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Anti-Semitism History Holocaust Holocaust denial Politics Religion

Elie Wiesel: Carve out an exception to free speech for Holocaust denial

It occurs to me that I haven’t written about this topic in quite a while, but a recent event makes me think that maybe now’s the time to revisit this topic. I’m referring to Holocaust denial. Newer readers may not know that part of what got me involved in online discussions back in the late […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Science

How engaged should scientists be in policy?

I really hate this. I really hate having to take a friend to task, but he leaves me little choice. You see, I actually like Chris Mooney. Back in the day, I even even hoisted a pint with him at the Toledo Lounge in D.C., round about the time of the commencement of the whole […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine History Holocaust Humor Medicine Quackery World War II

Zombies: A perfect metaphor for Andrew Wakefield and his followers since his utter disgrace

Regular readers may have noticed something happening around ScienceBlogs. As PZ pointed out, a little malware somehow infiltrated the ScienceBlogs collective, and many of us appear to have turned into zombies. It’s a veritable Zombie Day, complete with illustrations by Joseph Hewitt, creator of Gearhead. Obviously, with anything having to do with zombies, there’s only […]

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Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine

A more “fluid” discussion of the Human Genome Project

Remember Dr. David Katz? Fellow skeptic and supporter of science-based medicine Dr. Steve Novella is unfortunate to be saddle with Dr. Katz on the same faculty as him at Yale. He achieved some notoriety a couple of years ago when at a Yale conference on complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), he laid down this gem: […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine

I know you are, but what am I?: Medical Voices’ woo-ful anti-vaccine whine

“I know you are, but what am I?” That’s basically the child’s version of a familiar logical fallacy known as the tu quoque, which basically means, “You, too!” It’s a very simple and simplistic logical fallacy that tries to argue that, if one’s trait shares one or more of the same bad traits of the […]