Tuesday, May 3, 2011
When a new set of denialists spring up...
...you might want to point out the fact there are scientific ways of ensuring that "Osama bin Laden" is Osama bin Laden, and that there's probably a good chance that there's still enough of him left after his burial in the Arabian Sea to confirm that fact for some time.
Cretins of the moment
The collective anti-vaccination fanatics of the world for helping to bring Measles back to places where it hasn't been in years. Good going, idiots.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
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.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
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.
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.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
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.
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.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Cretin of the moment
The eternally hideous Ann Coulter, for reasons PZ Myers goes into gory detail about at the provided link.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Cretin of the moment
Dr, Mehmet Oz, who seems to be making a habit of this. From the Respectful Insolence piece:
In actuality, what's going on here, I think, is more likely to be pure hubris. Dr. Oz has become so enamored with himself and his image as the iconoclast bucking the medical system, seeing beyond "Western medicine," and being just so much more damned smart than any other doctor that it never occurred to him that he could be fooled by a psychic scammer just as easily as anyone else. Add to that his need to fill the insatiable maw of his TV show with new topics and new guests, coupled with the demands of his audience, who are clearly very much into this sort of thing, and it becomes easy for him to justify having a guest like John Edward as both evidence of his intelligence and open-mindedness and giving the people what they want.
If anything, Oz deserves an extra dose of COTM derision for pulling the odious John Edward out of whatever hole he's been hiding in after the failure of Crossing Over and giving him the exact sort of platform he doesn't deserve: "medical" legitimacy. You just can't keep a career publicity-hungry kook down, I suppose.
In actuality, what's going on here, I think, is more likely to be pure hubris. Dr. Oz has become so enamored with himself and his image as the iconoclast bucking the medical system, seeing beyond "Western medicine," and being just so much more damned smart than any other doctor that it never occurred to him that he could be fooled by a psychic scammer just as easily as anyone else. Add to that his need to fill the insatiable maw of his TV show with new topics and new guests, coupled with the demands of his audience, who are clearly very much into this sort of thing, and it becomes easy for him to justify having a guest like John Edward as both evidence of his intelligence and open-mindedness and giving the people what they want.
If anything, Oz deserves an extra dose of COTM derision for pulling the odious John Edward out of whatever hole he's been hiding in after the failure of Crossing Over and giving him the exact sort of platform he doesn't deserve: "medical" legitimacy. You just can't keep a career publicity-hungry kook down, I suppose.
Tennessee: Dunn's Folly continues its march
The antievolution Tennessee House Bill 368 made it out of subcommittee recently, and (with one important exception among the yea votes) the vote was split predictably down party lines.
If you're reading this in Tennessee and want to show up at the full House Education Committee in order to become appropriate irate, contact info is included on the NCSE link I cited.
If you're reading this in Tennessee and want to show up at the full House Education Committee in order to become appropriate irate, contact info is included on the NCSE link I cited.
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