Denialism

Month: April 2008

  • Is injecting yourself with a human pregnancy hormone a good idea?

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    by

    MarkH
    in

    Certainly not! But unfortunately we need to look a little more closely. It’s been a while since I’ve posted on hard-core woo, and I miss it, so here’s a little tip for you: if a diet sounds too good to be true, then it is. Weight loss is very hard, unless you are very sick.…

  • There is no pro-science political party

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    MarkH
    in ,

    With the news that in addition to John McCain both Clinton and Obama have now pandered to anti-vaccine denialism I think it’s time to reiterate there isn’t a political party in this country that has a truly sound grasp on sound science. And in this instance it is clear that both sides are more than…

  • Repeat after me: “Correlation does not imply causation”

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    MarkH
    in

    The post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy is one of the great weapons in the arsenal of denialists. The reason it works so well is it makes sense. As my readers know, my daughter is dealing with a nasty respiratory virus. One of the doctors told my wife, who is not a medical professional, that…

  • Open letter to Douglas M. Steenland, president and CEO, Northwest Airlines

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    MarkH
    in

    Dear Mr. Steenland, I would contact you using more conventional means, but getting through to even a minor lackey at your company is next to impossible. Thank you in advance for reading this. I hate your company. They are perhaps the most difficult company I have ever dealt with as a consumer, and I won’t…

  • Greenpeace Founder Explains Departure: Group Abandoned Science

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    Chris
    in

    An oped in today’s Journal by Patrick Moore, a founder of Greenpeace, argues that he left the organization because it abandoned scientific justifications for its advocacy. Moore argues: At first, many of the causes we championed, such as opposition to nuclear testing and protection of whales, stemmed from our scientific knowledge of nuclear physics and…

  • Psedonymity, anonymity, credibility, and the Overlords

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    MarkH
    in

    One of the hot topics around here lately is authority and anonymity. It’s a terribly difficult philosophical question—-how can you ever trust a source of information that is second hand? And yet ultimately we all are forced to do it most of the time. A potent weapon in the denialist arsenal is the fake expert.…

  • Today Is a Big Day for Denialism

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    Chris
    in

    …because today, the first lobbying disclosure reports are due to be filed with Congress under new rules that flowed from the Jack Abramoff scandal. The new law requires quarterly reports, lowers the dollar amount of activity that triggers reporting requirements, and (my favorite), requires trade associations to identify their members in certain circumstances. Let me…

  • Update—kiddo heading home

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    MarkH
    in

    We’re heading home from the hospital soon.We’ve gone from, “Daddy, I don’t want to cough anymore…it’s too boring,” to, “Daddy, do pirates have convertibles?” But infectious diseases have lots of consequences. I’m starting to get a tickle in my throat and a bit of a cough. I have asthma, and this could really set it…

  • PETA Sponsors Fake Meat Competition

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    Chris
    in

    John Schwartz reports in the Times that PETA: …said it would announce plans on Monday for a $1 million prize to the “first person to come up with a method to produce commercially viable quantities of in vitro meat at competitive prices by 2012.” I love it! This, in my opinion, is great news. Now…

  • Blogger still under fire

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    MarkH
    in

    If the uber-fascist wing of the anti-vaccine movement had any scientific credibility, it wouldn’t need to throw around subpoenas. That is what is (still) happening to the author of the Neurodiversty blog (hat tip again to LizDitz). I’m sitting here in the hospital with my sick daughter. She has all that modern medicine has to…