On Ros(s)ing

That homeopathy zealot Roslyn Ross is conforming to type in the comment thread below a recent article entitled, ‘Are homeopathic ‘remedies’ helpful or harmful?’, by Jennifer Gunter. I’ve observed and encountered much of the activity of this irritating snark a number of times in recent years and have previously commented on the fervid activity of this apologist and propagandist for homeopathy. Indeed, so predictable, so tedious is her fallacy-laden modus operandus that I figured it deserved its own fallacy name:

                       Ros(s)ing


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Charlatanism: fantasy or dishonesty?

In his Homeopathy: The Undiluted Facts Edzard Ernst delineates between two types of charlatan: the dishonest and the fantasist. I don’t know and have never met Sally Lloyd, a homeopath who charges for her services. Neither do I know whether she actually offers them to people diagnosed with cancer. But if she spews forth the following disgraceful misinformation to anybody daft or desperate enough to ‘consult’ her, there is something seriously amiss. [Read more... ]

Yikes! Going to the dogs.

So, the one who tweets under the handle, @HomeoReikiDogs; who variously ‘practices’/promotes/advocates/endorses (e.g.) Reiki, chakras, auras, prana, homeopathy, MMS, ‘energy methods’, ‘Moon healing’, Venkatesh, etc.; the one who claims to treat dogs and other animals with such guff. In fact, it seems any wackiness is welcome on asteroid ‘Yoda’...
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Are nonsense ‘cures’ for cancer a ‘soft target’?

I confess to wondering whether Edzard Ernst’s recent increased activity at The Spectator website has arisen due to the latter’s cynical recognition (following the lengthy reaction to Tarek Arab’s naïve, quackery-appeasing dreck) of his sure-fire clickbait potential. Certainly, a run of homeopathy-centric articles this month (May 2016) provoked some of the harpies who descend on these things in order to promote their cult to potential converts. And, inevitably, this draws reaction from those of a sceptical bent.


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Dialogue with a homeopath

... Emphasis of claimed homeopathy-fill-able niches was followed by a brief history lesson for the homeopathy-uninitiated, replete with some of the plethora of logical fallacies which tend to accompany these things, including links to material by one or two familiar homeopathy luminaries, and the ever handy argumenta ad populum, which all makes for ready marketing material...


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Is the media complicit in promoting quackery?

I despise articles like this: not just because they are (the celebrity/health-drecked online version of the) Daily Mail; not just because they are dumbly written/edited under the assumption that readers will be lost if they risk paragraphs containing more than one sentence. But because such sensationalist clickbait churnalism, though guaranteed to draw attention and instigate a good playground scrap, is not only irresponsible and misinformative; I would argue it is also, in its quackery-promoting complicity, potentially dangerous...

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Harpocrates Speaks: SB277 Opposition: The Smokescreen of Parental Choice

Humans love to have choices. From early on in our childhood, we like to be able to choose what we want to do. Play with this toy or that one. Eat this food or that. And we don't like having limitations placed on our choices, especially if it involves doing something we don't want to do. Our parents try to teach us that while we are able to choose, sometimes our choices have strings attached. "You need to finish your vegetables if you want dessert." We're given the power to choose what to do: eat the veggies so we can have dessert, or choose not to eat the veggies and miss out on dessert. We might not like the options, we might wish we could choose the dessert without any other limits on our choice, but we have to deal with the reality. Depending on our maturity, we may throw a tantrum when we don't get what we want, when there is even the most minor constraint on our choices....

Read on: Harpocrates Speaks: SB277 Opposition: The Smokescreen of Parental Choice

Lynne McTaggart – champion of free speech? | Majikthyse

The proprietor of the magazine `What Doctors Don’t Tell You‘ has a rather selective definition of free speech. Lynne McTaggart has repeatedly railed against sceptics in her blog, which currently carries a highly defamatory rant about the “bullies” who try to shut her up. Believe me, I would love her to shut up. But in the spirit of intelligent debate (OK that’s hardly possible with la McTaggart) I am wont to ask searching questions via the comments facility. However I’m finding that my comments mysteriously have stopped appearing...

Read on: Lynne McTaggart – champion of free speech? | Majikthyse

Bigots: the new Charlie.

Much as she might howl and pontificate about it, Lynne McTaggart is deeply and profoundly ignorant of the meaning of freedom generally and free speech in particular.

Health freedom is the freedom to make a fully informed choice. Every skeptic supports that. We do not support health fooldom, the right to pull the wool over …

The post Bigots: the new Charlie. by wwddtydty appeared first on WWDDTYDTY.

What is free speech? - WWDDTYDTY

“What is free speech?” asks Lynne McTaggart in her latest blog post. You may not be able to read this post: if you have commented on her blog in recent days, you may, like me, have had your IP address added to a block list to stop you finding out...

Read on: What is free speech? - WWDDTYDTY

Yes, Lynne, it’s all about you

Charmless egomaniac Donald Trump led the charge in exploiting the Charlie Hebdo tragedy to boost a personal agenda, tweeting some obnoxious gun-nuttery.

Not to be outdone, the WDDTY editors chose to try to exploit the murder of cartoonists for mocking religion, by repeating their fraudulent claims of censorship of their own religion, the cult of fake “cures” for profit…

Continue reading: Yes, Lynne, it’s all about you by wwddtydty (appeared first on WWDDTYDTY)

Don’t try to reason with the unreasonable

FYI: This is the third of ten posts not related to vaccines.

I have a friend who is an amateur photographer. You may have seen some of this stuff over on his blog. We all went out to dinner the other night, and he brought his camera with him. His camera is not small. It’s a rather bulky DSLR camera, and he had a rather bulky lens on it. We walked down the street to where we were having dinner, and he took pictures of buildings and people along the way. No one really seemed to care. Our nation’s capital is a big city and most of us carry around a camera in our phones anyway.

It’s not the same way in England, apparently...

Read more at: Don’t try to reason with the unreasonable by Reuben

Comment on cult commenting

What, do we have here a full-blown devotee of the cult of homeopathy receptive to question, challenge, criticism and correction of publicly-made statements? Nah, don’t be silly...


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