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Calling all autistic college students

10 Aug

A representative of the Autistic Social Action Committee mailed me to ask me to help draw attention to this. Happy to oblige.

Wanted: We are looking for independently communicating autistic individuals who are successfully attending an institution of higher education. Those classified as Asperger’s or any other type of autism are equally welcome. We hope to create a regularly updated blog of autistic individuals attending an institution of higher education for the purpose of changing public perception of autistics in the eyes of parents, professionals, the media, the general public and our own communities. In addition, we hope this blog will serve as a valuable resource for autistics currently in higher education or entering it in the future. We aim for readers who will follow our blog to leave with an understanding of the extensive possibilities of the autistic neurology.

Requirements:

Standard rules of English grammar and spelling will apply, according to either US or UK English (depending on location).
Weekly updates will be expected of all bloggers on the topic of their college experiences. The purpose of these updates are to provide an insight into the unique challenges autistics face in higher education, yet also the many successes that we can achieve. We are looking for bloggers who will provide an open and honest discussion of their experiences, celebrating and stressing their positive experiences while providing practical advice on how to deal with negative ones.
Bloggers must be currently attending an institution of higher learning as of the Fall 2006 Semester.

How to Apply:

Contact AutisticAction@gmail.com by August 22nd with:
A brief biography of yourself (no more than 250 words)
An example of a blog-type entry you have written in the past on any topic that conforms to standard rules of English
A 500-1,000 word description of how you feel about being an autistic and what your plans for the future are
A brief description of your current life situation including, but not necessarily limited to, name, what college or university you are currently attending, age and year in school, area of study, hobbies and personal interests and any current or past employment.
Any past involvement in autistic advocacy, neurodiversity or policy issues will be looked upon favorably and should be included in the application
Applicants should feel free to provide links and/or information about to any websites they maintain or to any of their writings or personal projects.

Who we are:

The Autistic Social Action Committee is a Manhattan-based advocacy and community organization for autistic individuals of all ages and interests. We seek a movement away from the paradigms of disease and epidemic, neither of which are accurate or conducive towards autistic success and prosperity. We believe that autistic individuals hold the inalienable right to live as they are and that their neurological type should be respected and honored along with other forms of human diversity, such as race, religion, skin color or national origin. Our goals include providing a forum for autistic adults to interact with each other and promoting the growth of autistic culture and community. It is our belief that any effective and meaningful venture to provide services for autistic individuals requires the consideration by and the involvement of the autistic community. In addition, we seek to ensure the best possible educational environment for autistics of all ages, noting with concern the proliferation of segregated and inappropriate placements and the difficulties facing autistics of all types in higher education. Finally, we seek to change public perception of autistics by fighting against damaging stereotypes and promoting the success of autistic role models and community leaders, both for the purposes of inspiring the autistic community and educating the general public.

Its The Mercury, Stupid! No Wait!

9 Aug

I predicted not long ago that we’d shortly begin to witness a move away from thiomersal/mercury language from the geniuses in the mercury militia due the ongoing science refuting the hypothesis and the total rejection of the accumulated body of science so far built to support the hypothesis.

Every quarter, as long term members of this debacle will know, California DDS release a set of figures that are used to indicate how many autistic people are receiving services in that State. These numbers have been hailed at various times and by various people from the mercury militia as ‘the gold standard’ or ‘incontravertible proof’ that thiomersal causes autism as the numbers seemed to rise in the latter part of the nineties when thiomersal was around and then drop when it was removed. In actual fact, this belief came about due to a total misunderstanding of the numbers. The numbers have never dropped. All that happened at some points was that the _rate of increase_ either dipped or rose. Especially in the core cohort of 3 – 5 year olds.

For more on this see Joseph’s excellent summation.

In short, CDDS numbers continue to rise in the age group that would show a dramatic drop if thiomersal was the culprit.

The last two quarters have seen ‘rises’ in the rate of increase and where once there was excited bandying about of this ‘proof’ we now have the embarrased silence of no dogs barking.

And yet….deep in the recesses of Anti-Vaccine Central aka The Evidence of Harm Yahoo Group….someone had the bad taste to mention this recently. The response was swift, predictable and as stupid as a celebrity reality TV contestant.

Yes, and I do believe that we need to look at ALL environmental factors, and not just mercury, including other vaccine components, the antigens themselves, the cross-reactivity of various vaccines, the timing of vaccine administration, environmental sources of mercury, the overuse of antibiotics, pesticides, pitocin, ultrasound (I have noticed some listmates stating that their NT kids had just as much ultrasound exposure as their ASD child and they’re fine — careful, that’s what the parents of NT kids say about vaccines!) and electromagnetic radiation.

You factor in all of the new vaccine recommendations over the last four years and there are plenty of things that could muddy the waters here. Not to mention live attenuated virus vaccines,

But…but…didn’t these people get the message from Rick Rollens that:

Decline [in CDDS data] coincides with the phasing out of mercury from childhood vaccines.

Yes I know there wasn’t really a decline but they believed it. They touted it as fact.

How about David Kirby’s ‘Gold Standard‘>

Stay tuned. If the numbers in California and elsewhere continue to drop – and that still is a big if — the implication of thimerosal in the autism epidemic will be practically undeniable.

So, now that we know that _they never dropped_ is the opposite ‘practically undeniable’?

Let’s not forget what David Kirby told Citizen Cain:

if the total number of 3-5 year olds in the California DDS system has not declined by 2007, that would deal a severe blow to the autism-thimerosal hypothesis

What shape will that ‘severe blow’ take do you think? Will it be a full and frank admission from Mr Kirby that he maybe should’ve asked around outside of the circle of geniuses headed by Rollens regarding prevalence in CDDS data? That maybe he’s jumped the gun quite substantially? Will we see retractions from Brad Handley and Generation Rescue who might have to redefine their incredibly simplistic, premature and wilfully misleading categorisation of autism? Will we get some injection related sense out of more than a few people? Will Moms Against Mercury rename themselves? How about SafeMinds?

What does Lenny Schafer think? In recent years, the SAR has become little more than an anti-thiomersal polemic. What does he say about all this as the Moderator of the EoH group?

The fact is that if the problem is mercury and mercury has been greatly reduced in vaccines, we should see numbers either dropping, or the rate of increase dropping. Maybe the later is true, I can’t tell from this one chart alone. These reports have always come with caveats about how they are not properly controlled for a variety of factors that could affect the actuals, like the CDC recommendations for mercury flu shots or their aggressive push for early (and more) diagnosis. We (not just Christine) can’t one day point to these numbers and say: “see, they support the mercury hypothesis” when it suit us, and then later say “you really can’t trust these numbers” when they don’t.

At least a nod towards honesty. But he needs to understand why Kirby is correct to say that it is numbers dropping that’s important not changes in the rate of increase.

Slowly but surely these people are moving towards a position of wholesale anti-vaccination. Of course, its been there all along, but as the veneer of credibility the thiomersal hypothesis had when we lacked data is stripped away so is the thin veneer that reveals the depths of their ignorance.

When they finally abandon thiomersal, never forget their adamancy that it was thiomersal. Never forget that their ‘common sense’ trumped their ability to see what was under their noses. Thiomersal is a neuropoison QED, thiomersal causes autism. That’s the sort of logic that resulted in their recent spectacular own goal of the US Senate refusing point blank to put vaccine specific language in the recent Combating Autism Act. Wake up geniuses: They don’t trust you because you’re zealots. Your future is plain to see for them and me. Thiomersal to aluminium, aluminium to live virus, live virus to some other vaccine related ingredient. That’s why the ASA, CAN, Autism Speaks etc were happy to ditch the vaccine language. They want to distance themselves from you. Is it any wonder?

Welcome to EoH visitors! I see you have an amusing long thread where you all talk about how unbothered you are about me – with *lots* of contributions from various familiar faces. I would like to correct one small point you seem to have picked up: There is only one side of this that believe that the Illuminati is involved or even actually exist: That is your side. As represented by John Scudamore (owner of whale.to) and Dr David Ayoub of FAIR Autism Media. Hope thats clear enough for you to grasp :o)

Stupid Eugenics

5 Aug

I’ll try not to Godwin this post too soon but I suspect its going to be hard as its one of those rare occasions when the subject does feel vaguely fascist. Actually, more than vaguely.

In June this year the Times ran a story about a team of British doctors who were:

….preparing an application to the fertility watchdog that would allow them to screen out male embryos to reduce significantly the chance of a couple having an autistic child.

As boys are four times more likely to be born with autism than girls, couples with a family history of the condition want to ensure they have only girls.

This is objectionable on two levels. Firstly, it gives legitimacy to the idea that autistic people are of less worth than non-autistic people. Writing about similar plans in Business Week, Elizabeth R. Schiltz said:

Imagine the public outrage that would greet the publication of a study calculating the cost of not terminating pregnancies if it were broken down into a category such as family income. Although most of our civil rights laws now include “disability” in the litany of prohibited bases for discrimination – along with race, gender, and ethnic origin—our enlightened liberal commitment to diversity appears to go only so far. While we are willing to mandate accommodation to make jobs or public transportation accessible to a person with spina bifida, *the social cost of accommodating her birth is increasingly being seen as exceeding her worth*

This same idea was expressed another way in the not to distant past:

[A] philosopher told me about a Nazi propaganda film he’d seen, called “Freedom through Death”. It featured golden haired youths clad in white, wheeling drooling [non]persons around in wheelchairs while the audience was asked to consider how much labour was being wasted on keeping the droolers alive.

Dinah Murray

The British Council of Disabled People also are concerned.

Simone Aspis, parliamentary and campaigns worker for the British Council of Disabled People, said: “Screening out autism would breed a fear that anyone who is different in any way will not be accepted. Screening for autism would create a society where only perfection is valued.””

Cost and perfection. Is that what we’ve been reduced to as a species? How much money we’re worth and how close to Brad and Angelina we all look like? Consider the following from Ballastexistenz

I was accompanying a friend to the doctor a couple weeks ago, and we were sitting in the waiting room, both of us using wheelchairs. We had the following conversation, or something very like it (I won’t get the details right, but this is the gist):

Her (to my staff): We need to find you a place to sit down. I forgot, you’re chair-impaired.

Staff: Actually I’m okay standing.

Her (gesturing around the waiting room): Just look at all this furniture devoted to your special needs. Hospitals must spend thousands of dollars buying chairs for the… uh… chair-challenged. They require assistive technology wherever they go.

Me: Yes, as a matter of fact, you and I can take our chairs with us, but those poor walking people all have to find places to sit. Must be such a drain on society…

Funny how you can find truth in humour don’t you think? We all have a cost. Not just financial. To decide to attempt to eradicate people based on financial or labour costs is ridiculous.

One of my favourite (series of) book/s is Dune which, aside from being (alongside Lord of the Rings) the greatest fantasy/Sci-Fi books ever written, are also a study in how political power and the ‘power’ of absolute inflexibility and non-diversity inevitably leads to the stagnation of the species. We need change – as a species we _require_ it. Our success as a species was _born_ from our ability to adapt. To adapt we need new skills and new ways of being. Without them we have no flexibility and an ever dwindling series of options.

Now, aside from the incredibly stupid idea that ‘weeding out’ people we have no understanding of is a good thing, there is also the rather more practical point that this patent is based on the flimsiest and most ramshackle logic ever. The science team basically want to screen for male embryos in families that have a history of autism and if they find one, to abort it.

In essence then, this isn’t even an anti-autism piece of ‘science’ – its an anti-male piece of ‘science’. Just to put this idea into some kind of numerical perspective, here’s a quote from Wikipedia:

For families that already have one autistic child, the odds of a second autistic child may be as high as one in twenty

So a woman may have to go through twenty abortions to get her desired NT offspring. And even then there’s no assurances that the girl child won’t be autistic. Mine is. My great Aunt was. Lots are. Lorna Wing is on record somewhere as stating she believes female autistics are historically very under diagnosed.

Mike Stanton pointed out that even the process itself is fraught with peril. And for what? Absolutely no guarantees whatsoever. In fact there is good evidence to suggest that IVF increases the ‘risk’ of autism.

To make another comparison: How about aborting black children to reduce Sickle Cell Anaemia? Who in their right mind would stand for that? How about aborting the children of people who are hypertensive just in case they develop heart disease?

I’m not anti-abortion per se but this is utterly ridiculous. I know that Mike has corresponded with the lead author, Professor Joy Delhanty, in his official NAS role. I would like to add something pretty unofficial:

Professor, this is without doubt the dumbest and least humanistic application of medical science I’ve seen in quite awhile. Please stop and think about what you are doing.

Dr David Ayoub – Hidden Agenda and Stone Cold Certainty

1 Aug

In a world seemingly obsessed with celebrities and the status of famous people, each cadre of existence have their own celebs – even autism research has its own budding superstar league. The top ten elites probably command good money from conference fee’s and parental recommendations from the big forums on the Yahoo Group lists so it can pay to get to be an Autism Superstar.

Just outside the elites are the triers – the ones who never seem to reach the giddy heights of a Wakefield or a Rimland. For these guys, cracking the top ten can mean an endless round of strident press releases, foaming at the mouth invective and slightly less fashionable talking shops.

One of the newer ‘triers’ is Dr David Ayoub. He’s (fairly) new to the scene but already he’s caused a stir with a typically brash ‘triers’ entrance to the market.

David Ayoub – Autism Specialist

I first remember hearing the name David Ayoub on the website of Erik’s FAIR Autism Media where Ayoub is listed as the Medical Director. One would suppose that the Medical Director of an autism organisation that believes thiomersal causes autism would be an expert in either autism or maybe toxicology. In actual fact, Ayoub is neither. He’s a Radiologist.

David Ayoub, MD, is a radiologist at the Memorial Medical Center in Springfield, Illinois

Source

So what does Radiology have to do with autism? Well, nothing.

What medical skills could Ayoub, as a trained Radiologist, bring to the field of autism? None.

No matter, maybe Ayoub has published some good science about autism or mercury?

Well, no – Ayoub MD, has (count ’em) five entries on PubMed, none of which touch on either autism or mercury. His last paper (on digital imaging) was published in 1997.

Whilst the irony of having a trained radiologist on the board of directors of an organisation that seems to think radiology is not necessary to diagnose Precocious Puberty is at least marginally amusing, what’s more amusing is the Ayoub Wikipedia entry. It’s written in breathlessly idolising fashion – headings are entitled ‘Track and field phenom’, ‘Science Prodigy’ and ‘Vaccine education crusader’. This is the online CV of a real ‘trier’, I think you’ll agree. Only a ‘Science Prodigy’ like Dr Ayoub could become Medical Director and ‘Vaccine education crusader’ at an organisation that specialises in subjects he knows nothing, medically speaking, about.

David Ayoub – Definitely Maybe

Perhaps Ayoub’s most famous contribution to the autism = thiomersal debate is his vanity piece written by Evelyn Pringle. Entitled David Ayoub – Thimerosal Definite Cause Of Autism, this article seemed to say a lot but actually said nothing at all beyond the title. Let’s not beat around the bush here. Just like Brad Handley, David Ayoub is stating that thiomersal _definitely_ causes autism. Pretty strong words. Let’s take a look beyond the title of the article though and see what the man himself says to back that up.

Well, the short answer is (of course) nothing. The longer answer starts off with:

I can state that the certainty of the science supporting mercury as a major cause of autism is probably more overpowering than the science behind any other disease process that I studied dating back to medical school.

This is the same science, formulated by the same scientists, that was recently rejected by a court Daubert hearing don’t forget. And not rejected by some legal trickery, but rejected as it was crap.

But David Ayoub, the ‘Science Prodigy’ can state that the same science is ‘certain’ and is ‘more overpowering than the science behind any other disease process’ that Ayoub has studied since medical school.

Possibly a good time to remind ourselves that David Ayoub is a radiologist with five papers to his name, none of which concern disease process, let alone autism or toxicology. I think its safe to assume that the last time Ayoub studied disease process was actually in medical school. I also think it’s safe to assume that Ayoub’s ‘certainty’ might very well be all the evidence the more credulous amongst us might need but I’m far from impressed at Ayoub’s experience, qualifications and bombastic pomposity.

But Ayoub isn’t done yet. The ‘Science Prodigy’ has more stone cold certainties to lay on us:

A growing number of experimental, epidemiological and biochemical research, has unequivocally shown that mercury is directly linked to the development of autism spectrum disorders

They have? Maybe someone could point these out to me? I seem to have missed them. Somewhere along the line I think our ‘Vaccine education crusader’ has concentrated more on the crusading than the research.

I really don’t see the need for more research to prove causality.

Well, of course he doesn’t – did he ever? The whole of the mercury militia have never been overly concerned with trifling matters like research to back up their beliefs. That’s why all the accumulated science to date was thrown out of court and will, barring fresh evidence, continue to be thrown out of court.

Next up in Evelyn’s little thumb nail sketch:

Ayoub is the Director of the Prairie Collaborative for Immunization, an organization that is self-funded, which aids organizations, journalists, and legislators obtain accurate information to assist their work.

Obtain accurate information eh? I really, really doubt that.

So, let’s go see what the Prairie Collaborative thinks is accurate information. Well, under the heading ‘Science’ we have ‘papers’ from Bradstreet, Bernard, Holmes and LOTS from (you guessed it) Geiers. Even Ken Stoller pops up, bless his HBOT heart. So this dross is the ‘accurate information’ that ‘unequivocally’ shows that ‘mercury is directly linked to the development of autism spectrum disorders’. It’s a roll call of the scientists and science that the recent RhoGAM hearings threw out as being rubbish.

He also links to the 2005 DAN Consensus paper – you know the one – it begins with:

This monograph is not intended as medical advice. Its intention is solely informational and educational. Please consult a qualified medical or health professional if you wish to pursue the ideas presented.

Nothing fills you with confidence as much as a strongly worded, legally enforceable medical disclaimer eh?

Recently, David Ayoub has been on a media frenzy. Flushed with the promise of cracking the elite top ten, he’s been commenting on news sites and to reporters left right and centre.

David Ayoub – Darling of the Press

After the killing of Katie McCarron, David Ayoub was revealed as a confidant of Karen McCarron, Katie’s killer.

Dr David Ayoub said he met with Karen McCarron shortly after her daughter was diagnosed with autism.

“She was very dedicated to trying to get treatment for her daughter,” Ayoub said. “I’ve met with a lot of parents who are dealing with autistic children, and she was one of the most loving mothers. This is a story that’s been played over and over again. Homicide, suicide. The families just don’t have the support”

David Ayoub was very vocal on how much of a tragedy this was for poor ‘loving mothers’ like Karen McCarron. Oddly, he had no words of compassion for Katie herself, Katie’s sister, Katie’s Dad, Katie’s Grandparents, Katie’s Uncle and Aunts, her friends or her teachers all of whom had to live with David Ayoub’s barely concealed plea for services.

As a side note, I see today that Karen McCarron’s lawyers are considering an insanity plea. I strongly urge those representing Katie to contact David Ayoub as, based on the above quote, he can easily testify to Karen McCarron’s loving and dedicated nature. That should be enough to establish she was far from insane. I’m sure as a ‘Science Prodigy’ his opinion will carry much weight.

As recently as last month, David Ayoub was again demonstrating his ‘Science Prodigy’ status in a news blog in answer to a Doctor who doesn’t believe the MMR/thiomersal hypothesis. Displaying his keen sense of ethics and science, Ayoub began with:

Dr Ehmke’s comments about parents concerned with vaccine safety is an insult to anyone with any knowledge of the science surrounding this debate. His letter was filled with misinformation, errors and just plain foolish dribble.

Well, no actually Dr Ayoub. What’s actually insulting is your own rabid insistence in the face of no actual _evidence_ , let alone proof, that thiomersal or MMR cause autism.

Ayoub then pointed out Ehmke’s sole error:

MMR vaccine never contained thimerosal. This blunder set the tone for the rest of his letter.

Interesting. Possibly no one told Boyd Haley or Liz Birt this little fact.

I have been working with Boyd Haley since September 2000 who testified at the recent Congressional hearing. Your source is incorrect. I have Boyd’s testing results and there is mercury in MMR. He did not find as much as what was in Hib, Hep B and DTaP. However, IT IS THERE.

I guess we can await Dr Ayoub’s denouncement of Boyd Haley as a foolish dribbler with interest. Other gems from that piece include:

The epidemiological studies refuting the claim of a link to vaccine mercury have all been refuted as flawed studies.

There are at least 4 published papers that demonstrated autistic children have a lower, genetically determined ability to eliminate mercury due to lower levels of glutathione

There are hundreds of physicians breaking rank with their own organizations such as the AMA and AAP and admitting that mercury in vaccines was indeed a major cause of a variety of developmental disorders

I would discourage parents from having too much trust in what their pediatrician will tell them

Basically, its a (poorly formatted) rant based on nothing more that our resident ‘Science Prodigy’s’ belief in his pet hypothesis. There’s no actual science in there at all.But what turns a respectable radiologist, just beginning a career in his field and a career as a published scientist in his field into a what we see – an absolutist who’s stone cold certainty based on no decent science has led him to his current position as Medical Director of two organisations widely regarded as anti-vaccine in agenda?

David Ayoub – A Hidden Agenda?

On the 3rd of January of this year David Ayoub was a guest on Radio Liberty. Radio Liberty is an online radio station that specialises in talkshows about fringe conspiracy theories. Other interview subjects that month included John De Jacomo who gave a talk on:

The prophetic significance of world events today. People are looking for peace; will this usher in globalism – or pave the way for the reign of the anti-Christ?

And Caryl Matrisciana who addressed the burning issue:

The Chronicles of Narnia movie is being touted as a great Christian movie. Is there a possibility that the New Age is being dressed in Christian clothing?

Fascinating, relevant and deeply scientific questions, I think you’ll agree.

So what was our ‘Science Prodigy’, Dr David Ayoub there to discuss?

Linking mercury in vaccines to global population control.

Unfortunately, I can’t find an mp3 of this interview anywhere but believe me, I would _love_ to hear David Ayoub’s thoughts as a ”Vaccine education crusader’ on how vaccines are used to control the global population. Maybe he could upload this interview to the Prairie Collaborative site in order to aid ‘organizations, journalists, and legislators obtain accurate information’ about how vaccines are used to control the global population.

Now, being an avid fan of nutty conspiracy theories I thought I’d check out Erik’s others friend’s (John Scudamore) website (whale.to) to see what I could find about the global population control theory.

Well, its not good news I’m afraid. Apparently, the global population are Targets of the Illuminati and the Committee of 300. They’ll get us like so:

Unemployables in the US, in the wake of industrial destruction, will either become opium-heroin and/or cocaine addicts, or become statistics in the elimination of the “excess population” process we know of today as Global 2000.

To cause, by means of limited wars in the advanced countries, by means of starvation and diseases in the Third World countries, the death of three billion people by the year 2050, people they call “useless eaters”. The Committee of 300 (Illuminati) commissioned Cyrus Vance to write a paper on this subject of how to bring about such genocide. The paper was produced under the title “Global 2000 Report” and was accepted and approved for action by former President James Earl Carter, and Edwin Muskie, then Secretary of States, for and on behalf of the US Government. Under the terms of the Global 2000 Report, the population of the US is to be reduced by 100 million by the year of 2050

Not good. But it seems that as long as I _don’t_ go to America and I _do_ have a job, I’ll be safe from the Illuminati! Hurrah!!

Evidently, Dr David ‘Science Prodigy’ Ayoub believes that vaccines are yet another weapon in the vast, nefarious arsenal that the Illuminati can bring to bear on us. Eeeek!

What Happened to Dr David Ayoub?

At some point, David Ayoub clearly stepped off the mainstream science path and started his journey into conspiracy theory driven belief. That’s fine as far as it goes. He can believe whatever the hell he likes.

What’s not fine though is how his attempts to see through his global population control anti-vaccine agenda have latched onto autism. He deals in unverified absolutes and needs to be thought of in the context of what he really is – an antivaccinationist with a disturbing set of political beliefs.

Jennifer unearthed a truly disturbing presentation from David Ayoub regarding his population control conspiracy theory. It’s an ‘interesting’ read!

Autism Diva: Kelloggs Just Trying To Help

22 Jul

_The following is taken word for work from Autism Diva’s blog. I’ve turned off comments here and strongly encourage you to comment at Diva’s place._

If you follow autism news and/or gossip you may have heard that Autism Speaks is working with the Kellogg’s cereal folks to promote Autism Speaks as a mainstream authority in matters autistic and to alert parents of young children to early signs of autism. Of course, anything coming from Autism Speaks will be agitprop slanted toward invoking fears of the faux-epidemic of family-destroying body-snatched-children. Autism Speaks both promotes and denies the faux-epidemic out of alternating sides of it’s corporate mouth. The Kellogg’s cereal folks are doing their part by donating space on the sides of their cereal boxes to an Autism Speaks ad.

The ad reads:

Do you know what autism is? Autism is a neurological disorder that impairs communication, behavior, and social skills. It’s the nation’s fatest growing serious developmental disorder, with a new case diagnosed every 20 minutes.

(Apparently they left out this part: We here at Autism Speaks are hoping to get that number up to one every 10 minutes so we are alerting parents to the early signs of autism since many autistic children are really not obviously autistic so that they don’t get diagnosed until after they enter first grade … so much for the unmissable “train wrecks” hype.)

More from the cereal box ad:

Do you know the early signs? No big smiles or joyful expressions by 6 months. No babbling by 12 months. No back and forth gestures, such as pointing and waving by 12 months. No words by 16 months. Any loss of speech or babbling at any age. These are just a few of the possible early signs. If you have any concerns, speak to your doctor about screening your child. Please…Don’t wait.

And then there is some stuff about tax deductible donations, trademarks belonging to Autism Speaks and Copyright (c) 2006″ and the website’s address again.

(This is a screenshot of the homepage after the introductory flash animation thing–accompanied by some sorrowful nursery-like music–where you can read about how their orgnization presumes to speak for autistics who can’t)

It’s a frightening thought that people will read those possible early signs of autism and the ominous sounding statement of how autism is such rapidly growing phenomenon on the side of a cereal box and actually go to the Autism Speaks website and there be terrorized by that disgusting video “Autism Every Day,” among other negative propaganda.

If the cereal box reading parents do go to the website and watch that video, they will learn that in time their now lovable (if odd or silent) toddler wil become someone who along with thousands of others just like them have the potential to destroy the very fabric of society, not to mention the mom’s status as owner of a perfect star of a child. Ladies-who-lunch will learn that they should forget those days in the upscale neighborhood coffee shops wherein they can brag about how smart, gorgeous and advanced their child is. Other moms who never had that as a goal, they should forget about everything sweet and good related to having a child period. To elaborate on David Kirby’s fave expression, Autism Speak’s message is: “Moms (and dads)! Welcome to the ‘hell that is autism’.” Is that really the introduction to autism that parents of young children not yet diagnosed, that may not even be autistic need?

The website has links to “resources” available on the web for parents, even a page with links to blogs: here. Unfortunately for the parents none of them are Autism Hub blogs where the bloggers tacitly announce that they “don’t need no stinking cure” for themselves or their children, but they do want understanding and support for the complex problems that often surround autism. One of the three blogs linked to on the Autism Speaks site, one run by a serious mercury mom, has been inactive for quite a while.

Of course, in the view of mercury grand-dad Bob Wright and his mercury daughter the site would be remiss if it didn’t give some space to promoting the USVICTMS (Ultra Sneaky Vast International Conspiracy to Thimerosal Manufacturers Shield) and they do so by linking to various thinly veiled antivaccine organizations and other spreaders of conspiracy theories, such as “Coalition for SAFE MINDS.” Autism Diva believes that it’s the Mr. Wright’s mercury daughter on the video who implies that there was something evil and preventable that “stole” something from her child. Please check Kevin Leitch’s recent article on conspiracy theories and the mercury parent paranoid worldview.

One of the pages on the Autism Speaks site has a button that says, “Email us your thoughts.” It’s a link to an email address: editors@autism speaks.org. Feel free to email them your thoughts. Short clear, respectfully worded thoughts will probably have the greatest effect.

A group of autistic advocates and calling themselves the Autistic Social Action Committee would like you to consider writing to the the Kellogg’s folks. Autism Diva is not a member of the committee, but is placing their request here.

If you would like to tell the Kellogg’s people that you think they’ve made an error in linking themselves to Autism Speaks and it’s openly negative and thinly veiled paranoic view of autism and it’s causes–that could do great harm to many people, autistic or not–you could write to:

Kellogg Co.
One Kellogg Square
PO Box 3599
Battle Creek, MI, 49016-3599

A representative of Kellogg’s has politely answered a question from an autistic advocate regarding the cereal boxes. That representative said that the boxes have already been printed.

Autism Diva found the following name and address that might be useful to those who wish to register disappointment at Kellogg’s association with Bob Wright and his badly misnamed organization as well as its close ties to antivax conspiracy mongers.

Tim Knowlton, Vice President, Corporate Social Responsibility
Phone: (269) 961-3799
E-mail:media.hotline@kellogg.com

Please, if you call, email or write to Autism Speaks or Kellogg’s, use your polite “voice” and present your concerns with dignity and show that you are interested in ethical and accurate representations of autistics, young and old.

Stalling For Time, Mainstream Death, Underground Immortality

21 Jul

A few days ago I posted about how bad a time the autism = mercury poisoning via thiomersal/vaccines believers were having of late. There was the Fombonne study which revealed yet more lack of correlation between vaccines and autism, then there was the first legal try-out of the quality of the science and the scientific experts accumulated to demonstrate the relationship between thiomersal and autism which was dismissed due to the terrible quality of both. This was followed by the state of Hawaii refusing to ban thiomersal as there was no scientifically sound reason to do it and just as a nasty kick in the teeth, the latest quarterly reports of autism cases in California reported that there was still no drop in the figures despite the long term removal of thiomersal from mainstream vaccines.

Possibly then its no coincidence that on the 18th July, the Petitioners in the Autism/Vaccine Omnibus court cases filed a request to delay the deadline for submitting their case for general causation. The deadline (which has already been adjusted for petitioners several times before) was the end of 2006. Petitioners now want it extended to June 2007. They say this is to ensure the expert academics don’t have to curtail their teaching duties and also (because its in the summer holidays) allow families to attend.

Well, that’s one opinion. My personal opinion is that the RhoGAM case was a pretty large wake-up call and people suddenly realised that the ‘expert’ witnesses were _far_ from expert and that the body of science was shoddy in the extreme.

The petitioners also make some amusing requests regarding how this case is followed. Firstly, they want the court to allow for all 5000 families to attend in a central location such as Houston or Chicago. Maybe a resident of one of these cities can suggest a legal arena with a 5000 seat capacity?

They also suggest that the whole thing is played out via live web casts for those unable to attend in person. Strikes me that these requests are simply there to provide argument and thus stall for more time. In short, petitioners legal team are actively trying to turn this into a media circus, not a trial.

Most tellingly of all, petitioners want to _limit_ the amount of time each expert can be cross examined for. I wonder why. Well, no, I don’t. If I had Haley or the Geier’s in my corner I’d want to limit the amount of time they can speak too.

I feel sorry for the Special Master here. If he lets them have the extra time then he knows he’s setting a precedent. These petitioners have had ample time to prepare their case. If he refuses the request then he’ll be savaged and no doubt be painted as a Big Pharma Shill.

So is this the rag tag end of the thiomersal hypothesis? Yes and no. In scientific terms there’s still no evidence whatsoever to indicate a causative link between thiomersal/MMR/vaccines and autism. This aspect never really got off the ground at all. When we turn to epidemiology (is there a positive numerical correlation between thiomersal and autism?) then what we hear, as Holmes once famously explained to Watson, is the sound of no dogs barking.

Every quarter for the past two or three years, Rick Rollens has compiled the quarterly data from the CDDS without fail. David Kirby describes it as ‘the gold standard’ of numbers relating to autism. Every quarter, as caseload (as defiend by Rollens) grew it was trumpeted as proof that the thiomersal in vaccines caused an increase in autism…..except for the first time I can remember, Rollens has not compiled these stats this quarter. Kirby has not announced them on the Huffington Post blog. Schafer has not mentioned them in the SAR. No dogs bark this quarter. Why? Because thiomersal use is almost gone in vaccines and yet still the autism numbers rise.

Lenny Schafer recently said:

Myself and other autism activists believe there is enough evidence to support a causative relationship between mercury and autism in a court of law, in front of a jury, where standards of evidence are different than that of the narrow focus of scientific findings. And if you can convince a jury, you can convince the public.

He’s, of course, wrong as the recent RhoGAM hearing indicates. The standard of determination for scientific hypothesis’ is still, and always will be, science. I’ll close this first part of this post with a quote from one of my favourite poets – Yeats.

_Turning and turning in the widening gyre_
_The falcon cannot hear the falconer;_
_Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;_
_Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,_
_The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere_
_The ceremony of innocence is drowned;_
_The best lack all conviction, while the worst_
_Are full of passionate intensity._

*~Second Coming.*

I’ve long been fascinated by conspiracy theories. How they grow, how they operate etc. The autism/vaccine hypothesis has mutated into a conspiracy theory now as it fulfils many – if not all – of the sociological and psychological requirements to be deemed as such.

When conspiracy theories combine logical fallacies with lack of evidence, the result is a world view known as conspiracism. Conspiracism is a world view that sees major historic events and trends as the result of secret conspiracies. Academic interest in conspiracy theories and conspiracism has identified a set of familiar structural features by which membership of the genre may be established, and has presented a range of hypotheses on the basis of studying the genre. Among the leading scholars of conspiracism are: Hofstadter, Popper, Barkun, Goldberg, Pipes, Fenster, Mintz, Sagan, Johnson, and Posner, from whom the following list is synthesized.

Wikipedia.

Let’s work through some of ‘diagnostic criteria’ for conspiracies:

  1. Initiated on the basis of limited, partial or circumstantial evidence; – TRUE Began after FDA asked for review of mercury in ’97..
  2. Addresses an event or process that has broad historical or emotional impact. – TRUE ‘Poisoning’ children is a highly emotive subject. Appeals to emotion are constantly made.
  3. Reduces morally complex social phenomena to simple, immoral actions – TRUE Instead of seeing institutions as error-capable they are painted as evil
  4. Personifies complex social phenomena as powerful individual conspirators; – TRUE Continued belief that those ‘in power’ at the CDC/FDA/AAP ‘know’ whats going on
  5. Allots superhuman talents or resources to conspirators;
  6. Key steps in argument rely on inductive, not deductive reasoning;
  7. Appeals to ‘common sense’ – TRUE Lacking science, the fallback position is common sense.
  8. Exhibits well-established logical and methodological fallacies; – TRUE One word – Geier.
  9. Is produced and circulated by ‘outsiders’, often anonymous, and generally lacking peer review – TRUE Not sure about anonymous outsiders but definitely lacks peer review
  10. Is upheld by persons with demonstrably false conceptions of relevant science; – TRUE Geier, Kirbys, Olmsted, Handley, Bernard, Schafer….etc etc etc
  11. Enjoys zero credibility in expert communities; – TRUE
  12. Rebuttals provided by experts are ignored or accommodated through elaborate new twists in the narrative;
  13. The conspiracy is claimed to involve just about anybody; – TRUE FDA/CDC/me/George Bush/Every doctor on the planet
  14. The conspiracy centers on the “usual suspects”; – TRUE Big organisations. CDC etc.

So we can see that the autism/thiomersal/vaccine hypothesis more than qualifies as a conspiracy theory. The believers also fit the descriptions perfectly. Many autism/vaccines believers also believe in other related conspiracy theories. As an example, Kathleen recently posted another in her ongoing fascinating series of posts on the Geier’s where they were interviewed on radio. The host said:

Why are these things going on? Well, if you’d like to know why they’re going on, you need to get my talk on planned population reduction… And ladies and gentlemen, I hate to say this, but there really are people who want to hurt children… And if you doubt that, you need to get my book, Brotherhood of Darkness… Our government is poisoning us.

There really are people like Judy (sic) Gerberding and others at the CDC, who know exactly what they are doing, and they are evil. I’ve been to the CDC, I’ve met many of these people when I was back there, and of course, not the same people, I’m sure those people have gone on and probably been richly rewarded working for the drug companies or working elsewhere now, very prosperous after doing all the harm… We’re up against organized evil. We’re in a battle for the souls of men, and the survival of Christian civilization.

This is a vocalisation of the ‘human farming’ conspiracy theory. The host believes that:

some of our leaders have dedicated their lives to destroying our nation (US)

<source .

I have also heard conspiracy theories that state that (somehow) the 11/9 WTC attacks are (somehow) part of the autism/vaccine theory and that autism is a ‘disease’ constructed with the sole purpose of selling more pills.

Evidence of Harm also has a new member – John Scudamore of whale.to who’s site is a haven for conspiracy theories such as The Illuminati, Depopulation control, Big Brother, Black Ops. Charmingly, John has an entire section devoted to rubbishing medical charities:

the purpose of cancer research is not to find a cure for cancer but to perpetuate the cancer industry consisting mostly of research and chemotherapy

Another supporter of the theory (and in particular Generation Rescue) is David Icke who once declared himself as the Son of God and who believes that we are controlled by all powerful lizards.

It’s almost a necessity that the thiomersal/autism hypothesis becomes a conspiracy theory – it ensures its life beyond the point when the rest of the world has moved on (and we are very close to that point now) and gives people a reason to explain what they perceive as the bad in their life. Maybe these people are more to be pitied than argued with but their conspiracy theories affect my kids life directly. They still need challenging lest they sink into the same murky excuses for genocide that the recent re-painting of the holocaust as an event that never occurred occurs here too.

Erik Nanstiel And FAIR Autism Media

17 Jul

Earlier today I posted a link to an online petition that I’d created where those who disagreed with Autism Speaks recent propaganda piece ‘Autism Every Day’ and its messages that its acceptable to excuse murder, that most parents of autistic kids harbour thoughts of murder and that the reality of parenting autistic kids is never ending misery. I invited people to sign it if they agreed with it.

Upon checking the signatures submitted so far, I found an entry signed by ‘Raymond Babbit’. For those unaware of the reference Raymon Babbit was the autistic character portrayed by Dustin Hoffman in the film Rainman. Someone obviously thinks its amusing to lampoon autistic people.

Luckily, I’d written the script to record signers IP addresses. This was to help me auto detect and delete duplicate entries and also, as I state to deter abusive entries. I am aware, as most of us are who either are autistic or who parent autistic kids or who work closely with autistic people that there is a certain breed of person, like ‘Raymond Babbit’ who see autistic people as fair game – people to be targeted and made a laughing stock of.

So I checked out ‘Raymond Babbit’s’ IP address (an IP address by the way is a unique string of numbers – also called a ‘dotted quad’ due to its appearance e.g. 127.0.0.1 – that is unique to one computer or network). This IP address started 209.* which I found interesting as it sounded very familiar to me.

So I ran that number through my blog admin comment search tool and got a set of results. All coming from comments made by one person – Erik Nanstiel, President of FAIR Autism Media.

Erik is the President of FAIR Autism Media, an organisation about which he says:

FAIR Autism Media is a collaborative project that really belongs to all of us in the autism community

June 28, 2006 at 7:48 AM
Subject: Re: New “Treating G.I. Problems” Video
On: chelatingkids2@yahoogroups.com

which is odd statement because after accusing me of attempting to hijack the murder of autistic children, Erik stated that:

FAIR’s website content is decided by the board of directors. We decided long ago that we would focus on collecting expert testimony on primarily biomedical & political issues concerning the autism community.

Source.

Which seems a bit of a pair of mismatched statements. Despite his claim that FAIR Autism Media is a project that belongs to the entire autism community, his project made no public condemnation of the murders of autistic children, preferring instead to attempt to excuse the murderer in question. His accusations toward myself and others of attempting to hijack the killing of autistic children to further our own agenda is strange coming from someone who has admitted to befriending and advising at least one killer of an autistic child and who’s co-director at FAIR Autism Media, Medical Directory Doctor David Ayoub has also admitted to regularly having phone conversations with the killers of autistic children in newspaper stories attempting to explain the viewpoints of people who are members of and support FAIR Autism Media.

As we can see from today’s behaviour, the belittling of attempts at protesting the murder of autistic children and the use of a name calculated to deliberately attack autistic people is maybe no real surprise. This is especially true when one considers the behaviour of some of Erik’s friends.

Like Erik, a man who used to post under the name of ‘srinath’ on the Autism Web forum is currently subjecting his daughter to the Lupron protocol overseen by the Geier’s. There are often heated debates on this forum but lately poster ‘srinath’ received a ban when he was questioned by an autistic member posting under the nom-de-plume ‘KaliDOW’ regarding the treatment of his child.

Srinath’s response was indicative of the type of person that undergoes the kind of treatment options pioneered by the Geier’s. His response is captured in a screenshot. Please be warned that it is very graphic. When he was remonstrated with by other forum members and subsequently banned he returned under a new identity and insulted the autistic member again. Please be warned that this screenshot is equally offensive. This is also not the first time that groups Erik is intimate with have attacked autistic people. It’s something of a recurring theme.

As it is, Erik’s offensive and deeply immature entry on the petition will stand. I will not delete it. It will serve as an enduring testament to the mindset and attitudes of FAIR Autism Media.

Autism Speaks: Don’t Speak For Me

17 Jul

Following on from the furore created by the very misleading Autism Every Day film, I’ve set up a petition to make sure that the film-makers realise that not all parents of autistic people, or autistic people themselves, or professionals who work with autistic people are harbouring thoughts of murder. Neither do we appreciate our lives being intentionally misleadingly portrayed in order to gain a pressure group a bit more money.

Signatories will be stating that they:

Utterly repudiate the notion of murder being an acceptable response to disability.

Vehemently deny that most parents of autistic – or otherwise disabled – children harbour thoughts of murder

Testify that the false ‘reality’ concocted by Autism Speaks film ‘Autism Every Day’ is not a true reflection of the reality of parenting an autistic child.

Call for a public apology from Lauren Thierry for increasing ignorance regarding autism.

Please sign the petition.

Lauren Thierry, Autism Every Day, Why Lie?

14 Jul

Via Kristina and Ballastexistenz I found out a few more facts about the ‘Autism Every Day’ film.

I, amongst others, was highly critical of the film for two reasons. Firstly, its highly provocative title claims that it shows the daily reality of living with an autistic person. Secondly, the jaw dropping bleating of a mother who told how she contemplated murder/suicide because of her life with the hell of autism.

Now, an interview with the filmmaker, one Lauren Thierry, has revealed the calculatedly misleading nature of the film and the lengths Thierry went to ensure the film got the ‘harrowing’ footage needed.

The party line is supposed to be that anything that raises awareness you’re supposed to be happy about. That notion is 10 years old. At this point we need to be showing the world what the vast reality truly is.” She says that reality includes images of kids not sleeping through the night, banging their heads against the wall or running into traffic — not images of kids setting basketball records or passionately playing the violin.

This is not accuracy. This is a calculated agenda. Of _course_ kids not sleeping through the night or banging their heads against walls, or running into traffic are realities. No one disputes that. But Autism Every Day (and Thierry) in the above quote are explicitly excluding images of kids setting basketball records or playing the violin. Those are _also_ realities. I showed another reality at the end of my original post – that of my beautiful daughter grinning from ear to ear as she bounced on her trampoline.

You are not ‘showing the world what the reality truly is’ Mr/Ms Thierry. You are, by your own admission, deliberately excluding anything not capable of inducing pity.

And what about the events that the filmmakers _did_ record? If you’re going to deliberately, consciously exclude the varied reality of autistic life then surely it behooves you to at least present the material you _do_ choose to show accurately?

Thierry told her subjects not to do their hair, vacuum or bring in the therapists. She showed up with her crew at their homes sight unseen and kept the cameras rolling as a mom literally wrestled with her son to get him to brush his teeth, as a 9-year-old had a public meltdown, as a 5-year-old had his diaper changed. And, as moms revealed dark and uncomfortable truths about living with autism. The result is a window into an exhausting world of interminable work.

Yet again, this is _not_ accuracy, this is a premeditated attempt to wilfully misrepresent people. As Ballastexistenz says in her post:

This was, as expected, not really a “slice of everyday life” from these parents’ lives, but a deliberately engineered take on the worst they could make things look.

You have to wonder at the motives. Why would someone who claims to be an autism advocate deliberately create and release a deliberately inaccurate film?

But it gets worse.

The majority of the harsh criticism surrounding the film is directed at Alison Tepper Singer, a mom featured in the film and a staff member of Autism Speaks. About midway through the film, Singer discusses her reaction to inadequate classrooms. “I remember that was a scary moment for me when I realized I had sat in the car for about 15 minutes and actually contemplated putting Jody in the car and driving off the George Washington Bridge. That would be preferable to having to put her in one of these schools.” It was only because of her other child, she said, that she didn’t do it.

Both autistic and typical families have reacted with outrage and disgust to Singer’s statement — calling for her children to be removed from her custody and even drawing a connection between her and Karen McCarron. Thierry responds by calling Singer “gutsy and courageous.” She was expecting a call from Singer asking that the footage not be used. But that call never came. “You don’t say stuff like that — camera rolling — unless you are truly ready to play ball with the entire world,” Thierry says.

If most mothers of autistic children, Thierry responds, look hard enough within themselves they will find that they have played out a similar scenario in their minds. “If this is not your reality, then God bless you,” she says.

What in God’s name is going _on_ here? How can someone be described as gutsy and courageous for contemplating murdering their disabled child and then being stopped by the thought of their non-disabled child? Memo to Thierry: that’s not courage or guts. For you to paint it as such is frighteningly irresponsible. If anyone who parents both a disabled and non-disabled child feels it _is_ gutsy then do the same thing – get both kids in a room, tell someone you were thinking of killing the disabled one but because of your other child you won’t. If you feel gutsy or courageous after telling your disabled child its OK to kill them but its not OK to kill their non disabled child then God bless you. Because you need it.

Autism Hub Updates

9 Jul

I’ve introduced a few changes to the Hub over the last few days.

Firstly, the whole site has had a substantial redesign. This has (I hope) made things a bit easier on the eye, a bit easier to read the content you’re interested in and generally behave better across a wider range of devices.

There’s still some ongoing backend work which needs to be completed before I start accepting potential new members and there’s a few more front end tweaks to get slotted in to make users lives even easier but these won’t require any substantial aesthetic alterations or any downtime at all.

Secondly, I’ve introduced a range of t-shirts that you can buy via the Hub. Its a very small range at the moment but I’ll be designing and adding more over time.

The reasons I’ve done this is mainly due to the unexpected success and popularity of the Hub. It took me very much by surprise how quickly it took off and the long and short of it is that the Hub needs to start paying for itself fairly quickly.

There are several ways I could’ve gone about getting revenue but I despise adverts on sites (or – even worse – in RSS feeds) and I ‘m very much against the idea of paid-for content in this context so this seemed the best solution – the buyer gets something and I get a cut to go towards the cost of running the site.

I’ve no idea how (un)successful this idea might be as I’ve never done anything like this before but if I do make any money beyond the requirements of the site to sustain itself then I’ll be donating the excess to pro-neurodiversity websites and projects at the end of each year.

Lastly, I’ve just set up a new part of the Hub which is free for anyone to use.

It’s called the ‘autisticus’ and it works in exactly the same way as del.icio.us – it allows you to save interesting stories and blog entries to a central location.

All you need to do is head to the autisticus site, create an account and then add pages/stories/blog entries you want to bookmark. You can tag entries in exactly the same way as del.icio.us and there’s even a draggable bookmark shortcut for your browser. Over time, as more entries get added and tagged, there’ll be a big resource of searchable tags and entries to read and research at your leisure. You cn even add any existing del.icio.us entries you may already have.

So, go join up and start adding entries!

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