Heretics' almanac

The coming wave of autism backlash

The United States Centers for Disease Control recently published statistics that indicate that 1 in 150 children within a certain age cohort, across 14 states, is autistic. This is way more than the previous official numbers, which placed the incidence at about 1 in 5,000 (or thereabouts) and even higher than previous estimates, which put it at 1 in 166.

The next shoe to drop is an acknowledgment of the obvious implication, namely that the increased incidence is due to environmental factors. Until now, mainstream medicine has held it to be a hereditary condition.

Who does Michael Lerner fear most?

It may just be that there's a polarizing debate within the global Jewish community over Israel. It may be that Jimmy Carter started a meme with his book. Michael Lerner wrote a largely self-congratulatory piece titled "There is no new anti-Semitism," Alvin Rosenfeld makes rather the opposite point, and then there is the group of British Jews who launched Independent Jewish Voices in opposition to the "official" Jewish spokesorganizations in the UK.

There's a complaint and an issue at work here.