Categories
Holocaust denial

Shooting free speech in the foot: David Irving sentenced to three years in jail for denying the Holocaust

Well, that was fast. The trial took less than a day. David Irving, as expected, pleaded guilty. As expected, he was found guilty of Holocaust denial. What was not expected was the severity of the sentence: VIENNA, Feb. 20 (AP) — The British historian David Irving on Monday pleaded guilty to denying the Holocaust and […]

Categories
Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Damn those microfascists demanding evidence-based medicine!

Damn you PZ! (Heh, I haven’t gotten to say that since he shamed my profession by showing us an example of a certifiably loony young earth creationist physician running for Lt. Governor of South Carolina.) This time around, I’m annoyed at PZ for pointing me in the direction of an article so absurd, so ridiculous, […]

Categories
History Holocaust World War II

Another reason why bans on symbols lead to bad policy

As much as I oppose Holocaust denial, fascism, and neo-Nazis, you might recall that I am very much in favor of free speech. Indeed, I tend to take as broad an interpretation of the First Amendment as possible, and remain very grateful to our Founding Fathers for enshrining this freedom in the Constitution, where it’s […]

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News of the Weird

A Nazi Santa?

As much as I detest Holocaust denial, neo-Nazis, and all they stand for, I can still understand why there is a certain sensitivity to emblems of Nazi-ism in Germany and Austria, although I have pointed out that sometimes Germans and Austrians go a bit too far, all too often stomping on free speech in the […]

Categories
Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

What a fine belated blogiversary present: The return of the microfascists (and their micro brownshirts and microtruncheons)

Believe it or not, I missed my own blogiversary. It’s true. It was two days ago. For some reason, as the date approached I got the idea that it was the 13th, when in fact this blog was born on December 11, 2004 on a dreary Saturday afternoon when, after reading the TIME Magazine story […]