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#1 |
Graduate Poster
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 1,306
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Desperate measures from the Society of Homeopaths
The Society of Homeopaths continues to show its true colours.
Quote:
A few other blogs are also carrying the story, including Gimpy's blog which has (bravely) reproduced the original Quackometer article: http://gimpyblog.wordpress.com/2007/...y-legal-means/ According to DC, we may not have heard the last of this. |
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#2 |
Adult human female
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: NT 150 511
Posts: 48,301
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Wow. Reading the cached version, that was one hard-hitting article. But surely being a little rude in one's approach while stating absolute facts cannot be libellous?
Rolfe. |
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"The way we vote will depend, ultimately, on whether we are persuaded to hope or to fear." - Aonghas MacNeacail, June 2012. |
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#3 |
Graduate Poster
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Wuppertal
Posts: 1,959
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I think this is going to backfire on the SoH.
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#4 |
Thinker
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 203
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The society of homeopaths say: "Your name in The Society register tells your patients that you have been trained in essential medical sciences and have suitable clinical training and experience; you have a thorough understanding and knowledge of homeopathic materia medica and repertory; you’re insured and that you have agreed to abide by our code of ethics and practice. In short, you’re a professional homeopath."
This kind of implies that the SoH is there to protect patients. Their behaviour in this case suggests that they care more about protecting themselves. |
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#5 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: As far away from casebro as possible.
Posts: 7,070
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Unless there are some factual errors, which I didn't notice, I doubt any case would stack up in a UK court.
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#6 |
Graduate Poster
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 1,306
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Orac has written a magnificent commentary on the SoH’s disgraceful behaviour. He’s also joined a growing band of bloggers who have decided to reproduce the original article:
Quote:
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#7 |
Lackey
Administrator
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: South East, UK
Posts: 102,449
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Have you sent all of this to Randi?
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I wish I knew how to quit you |
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#8 |
Graduate Poster
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 1,306
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I have now.
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#9 |
Thinker
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 203
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I'll join in aswell: http://shpalman.livejournal.com/4788.html.
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#10 |
"Amazing"
Founder
Join Date: Apr 2001
Posts: 51
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The SoH situation
I am studying the SoH situation, and I believe I will post the entire discussion that they had taken down, "A response to Abigail Marshall and the Davis Dyslexia Association/ International Society of Homeopaths make themselves look silly/The Society of Homeopaths silence criticism through cowardly legal means."
If they're so litigious, let them sue the JREF. We can handle it. |
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#11 |
Lackey
Administrator
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: South East, UK
Posts: 102,449
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Great news!
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I wish I knew how to quit you |
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#12 |
Thinker
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 203
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#13 |
Anti-homeopathy illuminati member
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 28,209
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#14 |
Thinker
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 128
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I love this bit of double-think from the SoH press release that Gimpy blogged about:
Quote:
Holistic? Immune system? Is there a reductionist in the house? |
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#15 |
New Blood
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 8
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Thanks for posting my correction shpalman.
Crispy Duck there will be a short but sweet follow up to that post tonight/tomorrow. |
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#16 |
Graduate Poster
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 1,306
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#17 |
Student
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 35
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How many now?
I'm trying to keep count of the number of sites that have reproduced in full "The gentle art of homeopathic killing", the missing page from quackometer on my posting at http://dcscience.net/?p=171
The page came down at 11.47 on Thursday 11 October. I make it 14 re-postings in the first 24 hours and 10 more by 23.00 (UK time) on Saturday 13 Oct (2.5 days). So 24 in 2.5 days (and the Google cache). Pity the weekend intervened so we can't get a good time course of the spread across the net. They have appeared from UK, USA, Russia and Canada (though some sources are so anonymous that one can't be sure). But that's a pretty fast response -not a bad result for freedom of speech. Now all we are waiting for is Randi. |
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#18 |
Graduate Poster
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 1,306
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#20 |
Anti-homeopathy illuminati member
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 28,209
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It used to be said that the net treats censorship as damage and routes around it. Not true of course but as far as the little guy is concerned it might as well be.
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#21 |
Mad Scientist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 13,749
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http://skeptico.blogs.com/skeptico/2...aths-cens.html
![]() Can I present "The Gentle Art of Homeopathic Killing" in full on our skeptix.ca site? |
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Motion affecting a measuring device does not affect what is actually being measured, except to inaccurately measure it. the immaterial world doesn't matter, cause it ain't matter-Jeff Corey my karma ran over my dogma-vbloke The Lateral Truth: An Apostate's Bible Stories by Rebecca Bradley, read it! |
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#22 |
Join Date: Nov 2001
Posts: 2,274
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The Society of Homeopaths have turned themselves into an international laughing stock with this action. Not that they weren't already. But even more so. I think it's hilarious.
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Read: Skeptico - Critical thinking for an irrational world |
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#23 |
Mad Scientist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 13,749
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__________________
Motion affecting a measuring device does not affect what is actually being measured, except to inaccurately measure it. the immaterial world doesn't matter, cause it ain't matter-Jeff Corey my karma ran over my dogma-vbloke The Lateral Truth: An Apostate's Bible Stories by Rebecca Bradley, read it! |
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#24 |
Mostly harmless
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Nor Flanden
Posts: 35,896
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__________________
"You got to use your brain." - McKinley Morganfield "The poor mystic homeopaths feel like petted house-cats thrown at high flood on the breaking ice." - Leon Trotsky |
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#25 |
Graduate Poster
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 1,306
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SoH code of practice “a figleaf”.
Quote:
Society of Homeopaths’ foul play exposed by Ben Goldacre in today’s Bad Science column: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/20.../20/homeopathy |
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#26 |
Mostly harmless
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Nor Flanden
Posts: 35,896
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About time this got some coverage in the actual press.
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__________________
"You got to use your brain." - McKinley Morganfield "The poor mystic homeopaths feel like petted house-cats thrown at high flood on the breaking ice." - Leon Trotsky |
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#27 |
Graduate Poster
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 1,306
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Another update.
A highly detailed formal complaint is to be sent to the Society of Homeopaths within the next few weeks (let’s hope it gets a response):
Quote:
Go Gimpy. |
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#28 |
New Blood
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 8
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Ha, cheers. I don't think it'll get anywhere though, I'm sure they'll come up with some weaselly semantic get out, still no harm in drawing attention to it. It is interesting that most homeopaths websites replicated parts of these leaflets including many offending passages. If, and I don't think it likely, the SoH does decide these breach its Ethics then most homeopaths will have to change their websites.
The quackometer has a good post up on his complaints. quackometer.net/blog/2007/10/homeopaths-through-looking-glass_20.html Sorry can't post links yet |
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#29 |
Graduate Poster
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 1,853
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#30 |
Banned
Join Date: Sep 2002
Posts: 26,704
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Is there any way the sword can be truly buried into this silly business and kill it?
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#31 |
Graduate Poster
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 1,306
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The email that the Quackometer’s Dr Andy Lewis sent to Paula Ross, Chief Exec. of the Society of Homeopaths - which has yet to receive the courtesy of a reply - has just been published in full over at Bad Science:
http://www.badscience.net/?p=554 Perhaps it's time for Prince Charles’s Foundation for Integrated Health to intervene. It claims to take the protection of the public very seriously: ‘Preventing abuse by complementary therapists’ http://www.fih.org.uk/Our+work/Regul...boundaries.htm
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#32 |
Graduate Poster
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 1,306
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For those interested, Randi has posted the original Quackometer article here:
http://www.randi.org/joom/index.php?...d=99&Itemid=27 He’s quite cautious about the whole issue, suggesting that homeopaths’ deliberate use of weasel words will help them to evade disciplinary action for misleading advertising:
Quote:
Typical woo tactics. |
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#33 |
Critical Thinker
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 301
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I seem to recall there being some kind of motion you can file that, if someone is holding a threat of litigation over your head ("Comply or we'll sue you" - type of thing) you can take THEM to court for a put-up-or-shut-up kind of ruling. Basicaly, you can force them to either try the case or never threaten you with it again.
I can't remember what the actual motion (if indeed it is a motion, I'm no lawyer or anything), I seem to recall reading about it on some Video Game Blogs that made comments about the Phantom Console that was supposedly being created. Would something like that be 1. Useful in taking a bite out of Homeopathy? or 2. Cost-effective? Trifikas |
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#34 |
Thinker
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 203
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The Society of Homeopaths has written to the Guardian newspaper, in which Ben Goldacre's Bad Science column appears: http://www.homeopathy-soh.org/whats-...-releases.aspx
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#35 |
Graduate Poster
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 1,306
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Thanks for posting those links, shpalman. The SoH’s Press Statement seems to be full of the usual feeble excuses. Particularly interesting is the claim made by its author, Andy Kirk, at the start of the final paragraph:
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Now here’s what Professor David Colquhoun recently revealed about Mr Kirk:
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So much for Mr Kirk’s assertion that bloggers who criticise the SoH...
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#36 |
New Blood
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 8
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Part two of my criticism of the SoH literature is up.
Afraid I can't post links yet but I believe my blog is linked to up thread ![]() |
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#37 |
Critical Thinker
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 357
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The only homeopathic remedy proven to work is 1 part homeopath to 10 parts water.
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#38 |
Illuminator
Join Date: May 2004
Location: UK
Posts: 3,070
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#39 |
Thinker
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 203
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#40 |
New Blood
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 8
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Part three of my critique is now up
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