Another Thing

While you're taking a look at McCarthy's website, be sure to browse her shop to see the kinds of things she sells to parents with autistic children. They range from completely unrelated to...well, actually, that's about it.

The Vaccine Bunny

Look, I'm not saying we should completely ignore anything Jenny McCarthy says about vaccines and autism just because she's a playboy bunny and an idiot. But I am saying that we should probably ignore her because she knows absolutely nothing about vaccines, and her ideas about autism differ drastically from the accepted norm. Today I went to her website, and what I saw there actually managed to surprise me. The doctor who works in tandem with her, Dr. Jerry Kartzinel, had something very interesting to say about autism in the preface to her book:

I'm sure the family members of autistic children who saw that and were any kind of sane were appalled, and we should be, too. Dr. Kartzinel is a board-certified doctor and a fellow in the American Academy of Pediatrics. I think it's pretty safe to say we should all, always be wary of the information we get, and not just assume that if it's from a source with an MD after his title, it's true.

sleepy yet?

For most of us, sleep feels elusive- or like the best birthday present ever, depending on the week. The truth is, it's not just a coincidence. It's a trend. As children hit adolescence, the amount of sleep they get drastically decreases, and there are possible links between lower grades, bad lifestyle choices like smoking and binge drinking, and lack of sleep. Sometimes there isn't a lot we can do about it, because factors like the start time of school and the amount of homework we get take control of the situation for us. There's a reason it's hard to get up at 7 every morning to get to school: when we hit puberty, our circadian rhythms start to change, so we prefer to be awake at night rather than in the morning. If we really tried to go to sleep at a decent time, most of us would be able to, and more than likely our grades and health would soar. Here's the catch: soccer practice, play rehearsal, and homework are all against us, and so are the teachers whose circadian rhythms don't allow them to understand why it is we can't seem to stay awake in first-period seminars.

"Sleeping" by Ed Yourdon, 2008