Headlines

All from Internet news sites. Guess which ones from Politici?

Supreme Court won't let Trump travel ban hit grandparents

Trump puts Mueller on notice

McCain brain tumor ... Particularly aggressive type ...

Paper : [OJ] parole in jeopardy after caught masturbating

[AG] Sessions to step up drug-war seizures

Trump says he 'would have picked somebody else' for Attorney General

Samantha Power emerges as central figure in Obama unmasking operation

Judge halts planned auction of Madonna's used panties

Sanders: Trump trying to 'sabotage' health care

Wasserman Schultz 'negotiating' with police over computer in hacking probe

Antidepressants during pregnancy linked to autism ...

WashPo: Elite economists endorse Trump's 'merit based' immigration reform

Homogenized Children

In retirement I have dabbled in tutoring High School students. One day while sitting in the Guidance conference room waiting for one of my students I noticed shelfs full of books on children's learning and other disorders. There must have been twenty or more carefully catalogued maladies with symptoms, prognostications and early-intervention treatments. Here are just a few of them: Autism, ADHD/ADD, Written Expression Disorder, Asperger Syndrome, Mood Dysregulation Disorder, Encopresis, Rumination Disorder,Tourette's Syndrome, Selective Mutism, Transient Tic Disorder, Conduct Disorder, Stereotypic Movement Disorder, Enuresis, Stuttering, Attachment Disorder, Encopresis, Mathematics Disorder, Intellectual Disability, Separation Anxiety, Conduct Disorder and Oppositional Defiant Disorder. There are many more.

I was struck then and still am by, in an attempt to make all our children "normal," we are homogenizing them. We are lopping off the tails of life's Bell Curve. And, I am sure that this is good for our children and their families. But is it that good for our society? Are we are early-interventioning away our future Van Gogh's, Steve Jobs', Thomas Edison's  and Robin Williams''?

It seems that, once, the suffering and dislocation of these "different" children sometimes produced what was recognized as genius. Their eccentricities caused them often to take a tortured  path through life which opened up wondrous windows for the rest of us. So what was a downside for them could be an upside for us. These abnormalities were the crucible from which wondrous works were sometimes forged ... a "syndrome synthesis" if you will.

One might even take his analogy a step further by pointing out that our current rabid embrace of diversity" and then "inclusion" might be causing an equivalent downside ... in that we are causing a certain cultural entropy and blandness that is making things all too predictable. Maybe we need to ease back a little on our societal and rearing homogenizations ... for the ultimate good of us all.

Hot Potato

The outbreak of measles traced to Disneyland in California is causing a bit of a ruckus. To vaccinate or not to vaccinate ... that is the latest media buzz.  If possible, politicians (should) run away from this hot potato because it's a no-win situation. But, not aspiring to any political office, lets me offer a few comments:

First, there is the question of individual freedom. There are many groups who are exempt from the state forcing this medical procedure upon them ... I think the Amish sect for one. Therefore, it seems that the government has already conceded exemptions ... and, therefore, the barn door is already open.

Second, parents who decide against vaccinating their children should be made aware of the statistical trade offs in this choice. If vaccinating brings a one in a million risk of a serious side-effect versus a one in ten thousand risk of other onerous consequences from not getting vaccinated, then they can and should act rationally. However, if the odds are reversed then this also needs to be well communicated to them. Moreover these odds obviously change as the population of un-vaccinated children grows or shrinks. Parents should also be well informed of this changing dynamic. The public policy of forcing vaccinations presupposes that many parents will not take into account these trade offs ... possibly a realistic assumption in a country that elected Barack Obama twice.

Third, and I hate to bring global warming into this discussion ... but when our government makes claims about global warming as "proven science" and anyone with a half a brain can see that this is bull hockey, additional "scientific" claims by our government are then easily discounted. The government and media-trumpeted fallacies of the dangers of butter, salt, etc.also add to the public discrediting of all such governmental pronouncements.

Fourth, I do believe that the analogy that has been made between our government quarantining suspected Ebola carriers and forcing vaccinations is a false one ... because there is now no recourse for the general public against infection by Ebola. An educated public can easily protect itself to a significant degree against contracting measles.

And lastly, the tying of vaccinations to autism by some prominent media figures ... such as Jenny McCarthy, Deidre Imus, and Robert Kennedy Jr..... were all based on very feeble scientific evidence. This really is the genesis of much of the current anti-vaccination movement. I personally think the upsurge in autism could easily be being caused by the increased use of designer drugs by one or both parents ... see: Yes We Cannabis. Now, I wouldn't be that upset if the autism-anxious parents of America started a boycott of designer drugs.