Argument From Authority – Baroness Greenfield on Autism

She is at it again, making silly pronouncements, this time it is Autism. Least you missed it, in New Scientist, she has been casually linking internet use with autism. (So no not vaccines, just using the Internet). Now, since this is Baroness Greenfield, CBE,  scientist, writer, broadcaster, and member of the House of Lords, specializes in the physiology of the brain, and has worked to research and bring attention to Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease – we can just take her word for it … right?

Exactly, the old “I’m a doctor just trust me” line simply does not cut it when it comes to claims like this. So what do you need? How about some actual “Evidence”.

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Antioxidants – The Evidence is: they don’t work

When it comes to  antioxidant supplements I’ve been as guilty as most and have indeed in the past purchased and popped a few of these with the thought in the back of my mind that I was being health. Alas, I was simply fooling myself, the weight of evidence now available suggests that the antioxidant supplements on sale today either do nothing or might even cause harm to your long term health.

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Not Understanding the word “Atheist”

You would think folks would understand the word “Atheist”, but to my complete astonishment some sections of the media don’t. Jesse Bogan of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports … “Halfmann, essentially an atheist,” writes Brogan, ”testified that he needed the book [the Satanic Bible] to practice his religion, which, he said, primarily meant following the … Read more

Cosmos is coming back

Do you remember Cal Sagan on Cosmos? Well, plans are afoot to bring it back in 2013. Sadly Carl is no longer with us, so it will be Neil deGrasse Tyson leading the charge. He is truly a great choice to do this. At one point Sagan himself went out of his way to recruit Tyson. During an interview with writer Daniel Simone (in the November 2, 2007 issue of Dan’s Paper here) Tyson said,

“Interestingly, when I applied to Cornell, my application dripped of my passion for the study and research of the Universe. Somehow the admissions office brought my application to the attention of the late Dr. Sagan, and he actually took the initiative and care to contact me. He was very inspirational and a most powerful influence. Dr. Sagan was as great as the universe, an effective mentor.”

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Islamic Justifications – apostates from Islam must be killed

Challenge an Islamic cleric regarding their immoral “compulsion”, and they will argue that there is no compulsion, because no one is forced to enter Islam (yea right, I’m  skeptical about that claim, but let us take it at face value for the moment).

If you then make the observation that they do indeed believe that apostates from Islam (folks who used to by Muslim, but renounce it) must be killed, then in what universe is this not “compulsion”? Well, the answer, which happens to be one used by many clerics to justify this insanity, goes like this …”after somebody chooses to enter Islam, they cannot be allowed to leave. To attempt to leave Islam is akin to treason, and every country in the world punishes treason by death.”.

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39 held for violating Ramadan ordinance in Pakistan

Once again Islam is breaching very basic human rights by imposing itself by force upon people … it is in Pakistan, a country where the very concept of any human rights simply fails to exist. Remember, these are the same folks who feel that murder is fine as long as the murderer can chant the right belief and claim that the victim was guilty of being un-Islamic.

Here is today’s news (found here)  …

The owners of 39 hotels, canteens and eateries in Pakistan’s Punjab province were arrested and sent to jail for violating an ordinance that bars eating and serving food in public during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, officials said on Sunday.

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