Kindly lower your already exceedingly low expectations for this blog; I'll post when I can.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Lost in Existence
Fast times as microregional demichief of banditry for a Thieves Guild registered enterprise; victims uhm, customers become a tad uppity as we negotiate their new victimhood schedule.
Kindly lower your already exceedingly low expectations for this blog; I'll post when I can.
Kindly lower your already exceedingly low expectations for this blog; I'll post when I can.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Ogling the Sitemeter
I see you. I see you out there, William Wallace (Hi Biscuit and Hon! and glad you liked the dress, there, Highlander). I see you out there, people searching for Ecuadorian pussies, donkey pussies, naked women bearing dope paraphernalia, and Megan Marshack. I see hamsters in hamlets, and persons from strange countries, and persons from Australia. And I see those of you who drop by because I like arguing on the Internet (welcome autism fans; try the "Actual Science" tag to view only the two percent of this blog that relates to that interest).
It has been an unquiet week, one that has precipitated an unusually stable downturn in the Flo and Eddie of Landru. I am overwhelmed by some personal events (we're fine), and I will crawl off of the floor soon, very soon, hopefully after the upcoming quiet weekend and quiet spring break week (during which Databoy will be at his grandparents' house a hundred and some miles away). The focus here of late has been on existence, and it's been singular. A little solitude and a little Ilse and a lot of nothing will yield spectacular resluts here, and I'll be back to entertain. Entertain me, anyway.
Until then, bask in the knowledge that however bad your bracket sucks, it does not suck as badly as mine.
It has been an unquiet week, one that has precipitated an unusually stable downturn in the Flo and Eddie of Landru. I am overwhelmed by some personal events (we're fine), and I will crawl off of the floor soon, very soon, hopefully after the upcoming quiet weekend and quiet spring break week (during which Databoy will be at his grandparents' house a hundred and some miles away). The focus here of late has been on existence, and it's been singular. A little solitude and a little Ilse and a lot of nothing will yield spectacular resluts here, and I'll be back to entertain. Entertain me, anyway.
Until then, bask in the knowledge that however bad your bracket sucks, it does not suck as badly as mine.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Peace in Our Time
War is over. Happy Christmas. War is over, now. Hello Hitler and Hello Kitty Rave Whore have done their jobs and can go back in their little boxes now.
We now return to regularly scheduled programming.
We now return to regularly scheduled programming. Saturday, March 15, 2008
Sasha
Thinks we're playing, with this whole "disturbing images" thing.
We're not. Put that damned hippie whalesinger picture in an inadeqate airplane and send it crashing to the bottom of the fold, or my army of Hello Hitler clones will take extraordinary action.Oh yes they will.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Maryland Terrapins Mens Basketball, 2007-2008
Note how the turtle assumes the inferior position in the food chain here, as in life.Go Terpchix.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
The Bunnies Have Spoken
The Governor of Whoresmurfing is no more. Let us return now to the forest and cavort.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Monday, March 10, 2008
Other Peoples' Feelthy Parts
Thursday, March 06, 2008
Bad Newsies
Autism is splashed all over the news today, as a press conference by Hannah Poling's parents accomplished what opportunist David Kirby couldn't accomplish last week: a newsgasm over the government's concession of their vaccine compensation case. The Poling case was one of three test cases in what are referred to as the Omnibus Autism Proceedings in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. Two other cases remain contested and serve as representative of about 5,000 other cases that are on hold as the Omnibus Proceedings continue.
Here's what didn't happen: the government didn't concede that there is a link between vaccines and autism. The government didn't concede that Hannah Poling is autistic, despite what an awful lot of sloppy newsies would have you believe. The very solid science underlying the very solid theory that there is no causal connection between vaccines and autism did not change. And no one refuted the fundamental concepts of autism epidemiology.
Here's what did happen: the government conceded that vaccines aggravated Hannah Poling's underlying (and exceedingly rare) mitochondrial disorder, causing autism-like symptoms. That's a long, long way from significant in the context of autism science, and it's also not at all significant in the context of the Omnibus proceedings. If it were, the government would have conceded more than just the Poling case.
CNN, in the person of Larry King, is going to be frottaging this issue tonight, welcoming Dr. and Mrs. Poling as his guests. I can't bear to watch, although I must give Jon Poling due credit; he has been very, very careful in his public statements about this case. He has not stated that there is a causal connection, he has not mischaracterized the government's concession or his daughter's symptoms, and he has very explicitly stated that he is very much in favor of vaccines. He questions the safety of vaccines now extant in a generic sort of way, but that's fair game. The Polings are also to be wildly applauded for lifting the haze of secrecy that surrounded the government's concession; until they spoke out, there was a lot of mystery about this because the government could not violate the Polings' privacy by releasing confidential information about the case and the settlement.
More interesting will be CNN's planned autismgasm on April 2 to mark Autism Awareness Month, or some such thing. I don't know yet whether I think that's good or bad. It's possible that someone at CNN will get a clue and read up on actual science. While it would be irresponsible for me to speculate if anyone were reading this, they're not, and I speculate that it seems likely that CNN will follow its own lead, and the lead of much of the media, in playing the so-called vaccines/autism controversy straight down the middle. Unfortunately, giving the autism conspiracy theorists the undue concession of middle ground is precisely the same thing as treating intelligent design like real science. There's no there there.
Here's what didn't happen: the government didn't concede that there is a link between vaccines and autism. The government didn't concede that Hannah Poling is autistic, despite what an awful lot of sloppy newsies would have you believe. The very solid science underlying the very solid theory that there is no causal connection between vaccines and autism did not change. And no one refuted the fundamental concepts of autism epidemiology.
Here's what did happen: the government conceded that vaccines aggravated Hannah Poling's underlying (and exceedingly rare) mitochondrial disorder, causing autism-like symptoms. That's a long, long way from significant in the context of autism science, and it's also not at all significant in the context of the Omnibus proceedings. If it were, the government would have conceded more than just the Poling case.
CNN, in the person of Larry King, is going to be frottaging this issue tonight, welcoming Dr. and Mrs. Poling as his guests. I can't bear to watch, although I must give Jon Poling due credit; he has been very, very careful in his public statements about this case. He has not stated that there is a causal connection, he has not mischaracterized the government's concession or his daughter's symptoms, and he has very explicitly stated that he is very much in favor of vaccines. He questions the safety of vaccines now extant in a generic sort of way, but that's fair game. The Polings are also to be wildly applauded for lifting the haze of secrecy that surrounded the government's concession; until they spoke out, there was a lot of mystery about this because the government could not violate the Polings' privacy by releasing confidential information about the case and the settlement.
More interesting will be CNN's planned autismgasm on April 2 to mark Autism Awareness Month, or some such thing. I don't know yet whether I think that's good or bad. It's possible that someone at CNN will get a clue and read up on actual science. While it would be irresponsible for me to speculate if anyone were reading this, they're not, and I speculate that it seems likely that CNN will follow its own lead, and the lead of much of the media, in playing the so-called vaccines/autism controversy straight down the middle. Unfortunately, giving the autism conspiracy theorists the undue concession of middle ground is precisely the same thing as treating intelligent design like real science. There's no there there.
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Bad Science
I've rearranged the furniture some, adding some links under a heading I've chosen to label "Science." The truth is that the links are to blogs that post, at least sometimes, about autism. You can find a bunch of other links over at my friend Kimmah's place, if you don't like my links.
Most of those who read this blog know that my wife Ilse's son Bam-Bam is autistic. I've done some reading about autism, but not much, and I haven't troubled myself with any intimate familiarity with controversies related to autism, although I've been aware of them.
Here's my view: I accept Bam-Bam for himself. He is a happy kid who lights up when he sees me, who wants me to play with him and hug him and wrestle with him and bathe him and put him to bed and give him pizza or chips or cheeseburger and wake him up in the morning (when he doesn't do that on his own at 4 AM) and put him on the bus. This kid loves me and I love him. He is a sweet and stunningly smart kid who happens to be different, and who happens to have some trouble communicating. And by different, I don't mean "sick" or "disordered" or "damaged." I mean different. Bam-Bam views things through his own lens, and who the hell doesn't? His lens just isn't shaped the same way as mine.
Whose is?
There are people like us. There are people whose children are far more severely challenged than Bam-Bam. Some of them are like us; they accept that their children are what they are. They help as best they can, as we do. Some of them are horribly burdened by their childrens' needs. We're lucky; Bam-Bam needs a little help in the shower and in the bathroom, and we and the kid need to work a little when he's trying to communicate with us. He needs to be watched or gated in, but he respects baby gates and stays where he's supposed to; in fact, sometimes he thinks he's gating us out, and that's the way he sometimes likes it.
There isn't a cure for Bam-Bam. We can treat symptoms and change behaviors. That's what we do. That's what science--and experience (we'll come back to this)--tell us to do. We can work with him to help him develop independent skills. We can work with him to find his place in this wrong society that is not well-suited to allowing him a place. That's what responsibility and decency tell us to do. He is what he is, and some of that can change as he grows and ages, and some of it can't. What we can give him is a context and some tools to adapt as well as he can. We don't mope about this. It is what it is.
There are other people. Some of them have children who are less severely challenged than Bam-Bam, or far, far more so. These people cannot accept. They believe their children are damaged, disordered, sick. They believe there is an identifiable cause. They believe there is a cure, a magic bullet that will suddenly erase their children's symptoms and undesirable behaviors and leave them with theoretically normal children. Most of them believe that there is an identifiable cause, and namely their childrens' childhood immunizations. They advocate not immunizing children. They believe that there is a giant conspiracy between Big Pharma and the government to cover up a causal connection. They seek compensation from pharmaceutical companies and the government. They chelate (chemically cleanse) their children to remove mercury, the agent that they believe responsible for their childrens' conditions. Unfortunately, a common side effect of chelation is fatality. I am neither joking nor exaggerating.
Of course, it's very difficult to prove a negative, but all efforts--numerous efforts--to scientifically link autism-spectrum diagnoses to childhood immunization have failed. Utterly. There is no demonstrable connection between vaccines and autism. None. The links under the "Science" heading can lead you to a host of technical data on this, if you're interested, but the bottom line is this: there is precisely as much evidence that stuffed animals cause autism as there is that vaccines cause autism. The theory that there is a causal connection between vaccines and autism is as valid as the theory that copulating with a virgin cures syphilis. I am neither joking nor exaggerating.
Such organizations as Autism Speaks and Cure Autism Now, along with a host of others, to whom I will never link, are proponents of this vaccine nonsense. Beware of them. Please, please, please do not give them your money.
The short of the furniture rearrangement is this: I tripped over some anti-vaccine propaganda on, of all places, the Huffington Post, and did some more reading, and discovered that HuffPo is a notorious hotbed for these insane persons, apparently because Ariana Huffington is pals with Bill Maher, who is an anti-vaccination nutbar. I'm done with HuffPo (I was done with Maher a long time ago). That got me reading. That got me linking.
Sorry to inflict a completely humorless post upon you, my gentle and loyal and loving readers, but I had a little story to tell here. End of story.
Most of those who read this blog know that my wife Ilse's son Bam-Bam is autistic. I've done some reading about autism, but not much, and I haven't troubled myself with any intimate familiarity with controversies related to autism, although I've been aware of them.
Here's my view: I accept Bam-Bam for himself. He is a happy kid who lights up when he sees me, who wants me to play with him and hug him and wrestle with him and bathe him and put him to bed and give him pizza or chips or cheeseburger and wake him up in the morning (when he doesn't do that on his own at 4 AM) and put him on the bus. This kid loves me and I love him. He is a sweet and stunningly smart kid who happens to be different, and who happens to have some trouble communicating. And by different, I don't mean "sick" or "disordered" or "damaged." I mean different. Bam-Bam views things through his own lens, and who the hell doesn't? His lens just isn't shaped the same way as mine.
Whose is?
There are people like us. There are people whose children are far more severely challenged than Bam-Bam. Some of them are like us; they accept that their children are what they are. They help as best they can, as we do. Some of them are horribly burdened by their childrens' needs. We're lucky; Bam-Bam needs a little help in the shower and in the bathroom, and we and the kid need to work a little when he's trying to communicate with us. He needs to be watched or gated in, but he respects baby gates and stays where he's supposed to; in fact, sometimes he thinks he's gating us out, and that's the way he sometimes likes it.
There isn't a cure for Bam-Bam. We can treat symptoms and change behaviors. That's what we do. That's what science--and experience (we'll come back to this)--tell us to do. We can work with him to help him develop independent skills. We can work with him to find his place in this wrong society that is not well-suited to allowing him a place. That's what responsibility and decency tell us to do. He is what he is, and some of that can change as he grows and ages, and some of it can't. What we can give him is a context and some tools to adapt as well as he can. We don't mope about this. It is what it is.
There are other people. Some of them have children who are less severely challenged than Bam-Bam, or far, far more so. These people cannot accept. They believe their children are damaged, disordered, sick. They believe there is an identifiable cause. They believe there is a cure, a magic bullet that will suddenly erase their children's symptoms and undesirable behaviors and leave them with theoretically normal children. Most of them believe that there is an identifiable cause, and namely their childrens' childhood immunizations. They advocate not immunizing children. They believe that there is a giant conspiracy between Big Pharma and the government to cover up a causal connection. They seek compensation from pharmaceutical companies and the government. They chelate (chemically cleanse) their children to remove mercury, the agent that they believe responsible for their childrens' conditions. Unfortunately, a common side effect of chelation is fatality. I am neither joking nor exaggerating.
Of course, it's very difficult to prove a negative, but all efforts--numerous efforts--to scientifically link autism-spectrum diagnoses to childhood immunization have failed. Utterly. There is no demonstrable connection between vaccines and autism. None. The links under the "Science" heading can lead you to a host of technical data on this, if you're interested, but the bottom line is this: there is precisely as much evidence that stuffed animals cause autism as there is that vaccines cause autism. The theory that there is a causal connection between vaccines and autism is as valid as the theory that copulating with a virgin cures syphilis. I am neither joking nor exaggerating.
Such organizations as Autism Speaks and Cure Autism Now, along with a host of others, to whom I will never link, are proponents of this vaccine nonsense. Beware of them. Please, please, please do not give them your money.
The short of the furniture rearrangement is this: I tripped over some anti-vaccine propaganda on, of all places, the Huffington Post, and did some more reading, and discovered that HuffPo is a notorious hotbed for these insane persons, apparently because Ariana Huffington is pals with Bill Maher, who is an anti-vaccination nutbar. I'm done with HuffPo (I was done with Maher a long time ago). That got me reading. That got me linking.
Sorry to inflict a completely humorless post upon you, my gentle and loyal and loving readers, but I had a little story to tell here. End of story.
Das Wheezus
Wake's sales rank is, at this moment, number 193 on Barnes and Noble, which has done our Wheezus the courtesy of featuring the book on the front page of the Books tab. The news is less kind at Amazon, which appears to have its head up its ass on this one despite a big push by Simon Pulse (the publishing label).
Fuck Amazon. Our Wheezus rules the universe.
Love and congratulations to Wheezy, aka Lisa McMann (I think we can safely say she's out of the closet now).
Also: thanks to Wheezy for the unexpected kindness of mentioning both me and Ilse in her acknowledgements. She lovely, the Wheezus; when I read a selection of her works a while back, I loved one, so-so'd another, and trashed one. Yeah, just guess.
Neener, neener, she showed me. Love and rockets, Wheezy.
Fuck Amazon. Our Wheezus rules the universe.
Love and congratulations to Wheezy, aka Lisa McMann (I think we can safely say she's out of the closet now).
Also: thanks to Wheezy for the unexpected kindness of mentioning both me and Ilse in her acknowledgements. She lovely, the Wheezus; when I read a selection of her works a while back, I loved one, so-so'd another, and trashed one. Yeah, just guess.
Neener, neener, she showed me. Love and rockets, Wheezy.
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