Mike Adams, the "Health Ranger" Has Several Snits. Skeptics Line Up to Set Him Straight

Update Tues Jan 26 -- I've added a couple of more posts on the Mercola debacle.

A quick roundup. As of 2 pm Monday January 25, 2009:

There's this contest for people who use Twitter, the "Shorty Awards".  At one point, "the health ranger" (Mike Adams who never met a piece of woo or pseudoscience he didn't adore and promote) was leading in the health category.

Both PZ Myers (Pharyngula) and Orac (Respectful Insolence) called out their armies of  pro-science, pro-rationality readers to vote for DrRachie, an Australian scientist and skeptic.  Other blog-calls were issued, and there were several other calls for heavy voting in some science and skepticism forums.  (Podblack Cat explains the awesomeness that is Dr. Rachie)

• Orac: This Must Not Come to Pass: Quacks Winning the Shorty Awards for Health
• PZ Myers: A Pointless Poll in A New Medium
• Sean the Blognaut Stick It To Alt.Med in the Shorties
• Drunken Madman Help Fight Pseudo-Science Quackery on Twitter

Then things got interesting.  For trying to game the award, Adams was disbarred from the contest and responded with hysteria.  His illogical rants have been, well, deconstructed and ridiculed:

• Orac Shorty Awards "fraud":The evil Illuminati-Mason-Pharma-Vaccine axis of evil succeeds in its conspiracy!
• Orac A pyromaniac in a field of straw man or a black hole of burning stupid incinerating every straw man in the universe? Mike Adams attacks skepticism
• Dubito Ergo Sum The Worst Ranger Since Turbo
• Steve Novella Mike Adams Takes on The Skeptics
• Phil Plait Alt.Med Guy Wacked With The Shorty End of the Stick
• Sean the Blogonaut Alt-Med Proponent's True Colors Shine Through And It Ain't Pretty
• Bing McGhandi There Are Not Enough Expletives In The World to Adequately Describe Mike Adams
• Confessions of an A$$hole Skeptic: Mike Adams, Cheater and Hypocrite
• Skeptico Mike Adams -- Pyromaniac in a Strawman Factory
• ...And Your Electron Microscope Fun for Skeptics and Believers Alike

Now the quack in the #2 post, Joe Mercola, is also striking out at Dr. Rachie.

• Orac Stay Classy, Dr. Joe, Stay Classy
• PZ Myers More Laughs From The Shorty Awards
• Thinking Is Real Joseph Mercola Hits Out At Dr. Rachie
• Skeptigirl Joe Mercola -- A$$face
• Thinking Is Real Insensitive Joseph Mercola Upsets Followers
• Skepchick Joseph Mercola Really Hates His Fans

Somewhat related:  Mike Adams cooked up a  $10,000 "challenge" to anyone who can prove that the H1N1 Swine Flu vaccine is safe. A Drunken Madman deconstructs the challenge.

Comments

[Sean the Blogonaut]

I will be twittering your post here. A good roundup of the articles. Thanks for the mention :)

[Kimbo Jones]

Thanks for the mention, good summary!

[AndyD]

Thanks for including me too.

In latest news, Mercola has almost apologised and restated his disinterest in the poll - then reminded followers how to vote for him. He then urges them, repeatedly in his comments thread, to get their friends to vote too.

It appears he cares as much about the Shorties as I care about breathing.

[Dr. Nancy Malik]

Real (Homeopathic) medicine cures even when Conventional Allopathic Medicine (CAM) fails