Rand Paul and deja vu all over again

Several have remarked about the all around denialism displayed by our good buddies, and indeed, Eli has in the past pointed to the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons and Tax Cheats, an organization basically dedicated to making sure that no quack pays his fair share as well as HIV, malaria, climate, vaccination denialism and other common delusions of the right.

Today he reads that the Republican running for the US Senate in Kentucky, Rand Paul, is a dues paying member of the AAPS since 1990. The Courier Journal got some great quotes from AAPS's executive director, Jane Orient (you can read all about her at Eli's)

Orient said the AAPS doesn’t generally take positions on medical issues and merely attempts to highlight views that are not widely accepted.“We just raise questions,” she said. “There is no settled science about anything. … If you are working on the wrong hypothesis, how are you ever going to get the right answer?”

but they add the he said, to the she said

Dr. George Nichols, Kentucky’s former longtime medical examiner, said the AAPS’ positions sound like a combination of “pseudo-science, public policy and mysticism.”

. . .“They don’t understand science at all?” Nichols asked. “To deny that is to not be in touch with reality.”

as Rudy Baum, editor of Chemical and Engineering News said

Why does any of this matter? Why not just ignore AAPS, JPANDS, and OISM and the noise emanating from them? For the same reason science can't ignore creationism and intelligent design: The goal of the antiscience movement is to endlessly cast doubt on legitimate science.

Chris Mooney is right. Details about AAPS here