Edzard Ernst Is Always On The Wrong Side Of U.S. Politics (So He's A Bullshitter)

"Our results suggest that belief in fake news may be driven, to some extent, by a general tendency to be overly accepting of weak claims. This tendency, which we refer to as reflexive open-mindedness, may be partly responsible for the prevalence of epistemically suspect beliefs writ large." 

 - from recent research papers on the prevalence of bullshit, and the book, On Bullshit, by Harry G. Frankfurt

FACT: This is NOT a man suffering from "reflexive open-mindedness".

FACT: This man has - which is why he was gullible enough to unleash SCAM (so-called alternative medicines) on the world.

FACT: Oprah has - which is why she spreads misinformation (including about SCAM) as a career.

I just took this photo of my personal copy of "On Bullshit" - in front of the 2020 Olympics - so you know I'm not bullshittin': it's my Bible. I've always had it nearby since 2005.

That Edzrd Ernst just discovered it - after he's been siding with Oprah and the Clintons, and the rest of the U.S. SCAM lobby - is embarrassing for him: it means Ernst has been railing against President Trump - in defense of America's true bullshitters - without ever researching who America's true bullshitters are.

It's little wonder he's been siding, politically, with Richard Dawkins' "Enemies of Reason" the whole time.

 

We're Really Trying So Hard To Fake Concern

We totally disapprove of fraud - that especially goes for the Global Warming scam - but this is too sweet:

Online fraudsters are targeting climate scientists through invitations to fake conferences, often at fictional five-star London hotels.

Hey - the "climate scientists" started it!

It Would Be Called "Zeitgeist" Now Wouldn't It?

Oh Jeez, when it comes to Jared Lee Loughner, it's Robert Stacy McCain who is (also) asking "the key question: 'Why is this important clue to the killer’s motives being ignored by major news organizations?'”

And what is "this important clue"? McCain calls it "the Zeitgeist cult":

I today received an e-mail from a British follower of the Zeitgeist Movement. He repeated the cult’s own mantras about substituting an egalitarian global redistributionist “resource-based economy” for the “monetary-based economy.” He repeated these things in such a way as to indicate to me that he did not recognize that he was the victim of a scam.

Sigh. McCain then goes on to defend TMR's modus operandi in this battle:

Harsh words are necessary to rouse the dreamers from their dangerous trance. The delusions of these people deserve to be mocked, and often, and by someone who knows how.

The perpetrators of the Zeitgeist Movement/Venus Project scam are preying on the naïveté of gullible people who haven’t studied the history of socialism. As I say, it isn’t that such people lack intelligence. They are merely ignorant. Once they realize that they have been deceived and played for suckers, once they have taken time to educate themselves about the nature of the flimflam by which they have been duped, the ex-cultists will become the cult’s most powerful critics.

Or they burrow deeper. Oh well. At least we now know another friend of Glenn Reynolds is onto the NewAge, even if Reynolds himself is unwilling to acknowledge, whether we're talking about Loughner or some other angle, that we were there first.

If you ask us, by being arrogant, thin-skinned, and petty, Reynolds is only setting himself up to eventually look bad:

The truth always comes out.

Every Search For Truth Always Leads To A Lie (But If You Only Want Sex We Got Somebody)

Wait - before we get into anything else - look at that photo. Is that a great photo, or what? Guys, seriously, what could you imagine doing - just with the space between her tits? And then look at her face. Is that a face that says "sincerity", or "integrity", or potentially "love"? Hell no! That's a face that screams, "What can you imagine doing - just with the space between my tits?"

Women - you gotta love 'em.

Alright, back to the (other) show:

We've had this for over a week, but it got lost in the Christmas shuffle (O.K., it just got lost, or we got lost, or something) but we know you want it (who doesn't want Rose McGowan dishing?) so here it is from New York Magazine:

Vulture caught up with Rose McGowan at the David Lynch Foundation’s “Change Begins Within” Benefit and asked her if she practices the Lynch Foundation–sponsored practice of Transcendental Meditation. "Should I lie to you?" McGowan asked us with a smile. "You know they’re all lying. None of these bitches meditate. Are you kidding me? This is fucking Hollywood; we put on lipstick. That’s what we do. It’s a fact." So if you did meditate, what kind of stressful events would trigger a session? "This kind of thing, really. I don’t do drugs and I don’t drink to get through it like most other people. Not only are these people lying about meditating, they’re all drunks and alcoholics. And drug addicts."

Fine. So everyone in Hollywood, who's telling you how "spiritual" they are, is pulling the wool over your eyes. Big surprise there. And don't you love Rose's "spiritual" language? Shit, if that Hollywood thing doesn't work out (and even if it does) she can hang out with us anytime!

If you want to know more about how the people who do meditate are lying to you, the Transcendental Meditation-Free blog (by meditators who've caught on - yes: people do catch on!) provides extensive coverage of David Lynch's latest Maharisi-inspired scam for you to enjoy - so go enjoy:

We're only going to tease you here.

TMR: We Have Answers For All Life's Problems

Here's a pretty good talk about Scientology, where it's pointed out the "religion" scam is only carted out when it suits the cult's needs.

It used to be the non-religious psychological "breakthrough" of Dianetics, remember?

And then, later, what starts off as a great topic for discussion - why some women are so gullible to the "supernatural" gambit - devolves into some boring "maybe they don't get enough science" bullshit we've heard waaay too many times before.

Have these people ever actually met any cultish women?

We know we shouldn't be surprised - since it's a conversation between scientists - but it reminds us all-too-well (again) how trapped scientists are in their own cultish bubble, and how wrong-headed they can be without first-hand experience with cult behavior. (On the other hand, of course, if they had first-hand experience they wouldn't be asking questions to begin with.) Anyway, here's a clue - from someone who's experienced - for anyone who cares:

If you give cultish women science training in anything, by the time they're done with it, it will have become a pseudoscience they're trying to force up the ass of the medical profession.

So what's our solution to the problem?

It would suit the needs of the nation better if we made them prostitutes selling pussy in the snow.

This NewAge Is Truly A World Of Wonder

"Finally, half-way through the book come 'the good parts.'

Young starts to notice the Senator flirting with waitresses, but thinks nothing of it.

He is a little quizzical, though, when a woman who picks up Edwards at the Regency is given a $100,000 contract to do video work.

This would be Rielle Hunter, née Lisa Druck.

Young decides she looks practiced at 'identifying rich men, married or not, and connecting with them—at least temporarily.'

Young writes that, when arriving in New York in her early twenties, she briefly dated Jay McInerney and wound up in Story of My Life as 'the repulsive character Alison Poole.'

Oh, and her father participated in a horse-killing insurance scam.

Young then goes on to paint her as a forty-one year-old round-heeled fruitcake who 'when she first saw John Edwards she noticed "an aura" of energy floating over him. When she made eye contact with the senator, she knew their destinies were intertwined, and that she had been sent to Earth to serve him.'

And of course everyone knows the rest.

Boy runs for president, meets trollop, knocks her up, can’t afford the scandal, arranges a financial cushion (see FBI agents, IRS agents, and the officers of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina) and all hell breaks loose.

Or rather, the National Enquirer is on to him. (It has just been nominated for a Pulitzer for its coverage of this nationally repercussive sordidness.)

Of course Young, the good shnook, is recruited to be the admitted father of Rielle’s baby bump.

And did I mention that Rielle and Edwards agreed on an 'open' relationship?

With time, Edwards started to complain that Rielle was crazy, just as he had complained about his wife.

By now Young had become the beard in order to keep Rielle around.

It was decided that Elizabeth’s recurrence of cancer would be useful to the campaign. Ick.

When Rielle reveals she is with child, Edwards elevates her title to 'crazy slut.'

As some mistresses are wont to do, Rielle became jealous of the real wife.

She was infuriated when there was a lot of publicity about the Edwardses renewing their vows on their thirtieth anniversary and then celebrating at Wendy’s. (Wendy’s?!)

The running and hiding and supporting Rielle and the Youngs on the run was financed by (metaphorically) poor, trusting, Democratic, aged Bunny Mellon—to the tune of six million dollars. 

Another rich supporter, a Texan lawyer named Fred Baron (since deceased), also paid for the care and upkeep of Rielle, then the baby—but he, at least, knew where the money was going.

The lesson, if that is the word, of this sad and tawdry book is that Young was being played by John Edwards, and that a stiff whaddya-call-it has no conscience and no brains, either.

When I read Young’s account of Edwards saying, essentially, that if the truth did come out, it would be a one day story because 'everyone knows' that politicians fool around, I felt that Edwards and Hunter deserved each other.

Oh yes, and it’s possible that Rielle herself tipped off the Enquirer."

-- Margo Howard, reminding TMR of all the hurtful nonsense NewAge stupidity sets in motion - her review of Andrew Young's book is called "The Losers" - when no one's trying to get Rielle, but working towards The New Republic.

Homeopathy For Crohn's: The Situation Stinks

"I'd tried homeopathy and all that. The last thing I wanted was surgery but I had no other options."

-- Rick Parfitt, on how he put off what he needed to do - get surgery for his Crohn's disease - in favor of the water scam that filled him with "hope" (kind of like our last election) in The Daily Mail.