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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Blogging Humor Medicine

Orac feels the love

It’s been a while since I’ve posted any fan mail, but I did get one a few days ago that amused me. It came from someone with a ‘nym of “Baxtour”. I post it because it represents a common flavor of antivaccinationist response to my blog: You are a fucking moron, which I’m sure you […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

A Friday rant about nonscience- and nonevidence-based medicine…

…courtesy of fellow ScienceBlogger Jake Young. Two money quotes: “First, what is CAM bringing to the table that science and medicine didn’t have? Good feelings. Acquaintance with the ways ignorance. Newer, better superstitions. Frankly, you can keep them.” “Science complemented by non-science ceases to be science, and there are no alternatives to the truth.” I […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Friday Woo Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Your Friday Dose of Woo: Water, water, everywhere, and a lot of woo to drink

Water. It’s the essence of life. Our bodies are mostly made up of it, and we can’t live without it for very long. Our cells both contain it and are bathed in it. The enzymatic reactions necessary for life require an aqueous solution to work. Don’t think these facts have escaped the woo-meisters, either. Water […]

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Announcements Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

The 79th Skeptic’s Circle – Rollin With Teh Lol-ling

Ack! The new Skeptic’s Circle is here! Yes, the 79th Meeting of the Skeptics’ Circle has convened over at Podblack Blog, and it’s another great collection of skeptical blogging. So why am I disturbed? I just realized that I’ve utterly failed in my organizer duties in that I totally forgot to submit one of my […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery

NCCAM: Your tax dollars hard at work funding woo

I used to be somewhat of a supporter of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM). I really did. This was back when I was more naïve and idealistic. Indeed, when I first read Wally Sampson’s article Why NCCAM should be defunded, I thought it a bit too strident and even rather close-minded. […]