Shall I please?

Miscellaneous blah blah.

More on disability today. Did you know that if a person with a disability (PWD) can't drive but has someone to drive them and owns a car that it is very difficult for them to get insurance for that car and driver and, if they do, it is very expensive? It's not a universal rule, but it's a common happening. Lovely, isn't it?

My classroom was having a face lift on Monday so they moved me to a classroom across campus. Imagine my surprise and dismay when I entered and realized it was a computer lab. Now imagine trying to keep the attention of 30 students on philosophy, specifically whether or not homosexuality is natural in one class and animal rights in the other, while they have computers within their reach. Hell, I wouldn't have been able to resist the temptation. Can't blame the kidlets.

Freaking hilarious video, An Engineer's Guide to Cats:



A poster on Disaboom has claimed that being sick is better than being injured because you can change your blood but you cannot change an injury. WTF? I've asked her to clarify but I doubt she will as this particular poster continually posts blatant falsehoods about alternative treatments and laws. I want to know, how does one change their blood? Do they go to a clinic in Switzerland to have their blood totally replaced? I suspect not since that clinic and procedure were the inane story of a rock star who was sick of answering the same boring question about his drug use. So, how does one do this blood changing? Hey look! it's all just a matter of thinking it so, again! From the website:

"Scientists have studied the power of the placebo and have seen explicitly that…
you can make it so, if you think it so."

This is a site that claims that it is the place "where science and logic meet complimentary and natural health." Let's have some fun! Let's deconstruct the above argument and see just how logical that site is. (yes, it is indicative of a greater whole, no dicto simpliciter to see here)

1. Scientists have noted a placebo effect.*
2. The placebo effect generates actual change.
3. Therefore, the mind (placebo effect generator) can overcome disease.

1. Scientists have noted a placebo effect. Yes, scientists have noted a placebo effect. A placebo effect is something that is created from a belief in the treatment or cure that is not founded on fact. In other worse, the placebo effect is something we convince ourselves is a real change because we believe it or want it to be so. First contention: true.

2. The placebo effect generates actual change. No. Feeling a decrease in pain is not the same thing as having an actual decrease in disease or disorder. The two can be separable since pain is essentially subjectively understood. There are some people who have tremendous pain from an injury that may look almost identical to another injury that produces what we would think of as less pain. For example: I knew someone who claimed to be having pain that was an 8 on the 10 point pain scale. I questioned the validity of that statement because this person was posting away online, functioning as a human being, and not screaming in agony in the emergency room. That, however, is not really the correct methodology for assessing the pain someone else feels. In comparing my idea and experience of pain to someone else's idea and experience I created a false impression of what is true for them. Pain is measurable only insofar as it is described, and it is described only insofar as we are able to understand it subjectively.

3. Therefore, the mind (placebo effect generator) can overcome disease. No. As demonstrated above, feeling better and being better are two separate concepts. The syllogism falls apart because it is based on a contention that a perception indicates a fact. While we may perceive facts if we see them truly, facts are not dependent on perception; consequently, perception can be baseless. The conclusion is, you cannot make a categorical statement (the placebo effect proves that the mind can change biology) based on subjective perception.

So much for logic meeting science. It should be noted that the woman who made the injury/illness contention never explained her position further; the above example of that thinking is something I found after googling the phrase "change your blood." People simply slay me. SLAY ME, I tell you.

It's official, I'm leaving Jon for Keithy. An oldie but a goodie:



Anyone who can use the term "the Sisyphus of morons" in a sentence without even a glimmer of the Dennis Miller effect (pretentious asshole pretending to be smart) is the hunk of man for me. I'll push your rock all day and night, Keithy. Rawr.


*There is also a nocebo effect. It's when you experience side effects of treatments or meds because you expect them. I have it every freaking time I eat out. Within 5 minutes of finishing I am soooooo siiiiiiiiick in my tummy. Yeah, I know, I know.

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