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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

A proposal: An anti-Schopenhauer response to anti-vaccine cranks

There’s a quote attributed to philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer that is much beloved of cranks: All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. I hate this quote with a bloody passion. Actually, that’s not quite true. Rather, I find it rather amusing […]

Categories
Bioethics Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Another teen endangered by “alternative medicine,” part 2

Judge Orders Surgery For Teen Wrestler: MyFoxPHILLY.com I have to be honest here. I don’t know for sure what I think of the latest developments in the Mazeratti Mitchell case. As you may recall from a couple of days ago, Mazeratti Mitchell is a 16 year old wrestler in Philadelphia who suffered a spinal cord […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

AOL buys The Huffington Post and a quack sees an opportunity

Things are pretty hairy this week, what with a couple of grant deadlines fast approaching, not to mention a rather important site visit at my institution later this week. As a result, I had been intending to post a “rerun” today, but then I saw something that just cracked me up so much that I […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Another teen endangered by “alternative medicine”

If there’s one thing that gets my blood boiling almost above all else when it comes to quackery, it’s when parents subject children to it. The result has been copious blogging about cases, such as that of Daniel Hauser, Katie Wernecke, and Abraham Cherrix, all of whom refused chemotherapy for treatable cancers. I’ve also discussed […]

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Entertainment/culture Homeopathy Medicine Popular culture Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Challenging homeopathy

Lest I be left out of the fun, I can’t help but point out that over the weekend the Amazing One himself, James Randi, issued a challenge to homeopathy manufacturers and retail pharmacies that sell homeopathy, in particular large national chains like Walgreens and CVS and large national chains that include pharmacies in their stores, […]