Opinion by Consumer Advocate Tim Bolen –
New Orleans area doctor James Carter MD, PhD, author of the famous book “Racketeering in Medicine,” the blatant 1994 expose of the plot to destroy innovation in US health care, called me up one day, several years back, and asked me if I was coming to a certain health convention where he was going to be.
He had me worried for a minute, for I thought that he might be angry at me for I had recently removed him as the “most hated person in quackbuster land,” and inserted myself into that position. After all, there is honor, in certain important circles, in being on Stephen Barrett’s quackwatch website. The thinking is that the more space you get on Barrett’s sleazy pages the more good you must be doing for humanity. Stephen Barrett was giving me lots of space – more than anyone had ever gotten. I was worried that Jim Carter might be upset with me for pushing him into second position.
But he wasn’t. He wanted me to come and speak to a large group of cutting-edge doctors and he wanted to introduce me personally. Barrett has no idea, to this day, how much of an honor he had bestowed on me. I spent a weekend with a group of people who lead the nation, if not the world, in innovative health care thinking. It was, to say the least, stimulating.
Jim Carter, with his immense book, had taken the high road in his expose, even suffering through a lawsuit over the book, from Barrett – which Jim won. I, on the other hand, took the low road, and called bullyboy Barrett out into the street, so to speak, where I proceeded to slap him around, bloody him up, in front of his own audience. I took Barrett’s very own tactics and played them right back at him – and rubbed his nose in it.
Barrett, of course, being the arrogant wanna-be tyrant he actually is, couldn’t take it and sued me – or, I should say “sort of sued me,” for, as we all know it has been NINE YEARS since Barrett announced on his sleazy website that he was suing me – and of course, the Court has since thrown out the case (after eight-and-a-half years) of no activity.
There is no question that Stephen Barrett, and his band of loser malcontents, hold me, Tim Bolen, out as Public Enemy Number One.
Ahhhh, that feels good… The only thing I could think of that would be better than that would be a personally signed Christmas Card from the Pope thanking me for my good works on the side of “Good” in the war against “Evil” – something my Mom would, definitely, put on the refrigerator.
So – What’s next?
Is there more coming? Oh yeah.
Stay tuned…
Tim Bolen – Consumer Advocate