Brains, And The Lack Thereof

[elfs]

I make a pretty classic mistake when I write these posts up. I assume that most of you have heard 99% of what I've heard, and might only be interested in the last 1% or so. For example, the entire world has been abuzz with the fact that Andrew Wakefield, the man who sparked the whole "MMR Vaccination causes autism" scare, apparently faked all of his data and that not has no one else been able to replicate his results, there were no such results in the first place.

I mention this because I wanted to find the ugly underbelly of the whole thing. And oh, I hit the motherload. The mailing list "Environment of Harm," is in full denialist mode (all typos remain unchallenged):

• As awful as this might seem to be for Dr. Wakefield and his family, I see it as Big Pharma getting VERY nervous.
• Propaganda machine in full swing ...I must remind myself to step away from the tv in order to get any legit news/commentary.
• I sure hope Andy has gotten a thick skin by now. Poor guy, taking all this heat for telling the truth.
• You'd be stunned if you knew what happened during those studies. Nothing made by a pharmaceutical company is safe. NOTHING
• Pure caracter assination , We are fighting with uneven resources , and the adversary is not playing frairly . these people have no interest in helping the childreen

Fun, huh?

Other things going on:

Multivitamins provide no benefit against cancer or heart disease

This is neither surprising nor good news, but I've seen it in several places and now Orac has a write-up. A study of 161,810 post-menopausal women has shown that dietary supplements have absolutely no benefit against heart disease, osteoporosis, or cancer.

Fox News reads Republican talking points memo on the air, presents it as independent journalistic effort.

This is a fun catch. Fox even admits on the air that when they say "we," they (or at the very least the producers, researchers, and talking heads of the show Happening Now) are referring to "Fox News and it's affiliate, the Republican Party."

National Guard Soldier discharged for being a lesbian

This is just plain ol' disappointing. At least she was given an "honorable seperation," and a discharge number low enough she would be eligble to re-enlist if the ruls were changed.

I don't know that it's "despicable," as some commenters have said. It's sad, yes. The rules are there, and Amy Brian maybe didn't tell anyone she worked with, but putting her sexual orientation on her MySpace page was probably not smart.

Stunning Shamelessness of the Right

I've said before that I don't like the economic box of bullshit we're being peddled here, but at least I've never said otherwise. Patriot's Quill was reading The Corner (damn, I should have gone there instead of the religious hangouts this week) and found Arnold Kling repeating the "generational theft" meme the Right has been floating (the idea that debt is a theft of our grandkid's productivity-- well, yeah). Quill gave Kling the benefit of the doubt: maybe he's always been a debt hawk.

But no. Kling was for running up huge deficits under Bush II if a market crisis happened for him. Kling has shown no remorse for the deficits run up under the Iraq war. The Internet memory hole is indeed deep.

Comments

[maellenkleth]

heh. USDOD policy is certainly different from Canadian DND policy, which basically boils down to 1) "who cares" and 2) "we don't care whether or not you are married, but no shagging whilst on duty or in camp."

just sign me,
an always-visible dyke O-6 (retired), ex-CF.

Greetings, Friend!

[heofmanynames.livejournal.com]

When are you going to come back South & visit us? I miss hearing the coffee song rolling across the field in the morning!

Re: Greetings, Friend!

[maellenkleth]

jeez, okay, it's true that there are only a thousand people on the Web and we keep meeting.

guess that the next time I will be in Lumpkin County, Georgia will be year after next, likely off-season. I am on sabbatical at the moment and therefore rather less likely to be seen in public, at least with a name tag attached (most recent bumping into Elf and Omaha notwithstanding) -- the oracle business always works better from the other side of the darkened curtain. ^_^

hugs, anyway.