There’s a general rule that whenever you see two enemies fighting with each other that you should generally just let them. Of course, some might argue, as Gandalf did about Saruman and Sauron, that the winner of the fight would emerge stronger and free of doubt, making him harder to conquer. Fortunately, I don’t think this will be a problem in this case in the battle I’m about to discuss. There’s also the saying that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, but unfortunately I don’t think that that saying applies here either. In this case, it’s a question of which of the two combatants I consider most vile, and that’s an easy decision. It’s Patrick “Tim” Bolen, hands down.
What am I referring to? Well, it appears that over the weekend the internecine war between antivaccinationists, started by young antivaccine activist Jake Crosby when he decided somehow that the antivaccine organization SafeMinds and its allies, the the crew at the antivaccine crank blog Age of Autism (AoA), had betrayed the purity of the antivaccine (more specifically, anti-thimerosal) cause by somehow insinuating its operatives into a Congressional hearing on autism held by Representative Darrel Issa as the last hurrah for that long serving, most prominent antivaccine member of Congress, Representative Dan Burton. Basically, young Mr. Crosby somehow got it in his head that SafeMinds had “taken over” the antivaccine side of the hearing and frozen out his favored witness, Brian Hooker. So enraged was young Mr. Crosby by this slight that he not only allied himself with uber-crank Patrick “Tim” Bolen, but he published a bunch of excerpts of private e-mails shared among the inner circle of SafeMinds. He even published all of his accusations, e-mails and all, on Bolen’s website. Eventually, apparently even the erstwhile managing editor of AoA was unable to tolerate young Mr. Crosby’s antics anymore and kicked him off the blog. The (young) Frankenstein monster had turned upon its creator. Truly, in one fell swoop, young Mr. Crosby had justified his having been selected for an entry in the Encyclopedia of American Loons.
So what’s going on now?
After a period where the internecine war appeared to be cooling down, I now see that Patrick “Tim” Bolen and one of our favorite antivaccine activists, Ginger Taylor, are going at it, with Ginger starting the ball rolling this Saturday by posting a broadside against Bolen on her Facebook page and then later reposting it on AoA. Then, just yesterday, she followed up on her own blog by posting an e-mail exchange between Bolen and her. Truly, hilarity did ensue this weekend, and I loved every word of it. Moreover, besides my simple enjoyment of the schadenfreude that comes from watching two opponents rip each other to shreds, I actually learned a couple of things. For instance, I learned that a woman named Jennifer Larson, who is described as being Mark Blaxill’s girlfriend or mistress, donated $40,000 to Representative Darrell Issa’s Republican Party PAC. At least, that’s what Bolen claimed in one of his posts on the matter:
Darrel Issa was there because, my informants tell me, Mark Blaxill’s girlfriend, Jennifer Larson, donated $40,000, at the last minute, to Issa’s Republican Party PAC to get him there.
He also repeated the claim in one of his e-mails:
I simply can not get by the expenditure of $40,000 to have your picture taken with Darrell Issa – for that’s all you got out of it. And you claim to be so poor…
I, Tim Bolen, am very much thinking of Autism families – but your “Ken and Barbie” operation stinks.
Want me off of your back? Show me a breakdown plan, with an operating schedule, to solve the problem. I find it hard to believe that there is no one within the Autism Leadership that does not know how to do a situational analysis.
Of course, as Peter Bowditch frequently points out, you can’t take anything Bolen says at face value. He couldn’t even give a straight answer about his home address while being deposed in a lawsuit. So take the above with a grain of salt. It would, however, explain a lot. Also, Taylor herself thinks that Issa is totally on board with the antivaccine agenda. She even said so in her post on AoA:
The reality is that there are a bunch of us from all these groups, and EBCALA and GR and insert all the groups you have known and loved here… are working together on … well everything. State vaccine legislation, following up on the OGR 1 in 88 hearings, prepping for the OGR VICP hearings that Issa has committed to this fall… and it is going AWESOME!
On her Facebook page, Taylor even brags that Issa has even set a date for more hearings of the committee he chairs, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Oh, goody. We can apparently look forward to a repeat of the mummers’ farce on autism held last November. Just what we need.
In a way, I almost feel sorry for Taylor and the AoA, Canary Party, and SafeMinds crews. Bolen is, in my not-so-humble opinion, a vile piece of work. He used to be Hulda Clark’s PR person, and, Chihuahua-like, he would yip and nip at the heels of anyone who criticized Hulda Clark for being, well, a quack. He was particularly notorious for threatening to sue anyone who had the temerity to point out Hulda Clark’s quackery or to criticize Bolen himself, often demanding information to which he had no right in the process. Whenever his bluff was called, he never actually carried through. For instance, nearly nine years ago Australia Skeptic Peter Bowditch, while on a trip to southern California, offered to meet Bolen at his office to receive legal documents signifying a lawsuit that Bolen had been threatening. Bolen never showed:
When I first announced that I was going to the USA, everyone’s favourite PR man, spokesgoon Tim Bolen, suggested that lawyers and other people should meet me at various places to issue legal documents and otherwise show their displeasure at my existence. I thought I would make it easier for Tim by calling in to his office. He runs his PR business from an address in San Juan Capistrano, and the domains for his web sites are registered to the same address. As this address is a post office box inside a small stationery shop, I told Tim on several occasions when I was coming so that he could rearrange the desks and make room for both of us and our coffee cups inside the box. Unfortunately he must have lost his diary because when I called he wasn’t there. In case it was his day off, I returned a couple of days later to see if I could catch him in, but I missed him again. This was a great disappointment and I was forced to sit outside and console myself by reading the real estate prices in the local paper.
In other words, alas, I fear that Ms. Taylor has nothing to worry about when it comes to Bolen’s blustery threats to sue her. While it would truly be amusing to watch the sparks fly as a result of Bolen suing Taylor, the odds of that happening are about the same as the odds that a molecule of a homeopathic remedy remains in a 30C homeopathic dilution; i.e., about as close to zero as it is possible to be. It’s all bluster, same as it ever was. Bolen’s well-known reputation for making extravagant threats aside, when Hulda Clark, who had claimed that by “zapping” a certain liver fluke she could cure all cancers finally died (of cancer, of course), Bolen was adrift and without a patron. None of that stopped him from continuing to churn out his nonsensical paranoid conspiracy ramblings in his newsletter.
Eventually, Bolen drifted towards Autism, which makes Taylor’s introduction to her AoA piece quite hilarious to me, because she claims that most AoA readers probably had never heard of Bolen before. Yet not so long ago, AoA was happy to feature links to Bolen, for instance when he claimed to explain the status of Andrew Wakefield’s libel suit against Brian Deer. Let’s also forget that just last year, Autism One was trying to cozy up with the Health Freedom Expo, an annual quackfest in which Bolen is heavily involved. Bolen has also been a semiregular commenter at AoA for at least a year.
There are other interesting tidbits that this whole kerfuffle has revealed as well, besides the tighter-than-previously-suspected ties between Representative Darrell Issa and the antivaccine movement. For one thing, we learn from Bolen that attendance at the Autism One quackfest was 1,500. That’s actually a depressing bit of news, because it’s more than I would have guessed. Bolen might denigrate it as being too few and make the completely delusional claim that attendance should have been 25,000, but, alas, 1,500 is a pretty good turnout for a quackfest like this.
Finally, Bolen is writing threatening e-mails to what he considers to be the “autism leadership council,” which apparently consists of the leadership of Generation Rescue, the Canary Party, Autism One, the National Autism Association, and EBCALA. The crankery within the e-mail is truly amazing:
Autism Leadership Council
I want to thank all of you that commented on the recent shake-up of the existing Autism leadership – or, as I point out – the lack of Autism leadership.
This expose has just begun. Be assured that I, or my people, have checked out every situation that all of you told me about. The pattern that many of you described is just as you described – I’m sorry to say. No wonder Autism is still right here with us.
In conversations with many of you I have brought up a concern I have. It is time, I think, to talk about this more openly. It is the simple fact that there are only two answers available to the question “Why isn’t the Autism Community successful in any of its efforts?” The two possible answers are (1) The current Autism leadership is venal and stupid, or (2) They are a true Fifth Column.
So, let’s talk about that.
I have spent hours and hours listening to many of you describe how time after time, over the years, momentum to accomplish something begins, builds, and then gets co-opted and nullified by almost always, the same group of people. I find it hard to believe that time after time, year after year, “venal and stupid” wins. After all “venal and stupid” is venal and stupid. Venal and stupid doesn’t consistently win. I have a shocking series of Autism situation stories coming up. Stuff that only some of you know, and horrible stuff none of you already know, but should have been informed about.
Although my newsletter is primarily directed at what’s called “The North American Health Freedom Movement” I have developed a serious Autism readership – so, my words are going to have a direct effect . And, about time.
As you know, I have kept all of your comments private, and acted on them privately, without revealing the source. That policy continues. Send comments, and questions, to [email protected].
Yes, it is my intention to make change. I already see that happening. And, I absolutely love war.
Tim Bolen
http://www.bolenreport.com
“Venal and stupid”? Project much, “Tim”?
It is rather interesting to speculate, however, what the source of the “shocking series of Autism situation stories” Bolen is threatening to reveal. If there’s one thing that is most notable by its absence, both in Taylor’s AoA post and the post on her own blog, it’s the complete lack of mention of the likely source of every bit of “dirt” Bolen has on the “autism leadership.” Yes, I’m talking about Jake Crosby. One wonders how many e-mails he’s given Bolen access to. Time will tell.
Another bit of information, unintentionally revealed by Taylor, is that perhaps all is not well between the various groups fighting the good antivaccine fight. When I read her post on AoA, one thing that struck me about it is how much she protested that everything was puppies and butterflies between the various affiliated antivaccine groups, that “Diane Miller, Brian Hooker, Mark Blaxill, Jennifer Larson, the rest of CP leadership, AutismOne leadership, Health Freedom leadership… we are all getting along great!” It comes across as protesting too much.
Again, as opprobrium as I’ve heaped upon AoA over the years, I actually do almost feel sorry for them. AoA has a lot of crazy in it, but its members have no idea the levels of crazy to which Bolen routinely aspires.
244 replies on “Get out the popcorn! This internecine war among antivaccinationists is getting interesting (part 5)”
Australia Skeptic Peter Bowditch, while on a trip to southern California, offered to meet Bolen at his office to receive legal documents signifying a lawsuit that Bolen had been threatening. Bolen never showed:
The most famous [classic blunder’] is ‘Never get involved in a land war in Asia,’ but only slightly less well known is this: ‘Never go in against an Australian in a battle of invective’.
One odd thing that Crosby keeps mentioning is that he has effectively been exiled from “Age of Autism”, yet he is still listed as an “AoA” contributor. It seems that even though “AoA” still offers access to his articles, his ties with the blog are now so decimated that they treat him as an unperson.
Oh, and Crosby just posted a link to one of Bolen’s latest rants on his Twitter: http://bolenreport.com/Mark%20Geier/autism%20infighting5.htm
Crosby is turning into the Edward Snowden of the anti-vaccine movement, only he’s even less endearing than Snowden.
Oh, this goes without saying, but Ginger didn’t understand that and went to the length of publicly declaring herself judgement-proof, which is to say, inviting Bolen to drop a dime on an action that she can’t defend.
Bolen, threadbare jizzmop that he is, has played Taylor like a well broken in mouth organ. The DMCA angle over the photo is side-splitting, because you know that Pattimmy would counternotice just for the hell of it (and he’d probably be in the right, in any event).
Well, the hilarious thing is that one time I posted a few pictures from the “march on Washington” with Jenny McCarthy that Ginger had posted. She sent me an e-mail demanding that I take them down. I complied, because to me it seemed the right thing to do. Note the contrast with Bolen.
The AoA commentariat — and, indeed, the principals — make Bolen look like a thoroughly rational Machiavellian by comparison. They’ve earned this. I have no sympathy whatever.
Except that Bolen is very likely correct that his is fair use. If he were smarter, he could just switch the image link to wherever he found them in the first place, make Ginger disappear them, and then point to her obvious effort to hide the shenanigans.
“Venal and stupid doesn’t consistently win.” If I needed any extra evidence that his true address is 13 Cuckoo Str., Cloud City, Lalaland, this is it.
There is something incredibly fascinating about the whole exchange between Ginger and Bolne. It is like looking at two mirrors pointed at each other crossed with poetic of train wreck. Or like listening to two kids shouting “No, you!” at each other.
I don’t see where the whole “Ken and Barbie” thing is being denied by anyone. I mean, it doesn’t matter to me. It’s all between adults, but it is interesting to read that over and over from Patrick Timothy Bolen and no one on AoA categorically denying it. If they were going to “not dignify that with a response,” you think they would ignore Patrick Timothy Bolen all together. The lines between fact and fiction are always so blurred with these people.
@Ren
There IS no line between fact and fiction….or is that reality and fantasy…for these people. It wasn’t until I started reading this blog that I realized how loopy they are.
@elburto (for posts past)
I want to thank you for opening my eyes to how the world displays ableism. You caused me a few hours of deep reflection (never a bad thing, but difficult for a dedicated smart@ss like me). Plus,most of the time you are spot-on hilarious.
Taylor even brags that Issa has even set a date for more hearings of the committee he chairs, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
Which is likely to make this even more of a circus than it already is. Issa has a reputation for using his committee to look for scandals that aren’t there (Benghazi and the IRS thing, to name two), and he has a longstanding whiff of scandal about himself. You could probably find more disreputable congressmen, but it would take some effort.
We know from that email exchange that Ginger claims poverty, but her husband has a business that recently expanded (June, 2013), which manufactures custom-built bunk beds. At the time that the Canary Party was founded two years ago, Ginger became the salaried Executive director…so she isn’t judgement-proof.
Ginger also emailed Bolen that the Canary Party is Not a not-for-profit (503 C) which has to file tax forms. During that video interview between “Tex” of the Thinking Moms Revolution group and Ginger, that I linked to yesterday, Ginger explained that the Canary Party is a PAC (Political Action Committee), through which donors from those not-for-profit organizations can donate money to support candidates for election/reelection to public office.
Way after it was publicized that Autism One had snagged former Congressman Burton and current Congressmen Posey and Weldon to appear on their “Congressional Panel” at this year’s Quack Fest.. Autism One made an announcement that they had snagged Issa for the Panel on their website. On the Autism One Facebook page, credit was given to The Canary Party for “arranging for Issa to appear”.
We may never know which not-for-profit (or which individual donor) washed the $ 40,000 through the Canary Party coffers, but Bolen “credits” Jennifer Larson for that donation.
Does Jennifer Van Der Horst-Larson have the resources to donate the $ 40,000 to snag Issa…and to put her friend Mark Blaxill in the forefront of the Congressional Hearing last year?
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/13/business/smallbusiness/13hunt.html?_r=0
Good grief, this is just crazy people arguing with themselves. Train wreck indeed.
Train wreck..yes indeed…and we have front row seats. 🙂
That e-mail exchange is truly one for the ages. I have to profess my admiration for Taylor’s ability to switch seamlessly between her Brave Warrior Mommy and Downtrodden Martyr Mommy personae in true SPDT (Self-Pitying Diva Tantrum) fashion. She does seem to clue in towards the end that playing the martyr card doesn’t work with I, Pattimmy Bobolen, as he revels in being a towering @$$hole.
And this made me laugh at loud, because Patrick called Tim called Bolen got (unintentionally?) close to the truth:
Not that he’s any better, but as the old saying goes, even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
Make that *laugh OUT loud.* Sigh.
<i<Again, as opprobrium as I’ve heaped upon AoA over the years, I actually do almost feel sorry for them
Made, bed, lie.
@Lilady
The evidence says “yes.” You have to wonder, though, is $40,000 enough? I believe that it’s not, that the politician in question must also be sold to the idea that vaccines are evil.
@Janet
There has to be a line. It may be buried in dirt, but it has to be there… Right? Please?
Again it rains- and not just a ‘gentle rain from heaven’ but the proverbial ‘buckets of rain’ so aptly described by the master-
rain always makes me feel morose and indeed, more likely to wax poetic or to muse contemplatively.
I ask myself: are we perhaps being too gleeful and even, mean, when we are actually above the mean so shouldn’t we therefore be more charitable to those who aren’t? Do we not have a little too much fun enumerating the many flaws and foibles that woo-meisters are heir to? Do we delightedly point to the many logical fallacies and ridiculous mis-uses and inadvertant slaughter of the language by alt media honchos that we tolerate willingly only because they are a source of immense and continous amusement and mirth?
Aren’t we a bit too self-satisfied with our elitist educations, highly remunerated careers, obviously ostentatious lifestyles, stunning wit and yes, our good looks? Aren’t we perhaps much too happy as we chime melodiously in unison, “I TOLD you so!” when an opponent of reason stumbles by faux pas?
Yes, we are ego-centric, self-regarding, solipcistic sceptics and we are PROUD of it!
Yes, we are a startling contrast to the humble and altruistic workers who toil without respite in the fields of anti-vax, writing, e-mailing, facebookeeping, meeting up and reporting as they theorise feverishly and reveal dastardly plots by the powerful in order to save children from a fate worse than death.
To be honest, I don’t think that we’re being awful: we’re accurately reporting what we read and hear and alright, we do elaborately describe our own flabbergasted reactions to atrocious writing and even more horrendous thought and yes, we create jokes at others’ expense
but they DO say and write these things.
And people listen to them. They have followers who sometimes act upon their advice- a pathway that can lead to diastrous events which would have been better to remain a part of our past rather than a harbinger of the future.
I don’t believe in censorship but I think that our reactions to utter nonsense should be considered our duty to air. People use the internet because they desire information as a way to improve their lives -especially in the area of health, including psychology-
alt media woo aims at that desire, exchanging its own fairy tales for scientific information and mis-representing itself as the exemplar of investigation into the nature of reality.
Thus, woo betrays its audience every time its leaders masquerade as experts and every time they falsify a report, fudge data, present spurious research or jump to conclusions from insufficient data. Followers who prescribe treatments based upon their own limited experiences and knowledge are no better.
It you say things publicly and advise people how to live their lives or how to manage their health ( or their chldrens’), you are responsible for the outcome. And you can’t blame THAT on pharma or the government.
@Science Mom – “I may be crazy, but that guy is nuts!!!”
That’s pretty much sums up that conversation…..
So, the Canary People gave Issa $40,000 to appear at Autism One…..which seems like a lot of money (but actually just a drop in the bucket), and you already see people complaining that the recent hearings did nothing for pushing forward their agenda….I wonder when they will start demanding their money back?
Issa already has a strong antiscience reputation which he demonstrated with his “questions” about climate science. That he wasn’t interested in hearing explanations and answers was evident in that he asked the next gotcha question before the scientist had finished demolishing the first. If memory serves, Dr. Richard Alley was the one schooling Issa, who really didn’t want to be schooled—it was wilful ignorance on display, although it can be difficult to tell that apart from pigheaded stupidity.
Never. True believers give their money to their leaders. When that money is not put to good use, they’ll justify it every which way they can’t. If your leader fails, you have failed, and many people can’t accept that.
Leaders take advantage of that and blame outside forces to justify failure, and to justify the financing of a helicopter:
h_ttp://www.blackenterprise.com/money/texas-megachurch-preacher-asks-members-to-pay-for-helicopter-upgrade/
As a non-scientist recovering from years of magical thinking, my main weapon is mockery. I stay away from the science (other than linking to citations) because unless I really grasp it, I’m not going to potentially humiliate myself or our intrepid little band. That’s one of the things that I learned coming from the other side: Don’t make sh*t up, you will get caught and it will be embarrassing. I did. It was. Glad that’s over. Now, back to my popcorn . . .
PACs have to register with the Federal Election Commission and file disclosure statements. I’m running on less than five hours’ sleep, but I ain’t finding no “Canary Party” at the FEC site.
@ Pareidolius:
You would never be the source of embarassment – your ‘friend’ is another story.
@ Narad:
5 hours of sleep? Welcome to my world.
So I suppose you’ll ONLY be as sharp as a tack today.
What I would like to ask Ginger (but don’t want to out myself to her) is the following:
What would “winning this war” actually mean? Would it mean that autism completely disappeared in the future? If so, then what is the Canary Party plan to make this happen? Eliminating all “toxins”, starting with vaccines?
Because they don’t seem to be really aiming at this goal, do they? Their main goal seems to be that the government admit culpability in the “autism epidemic” somehow, someway. And then what? I’m not really sure…
Blaxill had been fighting to get mercury removed from vaccines. That was the original raison d’etre of Safeminds. And that battle was won, but still the “autism epidemic” rages on. Don’t they realize that there is no autism epidemic, and their efforts are for naught? Poor Ginger would be better off spending time with her son.
Why is there this preoccupation with her attending the funerals of friend’s children in that email exchange with Bolen?
Broken Link wrote:
Presumably, once the powers that be have admited culpability, they’ll stop stuffing kids full of toxins for fun and profit?
It seems a common assumption among the conspiracy-minded that once the Truth is out and Evil is Exposed, everything will automatically fix itself. Presumably the People will not tolerate dastardliness once it’s exposed and our shadowy overlords have little hard power once their machinations are brought into the daylight.
I love you. It’s a disgustingly accurate description of PaTimmy.
The anti-vax brigade are like a litter of fractious, teething puppies. Nipping, biting, and depositing watery sh¡t everywhere they go. Unlike puppies though, they’re not cute and they don’t grow up.
@Janet – I could hug you right now. I’m actually in tears (the good kind though!) from your comment. I must get a trained helper-sloth (or a panda maybe) to cater to my emotions by bringing tissues and stroking my head. My fish refuse to adhere to the training schedule, even though I offered to adopt a semi-aquatic lifestyle in order to make their job easier. Sel-fish beasts!
When I was first alerted to how pervasive racism was, and how ignorant someone white like me can be to the everyday realities of life as a person of colour, I was horrified. I got that horrible hot, creeping flush in my face and down my neck, and that sickening, lurching guilt when I realised how startlingly arrogant I had been in declaring that racism just wasn’t as terrible here in the UK, that people reacting to certain words or phrases were merely “hypersensitive” or “politically correct”. It took me a while to realise that “You’re being too PC” is actually code for “You’re infringing on my right to be a thoughtless tosswomble”.
So thank you! I shall perform my happy-shuffle in your honour. Just picture a happy beluga whale with hair!
youtube.com/watch?v=ZS_6-IwMPjM
@ Lawrence, exactly!
@ Narad, so if the Canary Party is a PAC but isn’t registered with the FEC then what are they? Or rather, what aren’t they?
@Science Mom – that’s a good question. If they are group giving money to politicians / political campaigns, they have to be registered somewhere – either with the IRS or FEC (or both).
If they aren’t – well, that’s a whole heapin’ mess of violations right there.
@Science Mom – a search of the FEC.gov website shows no registration of the “Canary Party” as either a PAC or Political Party….could they be using another name?
@ Andreas Johansson:
But you see, once the truth about vaccination, implicating both SBM and governmental malfeasance, is revealed, the entire house of cards will come tumbling down thus signalling the long-anticipated tsunami of paradigm shift which will wash away all of their dirt:
the brave mavericks who have been waiting in the wings, unfairly scorned,
will acquire their rightful places as the thought-leaders and arbiters of reality
and they will dry every tear
and a New Jerusalem will arise.
No more vaccines
No more chemotherapy
No more GMOs
No more processed food
No more toxins
No more iatrogenic illnesses
No more psychiatric meds
No more contaminated water or soil
No more Monsanto
No more GSK or Merck
No more Draconis Zeneca
Oh no!
I think I just scared myself.
Their main goal seems to be that the government admit culpability in the “autism epidemic” somehow, someway. And then what? I’m not really sure…
It’s an “underpants gnomes” kind of plan:
1. Get the government to admit that “toxins” are causing autism.
2. ????
3. Profit!
@Denice- You scared me too, and I do not spook easily! Hell, I lived with my unpredictable, manipulative, evangelist, homeopath, wooligan, diet-obsessed mother for 25 years. A quarter of a century of arnica, abuse, and “Amen!”. I’m virtually bulletproof.
But your dystopian future up there? I almost want my mammy! I’ll take her over the future the Canariad envision.
The Canary Party call themselves a “movement”. They solicit donations through PayPal, but don’t say that they are tax deductible.
Might it be worthwhile to question PayPal about them?
@Broken Link – something really doesn’t smell right about this (not that it did before), but if they are soliciting for donations / giving money to candidates or members of Congress, there should be some official record somewhere – at least some kind of paperwork either with the IRS or FEC or both….and if not, well, that whole thing is Issa – I guess it depends on how the money was transferred – or is they have been conducting anything that would constitute “lobbying.”
From FB, Jake chimes in:
Yesterday at 12:05pm · Like
Jacob Lawrence Crosby “So for the record… Diane Miller, Brian Hooker, Mark Blaxill, Jennifer Larson, the rest of CP leadership, AutismOne leadership, Health Freedom leadership… we are all getting along great! Spent the week on an email thread with Blaxill and Hooker (who are friends and colleagues) as I was working on boiling down the 1 in 88 OGR testimony to the most important points to submit to the judge for the MN hearings on the vaccine schedule… We work with Hooker every week, he sends me nice notes, and we are total pals!”
None of which changes Mark Blaxill/CP leadership’s attempt to bribe AutismOne into dis-inviting Tim Bolen for running this piece I wrote, the facts outlined in this piece including Mark’s involvement which he still refuses to address…
http://www.bolenreport.com/feature_articles/Jake%20Crosby%20on%20SafeMinds.htm
…or the pressure under which Dr. Brian Hooker was coerced to “work” with Canary Party leadership. One by-product of that “work” was a Canary Party press release asking for the upcoming hearing to be about VICP – an inherently failed system already – rather than being specifically about the government malfeasance as requested by Dr. Hooker and promised by Jen Larson, who gave COGR Chairman Issa’s PAC $40,000 just for him to come to AutismOne btw.
And if Tim Bolen is only in it for the money, what does that make you Ginger? Because I don’t see you divulging the $562/week salary you’ve drawn from Mark/Canary Party in that dense bio of yours or on your own blog where you refer to yourself as a “volunteer.” And while we’re at it, how about past Canary Party Executive Director Kate Weisman, AoA editors Kim Stagliano and Dan Olmsted (who kicked me off as a contributor despite still listing me as contributor, undoubtedly at you-know-who’s request) and anyone else who’s received/receives a salary from Mark Blaxill/Canary Party divulge their financial relationships as well? Why stop at Tim Bolen’s finances when your own past and potentially prospective financial earnings have and could come directly from Mark Blaxill/CP leadership?
SafeMinds Steals The Show, Literally…
http://www.bolenreport.com
On Thursday June 17th, 2010 The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed formal charges against the North Carolina Dental Board, saying:
12 hours ago · Like
Ginger Taylor Happy to address your points, Jake.
I am attacking Bolen because 1. He poses as a disinterested party/pure advocate when he is getting paid/wants to get paid more. 2. He is trying to get paid for something he has never actually done or delivered. 3. He lies constantly about people who ARE delivering and getting things done, whether or not they are getting paid, and even when it costs them hundreds of thousands of their own dollars.
He is a BAD FAITH PLAYER… he has done zero to help our kids and I am not going to sit by one more minute and let the people in our community think that this guy is anything other than a sleazy opportunists lying to them to make a buck off the backs of their kids, while doing jack squat for the kids.
He has no place in our community, he should not be speaking at our events, and over my dead body is one vulnerable, sleepless, fried autism mom going to be taken in by this jerk if I have a chance of calling him out. I think he is kind of a con-man, Jake… and gives me a stomach ache that you have anything to do with him. I don’t know what your relationship is with him, but I feel like he is using you. I hate it, I wish you would run for your life from this guy, and it breaks my heart that you are so hostile to those who have cared about you for so many years and are even within a thousand miles of Bolen.
Tim Bolen is 1. A very destructive guy and 2. Hasn’t actually offered anything to our movement. The idea that he can launch bad faith attacks on the sponsors of a convention and then be a speaker there, well that is kinda of nuts.
No company/business/org PAYS money to sponsor an event where they are going to be unfairly attacked and lied about.
When he started this campaign attacking our community, many people reached out to him in good faith (including me) baffled at what was happening, to try to sort things out. He never had any intention of figuring out what was really going on or how to make things better… he was just being an opportunist.
As I said, Jennifer Larson contacted him early in this and asked to talk, and he refused to talk to her! He just sent back a note saying, “I wouldn’t want to ruin your day.” Then proceeded to make smarmy speculation on her sex life!!
He is a bad faith player. That is the nicest way I can put it.
And again… he has been making grand claims to people in our community (including me) for a year, about how he was going to take the bull by the horns and blow this whole problem out of the water. He is quite a grandiose guy, and he has not done one damn thing.
In fact, when CP members in California last year were fighting the bill attacking vaccine exemptions, he CALLED THEM to lecture those vaccine injury moms (and even one who lost a child) on how they should be happy the bill is not worse, and just compromise on it. Offered no help. He would not even send word about it out on his news letter to help them gain attention to the problem. This is the guy that is going to solve the vaccine epidemic??? The jerk who says we “won’t say the “V” word?”
The ONLY thing that he has actually done is to moderate a vaccine panel at the Health Freedom Expo last year in Chicago. The Geiers and Andy Wakefield spoke, he held the mic and introduced them, and asked 101 vaccine problem level questions, and talked about how they were attacked for their views. I sat in the audience and thought, “Fine, I guess. The HFE crowd does not really vaccinate anyway, the room was half full, this is fine for the venue.”
Then, after he began his bad faith attacks on the orgs anchoring our movement and AO, we find that he is moderating the vaccine panel at AO? Like a high school freshman offering college course! The guy is a joke, Jake. Having him speak at AO would have been an embarrassment. Even if he had not been a jerk to half our orgs.
And Brian Hooker being “coerced” to work with CP? I honestly have no idea what you are talking about.
And on the money issues you mention. The Canary Party’s money is the Canary Party’s money, and we spend it as best we can in order to try to move the problem forward where we see opportunities. We are not a non profit, we are not taking tax deductible donations. This is all private people spending their own money. And we almost never even ask our rank and file for donations. I think in two years we have sent out one fundraising letter. Our money comes from larger donors who are pissed at the government for what they have done to our kids. If our doners are upset with how money is spent, then they have every right to complain to us or to not donate any more.
But the only complaints I have heard on how we spend our money are (a total of three people) who don’t donate to the Canary Party. And you and Bolen are two of them.
And this bizarre complaint of Jennifer spending money? That is the biggest WTF moment for me in all this. If Jennifer Larson spent $40,000.00 of HER OWN MONEY to get the most powerful watchdog in the nation to show up at AO, sit at round table discussions with our leaders, lawyers and hear parents horror stories… in order to try to get more hearings… IN WHAT FUCKING UNIVERSE IS THAT A BAD THING!!!!???? Pardon my french… but how bassakward is that accusation! Because what comes to mind when I hear that was, “THANK YOU, JENNIFER LARSON FOR USING YOUR RESOURCES TO GET POWERFUL PEOPLE IN WASHINGTON TO LISTEN TO US!!!” Good, Lord. I can’t even believe you fell for that. Did Bolen put that in your head? Totally insane. This is how insane that is:
“How dare you, Jennifer Larson, spend that much of your own private money to get Issa’s ear and give it to struggling autism parents! And then not tell anyone what it cost you to open that door! You should have taken out full page ads in the NYT patting yourself on the back for all the money you spend trying to end the autism epidemic and recover children! Clearly you are hiding something! You should just stay at home with your severe non-verbal child who only sleeps two hours a night and stop doing things… you selfish bitch!”
THIS WAS A VERY, VERY, VERY GOOD THING! Not a bad thing!
(edited for grammar and accuracy)
cont..
2 hours ago · Edited · Like
Ginger Taylor …
As for myself… I absolutely do disclose to everyone that I WAS a paid employee of the Canary Party, which is why you have a dollar amount to post on this page in the first place. Because I sent an email straight to your home with that dollar am…See More
2 hours ago · Edited · Like
Ginger Taylor …
I love you, Jake… You know how proud I have been of the amazing work that you have done for years. You have always been good at listening to the advice of those who have been at this longer than you and making your work better and better… what changed? I just see you as wielding a machete at random and slicing everyone up… including yourself. No one can get near you. I don’t understand this, and I don’t understand what you expect to happen as a result of all this.
So for you… where does this end? What is it that you are working toward, or want out of this? What do you feel you are owed? Because I get the sense that you feel entitled to some things that might be unreasonable expectations.
This sustained public attack (which is not even completely factual) while people have spent months trying to address things privately… well it just can’t be sustained. The result now is that people are just privately saying, “Well we hope Jake comes around and will sit down and talk with us again. But time to move on.”
So I am making one last and public attempt… If there is something that I have done that you think is wrong, or harmful to you, or if I have hurt or mistreated you, then please respond to the private emails I have sent you, or call me, and we can talk about it like real friends and colleagues and human beings.
But being paid for a job, which I have not only disclosed but given dollar amounts for, is not a crime. It is completely normal. Defending dishonest attacks on my friends and colleagues, is not wrong… it is right. And I have done the same thing for you when you were falsely attacked… and no one paid me for it then either.
http://adventuresinautism.blogspot.com/2011/12/mnookincrosby.html
http://adventuresinautism.blogspot.com/2011/12/offitcrosby.html
http://adventuresinautism.blogspot.com/2012/01/offit-teaches-physicians-how-to-talk-to.html
If you want to, in good faith, try to fix things…. please get in touch. I hate the way things are right now.
Adventures in Autism: Mnookin/Crosby
adventuresinautism.blogspot.com
Please update us with any response you receive. Are we taking bets? I place mine on no response because you asked such specific questions which shine a bold spotlight on his lies. He has no response, and he knows it.
3 hours ago · Like
You have to wonder, though, is $40,000 enough? I believe that it’s not, that the politician in question must also be sold to the idea that vaccines are evil.
So the question is whether he *stays* bought.
And so Ginger tries one last time to bring Jake back into the fold. I doubt it’ll happen. Too much bad blood now, and, even if Jake did come back into the fold, no one would trust him anymore. The attempt, however, will be amusing. Nor should anyone trust Jake. His turning on his allies and publicly airing their dirt and private e-mails has made him so toxic that anyone who trusts him again is a fool without some serious actions on Jake’s part to make amends and then a long probationary period for him to prove himself trustworthy. Bolen is all that’s left for him.
Wow – they taught Jake all he knows, and now they are upset when he uses his skills against them?
Open Pandora’s box and you never know what you are going to get.
I have to admit, I am enjoying this.
And, Jake continues to deny that he deep-throated Bolen about all the dirty dealings of AoA with setting up the sham autism Congressional hearings, the wining and dining of the Congressmen and their wives by Wakefield and Hooker to “set the agenda” of those hearings…and that friendship between Blaxill and Larson.
Poor Jake. He’s trying to disavow his association with Bolen, by claiming he is not the epi-wanna be rogue who turned on his handlers.
https://twitter.com/JakeLCrosby
Looks like Jake’s only “career choice” is to be Bolen’s lapdog.
Oh well, I guess we have little to do but watch as they tear each other to bits…
On to bigger game for us.
PS
@ elburto:
Sometimes my visionary mode scares me as well.
Blast that f@cking Muse he’s been dropping by again.
@elburto
I used to have a dog (my very first golden retriever, a very simpatico beast) who taught himself how to bring me tissues. As for the happy shuffle, I will join you–I broke my stupid ankle AGAIN on Friday, in a different place than the last time. Also, I had the same very uncomfortable epiphany about racism, only I think I was a clueless ditwad, rather than a thoughtless tosswomble.
@Denice
“no more GSK or Merck”
As long as they don’t shut down Merial
(That’s who manufactures “my” vaccine, and of course, that’s all that matters.) :::running away now:::
Slightly OT: looks like our “friend,” AoA Media Editor Ann Dachel, has (along with some other AoA folks) been pumping out the antivax over at SciAm: see comments for this post. It’s obvious that all it takes is the keyword “Autism” to release the flying monkeys from the AoA cave.
Is there a link for this? I’m having a hard time parsing the cut-and-pasted version.
Anyway (PDF):
@Narad – looks like someone “paid” Issa to attend (40k is steep for a simple speaking engagement).
If so, it may skirt the FEC rules. Of course, I still believe the Canary Party should be registered with the FEC because of their political and lobbying activities.
I’ll submit a FOIA request tomorrow.
The money to pay Ginger $562 a month, or whatever it was, had to come from somewhere.
I *managed* to mess up my lower right leg…because I violated my principle of not doing heavy-duty cleaning tasks. Last week I was scrubbing the furniture on my back deck and *overdid it*. I’ve been been chomping on pain killers because I probably have a stress fx. or a shin splint of my tibia or fibula…appointment with my ortho tomorrow.
The “Golden Years”…not. 🙂
@Narad – paid staff for a “political party” – that definitely seems to qualify.
I’ll actually enjoy submitting this particular FOIA request….
@Janet – OWWWW! You poor thing, that sounds bloody awful. Pity you couldn’t borrow mine, they’re lying here doing nothing!
Your dog sounds super cute. I had a fantastic black lab. When I was sad she used to try and shove her teddy bear under my chin, and would nuzzle my ears till I laughed. She was hilarious, she had to carry the umbrella on our walks, if it rained? Tough! I ended up having to take one for me and one for her. If it wasn’t raining then she would carry my mobile phone, and bring it back to me if it rang!
Hugs for the broken bits, from this reformed tosswomble.
@Denice – Cherish that muse of yours. A good, twisted muse is a pharma shill’s best friend.
@Broken Link – Wow. That is a terrifying look inside the cult of AOA. How the hell is demonising vaccination helping anything? As for advocating that parents shove bleach into into every orifice of their autistic children, what good does that do? The only people they help is themselves. They have made no contribution to the understanding of ASDs, to increasing the quality of research, or changing lives for the better. They’re living in fantasy land.
One might be surprised to find that I see irony in the above…take for example Ginger stating:
“one vulnerable, sleepless, fried autism mom going to be taken in by this jerk”
Gee, if anyone else points out that people can take advantage of autism parents for being vulnerable (say…oh…DAN doctors), one is immediately informed that autism moms are warriors and not prone to being vulnerable.
You too lilady? Please be careful people!! I thought my magical spontaneously dislocating kneecap was a pain*, but all I have to do is lie here, I don’t have to do anything productive.
OK, I’m sending out my patented iFent to you both. It’s aerosolised fentanyl that can be transmitted over internet protocol. It’ll knock the ouches on the head!
*While it is terribly painful for me, please direct all sympathy toward Other Mrs elburto. After all, it is her ears that bear the brunt of my diamond-shattering screams.
“Our money comes from larger donors who are pissed at the government for what they have done to our kids.”
Sometimes the wealthy are the easiest to fool. They think they are right all the time (JB Handley) and are taken in by hucksters (Rashid Buttar) and after giving away their money on bull-shite (TD-DMPS) they end up convincing themselves so much that they start throwing their own money at advertising the very people who took them for a ride (starting generation rescue, buying print advertisements).
Maybe Handley is too smart to throw much away any more. Blaxill is probably still dumping his own money into these lost causes. Add Gary K (the chiropractor in Florida), the guy who seems to be sponsoring Brian Hooker (focus autism), Claire Dwoskin, the people supporting Andy Wakefield.
Where DAN went for volume, lots of parents with their meagre savings, others have gone for the big game in these scams. Again, people with deep pockets seem to think they are immune (heh) to being fooled. The hucksters count on that.
Thanks Elburto, for that wonderful whiff of iFent (TM)…It enabled me to hop (literally) into the tub for a hot shower.
Mr. lilady is very helpful and contrite…after he crushed and gashed my finger between two window panes last month.
I’ll catch you later; time for me to continue reading Dr. Offit’s book.
Sorry, I can’t provide the public link for the “Ginger Taylor responds to Jake” posting on FB. It’s only available for friends of Ginger’s.
Even more on the thread between Ginger and Jake, with now Erik Nanstiel chiming in:
Jacob Lawrence Crosby: Ginger, despite claiming you are happy to address my points – you have not addressed a single one. My points are that Mark hijacked the last hearing and is currently hijacking the next hearing, too. I suppose it’s no surprise seeing that Mark won’t address them, either. When I posted a link to my original article about this on one of his FB threads, he deleted my comment and unfriended me.
5 hours ago · Like
Mike Tara McMillan: I think its time you stopped dividing and started building up- sure we have ALL made mistakes, but what we need now is unity.
5 hours ago · Like · 1
Ginger Taylor: Mark did not hijack the hearings. SafeMinds was INVITED by OGR to be on the panel. Lyn was not available so Mark took her place. He testified as he was asked to, and was the only member of our community that was invited to do so. That is not “hijacking” it is accepting an invitation.
Mark has not hijacked the next hearings… He is part of a large team working on the hearings. No one has been scheduled to testify yet.
Jake… You have treated Mark very badly. He tried to reach out to you when this started and you rejected his overtures and attacked him publicly. I read the last email he sent you on this… he wanted to talk and you said something to the effect of you had all the information you needed, and then went after him.
When people treat others badly, they are left with either a choice to fight back, or walk away. Marks clearly has chosen the latter.
As I said, I don’t think that he is ever going to get into a public clash with you, as it would only harm both of you. Trust me when I say that he really is hurt by the way you have treated him and really wishes you would actually try to understand what is really going on and fix things.
Back to my last questions… where is this going? How many people are you going to after? What is it that you expect to happen here?
Because you have not exposed any great conspiracy against our kids interests, you seem just to be mad at Mark and Dan, and roping everyone else into this because they won’t… what… hate Mark with you?
Where are you going with this… where is the resolution? What is the fix? Who should be doing what, here?
5 hours ago · Like
Ginger Taylor: I’ll start with myself. What should *I* be doing here… in order to fix things?
5 hours ago · Like
Erik Nanstiel: Jake, I’m with Ginger here. I have a TON of respect for the incredible work you’ve done, but I don’t see things the way you do where Mark is concerned. I wish you could resolve this with Mark and find common ground. And even if someone doesn’t advocate the way in which you approve, that doesn’t stop you from delivering the message you want… but I’d hope it would be one that fights our corporate enemies, not divide a community that hasn’t finished coming together yet. And just because I”m disagreeing with you, doesn’t mean I don’t still respect you. I just think your incredible talent and energies would be better directed at big pharma.
3 hours ago · Like · 3
Erik Nanstiel: He defriended me. Sigh… sorry we couldn’t see eye to eye, Jake.
3 hours ago · Like
Jacob Lawrence Crosby: Ginger, you completely neglect how SafeMinds got itself invited and how Mark Blaxill got to be the only member of “our community” who was invited in the first place; it was via hijacking. That’s how Mark, even after leaving SafeMinds, continues to take control of the congressional hearings.
Lyn’s excuse for backing out is a separate issue, although her claim that she was picking up her son from his first college quarter that ended two whole weeks before the hearing is clearly bunk. Mark told me himself he pushed for her slot, so no prizes for guessing how he came to testify instead of her.
I have been very fair to Mark; I said he could call me anytime but he never did. I have corresponded with him frequently via email in the month before my first article on SafeMinds ran but none of his emails amounted to anything useful – he just kept avoiding my points as you’re doing now and tried to sidestep the issues by claiming SafeMinds would work more broadly with the community without going into any specifics. He then attacked me personally in his last email I assume you’re referring to, accusing me of lacking courage and calling my article low quality work after I outlined all the issues I raised in it to him. That’s all he would say.
Contrast that with Dan Olmsted’s short Ad Hom attack post in which he trashed my article as “bad journalism,” lied that it was “unsourced” and further lied that I didn’t give people like Mark Blaxill an opportunity to respond, when he and others were given ample time. Dan asked Kim Stagliano in email copying Mark and I to post his hit-piece “soonest,” and it went up within a half-hour of Dan asking her to. When I called Dan out for not giving me any time to respond, Mark Blaxill wrote: “Well join the club,” revealing that the post was just retaliatory – no surprises there given that Dan is also on Mark’s payroll.
What Mark needs to do is simply fess up to what he did, stop making discriminatory remarks about me because of my autism, stop interfering with the hearings and let them run their natural course. What you need to do is to stop lying for him and stop making discriminatory remarks about me because of my autism as well.
3 hours ago · Like
Jacob Lawrence Crosby: Erik, I defriended you after you told me I should learn how to talk to people. That is what you owe me an apology for, not for disagreeing with me.
3 hours ago · Like
Erik Nanstiel: Jake, you could learn a lot more diplomacy, that’s all I meant, and since I meant it, it’s not really something I could apologize for. I still like you. I still respect you. But we aren’t seeing eye to eye on this issue.
3 hours ago · Like
Jacob Lawrence Crosby: What you now claim you meant doesn’t change the offensive nature of what you said or that it is still something you owe me an apology for. But like I said earlier – speak for yourself.
3 hours ago · Like
Erik Nanstiel: Jake, everything’s so black and white for you, isn’t it? NO other perspectives or interpretations will work? What I said, I meant. If there was a perceived inflection or tone, I can only apologize for the WAY I said it… being that it came across harsh, perhaps. But I mean what I mean.
3 hours ago · Like
Ginger Taylor: Ok… going to address all this, but want to start with your last comment.
“What you need to do is to stop lying for him and stop making discriminatory remarks about me because of my autism as well.”
I don’t believe I have ever done that. If you feel I have somewhere, can you point it out to me?
3 hours ago · Like
Jacob Lawrence Crosby: Erik, I’ve shown you plenty of diplomacy in trying to get you to consider my point-of-view. Instead, you made off-base remarks about my neurological state while passing along messages to me from Mark, claiming to speak for him. Then suddenly you deny having anything to do with him and accuse me of trying to “bait” him on you, and that’s when I stopped tolerating your trolling and told you to go somewhere else. Your response was to tell me that I don’t know how to talk to people. That’s not a “perceived tone” or “inflection,” that’s what you said. Spin it anyway you like, but what you claim it means is contradicted not only by the content but also the context in which you said it. In any case, you’ve lost all your credibility with me.
about an hour ago · Like
Erik Nanstiel: Wow you and I have VERY different perceptions. You seem like you’re in a bad place, lately.
about an hour ago via mobile · Like
Jacob Lawrence Crosby Thank you for proving my point.
44 minutes ago · Like
Erik Nanstiel: Jake, you’re like a porcupine. You try to get close, because they seem nice… but ouch.
44 minutes ago · Like
Jacob Lawrence Crosby: And you’re like a…well, you ARE a troll.
37 minutes ago · Like
Erik Nanstiel: If people aren’t WITH every letter of what you say and challenge you on it… you go on the defensive. You twist, you interpret, you bend the facts to suit your insecurities. That’s the man I see. I see you alienating a lot of people in the process. Can’t you relax and just be the guy you were??
35 minutes ago · Like
Jacob Lawrence Crosby: Erik, I’m tired of your straw men, your Ad Hom attacks, your vapid accusations, your dismissing everything I say – all of it. Fortunately, most people I’ve encountered aren’t shameless apologists for Mark like you. Most people support what I’m doing and recognize I’ve always placed principal above relationships, with only a few disappointing exceptions like yourself.
18 minutes ago · Like
Erik Nanstiel: You got issues jake. You’re imploding.
15 minutes ago via mobile · Like
You know, Erik is actually right about this. Jake is imploding. I see that Ginger’s attempt to make peace with him is going about as well as I predicted. Whoever’s supplying these tidbits, please continue.
There aren’t enough irony meters on this planet to deal with this.
If these people hadn’t reproduced (well, thankfully, no little Jakies yet.) this would be hilarious. As it is, it’s terrifying.
That last FB exchange… Well, I know that scripture is not a often relevant to discussions here, topics usially being all about science, but one can’t help but be reminded of this little tidbit from Matthew 7:3
“There aren’t enough irony meters on this planet to deal with this.”
I’m about to explode!
$40,000 bought another hearing?
Jake is in DC, right? They told him to “walk the halls” of congress, right? Sounds to me like Jake should make visits to Issa’s office and others on the committee. Often. He should call and email and fax. Often. Tell them that he should be included in the supposed future hearing. He should represent the community. That he, as a budding epidemiologist and full fledged autistic, should have a seat at the table. Send them his writings. Send them his evidence. Often.
Can’t eat any more popcorn, but I feel compelled to chime in on the use of the term “jizzmop,” since we’re all about keeping it real here in the sexism/ableism/racism/whateverism department. The expression, while colorful and even euphonious, is nonetheless sex-negative slut shaming and/or homophobic. Not so cute when you think about it, and ultimately a feminine perjorative. I know, another zesty epithet off limits, what fun won’t we crush in our search for a kinder world?
^ We can put a man on the Moon, but we can’t find somebody who can slap a preview extension onto a vanilla-flavored WP install.
Folks, stay tuned tomorrow for another episode of “As the Vial (vile?) Turns”
Fascinating.
Well, not as intended, which was purely in the onanistic laundry sense.
I see a gun and a clock tower in Jake’s future. And no, I do NOT mean that as hyperbole.
Whitman seems an inapt metaphor. Spencer, perhaps.
OT –
A rarity? – Nancy Malik is conversing (after a fashion) rather than doing a hit’n’run and has offered up three research papers she says supports homeopathy. Those with time on their hands may like to offer their thoughts:
Although rivalries in Science are hardly unknown, it seems that the make-believe world of medical woo is fertile ground for battles such as this. It’s easy to carry on an argument over invented “facts” given that that’s all they deal with anyway.
OT for elburto: I completely missed your comment before about your aquatic friends. I’ve had my fish avatar for so long I completely forgot about it.
The fellow in the picture unfortunately is no longer with us. He’s an adolescent Fancy goldfish in the photo; unfortunately, a few months after reaching adulthood he fell prey to the swim bladder affliction Fancies are so prone to. I hand-fed him for over a year, and he got on pretty well, continuing to pull himself up from the bottom briefly to meet my hand or interact with his tank-mates. I’ve since given up on Fancies and turned to Comets. Healthier, and with care should hang around a decade or two.
@weirdnoise – Yeah, fancies will break your heart. My calico oranda went the same way. I even made her a flotation device that supported her, it let her swim and gave her a few extra months.
We hand-fed her home-made gel food, exercised her out of her flotation device, but in the end it all caught up with her, and she got that “End it” look in her eyes.
No more fancies after we lost her, never again. We’re strictly a comet family now, although we recently lost our foot-long Sarasa comet to SBD too. At least dropsy kills them for you….
(Apologies if I’ve just repeated my prior comment to you in full. My b12 injection was late this cycle, so my memory and cognition are shot to sh¡t. Watched a film on Netflix yesterday. Got to the one hour mark and realised I’d seen it. Last month. I’m like the mythical, nonexistent goldfish with the five second memory span)
@Pareidoleius – You’re right. I, like Narad, was seeing it in the laundry/cleaning implement sense, but I can see your point only too well. I’m sorry, I really should know better.
Like you said, idiom is populated with things that seem so ‘normal’, but have dark, cruel origins. I’ve scrubbed a lot of insults from my language over the last five years, luckily I seem to have no end of replacements running untapped in my fevered mind.
Hmm… Dungsponge, puscrumpet, oh, there’s ‘arsewipe’, an oldie but a goodie! I do like the ring of ‘Patimmy the puscrumpet’ though. Decisions, decisions.
And now, Jake’s mother, Nicole Crosby chimes in:
Nicole Crosby: Erik, whoever you are, I’ve seen a lot of posts from you, but I’ve never seen one that is about issues. You simply attack. You even mocked Jake for writing about Paul Offit. Is he someone you admire?
7 hours ago · Edited · Like
Erik Nanstiel: I never mocked jake for writing about Paul Offit! I wish he’d get back to it and stop wrestling with those who disagree with him about Mark.
7 hours ago via mobile · Like
Nicole Crosby: Yep, you did. I saw the FB comment. Everyone should have a right to express their opinion, even if you don’t like their opinion. Telling people you disagree with that they have “issues” and are “imploding” is nothing more than an ad hominem attack and reveals you’re unable to debate them on the facts.
7 hours ago · Like
Erik Nanstiel: Where did I ever mock him for writing about Paul Offit?? I hate Paul Offit. Long as we’re citing facts, here…
7 hours ago via mobile · Like
Nicole Crosby: That he was critical of someone you support only because he was “bored writing about Paul Offit” or words to that effect.
6 hours ago · Like
Erik Nanstiel: Your interpretive powers are similar to Jake’s. that does not constitute mocking him for writing about Paul Offfit.
6 hours ago via mobile · Like
Nicole Crosby: Put-down, insult, mocking, whatever – select whatever term you like. g’nite.
6 hours ago · Like ·
If anyone wishes to see the A1 “luminaries” posing and preening on the red carpet, the professional pics are here:
http://www.medleyportraits.com/p972676788
@Broken Link #77: And some people said my mother coddled *me*…
@Broken Link: I wish those pictures were labelled. From the few I looked at, I could only recognize one “AoA” blogger and Alexis Wineman.
If there’s anything that triggers my Online Nimrod Detector, it’s someone saying “Thank you for proving my point.”
There are occasional false positives, but the sensitivity is quite good.
Looking at AoA’s list of sponsors I see: Canary Party, Generation Rescue, Holland Center, National Autism Association, SafeMinds. At least three of them ( CP, HC, SM) are either Mark’s or Jennifer’s ( she runs HC – see website).
So I imagine they have more clout than others as they probably directly FUND a great deal of what goes on.
Jake, coming from Major Money, should understand this.
Broken Link, thanks for supplying us with that material.
I read through these conversations and really need to restrain myself from evaluating them from the perspective of my studies in clinical and developmental psych. I won’t go there. But here are a few observations:
they get caught up in inter-office ( for lack of a better term) politics and relationships AND make a big deal of what someone said about someone else at some time.
Jake may have set his career goals based on what he created at AoA and now has been shut out. He doesn’t mention his degree or any projects.
( perhaps our friend Reuben can fill us in about that).
Almost 2 years ago, I told Jake that his contrarian position would f@ck his chances for a SB career. Looks like it may have already done that and now his attitude and actions have f@cked his shot at a career in pseudo-science as well BECAUSE if antivax is your niche, AoA ( and related entities) are IT.
Am I pre-scient or just not blind?
@ Sebastian Jackson:
the large group photos are TMR- there are a few I can recognise.
@Denice: I didn’t know Jake came from Major Money. Major how?
The only place he could possibly go now is Bolen’s blog, and considering how fringe Bolen is even by anti-Vaxxer standards, I think Jake will soon have to get used to the idea of being irrelevant to the point of non-existence.
^ Assuming all of this rejection doesn’t make Jake blow up first.
@SJ – his family is old money, I believe, plus his father is in “advertising” I believe, with big accounts, like Monsanto – I believe.
Damn…..too many “I believe’s”
@Lawrence: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYGSC9wiOYE
@ Broken Link: Nicole Cranberg Crosby owns this *Austin Texas* company founded by her father.
http://www.texasfireframe.com/index.html
Nicole has always filled Jake’s head with nonsense about the circumstances surrounding his diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome and his “toxic” personality disorder:
http://www.ageofautism.com/2009/01/discovering-i-was-toxic.html#more
*Why did Wakefield end up in Austin Texas? Who introduced Wakefield to his benefactors in Austin?
From lilady’s link:
” I felt very different, not just because of my condition, but because of what my mother did to treat it”.
-btw- lilady, why not call your SO, “limister”?
@lilady: Isn’t Austin sort of a hub for anti-vaccinationism, sort of the same way France is a hub for anti-GMOism?
@Denice- Young Master Crosby (and acolytes) have been eerily quiet about his (nonexistent?) graduation.
As you foretold, O’ Wise Sage to the Shills, Jake has cut off his nose to spite his face. He’s done the equivalent of amputating both legs in order to prepare for a marathon.
But when money is easy come, easy go, then wasting it probably doesn’t seem so awful.
Is there a way to contact George Washington University to ask if he is still in their epidemiology program?
Wakefield got into Austin in the same way he gets in everywhere else. He zeros in on rich or influential women who have children with some kind of neurological issue. They find him the money. The original Thoughtful House was the den of a kid with real serious issues, whose parents were big in real estate and, I think, racehorses.
They thought Wakefield was some kind of guru, till they realized he had told them a pack of bull. Wakefield’s career is essentially a trail of women he has scammed in some way or other. He even managed to bring one of his mistresses – Polly Toomey – out to Texas, with her husband, would you believe.
@Austinite – You might want to put an “alleged” or two in there somewhere…
Please don’t do this. Going after people at work or school for their extracurricular online activities is something I can never support.
Somewhat interestingly, today’s “Dachel Media Update” makes no mention of the Daily Herald piece, where she received a thorough stomping.
@ Denice Walter: That link I provided is from four years ago…at the onset of Jake’s *brilliant career* as a *journalist* at AoA. “limister” is fine with me.
@ Sebastian Jackson: Here’s a link to the beginning of Jake’s fall from grace at AoA. See Orac’s link to Alex Hannaford’s excellent article about Austin Texas…the epicenter of autism woo in the United States:
https://www.respectfulinsolence.com/2013/02/07/an-antivaccine-frankenstein-strikes-back-against-the-monster-he-created/
We absolutely *know that Jake was not on the schedule to present his thesis at GWU…therefore he was not awarded a MPH-Epidemiology degree.
*We have our sources at GWU-School of Public Health.
@Orac – agreed. Although I am in the same general area (and an alumni even), I never wanted to take the steps to actually go down there & see if I could find Jake around campus.
I will not nor would I ever condone someone stooping to their level.
@Orac: I’m not suggesting that we “go after” him. I’m not for hounding the man like the man himself would.
I second Orac’s note. Do not write to GWU. It’s a tactic that some of the anti-vaccine types like to use, and I think it is rather vile.
@Denice Walter
Like you, I also warned Jake that his online behavior could cause problems down the line. Instead of taking it as advice, he chose to view it as some sort of threat that I would somehow arrange his being blacklisted or something.
@Todd W.: I take it back. I thought the GWU information would be a matter of public record, but if it’s bad form, it’s bad form.
@Sebastian Jackson
No worries. Sorry if I came off sounding a bit harsh, but having been involved in situations where folks have gone after friends at work (and could have gone after me) simply because of disagreement, I’m a bit sensitive to such calls, where it involves someone’s private life. Any info they’ve made public is fair game, IMO, but writing to their school/employer to get info…bad form.
Broken Link @28
Indeed, that’s the $40,000 question. I’m not sure they even know anymore. As you say, they got rid of mercury in vaccines and that didn’t make autism go away. Instead of admitting they’d made a mistake, the antivaxxers just keep running after other equally dubious causes. MMR vaccine. Gut flora. “Toxins”. Gluten. Casein. Testosterone. They hit one dead end after another and explain it away with conspiracy theories about evil doctors and Big Pharma. Look at all the money, time and energy they’ve thrown into their Great Crusade (deliberate religious allusion) and what are they doing now? Posting shrieky martyrographies on various blogs and slamming each other on Facebook like unpleasant teenagers. (Free advice to Ms Taylor – if you are really so tired and “fried” all the time, get the f*** off FB and go to bed.)
And these people do appear to have deep pockets – or some of them, at any rate. Too bad they don’t have better judgement about how they spend it. For all they’ve accomplished, they may as well have just dug a pit, thrown the money in and set it on fire. Honestly, $40K to line the pockets of a sleazy anti-science, scandal-mongering hack like Darrell Issa – how the hell does that help kids with autism at the end of the day? A question for the real researchers and autism advocates out there – what could you do with that kind of money? I mean this seriously. What kind of SB research could that fund? What kind of services could that pay for – a support worker, a day centre, skills training, behaviour therapy, a place in a supportive group home? All the anti-vax movement has accomplished is diverting money and resources from legitimate help and support for people with autism and causing resurgences of vaccine-preventable disease because of their irresponsible fearmongering. Nice legacy you’ve left there, folks.
/end of rant
@ Sebastian Jackson: OMG, I didn’t comment on the bad form it would be to actually investigate Jake’s status at GWU.
Jake himself, does not claim to be a graduate of GWU and does not claim to have a MPH-Epidemiology degree, on his “Twitter” page or on his “Linked In” page.
“the professional pics are here”
Sorry to be snide, but I wouldn’t consider those professional quality.
I don’t see Jenny McCarthy posing with anyone. Just the poor Miss Montana.
Also, no RFK Jr. or congressmen. But it isn’t really their conference. Jenny, on the other hand, is based in Chicago and this is her conference. Maybe I missed the shots of her.
@Edith – exfvckingactly. The only crusade they could possibly be on now is the “Telling the world how much I loathe and resent my broken child” crusade.
That’s all any of them seem to do. They rail about the “loss” of the “perfect child” that they were never promised, rant about the imaginary enemies conspiring to attack them, and blame everyone else for everything that happens to them.
I cringe inwardly at the thought of the horrendous amounts of money, time, resources and energy just thrown away. The lives that could’ve been changed, the good that could’ve been done, thrown over for years of dangerous “activism” that has led to the resurgence of VPDs that have harmed and killed people.
Ugh. Where’s my crynoceros when I need her.
Interesting as it may be to see all of this going down, we need to step back a second and realize what is happening. What is happening, from my perspective, is that an otherwise bright young man has been manipulated into a situation and place in life where he is isolating himself from everyone who loved him. It seems to be happening on social media, where he blocks and double-blocks people on Twitter and Facebook, and it seems to be happening in his real life, where he is bad-mouthing the people who took him here and there, smiled at him, “loved” him.
He has the gift of communication, and he’s been using it (and taught to use it) against science in general and vaccines in particular. It is a total waste, because his own ramblings have made him the kind of person no one (on either side) would want to put in front of the cameras. Compare Jake to Ari Ne’eman, who is soft-spoken and stays on point. Look at Jake’s outings to the Autism Coordinating Committee. No contest. Sad.
I would have thought that someone’s enrollment status at a private university would be considered confidential personal information these days and would only be released with the student’s consent.
Enrollment status, performance, etc. should all be confidential info.
Where Jake made a mistake was early on in representing himself as being from GWU without noting that he was a student. That was something the school should have been made aware of. But Jake making otherwise bad decisions outside of school is not their concern.
If the university receives any funding from the Department of Education, FERPA applies, but this might fall into the “directory information” exception. Hey, that gives me an idea: let’s check the public directory.
Now, I don’t know how frequently they update this, but I’ll default to assuming he’s still enrolled.
I take it back, then, you certainly can tell if the college considers someone a student.
I would think that an antivaccinationist doing an MPH in public health would experience such cognitive dissonance that they would go into some kind of behavioral meltdown.
Somewhere I read he realized he was vaccine damaged when watching Fox news.
Orac,
The link behind this phrase “decided somehow” directs back to this page not on to somewhere else. Where can we read Jake Crosby’s brilliant insights?
Thanks
Sorry. Ignore me. I got confused by the multiple sections of this part-work blog.
Nothing to see here. Carry on about your business.
@ Austinite: See my second link (comment # 89) to Jake’s own description “Discovering I was toxic”, of first hearing hearing on Fox news about “mercury toxicity”…and his discussion with his mother.
We all tried to warn Jake about his future job prospects as an epidemiologist…or any other field. Prospective employers do check out your presence on the internet…and Jake’s “presence” raises big red flags for prospective employers.
I would echo Orac and others:
never contact their home, university, workplace, employers, family, spouses.
We wouldn’t like it if they did it to us. It’s bad form.
Responding to their writing/ speech either here or at other blogs is another story:
they have a public presence and what they preach has consequences.
If Jake or anyone else talks pseudo-science for WHATEVER reason-
to feel better about themselves, to get famous, to push a book, film, project, advocacy group, political party, a product line- on the web, on radio, television, on blogs-
they deserve a response in kind.
Jake has a history of also showing up live, as our esteemed and gracious host knows only too well:
BUT
I doubt either he or Drs Godlee or Offit would bother him if he spoke publicly- and NOT just because they have busy lives and careers.
@Denice: The only reason I brought up asking GWU about his enrollment was because everybody was curious about whether he got his epidemiology degree. I never suggest that we mimic his stalking behavior. But I was wrong in my suggestion and I took it back.
^^^ *I would never suggest
@SJ – no problem, sorry if the responses came back a little harsh.
@ Sebastian:
I didn’t necessarily mean you.
Many read and don’t speak up. Better safe than sorry.
Someone @ RI works at GWU so if he did graduate, we’d probably know.
Yes, and the people who did the manipulating are now reaping what they’ve sowed and they’re simply shocked that he would turn on them like this. The really sad thing is, none of the people involved are going to learn the right lesson from this. The anti-vax movement was delighted to have an impressionable young man (with a diagnosis, no less) to mold into their Sir Galahad – unfortunately, they filled his head with pseudoscience, paranoia and conspiracy theories, encouraged him to engage in unethical behaviour like stalking people and making unfounded allegations of COIs in writing, thus rendering him unemployable anywhere except inside the antivax echo chamber. And now he’s having an extremely public meltdown and clearly intends to drag all his former “allies” down with him.
It is quite tragic. If Jake hadn’t fallen down the anti-vax rabbit hole he could have have a bright future. But as of right now, the only ally he has left is Pattimmy Bolen, who will happily use him as an attack puppet, then toss him away if he gets to be too much trouble.
@ elburto:
re; ” O wise sage to the shills”….
I’m still laughing ( how DID I miss that one?)
Well, it’s better than “Queen of Mean”- which I’ve heard.
@Denice – I love making people laugh! Queen of Mean? I am shocked and appalled. As if you would waste your time ruffling your outerwear by snarking at people. Surely you simply release one of your tiny winged messengers?
I know that’s what I do, anyway.
MESSAGE BEGINS——————
Shills and Minions:
Remember the old Glaxxon saying, “Ssch’aa v’skreek m’svannk haak tevroc nah, eef tzork chrib’nitz” or, The disarray of those who oppose us raises my crest and heats my blood.
Yes, it is regrettable that young Jake’shaak has fallen afoul of the Corpus and our glorious cause, but he still has barely cleaned the eggsac off his scales at his tender age. I must say that I admire his treachery, but it seems to stem from fear and insecurity and not from some marvelous well of guile. Some quality time under Miss Flinder’s tutelage would have him whipped into shape in no time, or at least ready to learn the Way of the Shill from Domina Walter, DL, etc, and a modicum of discipline from Cadre Leader Elburto.
Well, time will tell, we’ll be here when all his bridges are cinders and there’s no way home any longer.
On a brighter note, I’m looking forward to spending time in the desert heat with our esteemed host in a terran week’s time. When not attending to adoring hordes of competitively obsequious minions, I can be found at either the Carolina Herrera boutique or at Ted Baker’s. As the old saying goes “everybody crazy ’bout a sharp dressed lizard.”
Back to work, you . . .
Lord Draconis Zeneca, VH7iHL
Forward Mavoon of the Great Fleet, Pharmaca Magna of Terra, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.
Glaxxon PharmaCOM Fleet HQ, Enceladus
0010100101111010101010100101
————————-MESSAGE ENDS
A question for the real researchers and autism advocates out there – what could you do with that kind of money?
With 40 000$, I’d rent an office for a psychiatrist to deserve a clientèle of autistics and I’d recruit a medical secretary. Most autistics need administrative services from a psychiatrist (writing letters, showing up in court, etc…) regardless of age. some may need medications but this represent about 5 to 10% of the time taken by a psychiatrist.
If given more money to play with, I’d look into providing a psychologist (depending on how much cash I need at start) and may offer scientifically validated transcranial magnetic stimulation treatment to autistics who want it. I may need a neuroradiologist on staff (but very part-time) to validate the TMS treatment.
If even more money is involved, I’d offer genetic testing & counselling to autistics.
Alain
Mr. Jackson:
Most universities have directory link on their main page. GWU does, and Mr. Crosby does show up.
But it can be deceptive, the student may have asked not to have their information made public. Two of my children attend the same local public university. Starting earlier this year when you put in their very unusual last name in the”Directory” link at the university you only get one. The younger one asked that her information be invisible.
So is anyone else having trouble with scienceblogs this morning or am I the only one? I keep getting this ‘invalid gateway’ message.
My dearest Lord Draconis,
PLEASE don’t even think about sending that little creature my way. Lord help me! There are enough unruly, over-emotional men around here as it is. At least they’re good-looking and obeisant.
And what’s wrong with Paul Smith? Or Hugo? Mssrs Costa and Bailey send their warmregards to you and their wares to me!
Ha ha.
Fortunately, I cannot ( as usual) join you and the entire Shill Cartel in the miserable desert. I shall be holding the fort until you return from your drunken, lascivious – but SB- adventures.
In the meantime, I will take one of the boys to the land of mists in order to commune with nature- walking through the pristine forest, climbing upon the cliffs to observe the tumultuous, moodily despondent seas below- and feeling totally self-satisfied, as well I should.
As is my custom, I will provide you with a tutorial that will translate the venacular of Awful Convention Land-
it’s most important that you work on your idiom-
REMEMBER:
shrimp COCKTAIL has prawns in it, but no actual cocktails whatsoever –
a scorpion is a mixed alcoholic beverage, not a crunchy snack
a lounge lizard is a human person not a lizard person
what they call “magic” is really sleight-of-hand
AND if you have to bask in the blazing sun, please do it near a pool, in a chaise rather than just lying naked on a rock alongside the road somewhere- that would be poor form.
And those friendly, attractive ladies ( and gentlemen) who hang around the bar or the gaming tables are NOT what you think they are- they’re not tasty snackfood.
So have fun, don’t get arrested or get into an endless debate with a woo-meiater/ maitresse de wu.
Kiss kiss.
Sincerely yours,
DW
@ PGP:
Yes.
Should Ginger really be posting this?
…with all the full email addresses, that is.
MESSAGE BEGINS—————–
Domina Walter, DL, etc,
Of course, we’re simply crushed that we will miss your presence in the baking, tinsel-festooned litter box that is Outer Henderson, but we’ll muddle through somehow. I would pick you up a lovely trinket, but what does an Overlord buy a woman of taste who has everything? The undying appreciation and vague sense of foreboding you instill in me shall have to suffice.
Still terribly disappointed that our little fete in the desert doesn’t inspire the Alex Jones level of spittle-flecked outrage that The Grove does. I mean The Grove is just a frivilous, ceremony-packed vacation for us, but TAM is where all the malevolent, subjugating, planet-crushing plans are hatched (if you know where to look). Well, I must practice my dismissive oppression face with my new shift-suit. I like the old one better, this one makes me look like Dr. Venture.
Back to work, you . . . you too.
Lord Draconis Zeneca, VH7ihL
Forward Mavoon of the Great Fleet, Monkey Master of Mars,
Planetary Subjugator of the Month
Glaxxon PharmaCOM Implant Station, Cydonia Planitia
0000000000000000000000000000000010
————————————————————-MESSAGE ENDS
@Dingo – no, she shouldn’t. I don’t know if any of those people are in the UK, but both the UK & the EU have pretty draconian data protection laws…..meaning emails can’t be collected or made public without the permission of all parties.
(I’m in the eDiscovery field, so I have to know these things)
PS – Jake is listed as a GWU 2012 “Scottish Rite” Endowment scholar.
$15k worth (….couldn’t Monsanto afford the fees?)
http://www.gwu.edu/~fellows/fellowships/scottish.html
O Lord Draconis,
Far be it from me ever to question your pronouncements and wisdom, but while it is true that TAM is where the malevolent, subjugating, planet-crushing plans are hatched (and, believe me, I can’t wait to bask in your glory and assist you in any way a humble naked ape masquerading as a clear Plexiglass box of multicolored blinking lights capable of taking over any computer can possibly assist such reptilian cunning—in a mere week!) it is not quite true that TAM doesn’t get its share of spittle-flecked, Alex Jones level outrage as The Grove. Just check out what Patrick “Tim” Bolen has to say about TAM. I sent it to DJ Grothe, and he was both amused and annoyed. Let’s see how your reptilian genius reacts:
http://www.bolenreport.com/skeptics/Skeptics2/hate%20group%20meeting%202013.htm
Little did I know that TAM was apparently a homosexual plot to suppress alt med. If anything, we evil pharma shills and plotters welcome all comers, regardless of race, sex, creed, or, yes, sexual orientation, as long as they share a desire to serve our pharma overlords and, in so doing, subjugate, enslave, and prosper. Poor Timmy. I shudder to think what plans you have for him…
Your loyal servant,
Orac
@ dingo199: More at issue here, IMO, is why did Olmsted allow Ginger’s rant and her posting of her email communications with Bolen on the AoA blog? What were they thinking when Olmsted blogged about Jake’s treachery and his affiliation with Bolen?
Meanwhile Jake has been “tweeting” that he did not write about the schism within the crank autism groups at the sham Congressional autism hearing. Has he forgotten about his “opinion” piece that appeared on Bolen’s blog?
http://www.bolenreport.com/feature_articles/Jake%20Crosby%20on%20SafeMinds.htm
Masons!
Oooops!
I should clarify that for the lurkers and un-initiated:
the Scottish Rite is freemasonry.
Jake is being supported by those wot underlie all that is amiss on earth…
and perhaps beyond.
AND there are no six degrees of separation betwixt them and JC,
only perhaps a 32nd degree.
And yes, Orac, The Grove is lovely.
re: Bolen’s take on TAM – that’s some industrial strength spittle flecked invective going on there
Orac,
that link shows why everythin Bolen writes–even supposedly insider stuff about the Canary Party–is likely a lie. He just makes up whatever he wants.
@lilady #137: I think Crosby is saying he didn’t write Bolen’s more recent articles that he linked to. He is not repudiating what he wrote about “AoA” back in February.
It never fails to amuse me to recall that Alexander Shulgin used to hang out there.
@ Sebastian Jackson: Who supplied the “Ken and Barbie” story to Bolen, which occurred at the sham Congressional autism hearing? (Bolen did not attend the hearing and Jake did).
Oh, I’m sure Jake did. He was the one initially insinuating that Mark Blaxill was having an affair.
Now I certainly am not an expert on law,
but are there not legal remedies available to persons who have been accused of marital infidelity by another person who probably does not have real evidence ( photos/ recordings) but who writes about their supposed relationship in a very public manner (i.e. broadcasting it over the net/ supplying this ‘information’ to others who do likewise )?
I would think that this might be easy for persons affluent enough to afford decent lawyers.
Denice,
I believe the word that sums up your message is “libel”. Of course, some people might be unwilling to take on such a course of action for a variety of reasons, including (perhaps), but not limited to, what might be uncovered in discovery and the time, effort, and disruption involved. And then there’s the interesting question of the limits of libel law when it comes to journalists (whatever that means anymore) and public figures (ditto).
I still remember when they were called newspaper reporters (or television or radio reporters) and had ethics.
but are there not legal remedies available to persons who have been accused of marital infidelity by another person
No doubt it varies across jurisdictions, but here a successful defamation suit requires you to show some actual loss of reputation. IOW the person defaming you must be taken seriously by other people.
There is little point, for instance, in suing an unkempt and universally-despised manic street ranter.
MESSAGE BEGINS———————
Esteemed host Orac, Shills and Minions all . . .
By the Battleclaw of K’throbey that’s more like it! He noticed us! I do believe I may be having what Miss Flinders calls a “Sally Field moment.” This Eric Bolus fellow is deliciously unstable n’est pas? Oh, what fun we shall have. Lizards! Minions! Homosexuals! Oh, my . . .
And Domina Walter, I shall cleave to your every instruction in my comportment at our evil little gathering . . . except for the shrimp part. I love shrimp.
Carry on my Minions! Carry on my Shills! The day approaches . . .
Lord Draconis Zeneca, VH7ihL
Forward Mavoon of the Great Fleet, Pharmaca Magna of Terra, Freuder of Schaden
Glaxxon PharmaCOM Implant Station, Cydonia Planitia
1111111111111111111111111111110
———————————————-MESSAGE ENDS
I am so making us all Homoskeptual shirts for next week! But seriously, seeing Bolen’s cra-cra launched at people I know personally is just creepy. None of his “facts” about TAM even rose to the level of wrong, unless they were keeping all those sleazy M4M liaisons in stall 3 secret from me, in which case, I’m terribly insulted . . . what am I? Chopped liver? The homosexual agenda is just exhausting, I have to get to the recruiting station . . . just three more Pop Warner football players to sign-up and that new Gordon Ramsey edition Cuisinart™ is mine!
Hi Lord Draconis,
I’m sorry for taking it out of context but:
K’throbey and Homosexuals in the same paragraph? I think I’m having an orgasm 😀
Will go read some more bolen for some more orgasm.
Alain (PG13)….
@ Orac’s Minions: IANAL…but, what would be the purpose of Jennifer Larson and/or Mr. and/or Mrs. Blaxill suing Bolen and his “source” for libel?
Bolen has no assets and Jake (the unemployed and unemployable perpetual “graduate student at GWU-School of Public Health”) has no assets.
Poor Jake…the only friend he has on “Twitter” is “Coach Bob”:
http://lifeskillstrainer-info.blogspot.com/
Here’s Coach Bob’s latest rant…
http://lifeskillstrainer-info.blogspot.com/2013/07/cdc-mercury-vaccine-damage-cover-up.html
“…Their is a substantial evidence trail that has been brought to light by scores of respected professionals, and spotlighted by journalist Tim Bolen in regards to mercury in vaccines. Jake L Crosby, who is rapidly becoming the defacto spokesman in the fight to uncover the truth about vaccines in the U.S. has helped lead a new-found charge in Autism Awareness by helping spread the truth loudly on this issue. All this information is readily available on the internet, but it is not being paraded in mainstream media because it directly affects Big Pharma companies, and Wall Street (who’s modus operandis demands Big Pharma keep producing profit)….”
Read on, Minions. Coach Bob is one crazy blogger. 🙂
One thing needs to be said–
Bolen is so clearly out of touch if he thinks that AoA, Ginger Taylor and that crowd are the “autism leadership”. Yeah, they have people who listen to them, but, who really knows these people outside a small subset of the autism community? No one.
I seriously don’t know whether Bolen carried to the extreme the audio recording of James Randi (which I haven’t listened) or that he is a closet homosexual but in both case, if his readership enjoy that kind of post, it says a lot about them.
Alain
@ lilady:
The anti-vax contingent seems to have a fetish about suing those with whom they disagree or those who criticise them ( see AJW) whether fact-based or not.
Don’t the AoA folk often say they’d like to see so-and-so on the witness stand? Even if there’s absolutely no chance of winning. Or even any ‘crime’.
I wouldn’t see surprised if Mark did something- perhaps a lawyer-penned letter, if not more.
IANAL…but, Bolen and Jake are “judgment proof”.
http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/what-does-judgment-proof-mean.html
“Judgment Proof”=Not a pot to p!ss in, nor a window to throw it out of.
Barry Segal is a rich guy who is supporting people like Brian Hooker and NVIC. Last year he claimed that the autism hearing was a “major accomplishment”.
http://focusautisminc.org/december-3-2012/
Now he considers it a waste of time, with “most of the media [passing] it by”
http://focusautisminc.org/dear-ginger-july-3-2013/
A great example of where making money doesn’t mean one can’t be hoodwinked. Segal’s being taken for a ride.
lilady – IANALNDIPOOT, but I’d think that Jake at least has an entire lifetime of future earnings that could be attached. Not that I’m suggesting such a thing.
Depending on the fabulousness of the design, I would so totally buy one…
I’ll pre-order one now! Any colour, as long as it’s leopard print…;-)
More hilarity, homoskeptics!
Notice what Coach Bob coaches.
A meeting convenes @ AoA @ Taylor’s post: Barry, Ginger and John.
But where’s Waldo? ( Jake)
I have flight to catch… I will check in when I’m not regarding nature or hanging with the painfully hip.
MESSAGE BEGINS——————-
Clearly one of my Minions (who shall remain nameless) has hacked into the Glaxxon PharmaCOM feed. However, I fully approve of the shirt idea for the gays and gay adjacent in our cadre. Xenu and Todd will want a half dozen or so.
Ange-chay ethey ame-nay ext-nay ime-tay.
Back to your nefarious meddling . . .
Lord Draconis Zeneca, VH7ihL
Forward Mavoon of the Great Fleet, Grand Vitara of Irwindale, Tag Popper Class VIII
Glaxxon PharmaCOM Implant Station, Cydonia Planitia
111110000011111000001111100000111110000011111
——————————————————————————MESSAGE ENDS
I plead guilty your honor :D. And I’d like a T-Shirt too.
Nameless.
@ I Ron Meter: I already know about the schism and Barry Segal’s support of Brian Hooker. 🙂
http://leftbrainrightbrain.co.uk/2013/03/01/is-there-a-split-in-the-autism-vaccine-groups/
I’ll take one of those T-Shirts…stylishly chic black please.
I would seriously buy that shirt…the more rainbow, the better.
Seventeen U.S. states have criminal libel statutes. I don’t particularly approve of this, but I’d laugh my tokhes off if one were brought to bear.
Homoskpetual cookie, please.
Aside, poor Bolen the Bigot. He was probably a supporter of Prop 8 and now he gets to watch his fellow Californians marry (all of ’em). Perhaps he can offer his “crisis management” skills to the prop 8 supporters.
@lilady: Jake attended the hearing and wrote about it for Bolen, but the most recent “Bolen Report” articles Jake has been posting to his Twitter were Bolen’s, not himself. Jake has become Bolen’s right hand/slave, and is touting whatever Bolen is saying in that capacity. I think you misinterpreted Jake when he said that the Bolen articles he recently linked to were not written by him.
I don’t really wear t-shirts, but I would be proud to sport a “Proud to be a Homoskeptual” button (or similar) Maybe we could get Surly Amy to make several versions.
Alas and alack I cannot cross the Pond for TAM. However, I will outline the Gay Agenda:
1. Tweet about the series finale of Wentworth”
2. Attempt at least 10% of household chores** between Netflix sessions
3. Do online grocery shopping, we’re almost out of milk
4. Convince the heterosexuals that our lives are either:
i. A big, sparkly, carefree adventure studded with sartorial excellence, flash cars, and lashings of haute cuisine.
or
ii. A debauched lifestyle that would’ve made Caligula blush, what with all the nudity, body oil, booze and pills,
5. Profit!! Because as they either scramble to catch up with an impossible image/scream and froth themselves into the ground over our “immoral lifestyle choices” we rainbow children are slobbing around in our onesies, stuffing ourselves with cake and Doritos, and dividing our time between trolling and Netflix.
Exotic and exciting stuff, mais non?
*Any fans of Prisoner: Cell Block H in here?
** One reason being crippled is fantastic – no housework!
@ I Rony Meter: Link to Jake’s Twitter page. He keeps “touting” Bolen’s reports about the schism, including the Ken and Barbie piece. When “Coach Bob” complimented Jake…Jake clarified that Bolen wrote the remaining pieces (after Jake’s first “opinion” appeared on the Bolen Report).
https://twitter.com/JakeLCrosby
Ginger’s email communication with Bolen.
http://adventuresinautism.blogspot.com/2013/06/tim-bolen-wants-to-make-us-or-maybe.html
– When Bolen asks where the Canary Party’s 990s are, Ginger replies “The Canary Party is a PAC , not a non profit, so we don’t file 990s”.
– Bolen then makes this statement about his “many sources” (perhaps to take the heat off Jake).
“(4) Over the next several months you are going to think you are being boiled in oil – I have that much material – and it all comes from those you have stepped on, sh!t on, f*cked with, marginalized, and laughed at. And, it is going to make really good reading. Plus I have REALLY GOOD investigators and researchers. And, a very large audience.”
“Plus I have REALLY GOOD investigators and researchers.”
And the makings of a potentially fascinating case study on multiple personality disorder.
BAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
I think it is worth re-posting Peter Bowditch’s advice for any statement from Pattimmy:
http://www.ratbags.com/rsoles/comment/timoranter.htm
End of 3rd sentence should read: for *evaluating* any statement *by* Pattimmy.
@lilady: Brian Hooker apparently supported Crosby in his spat with Blaxill, if the leaked e-mails he sent were any indication. And Ginger was quick to mention him during her everything-is-sunshine-and-rose “sister-doth-protest-too-much” routine. You don’t suppose Hooker has also turned and is also giving intel to Bolen, do you?
@Edith – Surely even a stopped clock is ri…
Nah, scratch that. If PatTimmy was a clock he’d be one of those bizarre Japanese binary ones. You know, the ones where it takes you seventeen minutes to figure out the time. That’s him. Pointless, hollow, desperate to impress.
Still, his talent for deluded bullsh¡ttery is almost enviable. Imagine the riches he could amass if he used his fantasy-weaving skills for good.
ii. A debauched lifestyle that would’ve made Caligula blush, what with all the nudity, body oil, booze and pills,
You left out the sloths and the flamethrower.
elburto: ” However, I will outline the Gay Agenda:”
Alas! In my neighborhood the Gay Agenda seems to be talking to be gardening, volunteering at their kids’ schools and being lovely neighbors.
You seriously can’t tell them apart from anyone else. Which is why Bolen and his friends despicable.
Before first coffee and having allergies, my editing is atrocious, remove extraneous phrase: ” to be gardening, volunteering at their kids’ schools and being lovely neighbors. “
Mark Blaxill has responded to Barry Segal in the comment section of Ginger Taylor’s “AoA” post:
I am grateful to finally have a civil, if harsh, critique of the autism movement from Barry Segal, an overly silent player in recent events. For those of you who don’t know him, Barry is a wealthy, retired businessman (he made his fortune distributing building supplies) who became interested in autism and began sprinkling money around the autism “rebel alliance” groups. Shortly thereafter, seeming to think his donations had made him everyone’s boss, he began issuing orders and ultimatums, none of which seemed to make much sense to anyone. So we all parted ways, with more discord than was necessary. It’s interesting to see Barry rise to the defense of Tim Bolen. Bolen is a smart and unscrupulous internet troll (I’m sure he’s appreciating the free advertising), one I doubt launches any attack campaign without getting paid for it. I have a hypothesis about who’s paying Bolen for his latest campaign, but I don’t want to speculate publicly.
There’s one thing I’ll agree with Barry about. We’re all not getting it done.
That said, the answer to our performance problem is not more friendly fire, it’s harder work, greater focus and more effectiveness. One way to be effective is never to ask for a nickel from Barry, I made that mistake once and don’t plan to repeat it. I’d encourage the rest of the “rebel alliance” to do the same.
I do want to respond publicly to one claim about me that Barry has repeated; this is the first and only time I will do it. Barry repeats a false story that Bolen published about me that goes something like this
I was introduced to Gary Kompothecras at an AutismOne reception in May 2011 by Tim Bolen.
This is the one true part of the story
Dr. Gary told me about the planned Congressional hearings in November for the first time and my face turned ashen white.
This is simply false. I had already heard about the hearings through the grapevine and had had an in depth discussion about them the previous day (I have witnesses). Further proof? Bolen misses my “tell” completely, I never get pale, I blush. Bolen just makes things up.
As fast as I could, I persuaded SafeMinds to hire Beth Clay to lobby against Dr. Gary’s work and his colleague, Brian Hooker.
False again, Beth Clay was already working for SafeMinds on government affairs and lobbying and I had nothing to do with her hiring or her oversight. I will happily acknowledge that I left AutismOne motivated to get involved in hearings preparation. My first initiative was to reach out to my friends at EBCALA, who I knew to be involved in the discussions. Then a group of us began working on materials that we hoped might give some focus to the hearings. Only later did I begin to work more actively on the SafeMinds government affairs committee and (only at some distance) with Beth Clay.
Beth Clay maneuvered behind the scenes to have Brian Hooker replaced with me as our sole representative.
Lobbyists work behind the scenes always and since Beth is a lobbyist and SafeMinds was Beth’s client, I don’t doubt she worked to get SafeMinds placed on the panel. But this part of the story is false on two fronts: 1) Beth Clay wasn’t trying to get me on the panel, she assumed Lyn Redwood (by virtue of her IACC seat) would represent SafeMinds; I was only put into the slot because Lyn couldn’t attend the hearing, and 2) no one hoped to get a “sole representative” on the panel, it was the committee staff who decided to limit “our side’s” representation. Brian’s exclusion was a highly unfortunate outcome, one I hope we can fix soon by getting him in front of Congress to represent his important work.
Once on the panel, my testimony was insufficiently hard-line and not focused enough on vaccines, thereby missing an historic opportunity to reveal the truth to the world, that vaccines cause autism. Game over, the celebration could have begun but I screwed it up.
I invite anyone to review my written and oral testimony (http://www.ageofautism.com/2012/12/safeminds-mark-blaxill-testimony-at-autism-hearing.html) . I am proud of it. In the few minutes allotted to me, I made arguments that were consistent with what I’ve said and written for a decade about the autism epidemic. My main objective in that testimony? To help open the door for future hearings (remember that we were all testifying in front of a lame duck congress at the request of a retiring Representative) so that we could build momentum rather than lose it. It’s true that, in my five minutes, I pulled some punches I might have thrown; I think I made the right decision. Some disagree, but most were extremely supportive of my testimony (which was only a small part of the event anyway).
By now, many of you know that Jake Crosby believes this story is the truth and promotes it aggressively. I don’t believe Jake is lying; I do believe he has interpreted some true statements inaccurately and accepted other false statements as truth. The end result is a narrative that is false in many specifics and delusional overall. How do I feel about it? Jake’s criticisms of me make me sad, in part because I believe Jake has so much potential to do good work and in part because I don’t know how, in good faith, to heal the rift between us. What can I do about it? Not much, I fear. All I can say is, Jake got this story wrong. That’s all I have to say. I have no intention of getting into any flame wars on this subject. I’ll leave that to the trolls.
@Chris – At one time we lived next to our friends and, of the four of us, Other Mrs elburto and the boys worked at the same place.
All anyone ever said was “Wow, you all must have amazing fun at weekends, a gay male couple and gay female couple living next door to each other!”.
OMe could only take so much, and one day snapped back with “Oh yeah, on Saturday I set up some new direct debits, mowed the front and back garden, and re-potted some mint. She prepared for Sunday’s roast, and took care of the pet stuff. On Saturday night we went next door for supper. It was D’s access weekend with his son so we watched a Disney film, played with the Guinea pigs and ate a curry. Sunday we had a lie-in. After lunch we visited my Dad, then when we got home I washed the car while she sat and read in the garden. So. Bloody. Thrilling”.
Her workmate answered with a dejected “Oh. But that’s so n…” and OMe said “I dare you to say ‘normal’, try it”.
People seem disappointed when I say that we get up in the morning, go to work*, come home, veg out in front of Netflix, eat our evening meal and then go to sleep. Just like them. Their only remaining generalisation is “Wow, two women. I bet your house is spotless without men to mess it up”. I’ve burst many a bubble by saying “Ha! I have TBI that impairs my short term memory and executive function, she cares for me full time, works, and has STM malfunction due to Neuro issues too. Whaddya think the bloody house looks like?”
Yep, the crushing truth is that we’re as boring as everyone else. Sure we may love RuPaul and Wentworth a bit more than is strictly healthy, and spend an inordinate amount of time adoring a certain quiff-topped iconic singer and teaching our fish to do tricks, but we’re achingly normal.
I’m convinced that if more people realised what the real “gay lifestyle” was like then they would stop hating us. I often feel that some of their anger is toward our non-existent extra freedom, imaginary lack of responsibilities toward anything but paying our bar tab, and the idea of the “Pink Pound’, which is as fictional as a cured Burzynski patient. Perhaps realising that we’re as stressed, burdened and broke as everyone else would engender some positive regard in our detractors.
@Shay – sloths and weaponry are a given, like oxygen and Pepsi!
Holy Sh!t, Sebastian Jackson. What could they all be thinking at AoA…which compels them to hang their dirty laundry out to dry!
Still no denial however, about Bolen’s Jake-prompted “Ken and Barbie” story, and, still no confirmation or denial that “someone” at The Canary Party passed $40,000 to Issa as an incentive to attend the Quack Fest.
Link to AoA’s blog:
http://www.ageofautism.com/2013/06/tim-bolen-shoots-himself-in-the-foot-from-his-hip.html
@lilady: Personally, I’m more interested in knowing if Issa was bought than who Mark Blaxill screwed.
Ah, I get it now. I somehow got the impression (perhaps not unreasonably, given that their contact number is in Pescadero) that the Canary Party was in California. If I had remembered better or bothered hanging around long enough to reach the footer, I’d have known that it’s really Wayne Rohde’s operation (what on Earth they blew 42 grand on in 2012 is anybody’s guess), with Larson as nominal chair.
Blaxill has dumped a good $25,000 into this hole over the past two years, with Barry Segal coughing up $30,000 in 2012 and Larson providing the initial cash infusion. I wonder whether the unemployed Karen Steinberg would have bothered sending $500 if she had seen the books.
I would love to see them put up Brian Hooker, Conspiracy Theorist Extraordinaire of the “rebel alliance” (love how they fancy themselves in the vein of Luke Skywalker) before the next Issa debacle. If they were worried about looking like loons the last time, they will have a lock on that this time.
Frankly, they all look like a bunch of children fighting over toy and who is the bestest of them all. Meanwhile their children get shoved off in favour of all of their ego stroking. Unless of course they can figure out how to use said children to promote their martyrdom.
Count me in for a faboo homoskeptual tee shirt and it had better be blinged out Glaxxo style.
ii. A debauched lifestyle that would’ve made Caligula blush, what with all the nudity, body oil, booze and pills,
You left out the sloths and the flamethrower.
And a rammstein concert.
Alain
I’m still wondering how Bolen, who did not attend the Autism hearing, made the accusations about “Ken and Barbie”.
http://www.bolenreport.com/Mark%20Geier/autism%20infighting3.htm
“…(2) The Second Thing: Jake Crosby, who has been writing for Age of Autism (AoA) for a long time, communicated to me that he had written an extremely controversial article called “SafeMinds Steals the Show – Literally” which had been REJECTED by AoA for publication. Jake sent it to me asking me if I would publish it.. But, instead of immediately publishing it on my website, and sending it out to my “Millions of Health Freedom Fighters – Newsletter” I put it in a hidden place and sent it out to a much smaller email list called “Autism Leadership Council” and asked for comments. Here is what I said in the message…”
And,
“…(3) The “Ken and Barbie” Thing:
Throughout the discussions with Autism people about what I call the “Autism leadership problem” one other situation kept coming up – the relationship between Mark Blaxill and Jennifer VanDerHorst-Larson. Both Blaxill and Larson have children with Autism – and both seem to be married to someone else – that someone else who takes care of the autistic children while Mark and Jennifer (Ken and Barbie) travel together, endlessly, running, and/or influencing, various organizations (SafeMinds, Facing Autism, the Canary Party, Age of Autism), all of which claim to speak for the Autism community.
I’m told that the night before the infamous Congressional Committee on Oversight and Government Reform committee hearing on November 29th, 2012, the one Jake Crosby talks about in his article, that Elyse (sp?) Blaxill, Mark’s Mark’s wife, confronted Mark and Jennifer about their “relationship.” Mark was quoted as saying “that was the worst night of my life.” I’m told that Capitol Police were notified to be on alert that Mark’s wife might try to disrupt the televised hearing.
While I was at the private meeting in Washington DC I received a message from Teri Arranga (AutismOne) that Mark and Jennifer were going to pull the Canary Party’s $9,000 sponsorship of AutismOne if I, Tim Bolen, remained on the AutismOne Speaker Schedule. They were reacting to me having made Jake’s article available to Autism leadership. They said I was “destructive.” Teri and Ed refused to remove me, so they lost that sponsorship…”
Yup, I, lilady, am accusing Jake Crosby of deep-throating his new BFF Bolen, about Jennifer Larson, Mark Blaxill and his wife Elise Blaxill.
What could they be thinking at AoA, to allow Ginger to post that articleand to allow Ginger to post that email p!ssing contest between Ginger and Bolen?
What could Mark Blaxill been thinking when he posted back at Bolen?
Well, the relationship between Mark and Jennifer – whatever it is- ‘ain’t nobody’s business but their own’** and their spouses’.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Jake told sordid tale ( it’s irrelevant if it’s true or not).
The point is that they promote pseudo-science which has consequences.
-btw- debauched ifestyles are not the exclusive property of gay people…don’t tell anyone.
** to paraphrase Lady Day
Interesting find, Narad.
So, Kent Heckenlively is a “self employed producer”?
Barry Segal gave the Canary Party $30k?
Take a look at 2011–they spent nearly $70k. Larson contributed a lot then.
The expenses in 2011 were largely for Jennifer Taylor, “media consultant”, Over $35k to my count.
Watch for future filings–see if Jennifer Larson is making big contributions again and if CP of Minnesota transfers that to Issa. If the $40k donation is real, it may be being laundered through this org.
Wow–
Ginger Taylor got $4500 for PR work and another $4500 for website? Seriously? That’s not what I would call a well designed website.
$206 in Paypal fees. That should tell you how much money they are pulling in through Paypal. Perhaps that roughly $6k in unitemized donations.
Blaxill is bad mouthing Segal–who contributed $30k this year. Hmm, perhaps the CP coffers will be smaller next year.
A fair amount of money for people to attend “health freedom expo” and other conferences.
But nothing pointing to a donation to Issa or his PAC so far.
The media consultant Jennifer Taylor is in Brunswick Maine.
Ginger Taylor is from Maine. Sounds like a job for a star cub reporter to do some six degrees of separation thing.
Could the CP of Minnesota be pumping money to a relative of Ginger Taylor?
Sorry to be slow–“Ginger” is a nickname for “Jennifer”?
http://www.p2012.org/gopconv12/gopdelegates12me.html
So, the CP paid Ginger Taylor tens of thousands of dollars (nearly $40k) in 2011 per the documents on the site Narad has linked to.
the Canary Party claims to have a Canary Party Massachusetts.
No sign of them here:
http://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/elepar/paridx.htm
There is a “pizza party” and a “Pirate party” so I think the bar is rather low.
Indeed. And, as I suggested above, one might wonder whether the people who’ve been suckered into it fully appreciate that the Canary Party is more of a wealth redistribution scheme than a proper political committee.
“As for myself… I absolutely do disclose to everyone that I WAS a paid employee of the Canary Party,”
First I’ve heard of it.
When “Vaccine Epidemic” was written and published, Ginger was being paid as a “media consultant” to promote the Canary Party agenda.
Her bio on the Vaccine Epidemic website says “Ginger is a writer, and mother of a child with autism”
Gee, another hidden conflict of interest from these guys. I’m shocked. Shocked I say!
Ginger at AoA just last Tuesday:
Narad–
I guess she’s careful about when she says “we are an all volunteer org”. It may be true today. How about yesterday or tomorrow?
And careful about tense–we *are* may be accurate but the casual reader would assume “we always have been”. Which isn’t true.
This careful parsing of words is very Andy Wakefield.
A lot of their money goes to travel expenses for their members to attend conferences (and things like a $280 dinner in MA…who was wined and dined there?) That’s “volunteer”…sorta.
Vaccine Epidemic was published on Sept. 1, 2012. Ginger was paid in January and October of that year, both while the book was in preparation and just after publishing it. But no mention to the readers that she’s being paid to promote the ideas in the book. She’s just a writer and an autism mom.
Ah well, a little deception is OK if you are promoting a Truth, right?
“Our money comes from larger donors who are pissed at the government for what they have done to our kids. ”
Self promotion.
The “larger donors” seem to be Mark Blaxill, Jennifer Larson and Barry Segal.
They pulled in $72k in 2011 and $49k in 2012. Of that $49k, $30k came from Barry Segal. Based on Blaxill’s comment, I suspect that Segal’s deep pockets are gone.
That would put them on track to be a $20k entity this year. Unless Jennifer Larson funneled some or all of the alleged $40k to Issa through the Canary Party.
The decision to stop paying Ginger Taylor is likely simple economics. They just can’t afford to pay her any more. She got paid in 2012 the same months that they pulled in big donations (January, from Blaxill and October, after a donation from Segal). Painting herself as moving back to the volunteer ranks is a nice story, but I’d bet that it wasn’t her call.
I find it somewhat curious that Larson’s three payments for June 15, 2012, somehow total to exactly $5000.
And what’s with the line item for “interest expense” of $156.67 on February 2? They’re charging all this stuff and not paying it off?
The hotel expenses seem a bit outlandish, and I’m having trouble putting together the stuff for the 2012 Long Beach Health Freedom Expo, which ran from March 2 to March 4 (the “real” one was from June 15 to June 17 near Chicago; Jennifer blew $1541.42 to stay at… the Schaumburg Hilton? That’s four or five rooms). What was so important about Long Beach? Why did you stay at the freaking Ritz-Carlton?
Long Beach was when Wakefield spoke. And Bolen. And they held a fundraiser for Wakefield there. With Bolen. Part of the whole history they want to expunge. You can find Wakefield sending out a personal thank you to Bolen from one of the radio shows for his efforts. This idea that no one knew Bolen and now he’s causing trouble is revisionist history.
Here you go, Robert Scott Bell
http://www.naturalnews.com/035513_Andrew_Wakefield_vaccines_autism.html
Bolen, Wakefield, Lewis, Olmsted, Ginger Taylor all were there at the fundraiser:
http://www.ageofautism.com/2012/02/youre-invited-long-beach-california-fundraising-event-for-dr-andrew-wakefield-legal-defense-fund.html
I think the fundraiser was a bust. No real discussion afterwards on AoA that I recall.
Why stay at the Ritz? Because it’s nicer than the super 8 😉
I think they were hoping that this would be a time when the AoA/Wakefield crowd would ally with the health freedom crowd. Probably broaden the Canary Party at the same time.
All a bust as far as I can tell.
If it’s real, it will be interesting to see how it’s characterized. It would easily top the donations for his current campaign cycle.
btw–don’t miss the $4,000 for the Hyatt/Four-Seasons hotel on January 26th.
Wakefield seems to have distanced himself from Arranga in the meantime, as well. (I don’t think the moribund “Academic Integrity Fund” is an Ed joint.)
Oh, what tangled webs we weave. If only they would put all that money to research into stuff that works to help autistics. If only.
I’ll confess to being the one who gives a lecture or two at GW once in a while, and I have stumbled onto Master Jake once or twice. He doesn’t recognize me because he thinks that I’m an entirely different person. Or he does recognize me and is playing some very interesting games. (I love to play chess with humans.)
I’m on the listserv for the epi and biostats program, and we get invitations when the MPH candidates give their culminating experience presentations. I have not received the invitation to Jake’s. But, as I previously promised Pedro, my SO, and even our esteemed host, I’m not going to Jake’s presentation, and I will certainly not interfere in his studies.
In fact, I’m looking forward to what he’ll bring to the table as an MPH. I need a good laugh. I have not seen him this summer, though. Maybe he was too busy visiting TPBs PO box?
Nice work I Rony Meter and Narad.
@ Reuben Gaines: And, why do think I did not *mention* on the SBM blog, that I was attending Dr. Offit’s seminar at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on June 8th? Jake lurks on all the science blogs to find out who he can stalk.
Oh, this should be a howler: “Also discussed is the story of Patti Finn, a New York attorney who was attacked viscously by her own professions simply for offering people informed consent and working on the unconstitutionality of the lack of vaccine exemptions in her State.”
Patricia Finn, of course, is the losingest antivaccine lawyer of all time.* I need to check on the progress of her bizarre suit against (first) the Grievance Committee for the 9th District in New York and (amended) just Gloria Anderson, who she thinks was conspiring with her estranged husband, or something. The complaints were a monument to disjointed rambing.
* I just noticed that I failed to toss a copy of a withdrawal of a motion to reargue in Check v. New York City Department of Education dated June 18. I honestly don’t know if “Patti” has ever won a case.
Narad,
first, one side note. Health Freedom is a “pay for play” conference. To speak, one must first have a booth (at a minimum of $900) then pay a speaker fee of $250. Then they get the audience for $20-35 each.
Here’s the 2012 list of speakers
http://www.healthfreedomdvds.com/store/venues.php?id=20
picking the autism “luminaries” out of the list–
Wakefield
Olmsted
David Lewis (professional Wakefield fan/apologist)
Lisa Sykes (partner with the Geiers)
Geier and Geier
Jerry Kartzinel
Brian Hooker
Bolen was going to be present (it’s close to his home and he was going to be involved with the fundraiser) AutismOne and the Canary Party held booths.
http://www.ageofautism.com/2012/03/health-freedom-autism-causes-converge-in-long-beach.html
Gotta love it–Olmsted calls the fundraiser “super successful”. I guess it was so successful that they didn’t need another 😉
Hey, look, Olmsted points out who is to blame for making connection with Bolen:
Oh — and wouldn’t you know: Tim Bolen said this whole thing got started because someone had reached out to him about why it made sense, someone who just never lets up in bringing this issue to the attention of everyone who will listen. Who else but Age of Autism’s own Anne Dachel. Thanks, Anne! Never let up.
I recall an earlier Bolen rant where he claimed Blaxill withdrew the Canary Party’s sponsorship of the 2013 Autism One conference until he (Bolen) was struck from the speakers list.
Patricia Finn, of course, is the losingest antivaccine lawyer of all time.
Some backstory here:
https://www.respectfulinsolence.com/2012/02/29/the-curious-case-of-patricia-finn-esq/
who was attacked viscously
A phrase like that, you expect nameless Lovecraftian monsters.
[…] at Respectful Insolence, there is a long comment thread building up on this post. One of the things that is being discussed is how much money is being given to and used by The […]
who was attacked viscously
Hold on there, doc — the phlegm comments are on the acupuncture thread.
“Oh what a tangled web…”
Hold it mister, that’s supposed to be my line!
( Actually, it’s
another Walter. Not Prior Walter).
More seriously, I wonder if Jake is attempting somehow integrating his pseudo-scientifc investigations into his reality-based studies @ GW.. magine that.
heh.
About Health Freedom Expos: last year, before the Chicago event, *el numero uno* de woo, Gary Null, informed his entranced audience that he was being courted by health freedom leaders about appearing there and the group forming a coalition**. It fizzled..
Notice the dates of the 2012 and 2013 Chicago expos, very close to the Autism One events. Perhaps Tim & Co think that the latter siphons off anti-vaxxers and alt med faddists from the former. Less paying guests.
It is great fun for me to read reports about the brouhaha brewing amongst the AoA/ Canary faithful: I laugh riotiously and then go back to observing nature and life amongst the hip, the posh and the self-satisfied – which is an entirely different soap opera.
** of the mis-informed
Today, we are provided the following weird announcement from AoA:
MESSAGE BEGINS_______________________________
Minion Gaines,
Oh, how I do so enjoy a stimulating chess game with humans! The Ventraxian Protocol Minister and I had a regular game for more than a year in the auditorium at the World Bank Illuminati bunker complex. It was delightful at first, but then the humans got bored and start to complain. Endotherms! Soon they’d begin to whine, then move about and eventually, soil their lovely costumes. A dose of MonkeyMist™ made them compliant, but then they became unstable and dead weight—very difficult to move. We tried playing with just the skeletons for a while, but where’s the fun in that? Is there a moral to all this? Well, I suppose it would be to enjoy the magic of things while it lasts. All things pass my minions, all things pass.
We must compare notes over single malt sometime.
Lord Draconis Zeneca, VH7ihL
Forward Mavoon of the Great Fleet, Pharmaca Magna of Terra, True Player
Glaxxon PharmaCOM Orbital
101100111000111100001111100000111111000000
————————————————————-MESSAGE ENDS
I remember that Health Freedom Expo in Long Beach, last year. We were all trying to figure out what type of outfits (“California Casual”), would be appropriate to attend.
Meanwhile, at today’s AoA we have an article, written by the “Acting Executive Director” of The Canary Party, Patti Carroll,
about their activities at a hearing to expand the school vaccination requirements in Minnesota:
http://www.ageofautism.com/2013/07/call-to-action-as-minnesota-vaccine-safety-advocates-fight-proposed-rule-changes.html#more
Why is Patti Carroll testifying and not Jennifer Larson? Maybe, the fact that Larson was Wakefield’s liaison/operative for the Somali-American community in Minneapolis, through Wakefield’s Strategic Autism Initiative, and who shares the responsibility (with Wakefield), for the huge measles outbreak in Minneapolis, Spring, 2011, amongst Somali-American children?
I’ll save you the trouble of looking up the address of The Canary Party…It shares space (or is a mail drop) with Vibrant Technologies, Jennifer Larsons moneymaker company:
http://www.cfboard.state.mn.us/campfin/PCFDetail/PCF41056.html
“It shares space (or is a mail drop) with Vibrant Technologies, Jennifer Larsons moneymaker company”
Watch for donations from the companies of canary party members to Issa and others.
“We were all trying to figure out what type of outfits (“California Casual”), would be appropriate to attend.”
I think “well heeled and willing to donate” was the preferred dress.
I trust the canary party is not related to Canary Wharf. Nor to Sylvester the cat.
Madeline, s’il vous plait…
¿Me pueden dar una galleta?
Et un autre, s.v.p.
I’ve got to ask – do all these postings attempting to update cookies really work? I find that the lists of Recent Insolence returned and Recent Insolence delivered can be out of date regardless of whether I’ve posted a comment recently, and can vary wildly on views of different pages.
They can ameliorate the problem, but yah, the widgets are simply broken. It’s the hallmark of technical “solutions” from people who don’t actually use what they’re “fixing.” (Don’t even get me started on the catastrophe that is the new, “cutting edge” SBM.)
^ Then again, simply telling Firefox not to clear cookies on restart does about the same thing.
Hey guys! Jake’s just launched a new website! http://www.autisminvestigated.com/welcome-to-autism-investigated/
And here is is continued attack against Mark Blaxill’s rebuttal that I reposted above! http://www.autisminvestigated.com/mark-blaxill-attacks/
@ Sebastian Jackson: We were discussing Jake’s new blog on the other thread…” I don’t make assumptions” about vaccines and people’s motives 🙂
I am waiting for our esteemed host to direct some respectful insolence toward the epi-wannabe. (Notice how Jake states he is continuing his studies toward candidacy for his MPH-Epidemiology degree at GWU?) *Someone* should have curtailed his stalking activities for the past two years and attended classes and completed the required coursework.
@Broken Link: Could you possibly make screenshots of the Crosby/Taylor exchange and e-mail them to me. I would like to include them in a blog post I am planning.
I could do that, but I need an email address…..
[…] IRS. They appear to not be a national political party a they are not listed with the FEC. Recently, a commenter at the Respecful Insolence blog (Narad)found that the Canary Party is organized in Minnesota and files their financial reports […]
sooo disrespectful. the whole bunch. wow.
One almost feels sorry for Dan Olmsted. Really, one does. Certainly, he tries to elicit sympathy in today’s AoA post, where he states that others have accused AOA of being a “wretched hive of scum, anti-vaccinationism, and autism ‘biomed’ quackery.” And that he, Dan Olmsted, is Number 306 in the Encyclopedia of American Loons.
Apparently, AoA has a much more liberal censorship policy these days, as comments from DO’s detractors appear in the comments:
From a Jake-like entity:
“”The person who called me a Buddhist bully is one of his best buds and attacks relentlessly if anyone forgets to say “vaccines cause autism” once per every three words.”
No, just once every five minutes in front of Congress – where Mark Blaxill neglected to say that “vaccines cause autism” in his testimony. Isn’t that what this three-decade-long fight is all about?
The title of your post is “honesty.” But is it honest to censor critical comments from the autism community as you’ve been doing in recent months?
Thanks for the compliment that I’m “best buds” with Barry Segal, but I doubt he would concur.
Dan, save your pity party for the kids who can’t speak and are in pain and who were betrayed by your managing editor in front of Congress.
Posted by: CENSORED AGAIN? | July 27, 2013 at 10:47 AM”
___
And from a Diane Davis-like entity:
”
How does this article help our kids, poor poor Dan? How does this article help parents stay focused on the real problem? We have more important things to worry about than the bruised egos you guys whine about, that are of your own creation.
Copying emails to others without consent has been standard practice with AofA for years, not taboo as you would have readers believe, so you really shouldn’t complain when it’s also done to you or your friends. Maybe they got the idea to do it from AofA staff. ??
Posted by: A Mom | July 27, 2013 at 11:33 AM “
Three decade long fight? Someone’s math skills are a bit poor for a budding epidemiologist.
“But is it honest to censor critical comments from the autism community as you’ve been doing in recent months”
Yeah. AoA never censored critical comments when Jake was involved 🙂
Sure, you bet, I almost feel sorry for Olmsted//sarcasm.
Have you seen Stone’s latest vile screed about Dorit Rubenstein Reiss?
http://www.ageofautism.com/2013/07/dorit-rubenstein-reiss-and-the-benefits-of-agency-capture-1.html
Read Stone’s vile accusations and follow the link he provided to Reiss’ Rebutal to Mary Holland’s article in the Harvard Law Review.
Stone, had his a$$ whupped by Chris, Dr. Chris and me, when he posted on Mary Holland’s Law Review article, here:
https://blogs.law.harvard.edu/billofhealth/2013/06/21/guest-post-crack-down-on-those-who-dont-vaccinate-a-response-to-art-caplan/
<block
http://www.autisminvestigated.com/age-of-autism-condemned/#comment-157
Start over – – –
See what Jake has to say at
http://www.autisminvestigated.com/age-of-autism-condemned/#comment-157
…and another irony meter bites the dust.
Stone has an extremely limited repertoire. I not infrequently come across references to “Arkell v. Pressdram,” but in this case, I think the reply in Beringer v. McKittrick is adequate.
“…and another irony meter bites the dust.”
Ouch!
For whatever it may be worth, Brian Hooker lost his FOIA case. He’s now arguing for over a quarter million dollars in legal fees and expert fees. Including over ninety thousand dollars for himself as an expert.
Well that’s good news. Me thinks “Dr” Hooker is broke and is hoping to score $ from the government. I hope he doesn’t get a dime.
Is it wrong to feel schadenfreude over this?
Is it wrong to feel schadenfreude over this?
It may be short lived. Hooker gave what he did get to RFK Jr. for his book (which Hooker says is slated to come out next year). Think “Deadly Immunity II, The Book”
Instead of misinterpreting the Simpsonwood transcripts, RFK will misinterpret the emails that Hooker got from FOIA and Posey’s office. Instead of the “mercury moms” of “Evidence of Harm”, you’ll get Brian Hooker, warrior mercury dad.
If things go the way he claims (which hasn’t happened yet) Hooker will be a part of a congressional hearing in November
“My FOIA work helped lead to the upcoming (November, 2013) Congressional Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP). This was a result of further discussions with Rep. Issa, other parents of vaccine injured children and me where specifically I showed the connection between the CDC and the Department of Justice (DOJ) attorneys that oppose the vaccine injured children in what is essentially “vaccine court.””
Yes, congress will be surprised to find out that the DOJ attorneys talk to people inside HHS (in this case the CDC) when they defend HHS in vaccine court. There’s a connection there, he discovered it.
Of course, every vaccine case is “petitioner v. secretary of HHS”, so this “connection” where DOJ speak to HHS won’t be any surprise to most people. But in Hooker’s world, this is a “conspiracy”.
[…] buzz has been building that another hearing is in the works. We were told that $40,000 had been donated the Political Action Committee (PAC) for the chair of the Oversight […]