Friday, 2 April 2010

Victory for science, freedom of speech and in a way for the legal system

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/apr/01/simon-singh-wins-libel-court

http://jackofkent.blogspot.com/2010/04/that-easterbrook-quote-on-scientific.html
(for the legal impact from the blog of one of Simon's key supporters)

After a 2 year fight Simon Singh finally won his appeal against the
British Chiropractic Association for libel.

The case has brought to light Britain's absurb libel laws and also
ruined the reputation of the BCA. Had they not brought it up the
evidence, or lack thereof based on the paradigm of evidence-based
medicine, about their treatments being very rarely better than the
placebo effect (if ever).

It seems that any treatment that doesn't hold up against a high quality
RCT, for example CBT for psychosis, could be described as a bogus
treatment now. So NICE's schizophrenia guidelines last year in fact
promoted a bogus treatment with its recommendations on CBT as the
primary psychological therapy. It recommended against certain treatments
that are equally bogus. Sadly it came to this conclusion using what is
considered the gold standard technique for evidence scoring and
evidence-based commissioning.

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We It comes in part from an appreciation that no one can truly sign their own work. Everything is many influences coming together to the one moment where a work exists. The other is a begrudging acceptance that my work was never my own. There is another consciousness or non-corporeal entity that helps and harms me in everything I do. I am not I because of this force or entity. I am "we"