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The number of scientific papers retracted annually rose from just 40 in 2000 to almost 5,500 in 2022, representing a whopping 13,650% change over the past 22 years, with researchers estimating an astonishing 100,000 would have to be withdrawn every year with more thorough vetting. Delivering a blow to the “trust the science” cheerleaders, Retraction Watch’s co-founders Ivan Oransky and Adam Marcus detail the alarming issues with modern science for the left-wing Guardian newspaper. The surge in bogus papers is driven in part by the fact that scientists are often “required… to publish papers in order to earn and keep...

A growing number of people, including prominent scientists, are calling for a full retraction of a high-profile study published in the journal Nature in March 2020 that explored the origins of SARS-CoV-2. The paper, whose authors included immunology and microbiology professor Kristian G. Andersen, declared that evidence clearly showed that SARS-CoV-2 did not originate from a laboratory. “Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus,” the authors wrote in February. Yet a trove of recently published documents reveal that Andersen and his co-authors believed that the lab leak scenario was not just...

m a recovered phobic. Not from any of the politically trendy, culture war-specific “phobias” intended to demonize libertarians, conservatives, and other reasonably sane people, but a real one. Acrophobia. It`s why I’m so short. If I’d grown to be much taller than I am (not), it would have been impossible for me to stand up without having a panic attack. At least any time before I was 17. I had an irrational, unjustifiable fear of harm from a real threat: the possibility of falling from any height above about five feet. But that fear was not at all justified by...

By definition, few things represent the pinnacle of human achievement. Among them are science, great art, free markets, great literature, philosophy, music, and American football. On that list, only science and football are modern inventions, and of those two only football is getting better. Science, unfortunately, is in crisis. I’ve written other pieces on science and academia, and no doubt will write hundreds more. But after having read two pieces today that touch on this topic, I thought I would share some thoughts with you. I often refer to Vinay Prasad in my writing because he is clear-thinking and an...

In my last post, I argued that we’ve developed a two-tiered justice system, in which ordinary people have to take their losses in court and adjust their behavior accordingly, but Our Masters on the Left can just blow by their losses and, with utter impunity, keep right on keepin’ on. I noted two examples: President Biden’s determination to continue his gigantic loan “forgiveness” program still without the Congressional approval the Supreme Court held is constitutionally required; and his and his allies’ continued, if not even more aggressive, determination to persist with anti-white racial balancing by hiding it or calling it...

What, precisely, is it about America you love? That’s the question this July 4 as just 29% of Democrats say they’re extremely proud of the country, accompanied by just 33% of Independents and 60% of Republicans. In fact, Democratic love of country has always fallen far behind that of Republicans, even during the Obama era, when it hit a temporary high of just over 50% (Republicans at the time said they were extremely proud of the country at a rate of approximately 70%). Why is it that liberals in the United States are so much less proud of America than...

You knew it. I knew it. Anthony Fauci and company undoubtedly knew it too. But the US public health establishment has been denying it for 3 years because they were partially responsible. The UK’s Sunday Times, basically a centrist equivalent of The New York Times for Great Britain (The New York Times was actually named after the Times), has a bombshell report that COVID-19 was indeed engineered by the Chinese military using US funding. The US funding came through the EcoHealth Alliance. The trail of money went, as we already know, from the NIH through the EcoHealth Alliance to the...

Two of the world’s leading scholars on the harmful impact of cohabitation on relational health and marital success – Scott Stanley and Galena Rhoades, both of the University of Denver – have published an important new report expanding upon previous research. Scholars have long known, and there is surprisingly very little disagreement among them, that cohabiting relationships are associated with markedly higher rates of marital divorce. Something about the cohabiting experience tends to chip away at the likelihood of success in marriage. These scholars explain in this new report that “for decades in the U.S., living together before marriage has...

I strongly support Ron DeSantis in the race to become the Republican nominee. I am not unpersuadable. Certainly not NeverTrump. If it is Trump v. Democrat, I am Trump. Easy call, that. But I am, in fact, a fan of Ron DeSantis. You already know that, but I want to lay my cards on the table as the primary battle heats up. DeSantis has been an outstanding governor of Florida, and his electoral victory and the huge level of support in Florida (nearly 60% approval) demonstrate that Floridians as a group agree with that sentiment. DeSantis turned Florida deep Red...

Special Counsel John Durham’s report largely confirmed what Republicans have said for years about the FBI’s investigation of the Trump campaign. Durham found the FBI opened the probe, known as Crossfire Hurricane, with flimsy evidence, and detailed the FBI’s mishandling of the infamous Steele dossier, which falsely claimed the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin. Durham laid out in painstaking detail the FBI’s misstatements to a federal surveillance court to obtain warrants to surveil Trump campaign aide Carter Page and the Clinton campaign’s hand in spreading false information to smear former president Donald Trump as a Kremlin stooge. Much of...

Barack Obama rose to power on the promise that he would restore hope and bring necessary change to a system that, by 2008, most Americans no longer believed was working for them. Sadly, those Americans who believed that the future would be bleaker for their children than it was for them and their parents, were right. Obama failed to deliver. His supporters claim that he cleaned up an epic mess inherited from George W. Bush and his Republican Party. Of course, that’s just a convenient excuse that the Left uses to cover up for the fact that Obama did not...

Much like a Bill of Rights, a principal function of any Code of Ethics is to set limits, to check the inevitable lust for power, the libido dominandi, that human beings tend to demonstrate when they obtain authority and status over others, regardless of the context. Though it may be difficult to believe in the aftermath of COVID, the medical profession does possess a Code of Ethics. The four fundamental concepts of Medical Ethics – its 4 Pillars – are Autonomy, Beneficence, Non-maleficence, and Justice. Autonomy, Beneficence, Non-maleficence, and Justice These ethical concepts are thoroughly established in the profession of...

A math camp without…math. Sure, if math comes up they’ll talk about it. But really, “queer” kids, that’s up to you! The point is that you “queeries” get to express your identity! Thanks, Mathematical Association of America! The Mathematical Association of America is not some radical group of Left-wing ideologues; or rather, it didn’t use to be. It is almost 110 years old and used to exist to promote the study and use of … mathematics. Now, apparently, it exists as a place to provide grooming for high school kids into the alphabet cult. Let’s take a look at the...

Skip Science should not be trusted in general, but we need to be especially diligent in acknowledging science as suspect when the science of the matter concerns the possibility that scientists, health science funders, and managers overseeing science in labs in Wuhan, played a role in killing 18 million people. Such an investigation is ripe with conflicts of interest and reputational risks, as prior to a science-caused accident there will be many coteries of scientists who played some role in encouraging, conducting, funding, and/or overseeing the research that caused harm. Yet, despite the massive body of evidence making a spillover-scientist...

Anthony Fauci has almost no actual intelligence regarding the source of COVID. Two eminent scientists had informed him of their judgment that the virus was likely manufactured, not natural. The virus emerged right next to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The Chinese were being very cagey, hiding the evidence they had about the virus. Fauci’s response? Hold an emergency conference call with the authors of the paper alleging an engineered origin, bully them into recanting, and “commissioning” them to write a paper saying the opposite of what they had claimed just hours before. Watch Dr. Martin Makary explain the sequence...

A Manhattan Institute study confirms that K-12 schools are effectively indoctrinating students into radical — revolutionary, even — political ideologies. Last month, the Manhattan Institute released a groundbreaking new study, titled “School Choice Is Not Enough: The Impact of Critical Social Justice Ideology in American Education.” The study presents survey results of a representative sample of over 1,500 Americans aged 18-20. Their primary finding was that "Ninety-three percent of American 18- to 20-year-olds said that they had heard about at least one of eight [Critical Social Justice] concepts from a teacher or other adult at school, including 'white privilege,' 'systemic...

When kids are taught concepts rooted in critical social justice, such as “white privilege,” “systemic racism,” and “patriarchy,” they are much more likely to become Democrats, reports the Manhattan Institute. “School indoctrination is working, and will make the Republicans unelectable in a generation,” notes Eric Kaufmann of the Manhattan Institute. “Younger generations are diverging from older ones by not becoming more Republican as they age. Why might this be?” “Indoctrination. Virtually all of over 1,500 18-20 year-olds polled had heard at least 1 of 8 critical social justice (CSJ) terms from adults at school. 90% heard a critical race (CRT)...

Disney has been making some noise publicly about exiting the culture wars, but their writers and producers aren’t so keen on that idea, apparently. The clip below is from one of their cartoons, the “Proud Family,” which first appeared earlier this month on the Disney + streaming channel, and will be released next month on the Disney Channel that goes out on cable. It’s pretty much a children’s primer on critical race theory, which we were assured hasn’t escaped out of the Law School laboratory to become infectious in the wild. The children’s show is basically the Omicron variant of...

MADISON, Wis. — Most students who responded to a survey about free speech on University of Wisconsin campuses said they’re afraid to express their views on controversial topics in class because they fear other students won’t agree or it could hurt their grades, according to findings released Wednesday. A third of respondents, meanwhile, said they’ve felt pressure from an instructor to agree with a certain viewpoint. Almost half said they at least somewhat agree that administrators should bar controversial speakers if some students find the message offensive. “I want the University of Wisconsin System to be looked upon as a...

When it comes to fighting the power, Prof. Mark J. Perry is doing it. He’s been filing complaints for civil rights violations against universities that discriminate on the basis of race and sex – for example, establishing all-women or all-minority scholarships or programs – because doing so, even if it’s for fashionable reasons, is against the law. I asked him a to talk about what he’s doing and why, and at the end he has some advice on how you can help, and an offer of assistance. I chime in with some other things you can do. 1. Please describe...