Washington Post on Trudeau

Last year the Washington Post did an excellent article on author, conman, and douche Kevin Trudeau. Major media outlets often present absurd and paranormal claims with far too little criticism, as you may have noticed in the video I linked about an "Indigo" child. In the roughly six minute segment, they spent all of about thirty seconds on a critical view. Compared to such typical fare, the Post's approach to Trudeau's wild health and conspiracy claims is very refreshing, so kudos to them and their staff writer, Libby Copeland. "Watch the hands."

It's not ADD, it's an Indigo kid!

Hey parents, does your kid have the symptoms of attention deficit disorder? Have you always wanted your kid to be really, really special? Well don't get them treatment for ADD. Declare them gifted kids with paranormal powers instead! Use your delusion and share it with your kids, making them the focal point of your "dropped too much acid in the '60s and '70s" beliefs.
Meet a so-called Indigo child here. It's apparently what passes for news on ABC these days.

Then swing over to skepticreport.com for their take on indigo kids. The people that popularized the concept have some, shall we say, interesting ideas. They also like to turn their ideas into cash. I wonder though, are indigo kids kind of like ginger kids? I hope not! They don't have souls!

Then head for an old newsletter from the Amazing Randi, where he quotes a reader's submission that includes a checklist to determine if you're an indigo kid (search the page for the word "indigo"). From the look of the questionnaire, most teenagers will qualify. Woohoo! We must be surrounded by kids with supernatural powers!

It's oddly amusing and yet really sad. These kids are encouraged and even at times led by their own parents to believe that they have these supernatural powers, that they are the next step in human evolution or some such nonsense. Evidence is not needed. They know they're special!

Bonus weirdness - Wikipedia's entry on Emily Rose. You may remember last year's film "The Exorcism of Emily Rose". The girl's real name was Anneliese Michel. She was supposedly possessed by the following demons - Lucifer (the devil himself), Cain, Nero, Judas, Fleischmann (who might have been a disgraced priest in Franken, living in the 17th Century), and Hitler. She had some heavy hitters in there! Well, that's with the exception of that Fleischmann guy. Next to the sinners in that list, he's like the Star Trek red shirt of demons. The poor guy/demon is just out of his league. Kidding aside, Anneliese's story ended tragically. She should have been getting medical attention and instead she was getting more exorcisms and then died in her sleep.

Congress still has nothing better to do

Adding to their time wasting, vote whoring activities of late that have included trying to pass amendments to bar gay marriage and to prevent flag burning, the House this week passed a bill to protect the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. The bill would prohibit the federal courts from ruling on legal challenges to the Pledge.

In other news, Bush made his expected veto of the stem cell research bill. Nevermind that the federal funding it would have provided was only for research on embryoes that are being thrown out by the fertility clinics. Apparently Bush and other opponents to the bill would rather keep wasting those microscopic embryoes then using them to carry out potentially life saving and life changing research for many thousands of people. Anyway, I already ranted about this one.

It just seems like Congress and the Administration are determined to do nothing useful.

Bush to veto stem cell research

President Bush has promised his first veto of his 5 1/2 years in office if the Senate passes a bill that funds stem cell research. Here I thought he'd just do as he's done previously and sign the bill with a signing statement that basically says, "I'm not going to enforce this bill". Nope, he's going for the actual veto. He's taking a firm hand in placing microscopic blastocysts THAT ARE GOING TO BE THROWN OUT ANYWAY above the lives and quality of life of countless citizens suffering from a host of medical conditions. Unfortunately Congress lacks the 2/3rds majority to override a veto because so many Republicans are siding with the President.

Particular religious views are the only explanation for such asinine priorities. Hey, I've got an idea. Keep your fundamentalist bullshit out of our government!