Chiropractic "medicine" is controversial still after all these years for a reason. It isn't science. It isn't even bad science. I have always suspected it had more to do with manipulating one's wallet than manipulating one's spine, and most serious scientists, doctors, scholars and legal professionals will agree with me. Yet it persists like chronic pain, bilking pain sufferers now for 100 years.
Since we recently had an election where candidates who deny evolution, climate change and even the legitimacy of social security not only were on the ballot but WON is an indication of how gullible a good percent of our population is...and since several bloated "entertainers" on the radio continue to line their pockets while spewing nonsense as news, things will only continue to get worse. Let's face it...the windbags (one with a crazy brush cut and chalkboard, the other an obese joke who avoided jail after doctor shopping for his Oxycontin addiction) have a hold of hundreds of radio stations, just like so many quacks of the past. And just like the earier generation of quacks, they blanket huge swatches of the country like a blizzard of bile and bilk.
In fact, the quack who invented Chiropractic "science" was a quack with a radio station. Like Dr. Brinkley, who planted goat gonads into people to cure their libidos, D. D. Palmer and his nutty son "B.J." factored in a radio station to broadcast their crazy ideas. BJ's station was WOC (by strange coincidence the station Ronald Reagan would later lie the sports news on) which stood for Wonders Of Chiropractic. Guess who fills the time slots on WOC now? I don't have to tell you.
D.D invented chiropractic after failing to get rich off his first "scientific" discovery, magnetic healing. Now THAT is a strong foundation for your research.
Anyway, the point of this story is Crazy B.J. Palmer and his "Little Bit of Heaven" shown above. Can the story get any stranger? Well, BJ (who once ran over his father with a car contributing to his death...can you hear the bones cracking?) fancied himself an art aficionado. In fact he had an enormous collection put together on the fortune built from bone tugging...including a gigantic collection of phallic symbols, totem poles and salon nudes. Maybe B.J should have invented a cure for impotence instead of stretching limbs. Lil' Bit O Heaven was built to show off the tons of useless bric-a-brac he lugged home from his world travels. Among the live alligators and fertility objects on display, he added trite platitudes to the good, honest and healthy life he advocated along with his insane ideas of medical care.
I swear...what a country.
To learn more about B.J Palmer's Grotto of Greed see the sources highlighted.
Little Bit O Heaven real photo postcard circa 1920 Collection Jim Linderman
NOTE: I've been getting lots of mail from Chiropractic practitioners (not surprising since "marketing" is one of most intensive classes in the school of chiropractic stuff, another fact, look it up) I refer ANYONE who is either interested in, or disputes ANY PART of my essay above to consult the reasoned and detailed Wikipedia article on same...which is not only well-researched...to be fair upon reading I find I could have actually been far, far harder on both the "profession" AND those who pay for the services. At least I didn't refer to it as an "unscientific cult" as others have, but I would clearly been on solid ground if I had! If it helps anyone, fine, great...but as you can see in the article and the references cited...I'm far from alone. In fact, I seem to have been more than generous. Keep those cards and letters coming anyway!
