The article from science based medicine is fantastic. To quote: "Recently the main special pleading we have been hearing is that CAM modalities work through th

The article from science based medicine is fantastic. To quote: "Recently the main special pleading we have been hearing is that CAM modalities work through the placebo effect. That is why they are so desperate to represent the placebo effect as something more than it is" I think this is a very important point. In years past, all my 'alternative' friends would throw out all kinds of wild statements on how their treatments would work, safe in knowledge that it had not been conclusively disproved. Now that the gray area they reside in is being shut down, I've noticed a lot more lately that conversations end with "well, I just do it for the placebo affect". I never really noticed how often I hear this until I read the article. And now that even that gray area is being shut down, it makes me wonder what special pleading is going to be next.