It’s astounding anyone is taking McCain’s lies seriously anymore

FactCheck.org: McCain-Palin Distorts Our Finding. I guess talk radio/political discourse in general has no more room for actual objective critical thinking and skepticism. The floodgates on examples of McCain’s outright lies are open. Not to mention examples of corruption tagged to his running mate, and her blatant attempts to cover up. Thoroughly disgusting. The fact [...]

Early cancer detection

I never thought I would see the day where I would call a piece written by David Gorski (aka Orac — I guess it’s good form to associate the two now since he’s blogging under his true name at Science-Based Medicine) well-written. But here it is: his description on the difficulties of disentangling the effectiveness [...]

Evolution vs. ID

Of late, my watching the evolution vs. intelligent design debate is like my watching Duke play Kentucky. (I’m a UNC alum, and have a genetic hatred for the two schools I mentioned. In such games, I lament the fact that someone gets to win. What can I say? It’s in my Carolina Blue blood.) On [...]

The polio vaccine: friend or foe?

Before I launch into this entry, let me add the following disclaimer: You and you alone are responsible for your health. This entry, and any other medical advice you read or get (even from doctors) with an honest, open-minded skepticism. Get the facts, and evaluate the evidence. Even doctors, and Ph.D. biostatisticians, make mistakes. This [...]

Vaccines, the preface

This part of the review of Vaccines: Are they really safe & effective? (Neil Miller) will be short, as it is about the preface. I have to admire a person willing to go the distance to research an issue as important as vaccination. This man looked up newspapers, congressional testimony, and the scientific literature for [...]

Vaccines – wading into the debate (a skeptical book review)

So far, with only a couple of exceptions, my children have had their vaccines on schedule. I have refused the chickenpox vaccine for my older child and will refuse it for my younger child. I also refused the 6-hour HepB vaccine for my second child, but he has received the others on schedule (and the [...]

On Pseudoskepticism

So, I’ve been wondering why pseudoskepticism bothers me so much. I think I finally have the answer. All my life I’ve loved learning and curiosity, even in those cases where we are “surprised” by new discoveries in areas that we though were settled. Pseudoskepticism is an affront to all that, but masquerades as science and [...]

Small update

I’ve updated my Resource on Alternative Medicine. I’ve mostly added material on pseudoskepticism and why it’s a pretty bad thing. It still has a long way to go before being the definitive resource I want it to be, but hey, any improvement helps. Technorati Tags: pseudoskepticism, alternative medicine

Pseudoskeptica

Well, we’re all sick, so what better to do than peruse the slums of the skeptical internet and point out all the bad arguments pseudoskeptics make in the name of “debunking” pseudoscience. I had taken this up as a hobby a little over a year ago, but, because it’s really too painful to read some [...]

Pseudoskepticism

It’s been a while since I’ve tangled with the skeptics, and for good reason. I’ve pretty much stopped reading anything at “science”blogs.com or anyone that advertises the skeptics circle. However, I did come across “this article”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoskepticism on pseudoskepticism, and pretty much points out everything that bothers me about these blogs I’ve kicked from my periodic [...]