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The McGlynn 24 Dec
Coming Home………………Christmas
Archive for December, 2011
23 Dec
Autism and The Ghosts of Christmas Past
By
Teresa Conrick
Those are my two daughters in 1995. They were watching a favorite Christmas video, The Snowman, based on the UK story by Raymond Briggs. Unlike our giddy, holiday Frosty, the Snowman, the UK version is a beautiful, haunting story of love and loss. The many times I watched it with Meg — winter, summer, fall,spring — it didn’t matter the season. Nights she woke up crying from gastrointestinal pain or intense, physical distress, she wanted to watch, The Snowman, but she could never, ever watch when he melted. She would leave the room.
Megan, now eighteen, has both an autism diagnosis and an autoimmune diagnosis. Rare? Unrelated? I think not. I believe as we end 2011 and enter into 2012, the upcoming year will bring us more facts and research into the connection between autism and autoimmunity. With that, let’s say goodbye to the autism ghosts of Christmas past which gave little hope for meaningful research on preventing new cases of autism (regression) or research on medical treatments for those currently affected (progression) Junky genetic studies, Drosophilia eye-gazing, unknown autism prevalence, and bullshit research has to END. We know that bacteria, viruses and metals can cause autoimmune effects and the research needs to be centered around that.
Going back in time each holiday season, the ghosts of past Christmases can haunt those living with autism and autoimmunity. In 1995, my daughter’s autism diagnosis was never related to her ongoing illnesses with Streptoccocus and other bacterial infections as well as numerous viral infections. Labs now have shown IgG quantitative titers for each — Measles-Mumps-Rubella — to be elevated. That was the vaccine that dramatically affected my daughter with many days of rash, fever, GI issues, loss of language and then odd visual issues. Brief definition of IgG:
Antibody testing
Measles and mumps (rubella) antibodies are virus-specific proteins produced by the immune system in response to an infection by the measles or mumps ( & rubella) virus, or in response to vaccination. There are two types of antibodies produced, IgM and IgG. The first type to appear in the blood after exposure or vaccination is IgM antibodies. Levels of IgM antibodies increase for several days to a maximum concentration and then begin to taper off over the next few weeks. IgG antibodies take a bit longer to appear, but once they do, they stay in the bloodstream for life, providing protection against re-infection..
There are very sick children and young adults with an autism diagnosis, and there seems to be mounting evidence that the MMR (Measles Mumps Rubella) vaccine has quite possibly left its mark in them. So back to high titers and autism. If a toddler is vaccinated at 15 months, what is happening to produce very high titers 18 years later? Why are the Drosophilia scientists not dropping the fruit flies and looking at viral titers — or Strep in those affected by autism?
Levels: Range Megan
Rubeola (Measles) 2009 0.91 – 1.09 2.88
Rubeola (Measles) 2011 0.91 – 1.09 3.34
Mumps 0.91 – 1.09 3.53
Rubella 5 – 9 12
Each of these is high. A few facts to add – Meg had an initial grand mal seizure in 2009 and then in 2010, she began to have monthly, grand mal seizures coinciding with another elevated level — Estrogen. Maybe that has something to do with autoimmunity then starting or picking up speed. The fact that her Measles titer became even more elevated in that time frame would make one wonder – why? Back to 1995. Meg was diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder in October of that year. My heart and brain have been on full throttle ever since and it is a travesty that research and science keep detouring away from the labs and connections to immune and autoimmune dysfunction and disease. I do think it is getting harder to ignore these sick children as their numbers are increasing and as a result, so are the affected families.
While trying to make sense of this, I came upon this page from CDC in 1998:
Almost all persons who do not respond to the measles component of the first dose of MMR vaccine will respond to the second dose (82) (CDC, unpublished data). Few data regarding the immune response to the rubella and mumps components of a second dose of MMR vaccine are available, but most persons who do not respond to the rubella or mumps components of the first dose would be expected to respond to the second (82-84) (CDC, unpublished data). The second dose is not generally considered a booster dose because a primary immune response to the first dose provides long-term protection. Although some persons who develop normal antibody titers in response to a single dose of MMR vaccine will develop higher antibody titers to the three component vaccines when administered a second dose of vaccine, these increased antibody levels typically do not persist (57).
But what if they do, “typically persist?” My daughter had only one administration of MMR and that was at 15 months so the above statement seems to apply to her. She had only one MMR shot and it seems her body had a different response. — “these increased antibody levels typically do not persist “ seems to be a key factor. One does not have to wonder why research in this area is not promoted and why those who do, like Dr. Andrew Wakefield, would be viciously attacked by both those who promote and profit from vaccines. Most researchers will grab those safe Drosophilia to examine, accept grants and research money, yet continue to ignore these very sick children.
Back to Megan and the present ghosts of Christmas 2011. I am always thrilled by her intermittent, joyous moods and loving innocence but the devastation of her health and future is gut wrenching. I walk around my home and see the past Christmases, illnesses, seizures, divorce and the immense physical and emotional pain that has affected so many. I remember a part in Dan Olmsted and Mark Blaxill’s book, The Age of Autism: Mercury, Medicine and a Man-made Epidemic where Bridget Muncie’s (Barbara K from the original Kanner paper) brother is recalling a Christmas memory. In it, he describes sharing a bed and sharing anticipation as young siblings do, waiting for Santa to come. The dark side of autism then enters – the pain and suffering of their family is shared by us all in different memories of the holidays — “I vividly remember the drives back home in the wintry darkness, my mother weeping continuously, my father silent at the wheel of the car, and me scared and still in the backseat.” I dream of future Christmases, where the autism numbers decline, Meg is healthy and communicating, smiling and able to navigate in the world. How will we get there if the unpleasant truths continue to be denied?
Teresa Conrick is Contriobuting Editor to Age of Autism.
19 Dec
Panetta: Iraq War was “worth it”
There are several important questions raised by the Defense Secretary’s endorsement of the war
(Credit: AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
(updated below)
A day after visiting Iraq, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta spoke to reporters in Turkey on Saturday and said this, according to the DoD’s own site:
“There is no question that the United States was divided going into that war,” he said. “But I think the United States is united coming out of that war. We all recognize the tremendous price that has been paid in lives, in blood. And yet I think we also recognize that those lives were not lost in vain. . . .
“As difficult as [the Iraq war] was,” and the cost in both American and Iraqi lives, “I think the price has been worth it, to establish a stable government in a very important region of the world,” he added.
The “price” that Panetta believes is “worth it” includes dead civilians in the hundreds of thousands, countless more maimed, millions of Iraqis internally and externally displaced (a huge number who remain so), tens of thousands of American soldiers killed and/or injured, and at least $1 trillion spent, contributing to “austerity” so severe that Panetta himself has been urging cuts to core social programs. That is above and beyond future Saddam-like oppression, tyranny and sectarian strife under the Malaki regime. As the always-insightful military historian and former Army Colonel Andrew Bacevich put it this week: “Recalling that Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction and alleged ties to al-Qaeda both turned out to be all but non-existent, a Churchillian verdict on the war might read thusly: Seldom in the course of human history have so many sacrificed so dearly to achieve so little.”
Panetta’s statement is highly reminiscent of the 1996 2001 incident in which Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was asked by Leslie Stahl on 60 Minutes about the sanctions regime imposed on Iraq: “We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?” Albright replied: “I think this is a very hard choice, but the price–we think the price is worth it.” They’re similar not just because the words are virtually identical, though they are, but also because they spring from the same rotted imperial mentality. Regarding Panetta’s declaration that the Iraq War was “worth it,” I have three questions:
(1) If the attack on Iraq was “worth it” — meaning the benefits outweighed the costs — then doesn’t that mean that Democrats (including President Obama) owe George Bush, Dick Cheney and friends a sincere apology for all those attacks they voiced over the years about the war? How can the Iraq War simultaneously have been a “stupid war” (President Obama’s 2002 description) and one where “the price has been worth it” (Panetta)?
(2) Consider how often U.S. officials announce to the Muslim world, either in essence or, as here, explicitly: yes, our actions extinguished the lives of hundreds of thousands of your innocent men, women and children, but we think it’s worth it. What is the inevitable outcome of that message being sent over and over?
(3) If the highest levels of the U.S. government believe the Iraq War was “worth it,” then doesn’t it stand to reason that more of the same should be done? That is the point Bacevich raised in identifying what may end up being the most destructive cost of all from the Iraq War:
The disastrous legacy of the Iraq War extends beyond treasure squandered and lives lost or shattered. Central to that legacy has been Washington’s decisive and seemingly irrevocable abandonment of any semblance of self-restraint regarding the use of violence as an instrument of statecraft. With all remaining prudential, normative, and constitutional barriers to the use of force having now been set aside, war has become a normal condition, something that the great majority of Americans accept without complaint. War is U.S.
One senses that this was what the likes of [Vice President Dick] Cheney, [Secretary of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld, and [Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul] Wolfowitz (urged on by militarists cheering from the sidelines and with George W. Bush serving as their enabler) intended all along. By leaving intact and even enlarging the policies that his predecessor had inaugurated, President Barack Obama has handed these militarists an unearned victory. As they drag themselves from one “overseas contingency operation” to the next, American soldiers must reckon with the consequences. So too will the somnolent American people be obliged to do, perhaps sooner than they think.
It’s reasonable to argue (even though it’s ultimately unpersuasive) that Panetta, as Pentagon chief, cannot or should not be as aggressively critical of the war which U.S. soldiers fought as other officials might be. But he could easily discharge that duty without offering a ringing, bottom-line endorsement of the war, which is exactly what is achieved with “we think the price is worth it.” If that is the view of the top-level Obama officials — who, it must be remembered, did everything in their power to extend the Iraq war beyond the 2011 deadline negotiated by the Bush administration – that is a seriously disturbing and likely consequential revelation.
UPDATE: I was on Democracy Now this morning discussing Bradley Manning, along with the bill President Obama will sign to codify indefinite detention; both segments can be viewed at the DN site, respectively: here and here. Prior to the beginning of my segment, I listened to government informant Adrian Lamo provide one incoherent, dishonest answer after the next to the excellent questions posed by DN host Amy Goodman (those interested can view that segment here), so — I confess — I was a bit irritated (to put that mildly) once my segment began from having spent the prior 10 minutes listening to the individual responsible for Manning’s facing life imprisonment and possibly a death sentence, spouting one inanity after the next.
18 Dec
In Iraq, the last to fall
David Hickman, the 4,484th* U.S. service member killed
By J. Freedom du Lac, Published: December 17
GREENSBORO, N.C. — To find Army Spec. David Emanuel Hickman on the morning after his unit returned to Fort Bragg from Iraq, you had to drive 100 miles north, to his home town. Up Highway 29, less than two clicks from the northeast Greensboro cul-de-sac where he grew up, Hickman was in Lot 54 in the Garden of Peace at Lakeview Memorial Park Cemetery.
Freshly turned red soil covered his coffin, which went into the ground two weeks and a day before he was due home. There were two shriveled carnations on the damp dirt. There was no marker yet, no indication that this was a soldier’s grave.
Hickman, 23, was killed in Baghdad by a roadside bomb that ripped through his armored truck Nov. 14 — eight years, seven months and 25 days after the U.S. invasion of Iraq began.
Click to continue reading “In Iraq, the last to fall”
