"A statement of fact cannot be insolent." The miscellaneous ramblings of a surgeon/scientist on medicine,
quackery, science, pseudoscience, history, and pseudohistory (and anything else that interests him)
Orac is the nom de blog of a humble pseudonymous surgeon/scientist with an ego just big enough to delude himself that someone, somewhere might actually give a rodent's posterior about his miscellaneous verbal meanderings, but just barely small enough to admit to himself that few will. (Continued here, along with a DISCLAIMER that you should read before reading any medical discussions here.)
Orac's old Blog is archived at Archived Insolence.
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December 31, 2007
Category: Alternative medicine • Antivaccination lunacy • Autism • Medicine • Quackery
What better way to finish off 2007 than to look at a most amusing judicial ruling on the admissibility of some of the favorite "expert" witnesses trotted out to try to demonstrate a link between mercury in vaccines and autism....
Posted by Orac at 10:04 AM • 15 Comments
Category: Entertainment/culture • Science fiction/fantasy • Television
Given the way that he's so successfully resurrected Doctor Who, I had come to believe that Russell T. Davies could do no wrong. I guess I was wrong: The Daily Post is reporting that comments made by Executive Producer Russell...
Posted by Orac at 6:20 AM • 19 Comments
Category: Announcements • Blog carnivals • Skeptics' Circle
...from submitting to the Skeptics' Circle! Our latest host, Pal MD at White Coat Underground, has sent up the emergency flare. With a mere three days to go, he's worried that he won't have enough submissions to his Skeptics' Circle...
Posted by Orac at 12:06 AM • 0 Comments
December 30, 2007
Category: Entertainment/culture • Humor • Science fiction/fantasy • Television
If you think spending the holidays with your family is stressful, imagine what it might be like for the Doctor: By the way, I've managed to check out the Doctor Who Christmas Special. By and large it's pretty good; maybe...
Posted by Orac at 2:07 PM • 3 Comments
Category: Alternative medicine • Anti-Semitism • History • Holocaust • Holocaust denial • Medicine • Politics • Quackery • World War II
The other day, I posted about how quacks and pseudoscientists seem to find Ron Paul's promise of "health freedom" as irresistible as moths do flame. Now it seems that Ron Paul has another most excellent endorsement to add to that...
Posted by Orac at 9:04 AM • 32 Comments
December 29, 2007
Category: Antivaccination lunacy • Autism • Entertainment/culture • Medicine • Popular culture • Quackery
As if Jenny McCarthy weren't enough stupidity in pushing the alleged "link" between vaccines and autism, it looks as though Donald Trump has joined the fray on the side of pseudoscience: In an interview with Palm Beach Politics, Donald Trump...
Posted by Orac at 10:55 AM • 41 Comments
Category: Alternative medicine • Friday Woo • Medicine • Quackery • Skepticism/critical thinking
...I find it rather amazing that after all these months I'm still getting a steady, constant stream of traffic, probably at least a couple of dozen visits a day, to this old post from Your Friday Dose of Woo, all...
Posted by Orac at 6:13 AM • 7 Comments
December 28, 2007
Category: Anti-Semitism • History • Holocaust • World War II
Over at A Blog Around the Clock, the mother of fellow ScienceBlogger Bora's is guest blogging. I mention this because she's blogging about a trip to Israel she took in November to attend a conference of Holocaust Child Survivors. I...
Posted by Orac at 2:18 PM • 1 Comments
Category: Alternative medicine • Anti-Semitism • Antivaccination lunacy • Biology • Evolution • History • Holocaust denial • Medicine • Politics • Quackery • Science
Lately, bloggers, including some of my fellow ScienceBloggers, have been expressing various concerns about the phenomenon that is Ron Paul, the Republican candidate who's ridden a wave of discontent to do surprisingly well in the polls leading up to the...
Posted by Orac at 8:45 AM • 63 Comments
Category: Announcements • Blog housekeeping • Friday Woo • Skepticism/critical thinking
Orac's circuits have yet to recover from the assault on his logic circuits caused by the über-woo of a couple of weeks ago, coupled with the even more powerful woo two weeks before that. Consequently, in order to marshal additional...
Posted by Orac at 6:09 AM • 1 Comments
December 27, 2007
...this is what a troll is on the Internet. Personally, though, I prefer the Flame Warriors version, although I'm not sure that I agree with Mike Reed's characterization of trolls as "generally quite harmless."...
Posted by Orac at 6:01 PM • 7 Comments
Category: Alternative medicine • Cancer • Medicine • Quackery
It's been a while since I've heard anything about Abraham Cherrix, the teen who rejected conventional chemotherapy for Hodgkins' lymphoma in favor of the quackery known as Hoxsey therapy. Ultimately, there was a legal battle resulting in a compromise that...
Posted by Orac at 2:10 PM • 5 Comments
Category: Medicine • Science • Skepticism/critical thinking • Skeptics' Circle
It figures. Some of the most interesting questions and posts showed up right before Christmas, just the time when I didn't have time to discuss and (hopefully) expand upon them. Neither, I'm guessing, did anyone else, which is unfortunate because...
Posted by Orac at 8:55 AM • 70 Comments
December 26, 2007
Category: Alternative medicine • Antivaccination lunacy • Autism • Medicine • Quackery
Remember how much I bored you all with my broadsides against the antivaccine paranoia running rampant on the Huffington Post recently? Well, the paranoia is back with a vengeance...like the Energizer Bunny on this issue.
Posted by Orac at 3:01 PM • 10 Comments
Category: Antivaccination lunacy • Autism • Blog housekeeping • Humor • Medicine
While I'm recharging a bit from the Christmas festivities yesterday to the point where soon I'll be able to write a substantive post, full of the Respectful Insolence™ and science or medicine that readers have come to expect, here's something...
Posted by Orac at 11:07 AM • 50 Comments
Category: Announcements • Blog housekeeping • Blogging
We interrupt this post-holiday blogging slowdown for an important blog housekeeping message. Something weird happened to Respectful Insolence™ over the weekend before Christmas. Sunday, I was composing a little missive to autopost over the holidays. I went to the pulldown...
Posted by Orac at 9:05 AM • 1 Comments
