Convicted U.S. felon's 'Cures' tops book charts

[larryhead]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - He went to prison for fraud and was ordered by the U.S. government to stop touting health products on infomercials, but Kevin Trudeau's book "Natural Cures 'They' Don't Want You to Know About" is a bestseller.

Trudeau, who for years sold snoring remedies and memory enhancers through long-format commercials dressed up as talk shows, says he is a consumer advocate battling the "unholy alliance" of drug companies and government regulators.

"It's all about money. The drug industry does not want people to get healthy," he says in a commercial for his book. Trudeau says he has sold about 4 million copies of the book in under a year, a huge amount for a self-published book marketed initially only through the Internet and television infomercials.

The book -- whose back cover says "Never get sick again!" and "Learn the specific natural cures for herpes, acid reflux, diabetes ... cancer ... and more!" -- has topped the Publishers Weekly nonfiction bestseller list for the past three weeks.

...

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050821/hl_nm/media_cures_dc_3

:bs:

Wow... 4 million copies? Those infomercial folks have it made..

[matty]

Yeah. If you can find a really tight scam, run it!

My scam idea: Ex-Gays
I pretend to be a religious fanatic (no documentation or proof of credentials needed--cha-ching!) who converts gays into straight people. Or at least yaks about it a lot on television and radio. That way, I can rake in the money from weirdos who believe that gayness can be cured (i.e., my parents and everyone they know). I get someone with a psychology degree to play along and say that it's true, gayness can be cured. (All these arguments already exist from other weirdo sources, so all the literature is preconceived--cha-ching-ching!)

Then I have a bunch of weirdos buying everything I could ever possibly shit out, from books to audio tapes to self-help videos to bobblehead dolls and t-shirts ("Ex-Gays for Jesus", "Who wants to suck dick when you could have The Lord", etc.). I would make a killing.

Also, I could have all kinds of really dirty sex with the poor, confused souls who come to me for help. (Repressed gays have the hottest action! Cha-ching-chang-CHING!) As for ugly people, I really will convince them that they are straight, and maybe even I could get a gay guy to marry a lesbian. That would be hilarious. Then I could have them on my infomercial, talking about how great I am and people should buy all my made-up bullshit merchandise.

Then, after I've made enough money to settle down somewhere where no one will recognize me (Paris, Istanbul--not Constantinople, Canada), I will suddenly denounce myself, saying there's no way to fight gayness, and gay people should do whatever they want to because there's no god anyway. (Except for Jimi Hendrix, but he's dead, and he wouldn't have given a shit anyhow.)

Now if I could just stop smoking pot long enough to put this plan into action....

[andikay]

That's a brilliant plan!

I have a psychology degree. PM me and we'll discuss my cut.

[poofdogg]

don't worry matty...you discuss it with her first and let me know and i'll undercut her...i've got one of those there degrees too...i'm edumacated.

[andikay]

Oh you wanna get brutal, huh?

Bring it, poof. ;)

[slam]

larryhead could build you a wicked website.

nowwww, we just need to start collecting 'before' and 'after' photos...

[larryhead]

"Ex-Gays for Jesus", "Who wants to suck dick when you could have The Lord", etc.

:buddychr:

[Diamond Vision]

Hmm... i'd sign on as the resident "natural product specialist" and hock placebos to help the cause...

i think we have something here!