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Bioethics Cancer Clinical trials Medicine Politics Religion

Abortion and breast cancer: The Chicago Tribune feeds the myth

I approach this topic with a bit of trepidation. I say this not because I’m unsure that I’m correct in my assessment of the article that I’m about to apply some Respectful Insolence™ to. Rather, it’s because the last time I brought up anything having to do with abortion, it got ugly. The topic is […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

That’s a relief

Wow, after my post about Le Canard Noir‘s being threatened with legal action for criticizing the Society of Homeopaths, I’m glad to know that I won’t be being sued for having reposted his criticism. Whines the Society of Homeopaths: The Society of Homeopaths took the content of the 2006 BBC Newsnight programme on malaria very […]

Categories
Hitler Zombie Humor Intelligent design/creationism Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

What I did on my summer vacation: “Proof of “intelligent design” (and an old “friend”)

Work and a conference intervene to prevent a fresh dose of Respectful Insolence today. Fortunately, there’s still classic Insolence from the archives that hasn’t been moved over to the new blog. This amusing little trifle originally appeared on August 25, 2005. Well, I’m back. Yes, I know I blogged a fair amount while on vacation, […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

On vaccines, immune to reason

It’s rare that one sees an editorial this spot on, but it happened a couple of days ago in The Washington Post: The debate over vaccine litigation has thus shifted from a presumption of innocence to a presumption of guilt. While the number of major studies that have failed to find any substantive link between […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Blogging Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

The mercury militia silences a voice of reason

Today is a very sad day in the autism blogosphere. The news I am going to discuss saddens me and should sadden anyone concerned with autism, particularly in combating the antivaccination hysteria and the outright quackery that flows from it promulgated by so many these days, from J. B. Handley to Jenny McCarthy, who couldn’t […]