Comments on: Politics and Science – The RFK Jr. Test

By: NeuroLogica Blog » Skeptical Battlegrounds: Part IV - Anti-Vaccine Hysteria

NeuroLogica Blog » Skeptical Battlegrounds: Part IV - Anti-Vaccine Hysteria — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 13:06:17 +0000

[...] paranoid in his writings, and just as scientifically clueless. This was the primary reason for the controversy that erupted when his name was floated for an Obama appointment to head the [...]

By: Obama’s anti-science EPA head? | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:01:06 +0000

[...] unqualified anti-environmental hack Bush has appointed. Skeptic Dad chimes in too, as well as Steve Novella. Look around the blogosphere, you’ll find [...]

By: Science-Based Medicine » Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., vaccines, the EPA, and the interface with science-based medicine and public policy

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:17:44 +0000

[...] relevant to several aspects of where science-based medicine intersects public policy popped up. Steve Novella has already commented on it on his own blog, as have numerous other medical bloggers, science bloggers, and political bloggers [...]

By: Militant Agnostic

Militant Agnostic — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 01:17:54 +0000

does should have been dose and I should not feed the troll.

By: Militant Agnostic

Militant Agnostic — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 01:17:12 +0000

Common sense suggest the does is too small to have an effect and the evidence confirms it.

By: pec

pec — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 01:15:09 +0000

And your reason for denying that mercury in vaccines could be harmful to infants is mostly that you don’t want it to be true. I am not saying it is true, just that we do not know for certain. Common sense suggests that an infant’s nervous system would not tolerate mercury very well.

By: Militant Agnostic

Militant Agnostic — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 01:13:36 +0000

For thoise who think Kennedy is good choice for the EPA.
Orac his pointed out that Kenney is a complete hypocrit on envinronmental issues with his objection to a wind power project that would have spoiled his ocean view. I heard him interviewd on the CBC Radio One program The Current – he is a big admirer of Hugo Chavez. He was also going on about how OPEC is an illegal cartel – I should think as a lawyer he should realize the US law does not apply to the rest of the world. Given that Global Warming is the greatest enviromental threat that world faces, his advocacy of cheap oil is idiotic.

We also need to consider the phenomenon of crank magnetism. His susceptability to pseudoscience and his arrogance of ingnorance are easily transferrable to any issue. He will probably try to direct the efforts of the EPA to some minor issue that fits his obsessions and away from more important issues such as Global Warming. He will also be a sitting duck for critics of the EPA.

Kennedy is like Prince Charles and George W Bush – another arrogant twit who was born on second base and thinks he hit a double. Appointing him as head of the EPA would strengthen the antivaccination movement immensly by increasing his prestige and it would be as much of an insult to the scientists as G W Bushes various appointments of fundamentalist nitwits to postions in NASA etc.

By: pec

pec — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 00:49:36 +0000

How can you be so certain that mercury in vaccines isn’t harmful? No one has conclusive evidence on this, so everyone draws their conclusions based on their preferred ideology.

You cannot completely ignore ideology in science, or in journalism, or any other supposedly objective field. Human beings are not objective unless the evidence is conclusive. “Skeptics” are biased in favor of the ideology of philosophical materialism, constantly drawing definite conclusions in the absence of clear evidence.

By: New at Forbes.com: RFK Jr. to EPA?

New at Forbes.com: RFK Jr. to EPA? — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 20:15:01 +0000

[...] (”gives me the creeps…The guy’s a complete wingnut”), Wendy Williams, Steven Novella, Neurologica (”This would be an unmitigated disaster for science in government … Putting a known [...]

By: Fifi

Fifi — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 18:44:18 +0000

I wouldn’t take issue with Kennedy as head of the EPA based on his record in environmental protection. However, the fact that a Kennedy is spinning the “secret evil government meme” is hilarious and strange enough that I do have to wonder whether he’s simply that ignorant about science and been conned by quackery or a conscious propagandist who engages in anti-vax fear mongering for some other purpose. I mean, he IS the elite he’s claiming is secretively evil! He’s a Kennedy, it’s about as close to royalty as one gets in the US and I can certainly see the political benefits for Obama in having a Kennedy in his cabinet and why, politically speaking, it’s a good choice.