What does the bull do after he stops?

Kelli Ann supplied them with the tag-line "The Bull Stops Here!"

This drove me to think? What does a bull do when he stops? After reading AoA, one can only conclude that he leaves his thoughts behind.

This merely demonstrates the quantity of the "thinking" of the AoA Collective. It in no way reflects that true lack of quality.

The AoA Collective

Clearly, recent postings to the cesspool of the AoA Collective demonstrate that they want to be more offensive that they usually are. Paul Offit is attacked, again, and Michael Fitzpatrick is attacked in an article that fails to mention that he is a parent of an autistic child.

They have tacitly announced their Spring Offensive, and the target is your mind. I will suggest some reading that is "mental kevlar."

This is clearly more AoA Collective "thinking", where they would love to have the opposition realize that refuting their male bovine excreta with facts is futile, and if you have the temerity to do so, you will be mercilessly attacked.

Recently, J.B. decided to put up another website where he uses his uncanny lack of intelligence and dearth of scientific knowledge to feebly discredit scientific studies which do not neatly fit into CollectiveThink. He calls it 14 Studies. I call it proof that the Collective Leader has no scientific knowledge what-so-ever. Both Steve Novella, and Dave Gorski eviscerate the site, with anyone who has a high school diploma, and stayed awake through biology and chemistry, can understand. That, of course, leaves out the Collective and their drones.

Read 14 Studies and then read Steve Novella and Dave Gorski. You will know why this blog is called the Age of Ignorance.

Honoring The Leaders of the AoA Collective

Shocking isn't it? AoI wants to honor the leaders of the collective? How could this be possible?

The idea came to me out of the blue. Well, out of the early morning sky. I have been a skywatcher since childhood. I recall watching for the ECHO passive communications satellite pass over head every two hours. For those who do not recall, or never heard of the ECHO satellite, it was a large aluminized mylar balloon which radio and television signals were bounced off. Being that large and reflective, it was clearly visible from the ground.

A few mornings ago, on one of our clear days in these parts, the ISS few overhead. A beautiful sight.

I read Phil Plait's BadAstronomy every day. He is a good writer and has a wonderful sense of wonderment about our universe. I could spend long nights with him watching the sky. In fact, when I went to his blog to get the URL, I found a great article which I read before coming back to continue to write this article.

Phil had several articles about the recent attempt at Space Piracy by the fans of Stephen Colbert. They attempted to hijack the vote for the name of a new node on the ISS, but NASA rejected their ploy, and, instead, named the node Tranquility, after the site of the first moon landing, which I watched live in black and white on TV at my cousin's house in Boston.

My original response, was how dare they do this? Then, I got to thinking and concluded that they deserved an appropriate response. I posted to BadAstronomy that the latrine aboard the ISS should be named after Colbert. It did not catch on, unfortunately.

Then, I read a few articles at AoA. This always gets me thinking. The brain wheels turned. The throught processes churned. It then struck me!

Anything aboard the ISS should be named after someone who has affected science. Now, how could the pure science of the ISS and the anti-science non-science of AoA merge into one? Galaxies merge. Companies merge. How could I blend the two just right? More thinking.

During one of humankind's morning necessities it came to me. I would say "out of the blue" but, I am not talking blue this time. The ISS was recently upgraded to allow for a larger crew.

Therefore, I hereby propose that the new liquid recycling system be named after the founder and GR Collective Leader, J. B. Handley. It should henceforth be referred to as the H.A.N.D.L.E.Y. or Human Automatic Node Detoxifying Liquids Even Yellow ones.

Of course, the HANDLEY needs input, so the newly upgraded latrine should also be named after one of AoA's most prolific lemmings. Therefore, the latrine should be named after Kim Stagliano, and henceforth be referred to as the S.T.A.G.L.I.A.N.O. or Simplified Toilet Accommodating Gravitational Levels In AbNormal Outlets.

There you have it. Honoring the most anti-science of the Anti-vaccination Collective in the most appropriate manner.

Next job: Petition NASA.

Banned!

The open minded Collective known as the AoA has apparently banned me from posting to their cesspool. Today, I tried to post to the yarn about 14 Studies, and could not. The "Send" button never operated.

Does this upset me? Nah. I feel honored.

You may post your congratulatory messages below.

14 Studies or 14 Words?

I just learned that I am banned from posting on AoA. I tried to post, and could not. I guess it is their Borg-like Collective Mentality that cannot handle contrary comments.

This was my post:

14 Studies or "14 Words"...with the lemmings of AoA and the Collective Mentality, I believe that it is more like the mind-set of 14 Words...

For a superb take-down of those studies...see Dave Gorski's article at Science Based Medicine.

Keep Looking Dan

Dan O, the big cheese editor at AoA wrote a series of articles where he wondered where the Autistic Amish were. He looked everywhere, and could not find them. Of course, he missed the Clinic For Special Children....

Pediatr Neurol. 2009 Apr;40(4):310-3.
Gene associated with seizures, autism, and hepatomegaly in an amish girl.
Jackman C, Horn ND, Molleston JP, Sokol DK.


Pediatrics section, Department of Neurology, Indiana University School ofMedicine, Indianapolis, Indiana.


A genetic defect causing autism and epilepsy involving the contactin associatedprotein-like 2 gene (CNTNAP2) has been discovered in a selected cohort of Amishchildren. These children were found to have focal seizures and autisticregression. Surgical biopsy of the anterior temporal lobe of two such childrenrevealed cortical dysplasia and a single nucleotide polymorphismmutation of this gene. The present case is that of a related but geographically distant probandwith a similar phenotype but a single-base-pair deletion in the CNTNAP2 gene.This patient exhibited the additional features of periventricular leukomalaciaand hepatomegaly.

I know that the ignorant at AoA will dismiss this as not being true, vaccine caused, autism, but, clearly Dan missed these people, too.

On Becoming a Born Again Parent

I have been giving a lot of thought to why AoA pisses me off as much as they do. I read an article, or one of the sycophant's comments, and my blood pressure rises, my face feels flushed, and I feel my heart pounding. I keep asking myself why?

A few days ago I read an article about healing. Iwish I could recall where, and post a link. Unfortunately, no matter how I rack my brain, nothing happens. Still cannot recall.

However, shortly after reading that article, it struck me why AoA so pisses me off. Those creeps are actually preventing healing of those parents who react most strongly to having a child with Autism (read that as any disability).

When my oldest son was five, we had his little brother. In the space of a few short weeks, we learned that my oldest has Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. We also learned that my youngest has cerebral palsy. We were devastated. We want to lash out and blame everyone and anyone. Did the OB do everything correctly? What mistakes were made? and so on and so forth.

Week after week, all we did was to discuss how angry we were, without ever mentioning that we were angry. We were hurting beyond belief. Two lifetimes of diability.

This went on for around a year. It was consuming all of our time, and thought. We spoke of nothing else. Our friends left us, because we discussed nothing else. Our anger became our reason for living.

Our oldest son completed his first year in school and seemed happy. Our youngest was in an early intervention pre-school program. Both made strides in dealing with their uniqueness. Slow, but steady.

This went on for over two years. One day we met an old friend, one we had not seen for a long time. He had lost his oldest son, a year before, who was the same age as our oldest. He appeared to be happy, though.

We began talking, and talking, and talking. He, too, wanted to blame someone for his tragic loss. He went to lawyers, doctors, and just about anyone who would listen, to discuss the death of his son.

Finally, he came to realize that no matter what he did, it would not bring his son back. His son was gone. Period. He was devastated but, moved on. He had other children, and they needed him. They all seemed rather happy and content. We were still angry and could not figure him out. Why was he not angry?

One day my older son comes to me and asks why we are spending so much time trying to "fix" him. He says that he is not broken, just different. He was angry that we took him to so many doctors, tried so many "treatments" and never seemed to be happy with him the way he was.

Although I assured him that I did not feel that he was broken, he made me start thinking. The following week, we decided to try something and we skipped his supplements, and there was no change in his behaviors. He still needed constant refocusing.

Gradually, over time, we stopped all the treatment, except for his medications, which even he agreed he needed. He had gone to school one day without them, and told me that he never wanted that to happen again.

Our younger son was also making progress. He was sitting up, using a cup with a straw, and was finger feeding. He seemed happy, and enjoyed physical and occupational therapy (we had great therapists). He liked his early intervention program, and was making friends.

We began to see the positives in both children. We began to see them as two kids with more opportunites for them to show us how much progress they are making. We began to take delight in their progress.

We stopped trying to find blame. We stopped using the boys as laboratory test subjects. We stopped being angry.

And, we were born again parents. Parenting was a joy. Hard work, but still a joy.

Addendum...

Now, why AoA makes me so angry....

AoA stokes the anger in parents to prevent them from moving on as we did. AoA NEEDS parents to look at themselves as victims. Without the victim mentality, AoA and their ilk would have no audience. None.

To think that this does not affect the children is just abhorent to me. My son, at his age, proved otherwise. What motivated me was the fact that he was comfortable enough with us to express his feelings. When a kid is treated like a lab rat, having useless treatments, running from this diet to the next, it eventually takes it toll on the child.

And, we moved on, and NEVER, ever, looked back.