Denis Leary

Well, about the time it appears that folks are able to go about their business with their collective heads extracted from their own buttocks, someone comes along and proves that it just isn't possible. Case in point, Denis Leary.

Mr. Leary apparently felt the need to write a book in which he lambasts the rising incidence of autism to cold and inattentive parents. Ironically, it may be justified in one sense that the parents created the autism, but only in the respect that they allowed sperm and egg to combine, effectively creating the child that would eventually be affected.

Of course we live in a world which doesn't want to deal with autism and the related spectrum disorders. It's messy and inconvenient to have to try and solve a complex puzzle, certainly one that is proving to be much more difficult to get a handle on than cancer or AIDS. So, it's easier not to try and understand, because then we don't have to collectively have to care or to seek treatments, cures, solutions.

The government (through the NIH and CDC) has the unmitigated gall to claim that giving doses of ethyl mercury, of all things,to infants through immunizations is an okay thing to do. Anyone with a science background knows that ethyl mercury is an insidious poison and that infants are among the weakest in our population. It is certainly reasonable to assume that some babies might not be able to process this poison (even in minute amounts) of of their systems through normal pathways, because the pathways may simply be underdeveloped at the time. But, we live in an unbelievably litigious society and avoiding lawsuits is the goal.

I personally, don't care who is to blame. I am not looking for a scapegoat or a lawsuit. But, the raw information could be very valuable in helping to determine treatment options for individual children. I don't believe that autism is a one size fits all condition and that treatment options will need to be as varied as the children who are affected. God forbid that directing research into new, promising areas would ever be considered goal-worthy.

Yet, Mr. Leary calls the parents of autistic children, "lazy" among other things. Well, at least I am not so lazy that I can't think for myself. As a matter of fact, Mr. Leary might learn a thing or two if he were to try it sometime.