Archive by Author

Thoughts ‘n stuff….

18 May

I haven’t blogged much over the last couple of weeks. I’ve got 4 large projects on at work and truth be told, after long days slaving away over code and imagery and managing peoples expectations I really don’t want to sit in front of a PC in the evenings either.

This is a shame as there’s much to blog about in the world of autism, the evil ND [twirls moustache evilly] and notably autism and the good old feeling-like-an-old-friend mercury uh, connection. I will blog them (an exercise which is becoming increasingly like prodding a dead fish with a stick as it floats on the surface of a scuzzy old pond) but right now I’m as offline as I ever get. Luckily Dad of Cameron is still happily prodding away – most recently at the new Jim Adams study. And of course The Hub is still going well. Also, this site’s daily visitors are still climbing – certainly more than some other sites are. And hey! – by the look of the trends of a certain site it looks like the message about DAN! is getting through.

Anyway, enough cheap gloating. MOM-NOS, in a moment of madness put me forward for a ‘Thinking Blogger’ award.

Thinking Blogger Award

The official rules for participation in the Thinking Blogger Awards meme are as follows:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote.

MOM-NOS explained her reasons for nominating me as follows:

When I was new to blogging and new to the concept of neurodiversity, Kevin scared the daylights out of me.

And some people say neurodiversity is a cult – I tell you, after me scaring the living shit out of people and browbeating them into submission, its the work of minutes to get them to sign over their souls to the evil Neurodiverse in blood – MWAHAHAHA!!! come to a rational decision with no coercion at all (free tshirts!!).

In all honesty, being nominated for this particular meme/award by a blogger such as MOM-NOS is humbling. There are several writers on the Hub that I love to read. Amanda, Kathleen, El Diva (for the snark), Mike Stanton and MOM-NOS. This is by no means to suggest the rest are terrible but I would happily buy books written by these people (which is why I excluded Sue from that list – I already have bought a book written by her).

So I will wallow in self indulgence on this, the recognition of my dual good nd/bad nd personality and waffle on for a bit.

Blogging is an odd thing. Its not really journalism (although Kathleen is getting about as close as its possible to get) and its not just a web site. I started this four years ago next month and (as Brad has graphically – and somewhat redundantly – illustrated) it charts a period of my life that has gone from utter ignorance about autism and science to a stage where here, now, I have friends I consider important to me who are either autistic, live thousands of miles away, live a few miles away from me etc. I’ve been quoted in scientific journals, been interviewed, swap emails with scientists and doctors who are active in the autism community.

Damn. How did that happen? I’m not a particularly skilled wordsmith. My grammar sucks donkey balls. I veer wildly between icy, brittle British overpoliteness and the written equivalent of a cudgel. Meh. Such is life.

None of this is a cue to tell me how great I am. I already know I’m not interested in fishing for compliments.

So what did I do to deserve a ‘thinking blogger’ from someone of the written quality of MOM-NOS?

I *hope* what I do/have done is become part of a blogging community of a wide and beautiful diversity of humanity. I don’t know about you Dear Reader but my feed reader is full to bursting these days.

What I hope I have done – what I strive to do every day – is to offer a set of tools for this community to become louder, more communal, to reach out to the untapped natural audience ‘out there’ who believe in equality, diversity and optimism. When I die, my epitaph can read – Here Lies Kev: He Incited An Angry Mob. Thanks. You Bastard.

Enough. I’m supposed to nominate five blogs that make me think. This will be tricky as a lot of my favourite blogs have already had this meme/award bestowed on them. Am I allowed to replicate? I better not.

1: Nidahas is a web development blog run by a Sri Lankan friend of mine – Prabhath. His was the first blog discussing web development I can recall that included the fact that its author came from a developing nation. Insights galore.

2: Juicy Studio is a web dev blog that concentrates on accessibility issues. Gez (the owner) and I have known each other online for what must be about 6 years now. Good grief. Did I say he’s a genius? No? He’s a bloody genius.

3: Dr Crippen. Great name, great blog. If the NHS ever gets sorted out it will be in no small part down to the efforts of John. A one man anti-Hewitt machine.

4: Joel Smith. My first encounter with Joel’s words was via the horribly necessary list of killed autistic people. Shocking and eye opening. Joel writes calmly. I admire that as I struggle with it.

5: Mike Stanton. Again, another calm writer. Dammit. I really must learn how they do that. I often find myself back at Mike and Joel’s sites cross-referencing things.

So – that’s it I think. Back to my temporary hibernation.

DAN! Doctors – The ‘other’ list

12 May

The eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed a new main menu entry at the top of this page between ‘wiki’ and ‘contact’ called DAN! Doctors.

This page contains a (worryingly long) list of some of the people with the loose honorific of ‘DAN! Doctor’ who are on the official ARI list. However, unlike the ARI list, this list will tell you the ‘other’ side of the happy-clappy hero’s of DAN! It contains notes on prosecutions, license suspensions, criminal acts and current investigations.

I can take absolutely no credit for the compilation of this list. It was handed to me by someone who wishes to remain anonymous.

This is a static page at the moment. In the near future, this page will move to its own domain and website and be driven by a database backend as it grows (as I’m sadly sure it will) however I wanted to get this up as quickly as possible.

The bottom line is that over 10% of DAN! docs (that have been looked at so far) have been in trouble. Trouble ranges from killing a patient, to paedophilia, to gross negligence to tax evasion. If you know a parent considering a DAN! doctor then make sure they read this list first. At the very least, even if they do decide to go ahead, they can avoid the bad guys.

Cho Part II

7 May

Since my first post on the subject of Cho, the Virginia murderer, I have received some very interesting blog comments and personal emails.

There’s a common theme running through these which can basically be summed up as:

You’re being too harsh on Cho. Believe me, I almost did what he did…

There are numerous issues I have with these statements and their unspoken implications.

Firstly, if you nearly did what Cho did then I congratulate you – _because you didn’t do it_ . You realised that killing people indiscriminately was wrong. Cho didn’t. Or, more probably, he did and decided he wanted to anyway.

Up until the moment he pulled the trigger, someone like Cho would’ve had my utmost sympathy. The second he pulled the trigger, the second he elected to kill people then he became a scumbag undeserving of mitigating circumstances. Race, autism, gender – whether any or none of these played a part is irrelevant the second you murder people.

The underlying motive for Cho’s actions according to lots of people is this bullying element. Is there any actual clear evidence that he _was_ bullied? I don’t mean that rant he sent to get his posthumous 15mins of fame, I mean actual evidence. Further is there any evidence that the pupils and staff he murdered were the people doing the alleged bullying?

Cho’s first victim was a girl who rejected his romantic overtures. How did it come to pass that it is OK to virtually disown this murder victim as a bully and try and find excuses for Cho’s inability to get over his rejection? Cho’s second victim was a man who tried to help this first victim. How did it become OK to disown this murder victim as a bully?

Last year, several autistic kids were killed by their parents. Utter outrage was voiced in the community I am part of and the utterly correct stance was taken that murder is murder and to attempt to rationalise (in terms of a lack of services for example) was wrong. I am bewildered to see some people in this same community now suggesting, or implying, that we need to look deeper on this issue. What happened to murder being murder?

Jenny McCarthy – Autism mum

5 May

As surely as day follows night, more and more loony ideas about autism and what it is will come along. Bad mothering, secretin, vaccines, TV…..and now…well…..

Jenny McCarthy is a US celebrity who has an autistic child. She also has a website that discusses her, uh, interesting stance on autism.

The day I found out I was an adult Indigo will stay with me forever. I was walking hand in hand with my son down a Los Angeles street when this women approached me and said, “You’re an Indigo and your son is a Crystal.” I immediately replied, “Yes!” and the woman smiled at me and walked away. I stood there for a moment, because I had no idea what the heck an Indigo and Crystal was, but I seemed so sure of it when I had blurted out “Yes!” After doing some of my own research on the word Indigo, I realized not only was I an early Indigo but my son was in fact a Crystal child.

A what? She’s an ‘Indigo’ and her son is a ‘Crystal child’???? what exactly are these things?

The Indigo child concept was first publicized in 1999 by the book The Indigo Children: The New Kids Have Arrived, written by the husband-and-wife team of Lee Carroll and Jan Tober. Carroll insists that the concept was obtained via conversations with a spiritual entity known as Kryon.

Wikipedia

The Crystal Children began to appear on the planet from about 2000, although some date them slightly earlier. These are extremely powerful children, whose main purpose is to take us to the next level in our evolution, and reveal to us our inner power and divinity. They function as a group consciousness rather than as individuals, and they live by the” Law of One” or Unity Consciousness. They are a powerful force for love and peace on the planet……The terms “Indigo” and “Crystal” were given to these two generations because they most accurately describe their aura colours and energy patterns. Indigo children have a lot of indigo blue in their auras. This is the colour of the “third eye chakra”, which is the energy center inside the head located between the two eyebrows. This chakra regulates clairvoyance, or the ability to see energy, visions, and spirits. Many of the Indigo children are clairvoyant

Starchild

Okaaaay.

And – of course – She’s anti-vaccine – what wingnut isn’t?

So why am I discussing Jenny McCarthy? It seems she’ll soon be doing a show on autism (she has a soon-to-be-released book to flog). I am sincerely hoping that people examine very carefully the sort of utter kook she is when this show airs (if it does) and consider her message – whatever it may be – in terms of the source beliefs that have inspired it.

Generation Rescue II – This Time It’s Vague

3 May

As already blogged by Steve and Orac, Generation Rescue have undergone a change in both website and message.

Up until this week and for the last two years, Brad Handley – GR Head Honcho has promoted a message quite unequivocal:

“Autism is treatable. It’s reversible. It’s nothing more than mercury poisoning,” said JB Handley, founder of Generation Rescue.

In fact, giving a reason for the redesign of the site on Orac’s blog, Brad said:

From my perspective, our website and its message have always been broader than “its ONLY mercury”…

Huh. Weird. Maybe its just me but I detect a teensy-weensy inconsistency between those two statements. Lets switch to the video!!:

And for the non-video-blessed amongst us, what Brad said was:

We immediately realised…and I think this is something that is a big surprise to people….um, that autism is a misdiagnosis for mercury poisoning.

Riiight. So let me see if I can summarise the position. When there is no science to have an informed debate about mercury, and when there’s lots of scary sounding stuff like ‘the Amish aren’t vaccinated and have no autism’ or ‘CDDS proves the epidemic’ floating around then the situation is:

“Autism is treatable. It’s reversible. It’s nothing more than mercury poisoning”.

Now that there’s no science to establish a causative link between mercury and autism, plenty of epidemiology to refute it and now that the first piece of science on the Amish has shown that actually they do vaccinate and that the penny has finally dropped, even for David Kirby, regarding CDDS’ inability to support the epidemic, what is the Generation Rescue position now? Lets see shall we?:

Our children are experiencing epidemics of ADD/ADHD, Asperger’s, PDD-NOS, and Autism. We believe these neurological disorders (“NDs”) are environmental illnesses caused by an overload of heavy metals, live viruses, and bacteria.

Wow. So we’re now no longer talking about just autism. We’re now talking about ‘neurological disorders’, including ADD/ADHD which is not even classed as being on the spectrum. That is quite some turnabout.

And look at this! Now, we’re talking about a _combination_ of causative agents: heavy metals (not just mercury any more), live viruses and bacteria.

Incredible. Makes you feel almost sorry for poor old mercury don’t it? Last week it was the Terror of the High Seas. Now it doesn’t even make it as a distinct causative agent.

The ‘live viruses’ is in there to placate the Wakefield Worshipers who think the MMR also (or in combination with mercury) caused autism. The ‘bacteria’ mention is I’m guessing a nod to the Martha Herbert theory of mold causing autism – a theory that was described thusly last time Martha took it to court:

Dr. Herbert’s publications indicate that she is an outspoken advocate of increased attention to the possibility of environmental influences. Even she, however, despite that acknowledged perspective, speaks in her published work of possibilities and potentialities, rather than of the ‘reasonable degree of medical certainty’ to which she offers to testify under oath in this case. Neither Dr. Herbert’s publications, nor any others cited, identify mold exposure as even a suspected, still less a known or proven, trigger of autism

Going back to MMR and taking a brief side journey for a minute, here’s the latest update from the Autism Omnibus proceedings. When last we left it, Petitioners had put forward one family as a ‘test case’ to see if the whole Omnibus proceeding had enough merit to proceed. There were supposed to be three. Awhile ago, the court told Petitioners to hurry up and identify the other two. They couldn’t. Respondents replied with:

The Court ordered the PSC to find two cases (similar enough to the first) to present the same basic theory of causation…..the essence of its (PSC’s) response is that it does not know of any case presenting the same causation issues as are implicated in Cedillo.

Ouch. How long has this been dragging on? Five years or something? And out of the 4,700 cases in the Omnibus no other case can be found to match the first one put forward. The only people who must be enjoying this are the lawyers.

Anyway, back to Generation Rescue.

Of particular note is the much vaunted, never seen ‘California-Oregon Unvaccinated Children Survey’ of described thusly by GR:

no studies have ever been done to compare neurological disorder (“ND”) rates of unvaccinated children to vaccinated children. We commissioned a national market research firm to survey more than 17,000 children in California and Oregon.

National market research firm eh? How very scientific. Researching popular chewing gum, researching autism causation. Yep, they’re the same. Souds very much like a a ‘convenience sample’ where people are called up. Here’s a friend of Brad’s describing what a convenience sample is and is not:

So. Not data according to David Kirby. Bummer.

Generation Rescue have also revamped their ‘Testimonials’ section. This is the section I looked at I August of last year and reached a (very) rough figure of a 5% success rate for the kids talked about on the GR site where ‘success’ is losing the diagnosis:

Out of these 59 success stories, just 3 describe their child as having been reclassified as no longer meeting a diagnosis of ASD. That’s a ‘recovery’ rate of 5%. Interestingly, one of these cases states they did not use chelation at all. That puts the Generation Rescue chelation success rate at a little over 3%.

Now, Generation Rescue have 76 ‘success stories’ (except they’re not called that any more, now they’re ‘testimonials’). Of that number, 6 claim full recovery with total loss of diagnosis. That’s a percentage of 7.8%. A heady leap of over 2%. Woo-hoo.

I was drawn to some of the newer testimonials, particularly the 6 year old ones as Meg only recently turned 7. One of them, about a girl called Liz was fascinating.

Our daughter Liz was diagnosed with low functioning autism at age three. We blamed the DTP vaccine which she had a bad reaction to. She would have very long lasting meltdowns, she would smear faeces, she would exhibit self injurious behaviour, she did not talk at all, she avoided eye contact and her only activity was that involving toys that spun. She walked on her tip toes and the doctor said she had a low IQ (below 70). We were told by mainstream medicine that she was ‘unreachable’.

Today Liz is six and after following biomedical interventions (and some other things) Liz will talk – on Christmas morning this year I went to wake her up and she said ‘good morning’ to me. She no longer smears faeces and is 99% toilet trained, she can write notes to people and knows all the letters of the alphabet and can count up to 40 unprompted. She can use a computer mouse unaided and has numerous favourite websites. The self injurious behaviour is vastly lessened, as are the meltdowns. Her eye contact is now perfect and overall her sensory issues seem 99% under control. She can drink out of a normal cup and use a knife, fork and spoon to eat whilst sitting at the table.

In so many ways, this is a different child.

Why was I drawn to this little girl so much?

Because it’s Megan’s story. I assumed a false name – Mr Clarence House – and emailed it to the Generation Rescue site. ‘Clarence’ received an email saying it was going to be on the new site which I was very happy about.

All of it is true except the name. The biomedical treatments I was talking about were multi vitamins, fish oil and a steroid inhlaer for her asthma. The ‘other things’ were love, acceptance, patience and education.

Why do this? To prove a point. You can make anyone’s story fit your own beliefs if you twist it hard enough.

Don’t worry, if it disappears I took a loving screenshot.

Brad Handley has tried to shift his goalposts as his first guess wasn’t working out. As evidenced above, he has latched on to items that are equally silly. As evidenced above he is incapable of seeing autism. He only sees mercury. As evidenced above, improvement is not limited – or even related to – detoxification of heavy metals.

Blogging Against Disablism

1 May

Today is Blogging Against Disabilism day, where bloggers are encouraged to:

…write about disability and rail against the discrimination that disabled people continue to face…

Thing is, I do that most of the time anyway :o)

What I want to show you today is how my days with ‘disability’ are spent. I would like people to remember that disability (or ability) is what it is, neither wrong nor right but a state of being that requires its own input and offers its own compensations. We have changed so much since disability entered our lives. Some of it good, some of it bad. Such is life.

However, what has not changed and never will is that I am proud beyond measure of Megan, my disabled daughter. I am also proud beyond measure of my non-disabled children and they are all carried in my heart at all times, my fierce flame of pride and love in equal measure. I want nothing from them except that they are happy and confident and learn to care for each other. The fact that one of them is disabled is meaningless to me in that respect. She is not the same as others but then again – neither am I. No better, no worse, just….different.

The trouble with science

28 Apr

I was recently interviewed for an editorial in the latest issue of Nature Neuroscience. The editorial is called:

Silencing debate over autism
Despite the lack of scientific evidence that childhood vaccines cause autism, extreme tactics used by those convinced that this hypothesis is correct have been increasingly successful in influencing public opinion and legislation.

In this editorial I am quoted as saying:

Kevin Leitch reports, “I have personally been told that because I am not chelating my daughter, I am a child abuser. That I am a murderer. I have had threats of violence made against me, and a few people have even sent personal hate mail to my seven-year-old autistic daughter.”

I know of four scientists whom I have exchanged emails with who have been targeted by this same extreme group and who had:

1) Threats of property damage made against their homes and property
2) Threats of physical violence made against them
3) Been the victims of concerted email and telephone harassment campaigns to the point where security services have had to get involved
4) Had their associations with entities that merely sound like Pharma organisations misrepresented
5) Been accused, on no basis at all, of fraud

These scientists are staggered that merely performing accurate science has led them to having to (in three cases I know of) inform Campus Police of the places they work at of their movements in order to remain safe.

I’ve also spoken with several paediatricians and doctors in general practice who report belligerence and fury when the doctor tells the parent in question that the ‘test’ the parent has had performed by Doctors Data or some quack lab – at no small cost – is worthless and means nothing. One GP told me xe felt intimidated to the point of pressing the panic button under xyr desk.

How can this happen? In 2007, when our knowledge of science is greater than ever, how can this happen?

First, it happens because these parents are desperate. Or so they believe. Because they have not given themselves the opportunity of moving beyond the ‘grief’ stage and into a practical acceptance, they are still deep in denial and anger. They are lashing out and blaming all and sundry. This is sad. Its a shame but it still utterly unacceptable. These are (apparently) grown adults.

Secondly, it happens because the wider scientific community _lets_ it happen.

As the Nature editorial implies, the scientific community is largely unaware of this type of person. To them, the question was settled long ago and they have moved on. The few researchers still valiantly plugging away with new science regarding the alleged ‘epidemic’ and the role (or lack thereof) of vaccines in autism aetiology, the many GP’s still faced with the increasingly violent response to vaccination and the many mainstream autism parents who really would like science to move on to educational research and the media to move on to pushing for more adult programs are left to try and wrest the agenda away from these extremists.

If you are a scientist reading this or you know of a scientist who operates within the fields of toxicology or autism then please – please become louder.

The scientists on the Hub do wonderful work refuting the poor science of the Geier’s etc but we need to have the big name scientists in their fields commenting publicly on the poor science like the recent Geier paper.

For the scientists still trying to do studies that touch on the autism/vaccine hypothesis, the issue hasn’t gone away. For the millions of autism parents around the world who find themselves having to compete for funding with a set of threatening bullies the issue hasn’t gone away. For GP’s and nurses who have to listen to the threats and screaming fits the issue hasn’t gone away.

The only way to defeat a bully is to stand up to him. I plead with the larger scientific community to come back to the fray where we can be united and face down these enemies of science and autism.

Elsewhere

1) Autism Diva
2) Orac
3) Steven Novella

Oh David, David, David….

26 Apr

David Kirby has been chewing away at the edge of the CDDS data since it became apparent that he’d screwed up and actually set himself (and the thiomersal hypothesis) an actual measurable target (eek!). I can’t believe there isn’t anyone in the autism community who doesn’t know about the CDDS’ data and its role from Saviour of the thiomersal hypothesis to Villan of the thiomersal hypothesis. But just in case, here’s a potted history. For (lots) more search my site for ‘cdds’ and you’ll get lots more background reading.

1) Kirby writes EoH and is spoon-fed the Rollens line that we’re in the midst of an autism epidemic and that the CDDS data proves this by going up and up and up.
2) Thiomersal is removed from its preservative role in vaccines and by Feb 2002 there is an estimated 1.9% of vaccines left containing thiomersal.
3) Geier paper indicating that CDDS data is going down following removal of thiomersal
4) Kirby crows about this, refers to CDDS data as ‘the gold standard’ of autism data
5) Transpires Geier dip is a load of bollocks – CDDS data still going up
6) Kirby says (paraphrasing) – if CDDS data not falling by 2007 its a sever blow to the thiomersal hypothesis.
7) 2007 – Happy New year
8) CDDS data still climbing
9) First quarter for 2007 in – CDDS data still climbing
10) CDDS data abandoned by Kirby/Rollens et al in favour of educational data in the hopes _this_ data will show them what they want it to
11) No one really talks about CDDS data anymore

Quite early along this line several skeptical bloggers including myself, Do’C, Interverbal, Joseph and Autism Diva all said over and over again: ‘Yeah, hi, no actually you can’t use CDDS data to prove or disprove either the autism epidemic or the role of thiomersal. Here’s the disclaimers on the CDDS website that explains why not.’

Which brings us to yesterday and a post to the Yahoo EoH group from one D.Kirby reading:

This is interesting. Calif Dept of Health Services will be presenting DDS data at IMFAR

They will report that the number of 3-5 year old cases was still rising as of Sept 2006 – thus no evidence for a major role for thimerosal in ASD was found.

But, the abstract makes a very interesting point. It says that: “Limitations of the DDS database and lack of individual exposure data prevent conclusions, based on these data, about thimerosal as a cause or modifier of autism in a specific subgroup or child.

(Emphases are mine)

I read this to mean that one cannot apply the California data to prove that a specific group or child (ie one with a genetic predisposition) was NOT harmed by thimerosal. Also, there is no way to know for sure exactly how much mercury individual children were exposed to during the period in question.

Please, someone explain to me why I am wrong, and that includes any lurkers out there who believe that the California numbers mean it is time to close the thimerosal books once and for all.

I am being serious. I really thought these numbers were probably the death knell of this hypothesis, and they may still be. But it seems that the State of California would have us interpret these numbers with a bit more caution.

The abstract is below. ALL comments welcome, and that includes skeptics. Thanks. DK

No dude, you’re not wrong. Know why? *This is exactly what we’ve been telling you for the last two/three years*

Nobody has ever claimed that the CDDS data can disprove the epidemic or the thiomersal hypothesis. What we _said_ was that you couldn’t use it to _prove_ it either.

What CDDS will be presenting is exactly what they say – that CDDS can be used to demonstrate no correlation between autism and thiomersal for a select group of individuals. That doesn’t mean thiomersal _didn’t_ cause autism or that it _did_. It means CDDS can’t show causation one way or the other. I’m so glad that’s finally filtered through.

Bear in mind the ramifications of this Mr Kirby. CDDS data cannot be used to prop up the epidemic hypothesis any more. I think you can finally see that. I hope we can expect to see you publicly putting people right on that. Maybe a post on your HuffPo blog?

And let me tell you what _really_ worries me about all this Mr Kirby. Firstly, you swallowed this whole debacle hook line and sinker. The Mercury mums and dads sold it to you and you just believed them. Aren’t you supposed to be an investigative reporter? Where was the investigation? Secondly, you and others have been using this non-connection as the _sole epidemiology_ to prop up the thiomersal and epidemic hypothesis. Now that the penny’s finally dropped where does that leave you?

I’ll close by asking you a favour Mr Kirby. You were spoonfed this idea and swallowed it whole without thought. Now you’ve guessed you were wrong. You’re being spoonfed clinical papers that are equally bad. You seem to be swallowing them whole. Please. Please go and talk to actual, real scientists about them.

More

Dad of Cameron‘s take on this.
Diva’s take on this.

Just Sayin’

24 Apr

This was not a pleasant video to put together and I hope it will not be pleasant to watch. However, I think there are more than a few people out there who really need a cold, hard dash of reality.

Cho

23 Apr

In one sense I have a perspective that most of my online friends (and not so friends) do not when it comes to Cho. I’m not American, I don’t live in America, I don’t have the familiarity of living in a country where it is ‘the norm’ to carry handguns. We had Dunblane and Hungerford and they were appalling, heart-rending tragedies but in this instance, in this context, I am outside looking in. I have no right to debate the gun-control issue that sweeps the US at times like this.

However, in another context, I share a perspective with most of my online friends (and not so friends). Autism.

It is said that Cho was autistic. It is said that he was bullied. It is said that he had an unsupportive family.

On the claim of autism I would like to say that I am a skeptic. Show me the proof. Show me better proof than a handful of sentences from a family that are glad he’s dead. Let me hear from someone who is experienced with autism (preferably someone who is themselves autistic but failing that, a parent or a medical professional) who spent a lot of time with Cho and can say, yup, I’m pretty sure he was autistic. Failing that my opinion on Cho’s autism is: Bullshit.

But let’s say for the sake of argument that Cho was established to be autistic beyond a shadow of a doubt. What about the fact that he was bullied? All those awful things he related in his address. All the pain in his voice and all the anguish. What about the cavalier abandonment of Cho by his family?

My opinion on that is: So?

No one should be bullied. Ever. It’s a crime against the fabric of a persons confidence and even their identity.

No one should be abandoned by their family. No one.

But people are. Every day. They don’t pull out twin handguns and mow innocent kids and teachers down.

Cho’s first victim was a girl who didn’t fancy him. In between his first two victims and the rest of them he went home and shot his video.

This wasn’t the anguished act of a man who simply couldn’t take any more. This was the premeditated act, carefully planned and executed, of killing people he didn’t like.

Autistic or not, bullied or not, abandoned or not: killing people is wrong. That’s the bottom line. Neurodiversity, to me, is about respect for all neurological conditions. However, respect does not and should never extend to finding reasons to excuse or even understand a murderer. Cho showed no respect for his victims and I have no respect for a man who’s solution to his problems was to slaughter people.

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