Wednesday, 26 September 2012

Ed Arranga cements his "dickhead" tag

If you look over to the right of this page - assuming you're reading it on a computer screen and not your brand new iPhone 5 (no, I can't afford one either) - you'll see a list of popular search terms for this blog. One of them is "Ed Arranga is a dickhead". Rather splendidly, judging by his recent spleen venting on Age of Autism, Mr Arranga (husband of proven liar Teri Arranga) seems intent on demonstrating the absolute truth of this statement.

Before I continue, let's consider two rather self-contradictory facts about Ed Arranga.

  1. He really hates the British.
  2. He's desperate to suck MMR fraudytrousers ex-doctor Andrew Wakefield's cock. (Metaphorically. If Arranga's lawyers are reading this, you can put the sports car magazines down now.)

Somehow, Arranga can hold both these views at the same time, despite Wakefield being, y'know, British. Mind you, clear thinking has never been one of Ed Arranga's strong points.

Let's take these one at a time.

Firstly, Ed wrote a piece in the comments section of Autism One's website;

Enjoy your haggis, blood pudding and tripe, Ms. Fisher-of-the-UK, and let the grownups get to work. This is America where we solve problems by listening to what people have to say. And, in a few years, we will again cross the Atlantic and save the U.K. from itself.

He followed this up with a remarkable piece of borderline racism on Age Of Autism, a piece so abysmal that even John "Cock" Stone called him out on it;

In the UK, one learns one’s place at an early age. It’s a stifling society with a rigid class system made up of the nobility and commoners; it hasn’t changed all that much in the last 300 years. Lords, dukes, earls, and sirs fill the top slots of industry, academia, and government, reminding everyone else of their betters.

Creativity takes a back seat to etiquette, and etiquette flows from the top down. Manners, a stiff upper lip, and being proper are not mere courtesies – they are the life blood of British society. When creativity does make an appearance, it comes out sideways in that very British “Pink Floyd” or “Monty Python” way. The British know they are oppressed, and they scream at it or laugh about it. What they don’t do is challenge it.

We have old-boy networks in the US, but nothing compared to the permanent insider track to power, money, and privilege bestowed by birth in the UK. The one word to describe Britain is “club.” Like the Cosa Nostra, the first rule is “omerta”: absolute silence and secrecy must be kept at all times.

Challenging the status quo is an affront to the established order. When one is called “Lord This” or “Sir That” all his life, it creates pomposity – a breeding ground of arrogance. Something is right by virtue of you having done it. Multiply that a thousand times over and you have a taste of the arrogance of the upper class. Mere commoners are to know their place and to keep their mouths shut.

…to which Stone replied;

In my opinion if this is your idea of how to lead the autism movement, it is shameful, pointlessly divisive and embarrassing.



It must be said that the idea of Britain that you presented in your article belongs curiously to 50 years ago and its contemporary problems are entirely different.

There you have it. If even John Stone thinks you've made a cunt of yourself, you're in real trouble.

The second fact - wanting to (metaphorically) suck on Andrew Wakefield's shrivelled knob - is also demonstrable. Ed is the brains (and I use that word very loosely - if brains were e-coli, Ed Arranga would have difficulty soiling himself) behind Wakefield's wanking for coins operation, set up to fleece gullible morons of their last few dollars in order to keep Wakefield in the manner to which he's become accustomed (big house, sharp suits, fraudy trousers, that kind of thing) - although the stated aim is to fund his legal action against Fiona Godlee, Brian Deer and the BMJ. Yes, the one that was thrown out of court at the first hurdle. That one.

So, having established these two facts about Ed "Even John Stone Thinks I'm A Cunt" Arranga, why am I writing about him in such a fair and even handed manner?

Well, it seems that Brian Deer - the man who pointed out the lies and fraud in Andrew Wakefied's scaremongering study into MMR, gut problems and autism - is due to give a couple of lectures at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse in October. Ed doesn't like this one bit, and so launches into a fact-free, hate-fuelled rant at Mr Deer.

Let's look at some of his dribble.

Brian Deer – a liar, fraud, and former reporter for The Sunday Times of London

Hmm, Ed, I think you'll find that Brian Deer hasn't been shown to be a liar, or a fraud, and was in fact a freelance journalist who has worked for the Sunday Times (not the "Sunday Times of London" - just "The Sunday Times"). And isn't it writing like this, using words like "liar" and "fraud" which has got Andrew Wakefield into such a lather that you're fundraising for his court case? (Of course, the difference there is that Brian Deer backed up his claims with those oh so inconvenient little things called "facts" and "references")

He goes on.

Deer’s talks at La Crosse are a continuation of the misinformation campaign to destroy Wakefield and to deny his Lancet case series (here) that was published in 1998. Wakefield found bowel disease in children with autism spectrum disorder and raised questions about the safety of the MMR.

No Ed, it's not a misinformation campaign. Wakefield was shown to have faked his results and to have drawn inferences from his work that weren't justified. He was also found guilty of ordering non-medically indicated procedures on children for research purposes. He was subsequently struck off the medical register.

Wakefield claimed to have found a novel bowel disease - reviews of his work found no such thing. He raised unfounded questions about the safety of the MMR, and, assisted by a credulous media, caused vaccination rates to drop to such low levels that measles is now endemic in Britain once more - although that wouldn't worry you, would it?

The Deer-inspired, GMC-trumped-up charges and findings were so rotten and perverted that when the case finally got before a real judge, in a real court – the High Court of London – Justice Mitting overturned the findings.

No, he didn't. He found that Professor Walker-Smith (Wakefield's co-author) had been misled by Wakefield to the extent that he could have reasonably believed that he did have ethical approval for the work he was doing, and that that work was treatment rather than research. No findings against Wakefield have ever been overturned - in fact, he didn't appeal. While you'll no doubt claim that that's because his insurance didn't cover it, there's no evidence to show that - it's just a claim that John "Cock" Stone makes - and he seems perfectly well funded to pursue a legal case in America. (Except that's not why you're raising funds, is it Ed? It's so Wakefield can carry on living the life to which he feels entitled, and you, you gullable fool have fallen for his lies.)

By the time Judge Mitting blasted the GMC and Parliament began investigating and arresting Murdoch reporters,

You omit to point out that Brian Deer wasn't one of them, he's never been accused of illegal or unethical behaviour or information gathering techniques (apart from by your mates at Age of Idiocy Autism), has never been linked to phone hacking in any way, and, as far as I know, never worked for the News of the World, or anyone who has since being charged with regard to the phone hacking scandal. This is just a feeble attempt to smear by association - a tactic that your so-called "mate" John Stone has tried, and been made to look like a cock. (Funny that.)

Deer’s BMJ series created the intended frenzy. Finally an answer… well, not really an answer, but any questions about the autism epidemic could now be sidetracked by mainstream media into a “Blame Wakefield” mantra.

No - Deer's series unpicked most of the lies spread by Wakefield. All the media did was realise (mostly - there are still a few arseholes, mainly at the Daily Mail who believe him) that they'd been had, and that Wakefield was directly responsible for plummeting vaccination rates and the re-introduction of measles (like an endangered species) to Britain. They've never really fallen for the myth of an "autism epidemic", being, generally some way ahead of you and the morons at AoA when it comes to critical thinking skills. Probably in terms of walking-and-breathing-at-the-same-time skills too.

Some who’ve had the misfortune of meeting Deer describe him as reptilian and repulsive. Others would describe him in less flattering terms. Setting the sleaze factor aside, Deer’s legacy of slander and libel signify a far grimier, foul and filthy place than most of us would care to venture. Deer is the invention, the dark underbelly, the hideous caricature of those who deny an MMR-autism connection in order to protect themselves. He assuages the conscience of those without one, and scrubs clean the crime scene. Vicious and small, Deer’s pious position is untenable and in short order he will be hunted to ground and brought to justice.

Now this is just descending into abuse. However, I'm not exactly one to chastise anyone for abuse, although accusing Brian Deer of slander and libel is pretty much a case of "pot, kettle, cunt". Your last sentence though Ed, (emphasis mine) to me seems to be a call for actual violence - using a phrase like "hunted to ground" while telling the world and his wife exactly where they'll be able to find Mr Deer sounds like incitement to violence to me. Should anything untoward happen to Mr Deer on his visit to the States, Ed, I think you might have some serious explaining to do.

Soon the full truth will be uncovered, revealing Deer for what he is. In January Dr. Wakefield filed a defamation lawsuit against Deer, the BMJ, and Fiona Godlee, its editor. Currently under review by the 3rd Circuit Court in Texas, the question before proceeding to trial is: Does Texas have jurisdiction? We are extremely confident the appeals court will rule in Dr. Wakefield’s favor within the next few months.

I'm sure it will. As I've said before, I don't know whether Mr Deer's a nice or a nasty person (and don't care), but as an investigative reporter, he's done us all a favour by revealing Wakefield's fraud, lies and deceit.

And you're confident that the appeals court will rule in Wakefield's favour? Um - if the appeal succeeds, all that means is that Wakefield will be able to have the case heard. It doesn't mean he's been vindicated in any way - he'll still be metaphorically crucified, and quite possibly have to pay damages to the BMJ, Ms Godlee and Mr Deer under Texas anti-SLAPP laws.

In court his testimony will doom the BMJ and himself, and open the floodgates of suppressed corruption.

Sorry, there's nothing I can say about this, other than "you sad, pathetic, deluded wanker, Arranga."

Saturday, 28 July 2012

AoA commenters as mental as JABS regulars

Oh, this is priceless. In the comments to Age Of Autism "Editorial" is this gem from a deranged wingnut who goes by the name of "ioneskye":

"Testing" on babies and animals is EVIL. The Federal Mafia Syndicates (CDC, NIH, FBI, CIA, AAP, AMA, APA, WHO, US army, navy, marines, ETC.) are members of the Illuminati whose objective is to enslave the world in a satanic plot to have a one world government. Save your children and stop vaccinating. Save your time and money and stop asking these government agencies for help.

It turns out ioneskye runs a blog where he reveals the details of this satanic plot. Seems to me to be a bit of a shit plot if the main players are incapable of pushing him under a bus in order to stop him revealing all their secrets.

What a fucking cock. This is the intellectual level of readership at AoA.

Wednesday, 18 July 2012

I've clearly missed this. Repeatedly.

Teresa Conrick has posted a bunch of arse trying to demonstrate that because new things are discovered in science all the time, that shows that her pet hypothesis, that vaccines cause autism, is bound to be correct. She goes on to list and misrepresent a few unrelated studies that no more support her idea than simply posting a big picture of a baboon's arse would. However, I'm wondering why she's bothering, when she clearly has even more earth-shattering information to impart!

There is no escaping the ever increasing research coming out weekly, showing solid science connections behind environmental and vaccine injury causing autism.

Is there?? I've not bloody well seen it. So why on earth isn't Age of Autism publicising this research instead of "six degrees" style attacks on Paul Offit and pleas from Kent Heckenlively for readers to pray for an unnamed scientist at an unnamed institution who is being falsely accused of an undisclosed crime, by undisclosed science bullies? (That one was fairly quickly removed from the site - maybe Heckenlively's stepping too far off Planet Reality even for AoA, which is saying something)

Come on Teresa, show us the weekly solid science - and by that I don't mean the vague abstracts of unrelated gubbins that usually passes for science at AoA, I mean real science, actually studying a link between vaccines and autism, by reputable researchers (so no mates of Wakefield, Krigsman or the Geiers), and you can advance your case.

However, I suspect your weekly science has about as much grounding in reality as the stories in the fortnightly "In The Night Garden" magazine* - hence your vague hand waving and flannelling.

* - Although I've seen some of them on the telly, so they must be true. One up on Conrick's made up shite.

Thursday, 12 July 2012

Credible vaccine info sites

Not really my usual style, but a link to the World Health Organisation - Vaccine safety web sites meeting credibility and content good information practices criteria - a list of credible vaccine information sites.

Notice there's no JABS, Age Of Autism, Living Wisdom / AVN...

The criteria for inclusion in the list are here.

Friday, 6 July 2012

Age of Autism - you owe me a new irony meter...

…as you appear to have blown up my last one with this rather splendid little snippet:

As the back to school vaccination push continues, we'd like to remind readers that common childhood diseases that you can now delay and/or make worse later in life courtesy of pediatric vaccination were considered benign even as far back as the dark ages of the 1990s. Fear and self-doubt sells. It sells mouthwash: "Do YOU have halitosis?" Feminine hygiene spray: "Do you sometimes feel less than 'fresh?'" And hair coloring: "Dad, it's time to start dating again, don't you think you should color your hair?"

Let's just read a bit of that again…

Fear and self-doubt sells.

BANG! - there goes another one.

Yes. That's your entire modus operandi, isn't it? Spread unfounded fear and doubt about the safety of vaccines, promote quack therapies, take the advertising money for those therapies, and laugh all the way to the bank while children get sick and die from vaccine preventable diseases - because of you.

Yes - in your case, fear and doubt certainly sell. You bastards.

Tuesday, 3 July 2012

Thanks, Meryl.

Well, thanks to the lovely Meryl Dorey's kind support by mentioning me on the AVN's Facebook page, views of JABS Loonies… have gone up massively. Thanks Meryl! ;-)

Her support has also brought in a few right wingnuts into the comments section, so once I've had a chance to read through them all, I'll be putting a little post together devoted to my new favourite liars and morons.

Thursday, 28 June 2012

Australian Vaccination Network Seminars

Morning all.

That evil hag Meryl Dorey's at it again, trying to spread her pro-infectious disease, child killing agenda around Australia. This time she's organised a bunch of seminars throughout Central / Western New South Wales in August, mainly at ex-services clubs, where she and some cockend called Greg Beattie (Author of a probably self-published bound together collection of used fucking bog roll entitled "Vaccination, why I'm full of shit" or something - can't be bothered to look up the actual title right now) will bang on for bloody ages about the evils of TEH VACCINES - OH NOES!! Oh - and she's going to charge you fifteen Australian Dollars for the privilege of hearing her fucking whiny, nasal tones for god knows how long.

Now, you and I can laugh at the idea. We all know how fucking wrong and evil Meryl Dorey is. We know she tried to get hold of the medical records of a deceased child just so she could try and show that the child didn't die of pertussis. She's just fucking evil. But for those A$, there may be some nervous, new parents who might just take her message on board. And every parent who does, and so doesn't vaccinate their child, is endangering that child, and all those around him or her.

So, as a public service, here's a list of the places that "That Meryl" will be speaking at in August. There's plenty of time for these sensible clubs and event venues to cancel the booking, perhaps on the basis that she's fucking evil, so should you, my loyal reader, fancy perhaps dropping them a polite email, explaining that Meryl Dorey and her organisation of one is fucking evil, and how she'd like to see children around the world drop dead or become brain damaged due to preventable illnesses - and also possibly how the AVN has some very questionable financial practices (has anyone ever seen a copy of Living Wisdom - or is it just vapourware?) then that might just help.

Here's the itinerary:

Thursday, 14 June 2012

I'm back - and so's that cock John Stone

Hi all,

Apologies for being away for some time - lots of things have been happening in Becky's World, most of them not so good, but I think things are looking up finally and I'll be able to find a bit more time to post here.

At least, I thought things were looking up, until I saw a post on Age of Autism from John "Cock" Stone, castigating the Leveson Enquiry into press ethics for not investigating Brian Deer's excellent investigations into Andrew Wakefield's scaremongering.

Stone's tactic is simply to repeat a load of lies (Brian Deer making the original complaint to the GMC, illegally obtaining medical records etc), link to a load of his own posts alleging the same thing, link to a court report about something completely unrelated to newspapers or Brian Deer in the hope that it'll make him look clever, and then to accuse everyone involved of a conspiracy.

So far, so cock.

What Stone fails to realise is that, even if everything he alleges were true, it changes one fact not one bit. Wakefield's research was flawed, fraudulent, massively riddled with lies and undeclared conflicts of interest and did not provide a milli-shred of evidence that MMR is in any way related to autism. If his allegations were true, it would not exonerate Wakefield. And on an autism website, that's THE FUCKING POINT.

Friday, 27 January 2012

Jackie Fletcher is a brainless moron.

Oh, I just can't be fucking bothered. How can people take this shit seriously?

OK. She's got a rabid response into the BMJ, here.

Apparently, a bit was edited out, for reasons of sanity. Some twat, presumably John "Cock" Stone has republished it here.

Some sensible people have commented (which is surprising, for Age of Arseholery - they normally get filtered out) that the dozy bint is mixing up two issues; OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE, I CAN'T BE FUCKING BOTHERED WITH THESE FUCKUNG MORONS ANY MORE. LET'S HOPE THEY GET HIT BY FUCKING BUSES OR SOMETHING. FUCKING, FUCKING MORONS.

If they want to donate their hard-earned cash to Wakefield, fucking let them. They fucking deserve everything they get. Pointless fuckwits.

Wednesday, 11 January 2012

You know you're in trouble when…

The One Click Group thinks you've lost it.

Yes, one of the most deranged anti-science, anti-vax, conspiracy theory peddling bunch of loons, the One Click Group seems to think Wakefield's finally stepped off the edge of reality.

Since Wakefield has failed to Appeal the GMC decision that found him dishonest in 2010, it seems extraordinary that he is now taking this litigious step in Texas. Is this merely a highly ill-advised mickey mouse Wakefield publicity stunt or has this doctor lost the plot we ask?


Andrew Wakefield reduced to wanking for coins

Back in 2007, the brilliant Charlie Brooker wrote;

Four thousand years ago I used to write a website called TV Go Home, which consisted of capsule descriptions of imaginary television programmes - most of them ghastly creations teetering on the brink of plausibility. One of the earliest entries was Wanking For Coins, which was described as "apocalyptic fun as Rowland Rivron tours the seedy backstreets of London's West End persuading the homeless to commit acts of self-degradation in exchange for pennies".


And that's exactly what Andrew Wakefield's doing now. It's now perfectly clear that his attempt to sue Brian Deer, the BMJ and Fiona Godlee is nothing more than a cynical fundraising effort, as can be seen from the new website, DrWakefieldJusticeFund.org.

Yes, as Wakefield clearly has no obvious source of income, he's resorted to performing acts of self degredation (posing, staring at a photoshopped in American Flag as though he's never seen one before (more about this in a moment) and about to have his suit thrown out in the most humiliating way) in order for his sycophantic fans to send him a few dollars to allow him to keep up his expensive lifestyle.

Not convinced? And think it's reasonable for Wakefield to ask for support for a defence fund? Well, it would be reasonable, were he the one being sued. But he's not - he's the one bringing the action. And then take a look at the "contribute" page. Not only can you make a donation, but you can become a member, for an annual subscription! A member of fucking what? A member of the "I'm paying for Andrew Wakefield's mortgage club"?! And all for an annual subscription of between $25 (personal member) and $5000 (corporate champion). How the fuck does he think he can get away with it? An annual subscription for a one off legal action??

The site is run by Ed "Dickhead" Arranga, all round hater of all things British (see his attack on "the British" here - a rant so obnoxious that even John "Cock" Stone called him out on it in the comments, and his personal attack on me here) and general fucktard. He clearly knew about this suit some time ago (as the text of the link above indicates) and the domain name DrWakefieldJusticeFund.org was registered in October last year.

I left a comment on Age of Autism, which surprisingly didn't make it through moderation, asking whether if, as seems extremely likely, Wakefields attempt to sue is thrown out to gales of laughter at the first hurdle, would any remaining funds be redistributed to the donors? I suspect not, as this is clearly an attempt to prop up Wakefield financially, rather than have him reduced to actually wanking for coins in the back streets of Austin - a state of affairs which, if this lawsuit and appeal are any indication, can't be too far away.

I'm now going to take a short break to be violently sick.

Saturday, 7 January 2012

Age of Autism misrepresents Guardian journalist

The Guardian, fine journal that it is, has published a piece on Andrew Wakefield's misguided attempt to sue the BMJ, Brian Deer and Fiona Godlee. You can read it here, it's a perfectly reasonable feature, giving no opinion on Wakefield's fraud.

However, Age of Autism has republished the majority of the feature on its own site, with the byline "By Ian Sample of The Guardian UK.", implying that Mr Sample has written the piece specifically for Age of Arseholery. Let's face it - this is the kind of thing that John "Cock" Stone or Jake "Arsehole" Crosby would be able to cover (and look like morons) in their sleep - so why republish a piece from a major newspaper, written by a proper journalist, if not to try and steal some credibility on the back of the name?


Thursday, 5 January 2012

Andrew Wakefield to make arse of himself by trying to sue Brian Deer, BMJ, Fiona Godlee

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!

To be fair, I've been wondering why if, as Wakefield and the antivax loons at AoA claim, Brian Deer's articles a year ago are demonstrably false, Wakefield didn't sue immediately. After all, such allegations could do irreparable damage to his reputation (which was already shot to shit).

A pdf of the complaint can be found here.

One wonders (among other things):

  • Why Age of Autism hasn't mentioned it yet
  • Why the accusation of libel hasn't been made in the UK
As ever, Orac has a far more comprehensive summary.

Saturday, 31 December 2011

Callous Disregard price countdown...

Andrew Wakefield's hardbacked spider swatter, Callous Disregard is now available new at Amazon.com for the tidy sum of $4.97. That's £3.20 in sterling - less than the price of a pint in most Central London pubs.

Wednesday, 14 December 2011

Oh the fucking irony.

From Barry, a typically mindless Age of Autism commenter:

How is that people with no scientific training whatsoever, keep setting the record straight for people who supposedly do?


Try asking Dan Olmsted, Mark Blaxill, Anne Bloody Dachel or John "Cock" Stone, you fucking irony-free dickhead. That's the kind of problem that's got us in this mess in the first place.

Tuesday, 13 December 2011

Dan Olmsted & crank magnetism

Dan Olmsted at Age Of Arseholery has posted a remarkably stupid "From the editor" piece;

A D.C. developer dies at 59; obit notes he had a cell phone built into his ski helmet. I've had two friends die of the same brain cancer. I'm not so sure these things are so safe, are you?


Firstly, Dan, there's no evidence that mobile phone useage causes brain cancer.

Secondly, anecdote is not data.

Thirdly, if this is a newsworthy story, how about a link to a serious news outlet's coverage of it?

Fourthly, how long does someone wear a ski helmet for? Hardly all day, every day is it?

Still, it's a prime example of crank magnetism - belief in one whacko theory leads onto a belief in all kinds of other crap.

You're either a despicable scaremonger, an utter moron, or both, Olmsted. I know where my money's going.



Thursday, 8 December 2011

Age Of Autism in attempt to mislead

Age of Autism today has a story about an antivaxer - "Dr Lisa Morris" - and her experiences being interviewed by NBC for a piece about "Skipping Vaccines". She makes out she's been misquoted, led to believe that the piece would be more sympathetic to her lunatic point of view - all the usual stuff. Like I give even a quarter of a shit. Still, she talks about where she gets her information on vaccination, and makes it sound all very sciencey - and that name, who could fail to be impressed by "DOCTOR Lisa Morris"?

Lisa Morris is a chiropractor. What the fuck does she know about science or medicine, given that she believes in subluxions - a cause of illness only slightly more plausible than the fucking verucca goblin or the ringworm fairy.

Wednesday, 7 December 2011

Oh, the irony

Click to buy the Age Of Autism t-shirt
I was going to title this post "Jake Crosby is an arsehole", but at the last moment was distracted by a comment of JB Handley's at Age of Autism. (Where else?)

Firstly, Jake "Arsehole" Crosby is bleating that he's been thrown out of a conference for asking what he sees as awkward questions of Seth Mnookin, author of "The Panic Virus". I suspect he was just being an arsehole - but I'd like to see the video footage. However, this is published at Age Of Autism, the online chip-wrapper which praises conferences like Autism One. That's right - Autism One, the organisers of which got seven armed policemen/security guards to throw two anti-anti-vax bloggers out. So, it's OK to do that, but not OK to ask Jake Crosby to leave because he's being deliberately disruptive? (Having read Jake's account of the incident, that's the only conclusion I can come to - that he was deliberately being an arsehole in order to provoke, and, ideally, get thrown out in order to write about it at AoA.)

So, that's why I was going to title this post "Jake Crosby is an arsehole". However, as I said, JB Handley popped up with this gem, which pretty much defines the word "irony".

My heart hurts for parents and families who have had their lives destroyed by idiots masquerading as experts.


Well, quite. Would you like me to list them JB? Actually, just go to Age Of Autism, and hover your mouse over the "Contributors" link in the menu bar. Evil fuckers.





Tuesday, 4 October 2011

Kent Bastard Heckenlively Is A Liar

Well no fucking shock there, eh? Kent Heckenlively is a berk(shire hunt) who blogs at Age Of Autism, and shows a quite remarkable propensity for being fucking stupid, and cruel to his autistic daughter (although I'm sure he thinks of it as "searching for a cure").

Anyway, he's got a thing about XMRV, the mouse retrovirus that was (most likely) mistakenly found in patients suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, by a doctor who it seems has been faking results, refusing to give out raw data for checking, and has now been sacked. Sound familiar?

Anyway, Kent's posted a piece entitled "Study Finds XMRV Retrovirus Can Infect Brain Cells", in which he cites a ropey as fuck study; "Susceptibility of Human Primary Neuronal Cells to Xenotropic Murine Leukemia Virus-related (XMRV) Virus Infection" which he claims has been published in that very reputable journal, "The Journal of Virology". Woo, scary - maybe there's something in this then?

Except it hasn't, it's been published in "Virology Journal", a completely different publication which is most famous for publishing a paper regarding Christ's healing of influenza in the Bible.

That's not to say it's wrong, buut it's a deliberate attempt to mislead. Or, in other words…

You lying fuck Heckenlively.

Wednesday, 3 August 2011

CoMeD press release officially "a load of bollocks"

I'd not come across CoMeD (The Coalition for Mercury-free Drugs) before. It's an anti-vaccine site which seems to be run by those chemical castrators, the Geiers. I was drawn to its existance by The Bolen Report, a site run by Tim Bolen, self-styled consumer advocate and all round supporter of rabid conspiracy theories. He ought to use the phrase "Nothing Too Mental!" as a strapline. (Go on Tim - you can have that for free.)

It seems that the United Nations has released a document entitled "New draft text for a comprehensive and suitable approach to a global legally binding instrument on mercury".

Here are its stated objectives:

Option 1: The objective of this Convention is to protect human health and the environment from
anthropogenic releases of mercury and its compounds [by minimizing, and where feasible ultimately
eliminating, global anthropogenic mercury releases to air, water and land].
Option 2: The objective of this Convention is to minimize, and ultimately to prevent any potential
adverse effects on human health and the environment from, exposure to the release of mercury and its
compounds by facilitating information dissemination and exchange and the employment of risk
reduction strategies [including the environmentally sound management of mercury throughout its life
cycle], through financial and technical cooperation, taking into account the relevant principles of the
Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, including principles 6, 7, 15 and 16

All pretty sensible - after all, no-one can argue that the release of mercury into the atmosphere is a good thing, right?

The Geiers' press release has it a little differently;

SILVER SPRING, Md., August 1, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ – CoMeD – On Friday, July
22, 2011, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) distributed a revised text for its
comprehensive global treaty on mercury. Advocates for mercury-free drugs were gratified to see
pharmaceuticals listed in “Annex C (Mercury-added product not allowed)” of the proposed treaty.
The Coalition for Mercury-free Drugs (CoMeD) helped initiate this addition through its advocacy
efforts at the United Nations (UN) negotiations held in Chiba, Japan in January 2011. CoMeD
President Rev. Lisa Sykes, the mother of a son diagnosed with vaccine-related mercury poisoning,
described to representatives of over 150 participating nations how: “… unnecessarily injecting
mercury into pregnant women and children, as part of a vaccine or other drug, is an ongoing and
often unrecognized crisis.

It then goes into a long anti-vax rant.

The document I linked to above is, handily, in pdf format, which makes it searchable. Not once does it mention any of the following words: "Geier", "CoMeD", "Vaccine", "inject", "injection", "drug", "drugs", "autism", or any word containing the letters "thim".

So it's got fuck all to do with vaccines, fuck all to do with drugs, fuck all to do with CoMeD, fuck all to do with evil bastards like the Geiers and fuck all to do with "vaccine damage".

Wankers.