24 thoughts on “The Masque of the Red Death, 2008”

  1. These are the same people who think vaccines give you Cancer of the Autism – when no, all evidence suggests that comes from anti-social shut-ins fucking each other and creating multiple recessive alleles.

    Like

    Reply

      1. in this case, it’s the parents believe wikipedia editors with self-diagnosed autism looking for any excuse to blame why they have no social skills and live in their bedrooms. It can’t possibly because they never learned to be polite and shower daily. No that is way too out of line, it must be because they got aspergers from childhood vaccinations! Then the parents read their “Evidence of MMR Link to Autism” written up like it’s actual research and because they naively believe that because it is written down on wikipedia which is just like encyclopedia britannica it must be true.

        Like

      1. But how can you dislike any science fair experiment that has a…
        Biblical Application:
        John 8:12 says When Jesus spoke again to the people, He said, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life’. This verse applies to this project because just like the purple light helps the plants grow the best, Jesus is our light and helps us grow spiritually. Christians should want to go spiritually because that is the Lord’s will for them.

        Like

  3. summation: overeducated yet still stupid white people believe aspie wikipedos over licensed medical professionals. this is why we can’t have nice things.
    ive met a ton of these crazies. they are almost as bad as the vegans. i think they have an inability to perceive a future in which things will change. ie what happens when their kid grows up and travels through europe for a year and contracts the mumps and dies. nice parenting there.

    Like

    Reply

    2. Erm, I got diagnosed when I was 17. But unlike wikipedos I know better than to* talk about it all over the internet (with the exception of pertinent subjects, and I assume this is one).
      But goddamn, that’s fucked up. My dad tried to sell me on “chelation therapy” to “get the mercury out” or whatever and magically cure me of all my OMG BRAIN DAMAGE, and I smiled and nodded and did not do anything.
      Armchair industrial/environmental psychologists give me the willies. And probably mumps if they can get away with it, and eventually AIDS.
      *ETA important words

      Like

      Reply

  5. Painful swelling brain
    Gripping at my eyes
    Ears, nose and mouth
    Got a painful swelling brain
    Painful swelling brain
    Painful swelling brain
    Tearing me apart

    Like

    Reply

  6. If you don’t mind, this is one of those posts of yours where I think the sensible thing for me to do is to refrain from clicking through that link. In fact, I think I’m afraid to read the comments from other posters who have clicked through that link until you specifically tell me it will be good for me to do it.
    Shorter : are you sure I should click that?

    Like

    Reply

    1. You might not want to. You know already what kind of dumb it is, and why get a blood pressure of 400/200 when what you need is a cool head.
      Short version: Hellmoms out of Sex and the City are more interested in lifestyle and ego satisfaction than in the health of their children or any other living thing on the planet. We have to nuke them from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.

      Like

      Reply

      1. Okay, I clicked through. Here’s what happened: I got really pissed off at the NYT because they pulled a lot of punches in failing to point out what’s going on here. Check this out:

        There are differences within states, too. There tend to be geographic clusters of “exempters” in certain counties or even neighborhoods or schools. According to a 2006 article in The Journal of The American Medical Association, exemption rates of 15 percent to 18 percent have been found in Ashland, Ore., and Vashon, Wash. In California, where the statewide rate is about 1.5 percent, some counties were as high as 10 percent to 19 percent of kindergartners.

        Would it have been too difficult to correlate those counties with voter registration numbers, then mention that political science researchers have found no proven connection between these anti-scientific nutjobs and the McCain 2008 campaign?
        Yeah. I thought so.

        Like

  7. Gooo Mumps!
    “Thank you for contacting the human race. Your call is important to us. As soon as we’re done eliminating conspiracy theorists from the gene pool, your call will be answered in the order in which it was received.”

    Like

    Reply

  8. Ugh, I know. I almost posted about this. The following quotation KILLS me:
    “I refuse to sacrifice my children for the greater good,” said Sybil Carlson, whose 6-year-old son goes to school with several of the children hit by the measles outbreak here.
    Of all the scary things in the world, parents who blindly promote their children’s welfare without any concern for others scare me the most. I’ve been sideswiped by strollers on the streets of new york, and the blind, uncaring stare of yuppie mothers and fathers who care only about little Madison is as horrifying as Great Cthulhu rising from the waters.

    Like

    Reply

    1. That’s just the quote that knocked me back hard. That sentence says to me: JAIL.
      And we all asked “Who ate Innsmouth?” when you know it was you and me…

      Like

      Reply

  11. Autism is frightening. I can understand how a parent could make a very poor choice as they pretend that they’re doing something more productive than making the sign of the cross and murmuring “avert” under their breath.
    My sister has 12 year old twins who are autistic. It is extraordinarily frustrating. I feel such profound compassion for her. Her girls are there, and yet just beyond reach: a daily, minute by minute heart break.
    When it was time to vaccinate my children, given the family history, I did some research before agreeing to it. Ultimately, I decided that going forward with the vaccines was the right thing to do, and I’m glad that I did. But I can’t pretend I wasn’t a little bit nervous.
    When my sister watched my kids when they were babies, she would occasionally comment about seeing them do things that her girls never did. This was in infancy, before her girls received the MMR vaccine, and many others. She would tell me that she didn’t know babies did that, that she didn’t know her babies weren’t doing it. This is my anecdotal evidence that vaccines didn’t deal her the hand she has to play.
    But, God, they’ve got to figure out what is causing it. People will keep eschewing the vaccines until they can say definitively what is the cause of autism. Of course, people like easy answers. “It’s the vaccines” is so much easier than “It’s a complex genetic soup served in just a certain way.”
    I’m troubled by some of the comments here referring to Asperger Syndrome. I think I must be mis-reading them. Asperger is not something someone can just shake off and boot strap yourself out of, any more than someone with serious depression can simply choose to cheer up. But this is probably me being too sensitive as I read.

    Like

    Reply

    1. Thanks as always for your thoughtful remarks. You’ve hit on exactly why the vaccine/autism connection is so hard to resist, even considering the lack of evidence and the great danger to all of us when people refuse to vaccinate.
      By the way, the references to Asperger’s refer not to the actual syndrome — which is for real — but to the large number of internet nerds who self-diagnose with Asperger’s as a way of justifying their unpleasant behavior. It’s a problem.

      Like

      Reply

      1. Ah, yes! I know those people! I had one in my office just the other day. Our Student Counseling Center used to offer a workshop for students who had spent so much time focusing on their studies that they forgot to learn basic politeness and hygiene. They don’t do it anymore, much to the frustration of those of us who end up having to have a little talk with said loners.

        Like

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.