Ralph Nadar's answer to a woo believer was impressive.

[Skeptic Ginger]

I was watching Ralph Nadar on CSPAN today. He has a lot of "alternative" followers. I wondered what he was going to say to the woman who asked/ranted about the licensing and regulating by the evil establishment which she saw as a barrier to her seeking non-evidence based medicine. [paraphrased of course] I really wondered how he was going to respond since he is very much anti-establishment himself.

Nope, he was great. He said that he was just as concerned about charlatans and bad medicine in the unorthodoxed arena as in the orthodoxed one, and that sometimes the FDA does do good things. Licensing and regulations were important.

He did go on to say we weren't paying enough attention to all the morbidity and mortality from medical errors and side effects which is true.


Side note: he also said when he went on the Randi Rhodes show and Randi wouldn't let him get a word in as she ranted. So he left (or hung up, I can't remember). Rhodes is always going on about woo in medicine. She had a rant about vaccine causing autism a few months back and went on about how she knew all about this from educating herself. Sad.

Seems the right has the religious woo followers and the left has all the 'out there' woo followers. sigh...

[CACTUSJACKmankin]

The right is religous, the left is spiritual and anti-authority. While I consider myself pretty liberal, I am first and foremost pro-science. I think that regardless of political leanings most people should be able to agree with that last part.

[valis]

Side note: he also said when he went on the Randi Rhodes show and Randi wouldn't let him get a word in as she ranted.

Ha! Sort of, kinda a derail but I used to listen to Randi Rhodes almost every afternoon when she was on locally in South Florida. She is totally nuts.

Two of her greatest hits that I remember well:

The day after the 2000 election she tried to start a drive for a "re-vote" in Palm Beach County. Someone calls and points out that nobody who voted third party on purpose is going to vote the same way again knowing that their votes carried so much weight.She claimed that people would have to raise their hand and give an oath that they would vote the same way the second time as they did the first; and people would not violate that.

My all time favorite though was "I hate George Bush because I am not a hateful person but the people that work for him have forced me to hate him". Then when someone called her the next day to point out the hypocrisy of her calling Limbaugh and others hate mongers she said "I don't hate anyone, I've never said I hate anyone". She is so nuts she makes Sean Hannity sound sensible.

[Jimbo07]

The right is religous, the left is spiritual and anti-authority. While I consider myself pretty liberal, I am first and foremost pro-science. I think that regardless of political leanings most people should be able to agree with that last part.

Sconded.

The extreme right have whackjob religious fundie nutbags.

The extreme left have whackjob hippie-dippie crystal-loving nutbags.

Politics and science tend to mix badly... :(

[Skeptic Ginger]

The right is religous, the left is spiritual and anti-authority. While I consider myself pretty liberal, I am first and foremost pro-science. I think that regardless of political leanings most people should be able to agree with that last part.I was just overgeneralizing, There's some validity in the differences but clearly lines are not so well drawn. What I do find disturbing is that skeptics don't always have that critical thinking cap on when they evaluate political messages.

I thought of something else Nadar said. He told one of the 911 CTers that plausibility wasn't evidence. I'm going to suggest Nadar for the next TAM. That man is a true skeptic underneath it all.

[EeneyMinnieMoe]

Man, I hate Randi Rhodes. I'm liberal myself and think it's great to have a woman on radio but the very sight (and sound) of that fat loudmouth iritates me to no end. Go back to harrassing your gardener in Florida, please.

That's how it goes. The right's woo-woo is religion while the left's is alternative medicine, conspiracy theories, paranoid distrust of government and anything made for corporations exactly like RR's rants about this and this causing genetic diseases, "milk is bad for you" PETA crap, health food with no science behind it, New Age and all other out there woo-woo.

I can't decide which one is worse.

[EeneyMinnieMoe]

Man, I hate Randi Rhodes. I'm liberal myself and think it's great to have a woman on radio but the very sight (and sound) of that fat loudmouth iritates me to no end. Go back to harrassing your gardener in Florida, please.

That's how it goes. The right's woo-woo is religion while the left's is alternative medicine, conspiracy theories, paranoid distrust of government and anything made for corporations exactly like RR's rants about this and this causing genetic diseases, "milk is bad for you" PETA crap, health food with no science behind it, New Age and all other out there woo-woo.

I can't decide which one is worse.

[EeneyMinnieMoe]

Man, I hate Randi Rhodes. I'm liberal myself and think it's great to have a woman on radio but the very sight (and sound) of that fat loudmouth iritates me to no end. Go back to harrassing your gardener in Florida, please.

That's how it goes. The right's woo-woo is religion while the left's is alternative medicine, conspiracy theories, paranoid distrust of government and anything made for corporations exactly like RR's rants about this and this causing genetic diseases, "milk is bad for you" PETA crap, health food with no science behind it, New Age and all other out there woo-woo.

I can't decide which one is worse.

[fuelair]

Man, I hate Randi Rhodes. I'm liberal myself and think it's great to have a woman on radio but the very sight (and sound) of that fat loudmouth iritates me to no end. Go back to harrassing your gardener in Florida, please.

That's how it goes. The right's woo-woo is religion while the left's is alternative medicine, conspiracy theories, paranoid distrust of government and anything made for corporations exactly like RR's rants about this and this causing genetic diseases, "milk is bad for you" PETA crap, health food with no science behind it, New Age and all other out there woo-woo.

I can't decide which one is worse.
Watch out, your posts are cloning themselves (happened to me once!!):D

[Skeptic Ginger]

I think EeneyMinnieMoe's getting impatient with the submit post button. Just like elevator buttons and the pedestrian cross button to change the intersection traffic lights, pushing them more times doesn't speed anything up.

[EeneyMinnieMoe]

My PC was going super slow, probably due to a virus :blush:. I thought my post didn't make it through at all, checked back on my laptop and found it had! Thrice over.

[alfaniner]

Just an fyi. "Nader" -- rhymes with "Vader".

Don't feel bad because there was a popular patch and sticker about 30 years ago that stated clearly "Darth Vadar Lives!".

[EeneyMinnieMoe]

"Nadir" is also one of those 25 dollar words you gotta know for the SATS. It means the lowest point.

[alfaniner]

"Nadir" is also one of those 25 dollar words you gotta know for the SATS. It means the lowest point.

And the highest point is... "Magnavox", right? :)

[Skeptic Ginger]

Re the slow loading posts, it is a frequent problem on this forum. It may not be your computer.

Being the impatient person I am, I just use Firefox's tab browsing and go to another page until the one I'm waiting for loads.

[SezMe]

I'm liberal myself and think it's great to have a woman on radio but the very sight (and sound) of that fat loudmouth iritates me to no end.
My bolding.

This being a skeptics board, we like evidence. Here (http://www.therandirhodesshow.com/live/team/randirhodes) is a tad bit to counter your assertion. You wanna rebut?

[ponderingturtle]

Man, I hate Randi Rhodes. I'm liberal myself and think it's great to have a woman on radio but the very sight (and sound) of that fat loudmouth iritates me to no end. Go back to harrassing your gardener in Florida, please.

That's how it goes. The right's woo-woo is religion while the left's is alternative medicine, conspiracy theories, paranoid distrust of government and anything made for corporations exactly like RR's rants about this and this causing genetic diseases, "milk is bad for you" PETA crap, health food with no science behind it, New Age and all other out there woo-woo.

I can't decide which one is worse.

Hey distrust of the goverment is on both extreems. Also conspiracy theories.

[ponderingturtle]

Re the slow loading posts, it is a frequent problem on this forum. It may not be your computer.

Being the impatient person I am, I just use Firefox's tab browsing and go to another page until the one I'm waiting for loads.

THe forum in general seems to be not all that stable. Not really sure why, but it does seem to go down a lot.