Kavin Senapathy is back for part 2 of her extremely thorough dismantling of sketchy autism “cures,” including something called CEASE—Complete Elimination of Autistic Spectrum Expression—which of course is homeopathic. Of course. In her conclusion, Kavin writes:
If I’ve learned one thing from doing a deep dive into the world of autism woo, it’s that it’s virtually infinite—even as one so-called cure or treatment is exposed as quackery, another pops up like a tragic game of whack-a-mole.
Skeptic cartoonist Celestia Ward debuts her new column for CFI, Peeling Onions, with a piece on “outrage vampires,” those who feed off our knee-jerk anger using deceptive means. In this case, a viral video by “Joey Salads” created to make people seething mad about the scorn faced by breastfeeding moms:
While on the surface it might seem like any publicity is good publicity when it comes to public acceptance of breastfeeding, I can see some very real problems here. Harken back to my informal poll: despite the fact that very few mothers reported harassment from strangers as they nursed, some of those who sought out private spaces did so “out of fear” and admitted to being nervous about what reaction they might get if they nursed in the open.
Wowee wow wow WOW: The International Astronomical Union announces the discovery of 12 previously-unknown moons around Jupiter. One of the moons, Valetudo (the Roman goddess of hygiene and personal health, which I had no idea was a thing), is the smallest and is also being called an “oddball”:
It has a prograde orbit at a distance where the rest of Jupiter’s moons have retrograde orbits. What’s more, those orbits intersect. The stage is set, in other words, for possible moon-moon collisions.
Valetudo, I totally feel you.
At CSICOP.org, Annika Merkelbach interviews Dr. Anna Zakrisson, a social media science communicator and consultant.
Gene Zubovich at Religion & Politics finds Trump’s place in the story of American Christian nationalism:
The paranoia and conspiratorial instincts of today’s Christian nationalism came about in the twentieth century in response to the same things that Trump attacks today, like global capitalism and international organizations.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announces a “Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom” next week, a discussion with “government officials, representatives of international organizations, religious leaders, rights advocates, and members of civil society organizations from around the world.”
Joe Nickell shares highlights from the book Chronicles of Lily Dale, a compilation of contemporary accounts of the goings-on at Lily Dale, the world’s largest Spiritualist village, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
David S. Rauf at Scientific American checks the current success rate of the new crop of candidates with scientific backgrounds. They’re not killing it, but they’re doing okay.
Research at the University of Warwick quantifies what you could have guessed: When Trump tweets about Islam, hate crimes against Muslims go up.
Hillel Gray checks back in with the Westboro Baptist Church, and yeah, they’re still awful, and they’re expanding the things they hate beyond just gays, but also adulterers, divorce, and remarriage.
Judge James Ho, one of the federal judges who ruled that the Texas Catholic Bishops didn’t have to give up their correspondences on fetal burial, goes way, way out of his way to make sure you know just how much he hates abortion, and accuses Judge David Alan Ezra, whose ruling he was overturning, of shenanigans:
The First Amendment expressly guarantees the free exercise of religion—including the right of the Bishops to express their profound objection to the moral tragedy of abortion, by offering free burial services for fetal remains. [. . .]
[Judge Ezra’s ruling seems designed] to retaliate against people of faith for not only believing in the sanctity of life—but also for wanting to do something about it.
A federal magistrate judge rules that Jewish people can be considered members of a “race” in questions of racial discrimination in employment. Magistrate Mark Hornsby wrote:
Modern sociologists and anthropologists, especially with advancements in DNA studies, debate whether Judaism is a people, a religion, or both. There is no doubt, however, that many people have and continue to view being Jewish as a racial identity.
According to the India Tribune, 52 Sikh asylum seekers from India have been jailed in Oregon and had their turbans confiscated. Members of the local community reportedly have come to give the men beanies to cover their heads.
A nun working for Mother Theresa’s organization admits to selling babies. Yep.
In Iran, Shaparak Shajarizadeh says she has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for removing her headscarf in protest, though The Independent has been unable to confirm this.
A high school principle in Virginia who really hates atheists is now very sorry he said so.
Democratic candidate for the Jefferson County Commission in Alabama, Sandra Little Brown, lost her primary despite the endorsement of Jesus Christ.
Quote of the Day
Retiring senator Jeff Flake tweets about Trump’s make-out session press conference with Putin, saying, “I never thought I would see the day when our American President would stand on the stage with the Russian President and place blame on the United States for Russian aggression. This is shameful.”
The quote of the day is the response from John Lam (@AnxiousPenman):
Awful, right? You should totally write to your Congressman and demand he act on this.
And lo, a thousand mics did drop. (Hat tip to Brian Hogg.)
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