In a recent National Football League game, Tampa Bay Buccaneer quarterback Chris Simms suffered a ruptured spleen. Simms was rushed to the hospital, his spleen was removed, and he is now on the road to recovery. This much talked about injury inspired Robert N. Jenkins of the St. Petersburg Times to declare that Simms, in reality, "didn't need his spleen." In an article called "Humans have body parts to spare," Jenkins went on to pronounce that we also do not need our appendix, gall bladder, tonsils, esophagus, stomach, and adrenal glands because those organs, according to conventional wisdom, are "vestigial."

I'm not here to debate what-if any-human organs are superfluous. What interests me more is the fact that most folks would read Jenkins' article and accept the premises therein without question . . . and this includes the most cynical lefties you'll ever meet. I know people skeptical enough to think the Foley sex scandal was leaked by Republicans to distract the public from the fiasco in Iraq. But tell those same people that some scientist has declared their spleen obsolete and they're not likely to rush off to post a rebuttal on their blog.

Tell them that Israel attacked Lebanon because two of its soldiers were kidnapped and they'll debunk that story in a flash. But how many of them question, say, the need for humans with a functioning immune system to get vaccinations (laden with formaldehyde, mercury, aluminum, cells from sickened animals, and genetically-altered materials, no less)? Vote counts are routinely disbelieved but nary a peep is heard about the efficacy of animal experimentation (in fact, to focus on such a topic is to invite being labeled "anti-human" by progressives). Folks who don't even think there were humans on the planes that hit the World Trade Center have no problem eating a tomato spliced with flounder genes. Of course, genetically modified foodstuffs are safe. The experts tell us so.

The most jaded, suspicious, disbelieving radicals turn timid upon entering the realm of science and medicine. They readily accept the fluoride in our water, the mercury in our teeth, the animal flesh on our plates, and the electro-magnetic radiation in our cell phones as safe. They trust that Western medicine knows best: Our infallible doctors and scientists know how to fight cancer and diabetes and heart disease, they know what causes diseases like AIDS, and when a man in a white coat writes them a prescription, they swallow both the pill and the rationale. Even the New York Times -- the propaganda organ of Corporate America -- admits "harmful reactions to medicines, usually attributed to accidental overdoses and allergic reactions, send more than 700,000 Americans to emergency rooms each year." But where are the revolutionary types coming out in support of prevention, healthier lifestyles, and alternative therapies?

Now save yourself the trouble of sending me scathing e-mails to explain why I'm "wrong" about pharmaceuticals or cell phones or any of the above. That's not the point. My very simple question is this: If the heart of being a dissident in America is to reject conventional wisdom and cast doubt on the corporate propaganda being foisted upon us at every turn, why do so many on the Left accept -- without protest -- the scientific and medical company line?

Makes me wonder if it's the brain that's vestigial.