Editorial #139: Boy Are You Autistic?
Autism Politico has read yet another study that has to do with the genetic origins of autism. Scientists know that genetics causes autism, but many people refuse to believe that, and so that is why Autism Politico wastes space on entries such as these: To beat a dead horse for the edification of those who cannot believe what they are seeing.
Researchers from Toronto report in the journal Science Translational Medicine that a small percentage of boys with autism carry a gene mutation that’s not seen in those without the condition.
The mutated gene is called PTCHD1 and is located on the X chromosome. Dr. John Vincent, who led the research and is the head of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) Molecular Neuropsychiatry and Development Laboratory, says that since boys have only one X chromosome, they have no “backup ” to make up for genetic variants.
That explains that.
So…
We’ve always known that more males than females present with autistic symptoms.
We also know that autism is caused by genetics (although there are still some flat-earthers who believe it is caused by mercury).
And now we know WHY autism is present in males more than females.
Need we add that this study also reiterates the point that autism is genetic?
Yes, we need to add it, because the flat-earthers need to hear it again, so that they can go to bed in a bad mood. (And maybe so that they can get into the 21st century and start accepting the science. And why not? It’s the SOCIAL thing to concur with popular opinion anyway right?)
“(Autism) is not like something like cystic fibrosis, which is a relatively straightforward disorder with just one main gene involved. We believe that in autism there are many, many genes contributing,” he said.
Tah-Daa!
Replies to this editorial are welcome.
Editorial #138: Good News for NTs!
Autism Politico has some good news for NTs: More so than usual, you can stop using your brains.
The good news:
People who think more about whether they are right have more cells in an area of the brain known as the frontal lobes.
The bad news:
However, thinking a lot about your own thoughts may not be all good.
Cognitive psychologist Dr Tracy Alloway from the University of Stirling, who was not involved in the latest study, said that some people have a tendency to brood too much and this leads to a risk of depression.
Autism Politico says: If you are NT, don’t even try to think too much. You will make your brains swell up and get depressed.
Autistics, however, have to keep on thinking.
For one thing, getting along in the NT world with their pointless habits, customs and arbitrary and idiotic social rules requires a lot of mental effort on the part of autistics.
For another, if autistics are really as stupid as NTs make them out to be, then we really ought to be using our brains more for that reason alone.
But just think, if NTs accepted autistics, autistics wouldn’t have to apply so much mental effort to make it in the world. Our brains might turn “normal” like NT brains. Although then we might become prejudiced, discriminatory, chatty, vain, egocentric, underintelligent goons.
Ugh. There is always a tradeoff.
Not that anyone should assume that those adjectives describe NTs. Nooooooooooooooooooo.
Replies to this editorial are welcome.
Editorial #137: You Have Low Self-Esteem
Autism Politico is aware of a recent article which indicates that a lot of people are stuck on themselves and have low self-esteem, and apparently one of the best ways to tell if you are one of those people is whether or not you have a Facebook account.
A new study of Canadian university students suggests Facebook is a magnet for narcissists and people with low self-esteem.
There you go. So if you are reading this, get off of Facebook.
The interesting thing is that this statement would apply to people who are on the autism spectrum as well as to NTs.
The study defined narcissism as a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and an exaggerated sense of self-importance.
Self-esteem was identified as a person’s overall self-evaluation or their worth.
We all know that the above description fits many NTs to a T, but it also fits a lot of autistics, who, marginalized by society, feel the need to make themselves appear more important than they are rather than change themselves into the people whom they want to be.
And that would be the key point of this editorial: If you don’t like who you are, then change yourself or change your life. Don’t go onto some social network site and try to make yourself up to be someone you’re not. It’s a waste of time, and people see through you.
Replies to this editorial are welcome.
Editorial #136: WrongPlanet.net V. AspieWeb.net
Autism Politico hates WrongPlanet.net and AspieWeb.net equally, so it hardly believes it is making this blog post to draw attention to the two sites, but the rivalry between them is so funny that it bears mentioning here.
Apparently, AspieWeb.net, in a fit of altruism and benevolence, decided to give some of its profits away to three autism organizations known for ignoring the needs of autistics even as they purport to advocate for them: ASAN, AWN and WrongPlanet.net.
Laughable as that is, it gets even more funny when AspieWeb.net, after years of supposedly understanding the internet community, finally was forced to realize what sort of site WrongPlanet.net is, first by WrongPlanet.net’s members, and then by their “userbase“. Apparently AspieWeb was “flipped the bird” by WrongPlanet and now the FBI is involved.
Maybe the FBI will dredge up that time a fellow left clues on WrongPlanet about committing a murder-suicide and the subsequent suit against WrongPlanet.
It’s a good thing AspieWeb.net didn’t make an ass out of itself for supporting WrongPlanet.net, don’t you think?
But it is a pity that AspieWeb.net was calling WP “one of the best support websites online for people with Aspergers” as late as August 27th, 2010. Apparently AspieEb.net doesn’t give a crap about relatives of the Freund family.
When the murder-suicide came out, it was only national news, and WP’s membership spiked afterwards because of it. Where was AspieWeb.net while all this was happening?
One down.
Two to go.
Hopefully it will only be a matter of time before AspieWeb.net realizes that ASAN and AWN aren’t much different than WrongPlanet.net when it comes to addressing people’s needs.
Replies to this editorial are welcome.
Editorial #135: This Burns Us Up
As sad as this article is, Autism Politico is pleased whenever it can say without a doubt that sometimes NTs are crazier than autistics seem to NTs.
SINGLE mother Roxanne Williams was yesterday found guilty of burning the hands her 12-year-old autistic sister because the girl drank her soft drink.
Question from Autism Politico to NTs: Is ANY soft drink worth a possible prison sentence?
However, the magistrate who passed sentencing said it was not all her fault.
Fiddlesticks! Just as Autism Politico was beginning to have faith in the judicial system!
“The burden was placed on the defendant to care for the VC (virtual complainant), an autistic child. The defendant was not trained to handle such a position.
Yes, well, Autism Politico is confused about this statement. Anyone clearly knows that it is unacceptable to burn an NT child’s hand over a soft drink. But it’s reasonable to expect that someone would have a problem knowing whether or not it is acceptable to burn an autistic child’s hand?
Autism Politico wonders which soft drink the autistic girl chose. Coke or Pepsi.
Williams took Kawal’s ”whole hand” and placed it over the stove and the skin burnt, Kawal had said during the trial.
<snip>
A medical certificate stated that both the girl’s hands had been burnt.
Autism Politico is of the opinion that no one should punish anyone without trying that punishment out on themselves first. In this case, perhaps the woman who burned the child’s hand should be made to try burning her hands after the fact, so she can better decide whether or not the punishment she administered was humane.
Just a thought.
Replies to this editorial are welcome.
Editorial #134: We’re Screaming Over This
Autism Politico wants to set the record straight on what discrimination is.
You see, there is a woman out there claiming that a restaurant discriminates against autistic children. The woman has a child on the spectrum, and
She believes that having the “No Screaming Children” signs on the door is illegal and violates the American with Disabilities Act.
If the restaurant was not allowing people in because they had a screaming child, Autism Politico would agree. However, the owner of the restaurant
Armes said no one will be kicked out of Olde Salty’s, they will only be asked to step outside until their child calms down.
Perfectly fair in Autism Politico’s opinion.
Personally, we don’t like screaming kids or screaming people either, and would LOVE it if we could go to a restaurant and be assured we would not have to endure screaming kids. In fact, the reason many people go to restaurants is to get away from their OWN screaming kids.
Does anyone remember the old adage “Children should be seen and not heard”?
Many of us here at Autism Politico grew up in the days when a child would get whacked if they so much as raised their voice in a restaurant. In those days, kids were well-behaved and got into less trouble than kids do now. All a parent had to do was tell them to do something or not to do something and they complied.
These days, parents count down from ten to zero to give their kids time to comply, and if the kids don’t comply, they get consequences with a meaningless punishment that the kids could care less about. This is so children’s “self-esteem” doesn’t get hurt.
Imagine the surprise these kids faced when they go into the workforce and discover that workplaces have firm deadlines that have to be met and failure to meet them could mean being fired.
But getting back to the main point, if your kid is going to be a nuisance to everyone around you, own up to that fact and do what is necessary to save others aggravation. This goes without saying whether or not your kid is on the spectrum.
And recognize that if you cry discrimination just because your kid is on the spectrum, some other person is going to cry discrimination just because their kid is NOT on the spectrum. And then we are going to wind up with a social anarchy, where everyone feels a sense of entitlement that they are really not entitled to have.
Societal rules were made for a reason. What people do at home is their business. What they do in society is society’s business.
Replies to this editorial are welcome.
Editorial #133: Religious Convictions And Autism
Autism Politico is aware that Lisa Jo Rudy has asked the question:
Autism Politico’s answer to this question is “No. We love our autism. What our religious convictions do help us with is having patience with ignorant blog writers who ask ignorant questions like Rudy’s.”
And so:
“Dear Lord, please grant us the patience to put up with Lisa Jo Rudy, who refuses to pay any attention to the 137 scientists who have examined 1,600 autistics in over 50 locations in 9 countries around the world. As you in your infinite wisdom know, Lord, these scientists were given the skill and knowledge, by you to determine that autism has a genetic cause, and these scientists have determined after a close examination of the genes themselves that with each gene studied, it is being more and more proven that there is no environmental “trigger” for autism, since the genes involved have no “switches” to be flipped on or off.
“And please grant us the patience with this woman who refuses to accept that with whole Canadian provinces dropping ABA as a therapy due to its proven ineffectiveness, and who believes despite the increasing number of studies to the contrary that ABA actually works.
“And please grant us the wisdom to know that despite her posts which allow ignorant parents to bask in ignorance, that there is hope for the future, as governments and medical associations increasingly adopt the stances and positions on autism which will void Rudy’s opinions.”
“Bless us, Holy Father, and bless this poor woman as well. Grant her the wisdom to see the light!
“Amen”
Replies to this editorial are welcome.
Editorial #132: Ha Ha! Very Funny! (Not!)
Autism Politico is aware that the notorious Asperger train aficionado has been reported stealing a bus.
And AutismPolitico was about to dub this fellow TrainMan.
By driving off with the bus, the 45-year-old McCollum veered away from his true love of stealing trains. He started stealing them at age 15, when he took off with an E train filled with passengers in Manhattan. McCollum also served two years in prison for trying to steal a 60-ton locomotive.
Autism Politico is sure people chuckled over the story as they read their morning coffee.
The problem here is that stealing is illegal and people could get hurt. If McCollum wound up in jail for trying to steal a locomotive, it is not a stretch to say that he knows he will be penalized for stealing something else. Penalties generally happen after something wrong has been done. Ergo, logically, McCollum ought to know that what he did was wrong.
Having Asperger Syndrome is no excuse for ignoring the law, and it ought not to be used as a defense should the case with the bus come to trial.
Too often, people on the autism spectrum use the “autism made me do it” defense to try and make a case for their transgressions. But that defense just doesn’t fly. Even if someone doesn’t know WHY something is right or wrong, laws exists to tell people at least what is legal and illegal.
McCollum has not been proven guilty yet. He has not even come to trial. He may be innocent for all Autism Politico knows. But Autism Politico will be curious to know what kind of defense McCollum uses if he goes on trial.
Replies to this editorial are welcome.
Editorial #131: WSJ on Health-Care
Autism Politico read an interesting Wall Street Journal article on the state of government health-care in the US.
More than a fifth of the nation’s 5,000 hospitals are owned by governments and many are drowning in debt caused by rising health-care costs, a spike in uninsured patients, cuts in Medicare and Medicaid and payments on construction bonds sold in fatter times. Because most public hospitals tend to be solo operations, they don’t enjoy the economies of scale, or more generous insurance contracts, which bolster revenue at many larger nonprofit and for-profit systems.
Local officials also predict an expensive future as new requirements—for technology, quality accounting and care coordination—start under the overhaul, which became law in March.
Autism Politico
