The Return of Dana Ullman, Homeopathic Apologist, 2010 edition : Respectful Insolence
The Return of Dana Ullman, Homeopathic Apologist, 2010 edition : Respectful Insolence
Ullman is doing what apologists for homeopathy and various forms of alt-med have done for decades, if not centuries. Because they can’t present any convincing positive evidence for the efficacy of their favorite woo, they point out—and exaggerate, if necessary—the problems of science-based medicine. Unfortunately, these problems do not invalidate science-based medicine, nor do they validate homeopathy.
I tell ya, I go away for a few days, let the blogging slow down, decrease the usual logorrhea. Heck, I even go for the lazy blogger trick of an open thread. In the meantime, while I was busy learning about real science at the 2010 AACR Meeting, the forces of pseudoscience have not been quiet. No, they’ve been active; indeed, there is so much that requires Orac’s not-so-Respectful Insolence and so little time for me to apply it. That means that, almost certainly, “deserving” candidates will be missed. That is a shame, but even Orac needs his rest from time to time.
None of this means that I can resist (at least not easily), when everyone’s “favorite” font of burning stupid, homeopathic apologist, derailer of comment threads, and someone who has no idea when he’s not just whipped but whipped, pureed, and stomped, pops up and deposits a turd of pseudoscience on that repository of pseudoscience, quackery, and woo, The Huffington Post. And I don’t intend to, given that Dana has supplied me with—shall we say?—an exceedingly “target-rich” environment. In particular, his article could provide rich fodder for a game of “Name That Logical Fallacy,” but that alone doesn’t make it “worthy” of the loving application of a heapin’ helpin’ of not-so-Respectful Insolence. This time around, Dana, filled with the arrogance of ignorance and clearly deeply resenting the justified criticisms of his favorite form of quackery (homeopathy, for those of you not familiar with him) and his hilariously inept attempts to defend it, has apparently decided it’s time to strike back. Since he has failed miserably to provide one iota of evidence that homeopathy is anything other than magic-based medicine (to steal Jamy Ian Swiss’ line) or, as I like to put it, Dr. Strange’s medicine, Ullman has apparently decided to go on the attack against science-based medicine. The result, as usual, is hilarious, as Ullman has produced a post entitled How Scientific Is Modern Medicine Really?