Two articles that explain everything that is wrong with the world

They're short, funny and well-written. And they're 100%, dead-on-balls accurate.  99% of everything that is wrong with the world is beautifully exemplified in these two articles:

4 Ways Oprah Screwed The World (Nobody Ever Calls Her On)

5 Reasons Conspiracy Theories Are Destroying the World

READ THEM.

 

More on (Moron) Censorship...

I just wanted to continue my post from the other day in censorship before moving on to other topics.
A couple of points, for historical perspective, brought to you by the Political Party that opposes Net Neutrality and the Fairness act on the absurd grounds that allowing people to speak somehow constitutes censorship.

From 1930 to 1968, the motion picture industry was subject to the Motion Picture Production Code.  This was a series of guidelines that clearly outlined what could, and what could not be put in a movie.  And unlike todaysrating system - which merely that audiences be of a certain age and that they be advised as to the overall content, this system was absolute and could not deviated from.  It WAS cencorship, textbook censorship, and no serious argument can be made otherwise.

Now why is this relevant?  Simple: It was created and written by REPUBLICAN William Harrison Hays.  So don't think for a minute that the Right's penchant for manipulating the media is anything NEW.

There another example that I'd like to offer: The Comics Code Authority.  This triumpgh of decency pandering over artistic freedom came into effect in 1954 - smack in the middle of the good ol' days, according to today's conservatives.  Now... the Comics Code, which still exists, is a voluntary regulatory board formed by the industry.  Now... WHY would an industry voluntarily adopt standard that would made their stories REALLY SUCK?  (And for anyone who disputes that I offer the first guidline: Crimes shall never be presented in such a way as to create sympathy for the criminal [or] to promote distrust of the forces of law and justice.  Great. So I can't have a sympathetic villain or a conflicted hero. NO WONDER comic books were always seen as purile and juvenile: They HAD TO BE, under regulations!)  Again: WHY would an industry voluntarily adopt such constraining standards?  Simple: the United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency was focusing on, and threatening to censor, COMIC BOOKS of all things.  What a time that must have been - COMIC BOOKS, rather than guns and drugs were the cause of all the world's ills!

And who called this absurd circus into existance?  Why REPUBLICAN Senator Robert Hendrickson of New York.  Apparently Werewolves and Vampires and veiled references to masturbation were the biggest issues the Senator felt needed tackling in the country.  No wonder the Russians beat us to space.

And while it has nothing to do with CENSORSHIP - the Volstead Act (better know as Prohibition) was also a Republican meausre, vetoed by DEMOCRATIC President Wilson, who was then overruled by the REPUBLICAN Congress. 

The Republicans have been censoring and suppressing freedom for almost a hundred years now. 

Add Joe McCarthy to the mix? 

Why are we still LISTENING to these fools?!

Anti- Anti-Vaxxer Movement Rant

I know, I know. I promised one about energy.  I'll get to it, I swear.  But I HAD to tap this first.

I came accross THIS which was linked to by Skeptic Dictionary (my bible.)  It's a fantastic write up absolutely skewring the anti-vaccinemovmenet and their blatant intellectual dishonesty.  I'm coming to the realization that one of the reason I like MMFA so much is not just that it's liberal - after all, there are TONS of good, well-written liberals sites and blogs out there, and I don't spend half as much time on all of them put together!  But, what MMFA essentially focus on is the Right's intellectual dishonesty. THAT'S at the core of thearguments they make, and that kind of argument really appeals to me.

Now... I don't see the Anti-Vaxxer movement or Alternatve Medicine in General to be a partisan or a poltical problem.  In fact there are elements of both Conservtaive Anti-Science (Faith Healing, for example) and Liberal Anti-Science (Product liability, anti-corporate/big-Pharma fears) in all areas of 'Alternative Medicine.'  So honestly, I don't give a fig about the politics behind this psudeo-scientific nonsense.  Liberal or Conservative, right or left, My feelings on this, as with all matters scientific, are very simple:

"Alternative Medicine" is just another way of saying "Stuff that doesn't pass scientific muster or double-blind clinical testing." IWO: Bullshit.  And Skepdic has dozens of articles in it that do a better job tearing down this nonsense down than I even want to try.  But whatever, as long as you're not denying your children life saving medicine, opting for prayer instead - which is a nice way of saying, "MURDERING YOUR CHILDREN"- then I really don't care what you waste your money on, as long as you don't try to put into some kind of National Health Plan that MY TAX MONEY pays for.  Barring that?  Buy all the placebos you want.

But the Anti-Vaxxer movement is DANGEROUS.  Hundereds of children have DIED in this country alone and infectuous diseases that were once considered extinct in the developed world are now on the rise again in many countries.

1) As far as I'm concerned, Jenny McCarthy, as the public face (Josesh Goebels) of anti-vaxxer propaganda, shares the same proportion of blame for the 505 deaths that occured between June, 2007 and March 2010 as one might attribute to Goebles for the holocaust.  She's facing 505 counts of accessory to MURDER as far as I'm concerned.

2) If you, as a parent, have chosen not to vaccinate your child, and do not have a DIAGNOSABLE, SCIENCE-BASED, MEDICAL REASON for doing so: YOU ARE A BAD PARENT.  And if your childeren become ill and/or die, YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE.

3) As the father of two autistic boys I can say this no more plainly:

•  If your autistic child has unvaccinated younger sibilings, YOU ARE A BAD PARENT. 
• If you have wasted you money on any number of unproven therapies you are not only a FOOL, you are a BAD PARENT for diverting resources that should have been spent paying for SPEECH THERAPY, and possibly SCIENCE BASED medication.
• If you have exposed your child to RISKY, unproven practices such as Chealation?  If I had my druthers I'd take those kids away from you, put you in jail, and put in jail the QUACK and FRAUD of a physician that prescribed and/or carried it out.  (And one already has: in PA, for manslaughter.  If I had been on that jury, I would have gladly gone as high as 'murder in the first' for anyone carrying out deadly experiments on handicapped children.)

Science based medicine, is the ONLY medicine.  Anything else is nonsense.  No better than a bunch of stuff I just make up out of the blue.