Thimerosal in Vaccines: Questions and Answers

As with most, antivaccinationists (or antivaxxers as they are so affectionately called), Mr. Hubbs often finds himself making claims about the effects of thimerosal in vaccines.  He refers to the (now discredited) Andrew Wakefield study which attempted to link thimerosal with autism along with speaking of newer Wakefield studies with primates trying to suggest this link actually exists.

Unfortunately for Mr. Hubbs, there is not one single peer-reviewed study in existence which proves such a link exists.  In fact, of the dozens of studies which tried to determine if such a link exists, they all have found no correlation between thimerosal and autism whatsoever.

So why is there so much focus upon thimerosal in the first place?  Well, the simple truth is thimerosal has been used as a preservative in vaccines since the 1930s and although there have never been any published studies indicating it causes autism (or is even linked to autism), thimerosal is composed of approximately 50% mercury by weight, and anytime you mention mercury it is going to raise alarms with the antivaxxers.

However the FDA has a fabulous Q&A page on thimerosal located here.  The page states that "as a vaccine preservative, thimerosal is used in concentrations of 0.003% to 0.01%. A vaccine containing 0.01% thimerosal as a preservative contains 50 micrograms of thimerosal per 0.5 ml dose or approximately 25 micrograms of mercury per 0.5 mL dose."  It should also be noted that due to the fear surrounding mercury and lowered EPA guidelines for mercury (the EPA's methylmercury reference dose is .1 micrograms/kg body weight per day) thimerosal has been phased out of childhood vaccinations as shown by this table.

So is 25 or 50 micrograms of mercury something to be concerned about?  Depends who you ask, but for all the attention given thimerosal by the antivaxxers, you might think they would care just a tad more about a simple can of tuna.  Why tuna?  Well as it turns out, a six ounce can of tuna contains approximately 52 to 60* micrograms of mercury which is more than vaccines with the highest levels of thimerosal.

I'm a "show your math" kind of person, so let me spell this out in detail.  First we need to define how much mercury is in the tuna, and for that we can use this chart provided by the FDA.  Reading that chart shows us that albacore tuna has 0.353ppm of mercury.

Now we need to determine how many grams of tuna are in a can.  For that we convert 6 ounces to grams and we come up with 170 grams (0.0352739619496 oz per gram).  So now we take that 0.353ppm of mercury in the tuna and multiply it by the number of grams and we get the answer of 60.01 (0.353 x 170).

So basically, there are 60 micrograms of mercury in one 6 oz. can of albacore tuna.  There is a bit less in light tuna, an a bit more in fresh tuna, but you get the idea.  In case you don't trust my numbers, here is another source.  I should note they determined there were approximately 52 micrograms in a can of tuna whereas my math above shows closer to 60, but their figures are from a study from 1993 (see reference below) whereas my figure is based upon updated FDA findings from a study performed in 2002-2004.

Long story short, if you are really concerned about the mercury in vaccines, you should be protesting at your local supermarket, because children are much more likely to be exposed to mercury via canned tuna than they are via vaccines, and it is safe to say people who like tuna and/or feed it to their children probably do so more than a few times in their lives, so imagine the cumulative effect of eating one can of tuna per week for an entire year - yet when is the last time you saw a conspiracy theorist website about how commercial tuna fisherman are trying to harm children in order to profit?  If one exists I surely haven't seen it.

However, research does continue on the usage of effects of thimerosal, and recent studies from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) have continued to not find long term effects or negative side effects.  In fact, the FDA states the following:

"More recent NIAID-supported studies at the University of Rochester and National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, MD examined levels of mercury in blood and other samples from infants who had received routine immunizations with thimerosal-containing vaccines. [Pichichero ME, et al. Lancet 360:1737-1741 (2002)] Blood levels of mercury did not exceed safety guidelines for methyl mercury for all infants in these studies. Further, mercury was cleared from the blood in infants exposed to thimerosal faster than would be predicted for methyl mercury; infants excreted significant amounts of mercury in stool after thimerosal exposure, thus removing mercury from their bodies."

So essentially if studies have not found impacts to children, and considering the rates of autism diagnoses have not decreased even though thimerosal is no longer in the vast majority of childhood vaccines... how can antivaxxers like Mr. Hubbs still be arguing that thimerosal causes autism?  If they feel it is really about mercury itself, why can't they explain why Japanese children don't suffer higher rates of autism even though they are exposed to much higher levels of mercury due to their diets which are heavy in seafood?

Well the simple answer is they really can't explain these questions, and they know it.  However to admit there is no such link between thimerosal and autism would mean the antivaxxers would need to admit they have been wrong all along - and we all know that isn't very likely.  The more complicated answer is that rather than admit thimerosal doesn't cause autism, most antivaxxers will attempt to switch gears and claim it was never about thimerosal but rather about all vaccines causing autism.  Don't bother asking for the science to support these theories however as they can't provide it.  

This is typically the point that the typical antivaxxer (Mr. Hubbs included) will start professing that the FDA or CDC or "Big Pharma" or some other agency or organization is suppressing the studies which would prove such a link, but aside from a conspiracy theorist it is hard to actually accept such an explanation.  There are countless scientific agencies, research hospitals, Universities, and private companies in American any of which is capable of performing such studies and proving a link if one exists - yet we are expected to believe that every one of the researchers, scientists, doctors, and other trained experts who work for these various organizations is somehow in bed with the drug companies so they are unwilling to produce a study which could possibly have a negative impact upon the financial stability of these companies?

I ask anyone with a rational mind if this seems even remotely plausible.  Aside from the fact it would be a sheer impossibility to pay off or otherwise silence tens of thousands of people without at least a few of them blowing the whistle, the fact is America doesn't control all scientific discovery on the planet.  There are dozens of nations out there doing their own research, and yet not a single one of these nations has ever produced a single study which has been able to prove a link between vaccines and autism.  

Does this sound like a coincidence?  Are we to believe there is some vast multi-national conspiracy to hide the truth from the other six billion humans on Earth who aren't somehow connected to the medical or scientific community?  Or could it possibly be that Mr. Hubbs and his compatriots are merely ignorant of scientific fact and unwilling to accept the truth?  I think the answer is more than obvious.

However, if anyone has any doubts about the safety or long-term impacts of thimerosal, there  have been a few studies performed on the subject which are readily available to review.  A word of caution however - if you are an antivaxxer, reading any of these studies is bound to make your head explode from all of the scientific research and fact, so don't say you weren't warned:

1. Batts AH, Narriott C, Martin GP, et al. The effect of some preservatives used in nasal preparations on mucociliary clearance. Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology 1989; 41:156-159.
2. Batty I, Harris E, Gasson A. Preservatives and biological reagents. Developments in Biological Standardization 1974;24:131-142.
3. Beyer-Boon ME, Arntz PW, Kirk RS. A comparison of thimerosal and 50% alcohol as preservatives in urinary cytology. Journal of Clinical Pathology 1979;32:168-170.
4. Gasset AR, Itoi M, Ishii Y, Ramer RM. Teratogenicities of ophthalmic drugs. II. Teratogenicites and tissue accumulation of thimerosal. Archives of Ophthalmology 1975;93:52-55.
5. Goldman KN, Centifanta Y, Kaufman HF, et al. Prevention of surface bacterial contamination of donor corneas. Archives of Ophthalmology 1978;96:2277-2280.
6. Keeven J, Wrobel S, Portoles M, et al. Evaluating the preservative effectiveness of RGP lens care solutions. Contact Lens Association of Ophthalmologists Journal 1995;21:238-241.
7. Naito R, Itoh T, Hasegawa E, et al. Bronopol as a substitute for thimerosal. Developments in Biological Standardization 1974;24:39-48.
8. Wozniak-Parnowska W, Krowczynski L. New approach to preserving eye drops. Pharmacy International 1981;2(4):91-94.

*Average for Chunk White Canned Tuna. Yess, Norma J. "US Food and Drug Administration Survey of Methyl Mercury in Canned Tuna," Journal of AOAC International, Vol. 76, No. 1, 1993, pp. 36-38. 

Lowell's Idea of a Medical Expert: Kevin Trudeau

Apparently Lowell leaves quite an impression with people because I have had several sources provide me with information about him. One recent email sent to me included the following quote from Lowell (using his "Wildman440" username):

"...ever read the book by Kevin Trudeau, "Natural Cures They Dont want You To Know About", that might outline a bit of this as to how it really works."    

- Wildman440 (aka:Lowell Hubbs)

Yes you read that correctly - Mr. Hubbs is citing none other than the informercial pitchman Kevin Trudeau as one of his experts. This is the same Kevin Trudeau that has been convicted of credit card fraud and larceny and has served prison time (perhaps his time in prison is why Mr. Hubbs admires him since they apparently have something in common).

This is the same Kevin Trudeau that has paid a $500,000 fine for making false and misleading claims in his infomercials. The same Kevin Trudeau that has never had any of his claims verified by independent research. The same Kevin Trudeau that has been found guilty of running pyramid schemes, who has sold speed reading and memory courses via late night tv commercials, who has bilked morons for millions of dollars for worthless nutritional supplements, books, hair growth remedies, and who has paid the FTC millions of dollars in fines for breaking the law.

In fact, as recently as August 2008, Trudeau was fined more than $5 million and banned from infomercials for three years for continuing to make fraudulent claims pertaining to his "miracle" natural cures books. The amount of the monetary damages was later increased to $37.6 million, which is roughly the total amount of money Trudeau made on his idiotic book. I doubt he has ever paid up as he is likely still in the appeals process (the first appeal went against him) but in February of 2010, Trudeau once again found himself arrested and in front of a judge, so is would seem clear he hasn't learned his lesson.

As with most of these anti-mainstream medicine types, Kevin Trudeau has only one true motive and that motive is money. He hawks product after product after product and rather than caring about the people who are actually seeking medical advice, his only concern is how much money he can make off of them before they wise up and become aware that he is nothing more than a fraud. He even charges over $70 a month to subscribe to a newsletter which is nothing more than repackaged advice that can be found in health magainzes or other publicly available sources.

Of course if you ask Mr. Hubbs, he will claim that Kevin Trudeau is some type of a medical genius (even though he has no medical or scientific training) and that his miracle cures are simply being suppressed due to the government and "big pharma" wanting to shut him down to suppress these cures. Mr. Hubbs and Kevin Trudeau are both fond of citing conspiracy theories, but in Trudeau's case it is merely because he wants to make a quick buck, while in Mr. Hubbs' case it seems due to his ignorance.

However, if there is no science available to support any of the wild claims made by Trudeau, and if conspiracy theorists like Mr. Hubbs agree there is no science to support those claims (whether it is being suppressed or not), then how can they verify any of the claims or prove any of them are legitimate? That appears to be an issue that Mr. Hubbs avoids, because even he has to acknowledge there is no evidence to support anything Kevin Trudeau claims, and if there was such evidence, Trudeau would have been able to reference in any of the number of court cases he has been involved in.

Frankly I'm just a little disappointed that a snakeoil salesman like Trudeau is still out there coming up with new and more clever ways of bilking idiots out of their money, but one thing I have learned is conspiracy theorists are more than happy to pay out vast sums of their personal incomes for gadgets, supplements, newsletters, or books - and this is precisely why so many con-men like Trudeau focus upon this market.

Trudeau could never profit by selling his products to the educated masses, so he targets ignorant fools like Mr. Hubbs. He focuses with laser-like intensity upon those among our populace who are uneducated and who will believe pretty much anything they read on the Internet or see on television. To some degree, Kevin Trudeau is much like the type of person who starts a cult or starts his own religion, which quite honestly migth be his next move if he figures out how to make a buck from it.

Nevertheless, this is the type of person that Mr. Hubbs looks up to and the type of person he feels best represents the anti-vaccination movement. The tactics and technology may have improved, but Kevin Trudeau is nothing more than a modern-era snakeoil salesman... and Mr. Hubbs has been drinking the poison all along.

Another Bucket Full of Crazy Straight From Lowell Hubbs

A True Black Hat Hacker

Mr. Hubbs is a big fan of this blog and tries to post comments several times a week, however as I don't really want 2500 character comments full of random conspiracy theorist websites or profanity laced threats I've turned on comment moderation to prevent him from posting dozens of comments on each and every blog post I write.

However, as I've mentioned in the past, Google has been automatically flagging all of his comments as spam so there really isn't anything for me to do.  I'm not sure if it is due to the length of his comments, the use of profanity, or the number of websites, but for one reason or another when I check to see what comments are left to be moderated his responses are always in the spam folder.  Don't let anyone ever tell you  that Google isn't smart.

In any case, ever once in a while Mr. Hubbs says something that even shocks me, and this is one of those times.  Therefore, I have decided to post one of his comments here in all its glory because something like this deserves to be shared with the world:

"With limits I will tell you this, and without doubt you likely already know. You claim it is all BS; but you sure are digging for information? Coincidence? Or some thing more. The police were contacted several times. There was a witness in my building who seen five of them there, initially. They were there. That person was terrified. Guess what, Im NOT. The people involved cover their tracks as far a communication with me, as well as their activites quite well. Thats why there was nothing much to take to the police. You seen the copy of that executed script, I am sure of that. Later, all three people at Sanford were named by the same person who sent that script. Do you think I could even begin to make that up, or fabricate that shit. There would be no reason, motive, nor benefit to even waste the time. By the way do you even know what a NetGear Firewall is, it can be used to harrasse people and make websites inaccessible or it can used to block view of a website while a hacker does his work within it. Are you just pretenting to be ignorant, and just to get a reply you want? As far as why hasn't my site been hacked; I am always on a heavily protected system when I add or edit anything on that site. As far as, then why am I still alive? You know why! And it is fact $10,000 cash, 25,000 on completion. And I have had contact with the perpetrators from day one. Sure is a mystery isn't it!"  -Lowell Hubbs

In the interest of full disclosure, I have not edited this comment in any way. It still includes the same spelling and grammatical errors and is exactly as submitted. This particular comment was entered on the "Lowell Hubbs Responds" post, but it was flagged as spam and added to the spam comments folder (rightfully so it seems).

In any case I wanted to post it here as I felt it includes a few nuggets worth discussing. First we see that Mr. Hubbs does claim he has contacted the police, so that is a start.  However his next sentence is a little blurry as it claims "There was a witness in my building who seen [sic] five of them there, initially." which based upon the previous sentence suggests five police officers, but since the police don't generally send five officers to a silly complaint from a conspiracy theorist, I'm going to go ahead and assume Mr. Hubbs is referring to five people who want to silence Mr. Hubbs.

Now I know that seems like a stretch because why would five people pay a visit to Mr. Hubbs?  However this is the mind of a conspiracy theorist at work here, so we can't expect it to sound logical.  He then goes on to talk about 'scripts' being sent to him and three people from Sanford being named, but I'm not about to try to figure out what he is rambling on about.  It would seem that Mr. Hubbs feels that Sanford Health is somehow involved in this plot to silence him or that they are somehow connected to hackers and hitmen, but that type of accusation would only make sense to a fellow conspiracy theorist so I'm just going to ignore it and move on as I don't feel it is even worthy of a response.

The next few sentences of Mr. Hubbs' response is where things really start getting comical. First of all Mr. Hubbs appears to believe that a Netgear Firewall (a piece of equipment that can be purchased from any electronics retailer) allows someone to hack websites and harass people via the Internet.  Am I the only one that wonders why Mr. Hubbs would know the brand name of the equipment used to "hack" him?  That being said, without getting into technical jargon, it is more than obvious that Mr. Hubbs is clueless when it comes to topics of technology, the Internet, hacking, and computers.

First of all, a firewall is a firewall - it would not by itself allow someone to infiltrate the computer or website of another person.  It merely controls traffic through itself, so unless someone installed a firewall onto a server that happens to host that particular website or hacked an existing firewall that hosts that website, there is no validity to Mr. Hubbs' claims.  Now it stands to reason that every website hosting company on the planet uses firewalls among other security measures, but I dare say none of them are using residential grade equipment from Netgear to do so.  Instead they will use commercial grade firewalls and equipment that is much more robust such as those developed by Cisco which rely heavily upon intrusion detection software and use technologies such as dynamic filtering to determine which data packets are sent through and which are rejected.

Long story short, Mr. Hubbs obviously heard the terms "Netgear firewall" used in the past and somehow feels if he mentions those terms it will make him sound intelligent.  Dare I say in this case it has proven to have the opposite effect, but I digress.

The simple truth is, Mr. Hubbs shows his ignorance time and time again when he makes comments like "I am always on a heavily protected system when I add or edit anything on that site".  The fact of the matter is, if someone wishes to hack a website it has absolutely NOTHING to do with the system a person uses to update that website.  Websites are hosted on servers that are controlled by hosting companies and they are not stored on local PCs or workstations, because if that was the case every time someone shut down their PC that particular website would be inaccessible to everyone else.

Now I don't feel like trying to explain all of this to Mr. Hubbs, but for example his personal website www.lowellsfacts.com is not stored on his own personal PC. A simple "whois" search will tell us that his website is managed by GoDaddy.com which means the website is stored on their hosting servers.  In fact the IP address of the server is 72.167.131.10 and the server itself is located in Scottsdale, Arizona.  A man by the name of Lowell Hubbs registered this website on December 20th, 2008 and paid for one year of hosting, which he renewed in December 2009 for another year.  

Note to Mr. Hubbs: You might want to consider renewing your site via GoDaddy as it expires on December 20th, 2010 and I wouldn't want you to lose all of your valuable information!

Thus, if a hacker wished to manipulate Mr. Hubbs' silly website, it would merely be a case of infiltrating the GoDaddy server and either deleting the website, redirecting it elsewhere, or modifying the content.  Since nobody has done this (and because this would be a fairly easy thing to do with a hacker with even a moderate level of skill), it stands to reason that nobody cares enough about Mr. Hubbs to bother.  In fact a simple DNS attack could render his website totally inaccessible, and nobody has even bothered to do that much as far as I can tell.  If nobody cares enough to bother with his website, then it also stands to reason nobody cares enough to follow him around, make threats against his life, or otherwise pick on him for no good reason.

This is why I have stated that Mr. Hubbs should seek the assistance of a licensed mental health professional as it is more than obvious he suffers from paranoia and persecutory delusions.  That is proven yet again when he speaks of the price paid to take him out. I have a hard time keeping up with the random figures tossed out, but it seems now Mr. Hubbs is claiming someone has paid $10,000 cash up front, and another $25,000 upon the job being completed. That is a total of $35,000 which tells us one thing and one thing only - that Mr. Hubbs has far too high of an opinion of himself.

First of all, what hit man of any intelligence would tell Mr. Hubbs all of these details?  Second, if Mr. Hubbs knows all of these details and has been in contact with the "perpetrators", why wouldn't he take this information to the police?  Third, with an unemployment rate of around 10% in this nation and people struggling to pay the bills, why hasn't someone stepped up to accept the job and collect an easy $35,000?  I think we all know the answer - and it is because Mr. Hubbs is delusional.

The only thing I really don't understand is why Mr. Hubbs feels I know why he is still alive, because quite honestly if what he says is true I have no idea.  However, because I know Mr. Hubbs is a fan of fabricating stories and sensationalizing the truth I can say with the utmost certainty that only reason Mr. Hubbs is still alive is because there is no mythical hit man, there is no contract on his head, and Mr. Hubbs simply has a wild imagination.

With all of this said, is this the type of person people should be taking medical advice from?  If so, maybe there is something to that concept of darwinism, because if these morons are eliminated from the gene pool obviously the collective intelligence of the human race will increase and we will all be better off in the end.  Sure that might be a reach, but it makes a whole lot more sense that suggesting someone at Sanford Health is willing to pay $35,000 to take out a ex-con conspiracy theorist.

On the other hand, an extra $35,000 sure would be nice.  Hey Mr. Hubbs - would you care to share the name of the person who put out the contract?  I'd like to speak with them regarding some *ahem* employment opportunities*.  Is that wrong?

* It's a joke Mr. Hubbs, so please don't read into it.

Lowell's Trusted Expert: Dr. Sherri Tenpenny

In one of his recent diatribes launched in my direction, Mr. Hubbs took issue with the fact that I've called him out on his experts in the past because they lack the credentials or education to speak on the issue of vaccines.  Thus, in true form, rather than attempt to cite any research or peer-reviewed studies done by these non-experts (which would be difficult since they don't exist), Mr. Hubbs decides to switch gears and offer yet another self-proclaimed expert on the subject of vaccines.

"Here is an actual doctor, Dr. Sherri Tenpenny. Here is her information. Can you refute all that? of course you can't. You wanted an actual doctor, with some credentials; there it is! Dr Sherri Tenpenny is one of the best speakers out there on the truth on vaccines, well referenced; check it out! http://drtenpenny.com/default.aspx"  -Lowell Hubbs

Ok, so let's examine what Lowell considers to be "one of the best speakers out there" and see if she has the research to back up her claims.  I'm an open-minded guy, so I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt on the issue.  If this Dr. Tenpenny has any legitimate science to support her theories or if she has some peer-reviewed studies published which support her claims, I'm more than willing to concede that there may be merit in some of the claims made by the anti-vaccination movement.

So the starting point of this learning experience is the website Mr. Hubbs referenced which is Dr. Tenpenny's personal website.  I clicked on the link for the website and what do you think was the very first thing on this site?  You guessed it - an offer for me to buy one of her DVDs for the low-low introductory price of $29.95 (plus shipping and handling of course).

So let me get this straight.  A big Hollywood studio can spend hundreds of millions of dollars producing a film, yet when it is released on DVD I can typically find it for no higher than $19.95.  These are movies that took months upon months to produce, movies that likely included tens of millions of dollars in fees for actors, hundreds of people involved in the production, and backed by a studio which expects to be financially rewarded for their efforts.

Yet this Dr. Tenpenny gives a two-hour presentation which she records onto a DVD, and she expects to charge $29.95 plus S&H for it?  How can anyone believe people like Tenpenny are not in this to make money?  If she really wanted people to learn about vaccines and protect themselves, why wouldn't she offer her DVD for a nominal fee to cover the cost of production?  Better yet, why not offer the video as a download on iTunes for $1 or some other very small amount to get the message out?

I think the answer is clear.  As with the vast majority of anti-vaccination conspiracy theorists, this Dr. Tenpenny is less concerned about vaccine safety or health, and more concerned about making a few bucks off of the scientifically and medically illiterate types who buy into her shell game.  She perpetuates the fear of children becoming ill, and she preys upon the emotions and weaknesses of parents.  This also explains why if you visit her website, you will find half a dozen DVDs for sale on various vaccination topics, the most inexpensive of which costs $24.95.  In most cases, these videos are merely recordings of her presentations she gives, thus the cost for production was nothing other than paying a high school kid to hold a camcorder for an hour or two... yet she charges $25 or $30 for this?

Of course no anti-vaccination conspiracy theorist website would be complete without the requisite offering of supplements, and Tenpenny does not disappoint.  She offers over 45 different supplements for sale on her website some costing more than $68 for a single bottle (plus shipping).  Of course, don't ask Tenpenny to back up the science behind any of these supplements, because each and every one of them includes the following convenient disclaimer: "*These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease."

If she isn't recommending the supplements to prevent or treat disease then what exactly are they intended to be for other than expanding her personal bank account?  Wouldn't you think if Tenpenny is so convinced any of these supplements work that she would actually have some clinical trials or peer-reviewed science proving the benefits?  Apparently not as it is much easier to just slap a disclaimer on the product so you don't have to accept any responsibility when it doesn't work, and then you can charge excessive amounts of money for a bottle of supplements that likely cost pennies to produce.

It gets even better on the Tenpenny site however.  Are you scared of contracting H1N1?  If so, Tenpenny has a "wellness" kit she can send to you for the low price of $199.99 (plus shipping and handling)!   According to the website the kit "contains 7 supplements and 2 sets of instructions, for boosting resistance and for addressing flu-like symptoms if they occur".  What a fabulous deal - if you act now maybe she will toss in a free Sham-Wow*!

* Note: Sham-Wow offer is not real, but should be as it makes just as much sense as spending $200 for some vitamins.

Of course no website is complete without the various unscientific books and CDs, the anti-vaccination t-shirts, and the popular "members only" section which offers even more products and even more ridiculous prices.  The only thing missing from her website is a donation section where you can just send in your money and get nothing in return... oh wait - that is there too!  You can even "donate" via PayPal - simply amazing.

So it seems more than obvious Tenpenny is interested in making a buck off of fear, because after 20 minutes visiting her website even I felt like I needed a shower and some Vitamin D, but does she have any real science to back up her claims?  I was determined to find out, so I clicked on her "articles" section of the website.

Within the articles section Tenpenny has an impressive list of articles written by her, which I will admit surprised me as most of the anti-vaccination conspiracy theorists rely upon ramblings of others rather than taking the time to write anything new themselves.  So as I started reviewing her articles, but what I found wasn't science or fact, but rather opinion after opinion most of which don't even include any sources.

Of course, at the bottom of many of the articles there was either a link to her store, or a link to a specific product (such as a DVD or book) which goes into further detail.  Apparently she doesn't want to give away any secrets for free, so you have to pay.

There were some interesting quotes however, starting with the following:

"As contrary as it seems, germs are attracted to the diseased tissues; they are not the primary cause of it." - Sherri Tenpenny

This quote seems to call into question the germ theory first discovered by Louis Pasteur which has been accepted and proven as scientific fact.  However most anti-vaccination types don't like the idea that germs can cause disease as they feel the body should be able to heal itself naturally or via spinal adjustments, and since they don't have any way to treat germs or bacteria, they instead simply reject the idea.  Granted they don't have any science to support these views, but what else is new.

The other thing I continually witnessed in Tenpenny's articles is her noncommittal usage of the terms "maybe" and "perhaps".  Statements such as "It would be very interesting to test", "Maybe microbes are handy to have around", "perhaps the body was trying to expel a huge amount of chemical-containing mucous" and "viruses may be part of the solution" are all such noncommittal statements taken from a single article.

It seems Tenpenny calls into question basic tenets of science and instead offers her own theories that viruses are healthy and simply a way to detoxify the body.  Of course in this case not only does she lack the science to support her theories, but she intermixes enough doubt in her articles with her wavering statements that she can't be held liable when these claims are proven to be inaccurate.  She even goes so far as to state it would be "interesting to test" but she never actually bothers to do the testing, so does this seem like someone who really wants to learn the truth if she isn't even willing to perform basic scientific testing?

Tenpenny may feel viruses aren't a big deal or that the flu is actually natures way of healing the body, but that doesn't really help the estimated 200,000 people a year who are hospitalized due to flu-related complications or the 3,000 to 49,000 people who die from the flu each year.  I'm sure it would be so comforting to these people if they knew their bodies were merely trying to heal themselves, and thus their death was actually a way for their bodies to get stronger.... wait - how does that help if they are dead exactly?

I'm not about to dissect every single article written by Tenpenny, but the simple fact is they are merely articles and not science.  Not only does Tenpenny not reference any of her own peer-reviewed studies, in many cases she doesn't even cite any studies by anyone else, thus I have no idea why Mr. Hubbs would consider this to be scientific in nature.

So back to the bigger issue here - who exactly is this Dr. Tenpenny?  Well according to the bio on her website Dr. Tenpenny is a graduate of the University of Toledo and she received her medical training at Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine.  Nothing so amazing here thus far and honestly I don't even have a problem with Osteopaths, so I'm not even trying to pick on her.  She goes on to say that she was board certified in Emergency Medicine through 2005 (which begs the question why she is no longer board certified) and has been board certified in Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine since 1995.

This is where it starts to get a little shaky, because "Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine" or OMM is where a doctor not only examines the physical aspects of a patient, but the emotional, mental, and even spiritual as well.  That in itself is all fine, but it seems Tenpenny has shifted focus and is drifting away from traditional medicine (which may explain why she is no longer board certified in Emergency Medicine).  One thing of note is how Tenpenny actually uses space on her CV to openly state that she acts as a consultant to many law firms on vaccine injury cases.  Classy, but I guess when you no longer practice real medicine you need to find other ways of building up the bank account, and what better way than acting as a hired gun to a big law firm who is seeking class action status for a few vaccine injury cases?

So lets go back to Lowell's quote where he stated that Tenpenny is "one of the best speakers out there".  Tenpenny might be a riveting speaker, and she might even be popular among the anti-vaccination crowd, but how exactly does that give credence to what she says?  Does she have any science to back up her statements?  No.  Does she have any peer-reviewed studies published which can prove vaccines are harmful?  No.  Does she have case studies showing the differences between vaccinated and non-vaccinated children?  No.  Does she have double-blind clinical trials showing long-term effects of vaccinations upon the health of a child or adult?  No.

So what does she have exactly?  Well aside from some DVDs and supplements, I guess I don't really know.  Anyone can claim they are an expert as Tenpenny does, but the facts simply don't support that viewpoint.  As to anyone having to refute Tenpenny's claims, once again I feel the need to point out how the simple concept of proof works.  It is not my duty to refute anything Tenpenny has said as the burden of proof is upon her.  That means Tenpenny needs to provide real science in order to support her claims, yet it appears she is either unwilling or unable to do so, thus her claims are without merit.

I have noticed that Mr. Hubbs often relies upon the fallacy of argument from ignorance, as he often places the burden of such proof upon the refutation rather than on the proof of assertion.  Obviously if Mr. Hubbs cannot understand how legitimate debate actually works, it is doubtful we will ever make any headway, but at the very least it remains extremely easy to show examples of his ignorance.

If I was to state "driving a blue car increases your risk of lung cancer by 1200%", you would expect me to support that claim with real scientific evidence.  It would not be sufficient for me to write an article or an op-ed piece making the claim, nor would it be sufficient to cite the articles or columns written by others who share the same viewpoint.  However if I followed the logic of Mr. Hubbs, I would simply state it is a fact and then require anyone who challenges this viewpoint to provide scientific evidence to prove that driving a blue car does not increase the risk of lung cancer.  Since no such science would obviously exist, I would then go on to proclaim I have 'won' the debate.

However that isn't how real arguments work, and if Mr. Hubbs had more than a high school education he might know that.  The duty to prove a claim in this case rests upon the person making the claim as if a person makes an ontologically positive claim, there is a heavily weighted burden of proof placed upon that claim.

Thus, in this case the only acceptable level of supporting evidence comes in the form of science - and that is the fact that Mr. Hubbs and so many of his fellow anti-vaccination conspiracy theorists continually ignore.  Therefore until Tenpenny or Mr. Hubbs can actually provide some level of scientific evidence to support any of their theories, those theories will remain just what they are... unsupported opinion.  Perhaps one day Mr. Hubbs will learn what a valid argument really is, and perhaps one day he will understand complex concepts such as philosophic burden of proof, but until then he will remain nothing other than a anti-vaccination conspiracy theorist.

Lowell Hubbs Responds!

Mr. Hubbs continues to respond to the posts on this blog, but unfortunately the vast majority of his comments are nothing more than lists of various conspiracy theorist websites intermixed with random spats of profanity, so obviously they aren't fit for publication. I realize they are Mr. Hubbs words and not mine, but I simply don't see the benefit of posting that type of language here as it doesn't add anything to the discussion.

The fact is, Mr. Hubbs has once again found himself unable to reference scientific studies or peer-reviewed papers to support his opinions, and thus he feels the need to resort to idle threats and hate-filled rants that have nothing to do with vaccines. Mr. Hubbs also feels the need to provide me with the links to several blogs he has created in response to his many critics, but since it seems he is unable to actually form any arguments without comparing his critics to Hitler and he has no intention of actually citing a real scientific study to support his claims, I'm not about to advertise his sites for him.

However, some of Mr. Hubbs' rants are suitable for quoting, so I'll go ahead and cite one of his best quotes here:

"Half way through the second 300 post response letter, a $5000 hit is ordered on the person he is attacking here in this blog, to go mess him up, agree to remove his website, ... and also agree to never post again on the Argus; or write a letter." -Lowell Hubbs

Yes you are reading that correctly - as I have written about before, Mr. Hubbs believes someone took out a $5000 "hit" on him. Funny how he would know about the hit and even the price paid and all of the details, but yet he is obviously still with us... so are we to believe the person who ordered the hit, or perhaps the actual hired gun contacted Mr. Hubbs to share their plans? Does that even make sense?

Then again, why wouldn't Mr. Hubbs contact law enforcement? I'm no expert on contract killers, but I have to imagine if I found out someone had put out a hit on me, I'd be contacting my local police department immediately - but thats just me. I think a more logical conclusion to this idiocy is that once again Mr. Hubbs is telling stories and fabricating claims which have no basis in reality. This is yet another example of the questionable mental health of Mr. Lowell Hubbs.

I also find the humor that Mr. Hubbs continues to reference himself in the third person, yet he isn't intelligent enough to NOT use his own website or user ID when submitting comments. Brilliant.

In any case, I now have more than a couple different people providing me within information about this man and I have to say some of it is even amazing to me. I mean I knew about the medical conspiracies and the anti-vaccination stance, but I had no idea that Mr. Hubbs is a full-fledged conspiracy theorist in pretty much every other way as well, but I'll have to deal with that another day. It does seem that Lowell knows a few of these people by name as he has referenced them personally... what can I say - the man makes friends wherever he goes.

I'd love to post everything that has been sent, but it is going to take some time to sift through it and I do have to pace myself here as I don't want to upset too many conspiracy theorists at once. Keep the contributions coming, and I'll do my best to continue to show Mr. Hubbs for what he is... nothing more than a ignorant vaccine conspiracy theorist.

Medically Mind Numbing: Lowell Hubbs Makes Friends

Medically Mind Numbing: Lowell Hubbs Makes Friends

Shawn Vuong over at Medically Mind Numbing (a great medical blog written from the perspective of a third year Med Student) has referenced our blog and provided some history with his interactions with Lowell Hubbs.

It just goes to show, those who have the 'pleasure' of debating medical issues with Mr. Hubbs all seem to come to the same conclusions - that Mr. Hubbs is in serious need of a professional mental health specialist, and he is nothing more than a conspiracy theorist.

Sadly, Mr. Hubbs is not alone and there continue to be hundreds of the anti-vaccination ignoramii out there wandering around unsupervised. Then again in a recent survey I read over 30% of the respondents felt the Earth is larger than the Sun as well, so maybe ignorance is inevitable.

If you haven't thanked an educator lately... please do so. It seems obvious that we are in need of their services more than ever before.

Lowell Hubbs World: Mary Tocco's Challenge & Surgery Cures

If It walks like a duck...

Lowell Hubbs World: Mary Tocco's Challenge & Surgery Cures: "Here is the Mary Tocco challenge to any doctor or nurse who believes these toxins are O.K. to inject: I want you to take the exact inject..."

Obviously Mr. Hubbs makes a lot of friends on the Internet. Not sure who the author of the above referenced blog is, but they obviously have crossed paths with Mr. Hubbs and have discovered the same facts that I have. Just goes to show that Mr. Hubbs is easily recognized as an anti-vaccination conspiracy theorist where ever he goes.

As is true of all of the "experts" Mr. Hubbs references, Mary Tocco is nothing more than a profiteering fraud. She isn't a doctor, she isn't a scientist, she doesn't have any published research studies, and she isn't even a medical researcher. In fact, throughout her own biography, she doesn't mention any level of higher education whatsoever, so it would appear not only is she not in the medical field and that she has no medical training, I'm not even sure if she has any post-secondary education at all. I wish I could say I'm surprised, but it seems to be a common theme with the anti-vaccination crowd.

So if she isn't a doctor, scientist, or researcher - what is she? Well for that simply ask Tocco herself:

"Spent 23 years managing and promoting a chiropractic clinic and studying natural health care." -Mary Tocco

Notice she doesn't claim to be a chiropractor and only claims to have "managed" a chiropractic clinic. That means "managed" as in she balanced the books, paid the bills, scheduled appointments, and probably took out the trash etc, but was never actually a chiropractor. However, she was married to a chiropractor, so I guess she learned by osmosis or something.

Is it really a surprise to learn this quack manages a chiropractic clinic or that she "studies" natural health care? Funny how she goes around claiming vaccines are dangerous and attempts to link them to autism, yet she never even bothers to take the time to study the issue and put her name on a legitimate paper? I guess she is too busy to bother with any fact checking or research when there is money to be made.

True to form however, this self-proclaimed "expert" started a few groups and attached fancy labels to them such as "American Chiropractic Autism Board" (which is meaningless since there is no connection between Chiropractic and Autism), and then she runs around the country collecting speaking fees for "seminars" where she hawks her DVDs, books, CDs, and other trinkets in order to make a buck just as she does from her website.

Is this really the best the anti-vaccination crowd has to offer? Can't they at least find a real legitimate doctor who has some published studies to his or her name? Apparently not, and the amusing thing is these idiots eat this stuff up. They don't even bother to ask her if she has any higher level of education or what degrees or certifications she holds (none). They don't check her credentials nor do they ask her where this knowledge of hers came from - they merely accept it as fact because they are naive and they like to be surrounded by others who are as equally ignorant as themselves as it helps them feel better about their lack of scientific understanding.

Lowell Hubbs: Self-Medicating Criminal

Once you get to know Lowell Hubbs, you soon realize something is not quite right with the man.  Lowell is the type of guy who is against pretty much everything associated with modern medicine, science, the government, capitalism, and common sense.  We have already established the fact that Mr. Hubbs has been an admitted user of multiple medications including both Paxil and Xanax, but now he claims modern medicine has nothing to offer and he rallies against all mainstream medicine and pharmaceuticals .

So what does Mr. Hubbs use as a mood stabilizer now that he has sworn off prescription drugs to solve his admitted psychological problems?  You guessed it - man's oldest and most trusted substance for self-medicating... alcohol.

It appears Mr. Hubbs feels pills are evil, but alcohol is perfectly healthy.  So much so in fact, that Mr. Hubbs seems to have developed a little issue with alcoholism.  How else would you explain Mr. Hubbs' not one, not two, not three - but FOUR arrests for DUI in the state of South Dakota alone!

Now I'm the first to admit people make mistakes, and nobody (myself included) is perfect.  Many people have stepped behind the wheel when they have had a bit too much to drink, and many of these people are never caught.  However, if you drive drunk long enough and often enough, eventually law enforcement will catch up to you and you will be arrested for DUI.   

For most people, that is where the story ends.  A person of even moderate intelligence will use their DUI arrest as a learning experience.  They will start arranging to have a designated driver available to them, they might call a friend or a cab when they need a ride, or they will limit their intake of alcohol to ensure they are not under the influence when they do decide to grab the car keys.  However, apparently that lesson wasn't easy for Lowell Hubbs to learn, because soon after his first arrest he was arrested and charged with his second DUI.

Ok so surely the second DUI is a bit more harsh.  A person can expect to spend some time behind bars, and a hefty fine along with having their license revoked for at least a short time.  Surely this would send such a strong message that a person would never even remotely consider driving under the influence again right?

Well if your name is Lowell Kevin Hubbs, you are obviously a slow learner, because even the second arrest and conviction was not enough to teach him a lesson.  Thus, once again Lowell found himself in handcuffs arrested for his third DUI in the state of South Dakota, and once again Lowell found himself behind bars after his conviction.

Now I won't claim to be an expert, but it seems Mr. Hubbs has a hard time with the concept of cause and effect.  However, since we can't all be rocket scientists, doctors, or even intelligent enough to understand the consequences of drinking and driving, maybe it just takes a bit longer for some people.  Maybe the third time really is the charm for Mr. Hubbs and maybe he will finally turn his life around.

Unfortunately for the other drivers who use the streets and highways in the state of South Dakota, Mr. Hubbs did not learn his lesson.  Sure enough, on October 2005 Mr. Hubbs was arrested once again for driving under the influence of his favorite medication (alcohol).  Once again Mr. Hubbs found himself in front of a judge, and once again he was convicted of the crime.

However, as this was his fourth known offense in South Dakota (it is quite possible he has charges in other states which were not reported as part of his latest arrest) this time Mr. Hubbs was going to be serving time in the South Dakota State Penitentiary for his crimes.  Thus, on March 21st, 2006 Mr. Hubbs was given a five year sentence in the big house with 18 months suspended, and once he was once again a free man he would be unable to have a drivers license for two years.

The fact that Mr. Hubbs has at least four convictions for DUI is not what is upsetting.  Simple logic dictates for every arrest Mr. Hubbs was involved in, he probably drove drunk dozens upon dozens of times where he wasn't caught.  Thus for all of the concern about others that Mr. Hubbs seems to profess, when it comes to his addictions all of those concerns go out the window.  To Mr. Hubbs, the convenience of him driving home is much more important than the safety or lives of other drivers or pedestrians around him, and as such he continued to drive drunk time and time again.

Of course Mr. Hubbs wasn't one to accept his fate, so in October 2009 he felt the need to waste the courts time by filing a writ of habeus corpus against the warden of the South Dakota State Penitentiary.  Granted his request was dismissed, but it serves as evidence that Mr. Hubbs is not the type of man who accepts responsibility for his actions, and obviously the type of man who is a very, very slow learner.

Thus, it can be only assumed that in time we will see yet another arrest for Mr. Hubbs as he clearly is unable to break away from the all-consuming power of his favorite elixir.  It seems although he is able to rally against pharmaceuticals and legal prescriptions, he has no trouble at all drinking a known depressant even though he has relied upon anti-depressants in the past.  Is it any wonder this man is so confused about the world around him when he cannot even break his grasp upon the bottle which has consumed so much of his life?

Now it should be noted that Mr. Hubbs will attempt to deny these facts and refuses to acknowledge his substance abuse issues because even he understands it has a detrimental impact to his already tarnished reputation and it all but destroys any shred of credibility he once had.  Thus it is necessary to display the following documents which prove all of these statements to be true and which prove once and for all that Mr. Hubbs is nothing but a convicted criminal, a fraud, and a proven alcoholic who cares about no one other than himself and his own pleasure.

Enjoy:

Lowell's Wild Claims of Hackers, Spies, and Hit Men

One might think what I'm about to write is straight from a Tom Clancy novel, but in reality this is straight from the mind of one Mr. Lowell K. Hubbs. Apparently Mr. Hubbs believes there are hackers working against him and trying to suppress his speech or opinions. Even better, Mr. Hubbs believes someone (or perhaps multiple people) have actually hired contract killers to "take him out".

He has made accusations that people are stalking him, accusations that people are following him, accusations that people are calling his phone and harassing him, and apparently even accusations that people are driving by his home and honking their horns to keep him up at night.

Based upon information which has been provided to me along with information I have gleaned straight from Mr. Hubbs' postings, there is no other viable explanation to these conspiracy theories other than to assume Mr. Hubbs is suffering from a severe mental disorder. That being said, it goes without saying that I'm under a duty to share his ramblings with the world so everyone can see for themselves the type of thoughts that Mr. Hubbs chooses to commit to the written word.

Read on:

“It is interesting that just shortly after this was posted, my website and email account, etc. etc., all went down and as blocked by some NetGear Firewall.” ~ Lowell Hubbs

This first example is a comment Mr. Hubbs posted to the Argus Leader website. Apparently Mr. Hubbs believes that after he posted a comment on one of the stories on that particular website, that a mysterious hacker shut down his website and email account. However it seems clear Mr. Hubbs is in no way a technology expert which begs the question - if he was being hacked, how exactly would he know the brand name of the equipment used to do the hacking?

A genius he is not, but it gets better:

“the person who made this post claims to be a black hat hacker employed with what he states is a $75,000 retainer by someone that works in the medical field.” ~ Lowell Hubbs

Ok now bear with me here because this is going to take some explaining. Apparently from what I gather and from the background information submitted to me, Mr. Hubbs believes there is a "black hat hacker" who is working to suppress him and that this "hacker" has been paid $75,000 by someone in the medical field. Previous posts on this blog have shown where Mr. Hubbs takes issue with Kelby Krabbenhoft and references this same $75,000, so logic dictates that he believes the President and CEO of Sanford Health (Mr. Krabbenhoft) has paid someone $75,000 to silence Mr. Hubbs by hacking the Argus Leader website, Mr. Hubbs' personal email account, and his personal website.

With all of that said, wouldn't it be reasonable to expect Mr. Hubbs' website to be shut down? Unfortunately for science and logic, that is not the case and his ramblings are available for all to see simply by performing a Google search. Mr. Hubbs also continues to post his incoherent nonsense on the Argus Leader website and elsewhere on the Internet on an almost daily basis, so if a hacker was really trying to silence him don't we think that maybe this wouldn't be happening?

Mind you logic is not Lowell's strong suit. So once again Lowell resorts to blaming a "hacker":

“Four posts in a row deleted? There was nothing in thsoe [sic] posts thatviolated [sic] any terms of service; whos [sic] doing the damage control here? The Argus, or that Black Hat hacker that has clearly been in here? I seen him operate and clearly show he can delete and re-post anything he wanted. Thats [sic] what they do; what an honest and wonderful way to make a living. And they do.” ~ Lowell Hubbs

This seems to be in response to several of Mr. Hubbs' comments being removed from various articles on the Argus Leader website. Again Mr. Hubbs attempts to black this mysterious "hacker" or even the Argus Leader employees (as if they have nothing better to do). However, it seems clear that Mr. Hubbs isn't intelligent enough to know how automated comment filtering works (as has been demonstrated on this very blog in the past).

The fact is, Mr. Hubbs resorts to a lot of tactics to defend his opinions, but unfortunately for him most of the time these tactics include profanity, personal attacks, or blatant spamming of links and websites. Any of these tactics is likely to flag a post as spam or as not being suitable for publication, but Mr. Hubbs is apparently not intelligent enough to recognize these facts and instead blames others for his posts not being published.

Even better is the fact that Mr. Hubbs has claimed on numerous occasions that someone has been hired to "take him out". Apparently Mr. Hubbs has watched one too many episodes of The Sopranos and he honestly believes someone wishes to end his life. At one point he claimed the "hit" was for $5,000, and then soon his ego got the best of him and the price was raised to $15,000.

I know you are probably asking yourself right now that if a hit was taken out on Mr. Hubbs' head, how would he know about it? I have to wonder that myself, because last I checked if someone is being paid $15,000 to kill someone, I have to imaging it would be a bad idea to actually tell the target the price that is being paid, but what do I know about contract killers. Then again, we have determined numerous times in the past that logic is NOT Mr. Hubbs' strong suit, so I guess we need to let this one go.

To make matters even more interesting, Mr. Hubbs claims to have "witnesses" and evidence that can corroborate his stories of hit men and hackers, but when it has been suggested he contact law enforcement, he never seems interested. Could that be due to Mr. Hubbs' numerous interactions with law enforcement in the past, or could it just be that he is making the whole thing up and even he knows he could probably be arrested and charged for falsifying a police report?

This is the twisted mind of a vaccine conspiracy theorist. When they can't rely upon science, they blame others for suppressing the data they need to prove their case. When they can't show peer-reviewed studies or reference independent clinical trials, they claim the government or drug companies won't allow it. When they find someone who won't allow them to just post their garbage unfiltered, they claim their opinions are being silenced because mainstream science is scared of the "truth". When they have no other explanations for an action, they invent wild stories and make crazy accusations about hackers or hit men that are trying to take them out.

Yes, as sad as it may seem, this is the mind of a crazed conspiracy theorist. Yet this same man (and others like him) wonder why nobody takes them seriously and why nobody will bother to give them any credibility by "debating" them. Perhaps if the anti-vaccination groups wish to ever be considered as offering anything viable or valuable to the scientific community, they should find someone - anyone - who has a clue to represent them. At this point the best they have been able to offer are discredited doctors who make their livings by selling supplements and brain scans, or former Playboy Playmates who pretend they know more about Autism than doctors who have studied the condition for years.

If that is the best they can do, and if Mr. Hubbs feels he is a valid messenger for the anti-vaccination movement, it is quite clear they will continue to be mocked and ridiculed on a regular basis. As sad as this might be, this appears to be the best Lowell K. Hubbs and his ilk have to offer.

Lowell Makes More Threats!

As has been mentioned previously, Lowell doesn't handle criticism very well, and he has threatened other bloggers in the past.  It seems he hasn't learned his lesson very well and is back to his old ways based upon a comment which was recently left on this blog.  Of course once again Google has (accurately) flagged his comment as spam, but luckily I have been able to preserve it in all of its glory.

So lets all share the enjoyment in analyzing the comments of a madman shall we?  Lowell's post is broken down below:

Just like I thought; you can't take the heat; you never could. Removing any post I make, that proves your own ignorance.

Apparently Lowell can't read, as I have already explained his posts are automatically being flagged as spam by Google's spam detection software.  This isn't some vast conspiracy to silence him, although if he really wants to write 2000 word responses he has his own idiotic website for that.

I guess we all know who the ignorant one is - it seems to be the guy who can't seem to figure out that Google won't keep comment after comment when they are nothing more than cut and pasted paragraphs of dozens of links.  However Lowell - for the record I haven't removed your comments.  If Google didn't flag them as Spam (the few they didn't), they are still visible.

You could not refute anything I put on the Argus, and you still can not here. What a coward! Going in and making this blog where no reply, refute, nor proffo go your stupidity responses are allowed. Chicken shit coward; it all shows exactly what you are made of Costner!

Well number one, I have to disagree with Mr. Hubbs as I have clearly made a mockery of most of his points, and will continue to do so on a regular basis.  Second, as I have already explained this is my blog and as such I am under no obligation to allow crazy conspiracy theorists to respond or post their own incoherent nonsense here.  Lowell has his own website where he can (and does) post his idiocy, and last I checked he doesn't even allow comments much less "guest posts" so I'm afraid this is yet another case of Lowell wanting others to conform to his rules even if he doesn't follow the same rules himself.

Finally, we get to see the true Lowell start to come out.  When he gets frustrated he likes to call people names and resort to profanity, but that merely tells us that he lacks the intelligence to debate an issue like an adult and thus he is out of ideas.  Also it appears Lowell thinks my name is Costner, but we will go ahead and continue letting him believe that if it helps him sleep at night.

How many years in prison should you get for being involved in hiring 5 people to make a hit on me? How did that work out? You hypocritical and sick mouse of a man. Then to put forth that it just some and only some new conspiracy theory. And I do believe you are connected to the Sanford issues involving Kelby Krabbenhoft and that 75,000.

Ok now bear with me on this one because I'm not really sure what Mr. Hubbs is going on about here.  From what I gather from speaking to some associates who are familiar with Mr. Hubbs, it seems he feels a person or persons have attempted to hire a hit man to "take him out".  Now I have no idea if Mr. Hubbs merely has a large opinion of himself, or if he is clinically insane, but I assure you nobody on this planet would bother to spend money to eliminate Mr. Hubbs. 

Second of all if someone did want to eliminate him, how exactly would he find out about it unless they told him?  I'm no expert on hit men, but I would think if you wanted to kill someone you most likely would not inform the target that you were planning to end their life.  That would seem to be bad business, and you probably would have a hard time earning repeat business if you engaged in such tactics, but then again what do I know.

The larger issue at work here is the concept of paranoia, and it would seem Mr. Hubbs is suffering from it along with persecutory delusions.  Nevertheless, I still have no idea what Mr. Hubbs means by the "Sanford issues", although it seems he thinks Kelby Krabbenhoft is also out to get him, and this time it seems like there is $75,000 involved?

I've been promised I'll be receiving some additional information about Mr. Hubb's wild accusations about hit men, hackers, Sanford Health, and boogieman in closets, and I'll post more when I receive it, but for now it seems obvious that Mr. Hubbs is certifiably insane.  This is the kind of man who padlocks his refrigerator so people can't poison his food and the type of person who probably has tinfoil on his windows (and under his baseball cap) to prevent the government from reading his thoughts.

As bad as this is it actually gets even better!  Read on:

All the stalking, computer hacking and bugging the place I use for computer work. Oh ya, my work and information has no merit? looks like it has more truth that you admitted..fool! Send those people to me face to face and I will show you what I am made of! You will see exactly what will happen. Are you man enough to face me? No, you a little wiesel [sic] that hides like a scared rabbit and hires his dirty work done. Its the same shit as always; falsely attack all messengers, to include doctors and anyone that speaks the truth.

Wow, where can we really start with this nonsense?  First of all it appears Mr. Hubbs believes someone is stalking him, hacking his computer, and even bugging his residence.  Now aside from the fact that none of that seems even remotely likely, you do have to find it humorous that this man feels he is so important that someone would bother to follow him around in order to silence him.

Now I'm not in the hacking field nor am I the type to follow people around, intimidate them, or otherwise attempt to keep them quiet so I might be off base here, but wouldn't you think that if you wanted to shut Mr. Hubbs up, all you would do is hack his website and remove all of the content?  Wouldn't it be easier to steal his computer from his home rather than bug his room?  Why would anyone actually follow this idiot around and waste their time on a lunatic?  I'm going to go ahead and chalk all of these accusations up to more of Mr. Hubbs paranoia and persecutory delusions.

Of course I also find the humor in the fact that once again Mr. Hubbs has to resort to making physical threats against those who disagree with him.  Those with weak minds somehow feel they can make up for their inadequacies with threats of physical violence, which yet again shows Lowell's inability to debate an issue with his mind rather that his fists.

Simplistically put, Mr. Hubbs seems to suffer from "Internet tough-guy syndrome", and most often that is a sign of fear.  It would appear that once he is away from his keyboard, Mr. Hubbs would have a hard time standing up to anyone and as such he feels the need to use threats against those whom he will likely never meet.  Mr. Hubbs continues to be a classy guy.

I like how you hacked pictures off my facebook that are set to private; you are right in with the system of hacking and stalking, no doubt about it; both you and psychotic delusional Sugar!

So once again we see Lowell make claims of hacking, and once again he plays the part of a fool.  Apparently Mr. Hubbs doesn't understand how the Internet works, and I dare say I lack the patience to teach him, but rest assured any image I have posted on my blog is publically available for all to see.

Above all else however, I'm a little confused by his reference to "psychotic delusional Sugar".  Is Mr. Hubbs suggesting sugar makes a person psychotic?  This actually makes some sense considering he has made claims in the past of how sweets could cause cancer or even polio, and he has claimed baking soda can cure cancer, so I guess we are to believe that sugar is a bad thing.

Maybe Mr. Hubbs should post a chart of all of the food additives, seasonings, and condiments on his website to let us all know which are harmful and which are beneficial, because I'll have to be the first to admit I have no idea what this quack is talking about.

As you can see, these are the types of people who best represent the anti-vaccination conspiracy theorist crowd.  Is it any wonder how their "movement" hasn't gone mainstream?