So, I saw over at Orac's hate site that he had written a post about his 5 year blogoversary. Good for him. I also noticed that he devoted a significant portion of his post to little ol' me.
Maybe I should feel honored. Instead, I feel defiled, dirty. The ick....it burns!
I'm not going to go into detail about all of his patting himself on the back and him masturbating his already enormous ego. I will, however, pick apart the portion of his crapfest that pertains to me.
Here's what he has to say:
"One of my biggest disappointments was a fairly regular commenter named Craig Willoughby. A couple of years ago, maybe longer, he showed up in the comments of posts about vaccines. I don't remember exactly when he first showed up; it may even have been at the old blog. However, I do remember that, among those drinking of the Kool Aid of the "vaccines cause autism" movement at least then he seemed among the most reasonable, even though he didn't like what I had to say. In others, like J.B. Handley, I saw no hope of ever reaching them, but I had thought that maybe Craig was reachable. Sadly, either I was wrong that he is reachable or I botched trying to do it. Of late, Craig has drifted ever further from reason, into the anti-vaccine biomed cult (see his comments cited here for an example). These days, apparently Craig's decided that he detests me so much that he's taken to launching nasty, poorly-written, poorly thought-out, profanity-laden, spittle-flecked attacks against me that confuse insolence with pure bile and demonstrate a total misunderstanding of science."
Going on:
"As much as I realize that one blogger isn't likely to make the difference, I know Craig reads my blog regularly, which is why I will simply say two things. First, vaccines didn't cause your child's autism and other problems. They just didn't; science is clear on that. Your anger, as understandable as it is, given your stressful situation, is misdirected and misguided. I know you won't like hearing that; it may even provoke another tirade against me. So be it. Know this also: I am not your enemy. Neither is Paul Offit. Neither is Steve Novella. Know this also: J.B. Handley, Generation Rescue, and the rest of the biomeddling anti-vaccine movement are not your friends, either."
Have you read my son's medical records? Have you ever met my son? Have you ever seen any autistic children? No? Then I do believe you are just blowing smoke out of your ass, David. The science is NOT clear on the vaccine/autism debate. Have there been any studies done on any other vaccine other than the MMR? Have there been any studies on an unvaccinated populace to determine neurological health outcomes? Have the children who regressed after meeting all developmental milestones been studied? Did you know that the DTaP has some pretty serious adverse reactions (Look Here)? Did you know that my son's reaction is almost word for word what it describes under the Very Rare reactions? You and Novella and Offit make these very definitive statements without reviewing ALL the evidence. That is not science.
One thing is very clear to me; you are indeed the enemy. You say that you believe that adverse reactions occur, but the minute someone says that they think that they or their child had one, you immediately say, "No, you are lying," or "you are confusing correlation with causation." Hell, you probably would deny a reaction if it happened while the needle was still in the arm, David. Same with Novella. And while I have changed some of my opinion about Offit, he would probably do the same thing. As long as you and the scientific community continue to dismiss these reactions, you will continue being the enemy.
And yes; Ms. Stagliano, J.B., Dan Olmstead and everyone over at AoA are my friends. They were there for me to offer me support and advice when my son's rages were at their most violent. They offered suggestions of things I could do to help him. They suggested the GFCF diet; a diet, I might add, that is condemned by you and your sycophantic minions. In his case, it was logical considering that he has allergies to milk and wheat. Since then, he has stopped having rages 2 to 3 times a day and now has one maybe once a month.
But doctors and scientists say there is nothing they can do to help him. They want to drug him into oblivion. Doctors like you want me to institutionalize my son. So, who are my friends again?
And here's the last part:
"Finally, Craig's quite wrong when he says that I'm only interested in being right. What I'm really interested in is science and how to apply the best science to medicine. What I'm really interested in is science and reason. I won't lie and say it doesn't bother me when evidence shows me to be wrong, but I do change."
So, when the link between vaccines and autism is found, are you going to apologize to everyone, or are you going to disappear, then show up under a new moniker to abuse those you disagree with elsewhere? Lucky for you that you can't be sued for being such an ass.
Anyway, I've said enough for now. I need to go take a shower after perusing his blogorrhea for too long. I will leave Orac and his ego some time alone together. Hell, it is so damned big that it needs its own zipcode. Does his wife ever get jealous?
I think that picture says it all, the guy is a complete contradiction of himself, even the title makes that obvious: "Respectful Insolence?" He obviously lacks the critical thinking skills to know that naming your blog after an inherent contradiction wouldn't make you look like anything other than a total buffoon. It's also clear in the way he applies his standards, pretending that evidence linking autism to vaccines does not exist while dumpster-diving for anything that will say the opposite.
ReplyDeleteHe is also living proof that being educated does not mean being intelligent, and that in the end all having a PhD and MD really means is that you've spent more time in school, since he's put neither of them to any good use.
It is especially bizarre that he spends more of his time talking about autism and vaccines than about cancer and surgery, given that he writes what is considered a "medical" blog, while having no excess knowledge in autism or vaccines. Then again, at "Science"Blogs, it's simply having something impressive-looking like an MD or PhD that matters, not actually having a clue about what you are talking about. After all, according to "Science"Blogs's parent company Seed, "Science is Culture." And to Seed's founder and CEO Adam Bly, culture is business.
Exactly, Jake. He tries to come across as an autism and vaccine "expert," and yet, he has never seen and autistic child or looked at their medical records. He's a buffoon, plain and simple, and he is a terrible discredit to the medical profession.
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