Ficke

McCain and Autism

You may have noticed John McCain bringing up autism at the debate last night:

And, by the way, [Sarah Palin] also understands special-needs families. She understands that autism is on the rise, that we've got to find out what's causing it, and we've got to reach out to these families, and help them, and give them the help they need as they raise these very special needs children. [emphasis added]

At first glance, this might just seem like McCain is trying to turn Sarah Palin's experience raising a child with Down Syndrome into evidence that she is some sort of disability expert. However, it's a little more complicated than that.

Earlier this year, McCain waded into the fight over the cause of autism and expressed his apparent belief that autism could likely be caused by the mercury-based vaccine preservative thimerosal. This is among the latest in a long line of dubious claims of autism causation (earlier discredited theories have blamed excessive television watching and "emotionally distant mothers"), and doesn't have much in the way of evidence to back it up. Thimerosal hasn't even really been used in childhood vaccines since 2001, without any effect on the autism rate.

(It should be noted that Obama has had questionable views on the subject as well)

The main advocates of the thimerosal theory are a small but quite vocal minority of families of autistic children, and they generally don't take too kindly to people who question their pet explanation. So, best guess is that McCain probably didn't have much of a strong opinion on the issue, but took the opportunity to pander to an easily panderable group. I figured that was the end of it, but now that he's flogging that horse again it would be interesting to find out what his actual position is, and if last night's mention was deliberate or if he just picked some random developmental disorder that he could assert Palin has expertise on.

Also, this isn't just some gotcha moment to point out when someone doesn't know what the hell they're talking about (though it's that too). A belief that vaccines are dangerous for children will lead to people forgoing vaccination, turning what was just a kooky belief into an actual public health risk. Let's try to avoid a huge measles epidemic here, ok?

Dear Pitchfork:

Stick to music. It looks rather silly when writers for indie music websites condemn the latte-sipping elitists.

Our Increasingly Short-Term Memory

Just heard on a television promo for tomorrow's release of The Incredible Hulk: "It's every bit as good as Iron Man." At long last, a return to cinema's glory days of early May '08.

Nonetheless, I certainly hope that's true. Iron Man was pretty awesome.

"There’s no Journey here. No one’s throwing their hands in the air.”

And now we can never go to Marvin again:

Those taking an evening off from the darts-and-Dockers bar scenes in Georgetown or Adams Morgan say it feels more than a few Metro stops away from their usual haunts.

Also:

Outside, a sweeping roof deck framed by lanterns and gathered curtains was so packed that Tino Fletcher barely had enough room to spin around to show off his leather blazer and alligator boots.

“This place is cool enough for someone as cool as me,” said Mr. Fletcher, 37.

Yeah. We tried to go up on the roof deck to enjoy the warm night on Thursday (11pm on a Thursday! Don't these people have jobs?) and couldn't even get past the doorway to the deck because of the crowd. I guess a lot of people just really like those moules frites.

This reminds me that I've been meaning to endorse the Emily- and Ezra-approved plan for more porch-type gatherings for our summertime drinking.

And best of all, there's time now to watch them!

I forget where I first saw this linked, but CBS is streaming a bunch of the early seasons of Star Trek: TOS and The Twilight Zone* up on their website for free. For those who've never watched The Twilight Zone before, a bunch of old Simpsons episodes are about to make a lot more sense.

William Shatner appeared in three of the five shows they have posted (though not necessarily in the seasons currently up now). I find his omnipresence oddly reassuring.

*Also MacGyver, Hawaii Five-0, and, uh, Melrose Place, if that's your thing.

Target Opens

The Target is open! Ahead of schedule, too. I stopped by tonight to check the place out, and it's not bad. For the most part, just a bog-standard Target, though they do have a Starbucks and a decently stocked groceries section (though they don't carry produce). Of course the Park Rd. Giant is only a block away, so I don't think many people will be doing their main food shopping at Target, but it's a nice supplement.

Disappointing discovery: despite what the Washingtonian reported, I didn't see any beer or wine for sale inside. Did I just miss it?

Also, Columbia Heights has now joined the elite ranks of those neighborhoods with two separate Starbucks across the street from each other. Be proud, fellow residents, for we have arrived.

All in all, I'm happy with the new place. The creeping suburbanization of the neighborhood (particularly the big parking garage that's accompanying the shopping center) is not totally ideal, but it's nice to not need to trek out to Maryland for shopping trips. Now if only we can get that REI...

Pwned by HBO

I admit it: I caved. I wanted to wait until Sunday to watch the series finale of The Wire, I really did. But I'm leaving for Costa Rica on Saturday, and I don't have a lot of confidence in HBO's Central American market penetration.

So I fired up the old On Demand, selected episode 60, and settled in. This is what I saw:

Sheeeeeeeeeeeiiiiit. Nobody better spoil it for me before I get back.

This Is Getting Annoying

Via Kos, the Clinton campaign has decided that Texas doesn't count after all now that Obama is looking more and more likely to win the state next week because of their commitment to the democratic process in Michigan and Florida. Clinton:

I’d love to carry Texas, but it’s usually not in the electoral calculation for the Democratic nominee. Florida and Michigan are.

She follows up with some talk about how the agreement signed by the Democratic contenders last year didn't address whether the delegates would be seated, only whether any of the candidates would campaign there. This is, of course, a completely tendentious mischaracterization of the agreement.

Her interpretation doesn't even make any sense: Florida and Michigan ought to be punished for monkeying with the primary calendar, not by having their delegates barred from the convention, but by denying them the ability to see campaign ads? The horror!

For context, here is the Clinton campaign's statement last September in support of the DNC's decision:

"We believe Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina play a unique and special role in the nominating process.

And we believe the DNC’s rules and its calendar provide the necessary structure to respect and honor that role.

Thus, we will be signing the pledge to adhere to the DNC approved nominating calendar."

I know it's the job of a campaign to frame the issues in a way that benefits the candidate, but this is ridiculous. Knock it off.

Borrowed Words

The Obama "plagiarism" scandal is a pretty uninteresting non-story, but Hendrik Hertzberg's post on the subject did introduce me to this bit of trivia about one of JFK's more famous lines:

And when J.F.K. ... was in prep school, his headmaster was fond of exhorting his charges to ask “not what Choate can do for you, but what you can do for Choate.”

I give Kennedy credit for turning a caricature of upper-crust privilege into a legitimately inspirational sentiment. Which is the whole point, I suppose.

Cry, Cry, Campaign, Cry

With uncertainty still remaining in the Democratic primary contest, the stock market continuing to plummet, and Tom Brady having his ass handed to him this past Sunday, it's nice to know some things are still constant and dependable in this crazy, mixed-up world of ours. Here's what was on the front page of the Washington Times this morning:

At least someone is breaking the big story that Democrats are all a bunch of crying sissies.

(the above fuzzy camera phone picture brought to you by me being too cheap to spend one of my hard-earned quarters)