Science Debate! …2008! (Cue standard stadium chant)

I touched on the push for a science-based debate in the US Presidential elections before when all the SB’ers were flogging the pet project of The Intersection co-conspirators. Things seem to have quieted down lately and it is worth checking up on progress. I was, and remain, a bit of a tactical skeptic of Science Debate 2008. Nevertheless it is an excellent goal and quixotic as it may be it is worth a few minutes of your time.

Green Gabbro Inna House Y'all

As one of the more recent assimilations acquisitions of the Borg ScienceBlogs, I’d like to welcome Green Gabbro to the 2008 Frosh Class of SB.
A flavor from her debut:

Clearly, all the fun has already been sucked out of my writing, leaving behind a shambling blog-golem made up of nothing but dry facts about boring old rocks – and that’s why I was invited to join ScienceBlogs.

Oh, we’re going to like this one, PhysioProf.

Green Gabbro Inna House Y’all

As one of the more recent assimilations acquisitions of the Borg ScienceBlogs, I’d like to welcome Green Gabbro to the 2008 Frosh Class of SB.
A flavor from her debut:

Clearly, all the fun has already been sucked out of my writing, leaving behind a shambling blog-golem made up of nothing but dry facts about boring old rocks – and that’s why I was invited to join ScienceBlogs.

Oh, we’re going to like this one, PhysioProf.

ix-Nay the ethadone-May. Wait…what decade is this?

Another one for the triumph of idiotic, unsupported public policy “positions” over the science and on-the-ground clinical experience. Apparently we’re all about the opiates, this week because today’s discussion is once again on heroin addiction. The free weekly San Diego CityBeat has the call:

Last October, the same week wildfires broke out around San Diego County, a couple thousand doctors, nurses, drug counselors and public officials gathered at the San Diego Sheraton for the annual meeting of the American Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence (AATOD), the national trade organization for providers of what’s known as medically assisted drug treatment. … featured speakers comprised a who’s-who of the drug-treatment world, from the current head of California’s Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs to the director of the national Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders was scheduled to give a welcome speech, though he had to cancel because of the fires.
Whitmyer, who chaired the conference’s hospitality committee, noticed an absence among attendees–no one from the County of San Diego, the region’s overseer of public-health programs, signed up to attend.
“That was a national program that was attended by 2,000 people and there was no one from the county there, in our own backyard, to learn about the benefits of medically assisted treatment,” Whitmyer said.

I mean c’mon, it is only the county housing the 2nd largest city in California and the 8th largest city in the US. What, they were distracted by the wildfires or something?