A former doctor turned TV evangelist and fake health fraud has been convicted and sentenced to 14 years in prison for a fake cancer cure that she promoted on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, the world’s largest Christian television network. Courthouse News reports:
Category Archive: Skepticism
May 21 2013
So, This Organization Exists
Doctors Without Borders is one of the world’s most selfless and worthwhile charities. But did you know there is a group called Homeopaths Without Borders? Yep, it exists. I wish I was making this up, but I’m not. Because it’s important that the world’s poorest countries have access to completely ineffective medical woo.
May 17 2013
The Koch Brothers Boogeyman
This post is undoubtedly going to irritate some of my longtime readers, but as I often like to say it has the great virtue of being true. I mostly agree with Michael Moynihan that the Koch brothers have too often been used as a cartoon bad guy by liberals painting with too broad a brush …
May 15 2013
Fellow ‘Psychics’ Distance Themselves From Brown
With Sylvia Browne getting a huge backlash after her claim a decade ago that Amanda Berry was dead was disprove by Berry showing up alive, other “psychics” are trying like hell to distance themselves from her. Oh yeah, we knew she was a fraud, they claim, but we’re totally different.
May 14 2013
Sylvia Browne Finally Responds
After several days of taking a well-deserved public beating over having told the mother of one of the young women who was kidnapped a decade ago and was found alive last week, Sylvia Browne has finally responded to the uproar with a self-serving and inane statement:
May 08 2013
Sylvia Browne Has Some ‘Splainin to Do
Three women in Cleveland who disappeared ten years ago were found alive this week and three brothers who allegedly kidnapped them have been arrested. One of the women actually called the police and it turns out that they were living a few blocks from where they were abducted from:
May 02 2013
Happy National Day of Reason
Today is the official National Day of Prayer, declared so by congressional decree. As an alternative, the American Humanist Association has also declared it to be the National Day of Reason. And one of the supporters of this idea is Anthony Foxx, the mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina and the nominee to be the next …
Apr 16 2013
Kilpatrick To Be On Alien Visitation Panel
Former U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, the mother of disgraced felon and former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and herself simultaneously one of the dumbest and most corrupt members of Congress ever sent from Michigan, is being paid to take part in a dog and pony show to publicize a documentary claiming that aliens have visited …
Apr 16 2013
Books That Changed Me
For any thinking person, there are bound to be a handful of books that had such a powerful impact on them that they have returned to them again and again throughout their lives. I thought it would be interesting to hear what books my readers would identify for them, so I’ll start by reposting something …
Mar 25 2013
Florida ‘Psychics’ Admit Fraud
Remember that family of psychics in Florida who were arrested and charged with defrauding clients to the tune of $25 million? 8 of the 9 members of the family have now admitted to the fraud and pleaded guilty, leaving only the matriarch of the family refusing to do so.
Mar 23 2013
More Adventures in Publishing PR
I’ve written before about how amusing it is to get emails from PR agents for publishers and authors who are just sure that I’m going to love their latest book of Christian inspiration or some such rot. The latest is from Random House, offering me a book from their Deepak Chopra Books imprint. You’re gonna …
Mar 20 2013
Fake Quotes: The Papal Edition
Within 24 hours of Cardinal Jorge Mari0 Bergoglio being named pope, I started seeing people sharing what was alleged to be a quote from him declaring that women were unfit for…well, almost everything other than being led around and told what to do by men. The “quote” that flew around Facebook among the ostensible skeptics:
Mar 08 2013
How Arguing Can Undermine Our Rationality
I like to argue. That should be obvious enough to anyone who knows me. But sometimes after I argue I feel bad. I recognize that while I was doing a good job of defending my position, that position wasn’t nearly as strong, when I’m being honest with myself, as I made it seem. I’m sure …
Mar 03 2013
Appeals Court Upholds Fortunetelling Restrictions
I recall writing a couple years ago, probably at the old blog, about a Virginia county that required a license to be a fortune teller there. My concern was that licensing gives a stamp of credibility to the practice, but the law was challenged as unconstitutional under the First Amendment. The 4th Circuit Court of …
Feb 15 2013
Woman Wins ‘Psychic’ Contest
I didn’t know that there was such a thing as the International Battle Of The Psychics, but if anyone shows up other than the winner, I think the whole thing is a fraud (because the others should have known they were going to lose). And I had to laugh when I read the start of …
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