Month: April 2009

ED GRADES STAR PARKER LIKE AN UNDERGRADUATE

Posted on | by Ed | 21 Comments on ED GRADES STAR PARKER LIKE AN UNDERGRADUATE

I was tempted to go the FJM route when I laid eyes upon "Christian conservatism just getting started" by Star Parker. The more I looked at it, however, I realized that if an undergraduate student submitted this in class I would not even be able to muster the strength to give it a pity D. Star Parker, wealthy author and syndicated columnist, is not nearly as good of a writer as a college freshman. I am about to prove it.

There are some today who suggest that Christian conservatism as a political force is over.

Star, it's a good idea to avoid generalized attributions like "Some people say." These usually are thinly-veiled attempts by an author to insert his or her own opinion. It is unpersuasive and lazy.

Those who make this claim point to the fact that liberal Democrats now control the White House and both houses of congress, that the number of Americans self identifying as Democrats compared to Republicans has increased, that the direction of public opinion, particularly among young people, on social issues is liberal, and that the Republican Party itself has been divided over the conservative agenda.

This is a run-on sentence. "Congress" is a proper noun. The evidence you have cited here severely undermines your own argument. You are missing the purpose of a persuasive essay.

But those who write off Christian conservatism as a political force have underestimated the driving compulsion behind traditional faith and American freedom.

This is an appeal to emotion, not an argument. Citing empirical evidence that disproves your argument and then refuting it with your opinion – and a vague one at that – is a poor strategy.

Just looking at who is in power does not reveal the depth of division in the country today and for the reasons that the nation is so deeply divided, may I suggest that Christian conservatism will not only survive but will thrive.

After reading this six or seven times I came to the conclusion that it is a sentence fragment at best, and incomprehensible at worst. Did you proofread this? Your rhetorical style seems to be to present contradictory evidence and then tell the reader that you think it is wrong.

For although the Pew Research Center reports

"For although" is redundant.

For although the Pew Research Center reports that the partisan gap in approval for President Obama is the widest this gap has been in modern times with the difference between Democrat approval of Obama, 88 percent, and Republican approval, 27 percent, the "values" gap reflected in Pew and other studies is far too significant for some to suggest that conservative Christians take their voting rights home to be buried.

Ms. Parker, I do not appreciate it when students waste my time. Papers that have not been proofread and do not adhere to the basic rules of English grammar do just that.

According to a recent Gallup poll, 76 percent of Republicans say that religion is an "important part" of their life, compared to 57 percent of Democrats. And 55 percent of Republicans go to religious services at least once per week compared to 34 percent of Democrats.

What does this prove? All I see is evidence that Republicans may tell survey researchers that they go to church more often.

Whether or not they do, or what this means, is unclear.

Some 59 percent of Democrats

What does "some 59 percent" mean?

say out of wedlock births are morally acceptable, compared to 39 percent of Republicans. And with recent data showing 40 percent out of wedlock birth rates, what if any public policy should regulate this behavior?

The purpose of this assignment is to be persuasive by presenting evidence, not by asking rhetorical questions. You have offered no evidence to support the assumption that public policy should regulate the behavior in question.

Abortion is morally acceptable to 51 percent of Democrats compared to 25 percent of Republicans. And with 48 million abortion deaths since Roe v Wade, should no political concern address the societal costs of this law?

Star, you've had four abortions. Four! I hope you are prepared to defend your position in light of your own behavior.

Homosexuality is morally acceptable to 55 percent of Democrats and 30 percent of Republicans. And 52 percent of Democrats are ready to legalize same sex marriage compared to 22 percent of Republicans. We only need to look at 30 years of inner city data and see the impact of coupling government social engineering with unbridled sexual impulse.

I am at a loss to figure out what this means. What is the connection between homosexuality and…whatever it is to which you're linking it in the second sentence?

Without a moral compass in politics and law, where do we go to answer the hard questions?

Your conclusions do not match your data. 55% of Democrats supporting gay marriage = no moral compass. 30% of Republicans supporting gay marriage = moral compass. Where's the break point? I estimate 37.8%.

The Christian right has interjected itself into the political world because the political world came into their world.

This is non-sequitur and confusing.

The public schools that are educating the majority of America's children have been increasingly secularized and politicized.

Do you know what "public" means?

Public schools are by definition "secular." Christian conservatives have done much to politicize them, though, so your second point is valid.

The work place has been purged of biblical ethics. All public space is darkened by lawless and vulgar lasciviousness and becoming increasingly intolerant of practicing Christians.

We are not on Larry King. The assignment was not to submit a moral diatribe on what you consider "lawless and vulgar." You seriously misunderstand what "persuasion" means.

The result is that secular Americans have had a disproportionate impact on our country over recent years and biblical Americans are now fighting back with their voting rights.

"on our country over recent years" is poor syntax. Who are "biblical Americans?" If they are now fighting back with their voting rights, explain the November election results. And 2006. Do these examples mesh with your "argument?

"

Abraham Lincoln said that a "house divided against itself cannot stand."

Trite, but accurately quoted. Cite, please. When and where was this said? In what context?

He recognized that when points of contention have to do with basic values on common ground, we've got to decide who we are going to be.

What does "have to do with basic values on common ground" mean? This sentence does not make any sense. This clearly was not proofread and it reads like you slapped it together 20 minutes before class.

He knew the country couldn't continue half slave and half free and would have to become all of one or all of the other.

I fail to see how this is in any way related to your argument, or what your argument is for that matter. Only in the context of a paper with no argument is this sentence acceptable.

The divisions in America today have gotten beyond the political class and the talking heads.

Do you mean 'have gone beyond'? This appears to be your thesis, but no part of your paper has supported it.

It requires voting action to thread one worldview or the other into our rule of law and the Christian right has chosen the Republican Party as its needle.

"It requires voting action" sounds like this was written in Ukranian and translated into English – using a free, bad online translator. Your argument continues to damage itself. Having chosen the GOP as its needle, how does the party's failure support your point?

America is in a crisis because the wrong people have been making the wrong decisions for too many years.

Do you honestly not understand how badly this undercuts the entire point of your essay? Regardless, I am happy to see something true in this paper, even if it took 600 words.

Christian conservatives have an obligation to help lead America to it founding principles of traditional values and limited government. Christians must actively shape public policy in the country and inject our values into every part of our shared space.

It sounds like a conclusion, but it has little to do with what I just read.

So I would suggest that the naysayer put away their shovels

This kind of grammatical error insults the reader's intelligence.

because the religious right is not dead nor in a coma.

This should either read "or in a" or "nor is it in a." Two examples of grammatical butchery in one sentence.

Christian conservatives are not and never will withdraw. In fact, we are just getting started.

Read this sentence and tell me what grade you would give a paper that included it. What do you think? Here's what I think: I think your mother used a lot of powerful cleaning solvents without adequate ventilation while carrying you in utero. I feel like I have just watched Caddyshack 2 on peyote. This was so bad that it has to be a joke; if not, it is indicative of a complete disregard of the basic tenets of English composition and rhetoric. My first reaction was to ink "50/100. F" on this paper, but the more I thought about it I couldn't figure out what exactly you did to earn the 50 points. This is of a level of quality that I would not accept from a high school sophomore. You're in college. Act like it. There is no way that you will be able to get away with such poor writing in the real world beyond graduation, nor will you make it that far without a committment to improvement.

NPF: GAME THEORY AND WADDED PORK LEAVINGS

Posted on | by Ed | 14 Comments on NPF: GAME THEORY AND WADDED PORK LEAVINGS

Two things to cheer you up on this Goodliest of Fridays:

1. At an academic conference last week I had the pleasure of conversing with a group of grad students from another institution, one of whom I know barely (from previous conferences) and the remainder of whom were strangers. We played the "What's the worst thing you've ever gotten from an undergrad" game. I recounted my standard tale of the young scholar who handed me a research paper about how presidential candidates "fake the funk." Seriously, I believe the title was "Presidential candidates fake the funk." Lest you remain unclear on the student's position on funk-faking, he informed the reader quite clearly, and I do believe repeatedly, that this phenomenon is "straight bullshit."

I have long considered this to be an excellent, amusing anecdote whenever late-night revelry incorporates this topic. I was one-upped, however. Apparently one of the perks of teaching at an elite institution (the particular Ivy League school isn't important and shall remain nameless) is that one's head-smacking moments with undergrads are of a much higher caliber.

The student in question decided to write a paper about the crucifixion of Jesus. Not a historical analysis, but as an excercise in applying game theoretic concepts.

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Apparently the student's argument was that when the preferences and choices of all parties involved (the Romans, the Sanhedrin, the masses, etc) are considered, the Romans' decision to carry out the execution rather than pardon Jesus represented a Nash equilibrium.
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The paper title? "The Nashin' of the Christ."

Perhaps you need to be a political scientist to find this funny, but I laughed until multiple organ failure was imminent. That, my friends, is a good zany-things-undergrads-do anecdote.
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2. This exists. I wonder why Americans are getting fatter.

Also available in a "Jalapeno and Cheese" variant.

What in the hell is wrong with people? I mean, holy shit. Aside from the fact that these are the nutritional equivalent of eating a stick of butter, I must imagine that these taste like cleaning the grill at a Cracker Barrel with your tongue.

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Note the cheery ad copy: "(Perfect) Even for breakfast!" People, if you are eating Tennessee Pride Sausage Ballstm for breakfast, it might be best for everyone involved if you dropped the charade and simply shot yourself. Eating these things regularly is a passive form of suicide. A cry for help. We're here for you. Put down the Sausage Ballstm and come with us.

SENATE 2010 UPDATE: SOMEONE LOAN DODD A SWORD

Posted on | by Ed | 4 Comments on SENATE 2010 UPDATE: SOMEONE LOAN DODD A SWORD

It's been a while and the ginandtacos snark-to-useful-information ratio has listed dangerously toward the former, so it's time to refresh the 2010 Senate races…just as the 2008 race is finally, maybe, possibly wrapping up. Norm Coleman, the conservative equivalent of legendary Japanese WWII holdout Hiroo Onoda, is just about out of bullets and even the wingnut illuminati are abandoning ship. Are we honestly still talking about this in April? Of course we are. The man in question, after all, is the reigning Ginandtacos.com Cocksucker of the Year.tm

While the good people of Minnesota do not get to move on yet, we are free to do so. On to 2010! I won't touch every race, but here are some of the highlights/developments since the last post:

  • The Kansas race (Brownback retirement) went from the potential barn-burner of the year to a non-event when Kathleen Sebelius accepted a Cabinet post. I fail to see her running from the Cabinet or resigning that post 8 months after accepting it. Without her, this race…isn't one.
  • The Governator has ruled himself out of the CA race, and rather emphatically if I may say so. He's about as popular as dick cancer right now, so I'm not shocked. The GOP is talking about throwing Carly Fiorina out there. Fiorina-Boxer will be a one-sided beating of historic proportions.
  • Everyone and their brother is either lining up or making noise about challenging Senator Hookers, a.k.a. David Vitter, in Louisiana. With challengers from both parties, he's toast.
  • Florida (Martinez retirement) is turning into a gangbang. Jeb's out, but Charlie Crist may be in. Crist would be the favorite, but it will be an expensive, brutal race with national attention. How badly does he want it? Badly enough to have his…uh, "romantic history" dredged up again? Kenny Meek looks like the strongest Democrat, but Crist would probably take him. The rest of the GOP field sucks.
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  • Robin Carnahan is running in Missouri (Bond retirement). If there's one thing Missourians love, it's electing Carnahans to statewide office. Roy Blunt, one of the biggest hacks in Congress, intends to run. Good luck.
  • It does not appear that the GOP can talk Jim Bunning's insane ass out of running again, so he may face primary challengers. Democratic challenger and Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo, who nearly took down Bunning in 2004, is the consensus challenger again. Bunning barely held on in 2004 and this time he's A) crazier, B) in the minority party, and C) absent George W. Bush's coattails.
  • Man, is Arlen Specter screwed. He has a 27% approval rating among Republicans in PA. He's also dying of cancer. He's also 80. Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz is likely to be the Democrat who will beat Specter or whatever rank amateur tops him in the primaries.
  • Dick Burr (*snicker*) still hasn't slept since Elizabeth Dole went down in November. Widely considered to be an anonymous-to-terrible incumbent in a state that has taken a serious lurch to the left recently, Burr is likely to go down to Atty. Gen. Roy Cooper or one of several Democratic House Reps.
  • Oh, Chris Dodd. Someone loan Chris Dodd a sword, as he badly needs to fall on one at the moment. Chris, a lot of people like you and all that, but you're toast.
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    Already in serious hot water because of the Countrywide Financial scandal, and now his name is attached to the AIG bonus clusterfuck. The facts may or may not exonerate Dodd, but the damage to his name and public image is already done. Better for Dodd to walk away and let some other Democrat club the lame field of challengers (Gov. Jodi Rell, who'd probably win, is out). The alternative is a Peter Fitzgerald-Carol Mosley Braun type election in which a horrible candidate gets elected simply because a corrupt incumbent defiantly refuses to step aside. Chris, you're done. Unfortunately the candidate is often the last person to get that message. Is he a narcissist or does he care about what's best for his party?

    That's all for today. I'm sure most of you are having a hard time getting excited about it 18 months out, but trust me – this cycle will have plenty of entertainment value.

    • REQUIEM FOR A BUNCH OF DIPSHITS

    Posted on | by Ed | 9 Comments on REQUIEM FOR A BUNCH OF DIPSHITS

    An excerpt from a recent piece by Jason Zengerle at TNR:

    As journalists, we obviously have to cover things we don't necessarily enjoy covering (and even things we initially enjoy covering may become tedious after a while; just talk to any sports reporter who no longer appreciates his front-row seat at the Final Four). But with the advent of Fox News and conservative blogs, the definition of "coverage" has kind of mutated. It's no longer just about talking to sources or covering events; it's about consuming media, too. And now, it's almost as if you have to watch Glenn Beck and read Michelle Malkin–or you're not doing your job. And, honestly, I can't think of anything more soul-crushing than watching Beck and reading Malkin on a daily basis. So I'm not really sure what's to be done.

    While my new "job" at Instaputz does not compare to being a real journalist, I certainly feel his pain. Mocking the hell out of Glenn Reynolds required one big change in my life – namely that I had to start reading Instapundit every day. I will try to make the next point without melodrama or unnecessarily florid language: people, Instapundit sucks. It's just really, really bad. Reading it every day feels like punishment, the monotonous repayment of a karmic debt from an earlier incarnation – and judging by the sheer unpleasantness of this task, I must have been a child porn magnate in a previous life. Right-wing blogs and Fox News used to feel like larks, a good way to get shits, giggles, and something to blog about the next day. But small doses are one thing. Becoming a regular reader is quite the other.

    Glenn Reynolds' writing talents produce three kinds of posts in varying quantities on any given day:

  • 1. A link, a cut-and-pasted quote from said link, and one of the following as Glenn's Original Contribution: "Read the whole thing." "Heh." or "Indeed." You too can be a Famous Blogger, kids.
  • 2. At least one link to a story he clearly did not read before linking. He looks at headlines. If one of the seven words in a headline appeals to him ("Tea Party", "Socialism", etc) he links it.
  • 3. Four or five daily posts about the grassroots astroturfed Tea Party Teabagging "movement" he and Michelle Malkin are working 24-7 to create. More on the Putz-Malkin combo in a moment.

    In short, reading Glenn Reynolds on a daily basis is a relatively new experience for me and I am shocked at the repetitiveness, banality, and lack of anything approaching insight. The casual consumer of right-wing blogging only notices how stupid most of it is; only by becoming a regular reader are the other levels on which it sucks revealed. You know that most of what ends up on Instapundit is stupid and/or fabricated. Now I know that it's also uninteresting, unenlightening, uncreative, unoriginal, and overwhelmingly preoccupied with "cross-promotion" of the latest harebrained scheme from the Pajamas Media "Empire." This brings me to the main course.

    Last week the bold Pajamas Media experiment – you remember, the one that was going to reshape the entire mainstream media – came one step closer to cranking up the Joy Division and slashing its wrists. The PJM Blogger Network, which paid a subsidy to various right-wing blogs shit factories to keep all that quality product coming, is no more. This venture depended on PJM's ability to sell ads and make a profit while doling out cash to its "Network." And of course there were no profits and very few businesses who cared to advertise to America's shut-ins, compulsive masturbators, and Federal courthouse bombers-in-training.

    PJM claims that the network has been taken out behind the chemical sheds and shot in order to focus (*cough*) on their unconscionably asinine Pajamas TV project. This amalgam of repetitive, basement-quality videos seems to be the result of a brainstorming session in which the PJM folks decided they weren't losing money fast enough. Why they believed that anyone would pay to subscribe to this dreck (I hope you like interviews with Joe the Plumber!) when there is so much guy-ranting-into-camera content available online at no cost is beyond me. They seem to have felt that the quality of their product would convince people to pay…you know, for just $9.99 you can get the thrice-weekly interviews between Glenn Reynolds and Michelle Malkin before any of your friends! I've seen worse business plans, but they required phrases like "New Coke" or "Edsel" to compete with this trainwreck.

    While the internet is bursting with conservative critiques of PJM's business model and lefty gloating about its spectacular half-gainer into an empty pool, I wish to eulogize its passing with the simplest but most accurate explanation for its impending demise: it's fucking terrible. Glenn Reynolds is the least interesting thing on the internet since the coffee pot webcam. The blogger network was just a circle-jerk of people with writing skills ranging from mediocre to terrible repeating the same idiotic talking points over and over; like a VHS tape, each successive copy degraded the quality a little more. PJTV sets a new standard for inanity that is unlikely to be challenged let alone surpassed in my lifetime. The fundamental problem in establishing a right-wing "alternative" media is not a systemic bias. It is the inescapable fact that they have absolutely nothing interesting to say and are woefully inarticulate in saying it.

    Roger Simon's business plan seems to be based on Japanese WWII kamikaze tactics. Getting people to pay for online content – for frickin' blogging and YouTube-quality videos – is an uphill battle with miniscule odds of success. Those odds effectively become zero when the product one sells is complete shit. The fact that this is a "big story" in the blogging world while most of you probably have never heard of Pajamas Media is a testament to how completely they failed to back up their 2004-era boasting about bringing the media to its knees. Many excuses will be made and explanations offered when the entire enterprise finally implodes (place your bets in the PJTV Death Pool!) but most will be spurious. The simplest explanation happens to be the best in this case: Roger Simon apparently had to spend a lot of money, both his own and that of his investors, to learn the lesson that people will not pay for boring, unoriginal shit from high school-caliber writers or amateurish videos starring a Who's Who of the wingnut D-list.

    Stop the presses.

    • FLAMEFANNING

    Posted on | by Ed | 21 Comments on FLAMEFANNING

    I was going to post something to the following effect back in January but I didn't. I wish I had, as it might have made me look prescient.

    This is going to be a long four-to-eight years. If you're on the bunker-dwelling fringe of the right, I can only imagine the extent to which you believe your own personal endtimes have arrived. The election of Obama must be seen by militiamen as an angry bull sees a waving red flag – liberal, black, "foreign-sounding" name, insufficiently Christian (or secretly Muslim), fan of the U.N., in favor of gun control legislation…well, it's no wonder that some of these people think we have elected the antichrist. When the left is out of power, they do two things: whine and scheme to get back in power. On the right, the preferred option of 99% of conservatives is to whine. The remaining 1% start loading the guns and picking targets.

    During the Clinton years we had the Waco siege, Timothy McVeigh, the Olympic bombing (by a pro-life extremist), and a revitalization of the neo-Nazi and nationalist right. In the past year we've had a man go on a shooting spree to kill as many liberals as possible while another murdered three police officers because he was convinced that Obama was coming to take his guns away. Think it's unfair to pick out these "isolated" examples? Fine. Find me one example of a liberal snapping and rushing off to "kill as many conservatives as possible until the cops kill me." Go on. I'll wait.

    Republicans get elected and the worst that happens to America is some shrill rhetoric, empty threats to move to Canada, and the occasional public protest.
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    Democrats get elected and the right instantly goes over the edge; we get Federal courthouse bombings and shooting sprees. These incidents, I'm afraid, won't be the only ones of their kind during the Obama years. I worry that we're going to have another Oklahoma City.
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    I worry that we're going to see more unhinged white guys who dabble in neo-Nazi circles snapping and going on shooting sprees. I worry that someone's going to take a shot at the President. I worry because I think all of these things are virtually assured to happen in the next four or eight years.

    My Instaputz colleague BT opined that people like Glenn Beck and Wayne LaPierre of the NRA have blood on their hands as a result of their shameless scaremongering and willingness to fan the flames of far-right hysteria. I'm of two minds. On one hand, I think Mr. Pittsburgh Cop Killer was getting his paranoia from much harder sources than the mainstream media and the NRA – news reports indicate that he frequented white supremacist web haven Stormfront and numerous conspiracy fringe sites. I doubt that the plain ol' conservative right was strident enough for him.

    On the other hand, it's not unreasonable to accuse the conservative punditry of irresponsibility at best and incitement at worst. Listen to Michelle Bachmann's insane ass:

    And the real concern is that there are provisions for what I would call re-education camps for young people, where young people have to go and get trained in a philosophy that the government puts forward and then they have to go to work in some of these politically correct forums.

    Now, does that sound like a responsible thing for a Member of Congress to say when fully aware of the fact that there are extremists with a history of violence who are currently at the end of their psychological ropes? Is it responsible for Glenn Beck to make excuses for spree killers by pointing out that "political correctness" can drive any reasonable person to go on a rampage? Is it prudent for the FRC to blame "the secular media" or for Tom DeLay to blame the teaching of evolution for the Columbine killings?

    The punditry seems to be of the opinion that domestic terrorism and spree shootings are the inevitable consequence of conservatives not getting what they want.
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    And in every case, liberals drive the individual in question to do it. Right wingers, of course, bear no responsibility for their constant, hysterical fearmongering and willful dissemenation of the kind of paranoid misinformation that pushes all of the militiaman buttons.

    This is going to keep happening. If people like Bachmann and Beck had any decency they'd tell their meatheaded followers "We all hate Obama, but for god's sake, killing people isn't the answer you morons." I won't hold my breath. If anything they seem to get off on their own ability to incite people to violence.
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    They understand that their audience already sees the world through the scope of a rifle; a Democrat in power is nothing but a great opportunity for turning words into "actions."

    POINT/COUNTERPOINT: AUTISM

    Posted on | by Ed | 17 Comments on POINT/COUNTERPOINT: AUTISM

    It began, as so many things do, with me being a dick.

    Mike is related to a person who has become a champion of the vaccine-autism link, and when I discovered this I sent an email along the lines of "I mock this and hope you have fun chatting about this at family gatherings." What followed was a very interesting back-and-forth. I consider the vaccine-autism theory to be roughly on par with the 9-11 Was an Inside Job theory in the intellectual hierarchy.

    Before I go into any details, let's be emphatic about two things up front to avoid wild accusations at the end: Mike was not arguing in favor of the vaccine-autism link and I was not arguing that autism is made up or nonexistent. Are we clear on that? Great.

    What Mike argued is that a steady rise in cases of autism is cause for concern. While the vaccine link appears to have no empirical support (but plenty of Hollywood celebrity support!) there is a non-trivial increase in children with autism in the last decade and it requires an explanation. The existence of substantial statistical noise – which was my counter-argument and which I will describe momentarily – does not negate the potential existence of an underlying trend.
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    My response was lengthy but centered around what I feel is a key semantic point: it's inaccurate, until solid evidence can be provided, to say that autism is on the rise. The diagnosis of autism is what is on the rise. I believe that the rise in diagnoses is as likely to be attributable to the following two factors as to a legitimate increase in the occurence of autism.

    First, autism is relatively new in the context of medical issues. It hasn't been on the radar screen of the general public or the non-specialist medical community for more than a decade or two.

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    I doubt that many people had even heard the term prior to the mid-1990s. So I believe that one valid hypothesis is that doctors and parents, spurred by successful public awareness campaigns, now diagnose cases that would not have been diagnosed in 1970. To prove that autism is on the rise, someone needs to convince us that the kids diagnosed autistic today are not the same kids who were called "slow" or "learning disabled" or "retarded" prior to 1980.

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    Second, the downside of increased public awareness of the disease is the inevitable hypochondria and hysteria that set in with panicky parents. After 10001 Oprah segments about autism, some parents become convinced that their child has this new, fashionable disease and, seeking to fulfill their own martyr complex, shop around for a doctor who will agree. You may think this is a poor argument, but anecdotally I am convinced that it is some part of the increase. It exists. To what extent, I cannot say. But there are parents out there who operate like this. The hysteria can also affect well-intentioned school psychologists or medical professionals who practically fall all over themselves in a rush to diagnose autistic every child who stacks up his toys or fails to make eye contact for a few minutes. As prior experience with social panics about psychological illnesses (ADHD, depression, etc) has shown us, over-reaction leading to over-diagnosing is a legitimate concern.

    Of course the "marketing" of a new medical problem often involves our friends in the pharmaceutical industry; drug companies are pushing autism diagnoses just like they pushed depression and ADHD. They've been pushing the idea of an "autism spectrum", i.e., not really autism but close enough that we can start prescribing drugs for it. Like doctors were encouraged to throw fistfulls of pills at people with even the mildest depression symptoms, they are now being encouraged to stick the autism label on any child whose behavior even hints at behavior outside of a narrowly-defined idea of normality. There is a widespread public perception that drug companies wouldn't get involved because autism treatments are non-pharmaceutical. That is false. More than 50% of children diagnosed autistic are put on antipsychotics, an incredibly powerful and expensive class of drugs, despite the fact that no medical evidence proves that drug treatments work.

    If something really is causing more children to develop autism, I certainly hope that we discover what it is quickly. I have no doubts at all about the seriousness of the problem. Autism, depression, ADHD, and other mental illnesses are real and they are serious. However, the subjective nature of psychological disorders means that over-diagnosis is very easy. So before we get all twisted up about a rise in autism I think we should make sure that we are dealing with a rise in autism rather than a rise in diagnosing it.

    What do you think? I'm afraid that I didn't do justice to the other person's argument here, but let's be clear about the fact that I consider it an entirely reasonable one.
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    Given the amount of environmental contaminants and chemicals that end up in our bodies these days it is in no way inconceivable that something is causing autism and causing more of it than ever before.

    CHRISTMAS: JUST 7 MONTHS AWAY

    Posted on | by Ed | 9 Comments on CHRISTMAS: JUST 7 MONTHS AWAY

    Speaking of gun control, The Back-Up might be the perfect gift for the man or woman in your life who is preoccupied with the idea of someday needing to gun down a burglar while in bed. If you're confused, rest assured that it is exactly what it looks like: a rack one slips under the mattress so that a loaded shotgun rests parallel to the bed.

    I am currently scouring the internet to find a more poorly conceived product (the website astutely warns that the product is "not designed to prevent accidental discharge" of your shotgun) or one more likely to result in death or disfigurement.
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    The FAQ also helpfully notes:

    Q: I already have a shotgun handy. Why not keep it where I have it?

    A: Because you would have to get up and find it, losing valuable time.
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    Well, hard to find fault with that argument.