Why couldn’t Adam Lanza cook?

The NY Post reports:

Nancy Lanza often took mini-vacations by herself, friends said. She trusted leaving Adam alone, but didn't want him cooking, so she always prepared all his meals before her trips.

Was cooking dangerous for Adam because he had congenital analgesia and could accidentally burn himself without knowing it?

I don’t see why Asperger’s Syndrome would prevent a person from being able to cook. Asperger’s Syndrome affects social skills, and not the physical manipulation of objects which is what cooking is about.

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The MSM is a complete waste. This shooting happened nearly a week ago, and the MSM still can't confirm basic facts like whether Adam had congenital analgesia.

Comments

[HAR]

"Asperger’s Syndrome affects social skills, and not the physical manipulation of objects which is what cooking is about."

Actually, bad motor skills is part of Asperger's. Usually it's not so bad that you can't do basic things like cook, but if you combine the clumsiness of Asperger's with congenital analgesia I could see how cooking could be dangerous. Even then though, you think there would be a way to cook without much of a risk of injuring one's self.

[Peter]

Some people just can't cook. Before going on vacation Bertrand Russell's housekeeper unsuccessfully spent hours trying to teach him how to make tea.

I don't see why a person of sound mind with congenital analgesia couldn't safely cook. He or she would simply have to be extra careful and diligent about knife work, about always using potholders, and so on.

[Alex]

"The MSM is a complete waste. This shooting happened nearly a week ago, and the MSM still can't confirm basic facts like whether Adam had congenital analgesia."

Yeah, it happens very often. In Europe the MSM is not as dumb as yours (Fox News/ABC FTW), but very close... Their choice of topics is completely arbitrary and makes no sense whatsoever. A stupid polemic between MPs no one cares about and which will be forgotten in a week takes precedence over, say, a coup in Maldives or Portuguese government bonds imploding.

I seriously wonder how the media pick up their subjects and decide their program... it isn't even linked to the potential audience the topics can attract. Anybody who worked in the media sector who can help us, there?

[AllanF]

MSM is all propaganda. Something common like, Asperger's advances the gun control agenda, while something extremely rare like congenital analgesia, does not.

Likewise, why aren't they looking into the prescriptions the last 3 or 8 mass murderers were on? Because they don't want to bite the hand of Big Pharma's big ad budgets.

Likewise, why aren't they making more hay of the fact the Oregon mall shooter stopped after being confronted by an individual with a legal concealed-carry hand-gun, albeit against the "Gun Free Zone" rules of which malls are supposed to be?

Likewise, in both the Sandy Hook and Oregon Mall shootings, the guns were stolen, but Obama/Democrats' legislative suggestion is to ban private party sales? When was the last time a gun procured through a private party sale was used in a crime?

Truth matters not to these people. It's all about propaganda.

[Bill]

Why does it matter? Having congenital analgesia doesn't really say anything about his motivations.

[Robert]

"Before going on vacation Bertrand Russell's housekeeper unsuccessfully spent hours trying to teach him how to make tea."

Daniel Seligman mentioned something similar in his book 'A Question of Intelligence' but I believe he said that Russell's wife used to leave him detailed written instructions on how to make tea that he was unable to follow. "The Celestial Teapot" makes it hard to Google for answers on this. Either way, I always thought that was weird and suspect that it was a feigned eccentricity or an exaggeration.

[Robert]

"Likewise, why aren't they looking into the prescriptions the last 3 or 8 mass murderers were on?"

I'm skeptical of the idea that the liberal prescription of anti-depressants in America affects mass murder or violence in general in any statistically significant way. I have Major Depressive Disorder and I've tried several SSRIs in the past. Lexapro was the only one that had any effect on me, and it really upset my stomach. I think that when SSRIs work, it's usually a placebo effect. If I'm wrong, I don't see how they could alter brain chemistry to the point of making an otherwise normal person violent.

[Toad]

It's not really so unusual.

This is the future, old man.

It's the year 2012, the latest crop of teenagers will cook even less than the last. Fast food and microwave as percent will continue to increase as it has been increasing in past decades.

Cooking isn't cool. Women used to have to stay home and bake cookies until they were liberated by the feminists.

[Toad]

The woman of the house prepares all the meals and the men don't even know how to cook? Is this is some sort of Mad Men throwback?

The father could afford 250k alimony, and they live in an almost-mansion. Maybe they posses some residual half-life of bourgeois culture.

[Toad]

AllanF:
"the Oregon mall shooter stopped after being confronted by an individual with a legal concealed-carry hand-gun, albeit against the "Gun Free Zone" rules"

Not technically 'legal' then.

[Black_Rose]

"I think that when SSRIs work, it's usually a placebo effect. If I'm wrong, I don't see how they could alter brain chemistry to the point of making an otherwise normal person violent. "

SSRIs can cause manic episodes in bipolar disorder patients and is therefore often contraindicated in those instances. Moreover, antipsychotics inhibit (or act as partial agnoist against) the 5HT2 receptors (5HT, 5-hydroxyltryptamine, refers to serotonin, a hydroxylated derivative of tryptophan).

[chesswife]

I remember once in college, a roomful of us were stumped on how to make rice. This was an ultra-selective college so we all had very high SAT scores. The directions on the bag were overwhelming-- I don't think any of us spoiled brats had even turned on a stove top before.

Not wanting my children to suffer the same fate, I've taught them how to cook. But I still wouldn't be comfortable with a free for all of stove top, oven and knives while I took a "mini vacation."

Additionally, the mom might have been a foodie. God forbid my mom has to leave my dad's side for a meal or longer. All those meals get planned, prepped, and hermetically sealed in the freezer weeks in advance.

Of note in this article is that the plumber recalls "the kids" having an encyclopedic knowledge of guns. My guess is Ryan is "on the spectrum" too which could explain why he went to a sub par college. I really doubt this family is/ was low IQ. Most kids with autistic siblings have so-called shadow traits to some degree.

[JP]

Remind me why we should care whether or not he had congenital analgesia?

[HS: It's just a very weird fact.]

[destructure]

The reason he couldn't cook is that he would put something on to cook and become engrossed in something else. He'd burn the house down.

[Johnson]

They couldn't stop the media from reporting what was happening in real time....but now that it's over how they present the rest of the story has to go before a committee.

[lcs]

He was cooking up something for his Mom and she gave him the recipe. As Norman Bates put it: "A boy's best friend is his Mother".

[m]

"Remind me why we should care whether or not he had congenital analgesia?"

It may not be congenital analgesia; it may be the insensitivity to pain that many sufferers of schizophrenia have.

[JP]

"The woman of the house prepares all the meals and the men don't even know how to cook?"

Adam and Ryan weren't men. They were punk-ass teenage boys, with mental problems to boot.

[HS: We don't know anything about Ryan. He has a job a a real company, so he seems to have turned out OK.]

[m]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16728905

from the conclusion:

"CONCLUSIONS:

Pain insensitivity in individuals with schizophrenia, which is associated with increased morbidity and mortality, is poorly understood. It is possible that pain insensitivity might serve as a prodromal predictor of susceptibility for schizophrenia. Future studies are needed to further clarify the neurobiology, pathophysiology, and practical clinical implications of this phenomenon."

[Frank]

The Asperger thing is probably bullshit. If your kid is as fucked up in the head as Adam Lanza was, it's an easy thing to tell people who ask about him because Asperger is sort of trendy and doesn't have the stigma attached to it that admitting that the kid was pyschotic would.

[Secret of NAM]

HS

You have a chance to comment on Sailer's suit now that he has a picture up on his blog. Better or worse than Dr. Paul?

I like that you're bitching about the incompetence of the MSM when they are the people you most look up to: SWPL, Jewish, children of the wealthy, etc..

[Mohammed Chang]

"I don’t see why Asperger’s Syndrome would prevent a person from being able to cook."

www.youtube.com/watch?v=w46Dwh4TMGA

[Liz]

He couldn't cook. Maybe his Mommy also chewed up his food for him before she spit it into his mouth. Have you ever seen "The Miracle Worker", the movie about Helen Keller? The only reason why Helen Keller became a famous activist was that she had a teacher who did not baby her and tell her she coulnd't do things. She made her learn how to do things. Modern parents are all about hobbling and smothering their children, telling them everything is too dangerous for them to do themselves. I think its because they are afraid their kids will grow up and leave them. They don't want their kids to be independent because they live vicariously through their children. These parents don't even try to have a life of their own. When I was a kid we went to adult parties and every social event did not revolve around kids.

I can only cook because my mother taught me how when I was very young. This babying crap is totally an American thing. My friend is Jamaican and he told me he was teaching his kid to ride his bike. He said he wasn't going to let him keep the training wheels on his bike for very long because "Life is hard. The world is a hard place. He needs to learn that now". I'd like to hear an American talk like that!