The several-month-old report by the Masters of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims on the “Omnibus Autism Proceeding” is old news, but I thought I’d put an oar in, by saying that this is something that the courts got right. There is a large body of evidence that demonstrates, to a level of near-certainty, that the mercury compound used as a preservative for a baby’s immunization injections does NOT cause autism. Perhaps in part because the onset of autism commonly occurs over the time window in which these shots are administered, the popular myth that may be the source of an increase in autism incidence has grown, even in the face of a very large body of evidence to the contrary.
I have earlier argued that the ‘red herring’ of mercury has distracted scientists and the informed public from seeking and understanding the REAL causes of the increase in autism incidence. It’s not like we have a great shortage of possibilities! Let’s sort it all out, and do something about THEM.
I also earlier argued that I thought that the Courts got it tragically wrong, when they declared that children could not be prevented from purchasing violent video-games, because it has not been demonstrated that they have any (negative) impact on them. “Images of hundreds of thousands of repetitions of bloody and gory mayhem don’t seem to affect Junior,” says the Court! Judge, I’ll bet my house against yours that if YOU were exposed to the same massive load of sadistic crap I could show that YOU would be behaviorally and neurologically affected by it. Because where, after all, do you think the refined sensibilities that define the person that you are COME from? The air? The Creator of the Universe? Leaping out of your genes? Or, just maybe, via brain plasticity, from your experiences in life?!
If you think that hundreds of thousands of little doses of violence have no impact on young brains, you have to explain a) why children learn to love them so much; b) whether all of this training will help children learn how to be nicer, Praise the Lord; c) or maybe something different.
Our Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, recently announced that California will appeal this decision. “Way to go, Arnold.” This citizen thanks you for not caving in, when this silly ruling came down. For the sake of America’s children, this citizen hopes and prays that, given another chance, the Courts can get this one right, as well.
” “Images of hundreds of thousands of repetitions of bloody and gory mayhem don’t seem to affect Junior,” says the Court! Judge, I’ll bet my house against yours that if YOU were exposed to the same massive load of sadistic crap I could show that YOU would be behaviorally and neurologically affected by it. Because where, after all, do you think the refined sensibilities that define the person that you are COME from? The air? The Creator of the Universe? Leaping out of your genes? Or, just maybe, via brain plasticity, from your experiences in life?! If you think that hundreds of thousands of little doses of violence have no impact on young brains, you have to explain a) why children learn to love them so much; b) whether all of this training will help children learn how to be nicer, Praise the Lord; c) or maybe something different. ”
Many (most?) movies, television shows, popular books, etc, are intensely violent, show using indiscriminate violence to resolve problems, show intense sexual restraint, sexual vulgarity, intense vulgar profanity, intense sociopathy, killing to resolve problems, complex lying and creative deception to achieve goals.
A new turn seems to be having beautiful people, especially women, do the above in movies and television shows.
Why do these movies make 10-60 million dollars in a few days? And why are these movies created? They are created for the general public, because this is what the general public likes. From childhood to adulthood.
Internet: Immense pornography, and all of the above movie and television content. Free and easily available.
Most of the say 50 million kids in the US who love the horrific video games do not engage in any form of violence like what the video games show, and never will.
Some argue the video games are medium for kids to express their internal rage, and when the video game is over, they don’t take the video content with them in their daily lives. A separate, sort of secret life when doing video games, that they leave behind when it’s over, and which they seek out when they need to relieve their rage.
Also, this is what kids appear to like, and what their parents appear to want for their kids. Or maybe the parents don’t really care either way what they do. In the US especially, their is pride in being able to do what you want with minimal government constraint, including child treatment.
The video game industry is, I believe, a multi-billion dollar industry. I doubt anyone will accept any constraint on this.
Parents usually reject other people’s views on how they should treat their children. Dr. Merzenich I notice how you advocate for other people’s kids. I believe most parents would reject the parental advice of anyone (doctors, scientists, etc). They love to do what they want, especially to their children, even if they know they are harming them – they actually may enjoy harming them in these creative ways. Smoking while pregnant, smoking with kids in the house, renting 20 horrific video games to pacify their children for most of the afternoon when the return from school, unrestricted use of the Internet, intense psychological abuse and the use of profanity toward the children.