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Congratulations to Kim Stagliano of Age of Autism…

…you’ve received some well-deserved recognition!

I can’t think of a more deserving up-and-coming antivaccine activist to be inducted into this most “prestigious” of groups of American Loons! I’ve written about Stagliano’s science- and logic-challenged posts many times over the last few years, but it’s good to see that others have noticed as well. From the citation:

Diagnosis: Ignorant, ardent loon who are on the verge of taking the anti-vaxx movement well into TimeCube territory. The fact that she is unable to avoid a fallacy in every other sentence she writes should not be taken to indicate that she is anything less than extremely dangerous.

Part of the reasoning, besides Stagliano’s promotion of dangerous anti-vaccine propaganda:

Furthermore, Stagliano is famous for what amounts to a remarkable lack of self-awareness. One of Stagliano’s schticks is the “censorship of vaccine critics” by the media. Of course, Stagliano confuses censorship and criticism (the fact that everyone with actual competence completely disagree with her is not “censorship” even if Stagliano demands to call it so). The irony is that she herself deletes all dissenting comments on her blogposts: “we have made a conscious decision to moderate the site so that it does not become a cesspool of dissent.” Her persecution complex is well-developed, however.

(Personally, my favorite Stagliano gem was when she likened the “autism epidemic” to the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995 (i.e., the worst terrorist attack on US soil before the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon). Or maybe it was when she blamed Paul Offit for decreasing public confidence in vaccines. Certainly that fits into the lack of self-awareness mentioned in her “award.” Truly, “self-awareness” is not a term in her vocabulary, and she certainly deserves the recognition.

By Orac

Orac is the nom de blog of a humble surgeon/scientist who has an ego just big enough to delude himself that someone, somewhere might actually give a rodent's posterior about his copious verbal meanderings, but just barely small enough to admit to himself that few probably will. That surgeon is otherwise known as David Gorski.

That this particular surgeon has chosen his nom de blog based on a rather cranky and arrogant computer shaped like a clear box of blinking lights that he originally encountered when he became a fan of a 35 year old British SF television show whose special effects were renowned for their BBC/Doctor Who-style low budget look, but whose stories nonetheless resulted in some of the best, most innovative science fiction ever televised, should tell you nearly all that you need to know about Orac. (That, and the length of the preceding sentence.)

DISCLAIMER:: The various written meanderings here are the opinions of Orac and Orac alone, written on his own time. They should never be construed as representing the opinions of any other person or entity, especially Orac's cancer center, department of surgery, medical school, or university. Also note that Orac is nonpartisan; he is more than willing to criticize the statements of anyone, regardless of of political leanings, if that anyone advocates pseudoscience or quackery. Finally, medical commentary is not to be construed in any way as medical advice.

To contact Orac: [email protected]

27 replies on “Congratulations to Kim Stagliano of Age of Autism…”

And just the other day she informed us ( @ AoA) that she is now studying karate, kick boxing and Okinawan weapons in order to secure a black belt prior to her next birthday. She also writes @ Autism File as well as AoA.

Now I’m not a martyred mum, but even I couldn’t fit that amount of exercise into my schedule. And I have NO children .. with or without ASDs. I do some actual work however.

And in my case, I give myself 3-4 years of regular exercises (in a gym) before enlisting in the armed forces. I also plan to learn a martial art in that timeframe.

Alain (don’t have kids but want to…)

Sounds like she’s in heavy training like Linda Hamilton in The Terminator series. She’s just a regular mom who discovers that autism is a quantum disease caused when QuantumMan™ becomes sentient in 2023 and sends a quantum neurodisease back through time to . . . uh, whenever it was that autism exploded into an epidemic and turn mankind into a quantum slave array of quantum batteries to keep his quantum computer complex running. Hey, it makes more sense than her story . . .

Ha, ha, ha. You made my day Orac.

I guess potty-mouthed Stagmom has finally gotten the recognition she so deserves for her *superb journalism*.

Damn straight she’s “No Mother Teresa”.

DW: I hope you’re kidding. I study an Okinawan form- and I HATE stupid people getting involved in stuff that I love. I hope she flunks. I’d really like to study weapons forms, but I’d have to join a different dojo.

@Denice Walter:

And just the other day she informed us ( @ AoA) that she is now studying karate, kick boxing and Okinawan weapons in order to secure a black belt prior to her next birthday.

Pfff! I practised Jundokan style Karate for five years and I only got to blue belt. (The belt system is White, Yellow, Orange, Green, Blue, Brown, Black). If she thinks she’s going to get a black belt in one year she’s dreaming.

Judo seems a good choice for Kim. It is ancient and ‘eastern’ and you follow strict rules and guidelines set down by masters with little opportunity and less desire for change. Perfect for Kim.

A year is much shorter than the average though. I was brown after 3 years. The belt color thing is marketing, not the real system. I had it described thusly: The young neophyte got a white belt and never washed it. When it had gotten darker with age and use his status rose until, when the belt was black with age, he was considered a black belt. A lot of sweat, and falls, learning and mistakes went into attaining a black belt.

Well she has already attained an 8th degree blackbelt in Warrior Mommy Martyrdom, how hard can the others be?

You know, there’s a similar phenomenon ** in tennis: a person starts out and makes predictions that they’ll be ranked as say, intermediate, in a year or so- not realising that the ranking system has nothing to do with what your wishes, feelings or self-evaluation mandates BUT what a trained instructor sees when observing you while hitting with you: thus it reflects a sum of various skills attained to particular levels as designated by a set of rules.***

Enthusiam, self-promotion and fervid scampering are not appropriate substitutes for expertise in using a racquet to make the ball do what you want and knowing ‘where to be’ on the court in response to others’ actions.

And I expect that warrior moms don’t get any extra points in martial arts for unrealistic self-evaluation and gung-ho attitude.

It’s what you can do, not what you want, kids.

** there’s also Dunning-Kruger- in-expert and un-aware
*** it almost sounds like science!

Denise, thank you for introducing me to my newest discipline: Fervid Scampering™.

I’m calling out the troops who wish to join me in wallowing in the muck at the Ho-Po.

David Kirby is on the move again, claiming two recent court cases heard in the Vaccine Court were decided because of vaccine-induced ASDs. I’ve got two comments in moderation, one in reply to Dachel. (Funny thing about Dachel’s post it actually is on topic. I think her spamming bot has been banned at the Ho-Po)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/post2468343_b_2468343.html#postComment

Science Mom has a great post up about these two cases along with the link to a hearing re: Ryan Mojabi, for good ammunition which I used for my pending comment at the Ho-Po.

http://justthevax.blogspot.com/2013/01/mmr-encephalitis-nvicp-decision.html

@ Pareidolius:

Be cautious:
if we are to learn anything from experience:
fervid scampering if left untreated. will soon deteriorate into
furtive scurrying which will lead to intractable and inevitable
futile scrambling.

Be so forewarned.

@ Lilady, thank you but I only wrote about the Mojabi case. The other, Lowrie supporting documents can be found here: http://www.uscfc.uscourts.gov/search/node/lowrie

Sorry but Mrs. Lowrie (Emily’s mum) is full o bollocks when she claims she was “grilled for four hours”. The special masters aren’t going to let a petitioner “get grilled” for that amount of time unless the petitioner or witness agrees to stay on the stand. I’m seeing another “warrior mum” making an AutismOne special appearance in the making to exploit her child.

Sorry but Mrs. Lowrie (Emily’s mum) is full o bollocks when she claims she was “grilled for four hours”. The special masters aren’t going to let a petitioner “get grilled” for that amount of time unless the petitioner or witness agrees to stay on the stand.

I’m not sure what the origin of this four-hours bit is, but keep in mind that, by and large, it’s the job of the Special Master to be asking the questions in oral testimony. Opposing counsel, as it were, only gets to do so with permission.

@ Narad, I have little doubt that a “four-hour grilling” is little more than hyperbole meant to garner sympathy. From all of the transcripts I have read of the OAP, the special masters have been consistently sympathetic towards petitioners and none have “grilled for hours”.

Thanks Science Mom for supporting documents on the Lowrie case. I read it thoroughly and the mother who claims she was “badgered for four hours on the stand” is full of it. Narad, the “four hour badgering” is from the interviews given by Emily’s mother, Jillian Moller.

Toward the end of that document the maternal grandfather testified that he and his wife sought and got conservatorship of three year old Emily…because of the mother’s “stress”.

I just posted again on the Ho-Po and linked to that document along with a comment about the grandparents’ conservatorship. Let’s see if the comment makes it out of moderation.

Before Kim S became a warrior mum, she was in my line of work: fiction writing. I had several run-ins with her in that regard, and it was kind of the same schtick. If an agent or publisher rejected her, they were out to get her, it was a conspiracy, she was being blackballed. I remember her attacking a well known agent who had the misfortune to reject her pregnancy memoir due to a stated lack of interest, when the agent proceeded to get pregnant herself.

I did feel a lot of sympathy for her at the time, because I couldn’t imagine how hard it must be to find time to write with all the stress of caring for her children. She had a good sense of humor about it, I remember. Sometimes her kids would take over her keyboard and send out jumbled emails or delete vast swaths of her work. I suppose it’s better she directs her frustrations outward?

Better for her, perhaps. For the rest of us? The children of parents she convinces not to have them vaccinated? The very young, the elderly, all those who for valid medical reasons aren’t suitable candidates for immunization and must rely on herd immunity for protection from infectious otentially life-threatening diseases like pertussis and influenza, etc? Not so much.

If she thinks she’s going to get a black belt in one year she’s dreaming.

I suspect she joined one of those fly-by-night dojos who promise you a black belt in X amount of time if you pre-pay. If not, she’ll be quitting soon enough and blaming her sensei for not recognizing her greatness.

It took me about seven years to get mine. My test was four hours long, definitely not for wimps.

Black Belt? I am one of those weirdos that studied iaido, belts were never a part of it. Whenever I hear someone say they have a black belt as though it is a sign of pure awesomeness I roll my eyes. It is more like the beginning of basic competence, a starting point, not some master level grade of asskicking.

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