February 13, 2009, Day 1 of the Post AoA Era

With the unanimous decisions of the "Vaccine Court" being handed down yesterday, the issue of vaccines causing autism has finally been decided.

Yes, I know that the there are vestiges of those who still want to promote the failed theory, but, anyone who actually reads the decisions will see that there is no tomorrow for the anti-vaccination junta and their lemmings at AoA. They have ceased being relevant.

It is now time to move on to actually helping parents and persons with Autism live better lives, and to stop throwing money at the failed hypothesis.

Dan, are you looking to get fired?

In today's edition of AoA, Dan Olmsted, the former journalist now turned propagandist for GRrrrrrr, wrote:

"Olmsted on Autism: He Shoots! He Scores! Fire the Coach!
By Dan Olmsted

I had a strange reaction to this week's story about the high school basketball team manager in Maine. As USA Today reported: "Patrick Thibodeau, who has Down Syndrome, trotted onto the floor Tuesday night for the team's final home game of the season. When the time came to shoot, he nailed a 3-pointer for the second basket of the game. He hit another at the final buzzer."

This reminds us of the awesome J-Mac, Jason McElwain, the team manager with autism who when he finally got the chance scored 6 three pointers in the last 4 minutes of the last game of his senior year. But here's my question: Let's say a third-string player on one of these teams hadn't been in a game all year -- or ever. Coach puts him in the last game. Just so mom and dad can cheer. Kid goes wild! Hits from DOWNTOWN!!! Is un-CON-scious! ... all those sportscaster phrases.

Wouldn't people say, What was this coach thinking? He had one of his best players sitting at the other end of the bench for four long years and didn't know it? Aren't we trying to win here? (We sure were back at Danville High School in Illinois.)

Maybe I'm missing something -- some health concern, some Title IX thing, some nuance. If so, tell me. But geez, if the kid can play, let him play, not pick up sweaty towels. Don't make inclusion on the court or on the field a "very special," made-for-TV story. Make it typical."

I was utterly shocked when I read this. Dan Olmsted, who could not find the Clinic For Special Children in Amish Country, has now found:

NEURODIVERSITY!

Dan, I hope you have a day job.

The Deafening Silence

The Grand Exalted One over at AoI runs a company that manufactures food products using soy. He clearly represents BigSoy. At least one blogger has had one product tested and reported:

A Genisoy Chunky Peanut Butter Fudge bar was submitted to this laboratory out of concern for levels of heavy metals in soy. Soy is known to have high levels of aluminum and cadmium. The found that this particular soy protein bar contained 8.5 ppb of mercury. The form of mercury in this bar is most likely methyl mercury the kind found in tuna and other fish. Mercury at any dose is unsafe according to mercury expert Dr. Boyd Haley of University of Kentucky and others. According to one expert contacted 8.5 ppb of mercury per Genisoy bar is approximately .5 microgram of mercury per bar.

We know that Dr. Haley speaks only the truth about mercury.

Now we have been told that the corn syrup that may be used in the manufacture of these products may also be laced with mercury.

Is there a cover-up?
Why is BigSoy silent?
Is this mercury somehow magically safer?

Vomiting

In a recent article posted on the AoA site, The Exalted One, gives lessons on how to vomit. He uses this to feebly attempt to discredit a study where the results do not neatly fit into his preconceived ideas.

I do defer to him as he is the Blogosphere's leading expert on vomit. He, and his lemmings do provide quite a bit of it.

One can always visit the AoA website and get their daily dose of vomit.

(NOTE: Come to think of it, I could have named this blog the Age-Of-Vomit since it discusses AoA.)

Balance from the UN-balanced...what are they thinking?

One of the things about "The Media" that constantly annoys the cleanse by-products out of me is their obsessive need for "balance". I am sure you have read articles where the reporter includes "both sides" of the issues addressed.


Sometimes, there is no need for "balance". for example, if the article is discussing the Holocaust, why would anyone need input from a Holocaust Denier? Their ideas have been totally discredited, and the historical event known as the Holocaust happened, whether they like it or not.

In my scientifically and fact based opinion, the same thing goes for the manufactured questions over the need for a robust vaccination program. To any intelligent sentient being, the history of vaccination proves that they are effective and have eradicated diseases such as small pox, and polio (from the western world). Balance is not required.

However, like I said, reporters need to report balance. That is what they do. If they did not, they would be "taking sides" and that is something that journalism schools frown upon. So, I do understand.

However, who do they go to for balance? Well, it seems to me that their favorite interview subject, the Exalted One of GR, is their favorite. Even the recent NY times article, Book Is Rallying Resistance to the Antivaccine Crusade, by Donald McNeil, quoted the EO. Let's take a look at the antics of the Exalted One...

Prior to publication of that article, Mr. O'Neil contacted the Exalted One to obtain his opinion on the issues the article would be addressing, and afterwards, the Exalted One, posted this article.

This article was then followed by a diatribe ostensibly written by the Spoiled Brat of Autism.


Since it is a given that ALL articles on AoA advance the purposes of the Exalted One, GRrrrr, and the Junta, there is no doubt that the Brat's article was published with their full blessings.


Further, the SBofA also takes a few nasty shots at Dr. Nancy Snyderman, the medical reporter from the Today Show. There is no doubt that the Exalted One, GRrrr and the Junta despise her to no end. After all, she uses facts to base her opinions on.


There is no doubt that being quoted in the New York Times, or, for that matter, in any reputable media outlet, gives credence to the person and their opinions. This is certainly true in their minds.

When Amanda Peet, an actress, expressed her personal opinion concerning vaccinations and those who refuse them, the Junta at AoA got on her case, and posted phone numbers and addresses of her agent, etc. and then encouraged the lemming to mail bomb them.

And, recently, one poster on the EoH Yahoo group did not like an article and posted the reporter's home address and phone number. The moderator of the group did remove it (however, it was up for a while, and, one can only wonder if he would have removed it had their not been an outcry?).

So, the question that begs to be asked is this:

Why is the media still quoting these vicious know-nothings?

I suggest freezing them out. There are anti-vaxxer who are, at least, civil.

The Fully Loaded 10CC Syringe Award

Since this blog has been needling the AoAers, they hangers-on and their lemmings, what is more appropriate than to award them the Fully Loaded 10CC Syringe Award? The syringe is loaded with rationality and sanity, thus, the dose will be appropriate for each recipient.

Note that I use a multi-dose vial, and that it is possible for a recipient to win more than once.

The 1CC Award

So many candidates, so little time.....and the winner is...

Jim Carrey, for starring in the role of second fiddle boob to his squeeze, Jenny McCarthy. Jimmy answered Arthur Allen's question about which vaccine could be skipped by saying that some parents are skipping the tetanus vaccine. Equally important was his claim at the Green Our Vaccines rally that he is an advocate disability but proceeded to make fun of people with when he called restless leg syndrome "lazy ass syndrome".

He has not yet proven he needs a full dose, yet.

The 2CC Award

Another difficult choice....and the winner is...

Cliff Shoemaker. The reasons are so varied, and each is a gem in it's own right. One of the most glaring was the ridiculous subpoena against Kathleen Seidel of neurodiversity fame. If you google ridiculous subpoena, the top three links are about that event. He wound up being sanctioned for his actions. Not a good day for him.

Then there is his strange billing practice, which has become so egregious that the Special Master's who are hearing these claims are willing to spend their valuable time checking his bills line by line. Cliff makes a list, and the SM's check it twice, deleting what they find that is naughty and not nice.

The 3CC Award

And the winner is....

Kim Stagliano for supporting a group that promotes autism as vaccine injury while having (correct me if I am wrong) at least one unvaccinated kid with autism.

Does anyone wonder why rational people consider AoA and their lemmings to be anti-vaccinators?

The 4CC Award

goes to Kent Heckenlively for his absolute refusal to accept the tests that show no evidence of mercury poisoning and chelating his kid for two years anyway.

This is surpassed by his amazing decision to pursue stem cell therapy with no idea of what it is supposed to do, and having his child's grandparents pay for it. What's more, he went to Central America for the therapy. Just how could he be so sure that what he pumped into his child were human stem cells?

Kent manages to demonstrate the fact that one doesn't need any understanding of science or the scientific method in order to teach science in U.S. schools.

The 5CC Award

AoA professes to be some sort of newspaper. There are two pseudo-journalists who hang out there, and occasionally post something that makes one wonder about whether they learned fact checking in journalism school.

The 5CC award goes to Dan Olmsted, for his tired efforts to retroactively cover his butt about his failure to find the Clinic For Special Children in Autism Country. I know he tried...

The 6CC Award

and the winner is....David Kirby, for his untiring efforts to post without checking his facts (when he finds some). Recently, David made two boo-boos in a three day period. At HuffPOOP, he posted an article where he imagined that the IACC meeting approved spending a couple of million dollars on vaccine research to prove the imaginary connection Autism. Strangely, no one else remembers this coming to a vote.

Kevin, at LeftBrain/Right Brain, also addressed some of Kirby's boo-boos.

The 7CC Award

Things are getting tougher to figure out who is deserving of a bigger dose. Let's face it, AoA provides so much "good stuff" that picking out the best is not an easy task.

However, the 7CC Award goes to Jenny McCarthy, who, admittedly does not post there, but, is the darling of the loonies. Jenny has done so much this year to garner this award, that it is nigh impossible for one blogger to list them all. However, some of her "accomplishments" include continuing to treat her son after she cured him of Autism, the Green Vaccine gambit, and gouging her main squeeze, Jim Carrey, for a cool $50,000,000.

I hope that Jenny adds this award to her her pathetic resume as an "actor" so that she can get her failed career back on track. Maybe if she was busy making movies, and flashing her boobs, no one would notice what a boob she really is.

The 8CC Award

This award does no go to a person, but to AoA itself for their practice of using Autistic children and their willingness to tolerate any parent turning their child into a lab rat to promote their false ideas.

The 9CC Award

goes to J. B. Handley. Who else has promoted the AoA party line, used offensive tactics such as threatening litigation, "outing", flooding emails and other disgusting tactics to feebly attempt to silence those who disagree with him. Handley has lead the charge to attempt to discredit Paul Offit, M.D., impliedly asked his lemmings, the AoA faithful to attack Amanda Peet by contacting her publicists and others, and has outed posters with whom he disagrees.

Being obnoxious appears to be his labor of love, and he labors long and hard. He would deserve a larger award.

The Fully Loaded 10CC Syringe Award

goes to none other than the AoA lemmings, their incredibly credulous commenters who will believe anything the AoA Junta claims to be true.

These lemmings are of great concern to me, as their utter lack of critical thinking skills, lack of basic scientific understanding, and their astounding willingness to abuse their children by having the kids undergo one after another useless treatments clearly justifies their being presented this award.

And, there you have it. Ten awards for AoA, which can now claim to be the most award winning blog in the blogosphere. Hmmm...the only thing I do not have is a cute little graphic for the award.

Just to "tease" my loyal and faithful readership, I will, during the next year, periodically award a "booster shot" from the same, multi-dose vial, when I see that AoAers are slipping. Does anyone know of a large warehouse where I can store a multi-gallon vial?

The Year In Reivew

On December 11, 2008 Dan Olmsted posted an article: Olmsted on Autism: The Decline and Fall of (Almost) Everything

Dan, what you do mean by "(Almost) Everything"??? The past year has not gone well for you and the other anti-vaccinators at AoA, and their lemmings. let us review the year.

Probably the biggest failure, as you see it, is the total and utter refutation of Wakefield's bogus claim that the MMR causes Autism. We started the years knowing that he was highly conflicted, and a hired gun for the attorneys in the now defunct British litigation.

Later, we learned, through testimony of the leading experts in their fields, that Wakefield was told that the laboratory tests were tainted, and showed false positives. However, that did not stop him, and he published the paper anyway.

This led to the current Measles epidemic in Great Britain where children are being needlessly hospitalized. Then, the epidemic popped up in the US. All among unvaccinated children whose parents were terrorized by Wakefield into not vaccinating their kids. How many have had permanent damage?

Now, Prof. Stephen Bustin, relying on his unique expertise, and the recent Hornig study, has called on two of the other investigators who used Wakefield's tainted samples to repudiate his findings. What has the anti-vaccinators done? They are trying to twist the study to say that its supports Wakefield. Hogwash, and anyone with a reading comprehension level above elementary, knows it.

By the way, the Hornig study lists numerous articles, case control studies, etc. that show that Wakefield has not been replicated. Period.

So, Wakefield and the MMR scare declined, and is about to fall, assuming that the last few anti-vaccinators will find a shred of intellectual honest.

And, this entire affair resurrects Mady Hornig, of Columbia University, and brings her back into the realm of science.

With the new President coming into office, AoA was hoping that they would score a big appointment with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. being appointed to head the EPA. RFK, Jr. wrote a rather poorly researched and science devoid article supporting the mercury causes autism mantra.

With the extensive proof that there is no link, Forbes Magazine, which is not one of my favorite periodicals, skewered that nicely. In an article entitled, Dangerous Kook At The EPA? Kennedy's deficiencies to run a cabinet level agency were clearly outlined.

Kennedy did not get that appointment. It seems that President Elect Obama has high standards, and a Kook does not fit in. AoA's hopes surely did decline and fall.

Another problem for the anti-vaccinators was the fact that the California autism numbers just would not fall as they had hoped. Dr. Robert Schechter reported:

"The DDS data do not show any recent decrease in autism in California despite the exclusion of more than trace levels of thimerosal from nearly all childhood vaccines. The DDS data do not support the hypothesis that exposure to thimerosal during childhood is a primary cause of autism. "

Yes, those pesky numbers just would not go down like they were supposed to. Time to move the goal posts again...



Things did not go well in Congress, either. Congressman Henry Waxman, chair of the Congressional Committee on Oversight and Reform, sent out an excellent letter to his colleagues in Congress which lays out the issues quite clearly. You can read about it here.



The sweetest part of this event was the fact that he repudiated his colleague, Dan Burton, who "investigated" Autism and vaccines a few years ago with hearings that provided a stage for modern day snake oil sales creeps. That was a waste of taxpayer money.


And, of course, it cause major conniptions.

All of this would make a great year for evidence based autism and vaccination studies. It would be nice to just quit here. But, there is more.

Dr. Paul Offit, who appears to be the one single most scary person to the AoAers and their lemmings, had his book, Autism's False Prophets published. The AoAers were apoplectic! They whinneyed and whined about what was written (without actually reading it), and bleated and brayed about Dr. Offit's supposed conflicts of interests (all of which were fully disclosed, and well explained.)

The AoAers and their lemmings posted some of the most disgusting and hate filled comments about Dr. Offit. They were particularly upset that RotaTEQ, the vaccine he developed, was shown to saving thousands of lives. I guess that the AoAers and their lemmings prefer dead children.

It got better. Amanda Peet, an actor, made a statement where she called parents who do not vaccinate Parasites. Ms. Peet caused some howling and hollering on the part of the lemmings, and she apologized for saying they were lemmings.

She said that after she had heard of the evils of vaccination, she conferred with Dr. Offit and went ahead and vaccinated her children. They AoAers were apoplectic! They posted the email address of her agent, etc. and encouraged emailing them. They proposed that her movies be boycotted.

This was rather humorous. The AoAers love Jenny McCarthy whose career started, and apparently reached its high point, when she exposed her all for Playboy (sorry, no link). Ms. Peet's career is still growing. She is a spokesperson for Every Child By Two, founded by former First Lady, Rosalynn Carter.

Ms. Peet kicks Jenny's butt when she tells people not to listen to celebrities, but to go to the scientists for their advice.

My only complaint about Ms. Peet is that she wimped out and apologized for calling non-vaccinating parents parasites. They ARE parasites and freeloaders. Why apologize for telling the truth?

And, then Barack Obama was elected President. It has now turned out that this one single event may very well beckon the end of pseudo-science. His appointments have all been well grounded in science. Even his Attorney General designee, Eric Holder, got his start in a high school known for teaching science and mathematics.

All-in-all the AoAers and their lemmings have had a very bad year. They lost as much as the Dow Jones.

And the Dow is expected to recover.