We are putting together a list of the best books in the skeptical movement, to be included in the Baloney Detection Kit for professors to consider assigning to their students, to be included in the Skeptic magazine book catalogue for readers to order, to be included on the www.skeptic.com web page for customers to order, and to be published in Skeptic magazine as a list of recommended readings. For this list we are not looking just for "important" books, like Hume's AN ESSAY CONCERNING HUMAN UNDERSTANDING, which was important but probably not a book you would recommend to students to read to get them interested in skepticism, science, and critial thinking. Nor are we looking for the "greatest" skeptical books, as if it were some contest like the greatest rock and roll hits of all time. We want your picks of books you would recommend to people to read. Here's a good criteria:
The books I would recommend for others to read that will teach them about science, skepticism, and critical thinking are....
list your picks (3-5) and e-mail them to me at skepticmag@aol.com under the subject heading BEST SKEPTICS BOOKS
We are also compiling a list of book skeptical books for kids and young adults. Please recommend your favorite picks (3-5) of skeptical books for kids and young adults.
This letter is from Linda Rosa of the Front Range Skeptics, who has pioneered research into Therapeutic Touch (and whose daughter, Emily, got her 4th grade science project on TT published in the Journal of the American Medical Association):
Dear Skeptics,
I'd like to ask a moment of your time to write the "White House Commission on Alternative and Complementary Medicine Policy" via email.
This Commission is wrapping up its public input phase. Because the composition of the Commission is so heavily biased against science, most notably by its Chair -- James Gordon, MD (see colorful record below) -- this Commission is 100% guaranteed to make heinous recommendations to the president and Congress in favor of:
* PROMOTING CAM practice and products
* PROMOTING delivery and public access to CAM services
* PROMOTING dissemination of reliable information on CAM to health care providers and the general public
* PROMOTING licensing, education and training of CAM health care practitioners
Please take a few minutes to send an indignant remark about the anti-science composition of this Commission and thereby have it made part of the OFFICIAL RECORD!
To do this, go to:
http://www.whccamp.hhs.gov/contacts/index.html
Your comments will most certainly go unheeded by the Commission, but a sizable body of outraged comments in the Commission's Official Report would most certainly assist any congressional members attempting to thwart the Commission's recommendations in the future. Please ask your friends and family to write, too.
Yrs, Linda Rosa, RN
Loveland, CO
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
White House Commission on Alternative and Complementary Medicine Policy website:
http://www.whccamp.hhs.gov/index.html
COMPOSITION OF THE COMMISSION:
http://www.whccamp.hhs.gov/members/index.html
CHAIR: JAMES GORDON, MD
Advocate of "alien abduction therapy"; and closely associated with Wilhelm Reich, mystical Jungian transpersonal psychology, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, and more. Director of the Center for Mind-Body Medicine. Previous chair of Program Advisory Council at the Office of Alternative Medicine; previous Director of a Special Study of Alternative Services for the President's Commission on Mental Health; on editorial boards of *Alternative and Complementary Therapies* and *Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine.* Author of "The Golden Guru" and "Manifesto for a New Medicine: Your Guide to Healing Partnerships and the Wise Use of Alternative Therapies."
http://www.cmbm.org/
http://www.around.com/abduct.html
http://www.peer-mack.org/learnmore.html
http://members.aol.com/mannionabc/
http://www.pathwaysminneapolis.org/lifedeath.html
GEORGE BERNIER, MD
Hematologist/Oncologist
Vice President for Education at the University of Texas Medical Branch. Previously, Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dean of Medicine, and a Professor of Medicine at the University of Texas.
DAVID BRESLER, Ph.D.
Psychologist and board-certified acupuncturist.
Director of Program Development for the Los Angeles Healing Arts Center and Founder & Co-Director of the Academy for Guided Imagery. Bresler is a proponent of Iranian faith healer Ostad Hadi Parvarandeh.
http://www.healthy.net/bios/bresler/
THOMAS CHAPPELL
Founder/CEO: Tom's of Maine, selling "wellness products."
http://www.tomsofmaine.com/mission/default.asp
EFFIE POY YEW CHOW, Ph.D.
Acupuncturist and Quigong Grandmaster
Founder of East West Academy of Healing Arts (San Francisco)
http://www.eastwestqi.com/html/dr._chow.html
GEORGE DeVRIES, III
CEO/Pres. of American Specialty Health Plans (San Diego)
"...the nation's largest chiropractic and acupuncture HMO."
http://www.americanspecialtyhp.com/
WILLIAM FAIR, MD
On the Cancer Advisory Panel for the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Associate Editor of *Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine* and chairs the Committee on Complementary and Alternative Medicine of the American Urologic Association. After being diagnosed with colon cancer, Fair and his son started a complementary health center called *Health, LLC.*
http://newsun.com/fair.html
JOSEPH FINS, MD
Medical Ethicist
Weill Cornell Medical Center, NY
http://www.med.cornell.edu/gradschool/fac/fins.html
VERONICA GUTIERREZ, DC
Chiropractor
"Leader of the World Chiropractic Alliance (WCA) Managed Health Care Committee"
Connected to Council for Chiropractic Practice, an organization that promotes home births, chiropractic manipulation to treat ear infections and prevent SIDS and the use of thermography to diagnoses "chiropractic subluxations."
http://www.chiroweb.com/archives/10/26/06.html
http://www.chiropage.com
WAYNE JONAS, MD
Past Director of NIH's Office of Alternative Medicine; author of "Essentials of Complementary and Alternative Medicine," "Healing With Homeopathy : The Complete Guide," "Healing With Homeopathy: The Doctor's Guide," and "Textbook of Complementary and Alternative."
http://nccam.nih.gov/nccam/ne/newsletter/1997/july/1.htm
SISTER CHARLOTTE ROSE KERR, R.S.M.
Registered Nurse & Acupuncturist
Senior Faculty Member at the Traditional Acupuncture Institute.
LINNEA SIGNE LARSON
Social Worker
Assoc. Director for the West Suburban Health Care Center for Integrative Medicine (Oak Park, IL) and previously with the St. John's Center for Mind-Body Medicine. Faculty member for 2000 program in Santa Fe entitled: "Integrating Culture and Complementary Medicine: Challenges to the Biomedical Paradigm."
TIEROANA LOW DOG
Medical Director for the Tree House Center of Integrative Medicine (Albuquerque)
DEAN ORNISH, MD
Founder of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine. Author of five books, including "Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease" and "Love & Survival: The Scientific Basis for the Healing Power of Intimacy."
CONCHITA M. PAZ, MD
Private practice and part-time faculty member at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine.
JULIA SCOTT
President, National Black Women's Health Project.
BUFORD ROLIN
Health Administrator for Poarch Band of Creek Indians.
XIAOMING TIAN, MD
Acupuncturist/Qigong Practitioner
Director of the Academy of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine and Wildwood Acupuncture Center, where Chinese herbal and Qigong remedies are offered. President of the American Assoc. of Chinese Medicine. Vice President of The International Academy of Medical Qigong.
DONALD WARREN, DDS
Dentist
Practices dental cranial osteopathy, "an alternative and complimentary approach to health," and "contact reflex analysis," a form of applied kinesiology quackery where the patient's body is used like an ouija board to diagnose problems and nutritional deficiencies.