the view

I promised myself that I was done writing about Jenny McCarthy this week. Two posts, a lengthy one and a brief one, lamenting her being hired for a national daytime talk show was, in my view, enough. Unfortunately, something's happened that makes me want to make like Arnold Schwarzenegger in that famous scene from the 1980s action flick Commando, in which he had promised one villain that he would kill him last. Later in the film while holding this same villain over a cliff, Arnold says, "Remember when I promised I would kill you last? I lied." Except that I wasn't lying at the time. I really…
Sometimes, the mainstream press gets it (mostly) right, and Jake Tapper actually got it right in a report on CNN yesterday about Jenny McCarthy's having been hired by ABC as a regular on The View. Although I don't like how Jake Tapper describes Generation Rescue as an "autism organization" (it is clearly an antivaccine group), and he perhaps didn't rebut Jenny's ludicrous claim that she is "not antivaccine" but rather "pro-safe vaccine" (seriously, he showed McCarthy's 2008 antivaccine protest in Washington and didn't even pick the most inflammatory signs as a counterpoint to McCarthy's…
Sometimes, as I sit down to write a blog post, I have no idea what I'm going to write about at first. Fortunately, it's rare that I truly have zero idea what I'm going to write about. Usually, there are options, and I don't know which one I'm going to pick. Sometimes, however, something happens that demands that I write about it. Either that, or it's something that I know my readers will want me to write about and will be disappointed if I do not. Unfortunately, in this case, the timing is such that there's been nearly a full day since the announcement of this particularly stupid decision (…
Like Steve, I'm off to The Amazing Meeting today. I don't know how much I'll be posting, but, as Han Solo so famously said, "Hey, it's me." I'm sure I won't be able to resist. In any case, I'll be taking part in the Science-Based Medicine workshop tomorrow, and, for the first time ever, I'll be giving a talk on the main stage on Saturday, as half of a tag team with Bob Blaskiewicz slicing and dicing our favorite cancer doctor Stanislaw Burzynski. That will be followed by a panel on—what else?—science-based medicine and how to take on the cranks, quacks, and dubious in medicine. In any case,…
For most of us who believe in science as a great way to understand the physical realities around us, the question "Do you think the world is flat?" is hard to imagine as something to be asked seriously. But on The View, with millions of viewers, not only can it be asked, but the answer was "I don't know". Seeing is believing! (hat tip to Crooks and Liars) [Update: youtube link is fixed now, pertinent material begins around the one minute mark]
Ok, so this is not my first blog post ever, but it is my first post as a member of Science Blogs. Unlike Groucho Marx, who did not wish to join any club which would accept him as a member, I am very excited to be here and very flattered by that invitation. So some breif introductory messages... To fellow Sciblings, I would like to say hello and I look forward to getting to know you as people and writers. I am already a fan of Tim Lambert at Deltoid, William Connolley at Stoat and Chris Mooney of The Intersection and I have come across many excellent articles from others here, so I am eager…