Remember David and Collet Stephan, Canada's most infamous religious wack-jobs and practitioners of the homeopathic, anti-vaccination lifestyle? When last we checked in with their story, they had just been convicted of allowing their unvaccinated two-and-a-half-year-old son to die ...read more
Jon Stewart is leaving us, Walter White's lawyer came back, and Brian Williams screwed us all over. Here's the week that was, at The Daily Banter. Did Jon Stewart Finally Just Burn Out (and If So, Can We Really Blame Him)? Banter's own Chez Pazienza has an interesting theory ...read more
We were warned this would happen. No one can be shocked the day finally arrived when a disease once effectively eradicated came roaring back to life within the comfy First World confines of the U.S. We always knew that the irresponsible and ignorant anti-vaccine movement would ...read more
Given how sensitive we should be to succumbing to media narratives, which are generally fickle and untrustworthy things, it would be easy to say that not every member of the anti-vaccine movement should be held up as some sort of public enemy. But then you get something like the ...read more
For every action there is an equal and painfully stupid reaction, especially in the age of social media. Yesterday we told you how State Farm insurance had dumped Rob Schneider as a spokesperson because it's a company whose business model is based around keeping you safe and ...read more
In the past I've defended a hell of a lot of people who've made idiotic statements or cracked crude jokes. It's so easy to unleash hell on someone who says or does something offensive these days -- to recruit millions to join in a frenzied pile-on and use that to tear a person's ...read more
Here's the quote of the day, from a person whose opinion you want to be sure to base all your important healthcare decisions on: “I think that there is a lot to be said for being cautious on what we are jamming into our children’s arms by law, all the time... I gave my kids the ...read more
My six-year-old daughter started first grade at the beginning of the month, which means that last week I had the pleasure of leaving the blistering hellscape of Los Angeles and driving down to gorgeous Laguna Beach to attend my very first parent-teacher meet-and-greet. If you've ...read more
If you need a real world example of the damage being caused by the ongoing campaign of disinformation against childhood vaccinations, look no further than a new study published in Pediatrics. According to the pretty extraordinary report, researchers have traced a measles ...read more
Everything you're about to read might be a waste of copy space. That's because it will either confirm what you already know to be 100% true or simply bounce off the titanium hull of your own ignorance, since it's doubtful that you or anyone else is still on-the-fence when it ...read more
Jenny McCarthy recently tried to put one over on planet Earth. She did this by insisting she's not "anti-vaccine." In an op-ed in the Chicago Sun-Times a little over a week ago, the person almost universally acknowledged as the celebrity face of the anti-vaccine movement -- a ...read more
There's been a lot of pressure on Jenny McCarthy lately. With every new report that surfaces making it clear that the anti-vaccine movement is causing real damage, helping to resurrect diseases long thought conquered and making full-on outbreaks of measles and mumps a reality in ...read more
We don't do this for us; we do this for you. We want you to know that there are other semi-sane people out there who want to converse with others that believe in the sanctity of rational thought. So this week's Comment of the Week comes from...Rita D.Lipshutz! In response to ...read more
According to Wikipedia, a conspiracy theory is defined as "an explanatory proposition that accuses two or more persons, a group, or an organization of having caused or covered up, through secret planning and deliberate action, an illegal or harmful event or situation." To me ...read more
Well, here's your bonus quote of the day: "Listen, to each their own. I understand both sides of it. I've ready too many books about autism and there's some scary statistics out there. It's our personal choice, and, you know, if you're really concerned about your kid get them ...read more
The Los Angeles Times published this a couple of days ago and it is, in a word, devastating. The graphic below was provided by the Council on Foreign Relations and it illustrates in shockingly easy-to-understand visual language the impact the anti-vaccination movement is having ...read more
From the Department of Getting Paid To State the Incredibly Obvious comes this tidbit: If you're a conspiracy theorist, you probably don't believe what scientists have to say about vaccinations, genetically modified foods, and climate change. From Mother Jones: The new ...read more
"Dirty, lying little piece of big business funded, corporate scum. Tell your children that tonight." -- Eric144144 responding to Slate's column, "'The View' Hires Notorious Anti-Vaxxer Jenny McCarthy" This column isn't about how Jenny McCarthy shouldn't be given a nationwide ...read more
