Comments on: False Prophets and Failed Poets

By: Regan

Regan — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 05:19:17 +0000

‘Can’t argue with the rebuke, Phil Schwarz; it’s a valid point.
Rage for Order: The paintings of Jessica Park

By: Kristina Chew, PhD

Kristina Chew, PhD — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 03:17:35 +0000

Following up on which, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about Jessy Parks’ use of color and patterning in her paintings.

By: Phil Schwarz

Phil Schwarz — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 02:52:20 +0000

This comment thread is a perfect example of what’s wrong with the public discourse on autism.

The ongoing caca-phony about causes and cures has effectively drowned out the most important comment in the entire thread — Bev’s, on the use of symbolism by autistic people, and on how the failure of clinicians to *comprehend* that use gets distorted, aided by the power imbalance between clinicians and subjects, into pronouncements by the former that the latter do not have the capability to engage in such use.

By: “I get a lot of hate mail”: Autism’s False Prophets by Paul Offit

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 05:54:51 +0000

[...] not unfitting that a week in which a new study further disputing the MMR vaccine-autism link appeared would end with the publication of a book with no less a title than Autism’s False [...]

By: Regan

Regan — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 20:47:22 +0000

OT: Now if the powers-that-be get the sidebar straightened out and up-to-date, you’ll be in business again.
.

By: Emily

Emily — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 00:38:04 +0000

Yes, makes it kinda difficult to click back home…must back click or pulldown. I’m sure they’ll get it straightened out.

By: Kristina Chew, PhD

Kristina Chew, PhD — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 15:52:09 +0000

@Emily, OT from the post—–I was a little surprised to see the blue flashing at me when I woke up this morning and looked at it, and the lack of a title for Autism Vox at the top!

By: Emily

Emily — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 15:20:53 +0000

Thanks for the clarification, Ed. My Insti-Scientist brain thinks, “if anything, neuromuscular rxn” there, but…I don’t know anything specific, so ignore that.

Kristina…BRIGHT blog now, eh? Woo.

By: Kristina Chew, PhD

Kristina Chew, PhD — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 14:51:05 +0000

An “adverse effect” is (by definition) an event that follows the administration of a vaccine; there is not necessarily a causal link between the vaccine and the aforesaid event (as noted here).

No epidemic of autism—-the notion is something of an urban myth.

By: Ed

Ed — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 21:33:22 +0000

Hammie,

I agree with you that it is mystifying that there are people who do not believe that there is a genetic contribution. My father had all of the behaviors of an Aspie. My son is classically autistic. My nephew is an aspie and my niece is an aspie. All of these live in different states. With my personal experience and the studies on twins, I can’t get away from a genetic contribution.
I am equally astonished by the denial of an environmental contribution. The denial of an environmental contribution is a denial of an epidemic because an epidemic requires an environmental contribution. The pro-vaxers have nothing that fits the geography and the timing of the autism epidemic that vaccines keeps filling. Hence comes the denial of an autism epidemic by the pro-vaxers.