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Bioethics Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery

Abraham’s law: Bad medicine has made bad law

There hasn’t been much news in the last two or three months about Abraham Cherrix, the 16-year-old with Hodgkin’s lymphoma who rejected conventional chemotherapy, first in favor of the quackery known as Hoxsey therapy and then for the ministrations of a radiation oncologist in Mississippi named Dr. Arnold Smith, who combines non-woo (low dose radiation […]

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Personal Politics

How bad can it get in my hometown?

Having been born in Detroit and raised both in the city and one of its suburbs, news like this distresses me: DETROIT (Reuters) – With bidding stalled on some of the least desirable residences in Detroit’s collapsing housing market, even the fast-talking auctioneer was feeling the stress. “Folks, the ground underneath the house goes with […]

Categories
Cancer Medicine Politics

Elizabeth Edwards and bone metastases from breast cancer

As odd as it seems, my timing in posting about removing chemotherapy ports yesterday was eerily coincidental. I’ve alluded to this before, but I’m most definitely not a big fan of John Edwards and would never vote for him for President. That being said, I can’t help but feel for him and, even more so, […]

Categories
Politics Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Al Gore’s planet fever: Stupidest analogy about global warming ever?

I just heard on the radio last night while driving home what has to be one of the worst analogy about global warming that I’ve ever heard, and, at the risk of annoying fellow SB’ers who frequently write about these topics, like Chris Mooney or Tim Lambert, I felt like commenting. Oddly enough, the soundbite […]

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Holocaust Politics

Maybe there’s hope for common sense about free speech in Europe after all

Back in October, I wrote about an appalling case in Germany, in which a German anti-Nazi activist named Juergen Kamm was fined €3,600 for selling left-wing garb adorned with modified Swastikas designed to mock neo-Nazis because he ran afoul of a law in Germany that forbids the use of Nazi symbols, regardless of context. It […]