Categories
Announcements History

The History Carnival

The latest History Carnival has been posted at Investigations of a Dog. Lots of good stuff there.

Categories
History Holocaust Holocaust denial Politics

Stomping free speech flat in Europe

Regular readers of this blog know that I have a particular dislike for Holocaust denial and that, indeed, I’ve tried to do my small part to counter the lies spread by Holocaust deniers, beginning on Usenet eight years ago. Regular readers will also know my opinion regarding laws in certain European countries such as Germany […]

Categories
History Holocaust Paranormal Skepticism/critical thinking World War II

Adolf, can you hear me?

Since I started this blog, I’ve become aware of all sorts of weirdness and woo. One special category of woo that irritates me is psychics, particularly the ones who claim that they can contact the dead, like Sylvia Browne or John Edward. They are arguably the worst kind of “psychic,” usually using cold reading or […]

Categories
Bioethics History Holocaust Medicine Religion Science World War II

Richard Dawkins’ tin ear regarding bioethics: The execution of Saddam Hussein as an “act of vandalism”

It is with a bit of trepidation that I write about this. The reason, for anyone who reads ScienceBlogs specifically or science blogs in general, should be obvious. Richard Dawkins is such a polarizing figure with a penchant for stirring things up with regards to the most deeply held beliefs of both the religious and […]

Categories
History Medicine

The Art of Medicine in Ancient Egypt, Part 2

While I am on vacation, I’m reprinting a number of “Classic Insolence” posts to keep the blog active while I’m gone. (It also has the salutory effect of allowing me to move some of my favorite posts from the old blog over to the new blog, and I’m guessing that quite a few of my […]