The Huffington Post opines

The new age of the internet includes hugely important blogs, of which this is not one. On the right, or more accurately, the libertarian side is Instapundit, a libertarian blog by a law professor whose site is checked frequently by hundreds of thousands. His posts tend to be links to other stories and his choices trend toward libertarian and conservative. There are many left wing sites that are mostly opinion but the largest of the left wing sites, in volume, is Huffington Post, a project of Arianna Huffington well known for marrying a rich bisexual Republican, then switching (so to speak) to the left where she opines today. The quality of opinion may be determined by one of the posts today by actor Jim Carrey, a well known scientist.

Recently, I was amazed to hear a commentary by CNN’s Campbell Brown on the controversial vaccine issue. After a ruling by the ‘special vaccine court’ saying the Measles, Mumps, Rubella shot wasn’t found to be responsible for the plaintiffs’ autism, she and others in the media began making assertions that the judgment was in, and vaccines had been proven safe. No one would be more relieved than Jenny and I if that were true. But with all due respect to Ms. Brown, a ruling against causation in three cases out of more than 5000 hardly proves that other children won’t be adversely affected by the MMR, let alone that all vaccines are safe. This is a huge leap of logic by anyone’s standards. Not everyone gets cancer from smoking, but cigarettes do cause cancer. After 100 years and many rulings in favor of the tobacco companies, we finally figured that out.

So, the actor has decided that autism may still be linked to vaccines. This is typical of the quality of opinion on this issue from the political left. For example, here is another post from Huffington on autism, which states:

Even as the evidence connecting America’s autism epidemic to vaccines mounts, dead-enders at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) — many of whom promoted the current vaccine schedule and others with strong ties to the vaccine industry — are trying to delay the day of reckoning by creating questionable studies designed to discredit any potential vaccine-autism link and by derailing authentic studies.

On January 12, a cadre of mid-level health bureaucrats left over from the Bush administration ignored Federal requirements for advance notice in order to vote to quietly strip vaccine research studies from funding allocated by Congress in the Combating Autism Act (CAA) of 2006. Members of Congress had said that this money should be used to study the vaccine-autism connection.

These rogue bureaucrats — members of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee — held an unannounced vote to remove previously approved vaccine studies from funding under the CAA. Nearly all of the “Federal” members of the panel voted to remove the two studies, whose estimated cost was $16 million – or 1.6% of the billion dollars authorized by Congress for autism. The panel’s civilian members, in contrast, voted nearly unanimously to retain the funding.

Thus, we should believe the actors and spoiled children of the rich over the scientists at Center for Disease Control. The next time you use Huffington Post as a source for political or foreign policy opinion, think about this. I have another post on autism here with a bit more reliable information.

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One Response to “The Huffington Post opines”

  1. allan says:

    I’m somewhat proud to say I’ve never read that thing. Once I heard the set up, what would be the point? Sounds like it’s the same old celebrity worship extended to political pomposity.