Science, Medicine, And The Gullible Left (Mickey Z.)

[Tace]

(Is your spleen superflous?)

Mickey Z. -- World News Trust

Oct 24, 2006 -- In a recent National Football League game, Tampa Bay Buccaneer quarterback Chris Simms suffered a ruptured spleen. Simms was rushed to the hospital, his spleen was removed, and he is now on the road to recovery. This much-talked about injury inspired Robert N. Jenkins of the St. Petersburg Times to declare that Simms, in reality, "didn't need his spleen." In an article, called "Humans have body parts to spare," Jenkins went on to pronounce that we also do not need our appendix, gall bladder, tonsils, esophagus, stomach, and adrenal glands because those organs, according to conventional wisdom, are "vestigial."

I'm not here to debate what -- if any -- human organs are superfluous. What interests me more is the fact that most folks would read Jenkins' article and accept the premises therein without question... and this includes the most cynical lefties you'll ever meet. I know people skeptical enough to think the Foley sex scandal was leaked by Republicans to distract the public from the fiasco in Iraq. But tell those same people that some scientist has declared their spleen obsolete and they're not likely to rush off to post arebuttal on their blog.

Tell them that Israel attacked Lebanon because two of its soldiers were kidnapped and they'll debunk that story in a flash. But how many of them question, say, the need for humans with a functioning immune system to get vaccinations (laden with formaldehyde, mercury, aluminum, cells from sickened animals, and genetically-altered materials, no less)?

Vote counts are routinely disbelieved, but nary a peep is heard about the efficacy of animal experimentation (in fact, to focus on such a topic is to invite being labeled "anti-human" by progressives). Folks who don't even think there were humans on the planes that hit the World Trade Center have no problem eating a tomato spliced with flounder genes. Of course, genetically modified foodstuffs are safe. The experts tell us so.

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http://www.worldnewstrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=440

[SnowGoose]

1. He should ask some polio victims about the uselessness of vaccines

Yea, I sure wish people showed more of an interest in science, and the willingness to dig in and understand it themselves, but to suggest that healthy people wouldn't benefit from vaccines demonstrates that the author (Mickey) needs to re-examine the science himself.

It does not do a service to other potentially valid points he'd like to make.

[unpossibles]

2. All I have to say is, this person obviously doesn't know

many radical lefties. Most of the people I know who disbelieve the 9/11 stuff, etc. also tend not to trust western medecine or support animal testing. And I know some who don't eat meat and who don't trust Western medecine who do believe the official 9/11 story.

In all seriousness though, is there a point? I'm not trying to be mean, but ... I honestly don't get the point of the article. I don't think it irrational to be skeptical about some things and not others. Or even to hold some middle ground as most people do, of any political persuasion.

I think it's a strawman argument at best, and specious logic at the very least.

[hvn_nbr_2]

4. Don't confuse him with facts or reason

After all, he already knows what he thinks. He's living in his own made-up fantasy world, just like O'Lielly and Hannity.

[kestrel91316]

3. Don't need esophagus or stomach??

Hey, maybe HE has found some novel way to take nutrients in (perhaps through the skin like a tapeworm) but my body still needs to do it the old fashioned way: mouth>>>esophagus>>>stomach>>>duodenum>>>>jejunum>>>>>ileum>>>>>colon>>>>>rectum.

I suspect most other humanoids are similar.

Oh, and about that spleen. Yes, most folks could survive at least for a time without one, but they are certainly NOT vestigial. The spleen is a vital part of our hematopoietic and immune systems. People without a spleen can die rather spectacularly of certain infections that are harmless to people with spleens.