Well, so it is. And, if Evolving Squid were advocating breaking into willfuly ignorant people’s homes or mugging them on the street, I would condemn him/her for it. However, all (s)he is saying is that (s)he has no problem with the wilfully ignorant choosing to spend their money on something that doesn’t work. And which, by the way, is entirely legal in all of the US states (disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, and I have assumed that selling this stuff [basically, various forms of woo] is legal).

However, I disagree with E-Squid. Because it is legal to rip people off in this way (i.e. sell them a service that doesn’t work), it makes it a very easy way to make money. Because it is an easy buck, it becomes an attractive line of business, which means it will continue to flourish until either (a) practitioners are required to prove efficacy, or (b) the public gets wise.

I think the food and cosmetics industries feed the public enough misinformation without whole industries being founded on nonsense too.

Imbalanced, but too bad.

Please go back and read more carefully what you quoted Squid as saying… and I point out:

“… with people who are WIlLFULLY ignorant….”

What part of that didn’t you understand? Many of the folks who are being screwed by the mortgage crisis are NOT willfully ignorant of the issues… they are caught in a squeeze not of their own making.

Also, I see nothing fair or uplifting in YOUR ad hominem against mentally ill or retarded people by equating THEM as “willfully ignorant.”

Wilfully ignorant means that the person chooses to make an ignorant choice because he or she is simply too lazy to learn. I believe people who make unfounded assumptions about atheists and mentally retarded people and people who are having mortgage problems and then use those assumptions to launch misplaced rejoinders based on a willful misreading of someone’s post would better qualify as “willfully ignorant.”

[[At the most fundamental level, I have no problem with people who are willfully ignorant being ripped off. I’m not sure that pharmacists should be doing that ripping off, but that willfully ignorant people get ripped off isn’t a problem for me.]]

Do you by any chance sell balloon mortgages? What if the person you’re laughing at has a family that depends on his or her income? Does that matter?

You’re saying “theft is okay if the victim is someone I hold in contempt.”

Is this an example of how atheists are just as moral as Christians? A point I think you’ve upheld in the past?

[[Is it really criminal to separate stupid people from their money?]]

You’re a wonderful human being, Squid. Why don’t you go down to a local MH/MR facility and con some Down’s Syndrome kids out of their petty cash allowance?

I guess there must be a boulder in Boulder, otherwise it would be a silly name for a place.

Little Rock presents a quandary – either it was named for a little rock (which sounds silly) or it was so named because there is so little rock in the area. Never having been there, I cannot say which is more likely.

Still, people in glass houses…

The UK has four rivers called “River Avon” – “avon” being a pre-Roman British word for “river”.

I used to drive through the entire length of Pennsylvania on my way to and from work each day – Pennsylvania being a small village on the A46 near the city of Bath.

I can’t resist this one: Washington, DC.

Of course. That’s a no-brainer (terrible pun intended).

“When I left Denmark for the U.S., the average I.Q. went up…in BOTH countries!”

You win the thread!

Reminds me of my father-in-law, who is Danish. His favorite joke (stolen verbatim from Victor Borge) goes thus:

“When I left Denmark for the U.S., the average I.Q. went up…in BOTH countries!”

Boulder is one of many nice places in Colorado. Now that you live there you might consider running for local office. Politics aside, the ones in office right now do not seem to understand the concept of local government.

“Boulder’s elected leaders are expected to decide next week whether to draft and vote on a resolution calling for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.” RockyMountainNews.

Regards,
Stan/Tx

This is why I am generally against BANNING things like homeopathy. If homeopathy is exposed, it will die a natural death. Banning it will only force it underground. Better to have it in the open where we can see it, and deal with it.

Absolutely! Back when I was still living in Boulder, and I’d travel somewhere else, you could just about win bets as to WHEN (not if) somebody would say, “Boulder? Wow… you ever see Mork?”

I love that “ultraconservative left” designation… it fits perfectly!

My dad (who was raised in Boulder, too) always describes it as “Hippies with “Baby on Board” signs in their cars.”

It is, however, a great place. Even though I make a great living as a writer, etc., I still find it would be quite expensive to move back into Boulder .. and I say this as a resident of Frost Heaves, MA, where the COL is quite high, too.

Still… I miss the Colorado winters and the air quality and the quality of light… and the mountains… and the university…

Snow’s the rarity, not the norm. There have been recent winters where there was none. We’re in the snow-shadow, on the east slope of the Rockies. The snow falls on the west (upslope) side, which is why the big ski areas are on that side, in the other mountain ranges.

I moved to Boulder in ’92 for the rock climbing, thinking it was some sort of liberal freedom stronghold. Wrong. Ultra-conservative left. Love it though. Phil, trade one of your books for dinner at the Walnut?

Nothing pisses off Boulder residents more than mentioning Mork or Jon Benet. You live in Manhattan? How bout I blab about 9-11 for an hour as if nothing else has ever happened there in the last couple centuries?

As for Mork & Mindy… well, I for one had successfully forgotten about that series after all these years. Now it’s back in my head. Thanks.

I remember once getting a flyer under my dorm room door at CU about buying “matched male and female quartz crystals” that, when you put them together in one velvet bag, gave out “vibrations” that would help you study for exams.

Talk about WOO.

Then, one of the Colorado Daily’s cartoonists caught wind of these and came up with a cartoon about “mated male and female quartz suppositories’ to be placed you-know-where to help students get the most out of their studying… it was funny as hell, yet darned if some “practitioner” didn’t write in and protest the insult to his “practice.”

Of course, for small towns I seriously doubt anywhere in the US tops
Los Alamos, NM (which is a city and a county) or perhaps Livermore, CA
for the number of Ph.D.s per capita. But those are company towns
(LA is, anyway) so they might not count in surveys like this.

And all things considered I’d rather live in a more heterogeneous community
than a company town. It’s nice to have, you know, book stores.

I’m disappointed in you all!!!!!

Not even a JonBenét Ramsey quip.

ObSheesh: Sheesh!