January 6, 2016::End of the day round-up

King Crocoduck's closing remark is a bit apropos considering a discussion held the other night concerning my delving into the fallacies behind the "Tornado in a Junkyard" analogy. I had stated that instead of doing "real" science in regards to ID, the proponents sit back and "just think up" counter arguments regardless of whether science supports those views. Best example is Behe and his testimony during Dover v Kitmiller (2005) where he admitted under oath 'that evolution could not explain immunology without even investigating the subject. He was presented with 58 peer reviewed articles, nine books, and several textbook chapters on the subject; he insisted they were 'not good enough.'"

Here's what KC had to say to his adversary [6:26], spawned from the misapplication of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics - nothing can not be greater than something.

Your pretension that your philosophical ponderings on causality are even remotely comparable to the rigor and discipline required to understand the subject under discussion.

,,,[Lots of sciencey, mathey terms that blew right over my head and I wouldn't be able to spell if my life depended on it]

This is the arrogance that underlies creationism. This notion that a layperson, can sit back and idly think about a discipline that takes years to understand much less master and disprove it with facile simple minded arguments.

Sweet Justice?: Bakery Owners Finally Pay Fine For Discriminating Against Lesbian Couple

“Aaron and Melissa Klein are devoted to honoring God in every aspect of their lives, including how they conduct themselves in this litigation. Oregon law requires that as they appeal the Oregon government’s decision denying them their First Amendment rights, they must either pay the amount imposed by the Oregon government, or obtain a bond for the amount of the judgment,” Smith said. “The least expensive option to stay in compliance with the law was to pay the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries funds that will be kept in a separate account until they prevail in their court appeal.”
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The Oregonian reports that the Kleins paid a total of $144,000 to the state this month; that figure includes accrued interest for their refusal to pay it earlier. At the time, they claimed they simply couldn’t afford the fine---even though they’d raised approximately $517,000 from various crowdfunding sites in order to cover the debt. “It's difficult to understand the Kleins’ unwillingness to pay the debt when they have, very publicly, raised nearly a half million dollars,” a labor bureau spokesman said in an October statement.

Despite that windfall, they say they’ve suffered for their refusal to bake the cake. Aaron Klein claims he was forced to work as a garbage collector after they closed their storefront location, and vandals broke into the business’ branded car twice.

We Want Debunk (1) : The Alkaline Diet

If you remember I touched on the acid/alkaline mythos last month. Guerilla Girl attacks from a bit different angle:

The website acidalkalinediet.net says that acid-forming diets are the cause of acidosis and the major cause of diseases like cancer, diabetes, and stroke. This is a red flag of pseudoscientific theories: several different diseases are attributed to one cause. The truth is that each disease is unique and has a unique cause. For the purposes of this post, I’ll talk briefly about acidosis and cancer.
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While it’s certainly true that fruits and vegetables are good for you, it’s because they are nutrient-dense, not because they are alkaline forming. The alkaline diet seems very restrictive to me – it’s basically a raw vegan diet (oooh, another diet to debunk!). I have no problem with ethical vegans, but the vegan diet takes some work to do in a healthy way (see Ginny Messina, RD for more information). Most of the foods on the acid-forming list can be beneficial – fish, dairy, grains, legumes, even caffeine has nutrients and proven health benefits. It seems like restrictive diets are increasingly popular, and there is growing concern that they can lead to disordered eating.

The "disordered eating" issue is one I may tackle some time in the near future.

Pat Robertson: Beat non-religious kids on Christmas until they appreciate ‘blessings of discipline’

Robertson immediately recommended that the grandson should be taken “to the woodshed and let him understand the blessings of discipline.”

“He needs a strong male figure,” Robertson continued. “He’s going to wind up in a correctional institution, and the next thing you know, he’s going to be doing hard time in some prison. And then he would wish he wasn’t such a smart, you know, wise guy. Because he’ll be disciplined in a way that he’ll never forget in some prison.”

“He needs discipline in the worst possible way.”

In the end, the Christian Broadcasting Network founder recommended that the viewer avoid her daughter’s house on Christmas.

UPDATING: Alabama Chief Justice Issues Order Blocking Same-Sex Marriage Licenses

The Chief Justice of the Alabama State Supreme Court Wednesday morning issued an order to all probate judges to not issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Judge Roy Moore claims a previous order issued by his court in March remains in effect, and warns those judges that they "have a ministerial duty not to issue any marriage license contrary" to Alabama state law and its constitution.

Justice Moore, "said the conflict between the state court ruling and the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June has caused 'confusion and uncertainty' among probate judges," AL.com reports.

The Decateur Daily adds that "Moore's order found that a June ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that struck down laws banning same-sex marriage in Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee did not necessarily affect Alabama's similar laws."

Ben Carson would consider banning gays from the military

“Well, I think the first priority again is cohesion, and the second priority would be that the commander-in-chief listen to the best military advice, so on a number of these social issues the best military advice has been thwarted and the administration has said, ‘Do this, do this, do this,’ apart from military and defense considerations as a priority,” said the general.

Tapper asked Carson if he agreed with the general’s remarks, Carson said:

“One of the things that I learned in a long medical career is that you make decisions based on evidence, and not on ideology. So, yes, I would be willing to sit down with people from both sides and examine the evidence and make decisions based on what the evidence shows.”

Nicol Simard of Atheism TV had the perfect response to Ben Carson

He be willing to sit down with people from both sides and examine the evidence and make decisions based on what the evidence shows? This is coming from a creationist? From someone who believes pyramids were build to store grain?

Please don't mind me while I roll on the floor laughing IN A PUDDLE OF MY OWN PISS because he made me pee myself, I laughed so hard.

Matt Carey offers a complete breakdown of the William Thompson debacle that began last year.


The William Thompson Documents. There’s no whistle to blow.

For those unfamiliar with the story of William Thompson, here’s a brief introduction. William Thompson is a CDC researcher who has worked on vaccine/autism studies. About 2 years ago he approached Brian Hooker (an autism parent and very vocal advocate for the idea that vaccines cause autism) stating that a statistically significant result was not only left out of an old study but that this represented not a scientific decision, but misconduct on the part of the CDC. It is worth noting that “statistically significant” is not the same as “proof of a connection”. Brian Hooker published his own analysis (incorrectly claimed as being the same as the CDC analysis method) in a now retracted paper. The result he presented was that there was an apparent increased risk of autism for one small subset of the study population: African American males, who were vaccinated not on schedule but before age 3.

There are some questions, of course, that this raises. Is this result very strong? Does the lack of inclusion in the paper represent scientific fraud or a legitimate scientific decision?

Those following the anti-vaxx movement are well aware of the stir this caused. Those outside the "bubble" should have been but the story was woefully under-reported.

The importance of what Matt didn't find: 1] The vaccines-cause-autism story is built on lies and it is very damaging. There has been nothing since the Kanner/Bettleheim “refrigerator parent” idea that has caused so much damage to our community. And that is the real story here. A group of people perpetuating a failed idea by carefully crafting a story.

In other words maybe now this trope can finally be laid to rest and science can concentrate on what it does best.   "And they [referring to Hooker and Wakefield] still aren’t calling for better services better diagnosis in these underserved groups. Instead they are just trying to recruit as many parents as they into the vaccines-cause-autism camp. Imagine being convinced, wrongly, that you participated in injuring your own child. The charlatans who prey on our community with fake–and sometimes abusive–therapies rely on the vaccine/autism idea for the majority of their business."

2] Science wins!!

I really should have written more about this debacle,,,sigh!!

Science deniers use false equivalence to create fake debates

This article is #3 of the 12 most popular posts on Skeptical Raptor during 2015. This article discusses how science deniers employ false equivalence to create fake debates.

If you read a news article, Google a scientific topic, or watch TV, you’d think that some scientific principles were actually being debated by scientists. The unfiltered information about important scientific subjects allows the science deniers to use a false equivalence to make it appear that the often minority, and scientifically unsupported viewpoint is equivalent to the scientific consensus which is based on huge amounts of published evidence.

From listening to the screaming and yelling, you would think that scientists aren’t sure about evolution, vaccines, global warming, and the age of the earth (or even the age of the universe). There are even those who think there’s a debate that HIV doesn’t cause AIDS. It’s because some news sources think there’s a debate, so bring one person to represent one side, and one for the other, and the person screams the loudest often wins.

An anti-equality faith healer is trying to build a mega-complex in San Diego

Morris Cerullo, an 84-year-old evangelical mega-church pastor and self-proclaimed faith healer and miracle worker, is proposing an 18.1-acre mega-church complex in the city of San Diego, California.

Cerullo, who was convicted for falsifying tax documents between 1998 and 2000, a conviction overturned on a technicality in 2007, has been flying under the radar in the city with this proposal that would include a religious retreat, underground catacombs, a Jerusalem-style Wailing Wall, an outdoor amphitheater and bazaar, a TV studio, and timeshare units for his followers.

The complex would be built on the site of the San Diego Resort Hotel complex which Cerullo recently purchased.