I Podcast

So I know it’s been a gazillion years (well, maybe not that long) since I last updated. I just came out of my post-law-finals coma and I figured I would throw something up. 

This is sad

What brought me to make a post tonight is…you guessed it…The Kirby. Go over to Respectful Insolence and see why.

NYT on Mitochondrial Disorders and Vaccination

In the Health section of the New York Times today, there was an article concerning mitochondiral disorders and vaccination entitled “Experts to Discuss One Puzzling Autism Case, as a Second Case Has Arisen“. As the title notes, a second case has cropped up:

The (Not) Scientific Method

Like I mentioned a couple of posts ago when I was trashing Kirby, I’m not a scientist (then again, neither is Kirby…okay, enough about Kirby). In fact, the extent of my science education amounts to an undergraduate degree in psychology and philosophy. Neither of those are exactly “sciency”, except for maybe psychology (though if I had a nickel for ever time a Chemistry or Physics major told me that psychology was not a “real” science). I do have some funny letters after my name, but none of them involve any sort of ‘D’ for doctor.

Pharmaceutical Companies Will Eat Your Children

Okay. Maybe I’m exaggerating a little bit. Maybe pharmaceutical companies will not actually eat your children. The point that I’m trying to get across though, is that pharmaceutical companies are pretty indifferent to your plight (and that they drink the blood of puppies, but that’s another post).

How Can You Tell When David Kirby is Lying?

His lips are moving.

David Kirby, the “journalist” who has hitched his wagon to the now defunct hypothesis that thimerosal in vaccines cause autism, birthed an article over at HuffPo about an “explosive” report how the CDC admitted that using the Vaccine Safety Datalink in conjunction with ecological studies is bad news when looking at any possible connection between thimerosal and ASD.

Tell Me Sweet, Sweet Lies

One of the things that I spend some spare time doing is debating Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) advocates on the intertubes. The wide, wonderful, and wacky world of CAM is full of all manner of cure-alls for whatever ails you. From reflexology to homeopathy to magnet therapy, if you’ve got an illness then surely there’s someone on google claiming that they can heal you.

Something that I have noticed during these enlightened meeting of the minds (or flamewars, if you prefer) is a certain rhetorical strategy that CAM advocates use that seems to trip a good number of people up. Namely, it’s somewhat reminiscent of a bait-and-switch tactic.

The Anti-Life Movement

Originally written June 15th, 2006

I will agree with pro-life-minded individuals on one thing: abortion is a tragedy. I am not a female, so I know I cannot speak to that aspect of it, but for my part I will always wonder what could have been.

Abortion is a tragedy. Just because I’m an atheist and a materialist, I’m often accused of being unsentimental and unfeeling. That things like this hold no sway sway me – that a fetus is a “bag of meat”. It’s a long read from “should not be extended the same rights as you, me, or even Tom DeLay for that matter” to “bag of meat”. Would I like to live in a world where conditions where such that abortions needn’t be performed? In a heartbeat. I wish that we lived in a world where people didn’t make mistakes. Where there were enough resources and time to go around. Where you were physically unable to have sex until you reached a certain level of psychological maturity. Unfortunately, that world is nothing close to the one we live in.

Religion: Blight Upon Humanity?

blight n. – Something that impairs growth, withers hopes and ambitions, or impedes progress and prosperity.

The question is simple – to paraphrase Bertrand Russell, is religion the dragon that needs slaying in order to facilitate the societal progress that will benefit all of humanity? I’m not entering into this discussion with a solution in mind. I know that I have fairly heretical views (okay, very heretical views) regarding religion, but this post isn’t a rant, nor is it meant to offend. I think that you would have to either blind or willfully ignorant to not be aware of the societal problems that face us on a massive scale. Disease, violence, and poverty – to name just a few. And I think that you would have to possess a character of malice or be genuinely apathetic not to think, even just every so often, about what can be done.