Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

In after Baud. Damn.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

I really should read my own blog.

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

T R E 4 5 O N

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

This really is a full service blog.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / The teatard campaign against Barney Frank

The teatard campaign against Barney Frank

by | 112 Comments

This post is in: 

I don’t think Frank really faces much of a threat. What scares me most is that the moron sending this email around is a doctor. I’m redacting his name (because I’m big on that kind of thing) but if you live in the district I’ll tell you because it would be a shame if any of you got operated on by someone stupid enough to think his 14 year old’s cartoon is going to swing this race:

Dear Mr XXXXXX,

I was on the phone with XXXX XXXX today, and he suggested that I contact you. He and I agree that the animation attached could “go viral” and attract a younger audience, and bring up questions about Barney Frank’s role in the Fannie Mae Freddie Mac generated economic crash.

There are certainly videos out there that have more upfront data but I think that this animation will provide a tease that will whet appetites for the video Internet twitter generation.

Because of FEC rules the campaign itself doesn’t want directly to get into promoting this animation, having their own commercials etc. that they have already outlaid for, but there has been positive feedback from within the campaign.

My 14-year-old son created, and I produced this animation out of altruistic thoughts and efforts, with no financing. I think there could be an interesting back story if the animation becomes quite popular, which I think easily it could. The story could be something like “14-year-old gets the message out”, via flash animation skills, despite liberal indoctrination attitude from Newton Public schools (which he attends).

Here’s a letter below that I received about the video. On the comments page of the video somebody goes off to contribute to the Sean Bielat campaign. We have had 1700 views in only a matter of days with just word-of-mouth, via Facebook. If this were picked up on blogs, certainly one as respected as your own, I think that other blogs would realize their own bravery (sic), and follow suit.

Obviously the irony of the Internet is that somebody has to be popular in order for to get popular. My feeling is this deserves popularity, but I could be wrong. Can you tell me what you think if you have a moment? Or possibly post this or suggest somebody who might.

Thank you very much for your consideration. Read on to the next letter below for some other conceptual underpinning of the video and its posting.

Sincerely,

___________________

XXXXX, M. D.

And here’s his child’s YouTube.

Reader Interactions

112Comments

  3. 3.

    gbear

    the video Internet twitter generation

    Gawd, how clueless is this? Conservatives may as well be trying to impress martians.

  8. 8.

    bostondreams

    As a public school teacher born and raised in the great birthplace of America, but currently teaching in Florida, I have to ask: when did I miss out on the liberal indoctrination coursework?

  9. 9.

    Yutsano

    We have had 1700 views in only a matter of days with just word-of-mouth, via Facebook.

    Am I alone in thinking that’s massively pathetic? Hell vids on Facebook have gotten into the hundreds of thousands from just word of mouth. You iz not the success you think you iz.

  11. 11.

    mai naem

    Just wonderin’ why GW Bush, Tom Duhlay, Bill Frist, John Snow, Hank Paulson et. al. weren’t in the vehicle. Really, shouldn’t this be one of those huge 20 passenger vans with everybody along for the ride?

  13. 13.

    kommrade reproductive vigor

    The story could be something like “14-year-old gets the message out”, via flash animation skills, despite liberal indoctrination attitude from Newton Public schools (which he attends).

    Followed by “14 year old calls CPS on parents after his dad blames son for the stupid video dad made and kept making his son watch even after the child told him it was totally lame.”

  14. 14.

    DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.

    @Yutsano:

    It’s not that pathetic, but it’s fairly pathetic. I wrote for a blog that covered local Congressional races and we were considered a big success when we got 800 visitors a day.

  15. 15.

    Linda Featheringill

    If the cartoon work and animation and stuff was done by a 14-year old, then the child is quite talented.

    But this is still an amateur production that Daddy is trying to use in a Very Hard Game [politics].

    A+ to the kid; F to the dad.

  16. 16.

    John - A Motley Moose

    There can be no civil discourse in this country until you liburals lieburls libruls internalize the fact that Fannie and Freddie in cahoots with inner-city minorities caused the world’s economy to crash. Only the hard work of the masters of the universe bankers saved us from disaster.

  18. 18.

    M. Bouffant

    questions about Barney Frank’s role in the Fannie Mae Freddie Mac generated economic crash

    That’s all we need to know about this fool.

    Actually, he may be a good doctor. The poor bastards who go to medical school have a tendency not to learn/pay atttention to anything not directly connected w/ becoming a croaker, & often have large gaps in their education as to the real world we bags of sickness wander around in.

    Or he may not be, of course.

    I used to hang about w/ a conspiracy theorist who had a book on anti-communist loons of the ’50s & ’60s, which had an excellent section devoted to right-wing loon M.D.’s, & how & why they got that way. Wish I could remember the name or author of the book, but the basic theory is I what typed: All study of medicine & little or no attention to non-medical education or real people while studying makes Dr. X a disconnected loon.

  21. 21.

    uila

    Thanks for this. My buddy is a liberal indoctrinator at Newton middle school. He’ll be sad to know what a pisspoor job he’s doing.

  24. 24.

    Steeplejack

    @M. Bouffant:

    Plus they think they are (or can be) an expert on everything because they are an “expert” on medicine.

    I remember standing at a Super Bowl party once and listening to a doctor–a radiologist–lecture three women, one of whom was a nurse, about breastfeeding. Good times. I broke his narrative thread and volunteered to get people drinks when it looked like he was about to get brained.

  25. 25.

    Bnut

    Let’s hope it doesn’t go viral, bc then any criticism levied at it will be seen as a child snuff piece or whatever David Brooks sensibly believes said criticism is.

    Than being said, not so bad for a 14 year old, looks like he has a career in design/video in his future.

  27. 27.

    asiangrrlMN

    Can someone please give me the shorter as I desperately do not want to click on the video.

    Oh, and Texas? Try not to implode. kthxbai.

    @Roger Moore: Thank you for keeping that in rotation. I much appreciate it.

    Oh, yeah. Home run. That’s what I’m talking about!

  31. 31.

    mclaren

    Doctors are some of the most ignorant and stupid people around. Essentially 100% of people who enter medical school graduate, and 48% of all the applicants to medical school get accepted.

    That’s not a real high bar for admissions, folks. Taco Bell turns down a larger percentage of applicants than your typical medical school.

    In my experience, doctors operates by memorization and rules of thumb. If you ask a doctor a question requiring critical thinking and analytical reasoning skills, the doctor typically falls apart, spewing bullshit and finally falling silent with his mouth opening and closing like the guppies in the local pet store fishtank.

    Where the myth that doctors are smart ever came from, I don’t know. Evidence doesn’t support it.

    That’s just my uneducated and unsupported opinion, right? Wrong, fail-brain: take a look at this article by Dr. David H. Newman where he cites study after scientific study proving that most American doctors persist in believing in and prescribing medical treaments which have been shown not to work.

    New York Times: “Believing In Treatments That Don’t Work,” 2 April 2009.

    Doctors?

    Smart?

    No evidence to support it.

  32. 32.

    Uloborus

    @DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.:
    Heehee. I used to work in a medical clinic with a lot of politically liberal doctors. I do remember one of them calling me ‘moronic’ when I tried to explain to him that his arguments about efficiency of grazing land vs. crop growth didn’t actually work in the real world because of marginal agricultural land and distribution economies. See, I went to an ag college.

    (From the pen of the torturously winding career path.)

  33. 33.

    That's Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN)

    It’s starting to look like my mother is going to have to figure out how to come up with two tickets to the World Series.

    (She jokingly made an offer years ago that she’d buy my aunt and cousin tickets to the Series if the Rangers ever made it. She didn’t think she’d ever have to pay up.)

  35. 35.

    burnspbesq

    I’m sorry, but this entire thread is misguided.

    I will concede, for purposes of discussion, that the conduct you describe is worthy of ridicule. But you’ve presented nothing that supports an inference that this person is not competent to practice medicine. There is no correlation between the two.

    I’m sure you thought this was funny. It’s just mean-spirited. This is Malkin Award stuff. You can do better.

  39. 39.

    mclaren

    @burnspbesq:

    Spoken like a true Malkin Award winner. Sit down, shut up, and go back to your day job as Grand Marshal of the shitshow fail parade, spit-for-brains.

  42. 42.

    Violet

    @asiangrrlMN:

    Can someone please give me the shorter as I desperately do not want to click on the video.

    I made the mistake of watching it. It’s stupid. Fannie and Freddie are portrayed kids. Not sure who the other man is in the video. The kids get in the back seat, Barney Frank’s driving, the other guy says the kids are out of control. Frank tosses them some bubble gum. Kids chew the gum, cue Frank’s words about the bubble not bursting and lo and behold there’s pink bubble gum everywhere. Car crashes into tree. Frank mumbles something standing by crashed car. The End.

    Perhaps it takes a bit of talent to put it together, although these days I think a lot of kids can do that kind of thing, but it’s hardly clever. It’s unclear who some of the players are and Frank’s closing mumbles seem to be unrelated to the content of the rest of it.

    If this thing goes viral it’s because people are laughing at it, not because it’s funny, clever, or insightful.

  44. 44.

    Roger Moore

    @asiangrrlMN:
    Sorry, but TMFY don’t get any sympathy from me, ever. Unless there are radical improvements in longevity, they could go the rest of my life- and my hypothetical children and grandchildren’s lives- without winning anything, and they’ll still be undeserving of sympathy for going too long without a championship.

  45. 45.

    That's Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN)

    Yay! FTFY!

    My only criticism is that, with a seven run lead, I wouldn’t have had Oliver pitch the ninth. Hopefully, he’s still available tomorrow (since Holland certainly isn’t), and Dustin Nippert hasn’r worked in forever.

  48. 48.

    Church Lady

    I thought the animation was pretty good, especially for a fourteen year old. Unfortunately, the sound is completely screwed up and I couldn’t understand a single word. It just sounded like the wahhh wahhh wahhh of the adults in the Peanuts cartoons.

  49. 49.

    Uloborus

    @mclaren:
    Alright. Where do I even start? Once again, Mclaren, you have no context.

    Medical schools have a very high rate of graduation. This is correct. Eventually. Because it’s very rare for anyone to fail graduate school period. You drop out or you don’t drop out. If you don’t drop out – and medical students tend to be damned determined or you don’t even get into med school – you graduate eventually.

    Also, this guy doesn’t actually have any evidence for his assertion that there’s a problem with ideology trumping science in medicine. He doesn’t quote ANY. None of those research articles say that. Some of them say that certain treatments people are used to thinking work actually don’t. A doctor doesn’t necessarily know that. Doctors belong to a field where they must go through constant ‘CME’, continuing medical education, because it’s impossible to really stay current with anything but a specialty.

    Mind you, some of the articles don’t even say what he says they do. The one about antibiotics for ear infections, for example. He’s a doctor, he ought to know that whether or not ear infections usually clear up quickly without antibiotics is irrelevant. Strep throat usually clears up quickly without antibiotics. You treat it because if it *doesn’t* you’re in big trouble. He’s just ignoring basic medical arguments about this to support a premise (his view of why something occurs) that he has no evidence for at all.

    For the love of God, Mclaren, stop jumping off the handle every time you read something that sounds impressive to you.

  51. 51.

    Anya

    Since I went to a Canuckistan public school, I think I was saved from the liberal indoctrination. Is university type indoctrination as potent as the public school indoctrination?

  52. 52.

    Church Lady

    By the way, Doug, exactly what is it that makes this Doctor a “teatard”? Just the fact that he obviously supports Barney’s opponent? Does the “teatard” designation apply to anyone opposing the Democratic candidate anywhere, in any race? If so, you have a pretty jaded (and snotty) view of your fellow citizens.

  53. 53.

    Uloborus

    @Church Lady:
    That would be because you have to be seriously whackadoodle levels of conservative to believe Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac generated the economic crash.

  55. 55.

    Mnemosyne

    @Steeplejack:

    Plus they think they are (or can be) an expert on everything because they are an “expert” on medicine.

    I think doctors and engineers have a lot in common. Doctors may have a very slight edge in social skills, but not by much. But they’re both highly-trained and single-minded professions that convince their practitioners that they’re experts in just about everything, so of course they can see that climate change is totally bogus while all of the fools are convinced by things like “photographic evidence” and “charts.”

  56. 56.

    That's Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN)

    Uhm, if anyone else is watching the postgame, Eck, Ripken and Boomer Wells are all criticizing the decision to leave Burnett in to pitch the sixth inning, without ever mentioning that the relievers Girardi would have gone to also pitched tonight, and they were a complete disaster.

  57. 57.

    That's Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN)

    @Steeplejack:

    Plus they think they are (or can be) an expert on everything because they are an “expert” on medicine.

    Kind of sounds like everyone on the subject of finance . . .

  58. 58.

    Uloborus

    @That’s Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN):
    I’m starting to wonder where I can get one. I’m particularly unfond of him making stuff up. At this point even when he says something that SEEMS reasonable I’m seeing the words ‘3 to 4 permanent unwinnable wars’ hovering over it and realizing he might be inventing facts to suit his narrative.

  59. 59.

    slag

    Church Lady’s predictable concern trolling aside, I have to say I’ve always been put off by the “teatard” label. If anything, “teahadists”, please. Teatard sounds so…1980s adolescent. Teahadists is much more post-9/11.

  60. 60.

    Cat Lady

    I’m in Barney’s district, and I use yard signs as polls – I thought Brown was going to win. Barney has more than Bielat in my town, but his district runs through some teatardy territory, and there are a lot of Defeat Incumbents signs. He’ll win, but he’s feeling the heat.

  61. 61.

    Mnemosyne

    @Church Lady:

    By the way, Doug, exactly what is it that makes this Doctor a “teatard”?

    The fact that he thinks that the housing bubble happened because Fannie and Freddie gave mortgages to black and brown people and not because the banksters were rushing things through so they could re-sell bad paper at a profit.

    At this point, anyone who still blames Fannie and Freddie for the mortgage mess has their head so far up their ass that “teatard” is a kind term for them.

  63. 63.

    That's Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN)

    @slag: I think a lot of the nicknaming is pretty juvenile. Guess what, folks. We’ve all seen people change syllables in a proper noun to make it an insult. There’s is zero that’s clever about doing it anymore. It just makes you look like a fool.

  64. 64.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Uloborus: cleek did the original, and MikeJ did the Chrome version (which I use). I do not pie mclaren because when he’s not making shit up and going off on his pet issues, he’s actually quite informative.

    @Steeplejack: You still around, man? Don’t you end your vaca today?

  65. 65.

    slag

    @That’s Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN): I think it can be done well if it speaks to a higher truth. It’s quite rare, though. And I don’t think there’s any higher truth around the word “retard”. It’s an invective that just makes me cringe when I see it or some variant of it.

    Having tried going the other way on this during the Sarah Palin apogee, I found I couldn’t maintain it. The dream is dead. There is no reclaiming “retard”. It’s just not in the way of funny.

    Then again, the variants Rethuglican, Repuglican, Repiglican…don’t do it for me either. Not offensive exactly, but totally yawn-worthy. No creativity.

  66. 66.

    Steeplejack

    @asiangrrlMN:

    Hell, no, girl, I don’t go back to the Big Box until next Tuesday. I am loving this extended break. Also hit a bit of a lull with the freelance software stuff at the same time, so it has been a real vacation from everything. Well, a staycation, because I haven’t gone anywhere, but I’m not complaining. It is luxurious just to get up, putter around and take the day as it comes.

    Today I was up very early this morning, then had a weird urge to go back to bed around 11:00. Ended up sleeping very deeply until about 5:00 p.m. Woke up feeling very rested and satisfied. Deep systems repair going on, I’m sure.

  71. 71.

    dr. luba

    @mclaren:

    Essentially 100% of people who enter medical school graduate, and 48% of all the applicants to medical school get accepted.That’s not a real high bar for admissions, folks. Taco Bell turns down a larger percentage of applicants than your typical medical school.

    A difference between medical school and Taco Bell is the admission requirements. Taco Bell, IIRC, merely requires that you be old enough to work and vaguely sentient. Medical school requires a fairly high GPA, decent MCAT scores, and rigorous prerequisite undergraduate classwork (including two years of chemistry, one year of physics, and at least one year of biology), all of which filter out huge numbers of potential applicants in advance.

    And, as noted by someone else, once you get into any graduate school, it’s pretty hard not to graduate, although several people in my class did, in fact, fail.

    Before you can actually practice medicine you have to do at least two years of a residency and pass the Medical board exams (which are not easy). State licensure in my state, Michigan, also requires at least 50 hours of CME (continuing medical education) a year. My specialty certification requires annual recertification along with “maintenance of certification” (frequent chart review and completion of education modules).

    Mind you, there are a good number of fools who somehow make it through this process, so perhaps you still have a shot at it.

    BTW, medical doctors run the gamut of political views. I know some very liberal crunchy granola types myself, and most of my department (OB/GYN) voted democratic in 2008. (Reproductive rights are non-negotiable for most of us.) For every Ron Paul out there we have a Howard Dean or two.

    You should also keep in mind that a greater percentage of doctors supported health care reform than did the general population. We know first hand what evil lurks in the hearts of insurance companies, after all, and many of us would be thrilled with single-payer.

  72. 72.

    Mnemosyne

    @asiangrrlMN:

    You are a much nicer and more tolerant person than I am if you can extract anything useful from mclaren’s word salad.

    But, then, I’m Mark David Chapman’s psychological twin, so it’s not like there’s a very high bar here. ;-)

  73. 73.

    DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.

    @dr. luba:

    I didn’t mean to say all doctors are wingers. I had a very strange run in with a winger doctor recently that was surprising to me, that’s all.

  74. 74.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Steeplejack: Aw-sum! I’m glad you have a whole ‘nother week. Woot-hoot. I’m also glad that your system is repairing itself and that you are thoroughly enjoying your time off. Cheers to you!

    @Mnemosyne: Ha! I think it’s more that each person has her own irritant. For some reason, mclaren isn’t one of them for me. I think it’s because I can tell by length of post if it’s a good day or bad day for him. Anything less than a lengthy paragraph and it’s safe to read.

  75. 75.

    Steeplejack

    @asiangrrlMN:

    And with that I’m off for the night. Almost got sucked into Yutsano’s Sushi Cat game–I played a couple of levels but managed to avoid getting hyp-mo-tized into an hours-long session. Did bookmark it for later, though.

    Have a good night, everyone.

  76. 76.

    RandyH

    ZOMG!!!!!!

    They weren’t wearing their seatbelts!

    And they crashed into a tree!

    Good thing they’re only poorly-drawn cartoon characters or it could have been really serious!

  77. 77.

    Yutsano

    @Steeplejack: Hehehe. That one you can pin the original blame on FH #1 for. I’m just the re-messenger. But yeah I agree it can get a little addictive for a mindless game.

  78. 78.

    John Bird

    . The story could be something like “14-year-old gets the message out”, via flash animation skills, despite liberal indoctrination attitude from Newton Public schools (which he attends).

    I don’t know. The story kind of sounds like “14-year-old’s Flash animation skills find place in dad’s overactive fantasy life”. That’s our lede, I think.

  79. 79.

    John Bird

    @mclaren:

    Anecdotally, I’ve met a number of doctors who are die-hard Creationists. They are very uninterested in the biological sciences and the Darwinist underpinnings of many of the treatments they use, not to mention the contributions of evolutionary science to diagnosing conditions and describing the body’s healthy functions. They simply perform the tasks they have been taught to perform, and read journals to find new tasks to perform in the same contexts.

    They are the sort of people who believe that the eye as a mechanism proves that God designed humans on his workbench. And they’re perfectly competent doctors – they just spend money attacking the scientists whose work moved them beyond purveyors of leeches, laxatives, and folk wisdom that sometimes succeeded by accident.

    The gap between a doctor and a scientist who studies medical topics is one of the widest, deepest canyons on Earth.

  80. 80.

    Mark

    @dr. luba

    Let’s not present too rosy a picture of the crew that becomes doctors. Residency is something that would be outlawed if more people knew young doctors, but pre-med students usually take an easier version of physics, chemistry and calculus courses than people who intend to major in those subjects. There are many smart people who go into medicine, but family doctors in private practice can be pretty marginal.

    You should also keep in mind that a greater percentage of doctors supported health care reform than did the general population. We know first hand what evil lurks in the hearts of insurance companies, after all, and many of us would be thrilled with single-payer.

    The AMA opposed single-payer, saying “the introduction of a new public plan threatens to restrict patient choice by driving out private insurers, which currently provide coverage for nearly 70 percent of Americans.” I know the AMA is run by the four-house/three-boat crew, but nonetheless, it was part of the problem, and it’s hard to tag democrats as in any way progressives.

  81. 81.

    mclaren

    @dr. luba:

    A difference between medical school and Taco Bell is the admission requirements. Taco Bell, IIRC, merely requires that you be old enough to work and vaguely sentient. Medical school requires a fairly high GPA, decent MCAT scores, and rigorous prerequisite undergraduate classwork (including two years of chemistry, one year of physics, and at least one year of biology), all of which filter out huge numbers of potential applicants in advance.

    Okay, let’s play that game.

    A difference between a license to practice medicine and a job at Taco Bell is that you can lose your job at Taco Bell for gross incompetence, for showing up at work drunk, for doing your job while brainfried on drugs or for killing people due to gross negligence.

    Ever hear the term “007”? Ask any nurse who works at a hospital. The nurses all know who the 007s are — the doctors who are licensed to kill, so incompetent or so dope-addicted, or so senile or so drunk that they regularly kill their patients.

    Show me another profession where that’s tolerated.

    So much for the myth of “highly trained professionals.” If doctors were professionals, they’d throw out the dopers and drunks and incompetents in their ranks. Want to know why America still doesn’t have electronic medical records? Because it would then become shockingly easy to identify the grossly incompetent doctors who are killing people, and the AMA can’t have that. Gotta let those 007s keep their medical licenses, no matter what.

    Before you can actually practice medicine you have to do at least two years of a residency and pass the Medical board exams (which are not easy). State licensure in my state, Michigan, also requires at least 50 hours of CME (continuing medical education) a year. My specialty certification requires annual recertification along with “maintenance of certification” (frequent chart review and completion of education modules).

    All of which goes to prove that doctors have amassed very impressive GPAs. Whoop-de-doo. Reminiscent of the arguments in favor of the Iraq invasion back in 2002: “Look at the education of the people who say Saddam has WMDs! Condoleeza Rice has a PhD! Donald Rumsfeld graduated with an advanced degree from the Ivy League! These people must be professionals! They must be experts! They must know what they’re doing!”

    BZZZZT. WRONG.

    Amount of education tells us nothing about competence or intelligence, as Dubya’s Yale degree assures us. The quants who nuked the economy with the bogus derivative financial instruments like CDOs all had PhDs in math and physics from Harvard and MIT and CalTech.

    BTW, medical doctors run the gamut of political views. I know some very liberal crunchy granola types myself, and most of my department (OB/GYN) voted democratic in 2008. (Reproductive rights are non-negotiable for most of us.) For every Ron Paul out there we have a Howard Dean or two.

    Irrelevant. We’re talking about basic failure to apply critical thinking — doctors who refuse to believe in evolution (I’ve known a number of ’em), doctors who believe the earth is 6000 years old, doctors who are scientologists or who believe the Trilateral commission secretly controls the world, doctors who advocate returning to the gold standard as the cure for all economic ills… These are not signs of intelligence. These are not signs of an ability to reason analytically and draw logical conclusions from the evidence.

    In particular, the studies I cited show conclusively that doctors simply don’t give a damn about scientific studies published in peer-reviewed journals because for the most part doctors have no concept of the scientific method and no ability to reason analytically or apply critical thinking.

    As John Bird remarked:

    [Doctors] are very uninterested in the biological sciences and the Darwinist underpinnings of many of the treatments they use, not to mention the contributions of evolutionary science to diagnosing conditions and describing the body’s healthy functions. They simply perform the tasks they have been taught to perform, and read journals to find new tasks to perform in the same contexts.

    Exactamundo. The available evidence shows that doctors are high-level plumbers. They know a set of rules of thumb and they’ve memorized a large number of facts and they have a reasonable ability to apply those rules of thumb and memorized facts to a number of rule-sets in real life. There’s nothing magical about that and nothing that requires especial intelligence.

    Basic research in medicine, now, that requires intelligence and analytical reasoning. Experience shows that most doctors are rotten at medical research. The people who really excel at basic biomedical research are typically people with degrees in biophysics who get an M.D. as a sideline.

    Once again, the evidence is clear: look at the fraud rates. Doctors have a startlingly high rate of being involved with or signing off on fraudulent research by big pharma companies. You don’t find that with serious basic research scientists. Look around the CDC or the NIH and see how many research scientists you can find who’ve been implicated with research fraud: zero. Look at any hospital and you’ll typically find half a dozen doctors who’ve been involved with shady research by big pharma that later gets pulled. Ask yourself how many doctors signed off on the garbage research on junk medicines like thalidomide or phen-phen. Tons of doctors.

    Now ask yourself how many scientists at the NIH ever get burned in those kinds of take-a-bribe-to-prescribe scandals. None.

    The scientists have critical thinking skills and take a look at the cooked research churned out by big pharma and tell ’em to go away. The doctors are high-level plumbers and take a look at the spiffy graphs and numbers with lots of decimal points and say, “Wow, sure looks scientific to me — I’m on board with this great new medicine, and by the way…how big a bribe will you give me for recommending this new killer wonder drug to my patients?”

  83. 83.

    mclaren

    @Uloborus:

    I’m particularly unfond of him making stuff up.

    Provide three (3) documented examples or stand revealed as a liar and a character assassin.

    At this point even when [mclaren] says something that SEEMS reasonable I’m seeing the words ‘3 to 4 permanent unwinnable wars’ hovering over it and realizing he might be inventing facts to suit his narrative.

    Time to bust that particular lie. Your time is up, buckaroo. You’re a liar and I can prove it and as a result, your lies end here. America is already involved hip-deep in three permanent unwinnable wars right now, today.

    Permanent unwinnable war #1: America’s failed and futile war on drugs.

    Provide evidence either that America is not involved in a permanent war on drugs, or that the war is winnable…or stand revealed as an ignorant liar.

    Permanent unwinnable war #2: America’s global war on terrorism.

    Provide evidence either that America is not involved in a permanent global war on terrorism, or that the war is winnable…or stand revealed as an ignorant liar.

    Permanent unwinnable war #3: The war against copyright infringement.

    You may have noticed the Department of Homeland Security recently carrying out raids against alleged “pirate” movie websites? And then announcing the results of said DHS raids on the Disney website? And you may have noticed that the Obama adminitrtion is massively involved in ACTA, a bizarrely Orwellian international treaty that will require insane policies like arresting and fining people for contributory infringement (i.e., linking to any site which might link to a site containing copyright-infringing material) and asset forfeiture without conviction, and on mere suspicion of copyright infringement?

    Provide evidence either that America is not involved in a permanent global war on copyright infrigement, or that the war is winnable…or stand revealed as an ignorant liar.

    Your bullshit fail parade is over, Ulaboros. Your lies have been debunked.

    Don’t give me your usual baseless unsubstantiated McCarthy-style smears about how “outlandish” it is for me to claim that America is involved in “3 or 4 permanent unwinnable wars,” Ulaboros, because America is involved in 3 different permanent unwinnable wars right here, right now, as we speak, the facts prove it incontrovertibly.

  86. 86.

    Michael

    God, I hate it when I agree with McLaren, because his observations on this subject mirror my own.

  87. 87.

    Steve

    @mclaren: The butchering of John Bird’s quote is both brutal and dishonest. Hard to ascribe you much credibility when you do something like that.

  88. 88.

    kommrade reproductive vigor

    How about this: In every profession there are people with a wide range of skill levels and beliefs.

    Being shocked (or upset) that there are dumb and incompetent doctors just shows you’ve bought the Doctors are Like Gods myth. (I know some of them have bought it as well, but fuck those guys.)

  89. 89.

    WereBear (itouch)

    I say I know a winger landscaper, no one bats an eye, because deep misunderstandings about economics should not interfere with the proper placement and care of shrubberies.

    Why should doctors be any different?

  94. 94.

    soonergrunt

    @cleek: Bless you and your invention. This site is the only reason I use Firefox, and I’m damn glad your pie filter works with Firefox.

  96. 96.

    someguy

    Funny how everybody wants to exonerate Barney Frank and the rest of the congressional champions of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac here.

    Don’t any of you fuckers realize that those corporations are how Congress subsidizes the mortgage industry? It’s real simple. The banks issue mortgages and sell them off in the secondary market, either in component parts or securitized packages. As long as the money keeps rolling in, the banks and financial firms are happy to be in the mortgage and mortgage-backed securities business. As soon as the mortgages go south – like when a bubble created by easy money and generous federal mortgage backing pops – then Fannie and Freddie have to pay off the notes and basically assume ownership of the bad mortgages.

    So if that was too tricky for you, just remember this: they are the tool for wealth transfer from you, the suckers, to the banksters. That Barney was the partner – as in life, not business – of Fannie Mae’s COO for a half dozen years in the late nineties to early/mid 2000s, is probably something else I shouldn’t mention. Y’know, because the truth about Congress being in bed, literally in some cases, with the banksters, is teatardism…

    The circular firing squad doesn’t just shoot democrats…

  99. 99.

    chopper

    @mclaren:

    Where the myth that doctors are smart ever came from, I don’t know. Evidence doesn’t support it.

    That’s just my uneducated and unsupported opinion, right? Wrong, fail-brain: take a look at this article by Dr. David H. Newman…

    that’s just wicked fail, dogg.

  100. 100.

    chopper

    @someguy:

    Funny how everybody wants to exonerate Barney Frank and the rest of the congressional champions of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac here

    funny how you’re able to pull big things out of your ass. you should take that talent on the road.

  101. 101.

    sputnik_Sweetheart

    Crap, I live a stone’s throw away from Newton and I have gone to doctors from the area.

    And for the record, the Newton public school system from what I hear is excellent. That he is whining about the quality of his son’s education is frustrating.

  102. 102.

    Karyn

    As someone who has to go to Boston for medical care on occasion, I would appreciate knowing who this is. I don’t generally care about someone’s political views (unless we’re talking about repro health), but his remarkably juvenile writing suggests a limited grasp of reality and a significant inability to think logically or construct a cogent argument. As a nurse I have very good antenna for bad docs, but I’d hate to waste my time by driving a few hours just to discover I’d picked a nutcase. I know who to avoid in my own area, but Boston is shit-full of doctors and I don’t have the inside info out there. Thanks!

  104. 104.

    mclaren

    @chopper:

    that’s just wicked fail, dogg.

    Provide evidence or stand revealed as an ignorant liar.

    Lots of people have rushed forward to claim I’m wrong. Great. Show us the evidence that I’m wrong.

    I’ve provided a link that cites specific studies in the New England Journal of Medicine and other peer-reviewed journals showing that doctors systematically ignore studies that demonstrate many olf the treatments they prescribe are not only useless, but actually harmful.

    Lower back surgery not only fails to relieve pain any better than moderate exercise, a significant percentage of back surgeries produce debilitating side effects.

    Arthroscopic knee surgery not only fails to relieve knee pain better than simple physical therapy, a significant percentage of those knee surgeries produce complications that wind up crippling the patients.

    Prescribing antibiotics for ear infections not only fails to cure the ear infection, but some percentage of those people taking the antibiotics suffer adverse reactions.

    On and on it goes. Peer-reivewed journal article after peer-reviewed journal article.

    And what do the people who disagree with me have to offer?

    Gang signs. “Wicked fail, dogg.” Yo, blood, wassup? Make some gang signs ‘n talk trah, yo!

    That’s not an argument. That’s not evidence.

    So now I’m laying down the gauntlet. C’mon, kooks, point us to peer-reviewed scientific journal articles containing evidence that doctors do not prescribe treatments which not only don’t work but are actually harmful.

    Point us to the evidence.

    I’ve pointed you to the evidence that doctors do this. Now show us the evidence from the peer-reviewed scientific journals showing that doctors don’t do it.

    You know what?

    Ulaboros can’t do that. Because there is no such evidence from peer-reviewed scientific journals. Ulaboros is talking out his ass. He’s making shit up.

    Mr. “wicked fail dogg” can’t do that. Because there is no such evidence printed in the scientific journals. Mr. “wicked fail dogg” is blowing smoke up our asses.

    Let’s see it, people — show us the evidence. Let us see the peer-reviewed scientific studies proving that doctors do not routinely prescribe treatments which are useless as well as harmful to the patients.

    What’s that?

    You got nothing?

    Of course you do. What we hear is the silence of crickets chirping, because none of you have any evidence. You’re just making empty assertions and spewing bullshit. The evidence proves that doctors routinely prescribe treatments which are useless as well as harmful. Draw your own conclusions about the level of analytical reasoning involved in a profession that does that.

  105. 105.

    mclaren

    @soonergrunt:

    Shouldn’t you be torturing some innocent prisoners or assassinating some U.S. citizens without charges or a trial?

    Go back to raping children in Abu Ghraib, you gutless coward.

  106. 106.

    mclaren

    @Karyn:

    As a nurse I have very good antenna for bad docs…

    Notice the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of the medical profession.

    Good ole nurse Karyn is perfectly happy to avoid the “bad docs” when she encounters ’em…but will nurse Karyn put up a website warning the rest of us away from those bad docs?

    Nooooooooooooo, no, no of course she won’t.

    Like the rest of her rotten corrupt medical profession, nurse Karyn won’t speak out against or publicly identify those bad docs she knows about because it would mean the end of her career.

    How many children died because you refused to publicly identify those bad docs you know about, Karyn?

    How many pregnant women died screaming in agony because you kept your mouth shut about those bad docs, Karyn?

    Behold, ladies and gentlemen, the moral stature of America’s medical professionals.

  108. 108.

    scarshapedstar

    @mclaren:

    Prescribing antibiotics for ear infections not only fails to cure the ear infection, but some percentage of those people taking the antibiotics suffer adverse reactions.

    Wow. So antibiotics “fail”. Simple as that. They do not kill bacteria. The fungi and and bacteria that produce antibiotics (you do know that’s where we find them, right?) are wasting their time.

    It’s all an elaborate fraud.

    Oh, and “some percentage” of people suffer adverse reactions to medicine. Holy shit, who knew?

    I can tell we have a real scientist on our hands here. I assume that next he will inform us that chemotherapy has terrible side effects and many people die of cancer anyway. The scales are falling from my eyes.

  109. 109.

    Karyn

    @mclaren Wow, dude. You’re just full of pure poison, aren’t you? Might want to get that looked at…oh, right…

  110. 110.

    Karyn

    I’m thinking someone got a nasty brain infection from an untreated ear infection. And/or was one of the 52% who failed to get into med school. Bitter: Party of one!

  111. 111.

    scarshapedstar

    @Karyn:

    Poison is a lie made up by Nazi doctors. No one has ever been poisoned, and if they did, doctors did nothing to cure it. If anything, doctors made it worse.

    I’m gonna prove this by getting bitten by a cottonmouth, and don’t you dare come near me with a syringe of “antivenom”, you lying genocidal sacks of shit!

    Seriously, though:

    “And/or was one of the 52% who failed to get into med school. Bitter: Party of one!”

    52%? Holy crap. I would KILL for those odds.

    My undergrad didn’t accept 52%.

Comments are closed.