Left Brain Right Brain closes

Kevin Leitch’s Left Brain Right Brain autism blog closed today. Click the link and you will discover why:

The reason LB/RB is shutting is because I cannot continue to allow my beautiful eldest girl to be exposed to the hatred and bullying she is recieving from John Best. John has seen fit to compare my beautiful child to a trained monkey because he didn't like the fact she was progressing. He has made numerous jokes at her expense on that theme. He has assumed her identity online. He has encouraged others to do the same.

Let me be clear. I do not care one iota what this cowardly idiot thinks of me. He can write whatever he wants. But he has involved my daughter. Not to reference her progression. Not to quote me. But to laugh at her and to put words in her seven year old mouth.

I genuinely fear for her safety at the hands of this person (I will refrain from calling someone who picks on children 'a man'). Three days running he has posted blog entries about her, two of which assume her identity and one of which is attempting to gain money in her name. I do not know where he would stop. Therefore the only way to make her safe is to remove us from his presence.

More at the link.

This is sad. Kevin’s blog has been a source of much thoughtful and useful information on autism and autism quackery over the years, and all of this information is now lost (the wayback machine notwithstanding). But Kevin has to put the safety of his family first and I can’t fault him for doing so. I don’t know too much of this John Best, except that he posts numerous comments to blogs under the name “Fore Sam”, and is well known in the autism anti-quackery blogosphere. For example, this appears to be a sample of John Best aka Fore Sam’s thought on a variety of subjects.  This is his blog.

Whatever your views on the causes of autism, it’s a sad day when a blog has to close due to fears for the safety of its author and/or his family.

Comments

[Bronze Dog]

I will be calling John Best a thug every opportunity I get. I knew the bastard was evil, but he's topped himself.

[Infophile]

Damn, this is a new low. I knew the guy was a troll, but to think he'd stoop this far? I'd go on, but I'd probably have to invent a few new swear words to do so.

[isles]

If the thug put as much effort into caring for his own son as he has on maligning a seven-year-old disabled girl, think how much better off everyone would be.

Of course, that assumes he has some kind of personal fund of love and devotion. Maybe the most logical inference is that he has neither of these to give, only hate.

[sophi8]

I am disgusted and gutted. LB/RB was one of the blogs I pointed people at for reliable quack-free information on autism. And Kevin's posts about his daughter shone with his love for her and delight in her achievements.
Now what will John Best do?

[Gas1]

http://gas1.wordpress.com/2007/10/16/john-best-what-a-cunt/

Please excuse the blatant plug. But I had to share...

[Bronze Dog]

For easy clicking.

[somebody]

please do not give john best a link from your blog it only improve his pagerank.

[HCN]

Don't click on Gas1's link... adware alert!!

And nothing to share, just links to other blogs we know about.

[sophia8]

Links that you know about - but not everybody knows them.
Anyway, what adware? It's hosted by wordpress.com, who loathe adware. Possibly the wordpress stats image produced a false positive?
But I agree that NOBODY should link to JB's blog.

[Skeptico]

fyi, the link has the property "nofollow". Look it up.

[sophia8]

That's the default WP property for links. See: http://codex.wordpress.org/Nofollow

[John Best]

I'm really hurt that anyone would call me a thug. I don't think that's very nice.

[Martin]

How about "cretin"? Nicer?

[Bronze Dog]

You're not a nice person. That's why you're not called nice things.

[Jimmy_Blue]

Far too polite Martin.

Best, you're about as welcome as a rectal fissure and just as unpleasant so do yourself a favour and sod off. Besides, we're all adults and so a little too old for you to pick on, you noble warrior for truth you.

Try a reptile house instead, I'm sure you'll fit right in.

[John Best]

Please, wise skeptics, tell me how I can improve myself.

[Bronze Dog]

I'd suggest improving your reading comprehension skills, given your past misrepresentations of everyone's point of view and actual arguments.

[Martin]

Stop harassing and insulting children, for starters.

[vlad]

"Please, wise skeptics, tell me how I can improve myself."

Stop posting your supporters names addresses and phone number would be a start you twit. Given what you posted I now know full personal information on your little crew. If you are that stupid how can we trust you not to be and idiot about other things.

[vlad]

Not only are you a coward and a thug your an idiot. Why not fix one of those to start with?

[Jimmy_Blue]

Well Best you could make a start by acting like a man and not picking on children, but I doubt you have the courage or wit to do so.

Did it make you feel big? Real macho guy aren't you?

However, since reading through some of your drivel it is apparent that there really is no improving you, unless of course we have geological timescales and the processes of natural selection to work with.

Or am I being unfair to single celled organisms?

"I'm really hurt that anyone would call me a thug. I don't think that's very nice.

Posted by: John Best | October 17, 2007 at 01:41 PM"

Sure you are Mr Best. You love the attention, and being called a thug is attention none the less. You love it really - you crave any attention as long as you aren't actually physically harmed. Such a brave little boy aren't you. But you're still a dick-headed, shit-for-brains fuckwit who attacks disabled children. An attention seeking whore!

[John Best]

I didn't attack any children. I tried to help a child by educating the idiot father. I can only presume it worked and the kid is now getting the help she needs.

[Anonymous]

"Please, wise skeptics, tell me how I can improve myself."

A tenth grade science course couldn't hurt.

[John Best]

Does 10th grade science teach that mercury causes autism?

[Tom Foss]

No, tenth grade science teaches that pronouncements must be backed up with evidence, or their proponents look like stupid, arrogant kooks.

[John Best]

Since nobody ever tested thimerosal for safety, I have to agree with you that the companies who use it in vaccines look like stupid, arrogant kooks.

Bls. Best,

"Does 10th grade science teach that mercury causes autism?"

No, and there is a good reason for that. It doesn't.

Could you please explain why children given jabs of MMR vaccine without thimerisol have a higher rate of autism?

could you explain the mechanism by which after thimerosal was phased out in Quebec in 1996, the autism rate rose from 59.5 per 10,000 to 82.7 per 10,000.

Maybe you can explain why the autism rate keeps rising in the US even though thimerisol has been eliminated from most US childhood vaccines since 1997, and totally eliminated from new hampshire (and other states) vaccines.

Perhaps you can explain to me how the ravages of measles is somehow better for the children than the non-effects of the vaccination that prevent them?

You, and other nonsense people like you, increase suffering in the world by allowing preventable and eliminatable diseases like this to spread. You are a miserable excuse for a human being. Its too bad you can't recognize this past your overinflated ego.

I cant wait for the nonsense answer. Please don't bother posting links to previously debunked studies by wakefield or the greier's, that is just tiresome.

We know it is not vaccines. If people like you would pull your heads out of your asses, maybe we could actually get some work done on finding what the actual causes are.

(Mr. = mister, Mrs.=misses, Bls.=brainless)

[Tom Foss]

Since nobody ever tested thimerosal for safety

And since you're not a brainless kook, you can provide evidence that this, and that your claim that mercury causes autism, is true. Right?

Incidentally, perhaps you can explain the mechanism by which thimerosal causes mercury poisoning, since thimerosal "contains" mercury in the same way that salt "contains" deadly chlorine gas and explosive sodium. Last I checked, eating salt neither suffocated nor exploded me.

[John Best]

Dear Brainless,
Autism keeps increasing because, even though some thimerosal was removed, the key is that it is still getting to infants and fetuses before they have a blood brain barrier via the flu shots to the mother. This has the added benefit of making Pharma look innocent since the kids are born with scrambled brains. Parents don't watch them regress and do not become suspicious.
I'm not interested in playing games with statistics. I'm only concerned with removing mercury from childrens' brains. We know that chelation cures some kids and dopes like you fail to accept that fact.

[John Best]

Dear Brainless,
Autism keeps increasing because, even though some thimerosal was removed, the key is that it is still getting to infants and fetuses before they have a blood brain barrier via the flu shots to the mother. This has the added benefit of making Pharma look innocent since the kids are born with scrambled brains. Parents don't watch them regress and do not become suspicious.
I'm not interested in playing games with statistics. I'm only concerned with removing mercury from childrens' brains. We know that chelation cures some kids and dopes like you fail to accept that fact.

[Bronze Dog]

That's something JB never, ever acknowledges, Tom. I suppose he thinks all of chemistry is part of the Illuminati conspiracy, which is busy covering up the fact that the oceans, containing explosive sodium and water, which it reacts violently with, is busy exploding 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

More bizarre is that he seems to raz on the institutions that have systems of accountability and international transparency, while he gives a free pass to any quack who agrees with his insane chemistry denialism, regardless of how little (if any) record keeping the quack does.

In short, in JB's world sloppiness, neglect, and secrecy equal honesty. Rigor, professionalism, and openness to the world mean "cover up!"

[Joseph]

It's jaw-dropping how the mercury militia tries to weasel out of the fact that thimerosal was removed from pediatric vaccines by suggesting it's because of the flu vaccine (or more creatively, because of crematoriums, forest fires and mercury plumes from China.) Did pediatric vaccines have anything to do with it, yes or no?

You can't explain this by citing a switch from pediatric vaccines to the flu vaccine, or any of the other nonsense hypotheses. It just doesn't add up, and we keep beating a dead horse here. The closed-mindedness of the believers is showing big time on this one.

Even though they are not publicly admitting it, some organizations are quietly changing their tune though. See Generation Rescue's new message.

[John Best]

Joseph,
I think you should show a graph of autism among the Amish or among that medical practice in Chicago that doesn't vaccinate.
I'd trust the CA #'s if I supervised the manufacture of the vaccines to be certain zero thimerosal was used in the process. I don't believe that is the case.

[Tom Foss]

I'd trust the CA #'s if I supervised the manufacture of the vaccines to be certain zero thimerosal was used in the process. I don't believe that is the case.

1. What reason do you have not to believe that's the case?

2. How does thimerosal cause mercury poisoning?

3. If removing thimerosal from childhood vaccines had no effect on reducing autism (because it's still coming from the parents' flu shots) then how do you know it was ever caused by childhood vaccines? A lot fewer people get flu shots than get their children MMR vaccines; still fewer I imagine get it while they're pregnant. How long does it stay in the mother's system?

4. What evidence do you have that chelation cures autistics?

5. So, were autistic kids born with "scrambled brains" before, due to the flu shots? If so, again, how could you blame childhood vaccines? If not, why has the flu vaccine started causing autism earlier than the mercury crowd used to claim?

6. Have you ever even heard of Occam's Razor?

[Techskeptic]

Bls. Best,

even though some thimerosal was removed, the key is that it is still getting to infants and fetuses before they have a blood brain barrier via the flu shots to the mother

I see, so its in fact, not childhood vaccines like you have previously tried to tell people. It's the flu vaccine now. So are you going to apologize to the Left-Brain Right-Brain guy (and everyone else) now because you were being so idiotic?

Sadly, you are of course wrong again, not all flu vaccines have thimerisol. Less than 1/2 the population even gets flu vaccines, and even a smaller percentage of pregnant women get the vaccine. So even if your ridiculous, baseless statement were true, there should have been a marked drop in autism rates, when it was eliminated from childhood vaccines. But it just keeps rising, doesnt it?

California banned flu shots with thimerisol in it (probably because of ridiculous people like you) in 2006. Wanna bet what happens to the autism rate? By your theory it should stop altogether in CA. Right? There are no vaccinations with thimerisol in it in CA available to children under 3 or pregnant women. Are you going to write down here that the Autism rate will now drop dramatically in CA?

Of course you wont... because time and time again it is shown there is no link between the two. You'll just make something else up.

Your baseless rhetoric is hurting people and making them sick. Your baseless rhetoric is killing people.

[Techskeptic]

LOL tom,
sorry, I didn't see your post, Looks like I just parroted you. Apologies.

[Techskeptic]

I think you should show a graph of autism among the Amish

OK, lets say the rate of autism among the amish is zero (it isnt). How does that prove that vaccines are causing the problem?

The amish dont live in cities, they don't eat McDonalds, The dont have air conditioners running, the dont use Suave shampoo, they don't breath as much car exhaust, they dont stare at a TV or computer scsreen all day, they generally breed from within their own group, .... but for some reason, you just know its vaccines.

you really aren't used to the use of logic and reason are you?

[John Best]

I see you people are a little slow. How about we use a graph from the last million years? It will show no autism until 1943 with a slow rise for about 40 years and an increasing rise as the number of vaccines with thimerosal increased.

Then we'll see a condition that was incurable until 1999 when we learned that mercury had caused it and some smart doctors found a way to cure it. Yup, I know, all of those kids who had always had no hope of a cure magically started becoming normal. Nitwits!

[Jimmy_Blue]

Best:

I see you people are a little slow. How about we use a graph from the last million years? It will show no autism until 1943 with a slow rise for about 40 years and an increasing rise as the number of vaccines with thimerosal increased.

Of course the word Autism wasn't actually coined as we use it today until 1938, when Hans Asperger used it in a lecture on child psychology. And then of course autism wasn't really used in its modern English sense until, you guessed it, 1943, by Leo Kanner in a report on 11 children who had similar behavioral problems.

Then of course, if we look back in history, we do have possible autism cases: people described as being under the possession of devils/daemons.

Autism won't appear on a graph before 1943, because the term didn't mean what it does now until 1943 genius. You are either spectacularly dishonest, or an idiot. Which is it?

Let's take your argument here and play with it shall we? How about you do a graph for the number of cases of consumption. How do you explain the massive decline in reported cases of consumption since the 16th century?

Could you be any more ridiculous.

[John Best]

Hey Jimmy,
Are you trying to tell me autism existed before 1943? If your ridiculous assertion is true, you should be able to show me 77 year olds at the rate of 1 in 150 with autism. If you can do that, I'll blow you.

[Jimmy_Blue]

So do you deny that the term autism was not used until 1943?

Do you deny that there are many reported cases of people with behavioral problems that match the symptoms of autism from before 1943?

I asked you first though, when you give me the data on consumption since the 16th century, I'll give you the autism rates for the elderly.

You might get away with switching the focus of your arguments with other people, but it won't work here.

[Jimmy_Blue]

Oh and I forgot, of course your figure of 77 year olds with an autism rate of 1 in 150 takes into account mortality rates right?

And the fact that they may have been misdiagnosed when they were young because autism was not a common diagnosis back in the 1940s. You know, what with it only just coming into use as a term never mind recognised condition.

You did think about all this, right?

[Jimmy_Blue]

Oh, and you were aware that autism was only generally recognised as a seperate condition in the late 1960s, after sufferers constantly being misdiagnosed under other conditions such as infantile schizophrenia?

You knew all this, right?

[Jimmy_Blue]

Sorry Skeptico, I'm not going for a record of repeat posts or anything.

Does anyone have a subscription to the British Journal of Psychiatry?

This article:
Epidemiology of psychiatric disorders in elderly compared with younger adults with learning disabilities

Appears to be what Best is looking for.

Quote from the abstract:
RESULTS: Elderly people with learning disabilities have a greater prevalence of psychiatric morbidity than younger controls (68.7 v. 47.9%). Rates for depression and anxiety disorders are high, and dementia is common: there are equal rates for schizophrenia/delusional disorders, autism and behaviour disorders in the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: The higher psychiatric morbidity among elderly (compared with younger) people with learning disabilities has not previously received adequate recognition. This warrants further investigation by service planners and clinicians.

And how do you explain this Best:
Autism rates appear to be high amongst immigrant families

What do we think immigrant families, probably from non-developed countries, might not get? Vaccines perhaps?

Have a read of this article:
Autism and aging

Best, perhaps you can explain this:
Why do more boys develop autism than girls?

Or perhaps Best knew that studies of autism rates in adults are either not done or hard to find:
How many people have autistic spectrum disorders

Money quote for the UK:
No prevalence studies have ever been carried out on adults.

Numpty.

[Bronze Dog]

For Best's answer to the boy/girl ratio, he'll bring up testosterone sheets or whatever, since we all routinely boil our kids in hot benzene, the only circumstance these sheets have been observed in, right?

He'll also start going on about the human body is no more complex than flashlights or toasters, and claim that children have no need for testosterone before puberty, when the human body magically flips from one binary state to another with no transitions, middle grounds, or multiple purposes and states beforehand.

Suppose that latter part of his stupidity may stem from Intelligent Design, which does a routine job of presuming that everything has a singular purpose and the biological equivalent of multi-tools and jury-rigging is impossible because they say so.

Oh, and I just love the "words are reality" bit where he seems to think that entities and conditions cannot exist independently of their labels. Kind of reminds me of this one art woo who claimed the London fog didn't exist until someone painted it.

[John Best]

Jimmy,
We're discussing autism, not consumption. You switched topics, not me.
While the word autism was used, Kanner told us that what he described as autism had NEVER been seen before. A few cases with similarities don't make your argument useful.
Screw mortality rates, just find me the 77 year olds, dead or alive.

[Joseph]

I think you should show a graph of autism among the Amish or among that medical practice in Chicago that doesn't vaccinate.

John, are you unaware of the phone survey your pals at Generation Rescue conducted where they located over 900 unvaccinated children, out of which 37 were reported to be autistic? If you can't do the math on that one, that is about 6 times the prevalence reported in a prior CDC phone survey of the general population.

[Techskeptic]

awww.. BLS. Best, you ignored my post and then started writing more drivel to someone else. I'm so hurt. In your nonsense to Jimmy you said:

you should be able to show me 77 year olds at the rate of 1 in 150 with autism

While I have no idea what sort of logic path you could possibly be following... you seem to be acknowledging that the autism rate is around 1 in 150 now. A rate higher than ever. Some of this has to do with recatagorization, but lets say none of it is since that seems to be your stance.

Why is the autism rate increasing when thimeresol has been driven out of childhood vaccines? Because its in the flu vaccines? Well its been driven out of than too in CA and NH, notice there is no drop in autism in either of those states (nor in Quesbec).

Further, only 1/2 the population even gets flu shots, an even lower percentage of pregnant women get it. So how come there wasn't a huge drop in autism since there was no mercury to pass to anyone in most of the population?

Why didn't you answer me about why you think Amish don't get autism when they aren't exposed to tons of other things that we are besides vaccines?

Every bit of your so-called logic falls apart becuase you have chosen to be harmful to human beings. Your actions are causing suffering and death.

I've never really corresponded with anyone before that could be described as a nitwit. But boy do you fit that description to a tee!

[John Best]

Techskeptic,
Your comments were too absurd to merit my attention...as is most of what is said on this blog. I think I've seen enough of you bunch of jerks.