Some updates to the ever-growing lists

Been pretty busy the last few weeks and am a little behind on updating my lists.

As sham journals (and scam journals) are on the rise. There has been a recent push towards recognizing predatory open source "journals" that take your money, but have nothing to do with peer reviewing or sometimes even publishing your work. Scholarly open access has an ever growing list that I couldn't possibly top, so a link will get added to my list.

As for my list of religious companies, seven more get added. Anthem coffee shop in Tacoma, WA for canceling on hosting an event after finding out it's an atheist group. Oklahoma Joe's in - you guessed it - Oklahoma that decided not to given it's promised donation to Camp Quest after they got all the extra business from supporters expecting that their eating at the restaurant will go to a good cause. Eden Foods, Domino's Farms and Weingartz Supply Co in Ann Arbor, MI for fighting the new national healthcare requirement to cover contraceptives (and unfortunately winning). Come on, Ann Arbor, you could do better than that. A bed and breakfast in Cornwall, England for refusing to accommodate gays because of their religious beliefs (sorry, once you have a business that is open to the public, you can't discriminate). Finally, the United States Postal Service for a pattern of not delivering packages that say atheist on them.

A restaurant to avoid

The Stingray Cafe in New Bern, NC is the latest entry to my list of places of business that try to shove religion down their employees' or customers' throats. The owner, after taking a lesbian couple's money, decided to tell them: 

“God said in the last days that man and wom[a]n would be lover of self, more [than] the lover of God.
That man and woman would have unnatural [affection] for one another. Then, the coming of the Son of Man, who is Jesus. So please, look at your life. See how it hurt[s] everyone around you. And ask the Lord to open your eye[s] before it [is] to[o] late.
The Love of Christ
P.S. my daughter also was gay. It destroy[ed] her life and my grandson.”

Hmm... what are the odds that he "helped" God in destroying his daughter and grandson's lives?

(h/t Ed Brayton)

Hobby Lobby breaks the law

One of the first companies that was on my list of companies that mix religion and business, Hobby Lobby, and its sister company, Mardel, has decided to break the law for Jesus by refusing to cover birth control pills for their employees as required by the new healthcare law. The owner sued to government to be exempt from covering it because it violates the owners religious freedom. To which, luckily, the US district judge said, "Hobby Lobby and Mardel are not religious organizations."

That's right. By their logic, a company ran by a Jehova's witness should be exempt from covering blood transfusions and one run by a Christian Scientist should be exempt from providing any healthcare at all. The government has threatened to fine them $1.3 million a day if they refuse to comply with the law. The owner thinks he's being a hero and plans on not covering contraception. I really hope that the government follows through with their threat, because otherwise, thousands of other companies with religious nuts as owners will follow suit. Given the Obama administration's habit of giving into religious nuts, I'm afraid they'll let Hobby Lobby get away with it.

(Yes, it's been a while since my last post, but radiology is not as light as I expected it to be. More on that soon.)

Quick update: A federal district court allows another company ran by a religious nut to be exempt from covering birth control for their employees. The flood gates have opened. Expect hundreds of more challenges.

Don't trust a doctor who believes in an afterlife

I keep on telling people that just because you have an MD, doesn't mean that your smart. I'm starting to think that any MD who went to Harvard is especially stupid. Here's an idiot neurosurgeon who I wouldn't want getting close to my brain. He was unconscious for a while, then months later made up a silly story about white clouds and magical people (that somehow seemed to exactly fit the fairy tale stories of Heaven you hear as a child). He’s a neurosurgeon, not a neuroscientist. He’s good at memorizing things to pass a test and maybe how to use a scalpel. He knows very little about brain networks, cellular and molecular neuroscience of hypoxic injury, etc. and he doesn't know that the brain does all types of crazy things when it is injured, and it can easily make people think they are in a magical place or "heaven".  I despise doctors who think that an MD automatically makes them a scientist. He says, "I'm still a doctor, and still a man of science every bit as much as I was before I had my experience." No, sir. You are completely abandoning science. You aren't even attempting to approach your experience (if you ever did have it) from a scientific point of view.

Actually, I take it back. This guy is smart. He's making it all up and pimping his neurosurgeon and Harvard Med credentials to sell a book. There's more money in fleecing the idiots than being honest or scientific.

Social Science Research: Not very scientific

To add to the list of journals that overlook the scientific process is Social Science Research, in which both science and research can be in quotes. The published a politically motivated anti-gay parenting "paper" which conveniently bypassed the full peer review process.

Lighting up for God

Time to add another company to the list. This time, Voss Lighting Company of Lincoln, NE for denying someone a position because of not being Christian enough (and employment interview includes questions about church attendance, when the applicant was "saved" and job requires unpaid attendance to Bible study). More details here.

God's medicine

  I had a patient recently who suddenly developed an irregular heart beat. There are lots of things that could cause this, including many medications. I asked the patient what medications she was taking and she said none. A few minutes later, looking around her room, I saw a large tub filled with pill bottles. I pointed to them and asked her what they were. She said, "Oh, just my herbals." I told her that herbs are made of chemicals and some of them can interfere with her heart rate (or with the blood thinners and heart rhythm medications we were giving her). She said, "No, they aren't chemicals. They are natural." I explained how many of our modern medicines comes from plants. She smiled, agreed wholeheartedly and said, "Yes, plants are natural medicines." I said that she was right and she should realize that medicines, even natural medicines, can have side effects. She replied, "No, medicines you give me have side effects because they are man made. Natural medicines are made by God and He has made sure that they don't have side effects." I knew I had no chance to convince her why what she was doing was dangerous. I looked through her box of supplements and didn't recognize most of them, but there were some known to be stimulants and others known to interact with blood thinners. I told her not to take those few (5 of the more than 30). She declined saying she trust's God's medicines more than mine. I spent a few minutes explaining why we were so worried, but got no where. When I left she said "God bless you." Mixing quackery with religion makes a dangerous thing deadly.
  I'm not too surprised that quackery and religion go hand in hand. With both you are convinced that you know the truth, that whatever else is out there is a lie and if there is a conflict between the two, you are always right. With both, there is no critical thinking. With both, rather than reasoning with someone trying to convince you otherwise, you get offended. With both, you bend over backwards trying to ignore the obvious deficiencies with what you believe in.

Delta Airlines doesn't want my business

A few days ago, John Stewart had a piece on the "War on Women" and showed a graphic of a nativity scene in between a woman's legs (the "vagina manger"). Bill Donohue, the head of the Catholic League, nearly had a heart attack and demanded from the sponsors of The Daily Show to pull their ads. Delta Airlines decided that one religious person's point of view is more important than that of others and pulled their ads. I, a Delta frequent flyer (even had status with them last year), didn't like the company giving into one religious person's point of view and let them know my feelings. What I got back was less than satisfying:

We’re always reevaluating our advertising opportunities and updating our strategy in an effort to reach our desired audience.  Most importantly I want you to know, Delta culture is one of inclusiveness and we do not discriminate nor do we condone discrimination in regard to age, race, nationality, sexual orientation, religion or gender.  As a global airline, Delta has historically been very committed to diversity and we are proud to embrace diverse people, thinking, and styles. Our commitment to diversity is highlighted on delta.com:

 Looks like Delta's policies don't exactly match Delta's actions. They just chose to side with a religious nut rather than embrace the inclusiveness that they strive for. They decided that the religion, thinking and style of Bill Donohue is more important than that of John Stewart, The Daily Show and their audience. Sorry, Delta... you've lost my business (and got added to the list).

Unnecessary medical procedures

There are international laws against unnecessary medical procedures, but the nuts who run this country are trying to push for exactly that in many states to try to punish women who get abortions. The latest is Virginia who is about to pass a law requiring women to get pre-abortion ultrasounds. It's all to provide just another hurdle for women to go through to have a legal medical procedure. It makes it more difficult and more expensive for women. The heartless idiots who propose such bills, like State Sen. Jill Vogel, lie through their teeth and say things like:

"I view this as a serious women's health issue," Vogel said on her website. "At a minimum, ultrasound is necessary to determine gestational age and that there is no anomaly that could affect the health of the mother or outcome of the procedure."

First of all, State Sen. Jill Vogel... you're not a doctor, so you have no qualifications to make such a statement. Can you tell me what possible anomalies you're looking for? Second, you're lying, plain and simple. You want women to go through this unnecessary medical procedure because you want to make it difficult for women to get abortions, or at best you think that seeing their baby on ultrasound will get women to change their minds.

A second bill that will sail through Virginia's mentally challenged legislation is even more heartless. State Del. Mark Cole "would eliminate that financial support even when a doctor believes an unborn child would be born with a gross and totally incapacitating physical deformity or mental deficiency." This goes beyond just pro-life and pro-choice. People supporting this bill, which constitute a majority of Virginia's house and senate, are just plain psychopaths. I just don't see it any other way. The only thing such a bill results in is to force the mother to go through hell and force the baby to live a few miserable hours to weeks in excruciating pain or discomfort.

Just when I don't think the right can stoop any lower, they keep on proving me wrong.

The only thing Virginia has going for it is State Sen. Janel Howell who "tried to amend it so men seeking prescriptions for erectile dysfunction medication such as Viagra would be required to undergo a rectal exam and cardiac stress test."


She said that's "only fair, that if we're going to subject women to unnecessary procedures, and we're going to subject doctors to having to do things that they don't think is medically advisory."
 

 (might I suggest transrectal ultrasounds before prescribing ED drugs?)

Of course, as expected, right-winged psychopaths voted it down.

As someone who will have to read ultrasounds in the near future, I would rather give up my career than be forced to interpret the results of an unnecessary medical procedure that the government forces onto it's citizens.

This is why I don't like religion and everyday business mixing

Jessica Ahlquist is a teenager who fought against blatant display of religion in her public school. She won, with the court finding those displays unconstitutional (it's sad that you even have to take someone to court about something as clear cut as that). Now, her community is treating her like a second class citizen. Freedom From Religion Foundation wanted to send her flowers and not one of the four florists in Cranston, RI wanted to deliver to her. Somehow your religious views make it ok for you to not do your job (and discriminate against others). These 4 florists have been added to the list: Twins Florist, Floral Express, Flowers by Santilli and Greenwood Flower.

Open discrimination

Another one to add to the list. This hotel freely discriminates against those that don't believe the owner's religious beliefs. Richard Dawkins' reservation was canceled once the owner saw him on The O'Reilly Factor. Actually, if I include all companies that have owners that watch The O'Reilly Factor, it would probably be a perfectly accurate list of religion-laced businesses that I would want to keep my money away from.

More bad journals

Synthese - Apparently criticism of intelligent design is frowned upon.

Psychology Today - Racism dressed up as science in the form of an essay by a regular contributor to their website called "Why are black women rated less physically attractive than other women?" Yes, it was quickly removed, but the fact that it was written in the first place is disturbing. How can this guy have evidence that "black women are objectively less physically attractive than other women"? Has he seen Halle Berry?

Both are added to the list.

If your doctor is praying to heal you...

... you haven't got long to live (or you should find another doctor). Time to add to the list of science journals that have little regard for science. Here's a presidential address published in the American Journal of Surgery entitled "Can prayer help surgery." Unfortunately, the answer is "yes" (or more like, "No, but I'll say yes anyway"). Despite the fact that the author acknowledges that there is no scientific evidence that prayer works, he decides to add the old religious line of "What if those results are the will of God?" Really? Hell, I should have just responded to all the tough questions I got from reviewers by saying "It's the will of God. Who are you to question it?" This presidential address makes a mockery of science. The field of surgery is already decades behind the rest of medicine and Dr. Schroeder of St. John Hospital in Detroit (along with the American Journal of Surgery) just sent it back a couple of centuries. (uggh, I'll be working in a Catholic hospital next year, hopefully I don't run into these types)

Once again, I have to say that if any physician claims that their successfully treating a patient was God's doing, they should give up their salary.

Gotta bring back the Jesus surgeon picture. It makes me wonder why a surgery residency is 5 years. It must take that long to not get creeped out by Jesus giving you a shoulder message while helping you with surgery.

(PZ Myers has a better evisceration of the address and Orac discusses how ethically and scientifically inappropriate it is).

Stupider than I thought

I already mentioned how Arizona sucks... but this new bill (that was just passed) that requires presidential hopefuls to "prove" their US Citizenship to get on the state ballot is incredibly stupid. Accepted forms of proof includes a "long-form" birth certificate (because Hawaii only releases the short-form to the millions of nuts that have been asking for it) or, get this, at least two other forms of accepted proof such as early baptismal certificate or circumcision certificate. Are you serious? Some shady religious nut can forge those in a second. I keep on thinking this country can't sink any lower, but I get proven wrong over and over again. Let's hope that the next piece of legislation doesn't do away with the whole birth certificate thing and instead require a baptismal certificate.

Translation: A black man with a funny-sounding name couldn't possibly be an American.

Not another "miracle"!

Crazy interview season has kept this blog quiet. Well, I'm done with radiology interviews and only one more intern year interview left. I'll have an update soon. I'm sure no one is left to read the blog, but whatever... I'll vent about the latest "miracle" I heard about. This is from NPR:

BRADY: At times during today's briefing, Drs. Rhee and Lemole were almost giddy. And in undoctor-like fashion, Lemole said Giffords' progress may be partially attributable to outside forces.

Dr. LEMOLE: Miracles happen every day. And in medicine, we like to very much attribute them to either what we do or others do around us. But a lot of medicine is outside of our control, and we're wise to acknowledge miracles.

Dr. Lemole, sir, you are an idiot. A lot of medicine may be outside our control (especially when it comes to recovery from brain injury), but there is no such thing as a miracle. Just because you don't know how something works, doesn't make it a miracle. This is an even less appropriate thing to say when you have no idea what her long-term condition will be. I move that any doctor who attributes the recovery of any of their patients to a "miracle" should not receive any monetary compensation for taking care of that patient. Clearly, they admitted that they didn't do anything.

It's bad enough that an imaginary deity gets all the credit when the hard work of a physician saves someone's life, but it really upsets me when physicians go around accepting that.

(A real miracle would be if the right wing nuts who have been spitting out violent rhetoric for the last few years actually admitted that what they say can affect what another nut does.)

Wanna look stupid?

Burn books.

Edit: Make that, if you wanna look stupid, give attention to a nut that wants to burn books. Seriously, that guy not only just increased his influence about 1 million times, but there will be hundreds of copycat nuts out their trying to get their 15 min. I don't care that it's the Koran, it more that the media and the government has elevated this guy's voice to an international level. A simple "who the hell are you" and "who cares" would have shut him up easily.

Best line ever

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Mosque-Erade
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

John Oliver: You can build a catholic church next to a playground. Should you?

This whole ground zero mosque nonstory, noncontroversy is basically right-wingers being racist and trying find a way to get attention from their failures in time for November, the media gladly complying with whatever they say, and the democrats hemorrhaging votes by feebly attempting to make the fake outrage die down.

Fake science legitimized

There's a lot of pseudoscientific or grossly biased "studies" out there that pretend to be actually doing real science. That really can't be stopped. Lots of organizations spend a lot of money to come up with "evidence" to back up whatever they like to promote. What upsets me is when these "studies" get published under the guise of actual scientific work. Some of theme are even peer reviewed. The great PZ brought up an example today from the Southern Medical Journal of a study that showed that prayer improves vision by recruiting subjects from a church revival, not blinding and not having a control. If the Southern Medical Journal is a legitimate medical journal, how did this study make it past the editor (let alone through peer review)? Clearly, the scientific process doesn't matter for this journal.

There are a lot of science journals that have been publishing pure crap (I suppose in order to get more readers) and it really diminishes their value. Not quite this bad, but even bigger named journals like the New England Journal of Medicine have been trending towards legitimizing pseudoscience, such as this recent review of acupuncture (discussed by Orac). A few years ago, I actually got in an argument with an editor from the American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy because they published a letter to the editor that used a posting from prolifeblogs.com to support their argument against the availability of over-the-counter emergency contraception. The response I received from the editor was that they can't be selective against the literature their contributors cite (yes you can! And, a blog post can't count as scientific literature).

So, similar to my post on companies that underhandedly promote religion, I want this post to include a (probably) growing list of scientific journals that aren't exactly scientific:

Completely Fake:
Journal of Cosmology
The Open Information Science Journal - accepted a fake paper without review from a couple of people from MIT claiming to be researchers at the "Center for Research in Applied Phrenology" (CRAP) - as long as they sent an $800 check to an address in a tax-free zone in the UAE.

Has Ulterior Motive:
Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine (sham journal for Merck provided by the supervillain of scientific journals: Elsevier).
The Journal of Global Drug Policy and Practice - funded by the Department of Justice and only publishes "research" that shows that punishing people is the only way to reduce drug use.

Ignores scientific process for publicity/money/religion:

An exhaustive list of preditory open-source journals can be found at Scholarly Open Access
American Journal of Health-Systems Pharmacy
American Journal of Surgery
British Journal of Psychiatry
Journal of Medical Hypotheses
PLoS One
Social Science Research
Southern Medical Journal
Psychology Today
Synthese

... and more coming when I get the chance to get to them.

Religious companies

There are some companies, fairly well-known ones, that I never knew attempt to push their religious beliefs on others. I find it pretty frustrating when I'm trying to purchase something and I get a religious sermon. Or an ad for car batteries is talking about God's love. I find it worse than religious organizations and televangelists, because, with them, you at least know what you're getting yourself into. But, I was looking for plane tickets recently and a wandering google search taught me that Alaska Airlines regularly distributes Bible verses with their meals. When common everyday companies, like Alaska Airlines, pushes religion when providing the service that you pay them for, it's insidious and not only offends me, but leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I mean, if I were to give my business to Alaska Airlines or Interstate Batteries (which I have before), I have donated to a religious cause (something which I try to avoid at all costs). They are private corporations and can do whatever they want... I'd just like to know about it so I can avoid giving my money to them in the future. So here's my list that may be growing, of companies I will try to avoid because I'd rather not have my business with them fund proselytizing. A good starting point is from a list made last year here. Another good list is here, but I'm not considering companies that just have owners who are religious and have a spiritual way of making decisions. It's more when employees or customers are exposed to religious propaganda, nonreligious employees/customers are discriminated against or the profits from the company goes to religious organizations.

Alaska Airlines
Anthem coffee shop in Tacoma, WA
Chik-Fil-A (aah! Making employees pray and Christian-themed toys in their children's meals... that's pure evil!)
Chymorvah bed and breakfast in Marazion, Cornwall, England
Delta Airlines
Domino's Farms in Ann Arbor, MI
Eden Foods
Hobby Lobby
In-and-Out Burger
Interstate Batteries
Florists in Cranston, RI 
Forever 21 (owner likes to demonstrate his faith by putting a bible verse on bags)
Oklahoma Joe's Bar-b-cue in Broken Arrow, OK (breaking its agreement to donate to Camp Quest after taking profits from supports).
Prometric (testing center was playing Christian radio in the waiting room... not what I want to hear just before I start taking Step 2).
Korte & Luitjohan Contractors in Highland, IL
Sting Ray Cafe in New Bern, NC
Trijicon (Hidden Bible verses written on military weapons).
Tyson Foods (thousands of chaplains "serving" their employees)
United States Postal Service (somehow packages that say atheist on them tend to get lost)
US Plastics sends religious messages to their customers
Voss Lighting Company of Lincoln, NE
Weingartz Supply Co. in Ann Arbor, MI
Wyndgate Country Club in Rochester Hills, MI

This is a slowly growing list. If you have any additions, please let me know.

Take back our textbooks

As expected a bunch of nuts in Texas decided that reality is too liberal and will rewrite history and make up scientific facts to teach students in their public school system. I could say, "who cares it's only Texas", but the publishers don't want to make multiple versions of a textbook and since Texas is one of their largest purchasers of textbooks, the right-winged fake textbooks that they'll make for Texas will be used in other states also. However, I believe we could fight back. The same publishers sell college and professional-level textbooks, and with the insane number of textbooks that I've had to buy in my college and professional school career, I'm sure a huge chunk of the revenue for these companies come from people just like me. So, if professors, researchers, and college students boycott the companies that are complacent in the brainwashing of public school students, I believe we could stop these 11 crazy Texans from robbing the educations of kids from all over the country. (I've tried to find a list of the textbooks that the Texas school board uses, but haven't been successful so far.)