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I have to say that I know it is hard, but maybe he does not need fixing. Maybe he is how he needs to be. I was not very functional as a kid, but I have a very high IQ and a high paying job, a loving wife, 2 kids, etc. I was never cured, I just learned how to be myself and how to make that work. Acceptance is very difficult, but there are more paths than just a "cure".

There are people who believe Neuro Diversity is acceptable and necessary

This lawyer's actions are deserving of sanctions. Ms. Seidel's motion to quash was extremely well written and I am very happy that a judge was able to see through this BS.

Paraphrased from Kathy's extremely... "in-depth" blog http://www.neurodiversity.com/weblog/article/149:

Since June of 2006, Mr. Shoemaker (scumbag) has been paid fees in 22 VICP cases, 15 of which were dismissed.

Total fees paid to this DB for the DISMISSED CASES are up to $254,291.25.

Total fees paid for cases which resulted in awards were $330.158.04.

Oh, and it was 4 hours after this info was published on Kathy's Blog that she was served with the Subpoena.

I am not sure that there were any legal fees. According to her blog post, Ms. Seidel was represented by the First Amendment team at Public Citizen. Perhaps Public Citizen should be the ones recovering some of the expenses? In any case they should be congratulated for the win!

The subpoena commands production of "all documents pertaining to the setup, financing, running, research, maintaining the website http://www.neurodiversity.com" - including but not limited to material mentioning the plaintiffs - and the names of all persons "helping, paying or facilitating in any fashion" my endeavors. The subpoena demands bank statements, cancelled checks, donation records, tax returns, Freedom of Information Act requests, LexisNexis® and PACER usage records. The subpoena demands copies of all of my communications concerning any issue which is included on my website, including communications with representatives of the federal government, the pharmaceutical industry, advocacy groups, non-governmental organizations, political action groups, profit or non-profit entities, journals, editorial boards, scientific boards, academic boards, medical licensing boards, any "religious groups (Muslim or otherwise), or individuals with religious affiliations," and any other "concerned individuals."

Go to the subpoena. Go to page three, and read the list of names. Some highlights in this legal document: Killer of Sacred Cows; the Misbehavior of Behaviorologist (discussion board), meow meow meow... blah blah blah, and a HYPERLINK written out.

Don't kid yourself for one second if you think this lawyer actually cares about his clients or whether he wins this case or not. He stands to make tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars off of this case if he loses, and even more if he wins. Either way, he's a winner. He likely knows he has no chance, but hes going to take this poor family's money nonetheless.

Shoemaker's going after this blogger, cause she pointed out the absurdity in his legal claims and the fact that he's made big money from unsuspecting families by filing losing cases.

He probably tells the family what they want to hear, "Yeah, I agree that the mercury in the vaccine cause your son's autism. We need to help the children out there by making this public and stop those greedy pharma companies from knowingly poisoning our children..." All the while taking their money and filing a case he knows from the beginning is has no supportive evidence. This greedy lawyer should be disbarred. It is because of him and his kind that our healthcare costs are spiraling out of control.

Disclaimer: IANAL

I am the sole proprietor of a number of domain names. All of them are paid for in full by myself, and none of them offer services or goods sold for monetary gain. I don't even collect donations myself, yet my host supports them (offering a means for people to donate directly to the hosting account for purposes of continuing services or upgrading those services.) Point being, were I to own a hypothetical blog in the same position as http://www.neurodiversity.com/ why would donation records need to be subpoenaed in the first place? Should people be in the mind to give to a site they support, shouldn't they be free to do so without having to worry about this? This subpoena seems rather similar to the McCarthy-era Communist witch-hunts in terminology used, such as referring to the turnover of the names of those who have donated.

Also, since when is a blog classed as a taxable entity, and since when are blog owners required to submit tax documents on behalf of their blogs? If this is a necessary thing, it is something I haven't learned during my entire time in the dot-com scene.

Again, IANAL, so tear it up in a respectful manner. I'd like to hear where my shortcomings are.

Except that all the information Kathleen posts is supported by publicly available information, and Mr. Shoemaker no doubt knows this. The subpoena was issued 4 hours after Kathleen posted information about the money Shoemaker makes by losing vaccine injury cases. See her motion to quash. Make no mistake, some people would like to silence Kathleen and at the same time indulge their delusions that she's part of an government/pharma/illuminati conspiracy. What has happened is clearly a threat to freedom of speech. Imagine if lawyers could just issue subpoenas if they see an opinion on the web they don't like.

Autism symptoms don't develop at 2 months, the time when the first vaccine is mandated.

Or, heck, even at birth, now that Hep-B shots before leaving the hospital are all the rage.

With "factual analysis" by morons like you backing them up, it's little wonder crap statistical analyses like "this doesn't cause Autism" is the major focus, when spending the money on finding out what *does* cause it would be real science, but that ain't happenin'.

If you had half a brain cell to rub together, you might also be interested in this article, which has not been refuted by anyone.

I suspect the reason many doctors haven't heard of AAPS is that they're actually a bunch of religious quacks who have taken stances against not only emergency contraception, homosexuality, evolution, and health care as a human right (how do so many creationists manage to become social Darwinists?), but even evaluating treatments using the scientific method as some sort of conspiracy. Wikipedia even reports allegations of links to the Birchers!

As someone affected, for better and worse, by a condition very similar to Asperger's(atypical autism), I find it offensive when a neurotypical person says someone is "cursed" with Asperger's or a similar conditions, and very sad when an autistic person says they are. I don't know about you, but wishing I was not autistic is the same thing as wishing I could die, right now. I've been suicidal, and I've been wishing certain central autistic traits of mine were not traits of mine, and they feel the same - self-loathing and wanting to disappear. Also, I clearly distinguish what is inherent to being on the autism spectrum, and what is due to a clash with society, and inability to hold down a job is not inherent to autism. It is because, whether they are aware of it or not, most people are discriminatory against neurologically different people.
On a slightly different tangent, I just noticed that you said sorry for automatically doing math. I don't think you need to be sorry about it. For example, I don't automatically do math, but I do tend to "nitpick" and point out mistakes in details(such as saying "all" rather than "most") and I don't feel the need to apologise for it. We are different, and that's not always a bad thing. Someone who points out details, goes off on tangents(another trait of mine!) or automatically does math can contribute greatly to the topic, just as someone who focuses on the main point, stays well on topic and does math only with great effort can. It's nothing to be ashamed of. I know many autistic people have the message that "different is bad" drilled into them, repeatedly, but you can fight that, and if you yourself are different, fighting that is a good way to improve your life.
Ettina
http://www.geocities.com/ettinashee
PS: Look at this wonderful site: http://www.neurodiversity.com/

I have no idea if you're already familiar with such research or if it'll be helpful at all, but I saw an interesting talk a week or so ago where the researcher mentioned therapeutic successes with autistic children playing with robots. I think the idea is that attempting to comprehend complex human emotional interactions is way too overwhelming, but trying to interact with more simple "emotions" from robots is easier and acts as a stepping stone to more complex understanding. Here are some interesting links:

http://www.neurodiversity.com/robotics.html
http://www.aurora-project.com/