Now isn't that a thing?
Yes, the server fell down for a while. Well, actually, for ever. There's a new server running the blog now and it's much more powerful. Also more resilient. Also more expandable. Also, tapered.
No, not tapered.
But better.
So what's been happening while I've been away? Well, before the great server apocalypse of '09, crazy things were happening with the antivax nutters of the Australian Vaccination Network. Crazy things are still going on, but we're winning, hard.
Since my last post, the AVN have decided that an open group on Facebook doesn't support their requirements any more. It's too easy to be exposed to views that might shatter their grip on their ridiculous, conspiracy-laden views. They deleted out posts, wholesale, then for good measure shut down their fan page and reopened in a more restricted format. Of course, they can't hide from us forever. We are the internet.
So we took the fight to Twitter, where @nocompulsoryvac has been the subject of much merriment, resulting in blocks for those of us making ourselves most noisy. Luckily, a block on Twitter just means we all see the commentary in our
searches for "nocompulsoryvac", and Meryl doesn't.. It's very, very lulzy.
Then, it was announced that the Health Care Complaints Commission has received a
detailed complaint on the AVN's craziness, and guess what? Despite the AVN's protests, the HCCC has oversight of Health Care providers, Health Care Information Providers, and Healthcare-related Educational Organisations.
"Oh, but we're none of those things", protested Meryl. Shame the skeptics have plenty of evidence in which the AVN have claimed to be just that.
Health Care Information Providers. Ooooh, bad luck there...
And on the heels of that,
a national advertisement in the Australian newspaper, sponsored by Dick Smith, outlining the lunacy of the AVN's claims.
Looks like we're winning.
Oh, and it's emerged that Meryl Dorey, President of the Australian Vaccination Network, has lent her name to
a list of HIV deniers, a move that boggles the mind.
And that she's hitched her wagon to the craziest of the crazy, conspiracy theorists the likes of David Icke et al, crazy ideas about mind control, illuminati, alien overlords and everything.
It's becoming more and more clear that the AVN is a deranged, dangerous organisation that should be shut down. And if justice is served, it will be.
And I'll be very proud to have played a small part in the administration of that justice, even if it's only harrying the nuts, rallying the troops, supporting the complaint and buying beers for the other Stop-The-AVNers.
And to everyone else involved: I'm fucking proud of you too. You marvellous skeptical bastards, you.