denialism | October 5, 2007Good news from the political front. Hillary Clinton plans to re-establish the OTA if elected.
Fifth, we're going to stop substituting ideology for science and evidence, and we're going to start giving the American people again the facts on the issues that matter to them and their families. Over the past six years, this Administration has tried to turn Washington into an evidence-free zone. Whether it's stem cell research or Plan B Contraception or pollution or global warming or the safety of our food or the quality of our air -- all too often, ideology has replaced facts, and truth has been…
denialism | October 5, 2007CNN suggests there are 5 (count them 5) alternative medicine treatments that actually work! How pathetic is it for altie-meds that the article is presented this way. You know, 5 altie-med therapies that work versus, well, all real pharmaceuticals that actually have proven medical effects. As many have pointed out, if it works, it ceases to be "alternative" and then becomes evidence-based medicine. But let's not take this for granted, let's go over this list presented by altie-quack Andrew Weil.
1. Acupuncture for pain
Hands, down, this was the No. 1 recommendation from our panel of…
denialism | October 4, 2007Check out this fascinating new study from the Barna group that appears to show the damage that is being done to the Christian faith by the political actions of right wing fundamentalists. This should serve as a serious wake-up call for the culture warriors who are attempting to increase the role of religion in politics - they are alienating the next generation of believers and non-believers severely.
The study shows that 16- to 29-year-olds exhibit a greater degree of criticism toward Christianity than did previous generations when they were at the same stage of life. In fact, in just a…
denialism | October 4, 2007I'm thinking of lies from presidents and the resulting scandal. On the one hand we have the impeachment of Clinton for "I did not have sex with that woman, Monica Lewinsky." On the other we have "We do not torture" from George W. Bush combined with the news that we do indeed torture people.
It is an outright lie delivered multiple times by the president to the American people. Clinton got impeached for his deception, do the Democrats have the guts to do the same for Bush's far more serious lie which constitutes a real crime?
denialism | October 4, 2007
The New England Journal has an article on the phenomenon known as chronic Lyme disease. Lyme disease, is a tick-borne infectious disease caused by an bacterium known as Borrelia burgdorferi carried by ticks in certain regions of the United States and Europe in which it is endemic. Here is the US map of cases below.
It can result in a fever-like illness with a characteristic rash (although not in all cases) called erythema migrans, and if left untreated, can cause more serious problems like arthritis, and cardiovascular and neurological complications.
A small number of people and doctors…
choofnagle | October 3, 2007Maybe Americans' bad taste can be reformed! Gary McWilliams reports:
The Wal-Mart Era, the retailer's time of overwhelming business and social influence in America, is drawing to a close.
[...]
Rival retailers lured Americans away from Wal-Mart's low-price promise by offering greater convenience, more selection, higher quality, or better service. Amid the country's growing affluence, Wal-Mart has struggled to overhaul its down-market, politically incorrect image while other discounters pitched themselves as more upscale and more palatable alternatives. The Internet has changed shoppers'…
denialism | October 3, 2007I'm loving the Non Sequiturs about Danae setting up her think tank.
I think Wiley must be reading the blog. Stop lurking and show yourself!
denialism | October 2, 2007Have people seen the coverage of these Blackwater hearings?
The police officer, whom CNN is identifying only as Sarhan, said the Blackwater guards "seemed nervous" as they entered the square, throwing water bottles at the Iraqi police posted there and driving in the wrong direction. He said traffic police halted civilian traffic to clear the way for the Blackwater team.
Then, he said, the guards fired five or six shots in an apparent attempt to scare people away, but one of the rounds struck a car and killed a young man who was sitting next to his mother, a doctor.
Sarhan said he and an…
denialism | October 2, 2007I too gagged when I saw this nonsense story from the Center for American Progress listing 100 things we'll lose with global warming. Sheril takes it apart for us, and I'm thankful.
denialism | October 2, 2007PZ has found this wonderful cartoon that I think sums up the problem nicely.
Danae should go to work for AEI or Cato!
denialism | October 2, 2007I realize it's fundamental to being a crank, but the persecution complex of the IDers is getting really old. The latest is Bruce Chapman at Evolution News and Views, who no longer satisfied with grasping at the mantle of Galileo, is now groping for Semmelweis and Lister as well. The idea being, as usual, if science has been slow to accept the theories of people in the past, surely the same flaws must be preventing ID from being accepted. Never mind that these other scientists actually had things like data or evidence, or did rather fantastic things like reduce the death rates in maternity…
denialism | October 2, 2007Next for "making up disease" files, Ed Brayton brings us news of the latest crank idea from the masturbation-obsessed nuts over at World Nut Daily. It's the new plague of masturbation-induced impotence.
Pornographically Induced Impotence is now a national pandemic, raking in untold billions for pornographers and their satellite businesses as well as from the marital discord and despair it produces.
...
Men are "visually wired," Feldhahn explained. Their images of women stretch "back to his teenage years, and any one of the pictures is going to pop up at any time in his brain without warning…
denialism | October 2, 2007I thought for sure the idiotic slugs that pass for security in our airports had mishandled this woman resulting in her death when they said she strangled herself while trying to escape from handcuffs. However, Slate reports indeed you can manage to screw up this maneuver and contort yourself into such a position. They also linked this video
showing how the double-jointed might attempt this maneuver, while warning people not to try it at home with handcuffs and asphyxiate themselves like this woman did.
Not that I'm saying this lets the cops entirely off the hook, but I have to admit…
denialism | October 2, 2007Here's some woo for you. Via Gizmodo we hear about this wonderful new waste of money, Mummywraps. Designed to protect your baby from "electro-smog", the non-existent threat of electromagnetic waves from radio and cell phone sources (that we have been exposed to constantly for decades with no discernible effect), these copper "Swiss Shield" garments will be sure to be a profitable waste of money ($70) for thousands of paranoid parents.
Ben Goldacre I think has been on the forefront of challenging this new electrosmog woo, so there is very little to add. But it is simply shameful how people…
denialism | October 1, 2007I'd just comment like nuts if I were eligible for the 500,000th comment contest.
Call this an open thread. Go nuts! I'm too busy writing to blog anyway.
choofnagle | October 1, 2007The Journal's Cynthia Crossen gives an overview of political battles surrounding billboard advertising today. An interesting read, in part because billboard advertising lobbyists have been pretty shameless in their political advocacy. I remember that when I lived in Georgia, they wanted to lop off the tops of trees so that billboards could be better seen. In order to get around regulations that distanced billboards from the roads, the industry created megabillboards that were huge. And they argued that billboards actually improved roadway safety because it gave drivers an interruption…
choofnagle | September 29, 2007Ah, the joys of reading the relatively new weekend edition of the Journal...There's always news you can really use. For instance, if you happen to be in Atlanta and are hungry, the Journal will tell you exactly where you should sitting at Rathbun's, depending on whether you are an A, an A+, or A++.
Floorplan Key: Red=A ++ List; Yellow=A+ LIST; Blue=A LIST
And when you're done analyzing your status based on where the restaurant seats you, you can read about how to deal with your pesky, environmentally-conscience children! Ellen Gamerman reports:
In households across the country, kids are…
denialism | September 28, 2007National Geographic brings us the "best science images of 2007" which includes this amazing CT reconstruction of the nose and sinuses.
Science magazine has the full set, but is behind a paywall.
Via BoingBoing and Neurophilosophy
denialism | September 28, 2007Tim Lambert has coverage of the latest in the denialist attempt to discredit global warming science - the smearing of scientist James Hansen. Using the bogey-man of George Soros, they try to suggest that Hansen has been funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars.
How many people, for instance, know that James Hansen, a man billed as a lonely "NASA whistleblower" standing up to the mighty U.S. government, was really funded by Soros' Open Society Institute, which gave him "legal and media advice"?
That's right, Hansen was packaged for the media by Soros' flagship "philanthropy," by as much as $…