Monthly Archives: December 2011

Stephanie Messenger makes me sick.

One of the downsides of following issues of science denialism is that you often have to encounter the very worst of our society. There are allot of unpleasant characters out there who take advantage of people either for some quick cash or to back an ideology.

Stephanie Messenger is one such individual. She has written a book titled Melanie’s Marvellous Measles where she glorifies childhood disease. To make matters worse the book is intended for children, to tell them that disease is a good thing.

This book takes children aged 4 – 10 years on a journey of discovering about the ineffectiveness of vaccinations, while teaching them to embrace childhood disease, heal if they get a disease, and build their immune systems naturally. –Book Description

Meanwhile the World Health Organisation has this to say about Measles:

Measles is a highly contagious, serious disease caused by a virus. In 1980, before widespread vaccination, measles caused an estimated 2.6 million deaths each year.

It remains one of the leading causes of death among young children globally, despite the availability of a safe and effective vaccine. An estimated 164 000 people died from measles in 2008 – mostly children under the age of five. –World Health Organisation

Yet, people like Stephanie Messenger openly advocate Measles for children. Messenger is not a doctor, knows nothing of medicine and yet she tells children that disease is good for them. Contrary to the overwhelming consensus of the medical community.

Stephanie Messenger is an inhumane child disease advocate. It is sickening that people like her exist, but unfortunately they do and those of us who see these people with their true colours have a moral obligation to shine the spotlight on them.

Meryl Dorey and the AVN are anti-vaccination.

Meryl Dorey of the Australian Vaccination Network has hit back at her critics by claiming not to be anti-vaccination. However we (her critics) have allot of evidence to support the position that she and her appalling organisation are indeed “anti-“vaccination.

Anti

a person who is opposed to a particular practice, party, policy, action.

Mery Dorey and the AVN are absolutely opposed to vaccination and it doesn’t take allot of effort to expose her for this. In fact not only is Dorey a liar but she is also an incompetent liar and so her lies are easily exposed for what they are. This is her latest claim about not being ‘anti-vaccine’.

I understand why it is so important for a certain segment of the community to use that term. To call someone ‘anti’ anything automatically paints a picture in people’s minds of something negative. ‘Anti’ is a prefix with bad connotations and labelling the AVN as anti-vaccine will mean that some people will form an opinion of this group based solely on that incorrect moniker. It’s a calculated tactic by those who oppose our rights to choose – but it is not accurate and using that term is immoral if it doesn’t accurately describe us – especially after we have said so many times that we are not anti-vaccine. –Mery Dorey

However on the 4th of February 2010 Dorey clearly stated on Facebook that she was Anti-Vaccination. We even have a screenshot for this:

So Dorey claims not to be ‘anti-vaccine’ but asserts that she would never take another vaccine ever. Just to help clarify Meryl’s position a little further the AVN currently sell t-shirts with the statement “Love them protect them never inject them.” and yes there is a screenshot:

However Meryl is silly enough to still have this item on sale in the AVNs online shop. Seriously if you’re going to make a bullshit claim at least remove contradictory evidence from your own website.

Mery Dorey has also likened vaccination to “Child Rape“.

In Meryl’s fantasy world Vaccination = Rape therefore if you support vaccination, you also support child rape. This is a disgusting assertion to make, and exposes the vileness to Meryl Doreys anti-vaccination ideology. Of course most people are overwhelmingly opposed to child rape, but that has no relation to vaccination; unless you’re Meryl Dorey.

The New South Wales Health Care Complaints Commission had a few words to say about Meryl and her organisation:

by the Health Care Complaints Commission under section 94A of the Health Care Complaints Act 1993

The Health Care Complaints Commission has investigated two complaints about the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN), a non-profit organisation registered in New South Wales that provides information about vaccination. The complaints alleged that the AVN provides incorrect and misleading information about vaccination. 

The Commission’s investigation of the complaints focussed on the material presented by the AVN on its website www.avn.org.au.

The Commission’s investigation established that the AVN website:

 

  • provides information that is solely anti-vaccination
  • contains information that is incorrect and misleading
  • quotes selectively from research to suggest that vaccination may be dangerous.

On this basis, the Commission recommended to the AVN that it should include a statement in a prominent position on its website to the following effect:

 

  • The AVN’s purpose is to provide information against vaccination, in order to balance what it believes is the substantial amount of pro-vaccination information available elsewhere.
  • The information provided by the AVN should not be read as medical advice.
  • The decision about whether or not to vaccinate should be made in consultation with a health care provider.

The Commission recognises that it is important for there to be debate on the issue of vaccination. However, the AVN provides information that is inaccurate and misleading.

The AVN’s failure to include a notice on its website of the nature recommended by the Commission may result in members of the public making improperly informed decisions about whether or not to vaccinate, and therefore poses a risk to public health and safety.

–Health Care Complains Commission; NSW

So did the Office of Liqueur, Gaming and Racing. Who later revoked the AVN’s charitable status.

The organisation’s website is misleading in that it may lead people making donations to believe they are donating to a cause which promotes vaccination, whereas the organisation adopts an anti-vaccination position. -NSW Office of Liqueur, Gaming and Racing

We also have this truly fantastic quote from Dorey on Yahoo groups a few years ago:

There will come a time – I pray to God that it will happen in my lifetime – when those who have pushed vaccines upon innocent, helpless babies – doctors, pharmaceutical companies, government officials – will be proven to have lied and cheated these instruments of death into our children’s bloodstream. When that occurs, the outcry will be heard around the world and there will not be enough hiding places on the globe for these murderers to hide or enough money to pay for compensation. Of course, it will be too late for the babies, like this poor child, to be saved. But we will be able to take satisfaction from the fact that never again will anyone have to be pushed to poison their child because for once and for all, it will be known as poison and we will all wonder how it was we fell for the vaccine lie for as long as we did. -Meryl Dorey, AVN Yahoo! Group, Tue 16 December 2008 9:08 pm Message #36449

Meryl Dorey and the Australian Vaccination Network are strongly opposed to vaccination in any way shape or form and it seems unlikely that this ideology will ever change. Meryl continues to place half baked ideology ahead of science and reason. No matter how many times she is exposed (often due to her own stupidity) as a liar she is likely to continue repeating the same lies and her critics will continue to hold her accountable.

Meryl Dorey and Woodford Folk Festival

Ok, I’ve been slow to get around to this but Meryl Dorey of the Australian Vaccination Network is set to speak at the Woodford Folk Festival. Somehow Meryl has gotten the idea that skeptics are going to write to the organisers to ask that she be removed as a speaker. So she’s asking her supporters for help to ensure that she will get the chance to spread her dangerous lies and misinformation.

Of course, Stop the AVN (SAVN) and their minions are once again trying to censor this side of the issue. Through one of their main spokespeople – a prominent character with both the Australian Skeptics and SAVN, they have started a campaign on the internet via blogs, their Facebook page and emails to the Woodford management and their sponsors.

….

We urgently need anyone who believes in freedom of speech and communication (no matter what your opinion is about the benefits and risks of vaccination) to send letters to the organisers and the sponsors to let them know that there is a real need in the community for information on the other side of the vaccination issue. -Meryl Dorey

Of course her paranoia isn’t unfounded because that’s exactly want we’re doing. Here’s the email that I sent:

Dear Woodford Folk Festival.

 

I write to you to express concern about your decision to include Meryl Dorey of The Australian Vaccination Network as a speaker at this year’s festival. While Mrs Dorey bills herself an a ‘expert’ on vaccination the reality is in fact far different. Last year the Health Care Complaints Commission conducted an investigation into the information that Ms Dorey and the Australian Vaccination Network provided to the public and concluded: http://skep.li/HCCC-Report

 

“the Australian Vaccination Network’s purpose is to provide information against vaccination in order to balance what it believes is the substantial amount of pro-vaccination information available elsewhere;
the information should not be read as medical advice and;
the decision about whether or not to vaccinate should be made in consultation with a health care provider.”

 

The HCCC also issued a public warning about Ms Doreys organisation: http://www.hccc.nsw.gov.au/Publications/Media-Releases/PUBLIC-WARNING-/default.aspx

 

The Australian Vaccination Network was later stripped of it charity status for failing to act in good faith: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/anti-vaccination-group-stripped-of-status/story-e6frf7ko-1225938818276

 

Mrs Dorey is not an expert on vaccination or any other area of medicine and spreads discredited information in order to push a medical ideology that is not supported by science or any credible medical association. The misleading and false information provided Mrs Dorey has the potential to do serious harm to the community.

 

I implore you to reconsider Meryl Doreys inclusion on your list of speakers.

 

Kind Regards,

Dan Buzzard,

Concerned Citizen

Of course I BCC’ed the email to Meryl so she has the right of reply.

 

Homeopathy killed Steve Jobs

The late Steve Jobs was yet another victim of the great medical scam that is Homeopathy. I am left wondering how many more lives must be lost due to this scam. Steve Jobs died of Pancreatic Cancer in October this year after delaying vital surgery in favor of Homeopathy.

ALTERNATIVE medicine is unethical, criminal and likely contributed to the death of Apple boss Steve Jobs, visiting professor Edzard Ernst says.

The world’s first professor of complementary medicine was in Adelaide yesterday to speak at the Australasian Pharmaceutical Science Association conference at UniSA.

Famous for causing an uproar when, in July, he labelled Prince Charles a “snake oil salesman” for his dandelion and detox remedy, Professor Ernst yesterday spoke of the dangers of unproven complementary medicine.

“They mislead people to the point of being quite dangerous, all of this is idiotic rubbish,” he said, calling for more rigorous testing of claims. –Perth Now

Homeopathy is not supported by empirical evidence, yet it’s proponents continue to promote and sell it in order to turn a profit. Homeopathy is not medicine and should never be used to treat cancer or any other ailment. If you watch just one news segment this year make it this one:

Classroom Socialism

I agree with this.

An economics teacher at a local school made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Gillard/Brown  socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The teacher then said, “OK, we will have an experiment in this class on the Gillard/Brown plan”. All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A…. (substituting grades for dollars – something closer to home and more readily understood by all).

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the teacher told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.
It could not be any simpler than that.
 
Remember, there IS a test coming up. The next election.
 
These are possibly the 5 best sentences you’ll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation. -Received via forwarded email, original source unknown.

I didn’t write this but I found it interesting and wanted to share it. Particularly with the current socialist movements that seem to be making allot of noise these days with calls for ‘Wealth Equality’.

The Burzynski swindle changes tact.

It appears the Burzynski Clinic has dropped Marc Stephens as their hired goon because he evidently sucked at playing lawyer. Now they are hiring a “Law Firm” called Dozier Internet Law although considering they had their marketing person misrepresent themselves as a lawyer it’s hard to tell just how legitimate Dozier Internet Law really is.

This is what they write on their blog:

“Attack bloggers” need to be reined in. We are having pretty good success dealing with these types without having to file lawsuits all the time, but when it comes to push, we usually will pull the trigger and sue the “attack blogger”. It’s not free speech to create outrageous lies and propagate them all over the web. So, if you get a communication from us, be it a letter, a copy of a lawsuit, or a telephone call, consider the consequences that are about to ensue.

…

So, when you get a communication from us, understand the consequences. These lawsuits will show up on the front page of Google results under your name. SEO is not the sole province of bloggers, by the way. While your lawyers, particularly those involved with the public interest groups, use your case to gain attention and raise contributions, your reputation is being ruined forever. Your reputation as an employee, your reputation as a college applicant, your reputation as a job applicant, your reputation as a private person, your reputation as a husband, and your reputation as a father or mother. Maybe you won’t be confronted with it, but the impact will likely be profound, from prospective employers passing your resume by to parents avoiding you at school functions. It will happen. –Dozier Internet Law

I think there could be more to this threat than just legal proceeding. Rhys Morgan who was recently threatened by the Burzynski Clinic had google street view photos of his house emailed to him, this was intended not as a legal threat but as a general threat of “We know where you live”. Legitimate Lawyers don’t care where you live, but hired thugs who wish to operate outside of the law do.

Now Burzynski has teamed up with Dozier Internet Law who are threatening to ruin their victims reputation as Employees, College Applicant, Job Applicant, Private Person, Spouse, Father or Mother. I have to ask ‘How does being sued for libel ruin a college application?’ (being sued isn’t a crime) unless of course you have people like Burzynski who threaten to call your school as they did to Rhys Morgan, or threaten to interfere with your family as they suggested to Andy Lewis.

Perhaps I’m reading to far into this but if the Burzynski Clinic is willing to threaten a 17 year old blogger (Rhys Morgan) outside of the legal process by sending him photos of his house and threatening to call his school then I don’t think it is to far fetched to envision these crooks harassing employers, family members and other people connected to their critics.

Threats from The Burzynski Clinic – Rhys Morgan

The Burzynski Clinic Threatens My Family – Andy Lewis

Press Release November 2011 – Burzynski Clinic