Reblogged from Skeptical Humanities:

The Equality Network set up a webpage a few weeks ago to make it easier for people to send a response to the Scottish Government’s consultation on the equal marriage bill.  Now, it is known that opponents of equal marriage have been organising a mass response. It is vital that as many supporters of equality as possible send responses!

PLEASE therefore send a response if you haven’t already. Even better: if you also contact three of your friends and ask them to send a response in the next three days. It only takes a minute or two! The deadline is 5pm this Wednesday (20^th March).

Responses can be sent from this page Consultation| Equal Marriage.

Related articles

• Same-sex marriage opponents want section 28 brought back, according to the Equality Network (dailyrecord.co.uk)
• ‘Section 28′ fears for teaching of gay marriage law (scotsman.com)

And lo, my prayer was answered.  Amidst the plethora of more-or-less dangerous (but always brain-numbingly stupid) quackery touted on Twitter, I found and retweeted this:

Colloidal silver supports natural defense system of the body by attacking & killing more than 500 microbial #health bit.ly/W45mIW

— Organic Whole Foods (@OrganicLiveFood) 2 mars 2013

To which I added the following comment:

Complete bollocks @organiclivefood Oh, I see from your site you also flog herbal #detox. Which is also bollocks.

— anarchic_teapot (@anarchic_teapot) 3 mars 2013

(…)

You can read the rest of this sorry tale here Smurf’s Up, Part I: Colloidal Silver not the only faeces detected on Seattle Organic website » Short & Spiky.

Well, how else can you describe it? Homeopaths in France are required to be qualified medical doctors and are therefore fully aware that what they’re punting is placebo.  Anyway, the ever-unreliable Debby Bruck, Canard-en-Chef to a legion of quacks, has Twatted forth to the world an appeal to save French homeopathy.  It’s… quite astonishingly brazen. They want to send this letter to President François Hollande.

Let us examine the fuckwittery with which they hope to bamboozle M. le Président. It’s short. I’ll translate as we go, starting with the introduction:

I haven’t seen the directive and of course they don’t link to it – or even give a title or reference I can look up. Par for the course for homeopaths, naturally. We’ll take the claims at face value, even though in my experience they tend to exaggerate wildly in order to play the victim. So, a dearth of homeopathy would compromise the health of the nation ? A bold claim indeed, and one that they would be hard put to provide evidence for, since it is no secret that homeopathy is merely a placebo.

Read the rest on French homeopaths panic and make false claims to save their income » Short & Spiky.

A novel by Maurice Prevel – Editions Amigaya, Toulouse (France)

The strange, “upside down” mountain known as Pic de Bugarach is famed throughout the world. It is situated in the South of France, between Toulouse and Barcelona, on the other side of the nearby Spanish border. Like Mount Shasta in California, Mount Thabor in Israel, Sulaiman-Too in Kirghizistan, to name but three, it is considered to be sacred. One legend claims Mary Magdalene spent her last days near here, somewhere between Rennes-le-Château and Mount Cardou. The Knights Templar and followers of the “Cathar heresy” also sought refuge from persecution in this wild, windswept country. And just as Mount Thabor is said to have survived the Biblical Flood intact, so Mount Bugarach is believed to offer protection against the end of the world supposedly predicted by the Mayan calendar for December 21, 2012. Is this really the date for Doomsday?

Newspapers and TV crews are practically fighting each other to grab scoops and make documentaries about Bugarach. The French are beginning to worry about the public infatuation with the place. Things are so bad that the army may have to be called in to stop people climbing the mountain as the fateful date of December 21 approaches.

The Black Stone of Bugarach Mountain was written by three people under the collective pseudonym of “Maurice Prevel”. All three authors live in the area and have thoroughly explored its secrets. The story introduces readers to the “Doomsday Mountain” and draws them into an exciting adventure arising from a strange coincidence and fed by rumours in the media.

Synopsis:
Jules, a lecturer in philosophy and part-time explorer from Toulouse, finds himself unexpectedly in possession of a mysterious black stone when a dying man leaves it in his hands. Unfortunately, a number of mystical organisations also want the stone. A local journalist gets wind of the incident and stops at nothing, not even murder, to get hold of the story and spread wild rumours about the stone in the hope of making money from the affair. Jules meets a beautiful geologist – Leila – in dramatic circumstances. He also encounters a strange child who claims to be called Naya and seems to know all the mountain’s secrets. Even Naya’s dog has an important role to play. From this point onwards, the lives of several people will cross and criss-cross: Jules and Leila, the young policeman in charge of the enquiry, the unscrupulous journalist and some shadowy organisations. For some of them this will not end well, but the quest of the Stone culminates in a spectacular final scene worthy of Indiana Jones.

Now available in English
The novel so successfully combines mystery, excitement and humour, laced with a little love and affection, that it is hard to put down. So as not to disappoint those waiting eagerly for the English version, it is being released in 3 parts as the translation progresses.

Hidden messages?
Although the book itself is quite definitely fiction, it includes a lot of genuine historical and geographical detail painstakingly researched locally by the authors and of course draws on the innumerable myths and mysteries that contribute to the legend of the “Sacred Mountain”.

Like Jules Verne or Dan Brown, both of whom were inspired by the area, the reader may be tempted to look for coded messages in the book. And why not? After all, the original inspiration came from the Mountain itself.

Special offer: to celebrate the second edition of the original French novel, Les Editions Amigaya have associated with Relief Edition to produce the first ever 3D map of this country steeped in legend, from Quillan in the east to Tautavel in the west, and including Rennes le Château, Bugarach, Galamus Gorge and the Cathar castles of Peyrepertuse and Quéribus, to name but two. Better than a tiny black and white drawing on a page, here is a map that gives the impression of flying over the area as though in a plane, except that you can touch the mountains and valleys and trace the rivers with your finger. An excuse to let your imagination run riot and an ideal stocking-filler for the post-Apocalyptic holiday season this year! (14,95 euros, also available via bugarachadventure.com).

Useful Links:

Download Part I from Amazon.com.
Original French paperback/eBook: http://www.bugarachadventure.com
Original 3D map: Rennes-Le Château – Bugarach – Les sites Cathares et Templiers (Collection: Les Terres de Légendes)
Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/maurice.prevel1

The Bugarach phenomenon: articles from around the Web

• Access denied to Pic de Bugarach, the safe zone for the Apocalypse (Updated) (doubtfulnews.com)
• Bugarach: the French village destined to survive the Mayan apocalypse (guardian.co.uk)
• Doomsday cults pick tiny French village as spot to survive Armageddon… (dailymail.co.uk)
• Bugarach: Town ‘set to survive the Mayan Apocalypse’ cracks open End of the World wine (dailymail.co.uk)
• Are you prepared for the Mayan Apocalypse? (americanthinker.com)
• ‘Apocalypse’ Village to Media: You’re the Problem (newser.com)

Bugarach Village 1 (Photo credit: marcovdz)

Fine, yes, it took a while to get the thing on line. Don’t look at me, it’s not my fault. Apparently some people have lives, which are things that get in the way of unreality. I’m told he’s much better now, but we had a bit of a scare. Anyway, this is the first part of a tale of mystery, murder and manipulation, inspired by the many weird and wonderful legends that have settled over a small and very rural part of South-Western France like dandruff on a good jacket…

Read more The Black Stone of Bugarach Mountain, Part I » Disjointed Ramblings.

To David Cameron: An Open Letter.

A Saturday morning like any other, I thought. Quick shower, check weight for the week, then breakfast while browsing the news online. Everyone else was away for the weekend, so I could do what I pleased. I was towelling my hair when I heard a noise from the front room. Damn cat up to mischief again, I thought and went to see what had been knocked over this time.

There was a short, swarthy bloke with curly hair and a beard sitting on my sofa. He was wearing robes and calmly rolling what looked suspiciously like a spliff. I grabbed at the towel.

“Oh, don’t worry. I’ve seen it all before, you know,” he said airily. He ran his tongue along the Rizla and saw that it was good. “Diet’s coming on nicely, I must say. The abs need work, though.”

An interview with the J-man » A Plague Of Mice.

If you haven’t heard of the Australian Vaccination Network (aka the anti-vaxxers) and assume that opposition to vaccines must be confined to a handful of loons living in tree houses, you need to know what sort of people belong to the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN) and what lengths they’ll go to, to distress, frighten and misinform parents.

Until about three years ago whenever any media outlet ran a story about vaccination they would go to founder & President, Meryl Dorey for a comment on behalf of the AVN.

Read the rest on The Australian Vaccination Network needs to change its name. Mamamia.

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