oracknows | June 24, 2011It had to be done.
With all the quackery and pseudoscience promoted by TV doctors like Dr. Oz, Dr. Phil, and "The Doctors," sooner or later someone had to choose a manner other than blogging to call them out. ZDoggMD has done just that, particularly dissing Dr. Oz. Why? Why not. Because:
Why dis Dr. Oz, indeed?
Let's enumerate:
He's taller, smarter, better looking, and infinitely more successful than me. He must therefore be stopped.
He may have started out with good intentions, but his current incarnation foists hype, pseudoscience, and unproven "alternative" treatments upon millions of…
oracknows | June 23, 2011Remember Michael Egnor?
I bet many of you do. If you were reading this blog three or four years ago, Dr. Egnor was a fairly regular target topic of my excretions of not-so-Respectful Insolence. The reason for that was, at the time, I was quite annoyed that a fellow surgeon could so regularly lay down such incredible blasts of pseudoscientific nonsense in the defense of his "intelligent design" creationism views. Back then he did this as a semi-regular blogger for a blog that is a propaganda outlet for the crank ID propagandists at Discovery Institute in much the same way that Age of Autism is…
oracknows | June 22, 2011You know, it all makes a lot more sense now.
Actually, I can't believe I didn't see it before. Here I was, all these years, and somehow the thought never crossed my mind, even though all the signs were right there. And then, yesterday, Tufted Titmouse showed me the light. She showed me the light about über-quack, a.k.a. The Health Ranger, the man who has provided me endless entertainment and exasperation at the same time with his reality-challenged (actually, reality-lacking) rants about medicine, vaccines, and science, peppered with bad rap videos and the occasional 9/11 "Truth" rant thrown…
oracknows | June 22, 2011Dietary supplements are minimally regulated in the U.S. Indeed, I'm continually amazed at how much supplement manufacturers can get away with and for how long. For example, one of the most recent atrocities against science occurred when Boyd Haley, disgraced chemistry professor at the University of Kentucky and prominent member of the mercury militia wing of the anti-vaccine movement, tried to sell an industrial chelator as a dietary supplement to treat autistic children. True, that was too much even for the underfunded, undermanned FDA to ignore, but it was amazing how long he got away with…
oracknows | June 21, 2011Regular readers know that I lived in Chicago for three years in the late 1990s. Indeed, Chicago is probably my favorite city in the world, and my years there count as three of the happiest years of my life. I lived in a cool neighborhood near DePaul in Lincoln Park; never again in my life am I ever likely to live in a place with such a fine mixture of residential houses, businesses, restaurants, bars, and parks. Moreover, I still have family there, which, combined with my knowledge of the city, leads me to continue to feel a connection to the city. It's that connection that guarantees that I…
oracknows | June 20, 2011Note: Grant writing ruled again this weekend; so I took this post, which first appeared elsewhere, and decided to revise and repost it. It seems appropriate, given what I've been discussing lately. Enjoy, and hopefully there'll be something new tomorrow..
I've been complaining a lot about a certain journalist lately, specifically one named David Freedman. Before the most recent paean to unscientific medicine written by him, he wrote another article. The article, which was trumpeted by Tara Parker-Pope, came under the heading of "Brave Thinkers" and is entitled Lies, Damned Lies, and Medical…
oracknows | June 17, 2011The other day, I expressed my displeasure at an article published in The Atlantic that, boiled down to its essence, was one long apologia for unscientific "complementary and alternative medicine" (CAM) and "integrative medicine" (IM). Yes, I was quite critical, but, I believe, not unfairly so. Not surprisingly, however, the author of the article, David H. Freedman, was quite displeased, so much so that he actually showed up in my comments to take me to task. He didn't just take me to task, though. He took all of you to task, as well, at least those of you who piled on. Unfortunately, his…
oracknows | June 16, 2011Well, well, well, well, well.
Look who's coming to blight my hometown, and look who's doing it hot on the heels of my having directed some not-so-Respectful Insolence at him. Yes, it's Deepak Chopra himself showing up on Saturday to bring his woo to one of the places that least needs it, downtown Detroit:
Excitement and diversity is coming to the Metropolitan Detroit community this Summer! Chene Park Amphitheater is bringing an entirely new experience to the City on Saturday, June 18th, 2011: The "Music & Mastery Holistic Festival".
The "Music & Mastery Holistic Festival" is a full-…
oracknows | June 15, 2011Remember the case of the Winkler County nurses?
This is the story of two nurses who blew the whistle on a bad doctor, a quack even, in my opinion. As a result they faced the very real possibility of jail time. And not just jail time, but serious jail time, up to ten years. I first wrote about this story nearly two years ago, when I first learned of Dr. Rolando Arafiles, his good buddy (and business partner hawking supplements with him) Winkler County Sheriff Robert Roberts, and the administration of a small hospital in the middle of nowhere in west Texas.
Readers might recall that Dr.…
oracknows | June 15, 2011You know, even though I haven't lived in Cleveland since 1996, sometimes I kind of miss Ohio. Here's the sort of reason why, via Balloon Juice:
I thought it was a hoax at first, but it isn't. Just check out the the official website of the Governor of the State of Ohio if you don't believe me.
I must admit a little chuckle of schadenfreude here.
oracknows | June 15, 2011Note added 6/16/2011: The author of the target--I mean subject--of this piece of insolence has responded in the comments.
Note added 6/17/2011: Steve Novella has also commented. He is unusually harsh (for him).
What is it with The Atlantic lately? It used to be one of my favorite magazines. In fact, I was a subscriber for something like 20 or 25 years. Then, back in 2009 at the height of the H1N1 frenzy, The Atlantic published what can only be described as an execrable bit of journalism lionizing the brave maverick doctor Tom Jefferson and arguing, in essence, that vaccinating against H1N1…
oracknows | June 13, 2011Remember Deepak Chopra?
He's the physician (yes, physician) whose grasp on real science is so tenuous and whose ability to abuse multiple scientific disciplines, ranging from quantum physics to astronomy to genetics to medicine, simultaneously in the service of woo is so amazing that a few years ago I once coined a term representing the only word you ever need to use to refer to Chopra's blather: Choprawoo. Yes, I realize that the term "Choprawoo" is completely redundant if you're a skeptic and realize just how full of pseudoscientific nonsense Chopra's blather is. On the other hand, for the…
oracknows | June 13, 2011Orac note: Grant season is in full swing, and that's what I spent my weekend doing: writing grants. Consequently, here's a rerun from, hard as it is to believe, four and a half years ago. It's the first appearance of one of the most hilarious "alt-med" attacks on science-based medicine I've ever seen, calling us "microfascists." Unfortunately, little has changed coming from CAM supporters in the nearly five years since I first applied some not-so-Respectful Insolence to this little chew toy of an article. Enjoy, I hope. Remember, if you haven't been reading at least four and a half years, it'…
oracknows | June 12, 2011Here's an excellent video from Down Under on the human costs of the anti-vaccine movement:
It features Viera Scheibner, who has nothing good to say about vaccines and thinks that vaccines are dangerous and infectious diseases in childhood are good.
Simply incredible.
oracknows | June 10, 2011It's been another rather rough week. Grant season is in full swing, and I'm busily writing away. As I get to the end of the week, I wondered: Should I be serious or should I post a bit of fluff? Given the crappy mood I've been in on and off (grants added to my usual responsibilities tend to do that to me), I know what I need, and I need it fast. I need it now. I need it bad. I need...some woo. And nothing but the best will do. But what? Over the years I've done Your Friday Dose of Woo, I thought I had seen it all. Well, not exactly all. Rather, it thought I had seen most of it, but…
oracknows | June 9, 2011Whenever I call an anti-vaccine activist "anti-vaccine," frequently there will be an indignant response along the lines of either, "I'm not 'anti-vaccine'; I'm pro-safe vaccine" or "I'm not 'anti-vaccine'; I'm a vaccine safety activist." (This latter retort is a favorite of Barbara Loe Fisher.) Another favorite retort is, "I'm not 'anti-vaccine'; I'm for 'informed consent'" or "I'm not 'anti-vaccine'; I'm for freedom!" (Imagine the person saying this looking like this the photo below.)
Anti-vaccine warrior crying "Freedom!!!!! (from vaccines)"
Not infrequently, it doesn't take very long to…
oracknows | June 7, 2011More than a week has passed, and I thought that this cup had passed from me, and I was glad. After all, if I analyzed every crap study done by anti-vaccine zealots to try to demonstrate that vaccines cause autism, I would have time for little else in terms of other kinds of that Insolence you all know and love. This particular study was released in late May and, at the time, I wasn't really in the mood to take it on; so I ignored it. But then wouldn't you know that the Autism Action Network would have to go and send out a press release yesterday entitled New Study Links Vaccines and Autism:…
oracknows | June 6, 2011I've frequently been critical fo the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) for funding dubious studies of pseudoscience and, in essence, promoting unscientific quackademic medicine (is there any other kind?) by giving it the patina of seeming respectability. I can't recall how many times I've seen promoters of woo justify their woo by saying, "Well, NCCAM funds it." As far as apologetics for quackademic medicine, "NCCAM does it" is right up there with "Harvard does it." Unfortunately, Harvard really does do it, as do too many other bastions of science-based…
oracknows | June 5, 2011How many times have I read or heard from believers in "alternative" medicine that some disease or other is caused by "toxins"? I honestly can't remember, but in alt-world, no matter what the disease or condition under discussion is, there's a good chance that sooner or later it will be linked to "toxins." It doesn't matter if it's cancer, autism, heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, or that general malaise that comes over people who, as British comedians Mitchell and Webb put it, have more money than sense; somehow, some way, someone will invoke "toxins."
I was reminded of this obsession…
oracknows | June 3, 2011It's been a rough week. No, it hasn't been rough here on the blog; personally I think I've managed to serve up heaping' helpings of the usual expected Insolence--and then some--if I do say so myself. Rather, it's been a bit rough at the old job. Ah, well, it can't all be sweetness and light. Fortunately, there's always some woo to lighten the mood. In this case, it came from, of all places, P.Z. Myers, who took a break from writing about biology, cephalopods, and atheism and led me to some quackery I hadn't seen before. Well, not exactly. It's definitely quackery that I've seen before many,…