One Nation Under Will Phillips

I blogged about Will Phillips the other day. He’s the 10-year-old who refused to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance in school because of the lack of marriage equality in the U.S. He’s already got several Facebook Fan Pages like this one. And he adorably appeared on CNN the other night:

I also blogged about Daniel Royston, the Wasilla, Alaska high schooler who, inspired by Will Phillips, also refused to stand for the Pledge.

Well, now there’s Roxanne Westover, a 17-year-old from Ohio who also now made news for not standing for the Pledge after learning in her history class that she didn’t have to:

“I’m an atheist, and I believe the pledge isn’t something toward our nation,” she said. “It’s more like a religious oath, and I believe that if I stand I’m still participating in it.”

And like with the previous cases, she’s being punished for doing so, despite the fact that such punishments are violating their civil rights. The ACLU contacted the school, so now it looks like there won’t any further punishment from school administrators at least.

Westover said she encourages others with similar beliefs to stand up for them by sitting down.

“I do encourage students to not stand up and to stand up for what they believe in,” she said. “Even throughout the whole entire thing, I had a lot of people backing me up who felt the same way about it.”

Roxanne made a point to say that her actions have nothing to do with Will Phillips but that she supports his actions.

Father taught child only Klingon for first three years

This is not d'Armond Speers

d’Armond Speers taught his child only Klingon for first three years. Yeaaah, that’s worrisome. Not just because the kid only knows how to speak Klingon but let’s not ignore the fact that the father must have been fluent enough in it to speak nothing but Klingon around his son. And yet he claims to not even be much of a Star Trek fan. Sure you’re not:

“I was interested in the question of whether my son, going through his first language acquisition process, would acquire it like any human language,” Speers told the Minnesota Daily. “He was definitely starting to learn it.”

Congratulations d’Armond. If your goal was to raise your kid as a freak, may I just say KAPLA!

News From Around The Blogosphere 11.18.09

1. I’d officially declared tomorrow Defend Evolution Against Literary Terrorists Day (or DEALT Day) but it seems that Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron LIED and decided to pass out their vandalized Origin of Species books a day earlier than promised. But I’m still hoping to hear tomorrow that more of them are being handed out at schools because I’d love to chat up the volunteers handing them out.

2. Update on the Iraqi dowsing rods story – About two weeks ago, I wrote about the use of useless dowsing rods by the Iraqi military to detect bombs. Well, the good news is that everyone who’s written about it has helped get the story successfully out there in the mainstream media like the NY Times, The Guardian, the Atlantic, and the Rachel Maddow Show, where it will hopefully garner enough attention to ensure something is done to correct the situation.

3. Jesus goes to directly to jail without passing go -

A Swedish man claiming to be the Son of God was sentenced to prison for a month for “unlawful driving,” after getting picked up by the cops four separate times without a license over the course of four months.

Man, this guy just can’t stay out of trouble.

Christians call The Gap ‘naughty’ even after getting what they want

If ever you needed more proof that pandering to religious wackaloons doesn’t get you anywhere, The Gap was listed as “naughty” by the Christian group Liberty Counsel, who called for a boycott, because they didn’t single out Christmas on their website. Then The Gap mentioned “several unrelated holidays” in this commercial:

The commercial of course made the ironically named American Family Association furious. And I can see why. I’ve never seen such an anti-Christian commercial!

AFA believes this ad to be completely dismissive and disrespectful to those who celebrate the meaning and spirit of Christmas. AFA asked Gap for a meeting to discuss the ad, but Gap has not responded.

If this is Gap’s answer to recognizing Christmas, we are deeply disappointed.

The AFA also wrote (emphasis theirs):

Did you notice it? Gap compares Christmas to the pagan holiday called “Solstice.” Solstice is celebrated by Wiccans who practice witchcraft!

Gap also encourages you to “86″ or “dismiss” traditions and “do what feels just right.”

Those heathens at The Gap should be crucified for this outrage…or burnt at the stake. You know who I think is really to blame here? The Jews. First they kill Jesus and now this.

I encourage everyone to call the The Gap’s customer service number (1-800-427-7895, Select more options then feedback to get a live person) and thank them for the all-inclusive commercial to counteract the nonsense of bigots.

Bigger breasts without implants?

And speaking of the female body, I couldn’t resist reporting this story I came across about a possible alternative to breast implants:

A revolutionary new breast-growing technique, Neopac, will be available to some breast cancer survivors in trials starting in January, according to the Daily Mail. And within a decade, cosmetic surgeons may open up the treatment to all women who want to amplify their cleavage, the paper reports.

The surgery could replace breast reconstruction and implants soon, says the Daily Telegraph.

The operation already has succeeded in pigs, which grew new breasts in just six weeks, according to the Telegraph.

This last part should make Kermit the Frog very happy. I know I like my pigs with giant knockers.

In the procedure, pioneered at the Australian Bernard O’Brien Institute of Microsurgery, a breast-shaped chamber is inserted under the chest skin, according to the Daily Mail. It contains a sample of the woman’s fat tissue that is connected to a blood vessel. Within eight months, fat tissue grows and fills the chamber.

As Carl Sagan wrote, science delivers the goods.

Demi Moore’s body too hip for W Magazine

I’ve blogged quite a bit about how beauty magazines misrepresent the female body (here, here, and here) as well as several magazine campaigns that attempt to promote a more accurate female body image (here, here, and here). I’ve also written about how, in my opinion, media misrepresentations of the female body can have real-world consequences.

But now W Magazine has produced what many are calling the worst Photoshop job ever. In their recent issue featuring Actress Demi Moore on the cover, they seem to have removed a rather large section of Moore’s hip. Suffice it to say, it did not go unnoticed by many, many people. Maybe they should change their name to WTF Magazine.

Australia strikes at Scientology’s tax exempt status

Independent Senator Nick Xenophon calls the cult “two-faced” and charges it with being a criminal organization in his Parliament speech:

The full transcript of Xenophon’s speech is here, thanks to the Courier Mail.

The story is also discussed here and here.

J.B. Handley flings more feces at Alison Singer

Wow, that didn’t take long. I just blasted this guy a few days ago for flinging his feces at his critics. And now he’s flinging more feces at Alison Singer, the former high-ranking member of Autism Speaks, who left out of disgust over their pandering to the anti-vax ground and started her own organization, the Autism Science Foundation.

My sister knows Ms. Singer personally and I briefly got to meet her myself at an autism conference about two weeks ago. But for all Handley’s talk about being sensitive to autism moms and all the “stop attacking the autism moms” rhetoric, Handley proves once again to be a total hypocrite. It’s unacceptable to criticize his organization because they hide behind innocent, well-intentioned parents who have the difficult task of raising autistic children…except when they disagree with him. Then it’s perfectly okay to attack them.

And once again, Handley doesn’t exactly attempt to discuss the actual science of his position. Of course not. He doesn’t understand the science. So he gets his kicks out of just attacking his critics personally like a dirty $cientologist.

Here’s my favorite bit:

Ms. Singer is simply saying things that Paul Offit, Tom Insel, Amy Wallace, Geraldine Dawson, David Gorski, Steven Novella and many other supposedly smart people have also been saying: that “the science has spoken, vaccines do not cause autism.” This makes every single one of them a blazing liar, nothing more.

Wow, isn’t it remarkable that all the actual medical experts somehow agree. What are the odds? It’s almost like they’re examining the same data and arriving at the same undeniable conclusions of that data.

I have written extensively on this hungry lie. ( See Tayloe, Offit, Minshew, Katz, Snyderman, et. al.: Feeding a Hungry Lie and Alison Singer Feeds the Hungry Lie Twice.)

Yes, he has written extensively about this. Only he never manages to properly explain how it’s a lie without making at least a dozen lies himself. Nor does he even entertain the possibility that if the information were hypothetically incorrect as he claims, that maybe the other side is merely in error. Nope. He leaps write into libelous accusations of deliberate falsehood. Classy guy, that J.B. Handley.

Heck, I even created a website, Fourteen Studies to refute the hungry lie with details and show the world how weak the science really is that people like Ms. Singer continually refer to.

Yes, and multiple scientists have illustrated how dishonest that propaganda of yours is:  here and here and here.
They also explained the dishonesty of Handely’s response to those refutations here and here.

As I mentioned, the cover of the Wired article says “vaccines don’t cause autism”, which Ms. Wallace repeats throughout her article. And, yet, when pressed to site the specifics of what research has been done, Ms. Wallace herself spells out that only a single vaccine – MMR – has ever been studied for its relationship to autism.

Whether she actually said that or not doesn’t change the fact that every vaccine currently on the market has passed years of clinical testing and the flu vaccine has also been specifically tested as well. Scientists don’t need to waste their lives trying to convince the unconvincible anymore than it’s their job to disprove Santa Claus. It’s the claimant’s job to back up their claim and thus far, you’ve failed to show any real evidence for a link and whenever a claim has been debunked, you’ve simply moved the goalpost. First it was MMR vaccines. Then it was thimerosal. Then it was aluminum. Then it was squalene. Then it was just everything in the vaccines, a perfectly unfalsifiable claim. How did you arrive at the conclusion that the vaccines aren’t safe, J.B.? Do you have special knowledge the rest of the world doesn’t? Does the voice of the god speak to you?

There’s a exhaustive compilation of literature debunking virtually every claim Handley has ever made here.

Let’s look at J.B.’s lies/”mistakes”:

Lie #1.

Exactly one vaccine, MMR, has been studied for its relationship to autism.

Thimerosal Studies:

1. “Safety of Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines: A Two-Phased Study of Computerized Health Maintance Organization Database”
Pediatrics, Thomas Verstraeten, MD (November 2003)
2. “Thimerosal and the Occurrence of Autism: Negative Ecological Evidence from Danish Population-Based Data”
Pediatrics, Kreesten M. Madsen, MD (September 2003)
3. “Continuing Increases in Autism Reported to California’s Developmental Services System”
Archives of General Psychiatry, Robert Schechter, MD (January 2008)
Article relating to Jan. 2008 study “Continuing Increases in Autism Reported to California’s Developmental Services System: Mercury in Retrograde”:

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=14

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22542677/

4. “Neuropsychological Performance 10 Years After Immunization in Infancy With Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines”
Pediatrics, Alberto Eugenio Tozzi, Patrizia Bisiacchi (February 2009)
“Nearly 70% of the invited subjects participated in the neuropsychological assessment (N = 1403). Among the 24 neuropsychological outcomes that were evaluated, only 2 were significantly associated with thimerosal exposure. “
Articles related to thimerosal study above:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090126/ap_on_he_me/med_vaccine_safety

http://www.theness.com/neurologicablog/?p=466#more-466

5. “Autism and Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines: Lack of Consistent Evidence for an Association”
American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Paul Stehr-Green, DrPh, MPH (August 2003)
6. “Thimerosal Exposure in Infants and Developmental Disorders: A Prospective Cohort Study in the United Kingdom Does Not Support a Causal Association”
Pediatrics, John Heron and Nick Andrews, PhD (September 2004)
7. “Early Thimerosal Exposure and Neuropsychological Outcomes at 7 to 10 Years”
New England Journal of Medicine, Thompson WW et al. (September 27, 2007)
“Our study does not support a causal association between early exposure to mercury from thimerosal-containing vaccines and immune globulins and deficits in neuropsychological functioning at the age of 7 to 10 years.”
Articles related to thimerosal study above:

http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2007/09/a_bad_day_for_antivaccinationists.php

http://www.theness.com/neurologicablog/?p=17

NY Times – “Vaccine Compound Is Harmless, Study Says, as Autism Debate Rages “ by GARDINER HARRIS
8. “Association Between Thimerosal-Containing Vaccine and Autism”
Journal of the American Medical Association, Anders Hviid, MSc (October 2003)
9. “Mercury concentrations and metabolism in infants receiving vaccines containing thiomersal: A descriptive study”
The Lancet, Michael Pichichero, MD (November 2002)
10. “Thimerosal and Autism?”
Pediatrics, Karen Nelson, MD (March 2003)
11. “Lack of Association Between Rh Status, Rh Immune Globulin in Pregnancy and Autism”
American Journal of Medical Genetics, Judith H. Miles and T. Nicole Takahashi (May 2007)
12. The Rise in Autism and the Role of Age at Diagnosis
“Autism incidence in California shows no sign yet of plateauing.” (Despite the purge of thimerosal in most vaccines seven years earlier)
Articles related to this study:

http://www.theness.com/neurologicablog/?p=454

13. “Blood Mercury Concentrations in CHARGE Study Children with and without Autism”
Environmental Health Perspectives, Irva Hertz-Picciotto, Peter G. Green, Lora Delwiche, Robin Hansen, Cheryl Walker, and Isaac N. Pessah (October 2009)
Articles related to this study:
“Another Study Showing Lack of Correlation Between Mercury and Autism” by Steven Novella

Lie #2

Hmm…Hmm…new science? Like these perhaps:

Mark Blaxill recently reported (HERE):

“A research team led by scientists from the University of Pittsburgh and Thoughtful House reported today that exposure to a birth dose of a hepatitis B vaccine that included an ethyl mercury preservative caused significant delays in the development of several survival reflexes in male rhesus macaque monkeys. The findings were published on line today in the journal Neurotoxicology.[You can purchase the article from Science Direct (HERE).”
Additionally, a recent study published in the journal the Annals of Epidemiology titled “Hepatitis B Vaccination of Male Neonates and Autism” (HERE) found that “Boys who received the hepatitis B vaccine during the first month of life had 2.94 greater odds for ASD [autism] compared to later- or unvaccinated boys.”

Now compare the studies Handley finds so unacceptable to the “studies” Handley finds so compelling:

Another weak study “proves” vaccines cause autism
“Monkey business in autism research, part II” by David Gorski

Lie #3.

This is really just a continuation of the first lie Ms. Singer tells, but she builds on the first lie to feign the exasperation many on the other side try to do that vaccines have already been looked at so let’s move on. It is a dishonest whitewash, nothing more.

Again, I invite people to turn to the many, many vaccine studies cited above among many, many others that are easily available. And as Christopher Hitchens says, “What can be asserted without evidence can be just as easily dismissed without evidence.” Handley just says it’s dishonest whitewashing but never explains why that is. He can’t. He knows he can’t. That’s why all he does is climb trees and fling feces at his critics. If he had any real science backing him up, he’d have a Nobel Prize by now and be published in a reputable medical journal by now.

How do we parents ever trust people who will lie so freely and easily about something this important?

We parents? You mean like Alison Singer? Or do you just mean the parents who naively allow you to exploit their plight to bulster your career?

And you thought Steven L. Anderson was insane before…

…but you had no idea:

News From Around The Blogosphere 11.17.09

1. Boyscouts of America to be honored on a stamp – This is very unfortunate because the Boyscouts are notorious for being a discriminatory organization, mostly controlled by Mormons that’s bigoted against gays and atheists.

2. Millions in Portland are good without “God” -

3. High Schooler punished for not standing for Pledge - Inspired by 10-year-old Will Phillips, high schooler Daniel Royston of Wasilla, Alaska (yeah — that Wasilla) for the first time in his life refused to stand for the Pledge. The school violated the law and punished him for it. Royston’s account of what happened can be found in the link above.

4. Is this a joke? I can never tell.

5. Awesome commercial for the Secular Student Alliance:

6. Researchers find the gene for empathy? -

Researchers have discovered a genetic variation that may contribute to how empathetic a human is, and how that person reacts to stress. In the first study of its kind, a variation in the hormone/neurotransmitter oxytocin’s receptor was linked to a person’s ability to infer the mental state of others.

Interestingly, this same genetic variation also related to stress reactivity. These findings could have a significant impact in adding to the body of knowledge about the importance of oxytocin, and its link to conditions such as autism and unhealthy levels of stress.