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Thursday, December 18, 2008

Boortz on The Fair Tax

Friday, December 12, 2008

Now Winter Nights Enlarge

Now Winter Nights Enlarge
by Thomas Campion (1617)

Now winter nights enlarge
The number of their hours,
And clouds their storms discharge
Upon the airy towers.
Let now the chimneys blaze,
And cups o’erflow with wine;
Let well-tuned words amaze
With harmony divine.
Now yellow waxen lights
Shall wait on honey love,
While youthful revels, masques, and courtly sights
Sleep’s leaden spells remove.

This time doth well dispense
With lovers’ long discourse;
Much speech hath some defence,
Though beauty no remorse.
All do not all things well;
Some measures comely tread,
Some knotted riddles tell,
Some poems smoothly read.
The summer hath his joys
And winter his delights;
Though love and all his pleasures are but toys,
They shorten tedious nights.

Battlefield Acupuncture

Ok, so the Air Force is scheduled to train field doctors to use acupuncture to alleviate pain.  My first response is that this is good news.  The U.S. military is embracing complementary medicine and using it to good effect.  Yay Team!

But then I get an email from a friend of mine saying that he's looked but hasn't come across any peer-reviewed literature that demonstrates the effectiveness of acupuncture.  Boo.

Now the concept of acupuncture makes sense to me.  As a therapist who regularly uses trigger-point therapy, I'm familiar with how imbalance in one point on the body creates pain and dysfunction in another place that seems completely unconnected.  Often trigger-points align with acupressure points so a connection to me seems somewhat likely.  And since acupressure and acupuncture are related the theory and practice of acupuncture seem to be worth a good investigation.

My friend's concern though is valid.  Are there any peer-reviewed studies confirming acupuncture's efficacy out there?  If so, send me a link.

The definitive word on Trigger-Points.  Link

Trigger point self-treatment or Travell and Simons for Dummies.  Link

Link to Wired's Battlefield Acupuncture article.  Link