Friday, June 20, 2008

Scrutator: The Sun Stands Still

Today marks the Summer Solstice. It is a bittersweet day for me, as it marks both the first day of summer and the inevitable approach of winter. I love long days, and from here to the winter solstice, they get shorter every day.

But until the cold arrives we have the opportunity to enjoy the hottest and laziest days of the year. Remember when you were a kid and summer lasted forever? Each year since, they have passed more and more quickly.

I need to move to the land of eternal summer!




I have been convinced! I am voting Republican!





Last week I expressed concern about ABC's attitude towards advocating acceptance for autistic people. I continue this week with The Kids are all Right. This is a history lesson about Jerry's kids that I found at The Joy of Autism. Here you will find a video that explains how charities make the recipients out to be pitiful and incapable of helping themselves. These attitudes strip the recipients of the things they really need, like acceptance, and services that would allow them to function in their lives.

Michelle Dawson at The Autism Crisis has done a brilliant job in re-framing the Autism Speaks 1 in 150 campaign in which they are determined to represent autism rates as suddenly exploding. They do this by excluding the majority of autistics from their campaign, the adults. How many adults do you know that have autism? How well do they function? I think it is time for some accuracy in the way the media reports the current "issue."




Autistic kids are easy to abuse, especially when they are non-verbal. According to the Toronto Sun and the City News in Canada, a teacher aid went to see a psychic who told her the autistic girl was being abused. The girl is non-verbal and cannot confirm or deny such a ridiculous accusation, any more than the autistic children and their families who were victimized by facilitated communication (FC) helpers who accused parents of sexually abusing their autistic children. FC has since been proven to be false, as were the allegations. But false accusations caused a great deal of stress and pain for the families involved; families who can least afford to expend the monetary and emotional resources on such evil pseudoscience.

If people actually ever really thought critically about what they believe, these things wouldn't happen. But we aren't taught to think critically, are we. We are taught to believe blindly, so that's what we do, to hell with the costs.

Fortunately for the little girl and her family, the mother had proof that the child was not being abuse. She had a gps and recorder attached to the little girl because she didn't trust the public school she had to send her children to.

Now the child protection agency is investigating the school. As it should.




And that wraps up this weeks edition of the totally not famous Scrutator.

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