Jackie Fletcher is a brainless moron.

Oh, I just can't be fucking bothered. How can people take this shit seriously?

OK. She's got a rabid response into the BMJ, here.

Apparently, a bit was edited out, for reasons of sanity. Some twat, presumably John "Cock" Stone has republished it here.

Some sensible people have commented (which is surprising, for Age of Arseholery - they normally get filtered out) that the dozy bint is mixing up two issues; OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE, I CAN'T BE FUCKING BOTHERED WITH THESE FUCKUNG MORONS ANY MORE. LET'S HOPE THEY GET HIT BY FUCKING BUSES OR SOMETHING. FUCKING, FUCKING MORONS.

If they want to donate their hard-earned cash to Wakefield, fucking let them. They fucking deserve everything they get. Pointless fuckwits.

You know you're in trouble when…

…The One Click Group thinks you've lost it.

Yes, one of the most deranged anti-science, anti-vax, conspiracy theory peddling bunch of loons, the One Click Group seems to think Wakefield's finally stepped off the edge of reality.

Since Wakefield has failed to Appeal the GMC decision that found him dishonest in 2010, it seems extraordinary that he is now taking this litigious step in Texas. Is this merely a highly ill-advised mickey mouse Wakefield publicity stunt or has this doctor lost the plot we ask?

Andrew Wakefield reduced to wanking for coins

Back in 2007, the brilliant Charlie Brooker wrote;

Four thousand years ago I used to write a website called TV Go Home, which consisted of capsule descriptions of imaginary television programmes - most of them ghastly creations teetering on the brink of plausibility. One of the earliest entries was Wanking For Coins, which was described as "apocalyptic fun as Rowland Rivron tours the seedy backstreets of London's West End persuading the homeless to commit acts of self-degradation in exchange for pennies".

And that's exactly what Andrew Wakefield's doing now. It's now perfectly clear that his attempt to sue Brian Deer, the BMJ and Fiona Godlee is nothing more than a cynical fundraising effort, as can be seen from the new website, DrWakefieldJusticeFund.org.

Yes, as Wakefield clearly has no obvious source of income, he's resorted to performing acts of self degredation (posing, staring at a photoshopped in American Flag as though he's never seen one before (more about this in a moment) and about to have his suit thrown out in the most humiliating way) in order for his sycophantic fans to send him a few dollars to allow him to keep up his expensive lifestyle.

Not convinced? And think it's reasonable for Wakefield to ask for support for a defence fund? Well, it would be reasonable, were he the one being sued. But he's not - he's the one bringing the action. And then take a look at the "contribute" page. Not only can you make a donation, but you can become a member, for an annual subscription! A member of fucking what? A member of the "I'm paying for Andrew Wakefield's mortgage club"?! And all for an annual subscription of between $25 (personal member) and $5000 (corporate champion). How the fuck does he think he can get away with it? An annual subscription for a one off legal action??

The site is run by Ed "Dickhead" Arranga, all round hater of all things British (see his attack on "the British" here - a rant so obnoxious that even John "Cock" Stone called him out on it in the comments, and his personal attack on me here) and general fucktard. He clearly knew about this suit some time ago (as the text of the link above indicates) and the domain name DrWakefieldJusticeFund.org was registered in October last year.

I left a comment on Age of Autism, which surprisingly didn't make it through moderation, asking whether if, as seems extremely likely, Wakefields attempt to sue is thrown out to gales of laughter at the first hurdle, would any remaining funds be redistributed to the donors? I suspect not, as this is clearly an attempt to prop up Wakefield financially, rather than have him reduced to actually wanking for coins in the back streets of Austin - a state of affairs which, if this lawsuit and appeal are any indication, can't be too far away.

I'm now going to take a short break to be violently sick.

Age of Autism misrepresents Guardian journalist

The Guardian, fine journal that it is, has published a piece on Andrew Wakefield's misguided attempt to sue the BMJ, Brian Deer and Fiona Godlee. You can read it here, it's a perfectly reasonable feature, giving no opinion on Wakefield's fraud.

However, Age of Autism has republished the majority of the feature on its own site, with the byline "By Ian Sample of The Guardian UK.", implying that Mr Sample has written the piece specifically for Age of Arseholery. Let's face it - this is the kind of thing that John "Cock" Stone or Jake "Arsehole" Crosby would be able to cover (and look like morons) in their sleep - so why republish a piece from a major newspaper, written by a proper journalist, if not to try and steal some credibility on the back of the name?

Andrew Wakefield to make arse of himself by trying to sue Brian Deer, BMJ, Fiona Godlee

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!

To be fair, I've been wondering why if, as Wakefield and the antivax loons at AoA claim, Brian Deer's articles a year ago are demonstrably false, Wakefield didn't sue immediately. After all, such allegations could do irreparable damage to his reputation (which was already shot to shit).

A pdf of the complaint can be found here.

One wonders (among other things):

• Why Age of Autism hasn't mentioned it yet
• Why the accusation of libel hasn't been made in the UK

As ever, Orac has a far more comprehensive summary.

Callous Disregard price countdown...

Andrew Wakefield's hardbacked spider swatter, Callous Disregard is now available new at Amazon.com for the tidy sum of $4.97. That's £3.20 in sterling - less than the price of a pint in most Central London pubs.

Oh the fucking irony.

From Barry, a typically mindless Age of Autism commenter:

How is that people with no scientific training whatsoever, keep setting the record straight for people who supposedly do?

Try asking Dan Olmsted, Mark Blaxill, Anne Bloody Dachel or John "Cock" Stone, you fucking irony-free dickhead. That's the kind of problem that's got us in this mess in the first place.

Dan Olmsted & crank magnetism

Dan Olmsted at Age Of Arseholery has posted a remarkably stupid "From the editor" piece;

A D.C. developer dies at 59; obit notes he had a cell phone built into his ski helmet. I've had two friends die of the same brain cancer. I'm not so sure these things are so safe, are you?

Firstly, Dan, there's no evidence that mobile phone useage causes brain cancer.

Secondly, anecdote is not data.

Thirdly, if this is a newsworthy story, how about a link to a serious news outlet's coverage of it?

Fourthly, how long does someone wear a ski helmet for? Hardly all day, every day is it?

Still, it's a prime example of crank magnetism - belief in one whacko theory leads onto a belief in all kinds of other crap.

You're either a despicable scaremonger, an utter moron, or both, Olmsted. I know where my money's going.

Age Of Autism in attempt to mislead

Age of Autism today has a story about an antivaxer - "Dr Lisa Morris" - and her experiences being interviewed by NBC for a piece about "Skipping Vaccines". She makes out she's been misquoted, led to believe that the piece would be more sympathetic to her lunatic point of view - all the usual stuff. Like I give even a quarter of a shit. Still, she talks about where she gets her information on vaccination, and makes it sound all very sciencey - and that name, who could fail to be impressed by "DOCTOR Lisa Morris"?

Lisa Morris is a chiropractor. What the fuck does she know about science or medicine, given that she believes in subluxions - a cause of illness only slightly more plausible than the fucking verucca goblin or the ringworm fairy.

Oh, the irony

Click to buy the Age Of Autism t-shirt

I was going to title this post "Jake Crosby is an arsehole", but at the last moment was distracted by a comment of JB Handley's at Age of Autism. (Where else?)

Firstly, Jake "Arsehole" Crosby is bleating that he's been thrown out of a conference for asking what he sees as awkward questions of Seth Mnookin, author of "The Panic Virus". I suspect he was just being an arsehole - but I'd like to see the video footage. However, this is published at Age Of Autism, the online chip-wrapper which praises conferences like Autism One. That's right - Autism One, the organisers of which got seven armed policemen/security guards to throw two anti-anti-vax bloggers out. So, it's OK to do that, but not OK to ask Jake Crosby to leave because he's being deliberately disruptive? (Having read Jake's account of the incident, that's the only conclusion I can come to - that he was deliberately being an arsehole in order to provoke, and, ideally, get thrown out in order to write about it at AoA.)

So, that's why I was going to title this post "Jake Crosby is an arsehole". However, as I said, JB Handley popped up with this gem, which pretty much defines the word "irony".

My heart hurts for parents and families who have had their lives destroyed by idiots masquerading as experts.

Well, quite. Would you like me to list them JB? Actually, just go to Age Of Autism, and hover your mouse over the "Contributors" link in the menu bar. Evil fuckers.

Kent Bastard Heckenlively Is A Liar

Well no fucking shock there, eh? Kent Heckenlively is a berk(shire hunt) who blogs at Age Of Autism, and shows a quite remarkable propensity for being fucking stupid, and cruel to his autistic daughter (although I'm sure he thinks of it as "searching for a cure").

Anyway, he's got a thing about XMRV, the mouse retrovirus that was (most likely) mistakenly found in patients suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, by a doctor who it seems has been faking results, refusing to give out raw data for checking, and has now been sacked. Sound familiar?

Anyway, Kent's posted a piece entitled "Study Finds XMRV Retrovirus Can Infect Brain Cells", in which he cites a ropey as fuck study; "Susceptibility of Human Primary Neuronal Cells to Xenotropic Murine Leukemia Virus-related (XMRV) Virus Infection" which he claims has been published in that very reputable journal, "The Journal of Virology". Woo, scary - maybe there's something in this then?

Except it hasn't, it's been published in "Virology Journal", a completely different publication which is most famous for publishing a paper regarding Christ's healing of influenza in the Bible.

That's not to say it's wrong, buut it's a deliberate attempt to mislead. Or, in other words…

You lying fuck Heckenlively.