I know I’m not the first to post about this, but after watching the commercial last night I was too angry not to post. As someone who has five dogs, two of which would be considered senior dogs, I’m very concerned with making sure our dogs are comfortable. Luckily, through a good diet, exercise, and weight maintenance, none of our dogs have had any real issues, but it’s something we always consider.

The commercial for Dr. Frank’s Pet Pain Spray shows a bunch of obese dogs struggling to move around, and after they drink water with some of this homeopathic spray added, they magically start running around. The key word in all of this is: homeopathic. Homeopathic “treatments” are in plentiful supply in just about any store that sells medicine. A lot of people assume that homeopathic treatments are all about natural herbs and substances. That’s not what homeopathy is about at all.

Simply put, the idea with homeopathy is that you first find the substance that is causing distress. For the sage of argument, let’s say that carrot juice causes irritable bowel syndrome. The homeopathic solution would be to take 1ml of carrot juice and dilute it with 1000 ml of distilled water. Then you take that, and shake it back and forth 10,000 times. Next, you take 1 ml of that, and dilute that with 1000 ml of distilled water. Shake again. Take that 1ml of that, and dilute it again, and so on, and so on. In the end, you get something that is 99.999% likely to contain zero molecules of carrot juice. Some how the carrot juice is supposed to imprint it’s “vibrations” on the distilled water, which will in turn, eliminate the irritable bowel syndrome.

This is, of course, nonsense. If you don’t believe me, go to the store, buy 20 boxes of homeopathic sleeping pills, and then take them all at once. You’ll be fine, trust me. There isn’t a shred of scientific evidence to show that homeopathy works. There isn’t even a defined mechanism for how homeopathy works. It’s all just blather.

Now it’s annoying when people try homeopathy, but at least humans can think for themselves and report to you if something is or isn’t helping. A pet cannot communicate to you directly. It will suffer in pain while one gleefully sprays distilled water into its water. In fact, you might even hurt the pet more if you make him do something his old joints can’t, because you believe the spray is working.

So don’t ever, ever use Dr. Frank’s Pet Pain Spray and think you’re helping your pet. If you want to keep your pet as healthy as can be, buy premium dog food, feed him some vegetables now and then, keep the weight low, and regularly walk him. If you do think he’s having problems ask your vet perhaps for some anti-inflammatories. And if your vet suggests anything homeopathic, time to find a new vet.

This week we saw the end of Ron Paul as a viable candidate. Sure, we’ll still see Digg spammed by Ron Paul zealots. Paul will still be campaigning his message of right wing Christian values. However, the Ron Paul movement took a big blow when The New Republic dug up a ton of Ron Paul newsletters filled with racism, homophobia, paranoia, and downright nuttiness. Paul claims to have not written any of the articles in question, but his campaign has seemingly given different answers. It’s been reported that Paul claims only to have not written the offensive ones, where on CNN with Wolf Blitzer he claimed to have never written or ready any of them.

In 1996, when the newsletters came up in a local race, Paul claimed the newsletters were being quoted out of context. He even defended the “black youths are fleet of foot” sentiment in one of the newsletters. In 2008 on CNN, though, he claimed never to have read them, so I don’t know how he could have understood the previous context before without reading them. He claims now to not have any idea who wrote the articles, and shockingly, doesn’t care to find out. Not many people, outside of the true blue Ron Paulbots, believe him on that one. I, for one, don’t think he wrote every article, but he knew what was in them and he’s lying now. The New Republic also featured a campaign donation solicitation letter from Ron Paul, that in addition to being filled with kookiness, asked people to buy his newsletters. You have to be almost blind to believe he didn’t know what was in there.

For fun, I though I’d give my responses to some common responses from Ron Paulbots over this issue:

Paulbot: This is old news. He already took moral responsibility for this
me: It’s old news to some people, most of the nation hasn’t heard this before. Also, never before have we had the actual newsletters to read ourselves. Before it was just a few quotes. Oh, and for the record, in 1996 Ron Paul took “partial moral responsibility.” Way to man up, Ron.

Paulbot: Ron Paul is no racist. As soon as he found out, he fired the editor
me: I’ve found no evidence to support the idea that he fired anyone. Quite the contrary, he has claimed to not know what was going on.

Paulbot: What he said was just the truth.
me: I feel sorry for you.

Paulbot: This is just a hit piece by the MSM/Republican Attack Machine/Establishment/International Bankers!
me: He’s running for President of the United States. I don’t think publishing newsletters a candidate was “morally responsible” for qualifies as a hit piece. They didn’t have to make anything up.

Paulbot: He’s still the best one out there!
me: Sorry, racism is more important to me than the gold standard. I feel sorry for you.

Paulbot:It was only one one newsletter. What’s the big deal?
me: The racism, homophobia, paranoia, and kookiness was on a lot of newsletters. You just have to read them.

Paulbot: Libertarians can’t be racist!
me: Really? David Duke isn’t a racist?

Paulbot: Ron Paul is a man of integrity. He wants to blah, blah, blah.
me: Yeah, yeah, yeah. We’ve all heard the stump speech. Now let’s see some actual contrition about calling African-Americans “animals”.

Paulbot: We can’t shoot the messenger! We need to spread the message of freedom!
me: As a libertarian, I want to have high standards. Otherwise, why aren’t you supporting David Duke and other states’ rights, “pro-freedom” white separatists?

Paulbot: You’re just a liberal!
me: I’m a libertarian. A real one, not the fake kind that wants states rights to be racist, misogynistic, and homophobic.

Paulbot: You’re just a republican!
me: I’m a libertarian. A real one, not the fake kind that wants states rights to be racist, misogynistic, and homophobic.

Paulbot: You’re just a neocon!
me: I’m a libertarian. A real one, not the fake kind that wants states rights to be racist, misogynistic, and homophobic.

Paulbot: You’re stupid!
me: Thank you for the reasoned and thought out response. I shall take a long retreat and contemplate how to assimilate such startling insight.

Looking forward to new Paulbot-isms!

Update: I meant to put this in, but because of Ron Paul’s self-immolation, this will be my final Ron Paul post. Everyone knows he’s kook now.