Friday, April 30, 2010

Ari Ne'eman appointed to IACC, WTF????!!!!!!!

In yet another spitting in the eye by the Obama administration of persons with autism and/or parents of these persons who long for a cure for this horrible affliction, we see that anti-cure activist Ari Ne'eman has been appointed as one of the public members of the interagency autism coordinating committee. I see that one of my favorite neurodiversity hatemongers Harry Williams (AKA "Socrates") Is shouting about this from the figurative rooftops The IACC is the government agency that runs the show involving autism research activities that the federal government finances. Ironically enough, though this agency was created as a byproduct of the 2006 Combating autism act which had as its intent to ultimately find a cure for autism. When John Robison took a job as a member of a scientific advisory board on autism speaks, Mr. Williams immediately called him a traitor and a house aspie. We have to wonder why Mr. Williams, who is apparently a member of a British ASAN affiliate has not reserved the same slurs for his buddy, Mr. Ne'eman.

The law states that at least one of the public board members has to be on the autism spectrum. Ne'eman is now not only the second autistic person to be appointed to the public board, but also the second person with autism who has opposed curing this disease. So far the number of pro-cure autistics appointed is zilch. There is a snowball's chance in hell that I will be appointed. The other ASD public member, Stephen Shore, has been a much less polarizing figure than Ne'eman and does not go out of his way to publicize his anti-cure beliefs. It can be noted that Shore, who makes his living as an autism consultant, special education professor, and conference speaker would be unemployed if a cure for autism were found.

When the Obama administration tried to appoint Ne'eman to the NDC, our side was successfully able to oppose the appointment as it had to be confirmed by the senate and all it took was at least one senator (Tom Coburn, Oklahoma republican, rumor has it being the most likely holdout assuming there are not others) to hold up and possibly abort Ne'eman's nomination, they went out and appointed Ne'eman to this organization. Apparently HHS secretary Kathleen Sebelius can unilaterally appoint whomever the Obama administration wants and is accountable to no one and the nomination can't be held up by the senate. So, neurodiversity lobbied for this appointment when they were not successful in getting Ne'eman into the NDC. However, it would seem that this is even worse than an appointment to the NDC, as it deals with just autism and not other disabilities and also money that was intended to go for finding a cure for autism.

What is most interesting about this appointment is that ASAN along with Ne'eman were among the most vigorous opponents of the combating autism act when it was debated in congress about 3-1/2-4 years ago. When their efforts to prevent passing of this law failed, they immediately jumped on the bandwagon and attempted to lobby the IACC with their warped agenda. I have written about this previously. How convenient for Ari Ne'eman to be serving as a member of a committee that was passed by a law that he and his cronies vigorously opposed!

I am wondering what next? How soon will Al Qaeda be analyzing classified CIA documents? How soon will members of the Mafia be appointed to the police commissions in the cities in which they live?

We have seen that autism speaks is a colossal joke and has become nothing more than a neurodiversity sockpuppet given that they have given half a million dollars to neurodiversity rogue Laurent Mottron who along with his pals Morton Gernsbacher and Michelle Dawson has stated that autism is not harmful. Now the federal government is a joke in that it allows anti-cure autistics, Stephen Shore, John Elder Robison and now last but certainly not least Ari Ne'eman to run the show on autism research. (Robison has not been on the IACC but was appointed for some role in reviewing federal grants for autism research)

Barack Obama: I know you will never read this, but you just want me to be lonely, you want me to be unemployed and have poor fine motor coordination and not do anything well and not be able to get anything done and to have uncontrollable self-stimulatory movements. You don't want Dov Shestack, John Belmonte to ever speak a word or live outside of an institution. The actions of your administration as far as autism policy goes are reprehensible, beyond the pale really. You obviously want handicapped people to suffer. You want vicious hatemongers who Ne'eman is good pals with to harass me and ridicule me and to spread hate and libel.

Well, I hope someday in spite of the gross incompetence and lack of ethics of both autism speaks and the federal government that somehow someday we can find a cure and prevention for this disease or maybe before a cure is found a way can be found to mitigate it and make life easier for those on the spectrum so they won't have to live with all the hardships and limitations that this condition engenders.

I will be writing to my congressman and senators about this gross miscarriage of justice. I realize that this will probably be as effective as writing a letter to Santa Claus. If anything interesting comes out of it (which I doubt) I will write about it in autism's gadfly.

13 comments:

Larry Arnold PhD FRSA said...

Won't do any good though.

It is not going to be undone.

Love him or hate him you are going to have to work with him.

Now that is life, that is reality.

I often find myself in such situations that I don't like who is in power, but if I want to have influence I have to work with them nonetheless.

You see if you can learn that lesson, then maybe you won't have so many regrets and grudges.

Oliver M Canby said...

Wow. This is really shocking. Hopefully Senator Sessions of Alabama can block this. By the way, Phil Gluyas decided he had nothing better to do than to sue me, so wish me the best of luck in my case against him. Speaking of mafiosos turned cops, ever heard of Sammy the Bull?

Jake Crosby said...

I agree, WTF????????

Jake Crosby said...

"Apparently HHS secretary Kathleen Sebelius can unilaterally appoint whomever the Obama administration wants and is accountable to no one and the nomination can't be held up by the senate."

Absolutely right, she's horrible. I wrote about her last year right before she was nominated, and predicted she would be a bad choice. I have never felt worse about being right in my whole, entire life.

http://www.ageofautism.com/2009/02/history-suggests-hhs-candidate-not-unbiased-on-thimerosal-vaccine-issue.html

jonathan said...

Larry, I am being charitable in publishing this comment, considering how you usually censor whatever I have to say to you on your blog.

I don't hate Ari Ne'eman. I don't have to work with him. I have no connection at all to the IACC, I don't have anything to do with it, except writing on this blog what a colossal joke it is.

This if you can't beat 'em join 'em philosophy is neurodiversity through and through, first laurent mottron and Michelle Dawson and now Ne'eman. Hopefully someday the powers that be will come to their senses and cease their funding and their participation in the government, etc.

M.J. said...

The goal of the IACC is to set research goals and coordinate research into autism and yet Ari Ne'eman seems to be against most of the current research (ex genetics). I have to wonder if he thinks he will be able to redirect the research to address his priorities instead. I would say that Ari Ne'eman needs to get a job and learn about the real world but I think that he is turning being a person with autism into a full time job.

This is getting ridiculous.

Unfortunately, Larry may be right in that this appointment isn't going to be undone, at least this year. I think the debacle with the Autism Science Foundation and Alison Singer treating the Autism Speaks seat as her personal seat showed us this.

Oh well, at least we can take comfort in the fact that the public members of the IACC are mostly ignored and the federal members call the shots. So I guess he won't be able to do too much harm.

Unknown said...

MJ

I have to respectfully disagree with you about the harm Ne'eman is likely to do. He is probably there to provide cover for the IACC if it chooses not to pursue treatment and cure oriented research or environmental oriented research of any kind.

Somebody thinks this very unrepresentative representative of the autism spectrum will serve a useful role on the IACC.

M.J. said...

Harold,

Do you think that the officials in the government will take Ari's rhetoric seriously? I think most members of the medical community will pay lip service to his ideas and then continue to search for the genetic "causes" of autism and look for treatments.

If any official came out and endorsed any non-treatment or anti-cure ND nonsense, I think they would be removed from their position very quickly by a horde of angry, vocal parents (voters). I know I would be at the front of the line.

But I guess you could be right that he is there to be a scapegoat when they ditch some types of research. I just don't like believing that someone would be that conniving but I could easily be wrong. I think it is more likely that this appointment was placate a noisy group of people.

Unknown said...

MJ I will defer to your analysis.

Like most Canadians I am fascinated by US politics but observing from Canada, as a Canadian, even with the internet and cable news, isn't the same as being part of it every day.

Kent Adams said...

Ari isn't concerned with the welfare of autistics. He is most concerned with the welfare of Ari Ne'eman. Anyone that supports this bigot of the LFA is just a tool and cultist. Sorry, that's the way I see it.

Ender said...

Man, what hateful speech I see here. While I don't think he speaks for everyone, every condition has a large group of people like him. Look at the "Deaf President Now" or any other campaigns like it for proof of that. Most of the parents of autistic and asperger's people I communicate with hate the very thought of a cure, and their kids generally seem to hate it even more. Ari speaks quite well for them. Personally I wouldn't mind seeing a few more tax dollars directed to schools like the Springstone School or Hillcrest School and a few less dollars directed to finding this cure which most likely will never happen. Even if they do find the genetic cause, once a prenatal test drives the rate back down to 1 out of 5,000, what need will they have to continue funding a cure. No one with power will give a damn if they do.

P.S. You know my position, a bit from column A, a bit from column B, with the little caveat that no parent should be able to make the dicision for a child that will one day be able to make it for themselves.

Unknown said...

ASAN - the Ari Self Advancement Network.

President Obama is a huge disappoint as far as autism research is concerned. The US has always played a leading role in autism research, it now appears to be abandoning that role under Obama.

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