On the critical need for an educated populace and transparent government

"A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to Farce, or a Tragedy, or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance. And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."

-James Madison

Vote

Here in colorado we were able to cast our vote a while ago and many of us did.

For those who haven't or couldn't today is THE day. It looks like the country is in for a big turn out and history is in the making whatever your choice.

Hopefully you've considered the issues through all the sophistry and rhetoric.

Hopefully reason, inclusion and clear thinking surface as the new focus for national governance.

Hopefully most of us will excersize our basic civic duty and VOTE.

Treating evidence with contempt

Sad commentary regarding the use of critical thinking by many complemenary and alternative proponents:

"For 15 years I have studied the effectiveness and safety of treatments such as acupuncture and homeopathy. Often, the results were not what the proponents ofthese treatments had hoped for. One would have thought that this might lead to debate, further research, or even health policy changes. Sometimes it has, but recently we have witnessed a new phenomenon.

People or organisations promoting highly questionable treatments are treating the evidence with contempt and flex their legal muscle to have it their way. The New Zealand Journal of Medicine recently published an article showing that most chiropractors use the title "doctor." The argument was that this might mislead patients and cause harm. As a consequence, the chiropractors sought to silence the journal by threatening legal action. (1) Fortunately the attempt failed.

The Guardian was sued for libel by Matthias Rath. The paper had exposed Rath’s strategyof convincing South Africa’s government that his vitamin pills were more effective than antiretroviral drugs for treating AIDS. The Guardian put up a fight, and eventually Rath dropped the libel action and was ordered to pay costs. (2) An editorial in the Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/13/matthiasrath.aids noted that Rath’s activity in South Africa "provides a terrible illustration of thepotential consequences of treating the evidence with contempt."

Science journalist Simon Singh recently condemned the British Chiropractic Association for advocating chiropractic care as a treatment for childhood asthma and a rangeof other paediatric conditions. Instead of arguing their corner publicly, the association filed a libel action against Singh (www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mandrake/2570744/Doctors-take-Simon-Singh-to-court.html). The case is likely to come before the courts soon.

When I critically commented on a report that Prince Charles had commissioned on the cost effectiveness of alternative medicine, (3) my university received a letter from the prince’s first private secretary, Sir Michael Peat, to "draw attention"to what he perceived as a "breach of confidence" on my behalf. It took a gruelling 13 months of an internal inquiry at Exeter University to clear my name.

Since I published a book with Simon Singh that evaluated the evidence for or against homoeopathy and other alternative treatments, (4) UK homoeopaths have been engaging in an elaborate campaign of multiple letter writing, repeatedly invoking the Freedom of Information Act to harass and silence me. This letter shows that they have failed. All of this "is not just unpleasant, it is also unhealthy," commented Ben Goldacre. (5)

I would add that the frequency of these events in recent months is downright scary. People who use legal muscle and power, rather than reason and debate, are a danger to reason and progress. What is at stake here is our right, I would argue our duty, to speak out against misleading claims and dangerous concepts. We should find ways of protecting ourselves against such enemies of reason. "

Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a2063 Edzard Ernst, Laing chair of complementary medicine"

Gilbey A. Use of inappropriate titles by New Zealand practitioners of acupuncture,chiropractic, and osteopathy.

N Z Med J 2008;121(1278):15-20Boseley S. Matthias Rath drops libel action against Guardian.

BMJ 2008;337:a1710(18 September.)Henderson M. Prince plots alternative treatments for the NHS.

Times 2005 Aug 24:1.Singh S, Ernst E. Trick or treatment? Alternative medicine on trial. London: BantamPress, 2008. Goldacre B. With their money, myopia and abuses, these pill makers match big pharma.Guardian 2008 Sep 13:34.

The science of economy

The process of learning necessarily implies that any held opinions and concepts need to be continually examined, re-examined and -in light of new information- often modified or expanded upon to better fit a larger picture of understanding. This takes time, leads to many twists & turns and can frustrate a lot of people!

For example, it can put one at complete odds with a "faction" of people and yet alternatively, at other times, in solid agreement with that same crowd. This goes for a plethora of 'categorized' groups- many of whom are polar opposites of each other! Granted, there are always those folks with whom the only thing you ever find in common with is the air that’s breathed!

On the one hand, we need to acknowledge and consider solid reasoning while, on the other hand, take issue with hubris & bullshit no matter the origin- be they liberals, conservatives, independents....neocons, neosocialists, neoluddites, isolationists, consumerists, comunalists,...theocons, fundies, dogmatists, apologists... bioluddites, nihilists, primitivists, anarchists, globalists, anti-globalists, corporatists, anti-corporates...yadda… yadda…

Obviously, categorizing ourselves in these ways is quite arbitrary anyway and is really only marginally useful if you think about it a while. In fact, I find even the most stalwart extremists I know succeed only in fooling themselves much of the time.

The reality is we are quite schizophrenic when it comes down to it and can be described -at one moment or another in varying degrees- with any of the spectrum of descriptive adjectives we've come up with so far. We are Narcissus and Goldmund blended -a bizarre fusion of tangled humanity. On the other hand, many of us strive to reach out for that “candle in the night” in a search for the truer nature of things.

In that vein, I've been following a variety of economic topic threads with the goal of trying to understand the bigger economics conversation a little better…Short take so far is nothing new. That is, 'purism' of any sort doesn't work and striving for a smeared and messy, yet transparent and educated participatory "middle" seems most realistic -even with its concurrent complexities. Here the gorilla in the room -whatever it is for you- becomes a more benign presence and allows for more 'humane' versions of free market (& capitalist) economies of scale.

Anyway, thought you might be intrigued with this economics book list I'm building up. It's proving useful as a data base for the so called "dismal science" and offers tools to differentiate between the "wheat & the chaff" and what's already right & what's not.

Though my keenest interests lie elsewhere -actually waaaay elsewhere- I guess it's important to have some working awareness of a topic that so affects us all. If you have any favorite economy book, lectures, or other suggestions, please send them along!

Economics book list (partial):

Game Theory: Analysis of Conflict

Economics and the Theory of Games

The Worldly Philosophers

Nudge

New Ideas from Dead Economists

Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science

The Undercover Economist

The Race Between Education and Technology

The Mind of the Market

Poverty Traps

Inequality in America

Social Movements: Identity, Culture and the State

Astronomy lectures and climate change

From the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures...a very interesting talk:

Take an entertaining and enlighting journey with astronomer and popular author Dr. David Grinspoon through the history of our solar system, discovering run away greenhouses and snowball planets. Compare the evolution of Venus, Earth, and Mars over the years and learn how studying the evolution of other planets can help us understand and predict climate change on Earth.

Labrador love

Doesn't get much better...

On occasion, I will be passing previous posts relating to evidence and science based veterinary medicine, complementary and alternative veterinary medicine and other pertinent skeptical issues to the Vetskeptics blog.

This is an attempt at consolidating veterinary & other medical information relating to skeptical information about CAM/CAVM that may prove useful and interesting in a more focused venue. Time permitting, some of these posts will be expanded upon. As always, posts from anyone interested in contributing (see vetskeptic blog) are welcome.

The Beyond the illusion post touches on some of the factors that confound and fool practitioners and others into thinking ineffective therapies work when they really don't.