Debunking Pseudo-Science and Shattering Old Idols
By way of GNXP, here's a great speech by Michael Crichton about the intellectual fraud that is consensus science and any form of consensus being used as an argument in science.
And I'm sorry to learn that Carl Sagan, whom I reverred for his great TV shows vulgarizing science when I was a kid, as well as for his passionate defence of Science and Skepticism (known by way of Douglas Hofstadter and the fortune file), was part of such scientific crookeries as denounced by Crichton (anti-nuclear scare and other ecological lies). Hey, after what I've learnt of Rothbard's ideas in international politics (supporting the enemies of his own government out of anarchistic opposition, even when these enemies were themselves dreadfully worse governments). I guess I should know that great people can make great mistakes, particularly when they let their ideologically-induced emotions take over cold-blooded reasoning. So let's take the best of each, and put aside what's not as good, will we? No, we shall never forget mistakes, but remember them as such; however, we should focus on what's good and use it, and refrain from using the bad.