Trudeau the Fraud

Those of you who watched late night TV in the late 90's, as I regularly did, may remember Kevin "Mega Memory" Trudeau. In the new issue of Scientific American Michael Shermer, founder of the Skeptic Society, writes not too kindly about old Trudeau in his column:

If readers had purchased Trudeau's Mega Memory, perhaps they would have remembered that he spent almost two years in federal prison after pleading guilty to credit-card fraud...

Trudeau has now turned his attention to natural medicine by self- publishing and flogging off his new book, Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You to Know About. Shermer points out just a couple of flaws (in grey) in Truduea's book:

"Medical science has absolutely, 100 percent, failed in the curing and prevention of illness, sickness, and disease." (Smallpox is not a disease?) "Sun block has been shown to cause cancer." (References?) "Don't drink tap water." (Wrong: studies show it is as safe as bottled water.) "Animals in the wild virtually never get sick." (No need to worry about avian influenza.) "Stop taking nonprescription and prescription drugs." (Including insulin for diabetes?) "This includes vaccines." (Welcome back, polio.)

Ah, good old natural medicine. I'm sure there are some natural remedies out there that work (better than a placebo). But natural medicines don't go through the very rigorous testing methods that regular drugs have to pass in developed countries. As such, charlatans like Trudeau can legally peddle any old snake-oil. Alas, I wish there was a cure for clowns like Trudeau.

Shermer concludes with:

There is one lesson that I gleaned from this otherwise feckless author, well expressed in an old Japanese proverb: " Baka ni tsukeru kusuri wa nai"--"There is no medicine that cures stupidity." Domo arigato, Mr. Trudeau.