We are the dumbest country on the planet

The US is investigating yet another stupid conspiracy theory.

Academics cite Wallace’s story as one of the catalysts behind a fringe concept that has spread among adherents to the Make America Healthy Again, or MAHA, movement and is gaining traction at the highest levels of the federal government. Its treatment as a serious issue underscores that under President Donald Trump, unscientific ideas have unusual power to take hold and shape public health policy.

...

HHS is expected to appoint a special government employee to investigate climate and weather control, according to Gray Delany, former head of the agency’s MAHA agenda, who said he drafted the memo. The agency has interviewed applicants to lead a “chemtrails” task force, said Jim Lee, a blogger focused on weather and climate who Delany said helped edit the memo, which Lee confirmed.

Of course, "chemtrails" are just water vapor from jet engines at high altitude. They've been around since the invention of jet engines and are NOT harmful or intentional. Their existence is just physics. (Vapor trails often gave away the position of our bombers in WWII. If the military could have gotten rid of them, they would have, and they certainly wouldn't have deliberately sprayed something from the engines to make our planes more visible.)

It should be noted that these same people WANT to continue using gasoline car engines, which *actually* spew a whole bunch of toxic chemicals into our atmosphere at ground level and have known harmful health effects. 

Also, if "chemtrails" are under the control of the Federal government, why didn't Trump stop them during his first term or since? 

MAHA/MAGA would rather pander to their base and the most stupid folk in America than follow the actual science and help people.

Truly, this is a pandumbic

You may have seen (or ignored) the video on Facebook with the Houston "Doctor" saying that Hydroxychloroquine is a "cure" for COVID-19 and that masks are useless against it. The video has conservatives hearts all palpitating and people breathlessly shouting that "We don't need to die!"

Of course, it's all bullshit. If there were a "cure", something as simple as taking an existing drug, then the medical establishment would jump at it. No one wants all the death, you see? Certainly the pharma companies would be pushing the "cure", as would emergency room doctors and nurses, health professionals, federal agencies (controlled by Trump), the WHO, foreign countries, etc. Because, again, no one wants all the death and economic destruction and if it worked, that would be EASY to prove. But numerous rigorous scientific trials have shown that it does not work, and in fact, may increase deaths.

In any event, here's some random, not at all relevant information, about Stella Immanuel, the Houston doctor.

Immanuel, a pediatrician and a religious minister, has a history of making bizarre claims about medical topics and other issues. She has often claimed that gynecological problems like cysts and endometriosis are in fact caused by people having sex in their dreams with demons and witches.

She alleges alien DNA is currently used in medical treatments, and that scientists are cooking up a vaccine to prevent people from being religious. And, despite appearing in Washington, D.C. to lobby Congress on Monday, she has said that the government is run in part not by humans but by “reptilians” and other aliens.  Link

Ladies and gentlemen, your conservative savior!

Hey, here's a good way to kill yourself!

I know way too many people who embrace "alternative" medicine. "All natural" herbs and homeopathic pills, Reiki, acupuncture, ear candling, chiropractic, the list is endless and the "medicine" useless.

Please don't embrace this crap.

Patients who chose alternative therapies to treat a common, curable cancer instead of opting for the recommended medical treatment double their risk of death, according to a recent study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

I bolded it and made it bigger to emphasize the REALITY.

We've made enormous, huge, gigantic leaps forward over the past century in understanding the human body, genetics, disease, and how to live longer, healthier lives. Modern medicine is still developing but it's rigorously tested and empirically shown to work.

Alt Medicine kills. It's not scientifically tested. It's pseudo-scientific nonsense. Stop using it.

Credit where it's due

Okay, I have something positive to say about Donald Trump.

For decades, there have been playful/serious theories that real, live aliens have visited Earth, likely during the 1940s or 50s. It's been speculated that this is known at the top levels of our government and that the secret, literally our biggest secret, is passed on to each new President.

I am 100% certain now that this idea is absolutely untrue. Because if aliens had visited, and the U.S. government knew about it, and Trump was briefed, there is a 100% chance that he would have spilled the beans by now. He just can't help himself. There is no way that he would not have bragged about it to someone (probably the Russians).

So, Trump has proven beyond a doubt that the U.S. government is not covering up any alien contact.

Trump at least has given us that.

People are weird

Carol and I were driving the other day and someone being interviewed on the radio was asked if they were superstitious. They said something like, "Oh, I'm incredibly superstitious."

Of course, people admit being superstitious all the time, but I'd never really given that admission much thought before. The other day it struck me as a really odd thing to admit.

"Yes, I believe in a causal relationship between two events that are completely unconnected."

"Yes, I'm a dumbass."

These two thoughts are functionally equivalent.

Why would you be proud to admit that you're superstitious? You should be embarrassed to be such a sloppy thinker.

Gluten Free? Not so much

I don't know a lot about gluten free diets, but apparently for all but a small percentage of humans, they're completely useless.

If you have Celiac, this obviously doesn't apply to you. Don't eat gluten. But if you don't have Celiac—and that's 99% of the human population, mind you—there's no reason to be gluten free. You're wasting your time. Even the scientist who started this gluten free craze thinks it's useless to be gluten free. Seriously. People, the father of gluten free think it's bullshit.  Link

Bottom line, for most people, their reaction to gluten is the nocebo effect. It's all in their minds.

Cosmos

I've been watching FOX TV and National Geographic's updated version of Carl Sagan's iconic science series, Cosmos, with Neil deGrasse Tyson since it premiered last month. It's fantastic.

Produced by Family Guy's Seth McFarlane and Star Trek's Brannon Braga, the show uses modern computer graphics and animation to tell the story of the universe, from the Big Bang to its eventual heat death, through biology, cosmology, geology, to the history of science. Neil deGrasse Tyson has an easy, open style of explanation that translates the most complex scientific concepts. He's wonderful.

I especially like the use of animation and celebrity voices to portray the history of science and scientists, telling the stories of great scientific discoveries like the theory of gravity, and the laws of motion. These stories are so well told, they've even nearly brought me to tears a couple of times. We humans can do amazing things when we put our minds to it, and the show makes that beautifully clear.

Nearly every episode directly addresses some anti-science religious claim, not by directly calling the claims out, but by explaining why ideas like a 6000 year old universe or that the eye couldn't have evolved are wrong. The explanations are devastating to the religious interpretations without being heavy-handed. The show celebrates the wonder and awesomeness of the universe.

I never saw the original Cosmos when it aired. The writing credits list Carl Sagan, which means that at least some of the narration is lifted from the original show. I wonder how much.

The show airs on FOX station at 9PM Sunday nights, and on the National Geographic Channel on Monday nights at 9PM.

Facebook (and human) Stupidity

I don't have a Facebook account, even though the rest of my family does. Mostly, I don't have an account because I don't want it to take away time from this blog. But I also don't have one because too many people I know are idiots.

I was looking at Carol's Facebook page yesterday and saw a couple of ridiculous posts by a woman we used to know. Her first post was a link to an image someone had put together that said, "Last week Obama closed the National Mall to veterans, and yesterday he opened it up for illegal immigrants." Both clauses of this propaganda are flat out wrong and the positive comments it got from others (likely in Indiana) just irritated the crap out of me. The other post was a rehash of the already debunked "The Dept. of Homeland Security is buying all the ammunition in America. They're coming for us!" nonsense.

Tonight, Carol showed me something else. A couple we know just had their first baby. Great! Today, they posted a picture of the one week old, just coming out of his first CHIROPRACTIC session. I am incensed. Chiropractic is a dangerous pseudo-science when practiced on adults. Performing it on a one week old infant is insanely stupid and should be illegal. Of course, the fact that the baby went to sleep after the "treatment" is cited as proof of its efficacy. As if babies don't fall asleep on their own without morons screwing with their fracking spine.

Geez, I'm ticked off at stupid people.

And that's why 'm not on Facebook.

My telepathy says this is codswallop

There's no scientific proof that acupuncture has any effect beyond placebo. Developed in Asia before people understood the functions of most organs in the human body, Acupuncture is based on unscientific principles and consistently fails double-blind trials. Basically, if acupuncture works, then it's magic.

So I call total BS on this:

Bino the albino alligator lives at the Sao Paulo Aquarium, where he's been since 2007. Veterinarians said Wednesday that he was born eight years ago with his ailments, and nothing seemed to alleviate them.

So, in early 2011 veterinarians decided to see if acupuncture might help Bino, as it has other animals living at the aquarium.

The problem with treating animals with alternative treatments is that the animals can't communicate. They can't tell you if they feel better. While changes in behavior might be indicative of a physical improvement, it might not. Determining the efficacy of actual medications is often difficult, let alone sham treatments like acupuncture. Anyone judging the effectiveness of acupuncture on an alligator would likely be subject to confirmation bias, seeing what they want to see.

The fact that "other animals" at the aquarium have also had acupuncture suggests that maybe some staff changes are in order.

Acupuncture on animals is becoming increasingly common around the globe, the biologists at the Sao Paulo aquarium said, especially with pets such as cats, dogs and horses. The use of acupuncture on animals began thousands of years ago in China.

This argument never ceases to amaze me. The fact that acupuncture has been around for thousands of years is NOT evidence of its effectiveness. People have been doing all kinds of stupid things for thousands of years. Because people are stupid.

Even assuming that acupuncture works, ask yourself, what are the odds that people thousands of years ago could correctly identify "energy flows" in the body and accurately determine various "meridians" to poke to unblock the flow? However, the odds that primitive people could invent pseudo-scientific nonsense that would inspire thousands of years of ineffective puncturing of people with needles is very high. We've seen that throughout human history.

I'm pretty sure that Bino would just rather be left alone.

Ridley Scott goes WOO!

I think Ridley Scott has lost it.

Rachel and I went to see Prometheus a couple of days ago.  We enjoyed it, but I had some problems with a few plot wrinkles.  Still, it was beautifully made and interesting.

Afterwards, I was reading the IMDB trivia tab on Prometheus and came across this:

According to Ridley Scott, the film's plot was inspired by Erich von Däniken's writings about ancient astronauts: "Both NASA and the Vatican agree that it is almost mathematically impossible that we can be where we are today, without there being a little help along the way. That's what we're looking at: we are talking about gods and engineers, engineers of space. Were the Aliens designed as a form of biological warfare, or biology that would go in and clean up a planet?"

Wait.  What?  

"NASA and the Vatican agree that it is almost mathematically impossible that we can be where we are today, without there being a little help along the way"?!?

I'm pretty sure that's pure, 100%, unfiltered bullcrap.  The Vatican may believe that we are only here "with a little help" (from God).  But NASA?  I'm certain that NASA is perfectly comfortable with us evolving on Earth without the aid of any kind of "help", whether from ancient aliens or supernatural intervention.

Sheesh, Ridley Scott.

Jenny McCarthy Causes Autism

This is hilarious and fitting.

Researchers at MTS University in Virginia believe they may have found the cause of autism: Jenny McCarthy. A new study shows a strong correlation between the rise in the "actresses" fame and the rise in the number of children with autism reported in the United States and Canada....The same researchers were even startled to find that the correlation between her rise in popularity/rise in autism is much more strongly correlated than vaccines and autism. When asked for comment, McCarthy tweeted, "correlation doesn't equal causation, jackass."

To which we all exclaimed, "UH DUH!"

Jenny McCarthy's anti-vaccination actions have indirectly resulted in the deaths of children.  Great legacy for a C-list celebrity.

Reason Rally Report

On March 24, Rachel and I attended the Reason Rally on the National Mall.  It was a cold, rainy day, but 20,000 people came out to rally in support of rationality, secularism, freethought and, yes, atheism, and to make our voices heard.

The Rally featured many interesting speakers and performers, some nearly household names.  Comedian Paul Provenza was a funny and effective master of ceremonies and Rachel and I really enjoyed Mythbuster Adam Savage and high school student Jessica Ahlquist (among others).  Tim Minchin was great and I was thrilled to see my personal hero, The Amazing Randi.  Rachel needed to return to go to work that evening and the rain and the cold took their toll, so we sadly left before seeing Richard Dawkins or PZ Myers.

I was amused at the occasional attempts to rally the crowd through chants or group responses.  Freethinkers tend to be an individualistic lot and there seems to be an innate resistance to the exercises that work at rallies for other, should I say, less rational, folk.

The best part of all, my favorite thing of the whole day, was that Rachel went with me.

I took along my camera and put together the video below.  It's short and not particularly comprehensive, but it will give you a good sense of what it was like at the Rally.

Next up on the list of things that suck . . .

The Burzynski clinic, based in Houston, Texas.

This "clinic" features mega-expensive cancer "treatments" that have not been approved by the FDA and have not been proven to work in ANY clinical trials.  To hide this, the clinic threatens to sue high school students who point out these facts.  The clinic's attorney actually issued a veiled physical threat by e-mailing the student a Google Map satellite view of the student's house.

The Burzynski clinic is a fraud, bilking desperate, ill people out of their money, giving them false hope and directing them away from treatments that actually save lives.

Burzynski’s published research has been criticised by oncologists and scientists alike. Dr Howard Ozer, director of the Allegheny Cancer Center in Philadelphia, called the research “scientific nonsense”. Independent studies failed to replicate Burzynski’s results, suggesting there may be a strong bias in Burzynski’s research. The FDA have not approved the treatment for any diseases. A 2004 analysis of evidence for a number of alternative treatments for cancer, including Burzynski’s own antineoplaston therapy, said that “The label “unproven” is inappropriate for such therapies; it is time to assert that many alternative cancer therapies have been “disproven.”” In short, it’s quackery – ineffective treatment promoted as effective and sold for a very high price.

These frauds should be run out of business and prosecuted.


Other fun posts about this clinic here and here.  I love it when the Internet comes together to smack down some scumbags.

Happy Birthday, Randi!

The Amazing Randi is 83 years old today!

Christopher Maloney is a QUACK

That is all.

The anti-vax story

Too busy to check out the entire story of Dr. Andrew Wakefield who manufactured the whole anti-vax movement to make money off desperate parents?

Well, it's been summarized in excellent comic form!  This is a quick read but very well done.

Check it out here:  The Facts in the Case of Dr. Andrew Wakefield

And after we lose our souls, we'll braid our hair while listening to the Jonas brothers!

What scares Stephen Phelan, communications director for Human Life International, which bills itself as the largest international pro-life organization and missionary worldwide, more than anything?

Pink cardboard and plastic.

"There's a spiritual reality to it and Hasbro is treating it as if it's just a game." It's not Monopoly. It really is a dangerous spiritual game and for [Hasbro] to treat it as just another game is quite dishonest."

Phelan, who has never played the game, said the Bible explicitly states "not to mess with spirits" and that using a Ouija board will leave a person's soul vulnerable to attack.

"All Christians should know, well everyone should, that it's opening up a person to attack, spiritually," he said. "Christians shouldn't use it."

Asked how the game differed from magic kits or Harry Potter-themed merchandise, Phelan replied, "The difference is that the Ouija board is actually is a portal to talk to spirits and it's hard to get people to understand that until they actually do it. I don't pretend to know how it works, but it actually does."

It's hard to argue with this level of stupid. But if you believe in angels, demons, Satan, and all the other supernatural mumbo-jumbo that comes with religion, it's not a big step to believing that cardboard and plastic can open a mystical portal through which the devil can suck out your soul.

Toy expert and consultant Chris Byrne said he found "absolutely nothing" wrong with any version of the game.

"And if something doesn't fit your value or belief system, you don't have to buy it," Byrne said. "There's absolutely nothing remotely Christian or un-Christian about it. I think people are projecting their belief system on it."

True. But if Phelan just ignored the existence of Ouija boards, then he wouldn't be advancing the "christians under attack" narrative, would he?

By the way, I want to make one thing clear: Ouija is not a game. It's an activity.

Sometimes intelligence wins out

I have a hard time writing about anti-vaxxers for the simple reason that their paranoid nonsense endangers children. It's really all I can do not to just type obscenities at them.

So please check out the blog post below. It's a wonderful story of some anti-vaccination folk who are intellectually honest enough to actually look at the evidence and adjust their actions accordingly for the well-being of their family. It's a great, inspirational story, with lots of useful analysis.

Why We Changed Our Minds and Started to Vaccinate

Hats off to them.

Learning the Hard Way

Sometimes people get conned by the most stupid ploys imaginable. In the case of the Iraqis, who've paid $85 million for dowsing rods to "detect" explosives, the cost of getting conned has been not just money, but hundreds of lives. My previous post is here.

There was a good deal of outrage in the skeptical community when it was reported that the Iraqis were using these devices. Most of the time, supernatural beliefs in dowsing, ghosts, psychics and such continue unabated because it's hard for believers to see that they aren't real. But in this case, the evidence of hundreds of dead Iraqis, killed by explosives that made it past these ridiculous devices was impossible to ignore. At least in England. They've banned the export of the devices and arrested the manufacturer.

Unfortunately, the true believers in Iraq are undaunted. While the Prime Minister has ordered an investigation, they continue to use the device, thus ensuring more deaths to add to the cost.

Shatner Rules!

Make sure you wash your hands afterwards, Bill. And, oh yeah, you rock!