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Anti-Semitism Antivaccine nonsense Biology Complementary and alternative medicine Evolution History Holocaust denial Medicine Politics Quackery Science

Ron Paul: Quackery enabler

Lately, bloggers, including some of my fellow ScienceBloggers, have been expressing various concerns about the phenomenon that is Ron Paul, the Republican candidate who’s ridden a wave of discontent to do surprisingly well in the polls leading up to the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primaries. First, Jake and Greg have pointed out that Ron […]

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Blogging Politics

In case you’re curious…

…this is what a troll is on the Internet. Personally, though, I prefer the Flame Warriors version, although I’m not sure that I agree with Mike Reed’s characterization of trolls as “generally quite harmless.”

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Anti-Semitism Politics

“Counseling” a racist before letting him in the country?

Even though it’s Christmas Eve and I hadn’t been planning on posting anything except what I hope to be humorous holiday greetings, I couldn’t resist mentioning this example of political correctness run amok: A Croatian rock star accused of anti-Semitism will be forced to undergo tolerance counselling as a condition of entry to Australia. A […]

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Holocaust denial Politics Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

Somehow I don’t think this came out quite right

Quoth global warming “skeptic” (translation: “crank”) Senator Inhofe: Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) got the crowd cheering early in the day. “I have been called — my kids are all aware of this — dumb, crazy man, science abuser, Holocaust denier, villain of the month, hate-filled, warmonger, Neanderthal, Genghis Khan and Attila the Hun,” he announced. […]

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Cancer Medicine Politics

Well, duh: Insured cancer patients do better

Maybe it’s unfair to proclaim this a “well, duh!” study, but its conclusions do seem rather obvious. On the other hand, it’s information that we need in a cold, hard scientific form, and I’m glad that the investigators did it: (AP) — Uninsured cancer patients are nearly twice as likely to die within five years […]