Gullibility is Bad for You

Chiropractic kills

2009-11-03T12:54:00.000-08:00

Chiropractic, the idea that violently manipulating one's vertebrae can alleviate a variety of physical ailments through an indirect effect on the spinal nerve, was invented by a quack named Daniel David Palmer in 1895 (he was also a magnetic healer). Immodestly, and absurdly, he claimed that he had "answered the question — what is life?" A well designed study aimed at testing the theory behind chiropractic showed "that vertebrae could not be displaced enough to stretch or impinge a spinal nerve unless the force was great enough to break the spine" according to a lucid article by J. D. Haines in eSkeptic. That didn't stop a chiropractor from killing 24-year old Kristi Bedenbaugh back in 1993 (one of several cases that have emerged since), because the manipulation of her neck resulted in splitting the inner walls of both of her vertebral arteries, thus causing a fatal stroke. Outrageously, the South Carolina State Board of Chiropractic Examiners fined the "practitioner" $1000 and assigned him to 12 hours of continuing education on neurological disorders and emergency response.

Daughter becomes too westernized, he tries to kill her

2009-10-27T07:11:00.000-07:00

Faleh Hassan Almaleki, an Iraqi living in Peoria, Arizona, has ran down his daughter, Noor (20 years old) in a parking lot. The reason is that according to Almaleki, Noor has become "too westernized" and is no longer living according to family customs. As a result of the tragedy, Noor is hospitalized in life-threatening conditions. Obviously Almaleki's family values do not include the safety and health of one's daughter.

Dying at a spiritual retreat

2009-10-19T14:15:00.000-07:00

Three people died recently and 19 others were hospitalized because they took part in a Native American-inspired "holistic" retreat in Arizona. As part of their spiritual quest, the unfortunate participants were left in a sweatbox, presumably to purify their spirit and achieve a higher level of consciousness. It didn't work.

Here is un update from the New York Times. The bastard who ran the retreat charged $9,695 for a weekend experience as a "spiritual warrior," and one of his lackeys had the temerity of saying of the three people who died really "had left their bodies in the sweat lodge and chosen not to come back because they were having so much fun.” Just simply unbelievable.

Get vaccinated against the flu, twice

2009-10-12T11:09:00.000-07:00

Flu season is upon us, and this time there are two vaccines, the standard type that is released every year to combat whatever strain of flu happens to be around, and a second one specifically tailored to the H1N1 virus. You should take them both, for your own health and for that of the rest of society. But people are, of course, skeptical of vaccines these days, thanks to a lot of misinformation by so-called "celebrities", not to mention quite a bit of inane anti-government sentiment fueled by Republicans (especially, it seems those who are themselves employed in government). Most people don't seem to understand the basics of the science behind vaccines, according to this article in the Washington Post. For instance, the only reason why there is a separate H1N1 vaccine this year is because it was too late to incorporate it in the normal flu cocktail, otherwise we would all have gotten just one flu vaccine as usual. One wonders if there would have been any "controversy" in that case.

Albinos hunted for their limbs because they bring good luck

2009-10-05T08:20:00.000-07:00

ABC News reports on the hunting and killing of albinos in Tanzania, Burundi and Ghana, because "witch doctors" are telling the local populations that potions made from the limbs of albino people bring good luck and wealth. Recent cases included that of a woman who was attacked in her home at night, and whose arms have been cut off, and that of a 7-year old kidnapped at gun point, and whose body was found headless and without a hand the following day. During the past two years alone 54 Tanzanian albinos have been murdered so that their limbs and genitals could be harvested. The response of the Tanzanian government has included the suspension of licenses to witch doctors. Witch doctors have licenses??

Homeopathy kills

2009-10-01T08:54:00.000-07:00

Here is a story from Australia of two well educated parents who believed in homeopathy, with the consequence that their infant daughter died of preventable eczema, after weeks of excruciating pain. The parents have been sent to jail, the Judge giving the unrepentant father -who insisted in declaring homeopathy superior to "Western medicine" even after the tragedy - the maximum allowable sentence of eight years. Sometimes there is indeed justice in this world.

Federal worker hanged in Kentucky

2009-09-24T07:17:00.000-07:00

So, you think all that insane right-wing rhetoric about Obama being like Hitler, and the death panels, and the coming social revolution, and the dismantling of "our" America, and so on and so bullshit is pretty harmless, right? Ask the family of 51-year old Bill Sparkman, a federal census worker who has been found hanged from a tree in Kentucky, with the word "fed" scrawled on his chest. I'd say the folks at Fox-we-report-you-decide-News and some members of Congress are indirectly responsible for this murder, and should carry it as a burden on their consciences (but I bet they won't).

Man kills family because the devil pushed him

2009-09-24T07:09:00.000-07:00

A 32-year old man killed his wife and five children in Haiti by stabbing and slashing their throats. Why? Because he wanted to go to heaven, but knew that just killing himself would preclude such a happy outcome. Oh, and the devil made him do it. Through the person of his stepmother, who worships the devil, or a spirit, or "whatever." The youngest child was 11 months old, the oldest was 9 years of age.

Psychic detectives fail, again, and again, and again

2009-09-22T09:12:00.000-07:00

Short article by Benjamin Radford about how 500 "psychics" couldn't provide the police with even a single useful clue concerning the disappearance and murder of a university student in May 2004. The police eventually arrested the murderer and found the body, but proceeded to do so by perfectly non para-normal means.

Bill Maher wins Dawkins award, but buys into pseudoscience

2009-09-17T21:43:00.000-07:00

I like Bill Maher as a comedian and as a smart political satirist. But when it comes to his understanding of science, and in particular medicine, things get a bit more fishy. Read this long, detailed, and well documented article by David Gorski over at Science-Based Medicine. It exposes Maher's silly distrust of "Western medicine," endorsement of the anti-vaccination movement, sympathy for AIDS denialists, and even downright negation of germ theory (the medical equivalent of the theory of evolution). When Dawkins was asked how he felt about an award with his name being given to someone who so obviously doesn't understand science, he pled ignorance. Not cool, Richard, not cool. (And Atheist Alliance, next time do your home work, ok?)