Emotion and irrationality run amok

The attorney of this woman here has apparently served Kathleen Seidel, a blogger with one of the most useful sites in autism blogdom, with a subpoena. The Sykes are suing a couple of drug makers because they are convinced that mercury in shots that Mrs. Sykes received during her pregnancy and that her son received caused their son's autism (according the MSNBC story linked above; my own experience was apparently exactly the opposite). The subpoena makes a laundry list of requests, demanding that Ms. Seidel produce, among other things, information about her religion ("Muslim or otherwise") and demands all of her bank records, communications with an enormous list of other bloggers, and on and on. She has responded only as any sane person could. The attorney involved on behalf of the Sykes is the same attorney from the Hannah Poling case. As you can see from the firm's Website, this is one busy fella.

Check out the links. The story tells itself. Read the comments. See if you can figure out how in the hell something like this would be allowed in this first-world country that (theoretically) ought to have some of the best scientific and legal minds on the planet, that ought to value pragmatism and sense over the absurd. I look around, I see "America's Top Model" and "American Idol" and all of the other vapid, dull, mindless, cotton-candy-brained reality shows that top the ratings, and I really do almost despair. Coming a close second are comments on blogs from people who still believe that there is or ever was mercury in MMR in the U.S. or that their children are "toxic" or that chelation is safe or that herd immunity is just a made up concept propagated by that enormous, rolling conspiracy machine--kinda like the Combine--involving most doctors, the FDA, all drug makers, the CDC, WHO, probably the UN, and of course, any parent dumb enough not to believe based on emotion alone that they're all conspiring.

Thank God we just started watching "The Wire" last night. I can forget how birdbrained people can be when I'm watching something this smart.