A picture does indeed say a thousand words.

In this case the picture is a cartoon. My better-half posted this on my facebook page and in one image the point of many of my long-winded postings has been encapsulated.

 

Now I have a page that I can link to every time I hear somebody on social media going on about the ills of vaccination, modern medicine, industrialization, non-organic food, energy, pesticide, fertilization, radio communication, trade or just progress in general.

Thanks Jane. 🙂

Walla walla bing bang.

Yes folks our Alberta’s provincial government has moved beyond being simply inept and arrogant into the world of the bizzare.

Heathcare consistently ranks as a prime issue with Albertans. With waiting lists hitting critical levels despite massive annual increases in government spending, our brilliant Health Minister Fred Horne has taken it upon himself to give naturopaths full status as “medical professionals”.  

For those wisely not familiar with naturopaths, these cranks tend to practice such brilliant therapies as homeopathy and touch therapy among other forms of quackery. They tend towards conspiracy theories and generally are against medical advancements such as, drugs, vaccines and effective treatment of ailments.

I won’t go into too much detail as to why naturopathy is quackery as it has been so thoroughly covered by many others. I will put a couple links below to save some googling.

A Close Look at Naturopathy Stephen Barrett, M.D.

More naturopathic nonsense in Ontario

Homeopathy: The Ultimate Fake

Below I will add a link to a bit by my my favorite libertarians (Penn and Teller).

Their shows are laden with expletives but they do such an excellent job of debunking the “alternative” medicine movement that they are well worth watching.

People can go waste whatever money, time and health they like with whatever crackpot treatment they like. It is their money and their bodies.

When we are talking about the sanctioning of practices by our government though, we must stick to EVIDENCE BASED MEDICINE. 

Yes, there has been a process set about to determine what falls under evidence based medicine. Double blind studies, peer review and proven results are the sort of hurdles that treatments are expected to pass before being considered evidence based.

Naturopaths of course reject the concept of evidence based medicine. That is not surprising considering pretty much no naturopathic treatments can withstand proper medical scrutiny.

Don’t listen to crap people spit out about how the treatments have been around for hundreds of years. People used to drill holes in the skulls of patients to let the demons out hundreds of years ago, that does not make it a valid treatment. The average life expectancy a couple hundred years ago was 36 years. Is that something to aspire to?

There are claims that now that naturopathy has a college, they will be able to self-govern. Oh good, quacks governing quacks. That should ensure effective treatment.

Don’t let them snow you pointing out how long naturopathic quacks have gone to school. A person could spend decades in school studying astrology, that person still will not be able to predict the future and will be as well trained to treat ailments as your typical naturopath.

Government sanction of naturopathy adds to the facade of legitimacy for these quacks. You can rest assured that naturopaths will soon be demanding public funding for their pap and considering government is sanctioning them, it very well could happen.

Our healthcare system is under pressure and is crit

She’s just a celebrity folks.

 Medicinal quackery knows no bounds. There are people who swear by crystal healing, ear candling, touch therapy, a frightening variety of enemas and herbs that cure everything from the sniffles to brain cancer.

 Hey, if people feel better trying such methods to cure disease and they want to pay for it themselves; go to town. I only become annoyed when the “alternative medicine” crowd does two things; ask for public funding for unproven therapies, and encourage people to eschew the use of conventional medicine for real conditions.

 A common thread for those who are locked in the world of witch-doctory is an irrational distrust of scientifically proven medicine and an almost evangelical compulsion to try and spread the word on their chosen conspiracy theories.

 The anti-vaccination group is one of the most kooky and dangerous out there. I say kooky as the evidence of the benefits of vaccination is rather overwhelming. How many people have we seen suffering from smallpox lately? Where did the polio epidemic go? What has happened to general life expectancies since inoculation became a broad practice? These people drift into the realm of dangerous when they lobby against such a clearly beneficial practice and they truly do put our children at risk with their odd notions.

 Most of the anti-vaccination nuts simply roam the internet spamming discussion forums with baseless links and youtube videos that they feel proves that the medicinal community is trying to kill us all with vaccinations. These cranks are easily dismissed as their case holds no merit. Unfortunately, now and then a celebrity jumps into the mix and gives a degree of perceived credibility to the baseless claims against things such as vaccination. Jenny McCarthy has been working hard on this one.

jenny mccarthy

 As we can see in the picture above, Jenny is well qualified for the role of being a former Playboy bunny as she is. McCarthy’s nude modelling hardly qualifies her as a medical expert however.

 It is a sad reflection on society that celebrity status often holds such weight with public opinion. The army of researchers and physicians who constantly demonstrate the scientifically proven benefits of vaccination are ignored by some as they take the medical council of a person who has only proven to be qualified to flash her boobs in a widely circulated magazine. Wake up people!!

 In Time magazine this month, Jenny spouted the profanity laced wisdom below:

I do believe sadly it’s going to take some diseases coming back to realize that we need to change and develop vaccines that are safe. If the vaccine companies are not listening to us, it’s their f___ing fault that the diseases are comingback. They’re making a product that’s s___. If you give us a safe vaccine, we’ll use it. It shouldn’t be polio versus autism.

 

 How profound. Never mind that the link to autism caused by vaccination has been repeatedly and completely debunked. Unfortunately Time magazine has a wider circulation than medical journals and McCarthy is easier on the eye than a pale researcher who is pointing out scientific fact.

 Jenny McCarthy would rather see massive outbreaks of diseases that kill children than accept the proven fact that there is no link between vaccination and autism.

 McCarthy’s crusade against science, common sense and fact has been going on for a couple years now. A website calculating the sickness and death potentially caused by Jenny’s vapid actions has been formed. I hope the count does not grow much more.

 Most people can rationally dismiss the kinds of claims that Jenny is making. Unfortunately, those few who have been listening to nuts like Jenny are not only putting their children at risk, they are putting all children at risk. Vaccination needs to be in broad use in order for it to be most effective. We can look forward to outbreaks of diseases that we had previously thought conquered if enough people listen to the pap McCarthy is spewing and the price will be dear.

 Keep in mind, many celebrities have fallen for and are promoting Scientology as well. That religion was created by a science fiction writer for crying out loud.

 Mass exposure does not mean instant credibility. I wish more people could understand that. Vaccinate your kids.