Tennessee creationism bills stopped - for now

Both House Bill 368 and Senate Bill 893 ended up running into impassable roadblocks, but considering that one of the people driving this car was the unfathomable Frank Nicely (R-WTF) who wrapped his rhetorical car around a quote that wasn't even authored by the scientist he attributed it to, this should have surprised no one.

42 Nobel laureates can't be wrong

Bobby Jindal (R-LA) really should have paid attention to how seriously scientists take politically motivated attacks on their work. This is yet another It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown moment for him, and all he got was this rock.

Cretin of the moment

Governor Rick Perry of Texas, though he's hardly alone in the hardcore promotion of Dumbth down there these days.

So what *is* it with CBS and anti-vaccine propagandists?

First it's Sheryl Attkisson, and now it's this:

Damn if those anti-vaccine loons aren't pulling a fast one while I'm not looking. It turns out that über-quack Joe Mercola is teaming up once again with Barbara Loe Fisher's the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) in a desperate attempt for the NVIC to try to demonstrate that it's still relevant in the anti-vaccine movement after having been supplanted by Generation rescue. This time around, they're doing SafeMinds one better and, hot on the heels of hosting "Vaccine Awareness Week" to spread misinformation far and wide, is now trying for greater notoriety. Via Skepchick Elyse Anders, I learn that Mercola and the NVIC are running anti-vaccine ads on the CBS Times Square JumboTron on 42nd Street.

The sheer, boundless stupidity of Mercola is just priceless, isn't it?

And just think: Andrew Wakefield is coming to Brandeis University, to boot. Big whoop.

(A more direct link to to the Change.org petition Orac mentions in his article is available here.)

Cretins of the moment

The 70 or so willing accomplices to 1920's-era stupidity who voted in favor of House Bill 368 in the Tennessee House of Representatives.

The 2011 Pigasus Awards, and then some

The James Randi Educational Foundation announced them on a completely appropriate Friday, and it's not exactly surprising that at least one of the recipients is also a Cretin of the Moment:

Dr. (Mehmet) Oz is a Harvard-educated cardiac physician who, through his syndicated TV show, has promoted faith healing, "energy medicine," and other quack theories that have no scientific basis. Oz has appeared on ABC News to give legitimacy to the claims of Brazilian faith healer “John of God,” who uses old carnival tricks to take money from the seriously ill. He's hosted Ayurvedic guru Yogi Cameron on his show to promote nonsense "tongue examination" as a way of diagnosing health problems. This year, he really went off the deep end. In March 2011, Dr. Oz endorsed "psychic" huckster and past Pigasus winner John Edward, who pretends to talk to dead people. Oz even suggested that bereaved families should visit psychic mediums to receive (faked) messages from their dead relatives as a form of grief counseling.

My, oh my. The crap that television producers try to pass off as medical fact these days.

But wait! Dr. Oz has a comrade in his questionable endeavors, and she works an arguably more high-profile gig at CBS:

After all of (Sharyl) Attkisson's pandering to the anti-vaccine movement and promoting its message, one huge question remains. Why does CBS News tolerate Attkisson's horrible reporting on vaccines and other scientific issues? I can't speak about her other reporting, but when it comes to science, Sharyl Attkisson is a crank par excellence. She has an agenda; and she tortures the evidence to make it seem to agree with her biases. I also wonder how long it will be before Attkisson joins Dan Olmsted as a writer for AoA (Age of Autism). My only surprise is that, nearly four years since I first noticed her, she hasn't made that move already. I suppose I can always hope that CBS News wises up to the anti-vaccine propagandist working as one of its correspondents and forces Attkisson finally to make that move.

People who wonder why I find it less and less useful to watch large amounts of TV with each passing year should look no further.  You don't have to watch intentionally disposable crap like Jersey Shore or Dancing with Myself (er..Dancing with the Stars, sorry) to find readily accessible mind rot. Not with "medical" or "scientific" reporting like this, you don't.