History
Respectful Insolence
Category archives for History
Quote antivaccinationist Hilary Butler: Non-vaccinators are the “new Jews”
Posted by Orac on May 24, 2013 I’ve never been able to figure it out. Antivaccine zealots seem to have an intense love of Nazi analogies and comparing those supporting science-based medicine to Nazis. While from a strictly nasty point of view, I can sort of understand the utility of such analogies to demonize one’s opponents. After all, to political extremists of…
Score one for the antiscience cranks in Portland on fluoridation
Posted by Orac on May 23, 2013 Chalk one up for the forces of anti-science, quackery, and pseudoscience. The citizens of Portland, Oregon just handed them a huge victory the other day when they once again rejected water fluoridation in a referendum: Fluoride supporters, it appeared, had everything going for them. Five Portland city commissioners had voted to add fluoride to the…
Can antivaccinationists knock it off with the autism Holocaust analogies already?
Posted by Orac on April 6, 2013 It’s very clear that many antivaccinationists hate autistic children. The language they use to describe them makes that very clear. Such children are “damaged” (by vaccines, of course); the parents’ real children were “stolen” from them (by vaccines); they are “toxic” (from vaccines); the “light left their eyes” (due to vaccines). Autism is an “epidemic,”…
Paleo and woo: Bad company until the day they die
Posted by Orac on March 25, 2013 There are many fallacies that undergird alternative medicine, which evolved into “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM), and for which the preferred term among its advocates is now “integrative medicine,” meant to imply the “best of both worlds.” If I had to pick one fallacy that rules above all among proponents of CAM/IM, it would have…
How not to discuss the role of alternative medicine during the Third Reich
Posted by Orac on March 1, 2013 I really hate to write this post, but I feel compelled. The reason I hate to write it is because someone I admire screwed up. The reason I feel compelled is because of my longstanding interest in World War II and Holocaust history, not to mention my longtime interest in refuting the lies of Holocaust…
School vaccine mandates are against the Nuremberg Code?
Posted by Orac on July 10, 2012 
About a week and a half ago, I took note of a rather unhinged rant by comedian Rob Schneider about vaccines in which he trotted out an antivaccine movement’s greatest hits compendium of pseudoscience, misinformation, and logical fallacies, all in the service of opposing California Bill AB 2109. Antivaccine activists hate this piece of legislation…
Rob Schneider on California Bill AB 2109: The latest celebrity antivaccinationist to make a fool of himself
Posted by Orac on June 29, 2012 
Remember California Bill AB 2109? I’ve written about it at least a couple of times before. In fact, for some reason, the comment section of this post on AB 2109 suddenly come alive again a couple of days ago, with antivaccinationists infiltrating it, much to the annoyance of my regular commenters. It turns out that…
The Texas Republican Party platform: Creationism, denialism, “health freedom,” and “vaccine choice” all rolled up into one big antiscience ball
Posted by Orac on June 28, 2012 And now for something completely different. Except that it isn’t really. I say that it isn’t really different because, although this post will seem to be about politics, in reality it will be about a common topic on this blog: Anti-science. And where is this anti-science? Sadly, it’s in the platform of a major party…
The health freedom fighters attack
Posted by Orac on June 12, 2012 If there’s one thing shared in common among nearly all advocates of pseudoscience, it is the belief that they know The Truth. More importantly, they know The Truth, and The Powers That Be don’t want you to know The Truth and will do almost anything to makes sure that The Truth stays secret. Think about…
The campaign against the HPV vaccine
Posted by Orac on December 24, 2011 You knew it was inevitable. I’m just surprised it took this long. Then, via Stuff and Nonsense, I find this video: Extra points for using a different scene from Downfall than the usual Downfall parodies use. It also reminds me. There’s a paper on just this topic that might require a bit of not-so-Respectful Insolence…
Echoes of Semmelweis
Posted by Orac on October 26, 2011 As hard as it is to believe, I’ve been a physician for 23 years now and a fully trained surgeon for over 15 years. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in that time, it’s most doctors really, really don’t like to be told what to do. I don’t know if part of it comes from…
Ten years ago today
Posted by Orac on September 11, 2011 Once again we come to another September 11. It’s hard to believe that it’s been ten years since that horrible day. It’s become my tradition over the last few years to post this video as a reminder of what happened that day. This video was shot by Bob and Bri, who in 2001 lived in…
Maybe there is hope after all, or: A most unexpected change of heart
Posted by Orac on July 19, 2011 Since I was still recovering from TAM9 last night and crashed on the couch at around 9 PM, I didn’t have time for one of my usual logorrheic posts. I did, however, have time to take note of an update on a story I started covering six years ago. One of the greatest things about…
Holocaust denial versus free speech
Posted by Orac on June 29, 2011 It’s grant crunch time, as the submission deadline for revised R01s is July 5. However, in a classic example of how electronic filing has actually made things more difficult, the grant has to be done and at the university grant office a week before the deadline if it is to be uploaded in time. So,…
Bishop Richard Williamson, Holocaust denial, and the problem of “recantation” by cranks
Posted by Orac on June 29, 2011 It’s grant crunch time, as the submission deadline for revised R01s is July 5. However, in a classic example of how electronic filing has actually made things more difficult, the grant has to be done and at the university grant office a week before the deadline if it is to be uploaded in time. So,…
“Science is evil,” or: When Mike Adams meets Deepak Chopra and Ben Stein
Posted by Orac on May 12, 2011 Recently, there have been grumblings in the ranks of Orac-philes. All is not entirely well. Or, at least, all is less well than usual. Even more unusual, I feel your pain. I really do. We’ve been enduring a stretch when the anti-vaccine movement has been unusually busy for an unusually long time, leading vaccines to…
Grammar Nazis
Posted by Orac on March 31, 2011 Sometimes I complain on this blog about grammar Nazis. I had no idea at the time that grammar Nazis might actually be a real phenomenon. Of course, I’d be dead because my unedited material all too frequently contains multiple run-on sentences. True, I almost always find them later when I reread my posts and then…
The “downfall” of my grant writing today
Posted by Orac on March 27, 2011 These are two videos that appeared to have disappeared from YouTube for a while, thanks to takedown notices from the distributors of the film. Fortunately, they appear to be back, which is pure awesomeness. Unfortunately, because I’m busy putting the final touches on a grant today, the first one resonates in a rather eerie way.…
More dubious moral reasoning from animal rights activists
Posted by Orac on March 15, 2011 Yesterday, I did a post about ethics in human experimentation. The reason I mention that is because in the comments, a commenter named Paul pointed out an editorial of the sort of variety that we frequently see whenever there is a revelation of misdeeds in human research and a response to that article that is…
Fun with a clueless Daylight Saving Time rant
Posted by Orac on March 14, 2011 Today is the Monday after Daylight Saving Time started. I always hate this day. Getting to work on time is always that much more difficult, and I always feel a bit run down for the few days afterward until my body adjusts. This time of year also predictably produces idiotic screeds about Daylight Saving Time,…
Revisiting the issue of ethics in human experimentation
Posted by Orac on March 14, 2011 Progress in science-based medicine depends upon human experimentation. Scientists can do the most fantastic translational research in the world, starting with elegant hypotheses, tested through in vitro and biochemical experiments, after which they are tested in animals. They can understand disease mechanisms to the individual amino acid level in a protein or nucleotide in a…
You knew it was inevitable…the Wakefield Downfall parody
Posted by Orac on January 13, 2011 Clearly, once the allegations of Andrew Wakefield’s fraud, conflicts of interest, and business plans to profit off of his demonization of the MMR came to light, it was only a matter of time before this arrived: NOTE: Apparently the creator of this parody has removed it. I’ve sent an e-mail asking to reconsider.
As 2010 ends, let’s be careful out there…
Posted by Orac on December 31, 2010 As hard as it is to believe, today is the last day of 2010. An old year has flown by once again, and, almost before I realized it, a new year will arrive where I live in mere hours. It’s been a truly weird year, even more so than the average level of weirdness. That’s…
The Art of Medicine in Ancient Egypt, Part 2
Posted by Orac on December 29, 2010 It’s the week between Christmas and New Years, and, oddly enough, I’m feeling exceptionally lazy. For one thing, it’s a slow “news” time; nothing much is happening to blog about, at least nothing that’s motivated me to rouse myself from my declining food-induced coma to lay down some not-so-Respectful Insolence today. For another thing, I’m…
The Art of Medicine in Ancient Egypt
Posted by Orac on December 28, 2010 It’s the week between Christmas and New Years, and, oddly enough, I’m feeling exceptionally lazy. For one thing, it’s a slow “news” time; nothing much is happening to blog about, at least nothing that’s motivated me to rouse myself from my declining food-induced coma to lay down some not-so-Respectful Insolence today. For another thing, I’m…