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Obama and Quackery

Posted by Michael Babbitt on Tuesday, November 18, 2008 10:37:12 AM

I have been reading a lot lately on medical quackery, which has exploded in western countries in the past 20 years. Everything from Reiki to Reflexology to Neurolinguistic Programming and other psychobabble quackeries are omnipresent in most urban areas and even now entering hospitals. Just add to this list the immense vitamin and food fads and you get the picture. These modalities are thriving even though there has never been any objective and independent evidence supporting their efficacy. A lot of money is being funneled into these therapies and fads and they have been mainstreamed already in an alarming way. Just go to your local college campus or the local YMCA and see this for yourself.

This stream of thought got me thinking about the past election season. Barack Obama also had no objective evidence showing support that he had the skills to be a good executive besides his being a savant of oratory. His snake oil was “Change you can believe in” and he sold it as any good quack doctor could.  He was going to heal this country and this planet and I understand more fully now how he could be so successful in this country. Medical quackery has become accepted by an alarming amount of people; it’s the in thing today amongst an Oprahfied and gullible population. Barack Obama just rode the wave into the Whitehouse.

When you just want to feel better, quackery can really do the job as it involves human interaction, support, and strong belief – the placebo effect will be optimized. The only problem is that when you are seriously ill, you need a real doctor who will deal with reality, not a charlatan full of promises. Obama now finds himself with a quite ill patient: the US economy in a world filled with cunning foes and he will need a lot more than oratory to heal this mess. He is stuck with it. There’s no turning back for him now. Let’s see if he can muster those qualities that are really needed at this time: Decisiveness, courage, honesty, wisdom, and persistence. He showed some of these qualities in the campaign but running the most powerful nation in the world is a lot different that running a campaign. He has to become the real leader he has claimed to be or be exposed as just another political quack selling his wares to the gullible.

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Hard to get into the Beijing Olympics

Posted by Michael Babbitt on Saturday, August 09, 2008 2:21:35 AM
I watched the televised opening for awhile and was impressed by many of the performances and technostunts of the Chinese. But I just couldn't stomach it for very long. To remember what a totalitarian society it is and see all of the blabbering by NBC, Coca Cola,  and the Chinese about Harmony and bringing us all together while the Chinese supply weapons to the Sudanese with which to advance their genocide --  or to realize how the Chinese have decimated Tibetan culture; or how they constantly threaten the Taiwanese;  or how they just revoked Joey Cheek's travel visa because he dared to speak up about Darfur -- it all seems just a sick joke. Yeah, everyone is smiling and celebrating this fascist state's ability to put on a good show with all of the popular-speak about international goodwill. What a load of BS. If anyone had any integrity they would just speak the truth about the horrors the Chinese commit daily in the world in their self-promotion. Now that would be speaking Truth to Power.
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Man-Made Global Warming should be proven

Posted by Michael Babbitt on Thursday, December 13, 2007 8:03:31 AM
After reviewing the debate over the past few years, one thing really strikes me: Why isn't the focus and imagination of scientists centered around how global warming is naturally occurring instead of this tortured accumulation and selective use of proxies and other data sets? Why isn't the onus on the AGW advocates to prove that the data cannot be interpreted by other set of theories. Whatever happened to Occam's Razor? Jumping to the conclusion that C02 is the only reason possible for explaining warmer temperatures is not an expression of the principle of Occam's Razor. Instead, it is a sign of sloppy thinking and mental laziness. Shouldn't there be a wall of non-anthropogenic global warming theories that account for the current warming that the AGW theorists should have to truly break through? I guess groupthink and money (funding) have distorted the scientific community and media. Perhaps we should propose that AGW is the pet theory of George W. Bush. Then you would see the fury released and AGW would quickly become a laughingstock. 
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Celebrating Diversity?

Posted by Michael Babbitt on Thursday, November 08, 2007 9:58:12 PM
Why is it that right when you hear we are a nation or culture that celebrates diversity, you reflexively expect that some established, publicly expressed tradition is going to be taken away from view. For example -- and we have all heard stories like this -- if you have Christmas trees in a public venue, in the name of honoring diversity, they are taken down. No more Menorahs for Hanukkah either. As if a public display of someone's revered tradition is,  by default, insulting to another group, whether they be Muslims or Atheists. Is this celebrating diversity or is this just celebrating cowardice? Why can't all major traditions be allowed expression in the public sphere unless they are explicitly and actively insulting to another group? And why can't private groups fund these expressions instead of asking a business or government to provide the financial support. Liberty and Diversity go hand in hand. What we see today in many situations honors or celebrates neither.
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Daily Kos poster slanders Petraeus -- the stage is set

Posted by Michael Babbitt on Saturday, September 15, 2007 11:09:36 PM
I think Hugh Hewitt has it right: it was "[a]n extraordinary week, the events of which will be referred to again and again throughout the next year, and with good reason." The trashing of General Petraeus by moveoon.org and the refusal of any Democratic presidential contender to repudiate the ad is the line in the sand that clearly and defininitely separates the Republicans from the Democrats in this upcoming election cycle. Hillary Clinton's insulting comments to General Petraeus only serves to make this division wider.

I just read a post at the Daily Kos by a nutter named "gopher747"  (hat tip, little green footballs) who not only echoed the words of moveon.org and Hillary Clinton but went so far as to call General Petraeus, this incredibly great American, "Bushes media whore". This is the web site that all of the Democrats seek to elicit praise from or at least try not to invoke their ire. I think that to raise the ire of these jokers should be seen as a badge of honor. Thus, to my way of thinking General Petraeus continues to expand his realm of honor.
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The Real Chickens

Posted by Michael Babbitt on Thursday, September 13, 2007 10:45:54 AM
During the Petraeus hearings, Hillary Clinton and her compatriots in the Democrat party have shown their true level of courage : They are more afraid of MoveOn.org than the truth about the perils we face in today's world. They will sell out their country and civilization for temporary power gains. Not one Democrat has condemned the MoveOn ad in the NYTs that slandered an American General whom every Senator had unanimously approved earlier in the year, with accolades of how great he was. That speaks volumes as to their readiness to lead and defend the country.
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Bush Can't Even Manage a Motorcade

Posted by Michael Babbitt on Thursday, August 30, 2007 12:03:45 PM
The Time article entitled, "Bush Motorcade Kills Cop" has already been commented on by many. I just had to put my 2 cents in. It was just so outrageous. When I read the title and then the article I thought to myself, "Is there any clearer indication of the press' depravity than that title?" Could that title get by any editor who had an ounce of decency? Woudn't, "Cop dies in motorcade accident", be somewhat closer to the storyline? You decide.
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Intercultural Sensitivity

Posted by Michael Babbitt on Monday, August 27, 2007 12:39:45 PM
I studied the Intercultural Sensitivity model of Milton J. Bennett, MD in graduate school. You can read about it here. In short Bennett provides a 6 stage developmental model of intercultural sensitivity that ranges from Denial of Differences up to the Integration stage. Read the article carefully and see if it strikes you as it did me and some of my fellow classmates: as self-contradictory. Bennett attempts to define how intercultural sensitivity is supposed to look like, yet if you do find your culture superior to others -- and I do believe American culture in its tradition of valuing individual freedom over authoritarian rule is superior to many others  -- you are deemed at a lower level on Bennett's scale. To my thinking, Bennett's scale has a basic and distinct cultural bias (multiculturalism) that is a judgement against those who judge. It has a definite superiority slant. It is one thing to accept another culture as it is; it is another thing to not be able to pass judgement on others. Read what Learners at each stage say and how their remarks are framed. It's just plain silly to feel completely comfortable in a culture that is at its core at odds with your own; it is a form of Denial. You might have to fully adapt to another culture to work within it but to give up judgment takes it to another and self-destructive plane. As usual in academia today, it paints too broadly with a single brush stroke.  
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