Hilary's Desk

Are you a sucker for being hoodwinked? The problem with deception is that the deceived have no idea they are deceived....

Are you "disposed to be critical"?

Or are you simply a conformed



This is an important question, because lot of people think they can spot illogic, and lies a mile off.

This weekend, the Sunday Star Times published an article dealing with the blog about Amina Arraf - that wasn't. A comment in the article said, "People want to believe the best in those they choose to follow online,' writes Davey Winder, a tech writer and author of Being Virtual. "To do otherwise would be a reflection of their own poor judgement. Everyone likes to think they're a good judge of character." (emphasis mine) Read Full Blog

Did everyone listening to the Insight immunisation documentary (podcast URL) on Sunday 19th June, put on their "thinking" cap?  How many listeners do you think, just "believed" all the comments made by the paediatricians or doctors?  After all, they went to medical school, so they must know everything?

I've decided to upload the podcast, in case it mysteriously disappears:  MP3 streaming file.

Where I have something to say, I will mentioned the "time" on the podcast in this format: 1.52 (Tim Blackmore) To me, this documentary was astonishing.  Firstly, because Phillipa Tolley's background research was palpably absent.  But then, to know that she plainly didn't know much..., a person would have to "know" a long term history of vaccination, and immunable diseases in New Zealand.  A real investigative journalist would have asked much more searching questions.

There were comments by an Infectious Diseases Specialist, Tim Blackmore, that measles is a terrible disease (1.52) which caused chronic lung disease, blindness and deafness.  In all the NZ literature for decades, such emotive language has not been used before.  Perhaps if Tim Blackmore had seen measles in the days when parents actually knew how to look after their children, he'd have a different picture of it.  His description, "measles is breathtakingly contagious" is ... breathtaking. He said, "You only have to walk past the room of somebody with measles in it, so it can spread literally like wildfire.... the only thing that protects us from infections like measles is people vaccinated under the age of 40 or so." Read Full Blog

The main and unique intermediary step between a NON-INFLAMMATORY phenotype, which is the default setting in pregnancy and for all baby mammals -  and a more individually competent educated immune system better able to handle the world's dangers and challenges.... is breast milk.  Read Full Blog

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Following on from yesterday's blog about Paul Offit's Science Friction, .. today's blog is about how Nikki Turner's presentations to the Parliamentary Select Committee are tainted with the same "blight".  Part of Paul Hutchison's recommendations to Parliament included Nikki Turner's unfactual statement (under her IMAC guise) that if vaccination against measles stopped, New Zealand would see 5,000 to 6,000 measles hospitalisation and 20 - 60 deaths per year. A pretty spectacular statement when the medical literature (and Starship hospital policy) makes it so clear that complications and deaths can be radically reduced with vitamin A.  In this upload, you will see IMAC's measles claims, and following that, you will see the death decline graph for New Zealand. Following on from that you will see....   Read Full Blog

The subject of a previous blog on Paul Offit, was his porkies in his new book "Deadly choices" Dr Offit has authored another document, where, amongst various dictatorial objectives, he wants to force yearly "exemption reviews" by a "state-approved counselor" (inquisitor/brainwasher), to brow-beat parents who chose not to vaccinate - who will no doubt then be billed by the state.  Because such birds of a feather flock together, it wasn't surprising to see that Nikki Turner made a similar recommendation to the Parliamentary Select Committee.  As you see from Offit's darling dial staring at you from this press release, this new document is HIS work. There are other signatories, but you can forget them.  This is classic Offitism, written in the same tone and vein as all his books, and true to form contains similar fiction. Open up at page two and read: Read Full Blog

As the UK medical gestapo proclaim 1,000 measles cases a national disaster, and go after parents who have refused to vaccinate their children against measles, there is an interesting "discussion" at the BMJ website. Peter Flegg, an infectious disease specialist has made some extraordinary claims. That's nothing new. He's done that at the BMJ for years. For those who want are keenly following the UK situation, here is the debate. Read Full Blog