Four Ways to Recognize a Quack

1. Quacks take a legitimate scientific issue, about which some controversy exists, and push it to the fringe - always just beyond the current level of understanding. Their knowledge begins where everyone else's knowledge leaves off.

2. Quacks apply the terminology of science to completely non-scientific explanations, in an attempt to impress the unknowing. They use the right words but in the wrong context.

3. Quacks establish a dichotomy between good and evil, with a helpless victim (you) caught in between. Those who create a problem are presented as evil. Thus, without even saying it, those who fix it are good. (Guess which ones they are.)

4. Quacks speak with absolute certainty - no qualifying statements, no "ifs," no limitations on the applicability of their "solutions." This is perhaps the most distinguishing characteristic of a quack. There is simply no doubt that they can cure your problem. After all, if you believe strongly enough, a solution based on fantasy will be effective, at least in your mind.