The ol' vaccines-cause-autism debate. It's a tough one because the premise sounds so outlandish, but at the same time you have to wonder where in the hell all of these austic kids came from. Judging by the presence of these kids in the public schools it certainly seems as though there's an epidemic in comparison to when I was a boy. Way back when you just didn't see or hear about kids like this. And while I like the argument that today we're simply better at diagnosing the condition AND it's acceptable to mainstream the disabled rather than hide them away, I still say that the autistic were not around in these numbers when I was in school in the 70s. Maybe some of the old-timers had a different experience, but while I can recall encountering the mentally retarded and children who behaved as ADHD I can recall nothing like the heartbreaking cases that we seem to see everywhere today. Not saying that vaccines are at the heart of this, but something is.