For anyone interested in the controversy over MMR vaccines and autism, David Gorski’s comprehensive fisking is a must-read. The exposé of that sleazy fraud Andrew Wakefield is particularly detailed. After presenting the unambiguous findings of the various “special masters”, Gorski points out what’s really going on here: Special Master Hastings recognized one of the main…
Read More Comprehensively refuting the antivaccinationistsI just learned from my mother that an old friend of ours, Ken Binning, died last weekend. Ken was an extroverted, larger than life man, with a booming laugh, a firm handshake, and a slight stutter which enhanced rather than interrupting his jovial repartee. I first met him when I was a child: Ken was…
Read More Ken Binning, RIPI’ve just posted a review of Denis Dutton’s wonderful new book “The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution”: If you’re reading this, you probably enjoy books. You take pleasure from good writing, compelling insights, and the kind of well-turned argument that gives you that “aha!” moment of recognition, identification, and delight. Imagine then the…
Read More The Art InstinctToday is my boss‘s birthday….
Read More Happy birthday ColinSteve Benen at The Washington Monthly waxes incredulous at Rush Limbaugh’s latest piece of… well, treason is about the only word for it: The right-wing host went on a similar tirade yesterday when talking about the economic recovery package: “I want everything he’s doing to fail… I want the stimulus package to fail…. I do…
Read More "I want everything he does to fail"Digby at Hullabaloo: But the fact that the white house consciously and knowingly used anal rape to control, interrogate and punish prisoners and went to some length to protect those who were doing it from scrutiny, still has the power to stun me. Are we really just going to let this stuff go? Really?
Read More Are there any limits?[w]hen the GOP enforces a party line vote against the stimulus bill and then goes on Sunday morning talk shows to complain about the lack of bipartisanship in the White House, it’s like a shopkeeper complaining that he’s got no sales while he’s waving a gun at anyone who tries to enter the store. John…
Read More Quote of the dayVia Susan Claire at Facebook: Place an X by all the things you’ve done and remove the X from the ones you have not, then send it to your friends (including me). […] Well, it’s very US-centric, and I’m not going to tag other people, but I’ll still have a go at this in my…
Read More An odd "things you've done" blogmeme. OK, I'll play.Over at Facebook, my old friend John Sundman displayed his results for this BBC-initiated meme…. Apparently the BBC reckons most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. Instructions: 1) Look at the list and put an ‘x’ after those you have read ENTIRELY 2) Add a ‘+’ to the ones you…
Read More The "pretentious" books memeWhen politicians use mutually incompatible arguments to attack the same proposal, it’s safe to say that they are more interested in scoring political points than actually participating in a meaningful debate. Here’s Andrew Sullivan on RNC posturing about the stimulus bill: On the one hand, they seem to be saying (a la McCain) that this…
Read More The extraordinary cluelessness of the Republicans