I am Bonnie Offit!!

AoA have a hilariouslybizarre post up this morning.

Is Dr. Bonnie Offit masquerading on the web as an autism parent and prolific blogger named “Sullivan”?

And why do AoA think this?

The primary answer seems to be that they found a comment from Liz Ditz on Squidalicious blog that _seems_ (if you’re not too bothered about reading the context) to refer to Sullivan as ‘her’. In fact what Liz was doing was referring to the subject of the post she was commenting on – Holly Robinson Peete.

AoA’s next piece of evidence is that Bonnie Offit surfs the blogosphere late at night. Erm…so what?

Their third piece of evidence seems to be that Sullivan is a smart guy. This is undeniable. I’ve had the good fortune to chat to him via Skype and he is indeed one smart cookie. Is he a doctor of medicine as Bonnie Offit is? No. No he’s not.

Their fourth piece of evidence is that Sully defends Paul Offit. Well so what? I know of lots of bloggers, including myself, who defend Paul Offit.

Their fifth piece of evidence (why does this remind me of ploughing through Age of Autism the book) is that Sullivan appears to know Paul Offit. Again, so what? I’ll be frank, I’ve swapped emails with Paul Offit and charming man that he is, he’s always very friendly and courteous , going out of his way to be helpful and guess what – he gives proof copies of his books to people he think would be interested in reading them!! I have one myself. Dan Olmsted, Mark Blaxill et al also indulge in this practice. That takes care of another piece of ‘evidence’.

Yet another piece of evidence produced by AoA is that Sully goes to great lengths to clarify what Paul Offit earned from his vaccines. Let me give you a little lesson AoA – this is something called ‘clarity’ and it is coupled with something called ‘tenacity’. When you have these things, as Sullivan does, you are interested in the actual truth as opposed to the surface appearance.

Yet another piece of evidence (and we’re really scraping the barrel here) is that Sully didn’t discuss the suit against Paul Offit until the day it was dismissed, despite the fact that Orac had. Not really sure what to say about that one, except this is getting very silly indeed.

AoA closes this piece of hilarity with:

You know, I’m starting to hope this is Bonnie Offit, because if it isn’t we have one really, really troubled father on our hands. Get a life, father of a child with autism, Paul Offit is not going to help your child…unless Paul Offit is the father of your children, and then, once again, it all makes sense.

Which is a weird statement to make given that the author of this whole piece, JB Handley, said in an email to Sullivan:

…you are entitled to your own opinion, and I find your writing to be thought-provoking.

So on one hand Sully is a really, really troubled father and on the other JB Handley finds Sully thought provoking. Hmmm.

However, as I said, its plain to me that Sullivan is not Bonnie Offit for one clear and simple reason. I’ve spoke with HIM.

And there’s one other factoid AoA clearly missed. Sully can’t be Bonnie Offit because I am!!

Update:Orac claims he’s Bonnie Offit. Clearly this can’t be true because I AM!!!