The days of principled conservatism in mainstream politics are effectively over, if they ever really existed in the first place.  What we see now coming out of the supposedly right-of-center political parties are individuals whose entire existence is based on what they claim they are not, rather than what they are. Those who live by the creed that the enemy of my enemy is my friend are fools and charlatans, and autism is one of the centerpieces for this type of nonsense. Donald Trump walked into the debate, very unwisely, when he spouted complete gibberish that vaccines are responsible for the purported autism epidemic.  Ben Carson stepped in a related pile of anti-science dung, and Carson should have known better. It was comments such as these that led in no small part to Carson's early exit from the GOP race this year.  Trump got away with his views because they were more than offset by his other correct policy positions on the economy and foreign policy....(Read Full Post)