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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
 Posted - 04/04/2012 : 08:43:01
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If you know this face, please post the name below.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
Edited by - HalfMooner on 04/04/2012 08:51:25
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 04/04/2012 : 09:46:29 [Permalink]
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I was going to say Bob Park, but then I stumbled across a photo of him while going to get the link to What's New.
But... oh, it's Stephen Barrett, of Quackwatch fame. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 04/04/2012 : 10:07:21 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dave W.
I was going to say Bob Park, but then I stumbled across a photo of him while going to get the link to What's New.
But... oh, it's Stephen Barrett, of Quackwatch fame.
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You are correct, Dave! Congratulations! Yes Dr. Stephen Barrett, the retired psychiatrist who is co-founder of the National Council Against Health Fraud, and Webmaster of Quackwatch. Barrett is one of my heroes. He's got a lot of enemies, because his courageous good sense threatens the wealth of many execrable quacks and con-men. |
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 04/04/2012 11:40:02 |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 04/04/2012 : 11:40:45 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dave W.
It's BarRett, by the way.
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Thanks. Fixed that. |
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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brainfan
New Member
2 Posts |
Posted - 04/12/2012 : 18:29:42 [Permalink]
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| It's too bad that such a deeply flawed person would have such a strong influence on those who endeavor to avoid flawed thinking. |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 04/12/2012 : 21:14:38 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by brainfan
It's too bad that such a deeply flawed person would have such a strong influence on those who endeavor to avoid flawed thinking.
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At great personal trouble and risk to himself, Dr. Barrett has spent his retirement years defending real science-based medicine against quick-buck scam artist quacks who don't mind their "patients" dying, so long as they pay first.
The quacks hate him for this. How does any of this make Barrett "such a deeply flawed person"? |
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 04/12/2012 21:15:03 |
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brainfan
New Member
2 Posts |
Posted - 04/13/2012 : 06:58:43 [Permalink]
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First of all, "retirement" is used generously here as most people would consider a prerequisite of retirement is to have first had a working life. Stephen Barrett is one of the only physicians I know of who could not hold down a full-time job as a physician.
Secondly, this "gatekeeper of science" has ironically had difficulty with science. He chose to specialize in psychiatry, the least scientific of the medical disciplines. Then he chose to take the board certification test and failed it. Yes, I know he says he didn't HAVE to pass it. The point is he took it and failed. Why did he fail? Because as he himself said, he failed the portion that focused on neurology, the very portion that has to do with physiological science and the very portion that WOULD have informed him regarding the use of pharmaceuticals.
After having failed to establish a career as a care-giver, he embarked on his quest against "quackery", not in his retirement, but back in the 1970s. The American Medical Association used to have a department whose purpose was to dispense propaganda against any medical field that did not come under its umbrella. Given that the arguments used to show that fields such as chiropractic and acupuncture could also be used against many AMA treatments, they relinquished this department and handed it over to Barrett, who renamed it the National Council on Health Fraud.
Over the ensuing decades, Barrett has shown himself to be perfectly willing to attack not just the stereotypical witch-doctors that people like to bring up, but bona fide medical doctors who embrace some practices that are out of the mainstream because the mainstream has yet to offer a solution of its own. As an example of his completely biased focus, we can look at acupuncture. When presented with a study that showed that animals showed statistically significant improvements with acupuncture, Barrett actually suggested that maybe animals respond to the placebo effect. This is not the approach of a person who uses the open-minded approach of science; it is the approach of a person who has reached a conclusion before science has had the chance to work. On the other hand, the British Medical Journal did a study of 2,500 standard medical procedures and found over 50% of them have either no efficacy, poor efficacy, or unknown efficacy. This is because, contrary to the faulty information out there, mainstream medicine has NOT performed the sorts of studies that Barrett insists alternative practitioners use.
Stephen Barrett launches attacks against those medical doctors I mentioned earlier. Despite the fact that their own data shows efficacy and even when they have ZERO patient complaints, Barrett launches complaints himself to have the FDA shut their practices down and embroils them in expensive legal battles. All the while he is removing sources of medical treatment from people who need them.
Furthermore, Stephen Barrett deliberately mischaracterizes various illnesses and makes proclamations that are patent fabrications. For one example, his book on Multiple Chemical Sensitivity is a poster child for logical fallacies and a refusal to engage the scientific process. This malicious denial of a medical illness was written with co-author Ronald Gots M.D., himself the subject of a 60 Minutes expose that showed his business of insurance review was a scam, leaving disabled people without insurance coverage because all his company issued was denials. Various courts of law have found both Barrett and Gots to be entirely without credibility. Before I veer too far from the multiple chemical sensitivity issue though; while he denies this condition exists, supporting his denial by ignoring the volumes of hard scientific evidence including genetic proofs, animal studies, proofs that have been found by standard medical researchers and published on PubMed, he has information on his site about fibromyalgia that attests to its physiological status as a disease process. Two problems here: MCS has a well-known, well-orchestrated campaign by the chemical/pharmaceutical industry against it, while Barrett's own daughter suffers from fibromyalgia. Both of these illnesses as they are understood today, have almost identical etiologies.
Stephen Barrett and Quackwatch include very obviously correct information about some medical concepts as a ruse to establish credibility that he then uses as ammunition against his own spurious campaigns against patients, physicians, illnesses, and anyone else who doesn't tow the establishment line. |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
Posted - 04/13/2012 : 11:03:34 [Permalink]
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| First off, welcome to SFN brainfan. I see you are not a fan of Stephen Barret and Quackwatch. Fair enough. You have made several accusations against Barret. Would you kindly direct us to those publications and whatever else you think is relavent to the above post to support your assertions? I'm all ears. |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 04/13/2012 : 14:36:28 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by brainfan
As an example of his completely biased focus, we can look at acupuncture. When presented with a study that showed that animals showed statistically significant improvements with acupuncture, Barrett actually suggested that maybe animals respond to the placebo effect. |
And studies have shown that it doesn't matter where you place the needles or even if they break the skin, so the logical conclusion is that all acupuncture responses are due to a placebo effect of one sort or another.| This is not the approach of a person who uses the open-minded approach of science; it is the approach of a person who has reached a conclusion before science has had the chance to work. |
A conclusion like, "there can be no placebo effect in animal studies," for example? I mean, that is what you're implying. Why not say so directly and point to the scientific evidence that led you to such a conclusion? As far as I can tell, expecting zero response from animals in a medical study is simply naive and unscientific when that response is measured by biased and fallible humans.| On the other hand, the British Medical Journal did a study of 2,500 standard medical procedures and found over 50% of them have either no efficacy, poor efficacy, or unknown efficacy. This is because, contrary to the faulty information out there, mainstream medicine has NOT performed the sorts of studies that Barrett insists alternative practitioners use. |
Actually, some of those "no efficacy" procedures are things like antibiotics for viral infections; things for which we have lots of evidence in ineffectualness but patients insist upon them and doctors would rather get them out of the office than to take the time to explain (what with timeslots carved out by insurance companies and all). In fact mainstream medicine has done the studies to find things have no efficacy. Where do you think that qualifier comes from? |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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On fire for Christ
SFN Regular
Norway
1273 Posts |
Posted - 04/13/2012 : 19:54:00 [Permalink]
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| i love it when people create an account just to rant about something |
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sailingsoul
SFN Addict
2830 Posts |
Posted - 04/14/2012 : 16:34:24 [Permalink]
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| Especially when they never end up giving any credible sources. |
There are only two types of religious people, the deceivers and the deceived. SS |
| Edited by - sailingsoul on 04/15/2012 05:14:42 |
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Do You Know This Face? (36)
