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[danny_boy]

Oh dear, you've done it now, DvF.  I'm afraid another forum brouhaha over the cultural construction of mental illness is in the offing.

I don't have a problem with a colloquial meaning for "crazy" referring the fact that someone does and/or thinks non-traditional things.  I'm quite happy calling someone who gets their kicks out of scaling the outsides of sky-scrapers or collecting thousands or jelly-beans CRAZY.   This doesn't imply I think they suffer from any mental illnesses.  They're just crazy.

[normative_]

Let's collect crazy stories here about the Blairs.

I'll add prayers to lizards, crabs and birds, rebirthing through papaya and watermelon:

http://www.psychicdirectory.co.uk/tony-blair.php

[jonesey]

Hey, at least W. has a masters degree.  What academic qualifications does Mr. Blair bring to the table, unless Yale has suddenly disregared their PhD requirement in the name of attracting a Rock Star with a BA in....what, exactly?

[sandgrounder]

As a matter of interest DvF where are you getting your allegations about Cherie Blair from? Particularly the one about her misusing her position to force magnetic therapy on the NHS? Given the virulent hatred of sections of the British press for her, it sounds like something that would have been widely publicised and I can't remember seeing such a serious allegation anywhere. I'd doubt the veracity of it myself - it would be rather difficult to do given the way the NHS takes such decisions.
The rest - so she's into New Age stuff - so what? It's hardly unusual in that age group and type of social network. Sure she didn't make the best choice of friends in Carole Caplin (although Rasputinish???) if she wanted a tabloid-persecution free life, and she made some poor decisions at times. But how many of us don't mess up at some point over a decade? She was unfortunate enough to have an incredibly negative press from the word go and every mistake she's made she's been pilloried for. Frankly I've got a lot of time for her - it's pretty unusual for a working class Liverpudlian woman to achieve what she's done in the British legal profession. Rant over.

As for Blair - he has an a BA in Jurisprudence so presumably also an MA (Oxon) and successfully completed the postgraduate training required for barristers so probably academically a similar level to Bush. If you want to chase US universities for hiring European ex-politicians who are wholly academically unqualified to teach, get after Princeton. They've got Joschka Fischer on the books - he never finished high school...

[qrypt]

See here - she really is rather a nut.  Some of those quotes are pretty creepy. 

BTW, reading that Hillary gave her that shield thingy, I now want to know whether Hillary wears one herself. 

[daniel_von_flanagan]

As a matter of interest DvF where are you getting your allegations about Cherie Blair from? Particularly the one about her misusing her position to force magnetic therapy on the NHS? Given the virulent hatred of sections of the British press for her, it sounds like something that would have been widely publicised and I can't remember seeing such a serious allegation anywhere.

I don't read the tabloids (and didn't even when I lived in the UK), though I'm not sure that being attacked by the Daily Mail automatically makes you right.

Probably I saw this on badscience.net, though there are articles like this: NHS takes up Cherie's magic magnets cure, and this quote from the Times (30 December 2001), though not on the magnets:

For the first time the government has said it is prepared to grant complementary medicine the same status as traditional treatments within the health service... The inclusion of Indian ayurvedic medicine, a preventive approach to healing using diet, yoga and meditation, is thought to have been influenced by Cherie Blair's interest in alternative therapy.

I do understand why many people admire her for her human rights work, but I don't see what that has to do with her embracement of quackery. - DvF

[ptprof]

Hey, at least W. has a masters degree.  What academic qualifications does Mr. Blair bring to the table, unless Yale has suddenly disregared their PhD requirement in the name of attracting a Rock Star with a BA in....what, exactly?

What was Al Gore's qualifications to teach a Columbia?

[daniel_von_flanagan]

What was Al Gore's qualifications to teach a Columbia?

He knew that sentences like that one are not grammatically correct. - DvF

[neutralname]

Yale, the Ivy League alma mater of his good friend George Bush, confirmed yesterday that the former prime minister is to join the schools of management and divinity at the campus in New Haven, Connecticut, in the autumn. He will teach a course on faith and globalisation, looking at religion in the modern world.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/mar/08/tonyblair.usa?gusrc=rss&feed=8

[sandgrounder]

DvF - so not exactly the serious offence you were accusing her of - the controversy looking on the net at the coverage seems to have been that the NHS placed more weight on the findings of some scientific studies into this than others. The listing of celebrities who believe in it does not seem integral to the story.

Grypt- that's actually a very good example of the sort of coverage I mean. It includes the inevitable anti-catholic dig (anyone daft enough to be a RC will believe anything according to the writer) and two accusations: the rebirthing incident (I'd bet the Observer has also done a piece on that place in their Travel section - sounds like just the sort of spirituality / spa stuff they're always pushing) and spiritualism, which is actually rather carefully phrased not to actually say she does engage in it. But it's whipped up into a very nasty piece.

[qrypt]

Grypt- that's actually a very good example of the sort of coverage I mean. It includes the inevitable anti-catholic dig (anyone daft enough to be a RC will believe anything according to the writer) and two accusations: the rebirthing incident (I'd bet the Observer has also done a piece on that place in their Travel section - sounds like just the sort of spirituality / spa stuff they're always pushing) and spiritualism, which is actually rather carefully phrased not to actually say she does engage in it. But it's whipped up into a very nasty piece.

Let's grant that Cohen had an axe to grind: it must be said that she made it easy for him, providing all sorts of choice material. 

I don't see the problem.  I say with a clear conscience: this stuff (healing magic stones, bioelectric shields, etc.) is utterly wacky and the price you pay is not just the entrance fee but the possibility of ridicule by sharp-tongued newspaper columnists.  I'm even willing to assume that she paid the servants a bonus not to whisper about it (the column). 

I don't even mind the anti-catholic dig.  On this score, I can at least be confident of not being hypocritical: when Jews wave live chickens over their heads before Yom Kippur (it's called kaparot), or make women sit in the back of Israeli buses, or sell amulets as a method of political fundraising, I have no problem with a bit of sharp anti-religious reaction. 

[husqvarna]

It includes the inevitable anti-catholic dig (anyone daft enough to be a RC will believe anything according to the writer)

That's what surprised me about hearing all of this... because Tony even recently became a Catholic, largely as a result of her influence.  I wouldn't have guessed that she would have been an advocate for/engaged in this kind of stuff, just based on her religious commitments.  But the anti-catholic angle makes enough sense, I guess, if the journalists are ignorant coming from that perspective.  There's also the simple fact that some Catholics engage in syncretist practices, right or wrong.

[daniel_von_flanagan]

DvF - so not exactly the serious offence you were accusing her of - the controversy looking on the net at the coverage seems to have been that the NHS placed more weight on the findings of some scientific studies into this than others.

There are no peer-reviewed scientific studies supporting the magnetic wraps.

As far as I know there is no smoking gun in the form of a letter from her to Tony threatening to cut him off in the bedroom if the NHS does not allow her favorite nostrums;  I nevertheless think that the common speculation that she had something to do with it is not unreasonable.  I also think that it is incumbent on the spouse of the leader of the homeland of Newton and Darwin to do a better job of keeping her belief in voodoo hidden.

I completely agree with grypt here.  My grandmother believed in the Kabbalah and regularly spoke to dybbuks.  She was bats*** crazy.  Similarly, when anyone who is not a Spitting Image puppet waves a chicken in the air for religious purposes,  they are fair game for comment, especially if they are a very public figure. - DvF