Clay Poole wrote:
I cant believe that the moderators of this site allow you bash people in this derogatory manor over a subject that is obviously very sensitive to some people. I seriously doubt you have children yourself. Ya know for either one of you or anyone to belittle another person and certainly children shows no class, and no character. I pray neither one of you has children that are handicapped, autistic or in anyway for lack of a better word messed up. All you had to do was rephrase the subject to something less controversial and it would have diffused the whole situation. All I can say is karma is a bitch.

The first insult was when Jason completely misrepresented things.  I nicely asked for him to back up his view and he came up with completely misleading out of context info to deceive us. That's what you should be annoyed about.

Then Sky Alone makes a vague reference to doctors and hospitals, and then gives me the "One word. Google" response because she can't back up her claim. That was just rude. They both set themselves up for readers to respond negatively. That's the karma coming back to bite people like that in the butt.

Note that I refer to people's responses  or ideas as "bullshit" or whatever.  With the exception of the "I'm with stupid" icon, I haven't made an attack on the person. Just their evidence or reasoning.  That's different - that's a discussion. Heated maybe, but an attempt at an exchange of ideas.

Now, ironically, you're the one making an attack on the person, ie, "no class, and no character" comment. You're just calling names. Also, ironically, Jason, the conspiracy theorist, is keen on ad hominem attacks, calling the OP a "total douchebag" and a "jackass."  A little pot calling the kettle black, I would say, with you guys calling for more sensitivity.

Maybe you're one of the believers of this conspiracy theory of mercury poisoning and you're feeling threatened???  And this is a way to lash out?

If you have something substantive to say, I'd be interested in hearing it.  If you can't take the heat, maybe you should stay out of the kitchen.

Clay Poole wrote:
"Never take the advice of someone who has not had your kind of trouble."...S J Harris

This whole autism issue is too important to be "taking the advice" of someone on a discussion board. It's much better if a person can provide a view that has some strong empirical support. That's more valuable. Just because someone has had your problem doesn't necessarily make them the better resource. If you follow this "advice" you'll eliminate almost all of the experts on autism from "giving advice." Does that sound like a good idea??

Since you're fond of S J Harris, here's quote that's a little more applicable:

"Most people are mirrors, reflecting the moods and emotions of the times; few are windows, bringing light to bear on the dark corners where troubles fester. The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows." —Sydney J. Harris

Let's bring some light to some of these ideas instead of just tossing out unsubstantiaed opinions and pretending they are on par with more solid evidence. All ideas are not created equally. Some are dumb. That's life.

Curt Burgess wrote:
who screwed up the readability of this thread?

Clay Poole did.   Clay, please edit your post and remove that wide line so the formatting won't be all screwed up.  Pretty please?

Garry k wrote:
Some people dont know the difference and think both are the same ,seriously .

Wow I dont know why people are getting so damn defensive about this, I see your point you were trying to make, I know you were not downing those who have autism you were expressing views on "artistic" photos, which a lot of photos use the term just to get the model maked. Its such an exploited term I see why u said that!

Garry k wrote:
Some people dont know the difference and think both are the same ,seriously .

I mean seriously its gotten so bad with me where whenever a phtographer mentions "artistic" photos I know they want me to take my clothes off, why can t artistc ever be CLOTHED too? (And before poeple try to jump on me I sure one in a million artistc pics may have clothes, but the VAST VAST majority are nude)

Curt Burgess wrote:

Clay Poole wrote:
I cant believe that the moderators of this site allow you bash people in this derogatory manor over a subject that is obviously very sensitive to some people. I seriously doubt you have children yourself. Ya know for either one of you or anyone to belittle another person and certainly children shows no class, and no character. I pray neither one of you has children that are handicapped, autistic or in anyway for lack of a better word messed up. All you had to do was rephrase the subject to something less controversial and it would have diffused the whole situation. All I can say is karma is a bitch.

The first insult was when Jason completely misrepresented things.  I nicely asked for him to back up his view and he came up with completely misleading out of context info to deceive us. That's what you should be annoyed about.

Then Sky Alone makes a vague reference to doctors and hospitals, and then gives me the "One word. Google" response because she can't back up her claim. That was just rude. They both set themselves up for readers to respond negatively. That's the karma coming back to bite people like that in the butt.

Note that I refer to people's responses  or ideas as "bullshit" or whatever.  With the exception of the "I'm with stupid" icon, I haven't made an attack on the person. Just their evidence or reasoning.  That's different - that's a discussion. Heated maybe, but an attempt at an exchange of ideas.

Now, ironically, you're the one making an attack on the person, ie, "no class, and no character" comment. You're just calling names. Also, ironically, Jason, the conspiracy theorist, is keen on ad hominem attacks, calling the OP a "total douchebag" and a "jackass."  A little pot calling the kettle black, I would say, with you guys calling for more sensitivity.

Maybe you're one of the believers of this conspiracy theory of mercury poisoning and you're feeling threatened???  And this is a way to lash out?

If you have something substantive to say, I'd be interested in hearing it.  If you can't take the heat, maybe you should stay out of the kitchen.


This whole autism issue is too important to be "taking the advice" of someone on a discussion board. It's much better if a person can provide a view that has some strong empirical support. That's more valuable. Just because someone has had your problem doesn't necessarily make them the better resource. If you follow this "advice" you'll eliminate almost all of the experts on autism from "giving advice." Does that sound like a good idea??

Since you're fond of S J Harris, here's quote that's a little more applicable:

"Most people are mirrors, reflecting the moods and emotions of the times; few are windows, bringing light to bear on the dark corners where troubles fester. The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows." —Sydney J. Harris

Let's bring some light to some of these ideas instead of just tossing out unsubstantiaed opinions and pretending they are on par with more solid evidence. All ideas are not created equally. Some are dumb. That's life.

Find a window then. Educate yourself on the distinct possibility that perhaps just perhaps you could be wrong. Either way you are completely condescendig to anyone who disagrees with you. That is not discussion it is a bullys attempt at forcing others to agree.

I have nothing further to say. I could show you a report from the CDC dated 5 yrs ago but I'm sure you'd say that you want more evidence. Enjoy your time on here. Maybe one day your window will be shown and you can see everyone has a different view out theirs.

Sky Above wrote:
Educate yourself on the distinct possibility that perhaps just perhaps you could be wrong.

Here again you're not taking responsibility for promoting your view ... you're telling me to educate myself.  It's not being condescending to ask you why you're saying something.  I'm sorry you have an autistic kid. But that doesn't mean you get a dispensation on putting forth a coherent argument.

Sky Above wrote:
I could show you a report from the CDC dated 5 yrs ago but I'm sure you'd say that you want more evidence.

So you've already made up your mind about what I'd think so you're not going to share.  By your own admission, you are not interested in a discussion.  I don't think you wanted a discussion. I think you wanted completely uncritical acceptance of anything you said and sympathy.  I hope you have people you can get that from.

Curt Burgess wrote:
I just want to let the thread know that Jason emailed me.  He told me that he got booted from MM for calling one of the posters (the OP?) a "jackass."  I suspect it was for substituting "jackass" for the person's name in the quote function. He apologized for doing that and said that it was "lame to call people names."  He also said "Agree or not….its nice to have conversations with people that take the time to look things up.  And not just believe what they are told."

He made a number of follow up points on his argument, most of which I disagree with his interpretation, but that's fine. I appreciate his willingness to have the dialogue and enjoy the back and forth with it all. He also wanted to let me know that he hadn't walked away from the discussion but that he got evicted so to speak. I'm very glad that he emailed me and I hope that his absence will be brief.

Well , I hope this  Jason fellow didnt really get booted from  MM for calling me a douchebag - I really could care a less

Just too bad he didnt stick around to find out where thsi thread was really going ....

Garry k wrote:
Well , I hope this  Jason fellow didnt really get booted from  MM for calling me a douchebag - I really could care a less

I have a feeling that what pushed it over the line for some MOD was his substituting the word "jackass" for the person's name in the quote function.  A number of people have been banned multiple times (or at least they've said that in other threads) so I he's back soon.  A couple names like this is on the lower end of offenses from what I've seen around here.

At least Jason kept engaged with info on the topic that one could go look at. Not just another poster-bater who throws out opinions claiming they're facts. I don't mind if I'm getting called a name or two as long as the substantive stuff is there too.

Curt Burgess wrote:
I just want to let the thread know that Jason emailed me.  He told me that he got booted from MM for calling one of the posters (the OP?) a "jackass."  I suspect it was for substituting "jackass" for the person's name in the quote function. He apologized for doing that and said that it was "lame to call people names."  He also said "Agree or not….its nice to have conversations with people that take the time to look things up.  And not just believe what they are told."

Yeah, that was me.  Jason says I'm a jackass and Garry says I'm a hillbilly.  Guess it's easier to use inflamatory language to incite emotion than it is to back up your assertions.  I'd much rather have a reasonable discussion than have to resort to schoolyard taunts.

However, if you must call names try to at least be accurate.  I'm short, fat, unattractive, and with any luck on October 13th when the BAR results are released I might even be a lawyer.  That should be more than enough ammunition for you guys to more carefully hone your degrading language.  Then maybe we can have a nice productive round of "am not!" "are too!" "am not!" "are too!"....

jason messer wrote:

do yourself a favor.  do just a little research....

mercury is a neurotoxin, right?  no brainer.  check out the amount of mecury the cdc says will destroy your brain.

then add up the collective amount of mercury in childrens vaccines.

then look up how the research done to link autism and vaccines was paid for....by pharma companies.

if mercury was of no harm.....why did they remove it?

why has cases of autism rapidly climbed with the increase of vaccine schedules?

ten years ago it was rare.  now....1 in 166 kids will be born with some type of autism.

if the amount of mercury we inject into our children was laying on the floor.  it would be a biohazard.  as photographers we know how we arent even allowed to wash a metal (silver) down the drain.  but why can we inject a metal into our children?

the original poster equated some peoples vision of art as "autistic".  im sorry i jumped to the conclusion he was saying that in a negative way.  ive never heard anyone think autism was "good".

open mind?  because i dont think someone should call another persons work...autistic? 

sorry to be a "conspiracy theorist"  its true...our gov would NEVER do something not in the publics best interest....tuskegee...katrina response...iraq war...iran contra...noreaga...the way we treated americans with japanese heritage during wwII...etc...etc...etc.

the flag looks better when its not wrapped around your eyes.

some good points.

LarryB wrote:
.. with any luck on October 13th when the BAR results are released I might even be a lawyer.

congratulations, in advance.

they'll be no end of grief that can come your way.  Probably more lawyer jokes than any other genre!

LarryB wrote:

Yeah, that was me.  Jason says I'm a jackass and Garry says I'm a hillbilly.  Guess it's easier to use inflamatory language to incite emotion than it is to back up your assertions.  I'd much rather have a reasonable discussion than have to resort to schoolyard taunts.

However, if you must call names try to at least be accurate.  I'm short, fat, unattractive, and with any luck on October 13th when the BAR results are released I might even be a lawyer.  That should be more than enough ammunition for you guys to more carefully hone your degrading language.  Then maybe we can have a nice productive round of "am not!" "are too!" "am not!" "are too!"....

You mean your going to be a lawy.... ( I cant ven utter that word -its way to derogatory)

What to you call 500 lawyers at the bottem of the ocean    ( LOL )

LarryB wrote:
Yeah, that was me.  Jason says I'm a jackass and Garry says I'm a hillbilly.  Guess it's easier to use inflamatory language to incite emotion than it is to back up your assertions.  I'd much rather have a reasonable discussion than have to resort to schoolyard taunts.

However, if you must call names try to at least be accurate.  I'm short, fat, unattractive, and with any luck on October 13th when the BAR results are released I might even be a lawyer.  That should be more than enough ammunition for you guys to more carefully hone your degrading language.  Then maybe we can have a nice productive round of "am not!" "are too!" "am not!" "are too!"....

You mean your going to be a lawy.... ( I cant even utter that word -its way to derogatory) Just kidding