Respectful Insolence
Search Results for robert o. young
Yet another misleading alt-med cancer testimonial
Posted by Orac on April 12, 2011 They call them Necromancers. Necromancers have an uncanny ability to resurrect an old thread by commenting on it months, even years, after the last comment. Unfortunately, as hard as it is to believe, the version of Movable Type used by Seed to power our blogs does not have a preference panel that allows us to…
When faith healing isn’t woo enough for Dr. Oz
Posted by Orac on March 16, 2011 There are times when I’m wrong again and again. No, I’m certainly not referring to my writings about vaccines which, as much as anti-vaccine loons like to claim they’re wrong, are not. Nor am I referring to my writings about “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM) or “integrative medicine” (IM). While it’s possible that I’ve made…
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…
The resurrection of David Kirby as an anti-vaccine propagandist
Posted by Orac on February 15, 2011 Four days later, I still can’t figure it out. I really can’t. Remember the other day when I said I was debating whether or not to respond to the latest excretion from one of the first hangers-on of the anti-vaccine movement I ever encountered after I started blogging. I’m referring, of course, to freelance journalist…
Lamenting Deadly Choices that endanger children
Posted by Orac on January 3, 2011 As hard as it is to believe after the pile of poo that was 2010, the year 2011 is starting out rather promisingly, at least from the point of view of science-based medicine. Its beginning has been greeted with the release of two–count ‘em, two!–books taking a skeptical, science-based look at vaccines and, in particular,…
Another despicable abuse of a dead celebrity
Posted by Orac on December 10, 2010 I was originally going to switch it up and blog about something other than cancer. In fact, there is a particularly juicy bit of anti-vaccine nonsense that I wanted to write about because it shows the utter mendacity of a certain anti-vaccine website that, believe it or not, is not Age of Autism. I know,…
Elizabeth Edwards and Kim Tinkham: A tale of two victims of breast cancer
Posted by Orac on December 8, 2010 Two women died of breast cancer yesterday. One was named Kim Tinkham. One was named Elizabeth Edwards. In some ways, these women were similar. True, one was older than the other, but both of them died far sooner than they should have, one at age 53, the other at age 61. Both engaged in activism…
Let Oprah know that Kim Tinkham is dying of cancer
Posted by Orac on December 7, 2010 I’m still perturbed about yesterday. I’m still perturbed that a cancer quack was able to convince a woman who had everything to live for that he could cure her of her breast cancer without surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation. I’m still perturbed at this particular cancer quack’s attitude, where he tried to claim that he didn’t…
A horrifying breast cancer “testimonial” for “holistic” treatment: Robert O. Young responds
Posted by Orac on December 6, 2010 In the wake of the revelation that Kim Tinkham is dying of what was almost certainly metastatic breast cancer to bones, lungs, and liver after having rejected conventional therapy for her disease in favor of Robert O. Young’s acid-base woo, Young’s response is now (possibly) known. In the comments after part 6 of Young’s interview…
A horrifying breast cancer “testimonial” for “holistic” treatment, finale
Posted by Orac on December 6, 2010 (NOTE: The videos of Robert O. Young’s interview with Kim Tinkham have been removed, as I predicted in this post that they would be. Fortunately, I downloaded copies before he managed to do that. Part 6 appears to be still there–for now.) (NOTE ADDED 12/7/2010: Kim Tinkham has died of what was almost certainly metastatic…
The testimonial of Hollie Quinn: The Huffington Post promotes breast cancer quackery right before Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Posted by Orac on September 28, 2010 I hate The Huffington Post. I really do. Why, you ask, do I hate HuffPo so? I hate HuffPo so because of its history from the very beginning of its existence of promoting the vilest forms of anti-vaccine quackery and pseudoscience. It’s because, over the last couple of years, not content with being the one-stop-shop…
Quoth Mark Blaxill: “Science is funny” when it comes to mercury in vaccines and autism
Posted by Orac on September 8, 2010 I must admit that, after having taken it easy over the last few days, when the time came to sit down and get back into the swing of things, I had a bit of a hard time. No, it’s not just blogging. That’s actually a rather minor component of the whole malaise that descended upon…
Vaccine injury and compensation
Posted by Orac on September 1, 2010 The comment thread for my post last week about how philosophical vaccine exemptions in California are endangering herd immunity is rapidly approaching 500 comments as I write this and may well surpass that number by the time this post “goes live” in the morning. I mention this because buried in the comment thread are a…
Your Friday Dose of Woo: Thanks, Paulette Williams! Thanks for the Kangen water woo!
Posted by Orac on August 13, 2010 After nearly six years subjecting the world to my meandering and often incredibly verbose stylings, I’m now what you would call an established blogger. Even more than that, I’m a reasonably high traffic blogger, at least in the medical blogosphere. What that means is that I get a lot of e-mail. A lot. While I…
Yes, there really are people who don’t accept the germ theory of disease
Posted by Orac on August 9, 2010 The longer I’m in this whole skepticism thing, the more I realize that no form of science is immune to woo. For example, even though I lament just how many people do not accept evolution, for example, I can somewhat understand it. Although the basics of the science and evidence supporting the theory of evolution…
A horrifying breast cancer “testimonial” for “holistic” treatment, part 3
Posted by Orac on June 22, 2010 (NOTE ADDED 12/7/2010: Kim Tinkham has died of what was almost certainly metastatic breast cancer. Also note that, when it was publicized on the Internet and on the blogosphere that Tinkham’s cancer gave every indication of having recurred and she was dying, her “practitioner” Robert O. Young removed the videos embedded below from YouTube.) Remember…
Natural Cancer Treatments That Work: A wretched hive of scum and quackery
Posted by Orac on June 17, 2010 Back in the 1990s when I first dipped my toe into the pool that was Usenet, that massive, wild, and untamed frontier where most online discussion occurred before the rise of the web and later the blogosphere, I was truly a naif. I had no idea–no inkling–of the depths of quackery to which people would…
No difference between “too many too soon” and “too few too late” when it comes to vaccines
Posted by Orac on May 25, 2010 Regular readers know that I have a tendency every so often to whine about when writing about the antics of the anti-vaccine movement seems to engulf this blog. Yes, it’s true. Every so often I get really, really tired of the bad science, pseudoscience, magical thinking, misinformation, and even outright lies that emanate from various…
Knowledge versus certainty in skepticism, medicine, and science
Posted by Orac on May 14, 2010 “I don’t want knowledge. I want certainty!” –David Bowie, from Law (Earthlings on Fire) If there’s one universal trait among humans, it seems to be an unquenchable thirst for certainty. This should come as no surprise to those committed to science and rational thinking because there is a profound conflict between our human desire for…
Move over, Deepak, there’s a new woo-meister at HuffPo
Posted by Orac on May 6, 2010 Anyone who’s been reading this blog for any length of time longer than a few weeks knows what I think of Deepak Chopra. Indeed, he’s been a recurring topic here since the very beginning (just type his name into the search box for this blog if you don’t believe me). In fact, Chopra has “distinguished”…
Harnessing the generosity of kind-hearted strangers to pay for woo
Posted by Orac on May 5, 2010 With the recent passage of President Obama’s health care reform bill, I can only hope that we as a nation have finally begun to address what has been a serious problem in our health care system, namely the unemployed. Although I remain somewhat skeptical of the plan as passed and remain largely agnostic about it,…
Compared to Robert O. Young, Andrew Weil looks reasonable
Posted by Orac on April 27, 2010 I never would have thought it possible, but it’s happened. I’m sure most of you have heard of Dr. Andrew Weil, that champion of quackademic medicine who has made it his life’s mission to bring the woo into academia in the form of training programs to “integrate” quackery with science-based medicine. From his home base…
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on Poul Thorsen: The fine art of distraction from inconvenient facts
Posted by Orac on March 12, 2010 My first big splash in the blogosphere will have occurred five years ago in June, when I first discovered the utter wingnuttery that is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. It was then that I wrote a little bit of that not-so-Respectful Insolence that you’ve come to know and love entitled Salon.com flushes its credibility down the…
Suppression of speech through legal intimidation, anti-vaccine edition: Barbara Loe Fisher sues Dr. Paul Offit, Amy Wallace, and Condé Nast for libel
Posted by Orac on January 4, 2010 In general, one of the biggest differences between those defending science-based medicine and those defending pseudoscience, quackery, and anti-science is that science inculcates in its adherents a culture of free and open debate. In marked contrast, those advocating pseudoscience tend to cultivate cultures of the echo chamber. Examples abound and include discussion forums devoted to…
Anti-vaccine activism, not autism activism
Posted by Orac on December 29, 2009 Remember how I said that I was trying to take it easy this week? I still am, but there’s something bugging me enough to draw me out of my grant-induced cocoon for a little while in order to pontificate on it in the not-so-Respectfully Insolent way that I am so often wont to do. True,…