In this case, about that idiot 'study' that said people who carry guns are more prone to road rage. Money quote: "While they repeatedly claim that "that riding with a firearm in the vehicle appears to be a marker for aggressive and dangerous driver behavior.", they also admit that "we do not know whether there was a gun in the vehicle at the time the road rage incident(s) occurred.", and that "Our study had only two measures of road rage – making obscene gestures and aggressively following – and these have not been validated." Got that? As I recall from my science classes back in the dark ages, this is a fancy way of saying "We don't actually know crap, but this suits our political views so we say it anyway". But this is what passes for 'research'.
The Geek has a very good story about a science teacher he once had and 'studies' that aren't what they're made out to be. Which fits in with something I've been thinking about for a while. Namely, the HIV/AIDS equation.
Sometime last year I was looking through Dean Esmay's site and found a piece he did on the subject that basically said "Can anyone tell me of a study that actually shows that HIV causes AIDS?" Lots of responses, but nobody could answer the question 'yes'. Looked through some other stuff he'd posted on it, and it got real interesting. So I started doing some other reading, including the book Inventing the AIDS Virus by Peter Duesberg. And it's both scary and disgusting. Scary that lots of scientists and doctors just fall into line behind the 'approved' theory, and disgusting that a lot of people were/are being a: scared to death without reason, b: medicated without reason and being given medications that literally will kill you. And let's not skip the fact that a bleepload of money and resources and time have been, in many cases, flat wasted so as to keep in the 'approved' pathway of research and treatment. That is NOT how science is supposed to work. But it so often does, and if you criticize it even people who doubt the mess you're doubting will pile onto you. Especially if you're not a doctor and/or researcher yourself; after all, you're not of the priesthood so how dare you criticize them?
And that, when it comes out, makes people less trusting of the sciences in general, because if you find out they've lied about something this important just to CYA and protect the priesthood, why should you believe them about other things? The medical profession has been whacked by this repeatedly, in that all too often it's been seen covering for incompetent doctors instead of throwing them out of the profession, which helps lead to "You should get a lawyer and sue because otherwise nothing'll be done" which leads to BS suits as well as good ones, and we're in the mess that causes now. Clowns like John Edwards get rich, and good doctors leave the profession because they're tired of being sued for any and everything.
Back during the Clinton administration there was a study released that said "if you have a gun you're 46 times more likely to shoot a relative or friend than a crook". That number was challenged, and the guy revised the number down. Drastically. That number was challenged also, and he revised it downward again. People were arguing that number when it turned out that this clown was giving lectures on this 'study' and using whichever number he thought would go over better with the audience. Turned out the Centers for Disease Control had paid either 1 or 200,000 dollars to do this study(can't remember which offhand). First, what the hell were they doing paying money for such as this? Second, considering they were screaming and crying that they didn't have enough money to study and fight emerging bugs, where did this pile come from? Which brought up that they were apparently willing to use money to push political purposes when they should have been studying microorganisms, which feeds into a whole lot of other BS.
As the Geek says, I have great respect for the scientific method; damn little for the clowns abusing it in the name of money and/or politics.
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