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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Pseudoscience Quackery Religion Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Senator Tom Harkin’s and Representative Darrell Issa’s war on medical science

In discussions of that bastion of what Harriet Hall (a.k.a. The SkepDoc) likes to call “tooth fairy science,” where sometimes rigorous science, sometimes not, is applied to the study of hypotheses that are utterly implausible and incredible from a basic science standpoint (such as homeopathy or reiki), the National Center of Complementary and Alternative Medicine […]

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Medicine Paranormal Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

How can one know?

If there was one thing about going to TAM7 last week, it was the opportunity to contemplate among a thousand fellow skeptics just what critical thinking and reason mean. If there’s one thing about woo, pseudoscience, and conspiracy theories in all their forms, it’s not just a lack of critical thinking and a plethora of […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Oh, no! Orac the “Scientific Fundamentalist” has been too insolent!

Last week, I wrote about how Senator Tom Harkin is up to his old shenanigans again, trying at ever turn to do for the actual practice of quackery what he did for the research of quackery by creating the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) and what he still does to promote quackery […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Senator Tom Harkin pulls a fast one: Alternative medical practitioners will be part of the “healthcare workforce” under health care reform

Earlier this year, I wrote about Senator Tom Harkin’s attempt to hijack President Obama’s health care reform plans in order to inject quackery in the form of “alternative” or “integrative” medicine into the effort. Specifically, he wants to legitimize quackery by including it in any federal plan under the guise of “preventative care.” He even […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Surgery

The Associated Press on a roll: Actual articles on cancer quackery

Yesterday, I marveled at an article that appeared on the Associated Press new feed that basically said a lot of things about the infiltration of quackademic medicine into academic medical centers, how so-called “complementary and alternative medicine” 9CAM) is finding its way into the mainstream despite almost nonexistent evidence for the efficacy the vast majority […]