oracknows | February 20, 2006Well, that was fast.
The trial took less than a day. David Irving, as expected, pleaded guilty. As expected, he was found guilty of Holocaust denial. What was not expected was the severity of the sentence:
VIENNA, Feb. 20 (AP) — The British historian David Irving on Monday pleaded guilty to denying the Holocaust and was sentenced to three years in prison. He conceded that he was wrong when he said there were no Nazi gas chambers at the Auschwitz death camp.
Mr. Irving, handcuffed and wearing a navy blue suit, arrived in court carrying a copy of one of his books, "Hitler's War," which…
oracknows | February 19, 2006Well, today's the day. After all the waiting, it's finally here.
David Irving is going to stand trial for Holocaust denial in Austria today.
Those of you who have read my old blog a while know what a despicable human being I consider David Irving to be. He's clearly an anti-Semite, most famously having said that "more women died in the back seat of Edward Kennedy’s car at Chappaquiddick than ever died in a gas chamber at Auschwitz" and being known for repeating anti-Semitic doggerel. He's spent decades in essence falsifying history, denying that there were gas chambers at Auschwitz, that the…
oracknows | February 18, 2006And here's the last (and one of my favorite) categories of my blast from the past, some times over the last 14 months when Orac decided to take the "respectful" out of Respectful Insolence:
A response to the "Herbinator"
"Intelligent design" apologia: Pot. Kettle. Black.
I tried not to discuss "intelligent design" again, but...
Invitation accepted
A brief Cablevision rant
It looks like Orac attracted another one
A little criticism directed Orac's way
I'm glad I didn't order the pulled pork
Shortsighted, not curious, and proud of it!
Cybersquatter: J. B. Handley
Cybersquatting for Jesus
Orac…
oracknows | February 18, 2006I can understand wanting transparency regarding the gifts that pharmaceutical reps give doctors, particularly those of the more expensive variety, but this is ridiculous:
At least nine states are considering bills that would require drugmakers to publicly report how much they and their sales representatives give to doctors, hospitals and pharmacists each year. A few proposals go further: A bill under debate in Massachusetts would ban all gifts to medical professionals from the drug industry.
"If a doctor needs a Caribbean vacation or a mug or a pen, he or she is probably not very successful…
oracknows | February 18, 2006This will be my last post on this subject, but I thought it might be of interest to show that Andreas faced his impending death due to lung cancer with dignity and class. Indeed, one could say that he faced it much the same way G'Kar would have, if he existed. A couple of days ago, J. Michael Straczynski, the creator of Babylon 5, posted this message to his mailing list:
Just over a year ago, Andreas Katsulas--who loved smoking with a passion that cannot be described--was diagnosed with lung cancer, which by then had already spread to other areas. He quit smoking at once and went on a…
oracknows | February 18, 2006A bit of a reconfiguration and "clarification" of the ethics rules and rules regarding accepting honoraria for faculty at my institution makes me particularly appreciate this piece in--where else?--The Onion:
Senate Ethics Committee To Meet In New Ethics Committee Mansion
WASHINGTON, DC--In the wake of several major lobbying scandals, the Senate Select Committee on Ethics announced Tuesday that it will hold a special series of intensive sessions inside its recently completed 200-room Ethics Mansion.
"In this time of rampant corruption, it is essential that we have a sufficiently lavish…
oracknows | February 18, 2006Continuing my series of posts designed to categorize and archive essential insolence from the old blog, I now continue with some miscellaneous tidbits:
The EneMan files (Dedicated to the very strange character who is this weblog's de facto mascot)
Orac's encounter with Derek Jeter
I never realized
"Zero tolerance"="Zero common sense"
Kentucky Zombie update
Inauguration Day musings
First impressions of Mac OS X v10.4 ("Tiger")
Fourth of July thoughts
Dispatches from the road
September 11
Scary (Followup: It looks like I found Chris some friends)
Unclear on the concept
A death in the family
oracknows | February 17, 2006About a year ago, I introduced the blogosphere to a term that had become common on certain Usenet newsgroups. I can't take credit for coining the term, but I think I can take some degree of credit for disseminating it to a wider audience.
That term is "altie," and has a meaning similar to the term "woo-woo," in that it describes people who are so militantly pro-alternative medicine and so distrustful of conventional medicine that they will never admit when conventional medicine is effective and refuse ever to concede that any alternative medical practitioner might, just might, possibly be a…
oracknows | February 16, 2006Since the death of Andreas Katsulas, I've been thinking just how many great lines he had as G'Kar in the series and how well he delivered them. Here, culled from the web, is but a sampling of some of them. Some are very serious; some are humorous, but all are quintessential G'Kar. I can't think of a better tribute:
G'Quon wrote, "There is a greater darkness than the one we fight. It is the darkness of the soul that has lost its way. The war we fight is not against powers and principalities; it is against chaos and despair. Greater than the death of flesh is the death of hope, the death of…
oracknows | February 16, 2006In a continuing series of posts, for the benefit of new readers (and a trip down memory lane for old readers), I now present:
Orac knows World War II and Holocaust history:
60 years ago today: The evacuation of Auschwitz and start of the death march
The 60th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz: How I discovered Holocaust denial
60 years ago tonight: The Dresden firestorm
60 years ago today: The flag-raising at Iwo Jima
60 years ago tonight: The firebombing of Tokyo
60 years ago today: The liberation of Buchenwald
Sunday afternoon history lesson
60 years ago today: The liberation of…
oracknows | February 16, 2006The Twenty-eight Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle has come to order at Unused and Probably Unusable, and Eh Nonymous has done a great job at gathering the best examples of skeptical blogging from the last two weeks into, of all things, a courtroom scene:
WHEREFORE the 28th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle was convened on February 16, 2006, with the customary formalities...
ALL RISE!
Hear ye, hear ye! This court is now in session, the Reasonable Judge Eh Nonymous presiding. All ye who have business before this Skeptical court, draw near.
Good day to you, counselors. Let me remind everyone that…
oracknows | February 16, 2006I've always had an interest in archaeology. Indeed, one of the elective courses that I most enjoyed in college was a prehistoric archaeology course. All of this shows why the following interests me.
Through a scientific analysis of ancient cave art, it's been found that human nature hasn't changed much in 35,000 years:
Many art historians and anthropologists believe Paleolithic cave wall art was done by accomplished shaman-artists, but mixed in with the finer paintings are graffiti-like scenes of sex and hunting.
An analysis of thousands of paintings from the late Pleistocene epoch suggests…
oracknows | February 15, 2006Alright, everyone, who's responsible? Someone out there must have done it. Someone out there must have nominated me for a Koufax Award for Best Overall Writing by a Lefty Blogger? (True, it's my old blog that's listed, but I am listed!)
Come on. 'Fess up.
It's not that I'm not honored that someone would consider me for such an award (I am), it's just that I'm afraid that my membership in the Raging RINOs could be in jeopardy...
Fortunately for my membership (but unfortunately for my ego) I have a snowball's chance in hell of winning, given the huge numbers of nominees and their quality. Hell…
oracknows | February 15, 2006In a continuing series of posts, for the benefit of new readers (and a trip down memory lane for old readers), I now present:
Wearing two hats (and part 2)
What is a surgical oncologist?
The deadly power of denial: Personal observations Also see Part 2: It's not always denial; Part 3: Fear; and Part 4: Denial isn't just for patients
A tragic story (Also see Part 2: Update; and Part 3: A sad end to a sad tale)
When not to treat
A pet peeve
Dealing with conflict
Needlestick
An odd place for a telephone booth
If you think it's just about mercury when it comes to vaccines, you're wrong
You want…
oracknows | February 15, 2006As someone who lived in Cleveland for 8 years and whose wife grew up in Toledo, it does my heart good to see that the Ohio Board of Education finally got something right. They voted to strike language in their state science standards singling out evolution for a "critical evaluation:
COLUMBUS, Ohio, Feb. 14 -- The Ohio Board of Education voted 11 to 4 Tuesday to toss out a mandate that 10th-grade biology classes include critical analysis of evolution and an accompanying model lesson plan, dealing the intelligent design movement its second serious defeat in two months.
The board, which became…
oracknows | February 15, 2006
Sad news on the Babylon 5 front.
Andreas Katsulas died on February 13 of lung cancer at the age of 59. Besides playing the One-Armed Man in the movie The Fugitive and making frequent appearances on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Katsulas was best known for playing the Narn Ambassador G'Kar on what was, in my opinion, one of the best SF television shows of all time, Babylon 5.
G'Kar was my second favorite character on the show after his nemesis, Londo Mollari. Whereas Londo's character arc saw him starting out as a decadent and buffoonish oaf and then becoming a very dark and cunning…
oracknows | February 15, 2006As anyone who read my old blog knows, I have some very strong views on free speech, viewing it as the single most important basis of a free society. It is therefore not surprising that I recently commented on the Danish cartoon imbroglio, in which fundamentalist Muslims, outrage stoked by their Imams and by Muslim governments such as Saudi Arabia and Syria, have tried to impose their religious views on secular societies. One thing I noted is how the Iranian government, in their effort to try to claim that Europeans have a double standard, launched a contest asking for cartoons about the…
oracknows | February 15, 2006How annoying.
I had the perfect dubious medical test that I had wanted to write about from a skeptical viewpoint. It was a test that looked at many different blood tests and biomarkers and claimed to be far more sensitive at detecting cancer and a wide variety of diseases. It was obvious to me that its claims were without basis, and, as I settled down to watch the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, my laptop at the ready, I was all set to write yet another brilliant takedown of such nonsense.
And then an annoying thing happened.
I couldn't for the life of me locate the link to the nonsense to…
oracknows | February 15, 2006Nope, Respectful Insolence is still not integrated into the main ScienceBlogs page or into its aggregated feed. Patience, Orac-philes. It probably won't be until next week now; so please keep this blog bookmarked, or, if you use an RSS feed aggegator, don't rely on the aggregated ScienceBlogs feed to catch your daily helping of Respectful Insolenceâ¢.
I feel like such an outsider...
oracknows | February 14, 2006Besides running my own blog, I also happen to have the distinct honor of being responsible for organizing the Skeptics' Circle. One of the great things about the blogosphere is that anyone can have a blog, either for free through a service like Blogspot or at a nominal cost. This greatest aspect of the blogosphere has a downside, however, as it makes it very easy for myths, urban legends, pseudoscience, and quackery to promulgate throughout the Internet with great alacrity. A little more than a year ago, one blogger going by the 'nym of St. Nate (who has, alas, retired from blogging) had an…