I don’t know why I’m interested in this, to the point where I’m on my sixth post about it since February. I sometimes even ask myself that very question, because taking an admittedly somewhat perverse interest in the internecine feuds among antivaccinationists. Maybe it’s a bit of schadenfreude. Maybe it’s just me. Whatever the reason, the ongoing feud between Jake “Boy Wonder” Crosby and his former mentors and allies in the antivaccine movement keeps bringing me back for more, as it did last week after a couple of months away. Maybe it’s because when the antivaccine movement is fighting among itself it’s wasting energy that it could otherwise be using discouraging vaccination, fear mongering, and endangering public health, and that’s a good thing. Maybe it’s the sheer enjoyment of seeing people who tried to get me fired ripping into each other. (Hey, I’m human, the computer-inspired moniker notwithstanding.) Maybe it’s a little of both. Either way, it is a good thing to see them wasting time and effort on this.
So it was with great amusement that I noted that our old friend Jake has finally made the break official and complete. How, you ask, has he done this? He’s finally started his own blog. Amusingly, it’s called Autism Investigated. Even more hilariously, his subtitle is “Uncovering the who, what, when, where and why of the autism epidemic,” and he’s clearly aped the design of the antivaccine crank blog that spawned him, Age of Autism, complete with listing himself as the editor. Here’s a hint, Jake: If a blog has only one blogger, there really isn’t much of a point in having an editor. You don’t see Orac referring to himself as the “editor” of this blog, do you? Of course not. That’s because, when it comes to this blog, I’m it. Every word you see here pours forth from my keyboard. One wonders if Jake is just being pretentious or whether he’s recruiting other writers. If so, whom would he recruit? Patrick “Timmy” Bolen? Now, there’d be some hilarity! Or maybe he’s just being a pretentious git.
No, I guess he really does plan on trying to solicit articles:
The purpose of this site is to investigate the who, what, when, where and why of the autism epidemic, particularly the role vaccines play in causing it as well as the government’s role in covering up that cause. To maintain independent coverage, Autism Investigated will not accept sponsorship or commercial advertising of any kind. Readers are encouraged to make their own contributions to the site either via authored articles or through participation in our interactive comment discussions. We value your voice and look forward to your readership. To ensure that you don’t miss our posts, please subscribe to Autism Investigated and you’ll receive email notices of new articles. Follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook too.
Hmmm. Maybe I should contribute something. In fact, I encourage any of my readers to contribute posts to Jake. We’ll see what he actually lets through. In the meantime, I can’t help but wonder if Jake’s using the royal “we,” though. He might be soliciting posts, but right now his blog is clearly a one clueless young man operation.
After (predictably) attacking Seth Mnookin, Jake decided to try to fry another one of my irony meters again. Fortunately for me, I’ve reinforced mine with layer after layer of insulation and shielding against a flaming lack of self-awareness. It held. Just barely. The onslaught of nonsense and hypocrisy was powerful, though, and I’m going to have to patch it up a bit. To see why, just take a look at Jake’s attack against one of his former mentors who molded him into the crank that he is, Mark Blaxill:
On the 4th of July, Canary Party Chairman Mark Blaxill made his first public statement responding to revelations of his role in hijacking November’s congressional autism hearing. He descended into a litany of ad hominem attacks against his critics, including myself.
See why even the strongest shielding of my irony meter was sorely tested? Jake, getting indignant about ad hominem attacks. A young man who’s made his reputation primarily based on ad hominem attacks? Think about it. What is Jake’s MO? In general, he somehow tries to discredit his enemies by linking them to pharmaceutical companies, usually through a “six-degrees-of separation” technique, in which he insinuates that a friend of a brother of a cousin of wife once worked for a pharmaceutical company in the past or owned pharmaceutical stock. The connections are virtually always tenuous and irrelevant, but he uses them to insinuates that these distant, second-, third-, and fourth-hand connections to the evil pharmaceutical companies indicate such a hopeless conflict of interest that the person expressing pro-vaccine sentiments who falls victim to it is completely unreliable and unbelievable. That is the very definition of “ad hominem,” which means “against the man,” or attacking the source without addressing the source’s arguments properly. Jake used a variation of his usual ad hominem attacks against me three years ago, which is when he tried to attack me by accusing me of an undisclosed conflict of interest because a drug company had apparently given money to my university to research something related to what I work on in my lab. Never mind that I had not taken any money from that company and was, in fact, completely unaware that it had ever provided a grant to my university.
Such is how Jake operates.
I do have to give Blaxill credit for some newfound insight, though. Jake is clearly very upset by something Blaxill said that was completely accurate:
Mark Blaxill directs his final paragraph at me, calling my reporting “delusional.” He then flip-flops by stating I have “so much potential to do good work.” He also talks about wanting to “heal the rift between us” five months after unfriending me on Facebook.
Now, he plans to continue shutting off contact with critics like myself on the excuse that, “I have no intention of getting into any flame wars on this subject.”
Perhaps it’s time for Mark Blaxill to practice what he preaches.
As I said, irony is lost on Jake. One wonders if he’ll ever practice what he preaches and stop his relentless conspiracy mongering ad hominem attacks. Probably not, unless there is some revelation that hits him like a bolt from the blue. Whatever the case, I’m not really that interested any more in Jake’s specific charges against Blaxill. From my perspective Blaxill is about as big an antivaccine loon as there is, Jake’s accusations of his having strayed from the purity of the true message notwithstanding. I’ve written many times about Blaxill’s poor understanding of science and embrace of outright pseudoscience (just type his name in the search box for examples).
This little schism in the antivaccine movement appears to be provoking a reaction back at the mothership. Just yesterday, the same day Jake posted his broadside at Blaxill, there appeared a hilariously self-congratulatory post at the antivaccine crank blog AoA by Katie Wright entitled People Who Get #$%& Done. No doubt this bunch of antivaccine activists does occasionally “get #$%& done,” but what, exactly is the #$%& they get done? Persuading a bunch of retired antivaccine Congressmen like Dan Burton to show up at their antivaccine quackfest Autism One is not impressive. Admittedly, getting a a couple of sitting Representatives (Bill Posey and Darrell Issa) to show up at the same quackfest is somewhat more impressive, but not in a good way. Fortunately, of late the antivaccine movement appears not to be nearly as influential as it was around 5-10 years ago, but occasionally it can still score a couple of legislators and somehow persuade them to show up in the Chicago area for a day to expose their crankery. They can even sometimes persuade one of them (Dan Burton in the past, Darrell Issa now) to hold grandstanding hearings that no one outside of the antivaccine movement cares about. When we have to worry will be if they ever show signs of getting actual antivaccine legislation passed, which, fortunately, they have not as of yet.
Still, as impotent as the AoA/SafeMinds/Generation Rescue/Thinking Moms’ Revolution axis of the antivaccine movement so fortunately is, they’re the people who are the biggest threat to public health because they might someday actually luck out and have become a bit more pragmatic in their crankitude. It’s a good thing that Jake seems capable of little more than character assassination and disrupting the occasional talk by scientists.
155 replies on “Get out the popcorn! This internecine war among antivaccinationists is getting interesting (part 6)”
Look on Crosby’s Facebook page and you will see that the only people he lets post are “yes men” who sing his praises. Anyone who questions him is unfriended or, at best, interrogated. Crosby’s lack of self-awareness only about because it was smothered by his massive narcissism.
@Orac – you’d be amazed what $40,000.00 can do – even convince a Congressman to spend a couple of hours “Glad-Handing” a bunch of anti-vaccine loons…..
Again, I’m still curious as to the status of the “Canary Party” since they aren’t a registered PAC, a Non-Profit, or a Registered Political Party……but they seem to be conducting “lobbying & other political activities.”
@Lawrence: I do know they held a “convention” in St. Paul / Minneapolis last summer. There was also once a Wikipedia page about the group that listed the seats in office it held (“0” on the local, state, and federal level), so they may see themselves as a third party.
I’ve been meaning to ask this for a while – isn’t accepting cash from lobbyists (or anyone else) illegal for US politicians? $40,000 is a huge amount of money – UK politicians have been sacked, and even banged up* for accepting “bungs” of far less than that.
*I really hope that means the same in America as it does over here…
@SJ – even if they consider themselves a “3rd Party” they should be registered with the FEC, which they don’t seem to be.
@rebecca – I’m sure it was a “speaking fee.”
Though gray, it is acceptable.
@Rebecca – exactly! It’s a political death sentence over here.
Look at the Hamiltons, they ended up as objects of ridicule.
@elburto: The Hamiltons…? Are we talking U.S. or U.K. now?
@Lawrence: Do you mean to say that they can’t call themselves a “party”, even facetiously, without a green light from the FEC? How could they get away with it for so long, if that is the case?
This is the “press release” for the Canary Party National Convention from a year ago: http://www.canaryparty.org/index.php/the-news/107-the-canary-party-national-convention-in-minneapolis-mn. It was definitely planned to coincide with the Democratic and Republican conventions, though it mentions nothing about nominating someone for president or vice president.
@elburto: Yes, although they were a laughing stock even without the “financial irregularities”… 🙂
I should go comment on his blog.
I have purchased pharmaceuticals in the past and have therefore given money to Big Pharma, and Jake is irreparably tainted by association.
Shill! Shill!
*rubs hands together* hee hee hee.
This bit from Jake’s post about Seth Mnookin is a real head-scratcher:
“Mnookin went on to say ‘I don’t know why you follow me to my events, I don’t know what rise you get out of this. You regularly attack me on Age of Autism, attacking my past, attacking my uncle.’ The uncle he was referring to was Robert Mnookin, close colleague of vaccine lobby front group president Alison Singer’s mother-in-law.”
So Mnookin is raked over the coals because he has an uncle who is a colleague of Alison Singer’s mother-in-law? Did I get that right? Oh, Jake! Seriously. This is beyond idiotic.
Colonel* Mustard…in the Conservatory**…with the Lead*** Pipe!
*MILITARY COVERUP!
**Also known as a “Florida room.” Florida is next to Georgia…where you will find…NOVARTIS!
***AUTISM IS HEAVY METAL POISONING!
@Rebecca: It would be bribery to give $40k directly to a politician. However, it is entirely legal to (wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more) give $40k to what’s called a political action committee (PAC) that supports the politician at election time. Lots of people, and even corporations (legally considered to be people in the US), donate to PACs (one can also give directly to a politician’s campaign fund, but there are limits on the amount any one person can donate) in the hopes of influencing politicians and helping to elect friendly politicians. Critics of the practice compare it to legalized bribery, but the US Supreme Court has ruled that laws designed to prevent this practice are unconstitutional.
@Sebastian – As I was replying to Rebecca’s comment, UK!
@LAB (black, golden, or science?) Jake never mentions his own family connections to Monsanto. Odd, given that some of their products have proven health risks.
We have a p!ssing contest going on now.
Bolen’s answer to Katie Wright’s blog…People Who Get #$%& Done….
http://www.bolenreport.com/Mark%20Geier/autism%20infighting6.htm
@Sasha (and any others thinking of commenting on Jake’s blog)
I recommend using extreme caution. Jake has a known propensity to track people down, harass them and otherwise make a nuisance of himself. Commenting on his blog, you may be opening yourself up to enabling him to identify you. Some have suggested using IP obfuscation software, such as TOR, along with a throw-away email address. My personal recommendation is don’t comment there at all.
As Jake has shown with his own allies, treat any and all communications with him, even if you explicitly state that they are not to be shared or redistributed in any form, as potentially public material. He has no shame and no respect for individual privacy.
@Rebecca – Did you ever see the Louis Theroux special about them? Bizarre people.
@elburto – I did. I think I was a little bit sick at Christine Hamilton drunkenly trying to get in Louis’ pants…
@Eric – Thanks. That clears it up. I think. 🙂 Just think what the US political parties could do with knighthoods, OBEs etc… It’d put Tony Blair’s “Cash for Honours” scandal to shame. 🙂
@elburto – I did. I think I was a little bit sick at Christine Hamilton drunkenly trying to get in Louis’ pants…
@Eric – Thanks. That clears it up. I think. 🙂 Just think what the US political parties could do with knighthoods, OBEs etc… It’d put Tony Blair’s “Cash for Honours” scandal to shame. 🙂
Bum.
Just think what the US political parties could do with knighthoods, OBEs etc… It’d put Tony Blair’s “Cash for Honours” scandal to shame.
The US Constitution prevents our government from dispensing such titles. The closest we have ever gotten is the occasional minor scandal over a presidential pardon (in my lifetime, one case each from Ford, Bush 41, Clinton, and Bush 43)–but that’s not likely to be a systematic problem, as pardons are only useful to people who have been convicted (or at least plausibly accused) of criminal activity, and there are obvious optics issues that would arise if a president ever were in a position to abuse the pardon power systematically.
MESSAGE BEGINS——————————————–
Shills and Minions,
As our little conference begins in the next few days, I do hope that Mssrs. Crosby and Bolen will consider making an appearance at some of our festivities. I think they might enjoy the panel on Science Based Medicine, or perhaps our esteemed host’s friend’s talk on quackery, or Minion Blaskeiwicz’s companion talk on the same subject.
Alas, I fear they’re probably too afraid of the nefarious Homoskeptual initiation ceremonies they’d have to endure in stall 3 in order to attend. Our indoctrination would then be complete and the world our oyster . . . or kielbasa. Whatever the food analogy you prefer, our jobs would be so much easier with these formidable warriors and their towering intellects on our side.
We’ll just have to stiffen our resolve . . .
Lord Draconis Zeneca, VH7ihL
Forward Mavoon of the Great Fleet, Pharmaca Magna of Terra, Grand Vitara of the Outer Strip
Glaxxon PharmaCOM Fleet Cutter Pleading Eyes of the Vanquished
1011011100011110000111110000011111100000011111110000000
Didn’t I predict this?
Jake sets up his own blog, fancying himself to be an investigative journalist revealing the innermost secrets of powerful and corrupt authorities, ALL ON HIS OWN…. where oh where have we seen this before?
When I first read about his blog ( via Alain, here) the other night, I was on a computer graciously provided at my hotel’s lobby: I had to stifle my laughter.
When I look over his material on the current rift I am surprised at how little of it is founded on anything solid- it’s ‘he said/ she said’, speculation about what others thought, wanted or said, as well as his trademarked string of associations relating his suspects to others he considers compromised.
Let’s be serious:
if you play that game, it would be easy to connect ANYONE to anyone else ( hence the idea of “6 degrees”), as an example, I could truthfully relate myself to well-known film directors, performers, artists, designers, inventors, scientists, politicians- in two countries, business people, a well-known anti-vaxxer AND Vladimir Putin by one or less degrees ( mostly because of close relations’ work).. Two degrees is even more interesting.
It doesn’t mean that there is any INFLUENCE.
-btw- if the congressman is a conservative, aren’t there be liberal bloggers or television commenters who might enjoy this little anti-vax tale?
So… Jake has built an echo chamber for one and moved himself in? I wish him joy of it.
No, no I don’t, not really.
Like Todd said, be careful. There are some scripts running on his page. He’s collecting browser information, IP address, and (if your privacy settings are not well-configured) what computer you’re using.
I’ve submitted two comments to him. He’s yet to publish them.
@Denice: If this insurrection is not based on anything quantifiable, one wonders if anything else Jake and “AoA” have ever said is quantifiable. OH WAIT.
It makes me wonder, why Jake didn’t take his latest screed to Bolen. Perhaps Bolen is only too well aware that Jake cannot be trusted.
Bolen is doing some of the leg work for us. According to Bolen’s latest post, June 8, 2013, he cannot locate the not-for-profit or PAC status for the Canary Party and he is adamant that Jennifer Larson came up with the $ 40,000 incentive money for Issa to attend the Autism One Conference.
Like Todd and Ren said. I wouldn’t comment on Jake’s blog, because I value my anonymity and don’t want to be harassed in cyberspace.
@lilady – I do believe our conversations here might have put the bug in Bolen’s ear….
@Ren – but isn’t that what most websites collect these days?
Granted, they don’t use the information as, um, vigorously as Jake sometimes does…
@Johanna
Yes and yes. He has a habit of going after his detractors in their place of employment. One comment from your work or if he figures out who you are, then all bets are off with that child.
@Ren – Alas, I long ago gave up the notion of anything resembling privacy on the ‘net. Instead, I adhere to the rule that if I don’t want it read out loud in court and/or to my grandmother, I don’t put it online.
But yes, Jake clearly goes beyond the pale.
I’d say something along the lines of hoping that Jake deafens himself with all that shouting inside his echo chamber, but that’s already happened, intellectually.
Slightly off-topic but I have been lurking here for quite some time and (among the many many things I find confusing about the anti-vac movement) I am curious/confused about the whole government conspiracy concept. I get that no one trusts their government completely, for good reason, but this one makes little sense to me. What is in it for the government to conceal this, if it were in fact true? the ‘government’ (federal, state, and local) spends a significant amount of money in research and support and education services for people with autism – not enough, but still significant resources. Why would it be in their interest to cover up a causative agent when it may lead to reduced health-care and education costs?
I presume that, from the perspective of the FEC, they don’t matter until they touch a federal election. Then the 10-day clock starts running if the money in or out exceeds $1000.
BTW, the IACC is meeting today at the NIH, Bethesda Maryland. Are we going to be treated to another rant from Jake? (Take a look at “Milwauken’s” comment).
I haven’t read his latest epistle, but if he’s now on to this angle, I have vanishingly small doubt that he found it right here. This is a person whose intellectual zenith was coining the phrase “homoskeptual” and working it like a rented mule.
I’m watching the videocast now. A father is showing a heartbreaking home movie of his child with special needs hitting himself and others. Very, very moving.
If anyone wants to tune in:
h_ttp://videocast.nih.gov/live.asp?live=12921&bhcp=1
None of this requires a script; it’s the garden-variety content of an HTML ‘GET’ request. I can look at what’s actually running after a few errands, but Pattimmy is not a l337 haxx0r.
if you play that game, it would be easy to connect ANYONE to anyone else
Indeed. I personally know some state legislators (on both sides of the aisle), and from there it’s at most two more steps to any given member of the US Congress, from Darrell Issa to Bernie Sanders. And a similar distance (since anybody active enough in Democratic politics in my state to be in the legislature would know Barack Obama) gets me to leaders of many other countries. My chances of influencing any of these people, especially since I’m not in the habit of giving money to political campaigns, is between slim and none. Even those who do have such influence with some national level politicians, other than a few Washington VIPs, would be unlikely to persuade both Issa and Sanders of anything more complicated than the color of the sky.
if the congressman is a conservative, aren’t there be liberal bloggers or television commenters who might enjoy this little anti-vax tale?
Issa by himself is what you might call a target-rich environment. If he actually does convene an anti-vax hearing, you might want to drop a line to someone like Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo, but unless that’s the current reason for Issa being in the news, you’re unlikely to catch Marshall’s attention, given the other shenanigans Issa has been up to with his committee.
@ Speak 21: I believe that the founders of the Canary Party thought they could “expand their base” by attracting conspiracists of all stripes…not just the groupies who support the anti-vaccine, anti-science organizations. That’s why the Canaries have close contact with The Tea Party and other far-to-the right groups.
Rebecca Fisher – it’s perfectly legal for a politician to accept campaign contributions as long as they follow proper reporting processes.
Ren’s link to the IACC live video cast here (Click: Webcast Live)
http://iacc.hhs.gov/events/2013/full-committee-mtg-announcement-july9.shtml
Agenda for the IACC;
1:15 PM EDT Oral Public Comments
1:50 PM EDT IACC Discussion of Public Comments
Jesus Christ! Some PhD candidate in public health is now pushing the acetaminophen and autism. Why?
Acetaminophen is given to children for pain relief during circumcision… AND… Her studies have shown a direct correlation between a country’s circumcision prevalence and autism prevalence.
Discuss.
OK, NoScript reports one blocked item. A quick scan of the landing-page source reveals only the Google Analytics asynchronous ‘gaq’. This is actually remarkably clean, given the otherwise atrocious design.
I thought it was Google Analytics, too… Which collects a hefty amount of data, if you think about it.
Back to the committee hearing, a woman who had antibiotics before giving birth to her child. Her child didn’t get her gut flora because it was killed by the antibiotics. Nevertheless, child was developing normally until vaccines. Urine metal toxicity tests showed mercury, lead, and cadmium. Chelation therapy has returned him to normal but he still “suffers” from it.
I’m confused.
Must be rather creative considering the circumcision rate in the U.S. has been declining for some time now. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prevalence_of_circumcision
@lilady: On the Canary Party and far-right groups — how far to the right are we talking? Like, the WND kind of far?
Thanks, lilady – I suppose it was silly to hope there was at least a glimmer of logic in their position.
I tried to view the videocast but there’s no sound (Linux 3.10.0, gnome 3.6.3 chromium 28.0.1500.52) while there are sound comming out of the speakers from Banshee 2.6.1 (mp3 and video player) and I can usually use youtube fine.
Alain
Oh believe me, so is she but her DAN! is not.
I am getting the feed and they’ve just played a National Autism Association video in front of the IACC.
@ Sebastian Jackson: The “birthers” the “9-11 Truthers”, “survivalists”, etc., etc.
@ Ren: I didn’t catch the name of the woman who had antibiotics at the time of delivery of her autistic child. She is the founder of the “Shire (?) School”. She also mentioned that dreadful Stonybrook University study and mentioned instances of contamination of acetaminophen bottles for sale in pharmacies, by sickos about twenty years ago.
Last public comment at the IACC: the brother of “Dawn” who
represents the “Autism is Medical” group involved with Dorothy Spourdalakis while Alex was hospitalized, for twenty days in 4-point restraints and the bowel disorder that was diagnosed by the world-renowned respected physician…Arthur Krigsman.
I block GA as a matter of course. (If I were still on a static block, I’d drop the traffic at the gateway.) The only other thing I’m seeing is the Javascript for the ShareThis button.
@lilady: Could you give me some links from the Canary Party and its fellow travelers? I could blog about it.
@ Ren: The acetaminophen-fixated founder of the Shire School is Brooke Potthast. Enjoy…
http://www.ageofautism.com/2012/09/childhood-american-style.html
Off-topic, but it looks like Jenny McCarthy might be getting a brand new venue for her anti-vax views.
http://movies.yahoo.com/news/jenny-mccarthy-talks-join-view-part-camera-facelift-050000107.html
“… five months after unfriending me on Facebook.”
Did anyone else giggle at this revealing display of petulance?
@ Sebastian Jackson: Orac blogged about the Canary Party “pining for the fjords” two years ago. Just key in “Canary Party” on the RI Search field:
https://www.respectfulinsolence.com/2011/05/31/a-canary-in-the-coal-mine-or-a-bird-pini/
I was away for a week with no good internet connection. Just for completion, here is the remainder of the FB thread where Ginger and Jake and Jake’s Mum go at each other. I have removed some links (link removed) to prevent getting caught in the spam filter.
___
Ginger Taylor: Repeating my question to Jake…
“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?
July 2 at 9:34am · Like
Erik Nanstiel: Jake’s tag-teamed with his mom. I’m done. There’s no reasoning here.
July 2 at 9:46am · Like · 1
Jacob Lawrence Crosby: At least I don’t need to hide behind a troll such as yourself, Erik. There is no reasoning coming from you, but plenty of abuse which I am reporting to Facebook. At least you’ve given me a better idea of what Mark is saying to other people behind my back, as what you’ve said is an obvious by-product of him and Ginger telling people that my autism is somehow the reason for my opinions as opposed to what Mark has done to mess up the hearings. And no Ginger, I won’t reveal my source for how I know that about you.
July 2 at 4:54pm · Like · 1
Nicole Crosby: Jennifer Larson can you explain “liking” the above comment from Erik after you recently posted on my FB picture “This is a lovely photo…hope you are well.”
July 2 at 5:02pm · Edited · Like · 1
Erik Nanstiel: You would report me? You’re acting like a scorned kid who tells on his classmates to the teacher. I’ve done nothing and said nothing wrong. Let it go.
July 2 at 4:59pm via mobile · Like
Erik Nanstiel: At least everybody can read this thread and decide for themselves who’s being reasonable.
July 2 at 5:10pm via mobile · Like · 1
Erik Nanstiel: I’ve had to block Jake and his mom. It was getting too nasty.
July 2 at 5:12pm via mobile · Like
Jennifer Larson: Hi Nicole. I hope you are well and it was truly a gorgeous picture. I feel there have been months of good people being unreasonable with trying to understand other good people. This all makes me sad. I miss working with you. Erik Nanstiel is a good man. We are trying to find the bridge to heal this divide. Love you and Jake…
July 2 at 5:15pm · Like · 4
Ginger Taylor: Jake… I honestly do not believe that I have given anyone they impression that you should not be listened to, and I certainly don’t want anyone discriminating against you because of your asd. If you have heard something or if I wrote something that was construed that way, I would like a chance at least check myself if I did say something that gave that impression.
In my conversations about you, in every case I can think of, what I have said is that everyone loves you, everyone is upset that things are this bad, and that no one wants to attack you back or fight with you. I don’t know how that translates into discriminating against you.
It would be nice to be given the benefit of the doubt in case this is just a misunderstanding.
And I am certain that I have not lied about anything. I truly hate lies. They only cause harm. And if I get something wrong, I set the record straight as soon as I can. But you have not pointed out anything that was wrong.
So I don’t see how it is fair that you can convict me of something so horrible and malicious, discrimination and lying, something that I have not even done to the likes of Gorski or Offit, much less someone I care about, without a trial, or with out telling me when or where I am supposed to have done this.
You have judged so many people guilty… with no chance to defend themselves. And no grace at all offered if they just made a mistake.
You are treating me unfairly. You are treating Erik unfairly. I really hope things change for the better.
If at any point you change your mind and want to talk about this like friends, you have my number and I would love to hear from you.
July 2 at 5:40pm · Like · 5
Suzan O Farris: Ginger, in a sane world what you are doing would work. But the world is no longer sane. There is no right or left. There is only divide and conquer with lies. But I admire what you do.
July 2 at 6:01pm · Like · 1
Ginger Taylor: Thank you, Suzan.
July 2 at 8:10pm · Like · 1
Jacob Lawrence Crosby: Ginger Taylor, you’ve given the impression that I should not be listened to throughout this entire thread. Other than feigning ignorance about you bringing up my autism to people as explanation for why I’ve written that Mark has been hijacking the hearings – as opposed to the fact that he has been hijacking the hearings – you’ve not addressed any of the points I’ve made as you yourself have acknowledged earlier. Instead, you’ve persisted in making off-based remarks about my neurological state and defended Erik even after he blocked me when I said I would report him for all the abusive comments he’s made concerning my emotional stability. You should be ashamed for even allowing those comments on your thread, but here you are endorsing them. Your lie that I’ve been unfair to anybody or judged anybody without letting them defend themselves when you’ve made it abundantly clear that you’ve been judging me by my neurology and not by anything I’ve actually said is just that – a lie. I’ve not convicted you of anything – as easily as I can inform people of what you’ve been saying about me behind my back, you can just as easily deny it. However, it is my understanding you’ve made remarks about me regarding my autism a lot so you should have no problem finding an example with which to refresh your memory, unless of course you’re still making those remarks about me to people.
23 hours ago · Edited · Like · 3
Nicole Crosby: Jen, you said Erik “is a good man” even after he told a young man with aspergers (who happens to be my son) he “has issues,” he’s “imploding” and he’s like “a porcupine.” Your support of those comments is appalling, for the president of an organization that tells members of Congress it represents the autism community. You “like” his comment that I couldn’t be reasoned with, but still claim “We are trying to find the bridge to heal this divide.” Really Jen? Mark “unfriended” Jake on FB months ago and you said it was justified. It’s no secret you made numerous phone calls to try to censor Jake’s presentation at Autism One. So all this garbage about feeling so sad and Mark wanting to find common ground is just that – garbage. Ginger, your likening Jake to wielding a machete and your harping on his anger, while you yourself display incredible anger and have posted multiple F-bombs on FB, is hypocritical and way out of line as well. BTW, I was sent 2 emails describing your discriminatory remarks about him. I know how opposed the Canary Party is to revealing private emails, so I’m sure you won’t be requesting those.
July 3 at 8:14am · Edited · Like · 2
Jennifer Larson Nicole:. I’ve never been friends with Jake on FB. I think we all have our breaking points whether asd or not. If Jake, Erik, Ginger or myself want to explode it’s likely warranted. All this does is feed the other side when we are at each other’s throats. I personally am going to get up every day and do what I feel is the best thing to do. Whether I’m taking care of Cade, going to work or trying to help our community – I always am well intentioned. This year has been eye opening as I’m being attacked for being a good person, criticized and judged for how I want to help. I just keep thinking the other side loves this.
July 3 at 8:55am · Like · 1
Ginger Taylor: No comments have been deleted from this thread.
July 3 at 2:03pm · Like
Ginger Taylor: If something did not post properly feel free to repost it. But I have to say how difficult it is for me to see you and Jake lashing out at anyone who is reaching out to try to fix things. I hope it stops soon.
July 3 at 2:04pm · Like
Jacob Lawrence Crosby: Jen, no one ever said you were Facebook friends with me; it was Mark who unfriended me on Facebook after he deleted a link to my Bolen Report article that I posted on his thread. What the other side loved was seeing my slideshow about challenging people like Seth Mnookin and Paul Offit at their own events deleted from the internet, as you’ve succeeded in doing. Ginger Taylor, as the sole source of the F-bombs on this thread who is consistently refusing to listen to my side of the story, you fit your own description of “lashing out at anyone who is reaching out to try to fix things” perfectly.
July 3 at 2:22pm · Edited · Like · 1
Ginger Taylor: Jake… it is my page, my thread and I can set off F-bombs should I so choose. And none of them are directed at you. They are directed at Bolen, who has used them with me, and they are deserved because the man is acting with open malice toward us. He lies. Stupid giant lies that everyone can see. What he has done is atrocious.
Your accusation that I am “consistently refusing to listen to my side of the story”.. I have emailed you twice asking to talk with you, I have openly and repeatedly asked you on this thread to show me what I have done wrong, or done to hurt you, and you refuse. False accusation after false accusation. Including refusing to listen to you. All you have to do is scroll up.
How I became the enemy to you… I don’t understand.
I am absolutely doing everything I know how to do to fix the problem between us, to defend the false accusations against me and my friends, and get people back to work on the real battle.
How can I do that here with you? People have been trying since last Nov to make things better with you… many have given up hope and moved on. I am still here… I am still trying.
But I just don’t see that you have any will to try to understand anyone elses point of view, or offer any one grace or forgiveness or the benefit of the doubt.
So how can I fix things if all my attempts are rebuffed and then characterized as, “consistently refusing to listen to my side of the story?”
July 3 at 2:33pm · Edited · Like
Ginger Taylor: Jake… as I look again at this thread, and the things you have written in the last several months, the double standard that you have set is striking. You are telling outright falsehoods about people, illegitimately ruining people’s reputations, refusing to work in good faith with them to straighten things out and bring the truth to light, and then holding others to a standard that are not allowed to even hurt your feelings or it is a re portable offense to FB?
You have been pretty vicious to people, and then are offended if they don’t grant you access to their private facebook pages any more?
You are judge, jury and executioner, with no appeals court, but one one is allowed to criticize you.
Do you see that you have set up a quite unfair playing field here? Why should anyone choose to engage you on it?
July 3 at 2:40pm · Edited · Like
Jacob Lawrence Crosby: Of course you can, Ginger Taylor, but to say I’m “lashing out” when it’s very clear that you are the one lashing out is quite hypocritical. Canary Party trying to bribe AutismOne into removing Tim Bolen as a presenter simply because he posted my first article online is atrocious. You have shown you consistently refuse to listen to my side of the story on this entire thread. You only emailed me to get me to reveal how I found out that you’ve been talking about my autism to other people behind my back – talk about illegitimately ruining a reputation. Beyond that, you’ve shown no interest in considering anything I’ve had to say. And here you are in your very next comment doing just that – defending Mark for unfriending me rather than discussing the points I’ve raised on his Facebook thread. So you tell me who is refusing to work in good faith. If I’m being told I’m spreading falsehoods, I would at least like them pointed out to me if I am, but you just won’t do that because you can’t as I have not.
July 3 at 2:51pm · Edited · Like · 2
Nicole Crosby: I see the full thread now when accessed in a different way. I’m floored by the Canary Party president’s continued justification of their member telling a person with ASD that he “has issues” and is “imploding.” Ginger, spreading discriminatory comments will not “fix things.” Good luck getting non-profit status if that’s how you conduct yourselves. Clearly, the Canary Party should not be involved in congressional activities on behalf of people with autism.
July 3 at 2:51pm · Like · 2
Ginger Taylor: Jake… there so many assumptions in this, I don’t know where to start. Well I could start with the idea that you feel like you can read my mind and judge my motives. I wrote to you to fix the problem.
July 3 at 2:52pm · Like
Jacob Lawrence Crosby: Of course I can’t read your mind, Ginger, you yourself have admitted you are biased in favor of Mark. No use for mind-reading there.
July 3 at 2:55pm · Like · 1
Ginger Taylor: I am sorry that you have chosen to interpret my attempts to repair things as discriminatory, Nicole. The lesson that I am learning from you is that I should have perhaps chosen not to engage you on this issue at all. Sorry that I have not lived up to your expectations here, but all I can say is that I have done my best, this entire episode has made me extremely sad, and I am at a loss to figure out what else to try.
So perhaps we should just call it a day.
Jake if you really do want to talk, not fight… but actually to sort things out… please do get in touch, phone, email… whatever.
But let’s just stop posting on this thread. This is not going anywhere and it is just wrecking me.
Hope that we can figure out how to mend things one day.
July 3 at 2:57pm · Edited · Like
Ginger Taylor: For everyone on this thread… posting some more relevant info.
I posted my rant here, and AoA picked it up the next day and posted it here: http://www.ageofautism.com/2013/06/tim-bolen-shoots-himself-in-the-foot-from-his-hip.html
Then Bolen threatened me and was just an all around general Jerk, and I posted that email exchange here: http://adventuresinautism.blogspot.com/2013/06/tim-bolen-wants-to-make-us-or-maybe.html
He has since harassing Jennifer Larson via email, but she has chosen not to post that.
Now Barry Seigel, whom I suspect is the real audience for Bolen’s attack (as Seigel is a multi millionaire who wants to give money to fix the vaccine problem) to make Bolen look like THE MAN to solve the problem… with the help of Barry’s money, of course, has posted a comment to me on the AoA comment thread.
I will respond next week.
In the mean time… (so much fricking drama)
Mark F. Blaxill has responded to Barry, and for the first time publicly dispelled some of the misinformation that started this whole damn thing in the first place.
Posting it below…
Tim Bolen Shoots Himself in the Foot From His Hip – AGE OF AUTISM
By Ginger Taylor Dear Everyone, Over the last several months, Tim Bolen, whom mo…See More
July 4 at 12:32pm · Like
Ginger Taylor “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…See More
SafeMinds’ Mark Blaxill Testimony at Autism Hearing – AGE OF AUTISM
Testimony of Mark Blaxill Board Member, SafeMinds Before the Committee on Oversi…See More
July 4 at 12:33pm · Like
Nicole Crosby: Now “delusional” has been added to Canary Party’s descriptions of Jake – along with “machete wielding,” “imploding” and “has issues.” In the end, it doesn’t matter how low you stoop to try to discredit him, because your organization’s own actions are what inform people’s opinions. This FB message I received this morning sums it up well: “…have also lost enthusiasm for AoA and the Canary Party since they’ve chosen to undermine Jake rather than acknowledge culpability for involvement with dumbing down the Issa/Burton congressional hearing…”
July 5 at 8:19am · Like · 1
Ginger Taylor ——– Original Message ——–
Subject: Information for your retraction
Date: Sat, 06 Jul 2013 15:14:08 -0400
From: Ginger Taylor
To: Tim Bolen
CC: Mark Blaxill, Jennifer Larson , Patti Carroll , Katie Weisman, Dan Olmsted, Kim Stagliano, Barry Segal, Diane Miller, Jerri Johnson
Mr. Bolen,
We have posted the information and video on the MN hearings, along with further information on what people can do to try to prevent the expansion of the vaccine schedule in that state.
(link removed)
The effort to fight the expansion was organized by Canary Party Executive Director, Patti Carroll (she began working on this last November) and we are thrilled that so many individuals and organizations stepped up and took part.
I am forwarding this information to you so that you have what you need to print a retraction of your last piece on what you have described as “Autism Leadership,” in which you falsely characterized us as “organizationally constipated” and erroneously claimed that, “They simply cannot, and will not, form up.” Please note that our action alert on the matter brought over one hundred people out to challenge the changes, four times what was needed to trigger an administrative hearing before a Judge. We are in the process of compiling the dozens of pieces of testimony that were submitted, but that will take some more time.
If you are interested in helping, rather than hamstringing or harming, efforts to roll back the epidemic of vaccine injury in this country, it might be a helpful choice to run this information in its entirety so that your readers can join in the effort in MN. It is my understanding that when presented with a similar opportunity to tell your readers about the attack on the vaccine exemptions in your home state of California during the last legislative session, rather than help spread the word on the fight that Canary Party members were putting up against the bill, you called one of our activists leading the fight and told her to be happy that the bill was not worse… and declined to tell your readers that their rights to forgo vaccines with out coersion in CA was under attack.
I respectfully request that you let your readers know about the efforts of the Canary Party in MN, and the wonderful coordination that we had with our sister organizations, and correct the record so your readers are not left with the false impression that CP had no role in the hearings, and that Ms. Miller’s organization was the only one that showed up to offer input on the vaccine expansion.
Also.. please correct the very strange accusation that the Canary Party did not say the word “vaccine” at hearings about the “vaccine program,” as it is both inaccurate and nonsensical. (Video of our ED, Patti Carroll’s testimony on the “vaccine” schedule and Pharma/MNMDH’s malfeasance and conflicts on this issue
(link removed)
—
Ginger Taylor, MS
The Canary Party
Facebook
Twitter
818-402-9672
Call to Action As Minnesota Vaccine Safety Advocates Fight Proposed Rule Changes
(link removed)
The Canary Party is a movement created to stand up for the victims of medical injury, environmental toxins and industrial foods by restoring balance to our free and civil society and empowering consumers to make health and nutrition decisions that promote wellness.
Saturday at 3:33pm · Like
Ginger Taylor: Comments are now closed.
Saturday at 4:00pm · Like
Jenny McCarthy doesn’t deserve a sandwich board on a seedy street corner let alone a daytime talk show. Please contact ABC here: http://abc.go.com/site/contact-us?nord=1 to protest and speak about her abusive autism “cure” nonsense.
@ScienceMom and @Khani: Doesn’t she already have a VH1 talk show?
I have emailed ABC to inform them that if Ms. McCarthy shows up on the View, I will contact their sponsors to register my displeasure of their support of that show. Might not make a difference, but it made me feel better.
@ Sebastian, looks like her show with VH-1 is washed up as of last May. Not surprised there; it was awful beyond description and she couldn’t book even a C-list guest to save her life.
I read that whole thread and… DAMN.
I need to take a shower after wading through that.
@ScienceMom: I remember one of her guests was a terrible celebrity psychic that she touted as legit. She made a positive comment about him in “The Hollywood Reporter”, too.
@ Broken Link: OMG…it’s like reading teen school girl taunts. 🙂
Speak21: “I am curious/confused about the whole government conspiracy concept. I get that no one trusts their government completely, for good reason, but this one makes little sense to me. What is in it for the government to conceal this, if it were in fact true? the ‘government’ (federal, state, and local) spends a significant amount of money in research and support and education services for people with autism – not enough, but still significant resources. Why would it be in their interest to cover up a causative agent when it may lead to reduced health-care and education costs?”
They have to engage in a coverup, to avoid revelations of the Pharma-CDC-IOM-Bill Gates-Paul Offit-WHO-Obama-Illuminati-Giant Lizard conspiracy to sicken and kill off most of the world’s population through vaccines. Not only would the power structure totter and fall, but billions, nay trillions of dollars would have to be paid out to all the people who’ve contracted autism, Lyme disease, Morgellon’s, any and all autoimmune disorders and the entire spectrum of unexplained signs and symptoms occurring within temporal shouting distance of vaccination (see the VAERS database for examples).
The coverup must be maintained at any cost, which explains the enormous sums paid to commenters on RI, not to mention the hidden machinations leading to the well-publicized split in the antivax movement which forms the subject of Orac’s current article.*
*oops.
About Jenny McCarthy, you can sign a petition
http://www.change.org/petitions/abc-s-the-view-just-say-no-to-adding-jenny-mccarthy-to-the-view
From Voices for Vaccines Facebook page
I have a comment in moderation that gives you the email addresses for the ABC producers of The View. In the mean-time, you could go over and read Phil Plait’s letter:
@Ren WRT circumcision – I’m howling here, in fits of giggles. That must be an amazing piece of research, I’d love to see it!
I desperately want to see the figures because here in the UK, as in most of the EU, infant circumcision just isn’t a “thing”. It’s only practiced by Orthodox (Hasidic and Modern) and many conservative Jews. Muslim boys are circumcised during childhood. Oddly enough we have similar rates of autism to those in the US!
In fact, the US is pretty unique as a non-religious* country that practices RIC** so widely. As was mentioned above by Sciencemom, rates are declining, yet the rate of autism diagnoses is not.
*Routine Infant Circumcision
**Like Israel, the UAE, Pakistan, and other countries with official religions.
Got my footnotes reversed, silly me!
The one about religious countries should say “As opposed to Israel…,” etc.
Heat+meds=inability to brain.
@ Liz, Done and will include link in an upcoming blogpost about it. I think her active peddling of ‘autism cures’ and cranks is even more egregious than her anti-vaxx activities and less plausible denial as she has tried to do with her anti-vaxx nonsense.
@Broken Link – how old are all these people again? What a bunch of drama queens. Mama Crosby is quite the piece of work too – looks like she keeps those apron strings tied pretty tight.
Only Jake is young. The rest all have kids in the 10+ age range.
Broken Link – you can’t be young if you have a 10 year old child? From where I’m sitting you sure can be…
Lone Starr… I am your father’s brother’s nephew’s cousin’s former roommate.
So no one dare criticize Jake about anything that he does because it’s a criticism of autistics? What? It’s like that character on “Glee” who keeps justifying her idiotic statements by saying that she has Asperger’s.
Jake is an adult, and either he’s responsible for what he’s saying and writing (and doing), or he’s not. I’d like to ask Momma Crosby which is which.
@ElBurto – I’m going to look her up and see if she’s published. It should be interesting to read indeed.
@ Sebastian Jackson:
I see you deciphered my subtext.
@ Ren:
“child” is correct.
@ Dangerous Bacon:
Now you’ve gone and spilt the beans: Draconis will be very displeased, you know.
Draconis will be too busy giggling about the juxtaposition of “respected” and “The View” in the same sentence.
Oh my word. I wonder if someone decided to have a contest on who can be the most stupid troll on ShotOfPrevention. Yikes.
Ren,
That would appear to be correct. Any criticism of Jake for any reason would by extension be a criticism of anyone with a condition on the autism spectrum. Only someone on the autism spectrum can legitimately criticize Jake, and that person runs the risk of being labelled an (whatever the politically incorrect term is for such a thing).
What’s an “authored article”?
Presumably an authored article is one that someone wrote rather than copying and pasting.
Orac: “Maybe it’s just me.”
I suspect that many of us are immensely delighted by the goings-on chez Jake et chez Mark and there’s nothing perverse about it: I often breathe a sigh of relief whenever woo-meisters** wank on endlessly about economics or politics or spirituality or art because then less time/ space can be devoted to bad medical advice.
Obviously, as someone familiar with abnormal psychology, developmental psychology and language, the material kindly provided by Broken Link is indeed a source of additional wonderment for yours truly. I, of course, cannot reveal my exact thoughts and analyses but I’m sure you can hazard an educated guess.
Now supppose we put ourselves in the position of young, under-educated parents who are fearful of autism- in other words, AoA’s target audience- who might come for information about vacines and run up into a childish, nit-picking, self-aggrandising civil war instead of information from serious, concerned parents.
How trustworthy do you think anyone would find them?
** as an aside: listen to “how to spot a ‘quack’ “@ Gary Null Show- Progressive Radio Network- yesterday ( includes article by Mike Bundrant, Natural News’ resident mental health “expert”/ start to 18 minutes in)
It illustrates ‘why we fight’: such ignorance should not go unchallenged.
@Chris – I don’t know….Robert is certainly giving the standard troll a run for its money by linking to one of the most conspiracy-laden websites I’ve ever seen…..
Yeah, but is it with Jason. That is just brain dead trolling.
My suspicions is that “Robert” is Steve Michaels, he has the exact same spiteful conspiracy theory bent. And “Jason” is Joe, who is really just dumb as a rock.
And of course Thingy is always easy to catch, as is Cia Parker.
I just love the “Ecomomma” who seems to think she knows what constitutes a scientific study. And the other one who could not tell I actually posted three studies and not just one.
A while ago Steve Michaels posted his list of “scientists” he respected, it is a laugh riot:
http://shotofprevention.com/2010/10/04/why-my-child-with-autism-is-fully-vaccinated/#comment-726
@Chris – I’m stuck in Vegas this week (though the wildfires on the horizon are something to behold) for company stuff….today was the exception, because we’re all just getting into town, but I’m sure to be fairly incommunicado for a while….keep up the good fight.
So it would appear. Jake’s mommy declares it so!
Isn’t Jake 24 or 25?
Something need to be said that Jake doesn’t represent any autistics except himself so he’s not free of criticism no matter what Jake’s mommy said.
Alain
Jake can fall no further. He is allowing comments by John Best on his FB page:
___
Jacob Lawrence Crosby shared a link via Autism Investigated.
Yesterday
Mark Blaxill Publicly Attacks Critics
Mark Blaxill Publicly Attacks Critics – Autism Investigated
(link deleted)
By Jake Crosby On the 4th of July, Canary Party Chairman Mark Blaxill made his first public statement responding to … Continue Reading →
Like · · Share
Diane Davis and 6 others like this.
John Best: I think Blaxill used to sleep with Kevin Leitch.
Yesterday at 10:46am via mobile · Like
Twyla Ramos: Jacob, your misguided hostility is very unfortunate.
Yesterday at 11:18am · Like · 1
Jacob Lawrence Crosby: Twyla, tell it to Mark Blaxill.
Yesterday at 1:12pm · Like
John Best: Twyla, Did Merck pay you to support Blaxill?
Yesterday at 1:15pm via mobile · Like
Jacob Lawrence Crosby: I think hero worship is a much more likely explanation, John, not that Mark is a hero of course.
Yesterday at 1:22pm · Like
John Best: Or maybe she’s just stupid.
Yesterday at 1:26pm via mobile · Like
Twyla Ramos: I don’t have a sense of hero worship at all. I view Mark Blaxill as a human being. Perhaps that’s why I am not blaming him for the fact that the world has not changed yet in the ways that we would like it to. But I respect his work that I have seen for many years now.
Yesterday at 10:13pm · Like
Jacob Lawrence Crosby: I view him as a human being too, Twyla; I only blame him for the setbacks he is responsible for creating, of which there are plenty. All his “work” is currently doing now is continuing to derail the hearings.
Yesterday at 10:50pm · Like
John Best: Blaxill is too educated to believe that wasting time with a corrupt Congress is useful. Congress is 100% corrupt and the only way we solve autism is to abolish this government per Thomas jefferson’s instructions. Blaxill is controlled opposition to prevent you from doing that. Please wake up and start listening to honest people who are also more educated than Blaxill.
23 hours ago · Like
John Best: Too bad I can’t read Age of Autism. I don’t want them to attack my computer again. I’d like to see what Blaxill said.
3 hours ago via mobile · Like
Brooke Potthast, the founder of the Shire School for Autism, who testified at today’s IACC meeting, just checked in with the Dachel bot…
“Anne,
I just left the IACC meeting (which is still going on) and I will say I was happy to see that they gave Portia Iverson about 45 minutes to present on non-verbal autism. She said that there are no solid numbers telling us how many people on the spectrum are non-verbal but it is most likely somewhere between 25 and 50%!! So 1.5 million people with autism–
possibly as many as 750,000 people who can’t talk. That should make people think they are living on another planet. Like Kim said, humans are meant to talk why the &^$#*&^
is this happening and why isn’t it a national emergency? As frustrating as this whole autism epidemic nightmare is, I will say there was some rays of hope today at the IACC. Lynn Redwood should be beatified for her contributions and lo and behold Dr. Frye and Dr Buie were asked to attend and gave excellent presentations that seemed to get some
attention by Dr. Insel.
Posted by: Brooke Potthast | July 09, 2013 at 04:33 PM”
@ Broken Link: Jake is desperate for *friends* and Best is the only one he hasn’t screwed over.
‘@rebecca – I’m sure it was a “speaking fee.”
Though gray, it is acceptable”
No, it’s not. Honoraria were banned 20 years ago. In both houses.
“Erik Nanstiel: At least everybody can read this thread and decide for themselves who’s being reasonable.”
Erik mistakenly assumes someone in the thread will be considered reasonable.
@ I. Rony Meter: IIRC, Nanstiel was Jake’s BFF and he was challenging Orac to a debate with Jake. And, all his former buddies at AoA were heaping praise on Jake, every time he published another of his foul blogs and every time he reported back to them about his physical stalkings.
Mamma Crosby was so pleased when Sonny Boy received those accolades.
Maybe it’s just me, but I thought Jake won the earlier posted exchange. I don’t think he’s much better off, but being able to scoff at a cult mentality isn’t too bad. Unless one simply picks a lower-class cult as a substitute, that is.
I admit I made a mistake, posting on the same site that John Best is allowed to post. Never again I’ll make such a mistake.
Alain
Apparently, Jenny’s deal with “The View” is not passing Anne Dachel’s smell test. This is what she has written on “AoA”:
“This seemed like a setup. I really think the purpose was to discredit Jenny. Note the mention of her stand on vaccines.”
I haven’t visited here for a long while, but saw a tweet by Orac late last night, and came to visit, then got caught up in following links back to 1 Feb, when all this started, I guess. In the last 24 hours, I’ve spent many of them catching up on this hilarious internecine war of the anti-vaxers.
Poor Jake, and I say that with all the schadenfreude I can muster for the misguided NPD/BPD/ASD privileged punk who has forever ruined his chances of getting a real job. No one will ever trust him with an email, much less a responsible position.
@lilady, He does still have a friend besides John Best, and that would be Jonathon Mitchell, his fellow whiny weenie.
Ah well, these things happen. :-{)
Quoth John Best: “the only way we solve autism is to abolish this government per Thomas jefferson’s instructions.”
Didn’t want that overlooked.
Of course she was.
The hilarious thing about this whole kerfuffle is that it has exposed just how much Jake relies on his mommy for everything.
John Best: the fringe lunatic even Generation Rescue couldn’t handle.
Jake appears to be gathering quite a crew, doesn’t he?
Bolen, Best, Barry perhaps….
@Denice Walter
It’s like he’s creating the Island of Misfit Toys…all those loathsome cranks that even his former allies shun. He seems hell-bent on utterly destroying his character and credibility. As the saying goes, when you lie with dogs…
I suspect that even Jake couldn’t put up with the sustained idiocy that is Lowell Hubbs.
@Narad
If he can put up with the vitriol from Best and the idiocy from Bolen, he can probably put up with Hubbs.
Perhaps Jake’s blog will become a reservation for all of that particular brand of nut job.
I wonder who wrote his blogging software. I bet he’s using windows and Bill Gates supports vaccination so therefore Jake must support them as well, at least with his logic.
@ Narad:
@ Todd W.:
@ Lawrence:
I would venture that Jake has very little tolerance for anyone’s opinions unless they coincide exactly with his own.
People like Jake – and I don’t mean autistics/ people with AS- frequently have problems dealing with others in any capacity.
They get along with those who tolerate and praise whatever they do or say.
Maybe I’ll test Jake’s policy of “maintaining respect and civility” by commenting on his blog while I’m in TAM. After all, I’ll be in Las Vegas, and it won’t be revealing, for instance, the IP address of my home or work Internet connection. Let’s see how “civil” he remains if I post criticisms that are civil but strong.
Or maybe not. Too many other fun things to be doing at TAM. 🙂
@Denice Walter
Oh, of course. That goes without saying. But, as long as they don’t question him and are willing to attack those he attacks (or at least, not make the grave and unforgivable offense of defending them), I think he’d accept just about anyone.
It’s at the bottom right of the landing page: regular ol’ WordPress. The titling design is incoherent (as is “About Us”), but at least it’s clean. Minimal script cruft. It’s a paragon of design by comparison with the train wreck that is the new “cutting edge” SBM.
Oh, c’mon Orac, pleeeease! Those of us not lucky enough to be at TAM need *some* entertainment! 😉
As a parent of someone with Asperger Syndrome (and a friend to many with AS), I worry when I see a mother supporting rigidity and non-productive obsessive behavior in her ASD child. An individual (and his mother) may not like having intense single-mindedness attributed to ASD, but this stuff is an earmark of Asperger Syndrome. A possible “special interest” could be, say, “vaccine injury,” and an obsession with justice (calling people out for what you see as their misdeeds) is textbook AS. As a parent, I work endlessly to remind my son to try to see the big picture, to try to understand other points of view, to take a step back, to take a deep breath, to remember that not everyone sees the world the way he does, that not everything is black or white, good or evil. This is an ongoing learning process. Without the skills to temper his urge to be incensed over all the large and small things he perceives as unjust, my son’s AS is debilitating.
CIP has a program designed to assist college students with Asperger Syndrome and explains “cognitive rigidity” this way (from cipworldwide.org):
“Several students at each center have the classic form of ‘Cognitive Rigidity’ which is very intractable. The defenses they have erected are formidable.
Some things we know:
If you get into a power struggle with them it does not work. If you try to argue with them or prove them wrong it will only makes them retreat further into the confines of their fortress. (Factoid: they are very sensitive to even a minor insult, while they are oblivious to dishing out some really severe ones themselves).
How did the fortress get built?
High need for structure and to limit change and have a predictable environment even if it means having a very narrow life. Need to reduce anxiety caused by the above and limit sensory input that makes them feel unsafe. Need to have a way of explaining the world that is factual and logical in their mind (even if it appears irrational to others).
Track record of getting it wrong out there in real life and bumping into walls as well as having been abused or misunderstood by others.
Parents being afraid to confront them due to embarrassment or constant conflict in the home.”
Anon – do I read that extract from CIP to mean that, all in all, we’re all just bricks in the wall?
@ Anon:
You sound like a realist.
Have you ever read Thinking Moms’ Revolution? Purely to see the other side of the coin- if you can stomach it.
If you keep attacking everybody, you can’t have any pudding!
@ Denice:
I’m familiar with all the kooks. I had to remove myself from the “autism community” several years ago because I just couldn’t see how the constant in-fighting was getting anybody anywhere. Props to Orac and everybody else who can fight the good fight without losing heart (or job, or mind).
Anon: Is it a bad sign that your description of the ‘fortress’ sounds familiar?
@Todd W: point taken. It was really just a reductio ad absurdum anyway, really 🙂
On Boy Wonder’s blog, at
http://www.autisminvestigated.com/seth-mnookins-harvard/#comment-29
he writes
Having better sense than to post at Jake’s blog, and knowing he’ll read it here, I’d just like to say:
Jake, you aren’t special. It’s always been that way. Critical comments have never been allowed at AoA, nor have comments that don’t echo the party line. You should know this, as you have engaged in this behavior at AoA. While I’d never expect you to say so publicly, if you don’t know this in your heart, you are well and truly disconnected from reality and in need of help from a mental health professional.
And I’ve been “censored” from contributing and leaving critical comments on Jake’s blog. Somebody call the Whaaaambulance!!!!
Well, I’ve left a polite comment on Jake’s blog – let’s see if it gets through his moderation.
Hmm. Looks like it’s been deleted.
Rebbeca @ 128
Gotta love you ‘my glass is half full people’ 🙂
Lets us know if by some freakish chance Jake the thug lets your reply through
It seems it has, but it took the best part of two full days to pass muster.
It’s a good thing that Boy Wonder doesn’t have many comments on his blog – if it takes two days to moderate a comment, he’ll build up a a serious backlog in short order.
According to Jake, Rebecca has a blog full of bad words – can a brother get a link? I’m an adult, and won’t be offended by naughty words.
JABS Loonies.
And what creative and hilarious use of naughty words I may add.
He’s very kindly re-instated my comment.
@Johnny – http://jabsloonies.blogspot.com
It’d be a pleasure to see you there – although Jake does have a point; I’ve not written anything in ages. That bloody real life getting in the way. Bah.
Wow, Jake actually drops this one:
This is presumably the case that managed to sink twice, if the third hasn’t happened yet.
Jake’s new entry on his blog is a gem:
http://www.autisminvestigated.com/autism-vaccine-diabetes/
It gave me the opportunity to take a whack at the “science journalist” at the Miami edition of Examiner, who wrote about this:
http://www.examiner.com/article/new-peer-reviewed-study-strongly-links-autism-to-vaccine-induced-type-1-diabetes
Jake’s entry yesterday which critiques a news outlet – of all things- illustrates a little of his thinking process:
discussing an article one critical of Mac Carthy ( by Garofalo), he hits google to find one by anti-vax heroine, the late Bernadine Healy. He also manages to link the writer of the former to someone BAD..
This contrast reveals how low the newspaper has fallen.
I have a strong sense that someone whose Twitter “handle” is “chiromom” is going to be fairly impervious. But, as previously noted, my take is that Disqustink Is Terrible, so I’m out on that one.
I presume that examiner.com is a content farm, given the failure to even link to the actual item (one has to scroll down; impressively, the DOI provided is broken).
I’m afraid given his track record of publishing in J Med Hypotheses I’m unable to accept Classen’s claims at face value, particularly in light of articles by other researchers (PMID:11731639, for example) which find no elevated risk of Type I diabetes associated with routine childhood immunization.
Worth noting, what evidence does JB Classen offer to support his claims that “Vaccines have been shown to increase the risk of type 1 diabetes in a prospective clinical trial and in animal models [8]” and ” Epidemiology data has linked the epidemic of type 2 diabetes/metabolic syndrome/obesity to vaccines [9,10]”?
Three more articles by JB Classen, of course.
I just posted this about Dr. Classen on the Miami Examiner blog:
http://webspace.webring.com/people/il/lmorgan/fearmongers/john_b_classen.htm
@Narad, wow, that’s the Omics Publishing Group.
Better watch what you say about them, everyone. They threatened to sue a blogger for One Billion Dollars ($1,000,000,000.00) and bring criminal charges against him for criticizing them:
http://www.popehat.com/2013/05/15/omics-publishing-group-makes-a-billion-dollar-threat/
Not only is Boy Wonder getting his boogie kicked at his new site by our own Rebecca and another poster named Carlyle, he’s just been punked by a Polish spammer asking to repost part of Jake’s blog. Boy Wonder is so hungry for legitimacy that he said ‘sure, go ahead’. See –
http://www.autisminvestigated.com/mark-blaxill-attacks/#comment-56
I have a screen shot in case it goes down the ‘memory hole’.
@ Rebecca – I checked out your blog, and Jake is right. You do have a bit of a potty mouth. Nothing that offended me, and I didn’t see any undeserving targets, but, daymn, girl, you do throw down.
@Johnny:
And that’s what we love about her.
A story in which our host plays more than a small roll
http://www.autisminvestigated.com/dan-olmsted-lawsuit/
Pharma-shill pays pretty well, it seems. Years late (if I understand Jake’s “logic”, and if there is a spread of truth), but that’s probably just to help hide things.
Jake speculates:
I’ll be happy to answer (and we all know that Jake will see this). the answer is: None whatsoever. By the time I applied for the Grants4Targets grant (which, BTW, was a relatively small grant, only enough to pay part of the salary of one postdoc for one year), I had long forgotten about this particular incident. To the best of my knowledge, Bayer had no knowledge of my blog, and I haven’t had any pharmaceutical funding for well over a year. There are no prospects of any pharmaceutical funding now. Clearly, my being such a “pharma shill” has failed, Jake’s outrageously silly conspiracy mongering notwithstanding.
“To the best of my knowledge”. right. Sure, no one reads your blog, but everyone, especially Big Pharma, reads Jake. They are so scared of him exposing their secrets that they have a full time team reading him and doing damage control.
I sat down, red pen in hand, and read Jake’s article, making copious notes, diagrammed artfully:
what is wrong with him?
How does he manage to construct such a baroque imbroglio of subterfuges and influences within a group of individuals about whom he can only speculate as he doesn’t really know any of them ( except perhaps an antivaxxer or two). He can present no solid evidence for any of the tropes he presents.
And not only is it based upon speculations, it is layer upon (mind numbing) layer of plotting involving people who have very little interpersonal connection either with each other or with him. It reminds me of bad novel writing.
Does he really believe that large companies take what he and his cronies obsess over seriously? Does he believe that they are so fearful that they would hire doctors to *blog* against them? Or that vexacious lawsuits would be of any real concern to companies with armies of legal experts?
Although I never would diagnose anyone, I am starting to think that I should say that Jake needs counselling to help bring him back into reality rather than being cast adrift in a sea of secret agent intrigue and wasting his life in fantasy vendettas and rebel alliances.
Jake, you gotta stop drinking the conspiracy kool-aid.
Bingo! that’s exactly what it is. It’s anti-vax fan fiction starring himself, except that he doesn’t realize it’s fiction.
Just in case anyone is wondering #147 is sarcasm.
Hmmm, does Jake’s latest screed mean that negotiations have broken down to bring Jake back to AoA?
Hi Jake: I’m with you on your campaign to force Robert F. Kennedy to publish his *book about “Big Gubmint’s Conspiracy regarding mercury in vaccines”. Are you one of the investigators or one of the editors hired by Kennedy to investigate mercury?
* Kennedy spent $ 200 K for his book, to get the goods on the conspiracists in Government, according to Jake.
@ Edith:
When people create stories they may reveal their own level of complexity, general intelligence and their own motivations:
so we might get black-and-white heroes and villains- voracious mad scrambling for money and fame, pure-as-newly-fallen-snow saviours of children, intrepid truth-seeking journalists vs bought-and-paid-for hacks from certain anti-vaxxers.. which informs us more about them themsleves than it does about their targets. Note Jake’s adjectival phrases describing some of
‘our lot’.
Jake obviously has problems understanding adults’ complex and multi-dimensional motivations and weighing positive and negative attributes in human personality- believe it or not, psychologists study how these *person perceptions* and *attributions of causality* ( in self and other) develop in children and adolescents in contrast to adults. In brief, they get more complex, use qualifiers more, use more situational ( rather than personal) explanations and more multiple causation as they get older. In other words, they become more like (most) adults.
When you read a novel or see a film, you ordinarily make a judgment about whether it is more appropriate for kids or adults- that’s not just about sexual content and violence but also how its plot and charcters’ motivatons are presented.
A film of a John Le Carre novel does not include Harry Potter type situations and characterisations of people and vice versa. While adults might enjoy the latter, I’d be amazed if kids liked the former.
If we looked over alt med/ anti-vax theories of personal motivation, I suspect we would find as much complexity as we would find realism.
There’s more but I have work.
Deadly Immunity…the Book. Look how a poorly researched and mistake riddled article, so bad that it was pulled offline, can be expanded into a poorly researched and mistake riddled book.
“Don’t mess with me man, I have a manuscript” says RFK, Jr. to those in power.
Soon to be a movie. Imagine a bass voiceover: “In a world were facts are irrelevant, where breathless innuendo, fear, uncertainty and doubt are more important than science, one man has the strength of character to stand up and say, ‘Vaccines suck, dude'”.
“He’s been secretly taping conversations that show that it’s all a conspiracy”–Barry Segal
“Past drug use is a good smear for people I hate, but RFK Jr. is OK in my book” — Jake Crosby
“He’s using the documents I got through FOIA, so I’m important too” –Brian Hooker
“I’m hopin’ there’s an Amish Chapter” –Dan Olmsted
“He’s not a scientist, not a doctor. Therefore he must be right!” –Mark Blaxill
Nine years too late to ride the lack of information to fame, RFK Jr. follows in the footsteps of David Kirby.
Thanks Jake Crosby. It warms my heart to remember how the blogosphere (even Dan Olmsted sort of) stood up with Kathleen Seidel against Cliff Shoemaker’s abusive use of a subpoena in 2008, which he did in attempt to silence her and for which he was justly sanctioned. “I am Kathleen!” and Jake Crosby is too, he just doesn’t realize it. For those who don’t remember, there’s a great list of blog reactions at Liz Ditz’s blog, I Speak of Dreams.
http://lizditz.typepad.com/i_speak_of_dreams/2008/04/kathleen-seidel.html
Denice Walter #148, I do believe that Jake needs counseling from a lawyer – somebody who will advise him with only his interests in mind – about his blogging activities.