May 16, 2008
This is too hilarious for words. It's priceless.
It's Chris Matthews applying a little history smackdown--I mean lesson--to an ignorant right wing talk radio host named Kevin James, who was overjoyed at President Bush's use of the Neville Chamberlain gambit the other day and wanted to take the…
May 16, 2008
This week was difficult.
No, it wasn't difficult because I had hit one of my periodic woo writer's blocks that I whine about, no doubt to the occasional annoyance of my readers, even though I have one of the greatest hobbies in the world. I mean, I get to do something that I love (writing and…
May 15, 2008
Jake and Elwood hated Illinois Nazis. I hate Michigan Nazis. Actually, I hate all Nazis, but I especially detest Nazis from states I've lived in, such as Ohio, New Jersey, and Illinois. But worst of all are Michigan Nazis, because it's my home state, and even worse than that are Detroit Nazis,…
May 15, 2008
Perhaps one of the most common misconceptions held about cancer among lay people is that it is one disease. We often hear non-physicians talk about "curing cancer" as though it were a single disease. Sometimes, we even hear physicians, who should know better, using the same sort of fuzzy thinking…
May 14, 2008
...because the author of the book that fueled the rise of the mercury militia in 2005, that indefatigable purveyor of bad science, logical fallacies and bizarre speculations, that useful idiot that antivaccinationists all know and love, is coming to the U.K next month.
Yes, I'm talking about David…
May 14, 2008
Regular readers here are probably most familiar with the so-called "complementary and alternative medicine" therapy known as chelation therapy in the context of its use, or, more specifically, its misuse in "treating" autistic children, a misuse that has resulted in at least one death, a five-year-…
May 13, 2008
...which Presidential candidate would make the best companion for which Doctor.
I have to agree with Phil, though, in that McCain is probably too old. In the show, the Doctor's companions are nearly always younger-appearing than the Doctor. McCain looks way older than the Doctor--and I'm talking…
May 13, 2008
Last week, I wrote about factors that lead to the premature adoption of surgical technologies and procedures, the "bandwagon" or "fad" effect among surgeons, if you will. By "premature," I am referring to widespread adoption "in the trenches," so to speak, of a procedure before good quality…
May 12, 2008
And I thought, whatever his other faults and whatever my disagreements with his politics,, that Bill Clinton was incredibly smart. Apparently I was wrong:
"You do not want to bring your children into the world where we go on with the number of children who are born with autism tripling every 20…
May 12, 2008
Oh, no! Phil Plait did a great post on why vaccines do not cause autism. What's his reward?
To be invaded by antivaccinationists!
I think you all know what to do. Please, go lend Phil some tactical air support, and I'll be grateful.
May 12, 2008
Wow.
I just saw something that utterly stunned me over at that house organ of the mercury militia and antivaccinationists everywhere Age of Autism. It's an example of hypocrisy so blatant that it stuns even me, someone who's been following the whole pseudoscientific "vaccines cause autism" movement…
May 12, 2008
"Detoxification."
Whenever I hear that term, I'm at least 90% certain that I'm dealing with seriously unscientific woo. The reason should be obvious to longtime readers of this blog or to anyone who has followed "alternative medicine" for a while, because "detoxification" is a mainstay of "…
May 11, 2008
A while back I complained about an installation misadventure I had when I got Comcast service hooked up to my new abode. Since the misadventure was corrected, things have been generally OK, except that for a while Comcast's digital voice phone service produced an annoying buzz for a couple of weeks…
May 11, 2008
The ignorance and stupidity, they burn:
Why, yes, actually, we did "allow" Nazi Germany to host the Olympics back in 1936. Hitler even presided over some of the ceremonies. The sign is so wrong that at first I wondered whether it was a Photoshop job, but apparently it's legit.
I realize this…
May 10, 2008
...more outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases like pertussis:
Erik Ferry thought little of the sniffles and cough his 12-year-old daughter came down with in February.
But the coughs became more frequent and violent, and the bug hung on for days, then weeks.
Concerned it was more than just a…
May 9, 2008
...or so sayeth, well...YOU ARE DUMB. Bryan may be a little late in piling on, but better late than never.
Zirkle, as you may recall, was the hapless candidate for the Republican nomination to run for a Congressional seat in northwest Indiana who accepted an invitation to speak at a celebration of…
May 9, 2008
Last week's woo was pretty darned hard to top, don't you think? It had it all, after all: Boner potentiation, penis enlargement, magnets, near infrared, and more. The only thing it lacked that would have made it absolutely perfect woo were references to pseudoscientific "vibration" or, even better…
May 8, 2008
Sometimes being a skeptic can be a real bitch. And no one knows that better than the host of the latest installment of a blog carnival that has, believe it or not, been running over three years now, the ever-popular Skepbitch. She's served up a heaping helping of the best skeptical bitching from…
May 8, 2008
Although there are a lot of medical bloggers out there, there's always room for more good blogging, particularly if it's related to basic and translational research. That's why the Cancer Research UK Science Update blog is worth checking out. It's actually been around a while as an internal blog,…
May 8, 2008
In science- and evidence-based medicine, the evaluation of surgical procedures represents a unique challenge that is qualitatively different from the challenges in medical specialties. Perhaps the most daunting of these challenges is that it is often either logistically impossible or unethical to…
May 7, 2008
...and suddenly he reveals his true stripes.
Oh, well, at least the Hitler Zombie hasn't eaten Jason's brain, as he has so many of the others who complain about being Expelled!
Yet.
Thanks, Jason. I needed the laugh after the events of yesterday and today. Oh, and congratulations on getting tenure!
May 7, 2008
...because Dr. Roy Kerry, the negligent physician who killed an autistic child with chelation therapy and against whom criminal charges were dropped yesterday, wants to go back to work:
Dr. Roy Kerry, 70, of Sharpsville, read from a prepared statement today at the Butler offices of his attorney, Al…
May 7, 2008
Longtime readers of this blog probably remember the tragic case of Abubakar Tariq Nadama, the five-year-old autistic boy who died as a result of being treated with chelation therapy three years ago by Dr. Roy Kerry, an otolaryngologist who had apparently had given up doing head and neck surgery in…
May 6, 2008
Too bad this woman forgot a cardinal rule about making signs boosting English as the official language of the U.S.:
Sorry, I saw this picture and just couldn't resist...
Hat tip, though, to Orcinus, who reminded me of this other example of a protester who could use a little remedial English:…
May 6, 2008
Since I'm almost never home in time to see the 6:30 PM news, it's unlikely I'll be seeing this series on NBC news about the "mind-body" connection when it airs, although I'll search for video later when I get a chance. Apparently I missed this last night:
When we were planning this week's series "…
May 6, 2008
I've lamented time and time again just how much money the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) wastes on basic research and clinical trials of modalities that are, from a scientific viewpoint, so highly implausible that the chances of finding a clinically useful or…
May 5, 2008
OK, I know it's like the post calling the kettle black, but what the heck is PalMD doing blogging on vacation? And are his two most recent posts so good? This is what I mean:
Why hospice matters
Never say "hopeless"
I recently had the unfortunate opportunity to visit a relative in hospice. I was…
May 5, 2008
That's the message that Ben Stein has been pushing lately, namely not just the hated "Darwinism" but science itself inevitably leads to political philosophies such as Nazi-ism and Stalinism (but especially Nazi-ism, given its emphasis on racial hygiene and eugenics), including the mass murder that…
May 4, 2008
Forgive me if you find bloggers trumpeting their traffic numbers to be painfully boring. Truth be told, sometimes I find them boring too. However, I hope you'll indulge me just this once, given that regular readers know how rarely I do posts dedicated to discussing my traffic. (Just remember that…
May 3, 2008
Time's flying by once again.
You know, the longer I serve as the organizer of this great endeavor that I did not start, namely The Skeptics' Circle, the more it amazes me just how good it routinely is. It also amazes me just how fast time flies between editions. This time around is no exception.…
