Editorial #88: Crazy People

Autism Politico notices there have been a lot of murders of autistics reported in the newspapers these days. Many of these murders are allegedly being committed by the parents of autistics themselves.

We won’t list out the alledged murders. All a person needs to do is a Google News search using “Autism”/”Autistic” ”Murder” “Parent” as search parameters or vary the search terms slightly and a whole bunch of articles ought to pop up.

Now of course, murderers are innocent until proven guilty, although many convicted parents may still be innocent, either because they ARE really innocent, or because they were insane when they committed the murders.

Still, regarding those parents who DID murder their autistic children, it may not be out of bounds to suggest that they can effectively be described as no longer being socially acceptable people. These parents, who may have once been cheer leaders, or football captains, or career climbers, or socialites, are, if guilty, in the end, murderers.

They may have been very popular in their time, but when push came to shove, as far as dealing with their autistic child or children, they may not have been able to handle it.

Terrible to think that so many people put faith in people seem to forget that putting their kids up for adoption is an alternative to killing them.

Terrible to think that murderers, in their haste to do away with their children, forget that there are institutions in existence which take in autistics and that the lives of their children may be better in an institution than with a parent that wants to murder them.

While no one wants to see an autistic person institutionalized, a live autistic has some sort of chance to find an enjoyable life whereas a dead autistic does not, unless it is of course the afterlife. 

As a parenthetical: Terrible to think that purveyors of quack therapy may play a vital role in inciting people to murder their children. After all, they have given parents false hope, haven’t they?

Autism Politico knows that this is a very delicate subject, but just felt the need to reflect upon this phenomenon and say what needs to be said: How ironic that socially inept autistics are being killed by parents who are committing the antisocial act of murder. The media keeps sympathizing with parents of autistics, but seldom the autistics themselves.

Replies to this editorial are welcome.

Editorial #87: Special Diets

Autism Politico knows that special diets are reported by studies not to work.

“An expert panel says there’s no rigorous evidence that digestive problems are more common in children with autism compared to other children, or that special diets work, contrary to claims by celebrities and vaccine naysayers.”

Nevertheless, parents continue to put their autistic kids on special diets in an attempt to treat or cure them.

Well, Autism Politico cannot give out medical or dietary advice, but it can offer opinions. Folks, see your doctors first and ask your doctors’ advice before going forward with this… but it just seems that parents who persist in believing that special diets work -when studies say they don’t- may have significant psychological problems.

It’s like believing that fiction is real and reality is fiction.

Perhaps the cure for this ailment is…you guessed it…suggesting that parents go on special diets of their own. Parents, if you are reading this, one thing you might try is concocting the most disgusting thing you can imagine eating and see how it tastes. Then reflect a little bit on how much you have been making you children eat similar tasting crap. If you still feel good about yourself afterwards, then you may want to go see a shrink.

Or better yet, maybe you need chelation, or perhaps you should get some oxygen in your brains via hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Perhaps you should be subjected to ABA therapy, or floortime.

Just a suggestion from Autism Politico.

Replies to this editorial are welcome.

Editorial #86: Tell Autism Speaks to Take A Walk

Most autistics will tell you that Autism Speaks is an organization which does not speak for them. Autism Politico does not like Autism Speaks either.

At any given time, Autism Speaks has a bunch of walks going to raise awareness for autism and to raise money for itself. Efforts by autistics to inform the general public about how much it hates Autism Speaks has continually fallen on deaf ears.

If you pretend to be on the side of the walkers, what they will tell you is that someone needs to either cure the retards (meaning autistics) or put them away, or stop them from reproducing themselves. You cannot run an organization like Autism Speaks without hearing such commentary, nor can you be an organizer of such an event and avoid hearing such commentary, at least in our opinion. Yet if organizers and Autism Speaks itself are hearing things like this, they are not doing anything publicly to stop people from making such comments.

One can only gather, then, that this is the type of view Autism Speaks and its event organizers wish to either promote, or do not wish to counter.

Think about that the next time you support Autism Speaks, whether it is walking for them, or buying a toy from Toys R Us, which donates to Autism Speaks, or buying chocolate from Lindt Chocolates or what have you.

Replies to this editorial are welcome.

Editorial #85: Swamp Loggers

There are editors at Autism Politico who enjoy watching the show “Swamp Loggers.”

In the show, a fellow named Bobby Goodson has a crew who fights bad weather, mud, mire, and breaking machinery to get logging  done in a struggling economy. Amid mills reducing quotas, and building construction tapering off, Goodson still manages to keep an upbeat attitude for himself as well as his workers.

Why? 

The only thing the editors at Autism Politico can figure is that a positive attitude is – on the bad days – the only thing Goodson has to keep things running.

He’s got bills to pay, a payroll to keep up with, and unexpected operating expenses to boot.

His predicament sounds not unlike the predicament that some parents with kids on the autism spectrum have. Go to enough autism conventions and it will not take you long to find little cliques of parents and caregivers who huddle together and talk secretively about how their children are liabilities (as if they are machines)  and how they’ve had to curtail the lives they have planned for themselves because of the unexpected events and expenses that crop up when they have to take care of their kids.

What they need is someone like Bobby Goodson to whip them into shape.

Bobby Goodson, the inspirational speaker?

Well, the editors at Autism Politico cannot really see that exactly. Goodson is a good ole’ boy. He manages his crew well, and he seems very popular with his men, but we just cannot picture him in a suit and tie giving lectures in an auditorium, unless it is about logging. Plus, we have no idea what he does when he is not on film. We know he is a family man, but have no idea whether or not he goes on a tear at the bars or what have you on the weekends. Still, he seems like a better man than that.

The point is though that Goodson is a good man. The reason he is able to stay in business where so many loggers of his kind have not, is because he genuinely cares about his crew. In any given episode, he can be heard saying “Be careful!” “Watch yourself there!” “Don’t get hurt now!” or the like. Profits are important too, but safety is priority one. And you never saw Goodson more upset as when he had to lay his workers off for a couple weeks when the work got slow.

The crew he has all seem to like him. It’s not just because Goodson does special things like give them barbeques/cookouts for meeting or exceeding goals. A body gets the idea that Goodson acts in their best interest, even when Goodson drives them hard and makes them work for a living.

Parents of autistic kids often bemoan the situations they find themselves in. Goodson could do the same with his business. Case in point: The felled wood has to be pulled a long way through the swamp before it can be loaded and stacked on the trucks because the trucks cannot make it through the swamp without sinking. This means idling trucks while the log-haulers go back and forth.

Bobby’s solution? Increase the size of the tires on one of his haulers so that it can pull more weight through the swamps without sinking into the bog.

Too often, parents of autistics do not think around corners, nor do they plan ahead. They need to act as teams, and keep their crew employed. Just as it is hard work being a logger, it is hard work being a parent, but hard work only stops lazy people from making the effort.

So Autism Politico tips their hats in recognition of Bobby Goodson and his crew for setting an example of what hard look and innovative thinking and implementation look like.

Replies to this editorial are welcome.

Editorial #84: Look in the Mirror

Autism Politico noted a new article came out which details as study that re-examines the mirror-neuron theory:

People with autism seem to have normal “mirror” neurons after all. A popular theory has it that these neurons – brain cells that fire both when you perform an action and when you watch someone else doing the same thing – don’t work properly in people with autism. Now it looks as though that isn’t so.

The idea was that malfunctioning mirror neurons underlie the difficulties that people with autism have in interpreting the intentions of others.

Well isn’t that interesting?

Dinstein’s team asked 13 autistic adults and 10 controls to watch or perform a series of hand signals – thumbs up and miming holding a gun, for instance – while in a functional MRI scanner. In some trials they performed or watched the same hand movement over and over again, while in others they performed or watched successions of different signals.

Brain areas linked to the mirror neuron system – parts of the premotor and the parietal cortices – lit up in both groups, whether they watched or performed a hand-movement. What’s more, the mirror neuron activity quieted when both groups observed or performed the same signal over and over, but not when they performed a succession of different movements, suggesting that the system was working normally in people with autism. “That argues against a mirror system dysfunction in autism,” says Dinstein.

Now the study only tested 13 autistic individuals and a control group of 10. One can hardly draw a firm conclusion from such small numbers of people. But if it holds true, then it is just another thing that shoots down the prejudice that autistics are “brain-damaged.”

The article notes a scientist as saying that the study doesn’t disprove that there may still be other problems with mirror neurons. Yet Autism Politico is enjoying that study after study keeps thwarting the curbies desire to identify ways to treat and cure autism, and with study after study seeming to conclude only that autism is genetic, it is reassuring to know that parents must actually learn to accept their kids rather than abuse them with quack treatments or make guinea pigs out of them by giving them medicines that are not approved for use by most countries’ health care agencies.

Replies to this editorial are welcome.

Editorial #83: Bailout

It was announced that Greece would be bailed out of its financial problems by other countries.

Naturally, the stock market was excited about the whole thing, and much of the world was and is too.

Autism Politico wants everyone to know how foolish people are for being pleased with the bailout.

Where do these people think the money is coming from? If it’s coming from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), it means their own countries, which are not exactly free and clear of debt either, are going to be giving money to the IMF so the IMF can throw this needed money into a black hole. And where do the government’s of people’s countries get their money? Why, from the taxpayers of course.

Really, if your country is bailing out Greece, it means that money is being picked out of your pocket and put into the treasury of a government that has demonstrated nothing but fiscal irresponsibility.

If you are carrying a debt load that is hard to manage, be aware that your country may have decided for you that it is going to take even more money from you and give it to someone else who is manages their money even worse than you manage yours. And for your troubles, you will become further in debt, as will your country, while Greece gets itself closer to paying off its debts.

Autism Politico figures that if you have any common sense, you already understand the implications of the bailout, but Autism Politico also knows that the majority of the public don’t have any common sense. Thus this entry.

Greece ought to be left to its own devices, and if that means financial collapse, then too bad.

Replies to this editorial are welcome.

Editorial #82: Watch the Weather

As the Autism Politico post is being drafted. thunderstorms are moving in.

This was not unexpected.

The reason? The writer of this entry listens to the weather forecasts every day.

This got the writer thinking about how odd it is that some parents experience shock and surprise when their child gets labeled with a “totally unexpected” diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder.

In this day and age when 1 in 110 people are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders, and where people with autism compete on reality TV shows, and where “Rainman” has become a well-known movie, how can people not know what autism is, or what it looks like? How clueless do they have to be not to at least SUSPECT that their child MIGHT have autism?

If people can turn on the TV and see the weather forecast, they can go on the internet and see what autism looks like, and then perhaps they can identify the onset of the disorder in their children.

Autism Politico would not want anyone to diagnose their children based on what they see on the internet. People should take their children to qualified medical professionals. But at the same time, autism is not that hard to spot either. Just like you can spot clouds on the horizon and predict rain, you ought to be able to see the presentation of autism in your own child, whom you should know better than the weather anyway.

Replies to this editorial are welcome.

Editorial #81: Frontline in Vaccine Wars

The editors at Autism Politico very much enjoyed PBS’s Frontline episode on vaccines.

Frontline, which is always objective in their reporting, did not disappoint this time around either.  They addressed the Andrew Wakefield issue, gave viewers a chance to listen to Jenny McBunny, and the leader of a charity she collaborates with, and then juxtaposed their points of view with hard science.

Of course after the episode aired, antivaxers loudly whined in their typically petty fashion that Frontline wasn’t fair, that they hadn’t looked at the “science” that said vaccines DO cause autism, that the whole thing was a smear campaign orchestrated by Paul Offit and Big Pharma, and yadda yadda yadda.

Autism Politico believes there is a simple solution to getting these antivaxers to be quiet, and this would be to restrain them. Autistics, having been on the receiving end of restraint many times, can think of lots of good ways to restrain antivaxers. Maybe the antivaxers should be injected with some kind of sedative or tranquilzer in addition to restraints…and if there is a little thimerosal in the shot…well, maybe they will come around to the autistic way of thinking. It isn’t all that bad. Autistics believe in science, not crap, like the antivaxers do.

Replies to this editorial are welcome.

Editorial #80: Smile?

Autism Politico notes that a study was published two years ago which indicated that smiling can be bad for a person’s health.

“Every time a person is forced to repress his true feelings there are negative consequences,” Zapf said. “We are all able to rein in our emotions but it becomes difficult to do this over a protracted period.”

The study was done by a German scientist who showed that people who smile in the face of insults compound stress on themselves rather than relieve their pent up feelings.

4000 people participated in the study.

NTs smile quite a bit. They smile when they are happy. They smile when they are sad. They smile when they are giving and receiving bad news. They smile when they lie to your face.

Autism Politico wonders whether or not more of the society’s problems would get solved if people simply discussed their feelings in an honest and straightforward manner without putting on the appearance of false emotions.

Autism Politico says: If you are autistic and don’t smile that often, don’t sweat it too much. At least you are being honest with yourself and with other people.

Replies to this editorial are welcome.

Editorial #79: Austin Autistic Antics 2

Autism Politico notices that some Austin doctors have gotten themselves in hot water. The article says:

Caquias was a doctor at CARE Clinics at 4201 Bee Cave Road , which was raided last year by IRS and FBI agents. Court documents say agents had probable cause to believe the clinic, owned by Kazuko Grace Curtin , could have been the site of fraud and other federal violations of federal law. Computers and records were seized so agents could examine insurance billing records, among other items.

The board’s March 31 complaint against Caquias alleges that he treated three patients at the clinic with intravenous chelation therapy — a controversial treatment that uses chemicals to sweep metals from the body — without documenting symptoms, assessments and monitoring.

Good deal.

Autism Politico believes that every time one of these clinics gets shut down it leaves parents with fewer options for “treating” or “curing” their autistic children. If we could just get all  of them shut down, parents would be faced with the best but most daunting treatment of all: Interacting with their autistic children more and loving them for who they are.

Autism Politico can’t wait for the day for the vocal among the autistic population to tell off their parents for all the times they were made to subject themselves to quack therapies.

Of course the other thing to hope for is that, with the new health care bill coming into play, insurance companies will run studies to show that most of the therapies for autism are quack. Not only will this save ignorant and gullible people from paying for these therapies, but it will shut up those people who believe in them, especially if the studies are not only done by insurance companies, but by governments and independent researchers as well.

Cross your fingers and keep hoping people.

Replies to this editorial are welcome.