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Once upon a time, I belonged to an amateur athletic team that meant a lot to me--in addition to the joy of athletics, the members of the team were my friends and confidants.
Then our coach became deeply invested the woo in John F. Barnes' myofascial release therapy and John E. Upledger's craniosacral therapy, to the point that team members were required to have a certain number of hours of treatment per month, from approved practitioners, to stay on the team.
I quit the team.
Jason Silvernail, writing at MyPhysicalTherapySpace has written a series debunking the Barnes approach to myofascial release (JFB-MFR). The general tone?
This is just another example of the kind of "theory" behind the John F.
Barnes Myofascial Release approach. More physical impossibilities and
blatant ignorance rolled up with marketing and designed to prey on
those in pain.
Isn't it time to stop the madness?
and
Everyone should realize that the foundation laid by energy healing, repressed memories in the tissue, the misunderstanding of quantum mechanics, and a good dose of postmodern thinking leads directly to all sorts of outlandish claims in the world of [John F. Barnes and Myofascial Release]
Hopefully we can all see why the therapy culture in general and the theories and treatments we teach, promote, and research need firm foundations in science. While there is relatively little outright quackery in the physical therapy world, JFB-MFR appears to be a notable exception to that trend - one worth addressing with our peers, patients, and colleagues.
The reason you should care is that the movie wallows in falsehood. It presents a religious doctrine dressed up in a sciency-looking suit, and when actual scientists point out the anti-science nature of intelligent design, its' backers claim victimhood. The movie is a good example of manufactroversy.
The tag line for the movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed reads "Big Science has expelled smart new ideas from the classroom. What they forget is that every generation has its rebel. Ben Stein blows the horn on SUPPRESSION"
[Ben Stein's ] heroic and, at times, shocking journey confronting the world’s top scientists, educators and philosophers, regarding the persecution of the many by an elite few.
Ben realizes that he has been “Expelled,” and that educators and scientists are being ridiculed, denied tenure and even fired – for the “crime” of merely believing that there might be evidence of “design” in nature, and that perhaps life is not just the result of accidental, random chance.
Who are these allegedly persecuted individuals?
Richard Sternberg (an academic)
Guillermo Gonzalez (an academic)
Caroline Crocker (an academic)
Robert Marks (an academic)
Pamela Winnick (a journalist)
Michael Egnor (a surgeon)
Every assertion the movie makes about the "persecution" these individuals allegedly experienced is false.
The big change I want in the coming years is to live in a country where policies are made on reality-based principles, not faith or lies and distortions.
There's an intelligent case to be made for intelligent design, which is why "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed," a flimsy attempt to discredit Darwinist theory as the cornerstone of modern biology, reps such a missed opportunity. While roving interviewer Ben Stein extracts some choice soundbites from scientists on both sides of the creation-vs.-evolution debate, the film's flippant approach undermines the seriousness of its discourse, trading less in facts than in emotional appeals. A probable punching bag for film critics and evolution proponents alike, docu will be a natural selection for Christian audiences and should spread like the gospel on homevid.
[snip]
First-time director Nathan Frankowski strikes a relentlessly jokey tone throughout, using black-and-white film clips as comic punctuation (after news of a professor's axing, pic cuts to a shot of a guillotine). In addition to being just plain irritating, this jittery style seems to reinforce the perception of the pic's target audience as a bunch of intellectual lightweights.
Even more offensive is the film's attempt to link Darwin's "survival of the fittest" ideas and Hitler's master-race ambitions (when in doubt, invoke the Holocaust), complete with solemnly scored footage of the experimentation labs at Dachau. Evocations of the Berlin Wall, treated as a symbol of a bullheaded scientific establishment on the verge of collapse, are equally fatuous.
Heavily sampling footage from classic films (including "Inherit the Wind," natch), "Expelled" is technically well-mounted, though its aesthetics trump its ideas at every turn. If evolution is worth debating, it's worth debating well, and by a more intelligently designed film than this one.
For a complete list of responses in responsible media, go to Expelled, the National Center for Science Education's response to the film.
In response, Orac issued an open letter to Messrs. Kirby and Olmstead:
I am urging you to speak out against legal intimidation and thuggery and for the First Amendment right of the media, including bloggers, of freedom of speech. Your speaking out against Mr. Shoemaker's despicable actions would carry even more force, because it is well known that you both strongly disagree with Kathleen's position regarding whether vaccines cause autism.
Ms. Seidel announced the subpoena on April 3 at 8:45 am. Orac posted his open letter on April 6, at 9:30 am.
In 48 hours, To date (see clock above) not a word from Mr Kirby or Mr. Olmstead.
Shameful.
I wish I had one of those blog widgets that shows how much time has elapsed since Orac posted his open letter.Karoli found it for me. I'll stop the clock when both have responded.
Update 4/9/08: Orac reports that he has had a private communication from Messrs. Kirby and Olmstead. The SciBlog server is being cranky just now, and would not accept the following communication from me to Orac:. My comment:
Orac, my clock (represented at How Long Until Kirby and Olmstead Speak on the Seidel Subpoena?) is still ticking.
What you wrote was an open letter. Neither Mr. Kirby nor Mr. Olmstead have publically repudiated Shoemaker's actions.
In other words: Messrs. Kirby and Olmstead, until you use your customary internet platforms to repudiate Mr. Shoemaker's action, you are on the hook.
Update below--list of blog responses to Seidel's subpoena. Most are better written than mine.
Update #2 -- if you would like to Digg this topic, the link is here.
Update #3--Full conflict of interest disclosure at the very bottom of the post
Update #4--Saturday April 5-- bloggers, below, and why the subpoena demands material having to do with any “religious groups (Muslim or otherwise), or individuals with religious affiliations." In a previous episode, Kathleen Seidel wrote Serving the Guest, "A cookbook with essays and anecdotes on the historic and contemporary role of food, eating, meals and hospitality in Sufism, the mystical tradition of Islam". In other words, not post 9/11 hysteria, but an attempt at intimidation, pure and simple.
Update #5--Sunday April 6 -- more bloggers, and note Orac's open letter to autism activists David Kirby and Dan Olmstead at Respectful Insolence. April 8: See the running clock, waiting for Kirby and Olmstead's response.
Update # 6 -- Monday April 7. All of the responses I've linked are supportive of Kathleen Seidel's work. Those who know her personally also express admiration for her character. However, there is an element who express disdain for her work and who cast aspersions on her character. I've listed those at the bottom of the post.
Update #7 -- Thursday April 10 FINALLY the national mainstream media catch on. Wall Street Journal's James Taranto leads off "Best of the Web Today" with coverage of the Seidel subpoena.
Update #8--Sunday April 13--intro to post re-written slightly to indicate that it was the Sykes' attorney, Clifford Shoemaker, who bears the most responsibility for the repressive subpoena.
The Sykes' attorney, Clifford Shoemaker, maintains a website for his firm, in which he claims that
The evidence is now overwhelming that mercury injected into pregnant women and small infants has caused a huge epidemic of autism in this county.
In fact, the evidence is now overwhelming that there is no connection between vaccination and autism. Anyone continuing to so claim is engaging in manufactroversy.
Mr. Shoemaker was featured in a March 24, 2008 Neurodiversity.com post, The Commerce in Causation, detailing how much money Shoemaker earns from litigating autism-vaccine-injury claims. On March 26, 2008, Seidel was served with a subpoena, issued by Shoemaker, to produce documents and records for the Sykes' suit.
the first phrase that occurred to me on looking through the subpoena was "fishing expedition", and the second was "intimidation". Several clauses indicate that Shoemaker is hoping to turn up evidence that Seidel has accepted support from the federal government, or from vaccine makers, which she says she hasn't. Also among the documents demanded: Seidel's correspondence with other bloggers.
Including me. But I'm in illustrious company, if you read the subpoena (available here). Seidel has filed a counter-motion to quash the subpoena; the attorney has two weeks to respond.
ElderAbuseHelp.com: War on Bloggers Comes Home to America. This post lists bloggers who have been subject to legal action, including Kathleen Seidel. However, the link has crashed my browser each time I've clicked on it, so Here's the link: http://elder-abuse-cyberray.blogspot.com/2008/04/war-on-bloggers-comes-home-to-america.html, and here it is as a TinyURL: http://tinyurl.com/5cwgq5
Bloggers expressing disapproval of the body of Seidel's work, approval of Clifford Shoemaker's subpoena, and ad-hominem attacks on Seidel: April 3 April 4
Conflict of Interest Disclosure relative to the Seidel subpoena, in which my blog I Speak of Dreams is named in item #5
I am a resident of the state of California
My blog, I Speak of Dreams (http://lizditz.typepad.com/i_speak_of_dreams/), is named in item #5 of the subpoena issued to Kathleen Seidel by Clifford Shoemaker, Esq., in Case No. 3:07-CV-660, Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division.
The blog I Speak of Dreams on the whole reflects my interests and enthusiasms, as well as personal notes. It also serves as an aide-memoire for me.
These interests and enthusiasm include issues having to do with private and public K-12 education, learning disabilities, teaching children with learning disabilities, and skeptical evaluation of claims of cures for various conditions. From time to time, I have blogged directly and explicitly on issues pertaining to autism, the education of persons with autism, the lack of evidence for vaccination in any form being a causative agent for autism, and issues having to do with autism in the media.
To the best of my knowledge, none of my immediate family members has autism or is affected by autism.
The blogs at http://lizditz.typepad.com/ are not legal entities, organizations, or businesses. The blogs are my hobby, which I support out of my own income. I do not accept funding or advertising.
I have never received anything of monetary value from Kathleen Seidel or Neurodiversity.com.
I have never met Kathleen Seidel in person.
I have never spoken to Kathleen Seidel.
To the best of my knowledge, I have never been in the same building with Kathleen Seidel.
I have e-mailed, or exchanged e-mails with Kathleen Seidel approximately 10 times since 2004 (the extent of my records).
I do own stock in various enterprises in the healthcare sector of the US economy. To the best of my recollection, all such stocks were inherited from my parents' estate in the mid-1990s. The collective value of such shares amounts to no more than 1.4% of my net worth.
To the best of my knowledge, dividend income from the entire healthcare sector of my securities portfolio has accounted to less than 1% of my annual income.
In other words, I spend more on groceries and fuel for my vehicles than I earn from my healthcare sector securities. Big Agra and Big Oil has a much bigger influence on my finances than Big Pharma.
Chris is again hitting it out of the park on the spiritually pretentious. Last week it was on The Shangri-la Delusion; this week it is bobos and purchasing shamanic wisdom.
I had to stop for a moment to let that sink in, find the deep bedrock substratum of my inner-racist Ur-tantric archetypal unconscious and have its way with the roof-brain chatter of my First World Western ego. Yippee ki yay, m0therf^cker!* I check my ears in the mirror. Hmmm.
A to-do over who was and was not allowed to attend a screening in Minneapolis got a lot of electron time last week. At Mike's Weekly Skeptic Rant, someone (Mike?) assuming the persona of Ben Stein reviews the week's skeptic output.
To close out this festival of hate and Nazi-loving Darwin-atheists, I just want to say: I can't believe how close-minded you all are. I mean, changing your minds all the time, flip-flopping...it's embarrassing to real science. The sort of science that never waivers from its convictions. The science that God revealed to us. I hope you all open yourselves up to true freedom and true debate so we can all agree that God's word is the final one answer to all our questions.
Oh, and stay away from my movie. None of you are invited to see it, except maybe Michael and perhaps Hal Lindsey. Why you people are against America and free speech is beyond me, but if you insist on trying to gain entrance, I'll have you forcibly gagged and removed.
My favorite post of the week? So many to choose from....I'll take PalMD, blogging at Denialism, on Joe Mercola's flu woo.
via BoingBoing, I was pointed to Noah Shachtman's article at Wired, Army's New PTSD Treatments: Yoga, Reiki, 'Bioenergy'. Many veterans have suffered Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and more are suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The military is funding investigations into "non-traditional" ways of treating these disorders.
Even proposals for wild-sounding "therapies using
bioenergies such as Qi gong, Reiki, distant healing and acupuncture"
would be accepted.
There's this fuzzy idea that people have "learning styles", somehow related to Gardner's theory of "multiple intelligences". There's the equally fuzzy corollary that if you match instruction to a person's natural "style" or "intelligence", greater learning will take place. Too bad the data don't support the corollary. As Will Thallheimer wrote:
Let me be clear, my argument is not that people don't have different learning styles, learning preferences, or learning skills. My argument is that for real-world instructional-development situations, learning styles is an ineffective and inefficient waste of resources that is unlikely to produce meaningful results.
Nevertheless, educators persist in talking about "learning styles". From a discussion over at Kitchen Table Math, I now learn that the "learning styles" may have racist overtones.
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