job right now

Huge topic, again, any citations?

It’s way too big a topic to drag this off into a discussion of outsourcing. I may have gone too far in saying “major”, but it’s certainly a factor. Stuff made in America is more expensive than stuff made in (for instance) China, so factories move.

Marc Neumann is clearly a crank, but I interpreted his remark

USA don`t care anymore about their own citizins

as a reference to the health uninsured in the U.S., which exceeds the population of Canada. ( 43.6 million uninsured in 2008 whereas population of Canada was 33.3 million )

I believe you are correct, but I wanted to point out that his focus was far too narrow. I believe he is consciously and deliberately exploiting Americans (and likely others) for his own financial gain, so he really has no justification whatsoever for arguing that Americans don’t care about Americans. He obviously cares about Americans only as income sources. I think I went about that badly, but that was my intent.

Orac almost never discusses Morgellons.

Actually, this is the first time I can recall doing a post that deals with Morgellons other than perhaps having mentioned it in passing. If I had realized that I’d attract a Morgellons advocate who is more out there than any antivaccine loon that I’ve ever encountered (with the possible exception of John Best), I’d probably not have bothered.

Purely for selfish reasons Orac I have to say I’m pleased that you did. I love it when cranks wig out. Also, where’s my check for being a ghostwriter?

I’m not sure I’m glad. Mr. Neumann’s rants go beyond cranky. However, he did want me to post his comment; so I did, with only very minor deletions. I am also considering posting Mr. Neumann’s comment on my “friend’s” blog in its entirety, completely unaltered.

I’m not sure I’m glad. Mr. Neumann’s rants go beyond cranky.

But they are a sight to see. I very much want to post a link to this one in a thread at Pharyngula. I wouldn’t have before due to the “offending portions.” But you’ve removed those. So now it’s just guilt at publicizing an unhinged (even if hateful) individual like that. Doesn’t feel right. So I won’t. But I want to.

But to remind you, I don’t have anything to lose but you. It`s just your own reputation!! And many wrote to me that you should at least lose face once and be blamed in public, as you do daily with others.

OH NO, you might lose your reputation!! All those lives you have saved and made better. Those people will all hate you now because Marc Neumann called you gay.

What kind of surgeon has so much time to dedicate to blogs, day by day, hour by hour? You should rather take more care for your patients, if you have any left.

I just assumed you never slept 🙂

Also, you write bad articles first, and then you and your smart student friends log in later as regular bloggers to comment your own articles in order to promote your own blog to attract more bloggers.

I’m not a blogger, or a student…I like to think I’m smart, though. I am a mother living in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. I comment because I love Orac’s articles. Haven’t met him yet, but I would love to.

I just believe that you get paid to do so, and you do pay your rat pack of uneducated students as ghostwriters.

So now Big Pharma and Orac are holding out on me? Where’s my cut of all this free-flowing money?

alternative medications, which are banned by the FDA, doctors and BIG PHARMA companies. Make an educated guess why?

I know, I know…unproven and dangerous. Where’s my prize?

Did he really claim that the lurkers support him in email? I thought that one was so discredited even trolls didn’t use it these days.

@Kristen (#128): I’ve met Orac. He’s a really nice guy, and as interesting to talk to in person as he is on this blog and his “friend’s” blog.

As far as the Big Pharma checks: I called about mine AGAIN, and they told me it must have gotten lost in the mail,and they would re-issue it ASAP. I’m getting rather tired of this…they keep telling me the same thing every time I call. Almost makes me think they don’t REALLY send them out… (LOL)

Triskelethecat: That’s ridiculous. What are you, a conspiracy theorist or something? Our checks are coming, just give it time!

AJ,

Thanks, but I’ll pass on taking advice from a doctor who advertises $265 per hour for an initial consultation along with an $80 telephone consult. Not quite Rashid Buttar pricing, but certainly spendy to be hold I have some fake disease.

He is absolutely on the money..Morgellons is a disease cause by big agri-pharma science gone WMD. Those who doubt should feel free to ingest as much GM food as needed to convince yourself.

Comments on this blog seem casually cruel. Indifference shown to real patients, dismissal of Marc Neumann as if he were on trial, and comments would be tragic if not so ridiculous. (Readers of science blog, or any person with a high school education, should be expected to have basic numeracy so as to interpret a European decimal figure, or to understand, not mock, Marc’s English.)

Marc’s response is understandable. He was invited by TV station to help patients understand that their condition, Morgellons, can be understood and treated, and to provide hope. His ability to cope through Morgellons and “Lyme” infections (infectious bacteria and protozoa confirmed by real labs) was more amazing for his willingness to help other patients.

The trauma of Morgellons,
whatever the cause, cannot be diminished. These sufferers do have real somatic illness, and the few well trained, skilled doctors #some with excellent credentials# who treat them acknowledge that. The only people who could and were predicted to dismiss all this would be those with vested interests of some sort in agribusiness. Too many people are getting Morgellons and ill from food, soil and pharmaceuticals.

That doesn’t make all those things bad. It means we need to listen, study and not ignore.

You said, “He also sent me a line from his website’s log file that showed a referral from my original post to his website with an IP address that resolved to pharmaceutical company’s network….” There do seem to be elements of the “pharma shill” accusation that ring true.

Marc is not a “crank” or a “nutter.” He is not “clearly disturbed,” nor are you qualified to say so. For the past year, I have observed his interactions with other, more disabled Morgellons and Lyme sufferers in amazement at his compassion, intelligence, humor, generosity, and tenacity of purpose, all without profiting. His research and discussion of natural and medical #prescription#
palliatives and treatments are echoed even in the offices of allopaths with credentials to envy. These are not TV doctors, not book writers, but researchers and experienced, balanced M.D.s,
board certified specialists, etc.

Since so many Morgellons patients test positive for
bartonella and babesia infections of longstanding, not to mention ehrlichia and parasites, Lyme disease is relevant to the discussion. Lyme disease will also help Morgellons make a treatment breakthrough. Some new therapies are showing promise,
but the science under our current model will never catch up in time to save most of them. The fight over Lyme disease care, and infectious disease generally, is going on very publicly now. I hope
science prevails but in doing so prevails by humanely treating,
not ridiculing, the patient or those seeking answers. So far, so good–doctors treating against IDSA guidelines and using standard antibiotics, parasite-specific treatments, and hormonal and
immune supportive compounds are succeeding.

These truly are like the early days of AIDS. Medicine as we know it continues to deny the reality of emerging infectious
diseases, now long emerged. The intelligence community seems keenly aware of U.S. inability to manage it.There is a lot at stake, and it seems everyone is getting louder about his or her stake.
We are nearing a breaking point: either our current model will change, or the entire system fails.

Marc was asked to be on the show, did edit the videos for the Web #to help sufferers#, and did offer his own original work to help sufferers via the video. #There are many Morgellons sufferers in Texas, where the show likely has many viewers and where it may be inferred that help is greatly needed. While Dr. Arafiles of the famed nurse trial may have been shown less than credible, he was having success in treating Morgellons. Where will those patients go now? Does anyone care?#

So, it makes sense that he would object to its use for purposes other than intended. It’s clearly stated at the beginning of the videos. Just because you can embed the video, does not mean it is right or fair.

The last response from Marc I saw online on this issue was taken
down, apparently, but it was pointed. There is reason for the growing widespread distrust of pharmceutical and agriscience. Farmers, ranchers, food experts on all sides, physicians, patients are talking about it, and there will be a change in agriculture and medicine as a result.

We need medicine and rationality, but fewer people by the day can say that Morgellons or Lyme are delusional, or that our health has not been put at risk by bioinsecticides, environmental degradation, and pharmaceutical interests.The numbers are being examined more closely now, by those who have the ability. And the average person is learning how to better investigate and analyze. This will help everyone.

This is your lucky day people!!!!!!!!! If you read this blog your one of the few people who actually get to read a blog from somebody who knows what morgellon disease is, who gets it and probably why. I’ve heard all the theories that’s out,,,,,,, but haven’t heard what I know, probably because people like me are not willing to talk about it. Think about it, you don’t hear about morgellons to much in the news. I will say this people suffering with morgellons aren’t delusional, they do suffer from brain fog and stuff. I’m not a doctor not even close, you don’t need to be to figure this out. All you have to be is a victim and live through it, … like they told me????? There are those who are greatly benefiting from this stuff and I mean greatly benefiting and would sell there soul ……….I could write a book about that but won’t

Chris commented: Hello, I am on disability but it was for other reasons then Morgelloms. Over the past 2 years I have been trying and doing things to rid myself of this stuff and believe I have found and lowered my infection or infectation of Morgellons to a torerablye level. But here is something everybody suffering this stuff should know. It had spread from my eyebrows to my mustache. Oh Morgellons lives at the roots end of the hair follice. I have studied it there and chased it around my skin for 2 years. I tried lotions and got to point I pulled out infected hairs which worked to a point. Only that is how it got down to my mustache. But to my surprize I think I was working it in reverse it didnt move down to it I had just chased it to it. Reason I say this is. I pulled out a mustache hair. It then became a sore in the center of the sore was a black dote and when ever I tried to remove it it would move deeper. Then I had all but gave up trying to pull it out. I put alcohol on it and squeezed it, At first a black object came out which I grabed with tweezers I notice something more still there and squeezed it some more and out came my surprize. It was what I think was a main colony for them. Its appearance was so strange it had like a clear sac on its top with a stem like a hair (thick whisker) attacked right below the sack and note the sack look in shape like an onion round and came to a point at top it look like it could realize something from it and it was filled with a clear fluid, now below it attached to the shaft was the strangest of it all it look like barnacle shape objects in cone shapes. Sort like an bee hive in shape . It was not an object that should have been there for any reason out side of a foreign life form built it. One below the other only one was out more then the other. It was not attached to anything at all. it did have fluid around it. It looked like a colony or breeding place. like they lived there it was fair sized too. Its appearance is so hard to explain if you want me to send you a drawing email me at [email protected] this is possible the way to cure it or at least stop it

i find the lot of you and your comments rather disgusing. all the cheap shots at mr neuman are just that – cheap shots. your antics come from malice, not objectivity. i wonder how many of you have actually researched morgellons. and more so, i wonder how many of you have actually had first hand experience with someone who believes they are infected. you all discredit with ignorant, ‘self denoted cute’ comments, one trying to outdo the other.

i stumbled across this article by chance. the comments are are juvenile. and as for the author of the article. from the outside it does appear he used mr neuman to further his agenda on debunking. my, what a wonderful means to a biased goal. the good doctor has way too much time on his hands to be spewing out disinformation to what seems to be obvious fans.
however, kudos to you good doctor for using spell check. it certainly adds one element, albeit slight, of credibility to your piece – your blog. at least your armchair quarterback cut and paste opinions and controlled insults do not offend grammatical sensibilities.

if you’re superior and you know clap your hands! clap clap..

now excuse me now while i go kick a homeless person and mock an illiterate in your good name.

@ a-non. no, not a coinkydink. it was one of many emailed to me from a google alert i have set. it was by far the least credible and downright disgusting from the lot.

@142

Great job necroing a thread just to whine that noone agrees with your position.

Ivan:

What would that alert be? You set google alerts to monitor Orac’s site for a change? Or was it for a the name Neumann? Or Orac’s site for Morgellon’s? If you happened into this site by google alerts, is it configured to monitor the entire internet for occurrences of those terms?

Mark couldnt even begin to read all that lot! all I want to saY is Please help me! Morgellons is killing me! Its already took my life. Theres just no-one to help. Sorry I know you do your best and thankyou.

Angie

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