Last night I watched the war in Iraq end. I figured since I watched it begin, I should watch it end, too. So, around 9 pm EST (2 or 3 am local time) the last of our combat troops crossed the border into Kuwait, the gate was closed, and an era ended.

This is just 2 cool 2B true — and it sorta was.

According to South Carolina Senate candidate, Alvin Greene, “I didn’t have anything to do with it, but I’ll take credit for it. The video looks good. The music is good. It’s cool.”

And we think Alvin Greene is cool, too — definitely cooler than Jim “Waterloo” DeMint.

If we lived in South Carolina, we’d vote for him.

I learned a new word yesterday: refudiate.

It was invented by Sarah Palin, the Bard of Wasilla, who joins William Shakespeare, Stephen Colbert, and Twitter in adding to our modern lexicon.

Based upon Ms. Palin’s single usage of the term (in a Twitter tweet, which was later deleted — why?), “Ground Zero Mosque supporters: doesn’t it stab you in the heart, as it does ours throughout the heartland? Peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate,” it seems to be a sort-of amalgamation of the words repudiate and refute — or Ms. Palin meant to use either refute or repudiate and got them confused, or made a typo (though the F key is nowhere near the P key on a standard QWERTY keyboard), or meant both but was limited to 140 characters.

Only the Bard of Wasilla knows for sure…

So, let’s work this — ’cause I think it’s fun.

re·pu·di·ate [ri-pyoo-dee-eyt] verb [ trans. ] 1. refuse to accept or be associated with.  2. deny the truth or validity of 3. chiefly Law refuse to fulfill or discharge (an agreement, obligation, or debt)

re·fute [ri-fyoot] verb [ trans. ] 1. prove (a statement or theory) to be wrong or false; disprove  2. prove that (someone) is wrong. 3. deny or contradict (a statement or accusation).

re·fu·di·ate [ri-fyoo-dee-eyt] verb [ trans. ] 1. disprove and disassociate from a statement.  2. prove someone or something wrong via denial of irrefutable facts. 3. to delete an embarrassing tweet before someone grabs a screenie of it and makes it go viral on the Internet.

Photo: Sarah Palin speaking at a rally in Elon, NC during the 2008 Presidential Campaign, by Therealbs2002

One must automatically assume that so-called “alternative” remedies are worthless (and maybe even dangerous in some instances) for the simple reason that they are marketed as “alternative” because there is no such thing as “alternative medicine.”

There is medicine that has been proven safe and effective through a scientifically rigorous, multi-step clinical trials process.

There is also medicine whose safety and efficacy are still being investigated. Because it’s unethical to sell experimental treatments, people who are participating in legitimate clinical trials get the treatments for free, and some are even paid for their time and trouble, and get their associated expenses reimbursed. (Are there any so-called “alternative” practitioners who operate that way?)

And then there are numerous substances, devices, and methods that have already been tested and found to be ineffective but are marketed as “alternative” remedies — unless or until the FDA removes them from the market due to safety concerns.

Before the Dietary Supplement and Health Education Act of 1994, so-called “alternative” remedies were called snake-oil, quackery and health fraud, and those who peddled such nostrums were called charlatans, quacks, and even criminals.

Now, under the DSHEA — unless or until it is repealed — charlatans, snake-oil peddlers and quacks have the “health freedom” to ply their trade and cash in on the woefully misinformed.

Yet, so-called “alternative” remedies are still just as worthless, and potentially dangerous, as snake-oil was before the DSHEA — it just has a new, “politically correct,” and far more marketable, name.

Peter Barber Gallagher-Sprigg explains the Prop 8 trial in two minutes…

Hat tip to Good As You, whose headline, “The monologue that reason8s in their heads at night,” is appropriately ingenious.