I need the laugh (grading….14 December 09)

Stupid people cause much of the misery in this world (though not all of it).

So I’ll have a laugh at their expense:

1. PZ Myers on Fox News and Huffington Post:

Fox News brought on a naturopath to peddle a random bit of nonsense, that coffee makes you fat. Any drug that tinkers with your metabolism can have some unexpected effects, but to claim that a cup of black coffee is “worse than five hot fudge sundaes” is irresponsible insanity. [...]

Meanwhile, the HuffPo continues its adoration of homeopathy. No, not homeopathy: the quacks have come up with a new, impressive, pseudoscientific term for it now. It’s Nanopharmacology. It’s all wrapped up in a primer on quackery.

2. Paul Krugman: reports that some people compare some mainstream economic theories to mass murder (and no, I am not talking about things like the old Soviet Union agricultural program which lead to starvation for millions)

Hoisted from comments on my eulogy for Paul Samuelson:

Samuelson was just another Eichmann. He is responsible for propagating a destructive economic dogma.

The scary thing is that there probably are a number of people in this country who believe that advocating Keynesian economics is a crime comparable to being complicit in mass murder.