I Speak of Dreams

You know that "stored waste" claim? It is physically impossible

Physics, Poop, and Questionable Medicine : Built on Facts.

the stored waste that most people have trapped in their bodies. Most estimates are that the average person has ten or more pounds of stored waste just in their colon, and I'd argue far more throughout their body.

Mental Conditioning for Self Defense | Brillianter.com

Mental Conditioning for Self Defense | Brillianter.com.

There aren’t any rules. People are hampered in real self defense scenarios by the rules we normally live by. They don’t realize that all doors marked ‘employees only’ are now available for their use. They don’t see the sidewalk as drivable terrain, or that stoplights are simply suggestions in an emergency. They are conditioned by the rules that we live under to a point of mental paralysis.

Dutch’s Laws of Just About Everything: You have no right to an uninformed opinion

Dutch’s Laws of Just About Everything:  You have no right to an uninformed opinion.

 Patriotism is not the last refuge of the scoundrel. "I have a right to my opinion" is. It's amazing how often people, backed into a corner by logic or evidence, will resort to "I have a right to my opinion," asserting their right to cling to their opinion despite the evidence. You have no right to an uninformed opinion. If you are going to hold an opinion on an issue, you have a moral obligation to make it an informed opinion. You have no right to go into a voting booth armed with half-baked, unsupported opinions.

I'd love to see literacy tests come back - tough ones. The best idea I ever heard was that voters should have to recite the Bill of Rights verbatim before being allowed to vote. Failing that, we could attach a ten-question multiple choice exam to each ballot. Votes would be weighted by percent correct. With electronic voting, we could scramble the questions to prevent cheating. Certainly if you're too dumb or slack to follow an arrow from the candidate's name to the correct punch hole, or make sure the ballot is correctly done, you have no right to complain about the outcome. Think about it. Would campaign finance reform be necessary if people only held informed opinions? How could any amount of money make a bad idea good? Money isn't the problem; superficial, uninformed, lazy people are.

A Classroom Teacher on Grading Behavior

A Shrewdness of Apes: More on the grading controversy.

the philosophical point of Mr. O'Connor's system (as presented to us), it was exclaimed repeatedly that BEHAVIORS should not be represented in grades. I find this to be a fundamental misunderstanding of what education is. A real education, which is the one that students all ultimately craft for themselves for good or for ill, is based completely upon the way in which they choose to behave, to change or not change the way that they act and interact with knowledge, skills, and opportunities that are presented to them. This is what cognitive theory is all about, and it is much neglected in an era in which it is assumed that if a student fails to achieve mastery, it is always due to some external factor. Learning is an individual process in the end. That's not a cop-out, nor is it meant to negate the very real impact that instructors, school, community,or parents can have. But the ultimate determiner of success in education is the student and his or her attitude or behavior, if you will.

A High School Teacher on California's High Stakes Tests

A Passion for Teaching and Opinions: STAR thoughts.

So my first real STAR test experience has left a sour taste in my mouth (what a surprise). While I’m all for teacher accountability, these test are only a sliver of the method to measure it. I would trust the student that told me that Upton Sinclair’s whole point of entering the meatpacking industry was to investigate the plight of the worker, than some four answer state mandated test that locked down two vague assumptions.

The Neighbors From Hell: Sarah Fisher, Danielle Harway, and Kelly Plaster

corrected the spelling of the Trussells' last name

update #2 -- all comments have been moderated. 

Five months ago, Gary and Marla Trussell, bought a house on a cul-de-sac in the Venzano development in San Marcos, CA.  Gary is a pilot for Continental Airlines, and the Trussles have two children, Olivia and Spencer, who is four and has autism.

Somewhere along the way, Spencer was being bullied by a neighbor's child.  Gary Trussell had words with the child's father.  One neighbor, Sarah Fisher, responded by reporting

the Trussells to Child Protective Services. She called Gary Trussell's employer, Continental Airlines, where he's a captain. She also made a call to 911, claiming he couldn't control his young children.

Subsequently, Fisher and two other neighbors,  Danielle Harway and Kelly Plaster filed suits. Each suit asked that the Trussell family "be restricted to their own home and driveway."

Fortunately, the suits were thrown out and the three litigants were " ordered to reimburse the Trussells' legal fees, which top $12,000."

I'd like to send Fisher, Harway, and Plaster to autism awareness training.

Sources
KGTV San Diego April 27, 2009

Update March 8, 2010. Following a vile attack on Shannon, her son, and the rest of her family at a blog I will not name or link to, Shannon has given me permission to post this. It is hardly a secret that Squid is Shannon Rosa.  Shannon Rosa is an autism advocate not only for her son and her family, but for all parents of children with autism and all people with autism.  Read her blog at  BlogHer: Shannon Rosa's Blog

Is Something Amiss With Jay Gordon, MD?

Jay Gordon, MD, FAAP  left a comment at Respectful Insolence  April 27th that left many wondering if something was wrong with his thinking apparatus.  The second comment didn't improve matters.

Joseph at Natural Variation wrote: Dr. Jay Gordon Caught Making Things Up.

Then Gordon posted a curious little article at Huffington Post that is related to this comment at Respectful Insolence:

What's up about that swine flu email that is going around signed by you? The one that claims the danger is trumped up to sell more Tamiflu because Donald Rumsfeld is a major stockholder?

And before that, there was Dr. Gordon's silly and self-centered response to Rahul K. Parikh's article in the Los Angeles Times, as covered by Autism News Beat in Ignorance is No Defense, Dr. Gordon and Dr. Gordon retracts libelous statements

Articles at Respectful Insolence:

• July 19,2008 Dr. Jay Gordon: No Vaccines Needed, Just quit Eating Cheese & Ice Cream
• October 20 2008 Jay Gordon: Pediatrician Warrior
• Feb. 20, 2009: Jay Gordon: Please Stop Claiming You Are NOT an Anti-Vaccinationist

Articles at Science-Based Medicine

• October 20 2008: Dr. Jay Gordon and me: Random encounters with an apologist for the antivaccine movement
• December 03 2008 Dr. Jay Gordon -- "Antivaccination"

Article at Age of Autism:

• October 20 2008 Dr. Jay Gordon responds

Negative Knowledge

[alleged expert] claims to have forgotten more about [field of study]  than most [others in the field of study] ever knew. That puts [alleged expert] in the "negative knowledge" realm.

Keep that in mind.

African-American Women Getting Things Done

Stuff I learn wandering about the webs. Tipped off by Jack & Jill Politics:

The woman pictured to the left is Rear Admiral Michelle Howard. 

She took command of USS Rushmore (LSD 47) on 12 March 1999, becoming the first African American woman to command a ship in the U.S. Navy.

From Wikipedia:

In 2006, she was selected for the rank of Rear Admiral lower half, making her the first admiral selected from the United States Naval Academy class of 1982 and the first woman graduate of the United States Naval Academy selected for Admiral. In 2009, Howard was nominated for the rank of Rear Admiral upper half. 

From blog The Tension

USS BOXER, At Sea, April 5, 2009 -- Rear Adm. Michelle Howard assumed command of Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) 2 during a ceremony held on board USS Boxer (LHD 4) today and relieved Rear Adm. Terence McKnight, ESG 2’s commander since November 2007.

In addition to relieving McKnight as the ESG 2 commander, Howard assumes command of several U.S. 5th Fleet task forces, including Combined Task Force (CTF) 51 and 59, as well as CTF 151, an international maritime coalition created to disrupt, deter and thwart piracy.

From the US Naval Academy Alumni Association:

This weekend Rear Admiral Michelle Howard had a baptism of fire when US commandos were called in to rescue the captured captain of the American cargo ship Maersk Alabama after a five-day standoff.

The commandos killed three Somali pirates holding Captain Richard Phillips and a fourth pirate was taken into custody by US authorities.

'Piracy is a problem that affects all maritime nations and requires an international solution. I'm looking forward to working with naval professionals from around the world on this vital mission,' she said.

Rear Admiral Howard was the first African American woman to command a ship in the US Navy in 1999 and her new role as the commander of CTF 151 brings with it unique challenges.

The pirates have moved away from the Gulf of Aden into the wider Indian Ocean which is one of the world's most crucial shipping lanes, with Gulf-registered oil vessels and other merchant ships carrying billions of dollars worth of cargo.

The pirates were killed by SEAL snipers aboard the USS Bainbridge, Commander Frank X. Castellano's ship, leading to the successful rescue of Capt. Rick Phillips. The Bainbridge is part of Rear Admiral Howard's command.




 

Joseph Debunks "Cassandra Affective Deprivation Disorder (CADD)"

Maxine Aston and CADD - A Different Level of Crankery

What we have here is a syndrome that has not been shown to exist, with alleged causes that might be erroneously attributed to autism, and with symptoms that haven't been shown to be associated with the alleged causes.

Sound familiar? This is no different to crankery like "autistic enterocolitis" or "mercury-induced autism." Except the promotion of CADD has the potential to result in a lot more direct damage to the personal lives of autistic adults.

Background from ABFH (September 2, 2008) Maxine Aston's Cassandra Disorder Scam

Have you ever thought about how much fun it would be to invent a bogus disorder and to rake in the money from persuading gullible people that they were in dire need of your expertise and therapy? No, me neither. Most of us are ethical enough so that we would never consider such a thing. But Maxine Aston, notorious inventor of "Cassandra Affective Deprivation Disorder," evidently has no such qualms.