Politics « Gotham Skeptic

The Narrow Precipice of Political Action

By The Quixotic Man, on January 14, 2010, at 7:03 am

I was out at lunch today with Scott Stafiej of the CFI, ostensibly to discuss a new project of his, which I hope we’ll be able to tell you all about in the weeks to come. As tends to happen in conversation with fellow skeptics, our conversation sort of meandered to all manner of places, [...]

Government discusses how to improve access to publicly funded research

By Page, on December 15, 2009, at 8:30 am

The Office of Science & Technology Policy is a board that advises the President on the “effects of science and technology on domestic and international affairs” (is that broad or what?). Last week, they launched a blog forum to solicit public input on the issue of access to publically-funded research. This is all part of [...]

Direct-to-Consumer Drug Ads: Friend or Foe?

By Page, on November 13, 2009, at 7:03 am

I started looking into this topic on a whim, and after reading the growing amount of literature analyzing this issue, I find myself drawing some surprising conclusions. I find those direct-to-consumer (DTC) ads annoying and vacuous. What controlling your cholesterol with prescription medication has to do with picnics with your grandkids and hand-holding on the [...]

H. L. Mencken, the Holy Terror of Baltimore

By AJ Mell, on October 21, 2009, at 7:03 am

The pedant and the priest have always been the most expert of logicians – and the most diligent disseminators of nonsense and worse. The liberation of the human mind has never been furthered by such learned dunderheads; it has been furthered by gay fellows who heaved dead cats into sanctuaries and then went roistering down [...]

Political Values Make Skeptical Blinders

By The Quixotic Man, on October 13, 2009, at 7:09 am

While cruising around on a site all about the recent protests against mandatory H1N1 flu vaccination in Albany, I found their list of sponsors and saw a few crazy right-wing organizations (Albany 912 Org/Albany Tea Party Org) listed. “Wonderful!” I thought to myself. “Here’s an opportunity to really get Benny’s goat [that’s, of course, Benny [...]

SAVE THE ELEPHANTS!

By The Quixotic Man, on September 24, 2009, at 7:09 am

Won’t someone please think of the elephants? Not out in Africa, you bleeding heart ninnies! No, our LOCAL elephants. Their herding patterns are becoming more erratic and they seem to be flitting about with more and more strange wild fauna. I think you know as well as I, the Republican Party seems to be going [...]

Science + Courtrooms = Bad Science

By The Quixotic Man, on August 31, 2009, at 7:09 am

There’s an article in the LA Times from last week all about how the US Chamber of Commerce wants a trial about Global Warming. What’s really weird about it is that they’re calling it “The Scopes monkey trial of the 21st century,” and the thing about that is… the Scopes monkey trial is the [...]

The Poles in the Big Tent

By The Quixotic Man, on August 24, 2009, at 7:03 am

George Hrab began his last episode of the Geologic Podcast with an approximately 9 minute long statement of frustration about the response he’d gotten to his previous week’s “Religious Moron of the Week.” What struck me as odd was the moment when George read one of the e-mails that said that because he wasn’t [...]

Roger Friedman's Scientology Claim

By The Quixotic Man, on July 23, 2009, at 9:17 am

Note: At one point in time, this article was in fact topical.

Roger Friedman used to be a freelance entertainment writer for NewsCorp. That was before he got fired in April. Now, Friedman is claiming that his firing was due to the actions of The “Church” of Scientology, and is trying to make a case for [...]