Monday, September 27, 2010

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

8 comments:

Mark said...

"Since its founding in 1943, AAPS has been the only national organization consistently supporting the principles of the free market in medical practice." There you have it: the infallible religion of the market.

Horatio Algeranon said...

"principles of the free market in medical practice"

IE, freedom to have a snake oil salesman do your sextuple by-pass surgery, by-passing your brain in addition to 5 blocked coronary arteries.

Robert said...

Hey Eli,
Just realized something, you haven't got skeptical science listed under mostly science...

Anonymous said...

Snow Bunny says

Who would go to a doctor like those?

David B. Benson said...

Snow Bunny --- Belivers in a so-called free market?

Anonymous said...

So under their ideology I should be able to call myself Dr Mouse and start practicing. Provided I did not do abortions all would be good.

Could be a little tough on my patients, I would probably have to move state every year or so.

Take a glass of shiraz before bed.

THE CLIMATE WARS said...

Won't concurring with Mooney make me fair game in the War on Republican Scientists ?

GreyFlcn said...

You think that is bad Eli.

The guy who wrote that fake-science paper for the Oregon Petition, published for AAPS in JPANDs, along with Baliunas and Soon (and his own son)

Later getting a formal letter of rebuke, direct from the National Academy of Sciences for attempting to forge his paper so that it looked like it came from them.

Arthur B. Robison is running for Congress in Oregon!!

This guy who was scraping buy on Social Security payments, suddenly has spent over $200000 on media buy-outs for a single congressional district. Drowning out his opponent's spending by orders of magnitude.

Due to this last years "Corporations are people too", supreme court ruling, campaign finance rules this year don't even begin to let us find out who's funding him.

http://msnbcpod.vo.llnwd.net/pb/e1/audio/podcast/pd_maddow_mp3-09-30-2010-191012.mp3