Denialism

Month: June 2009

  • Financial Data & Prescription Records Use Limited

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    Chris
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    If you are a resident of California, rejoice, because the Supreme Court let stand a decision in the 9th Circuit finding that SB 1 (California’s Financial Information Privacy Act) was not preempted by the Fair Credit Reporting Act. In plain English, this means that California residents can opt-out of “affiliate sharing” among banks. Thus, if…

  • Making A Business of Going Out of Business

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    Chris
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    In Adam Sandler’s 2008 masterpiece, You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, the actor is offered a job at an electronics store called “Going Out of Business.” This is a shady operation that constantly makes false claims about products and rips people off. Sandler was mocking a real phenomenon–the liquidation companies named “going out of business”…

  • What is Brain Wave Vibration?

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    Chris
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    Sounds like a more dangerous form of Scientology, according to the Chronicle’s Scavenger Blog: …Lee’s yoga focuses on Brain Education, or as one official put it, “using your brain well.” Part of this training includes the head-shaking Brain Wave Vibration exercise…Participants take basic yoga classes and are reportedly encouraged to attend pricey workshops, retreats and…

  • Is Government Health Care Unconstitutional?

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    Chris
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    David Rivkin and Lee Casey consider this question in today’s Journal, explaining that the Supreme Court’s abortion jurisprudence limits the government’s power to unduly burden choices about healthcare: It is, of course, difficult to imagine choices more “central to personal dignity and autonomy” than measures to be taken for the prevention and treatment of disease…

  • Iran Likes DPI Too

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    Chris
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    Christoper Rhoads and Loretta Chao report in today’s Journal: …the Iranian government appears to be engaging in a practice often called deep packet inspection, which enables authorities to not only block communication but to monitor it to gather information about individuals, as well as alter it for disinformation purposes, according to these experts. The monitoring…

  • It Begins!

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    Chris
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    Obama’s honeymoon is over, and so is my intermittent blogging, because business groups have finally started their machines! Christopher Conkey reports in the Journal: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said it will spend $100 million in an effort to stem the “rapidly growing influence of government over private-sector activity,” in a major new move by…

  • Holocaust Museum Shooter – Anti-semite and conspiracy theorist

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    MarkH
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    Orac has already pointed out the disgusting hate behind the Holocaust museum shooter and his holocaust denial. Others around the internet, in particular Pat at Screw Loose Change have pointed out he was an example of crank magnetism. Not surprisingly, he was also a 9/11 truther (which as Pat says, “scratch a 9/11 truther and…

  • Frankly, I am afraid to ask…

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    Chris
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  • The psychology of crankery

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    MarkH
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    Our recent discussions of HIV/AIDS denial and in particular Seth Kalichman’s book “Denying AIDS” has got me thinking more about the psychology of those who are susceptible to pseudoscientific belief. It’s an interesting topic, and Kalichman studies it briefly in his book mentioning the “suspicious minds”: At its very core, denialism is deeply embedded in…

  • Changing medical school requirements for scientific medicine

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    MarkH
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    Science has an editorial today discussing a topic near and dear to me, what medical schools should require from undergraduates before admission. Since I was a bit non-traditional as an undergraduate premed (I was a physics major), I am happy to see that they’ve ignored calls to overload undergraduate education with a bunch of pre-professional…