Wales measles epidemic traced to antivaccination lunacy

It looks like the antivaccination movement has yet another cause to celebrate:

More than 800 people have been diagnosed with measles in Swansea[, Wales] in this recent outbreak. People are lining up to get their vaccinations, and a campaign has been started to get more people vaccinated, which is a good thing; I just hope it’s in time. But with so many people contracting the illness, serious repercussions are almost inevitable.

Wales has had low Measles/Mumps/Rubella (MMR) vaccination rates for some time … since about 1998, in fact, when Andrew Wakefield published his bogus study in the Lancet falsely linking the MMR vaccine to autism.

Once again, he, Jenny McCarthy and the various Orwellianly-named vaccine “safety” groups out there must be ever so proud.

Australia: Vaccines (once again) proven safe and effective

It’s more restating the obvious, but that doesn’t make it less worthwhile:

Some good vaccine news for a change: A vaccine against human papillomavirus (HPV) appears to be working. HPV causes genital warts, and can lead to cervical cancer in women. In Australia, which began use of the HPV vaccine in 2007, cases of genital warts in young women aged 12 - 26 dropped 59 percent, and 39 percent for men. Not only that, but cervical abnormalities dropped as well—a glimmer of hope that for these vaccinated women, their chance of getting cervical cancer is dropping as well.

Meanwhile, US scientists and medical workers are still struggling to get the American populace to understand that Gardasil will not turn teenaged girls into sex-crazed nymphos by demonic possession or something. Then again, this is the same country that’s facing more and more outbreaks of easily preventable diseases (some of them deadly) because of baseless and endlessly disproven fears that shots turn children into Rain Man, so you can only expect so much in the end.

A little comparison between the two vaccine camps

Herein is a tale of two sides in the vaccine manufactroversy. On the one hand, we have the reality-based camp, which just got renewed confirmation via yet another study:

A new study published in the Journal of Pediatrics Friday may put [worried parents] at ease. Researchers found no association between autism and the number of vaccines a child gets in one day or during the first two years of the current vaccine schedule.

The research was led by Dr. Frank DeStefano, director of the Immunization Safety Office at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Together with two colleagues, DeStefano and his team collected data on 256 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and 752 children who did not have autism. The children were all born between 1994 and 1999 and were all continuously enrolled in one of three managed-care organizations through their second birthday.

The researchers not only counted how many vaccines a child was given, they also counted how many antigens within the vaccines children were exposed to over three different time periods: birth to 3 months, birth to 7 months and during the first two years. They also calculated the maximum number of antigens a child would receive over the course of a single day.

[…]

"When we compared those roughly 250 children with ASD and the roughly 750 children who did not have ASD, we found their antigen exposure, however measured, were the same," said DeStefano. “There was no association between antigenic exposure and the development of autism."

The researchers also found no association between antigenic exposure and ASD.

And on the other hand, we have anti-vaccinationist fear-monger David Kirby, lying about a vaccine-related court case at (where else?) The Huffington Post. Orac reports in his wonderfully thorough (if long-winded) fashion:

Daily Blend: Monday, January 07, 2013

James Dobson

Most Transparent Administration In History^TM allowed to continue hiding every single detail about its drone war.

Dishonest like a Breitbart acolyte arguing against gun control.

Looks like the design & technology community also has its issues with subconscious bigotry … and knee-jerk twits who perpetuate it.
(via @pzmyers)

Focus on the Family founder James Dobson ^[pictured] laments: “Nearly everything I have stood for these past 35 years went down to defeat.” Coincidentally, my causes are only getting better!

Research indicates crime rates may be directly influenced by … leaded gasoline? First I’ve heard of this; while certain hazards increase risks of congenital defects, can they really have such a clear effect on complex adult behaviors decades later?

And finally, this is even more tragic than what’s happened to the History Channel:

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Saturday, January 05, 2013

Orly Taitz

Interesting: New meta-analysis finds most “overweight” or “obese” U.S. adults actually have a lower mortality risk than people of normal weight.
(via @radleybalko)

Damn, it’s like everyone’s getting targeted by Bill Donohue but me. I must try harder to offend him! (Which, to be fair, I’m sure can be accomplished by looking at him funny.)

Birther queen Orly Taitz ^[pictured] is the (notoriously misattributed) definition of insanity.

And finally: Just how sexist is the news media? Predictably so:
(via Pharyngula)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Donohue on World AIDS Day: “Promiscuity kills”

Our favorite Catholic League blowhard, Bill Donohue, has a message for World AIDS Day tomorrow:

Dec 1 is World AIDS Day. Pray for those who still refuse to use common sense and practice restraint. Promiscuity kills.

— Catholic League (@CatholicLeague) November 30, 2012

Of course, it’s not like Donohue’s fetishized Catholic Church has had anything to do with the continuing AIDS plague in the Third World, is it? Nope, it’s poor people’s fault because they just can’t stop rutting.

Today in bizarre (and possibly NSFW) PETA ads

As you watch the following video (preferably with no-one around in order to minimize risks of acute awkwardness), keep in mind that a thinking human being at PETA presumably thought it up, someone else liked it, and they all decided it was a good way to attract favorable publicity:

Transcript: (click the [+/-] to open/close →)

[−]

A number of men are shown moving around with large, phallic-shaped vegetable “genitals” (complete with lettuce pubic hair and round veggies for testes) swinging from their groins. (Fuck PETA for making me write that sentence.)

One would think they could choose a better way to gather people around their dubious mantra that veganism somehow improves sexual stamina than by making anyone who comes into visual contact with their ads reach for the nearest bottle of bleach to cleanse their eyeballs.

(via Joe. My. God.)

Bryan Fischer is clueless about evolution. Movie at 11

Here’s how the American Family Association’s Crank-in-Chief Bryan Fischer responds to new findings that a large number of intellectual disabilities may be due to random genetic mutations rather than inheritance:

Random gene mutations cause of many mental disabilities. Thot random mutations were key to evolution! fxn.ws/PqJySV

— Bryan Fischer (@BryanJFischer) September 27, 2012

The minimally educated observer may note both the crank’s characteristic knack for using a tangentially related topic as a sloppy attack on a subject they don’t like, and also, said crank’s remarkably brazen display of scientific illiteracy.

The reality (something Fischer would never be caught dead living in) is that mutations can be good or bad in terms of how they affect one’s chances for long-term survival and reproduction. Mutations that increase an individual’s physical or psychological abilities are thus more likely to be passed on to future generations, whilst mutations that impair an individual physically or psychologically are less so. Evolution is unable to give a damn about which of these genomic changes end up helping or harming a given population; it’s a blind, directionless, stochastic process that’s driven by the laws of nature.

But, of course, cognitive shrimps like Fischer are unable to grasp such nuanced and complicamated principles, regardless of how fundamental to science and even life itself they may be.

Tags: Bryan Fischer • gene mutation • mental disabilities

Fail Quote: Supporting NYC’s Nanny Statism by appealing to endowment?

From the totes legit sex expert, Ruth Westheimer, who seems to think a sophomoric appeal to a pervasive myth is a valid argument for New York City Mayor Bloomberg’s brand of health-crazed Nanny Statism:

Should big sodas be banned? All I can say to guys is: big bellies = smaller penis so ur choice, Big Gulp or big equipment?

— Dr. Ruth Westheimer (@AskDrRuth) September 13, 2012

To the uninitiated, that is what one might call “bullshit”. On a purely pedantic note, I’d like her (and anyone else who espouses this moronic idea) to explain by what biological mechanism the fat in one’s abdomen is supposedly extracted from their genitalia. More generally, I’d also like to hear how this argument is supposed to sway anyone who doesn’t already suffer from some crippling insecurity.

(At any rate, at the risk of going all TMI, I personally know at least one living refutation.)

(via Joe. My. God.)

Tags: Ruth Westheimer • obesity • penis • endowment • New York City • Big Gulp

In which ‘xkcd’ makes me wonder if I have ADD

This is so absolutely and incontrovertibly me that it’s almost frightening:

Click to see the whole thing. Being diagnosed with three relatively rare and unrelated conditions (Asperger’s, Tourette’s, and a variable stutter), I sometimes wonder if I don’t have some mild form of ADD or OCD to boot as an explanation for some of my miscellaneous peculiarities, such as the fact that I find it annoyingly (and perhaps increasingly) difficult to focus on more than one or two things at once, especially when under any kind of pressure – which includes merely trying to hold a conversation whilst cooking. (I can’t say how many times I found myself about to put the milk in the damn cupboard.)

Then again, I’m probably just paranoid. Yeah. That’s it.

Tags: xkcd • ADD • OCD

Daily Blend: Thursday, August 23, 2012 [2/2]

Eric Bolling

(Part 2/2. Part 1 here.)

Another irony meter bites the dust: Same homophobes who cried “blacklist!” when GLAAD chronicled their anti-gay activity now want to ban LGBT rights activist from Fox News.

Fox News’s Eric Bolling ^[pictured] takes a break from accusing President Obama of “chugging 40's” during tornado outbreaks, bringing “hoodlums in the hizzouse” and usurping the office to complain that Obama officials refuse to appear on his network.

Vox Day sees research concluding that older men are more likely to father autistic/schizoid children and naturally claims it supports his fantasy that atheists have “daddy issues”. (For the record: I’m an atheist with clinically diagnosed Asperger’s (and Tourette’s), my father was 29 at my birth, and I’ve had an excellent relationship with him all my life, no matter how many times I call him an old schnock.)

And finally, here’s a sea otter stacking some cups like a pro:
(via @radleybalko)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: GLAAD • Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation • Commentator Accountability Project • Peter LaBarbera • Matt Barber • homophobes • • hypocrites • Fox News • Wayne Besen • Truth Wins Out • The O'Reilly Factor • blacklists • Eric Bolling • Barack Obama • White House • Obama administration • atheists • Vox Day • Theodore Beale • autism • schizophrenia • sea otters • otters • Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium • Nellie the sea otter

Daily Blend: Sunday, July 22, 2012

Savannah Dietrich

I’ll be helping to paint the apartment (under duress!) for the next few days, so blogging may be light to nonexistent until the place looks like the ruddy rainbow my mother apparently wants it to be. (The fact that I’m also beginning work on a brand-new Minecraft castle whilst being simultaneously hooked on Burn Notice – all the curses to Zon! – has nothing to do with it. Like, at all. Nope.)

Anti-vaccination propagandists help create the worst whooping cough epidemic in 70 years.
(via @mims (@ebertchicago)

17-year-old ^[pictured] publicly outs the boys who sexually assaulted and humiliated her, now faces jail time.
(via @radleybalko)

“You still eat with your hands?” Oprah Winfrey visits India. India wishes she wouldn’t.
(via @ebertchicago)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: whooping cough • pertussis • antivaccination • antivaccine • antivax • antivaxxers • Washington, USA • Savannah Dietrich • sexual assault • rape • Oprah Winfrey • India • slums • Bollywood • Rajyasree Sen • Oprah's Next Chapter: India

Daily Blend: Monday, January 30, 2012

Excellent essay by Radley Balko on the chilling effect of the war over prescription painkillers on pain patients and the medical community.
(via @radleybalko)

Also, another excellent essay by Adam Gopnik on the U.S.’s vast prison state. (And meanwhile in the Netherlands …)
(via @ggreenwald)

Ed Brayton on the battle of government regulation vs. deregulation (and why the Libertarian idea of a self-correcting “free market” is folly).

Phil Plait rips into climate-change-denying articles in the Wall Street Journal and The Daily Mail.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: prescription painkillers • chronic pain • doctors • opioids • Oxycontin • Percocet • DEA • Drug Enforcement Administration • USA • United States • prison system • Netherlands • Ed Brayton • externalities • Libertarians • free market • regulation • deregulation • The Wall Street Journal • The Daily Mail • David Rose • Phil Plait

Daily Blend: Friday, December 30, 2011

Jordan Miles, hospitalized

Is it just me, or do I need to variate my sources a little?

• Doggycide in Durham, NC: Herald-Sun guest columnists speak out against cops who shot their little terrier in the head while investigating break-in at neighbor’s.
  (via @radleybalko)

• Police “expert witness”: It was “illogical” for innocent Black teen ^[pictured] to run away from cops who nearly beat him to death. Un-fucking-believable.

• Maine cop writes letter begging colleagues not to retaliate against other officers who busted him for drunk driving. It’s sadly telling that such a plea needs to be made in the first place.
  (via @radleybalko)

• Los Angeles voters to decide whether condoms should be required in porn films. I thought they already were.
  (via The Agitator)

• Ridiculously childish political squabble of the day: South Carolina Democrats upset over Gov. Haley’s proposed cheery state agency phone greeting.
  (via The Agitator)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: Bill Hardaker • Bobbie Hardaker • Jack Russell terriers • dogs • Durham, NC • Jordan Miles • Pittsburgh, PA • police brutality • Joseph Stine • Robin Parker • Maine State Police • Los Angeles • adult movies • condoms • contraception • Carmen Trutanich • South Carolina • Republicans • GOP • Nikki Haley • Democrats • John King • Wendell Gilliard

Daily Blend: Tuesday, October 25, 2011 – Late, I know!

• Queensland, Australia civil unions bill passes first reading, is expected to become law by end of the year.
  (via Joe. My. God.)

• NYPD blames nonviolent OWS protestors they’re too busy brutalizing to spare officers to deal with other crimes around the city.
  (via Joe. My. God.)

• Amanda Marcotte exposes the dark illogic behind the “What if <person’s> mother had an abortion?” anti-choice argument.
  (via @PersonalFailure)

• A pain patient talks about the challenges of being chronically ill without looking it.
  (via @PersonalFailure)

• National Organization for Marriage ^[pictured] exposed as photo-stealing hacks. Twice.
  (via Joe. My. God.)

• Secular group at University of Wisconsin-Madison sends out mass-email inviting students to join. Cue the predictably inane (and hilarious) religiotic outrage.
  (via Friendly Atheist)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: Queensland, AU • Australia • civil unions • Occupy Wall Street • OWS • peaceful protest • NYPD • Amanda Marcotte • anti-abortion • anti-choice • rape apologia • Rebecca Kiesling • Toni Bernhard • chronic pain • chronic illnesses • pain patients • Jeremy Hooper • National Organization for Marriage • NOM • AHA! • Atheists, Humanists, & Agnostics • atheists • theists • Christians

Daily Blend: Monday, October 03, 2011

U.S. Hater-in-Chief

• Glenn Greenwald: If there’s so much evidence they’re terrorists, why not prove it?

• Man faces year in prison and $50,000 fines for killing grizzly bear that wandered into yard where his children were playing.
  (via The Agitator)

• ATF dictates that medicinal marijuana users have no Second Amendment rights. I agree that pot and guns are a troublesome mix, but I’d advocate for regulations, not an outright ban.

• National Cancer Institute further debunks “abortions cause breast cancer” bullshit.
  (via @PeriodPiece)

• President Obama ^[pictured] says there’s still room for improvement in the U.S. Cue characteristically inane right-wing ragefest.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: terrorists • FISA • Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act • Anwar al-Awlaki • bears • grizzly bears • Jeremy Hill • Coeur D'Alene, ID • Endangered Species Act • ATF • medicinal marijuana • medical marijuana • Second Amendment • National Cancer Institute • NCI • cancer • breast cancer • Barack Obama • USA • United States • conservatives

Daily Blend: Friday, July 29, 2011

Kelly Thomas

• Fullerton, CA cops gang-beat homeless schizophrenic man [pictured] to death. Includes video that I haven’t seen for lack of want of getting pissed off so soon after waking up.
  (via @radleybalko)

• Shockingly, the latest bit of “Christian Persecution!” at the VA in Texas is complete bullshit.
  (via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

• xkcd speaks the cold truth about “beating” cancer.

• Al-Qaeda refuses to attack US mass transportation infrastructure until they’re worth destroying.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: Fullerton, CA • Kelly Thomas • Department of Veteran Affairs • National Memorial Ladies • Houston National Cemetery • Liberty International • cancer • xkcd • The Onion • al-Qaeda • Ayman al-Zawahiri

Daily Blend: Friday, July 22, 2011

Rush Limbaugh

• US Senate Democrats successfully shelve House Republicans’ latest idiotic anti-spending, anti-tax bill.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• Keep the gubmint outta my brane!: Half of US social program recipients think they “have not used a government social program”.
  (via Rob F)

• Rush Limbaugh [pictured]: Dangerous heat index is a government conspiracy!

• Information is Beautiful: How safe is the HPV vaccine? (Hint: Very.)

• Macy’s stores deliberately install changing room doors backwards, allowing anyone to peer in unseen.
  (via @anonymoose420)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: US Senate • US House of Representatives • US Congress • Democrats • Republicans • Cut, Cap and Balance bill • USA • welfare • Rush Limbaugh • heat index • HPV • Information is Beautiful • Florida • Macy's

Bachmann’s crazy possibly caused by incapacitating migraines?

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN)

Not that I’m of the habit of linking to the likes of The Daily Caller, but they’ve broken a story that definitely merits a mention. Is it possible that Rep. Michele Bachmann’s (R-MN) erratic behavior (ie. her being fundamentally divorced from reality) may be at least part due to a chronic and crippling medical condition?

The Minnesota Republican frequently suffers from stress-induced medical episodes that she has characterized as severe headaches. These episodes, say witnesses, occur once a week on average and can “incapacitate” her for days at time. On at least three occasions, Bachmann has landed in the hospital as a result.

“She has terrible migraine headaches. And they put her out of commission for a day or more at a time. They come out of nowhere, and they’re unpredictable,” says an adviser to Bachmann who was involved in her 2010 congressional campaign. “They level her. They put her down. It’s actually sad. It’s very painful.”

Bachmann’s medical condition wouldn’t merit public attention, but for the fact she is running for president. Some close to Bachmann fear she won’t be equal to the stress of the campaign, much less the presidency itself.

“When she gets ‘em, frankly, she can’t function at all. It’s not like a little thing with a couple Advils. It’s bad,” the adviser says. “The migraines are so bad and so intense, she carries and takes all sorts of pills. Prevention pills. Pills during the migraine. Pills after the migraine, to keep them under control. She has to take these pills wherever she goes.”

It’s difficult to say what impact these migraines may be having on her professional career, and if they may be at least partially to blame for some of the crazy things she’s said and done. Never am I one to pry in other people’s personal affairs, but in this case, I do think it would be best to try and figure such things out as soon as possible, given the fact that this woman – who we’ve already known was at least intellectually unstable, but who we now have reason to believe may be physically or even psychologically affected as well – is running for President of the United States. I don’t know about you, but the idea of the the Commander-in-Chief having some mysterious medical ailment that can incapacitate their judgment so thoroughly and unpredictably is hardly a reassuring one.

Now, of course, there’s already virtually no chance in hell that Bachmann will ever come even near to the presidential podium, so that’s really more of a hypothetical concern than anything else. Still, though, it would be interesting to know how more sane she might seem if not for these migraines.

(via Political Irony)

Tags: Michele Bachmann • migraines • headaches

Daily Blend: Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Neptune

• National Journal: Republican insiders fully aware how opposition to gay marriage is ruining them.

• How familiar are you with general US civics? (I scored a surprising 69.70% (23/33). Not bad for an uneducated Canuck, I guess.)
  (via Vox Popoli)

• Research confirms: Yes, having a dog or a cat really is good for you.
  (via @ggreenwald)

• Neptune [pictured] is now one Neptunian year older since its discovery in 1846.

• Oh, my. ^{[possibly NSFW]}
  (via Gilbert)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: GOP • same-sex marriage • marriage equality • National Journal • Republican Party • Intercollegiate Studies Institute • civil literacy • USA • dogs • cats • pets • Neptune • hot-air balloons