Etc.

When it comes to the social safety net, there is not a dime's worth of difference between the two national political parties anymore.
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Playing politics: If Democrats were really serious about raising tax rates on the rich, they'd have done it when they had control over both houses of Congress.

All they are doing with this is gearing up for 2012.
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A man reviled by researchers for peddling unproven causes of autism now has his theories getting a second look.
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News

Nevada is dying on the vine, and it appears state officials, or at least Republicans, don't seem to want to do one damned thing about.

Mass layoffs of state employees including teachers or severe budget cuts, which will FURTHER drive the state into the ditch.
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A reorganization of Kansas City schools means closure of many of them.

Superintendent Covington is an Eli Broad "academy" graduate and therefore is a privatizer.
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I, too, believe the lumping of Asperger syndrome with other forms of autism by the psychological/psychiatrict community is wrongheaded. They are two distinctly different disabilities. In fact, I don't regard AS as real autism anyway.

However, these so-called "aspie" activists get on my nerves because most of them are not diagnosed as Asperger; they have diagnosed themselves as having something that only a qualified professional can determine.

Travolta [Updated]

Speculation continues to abound about whether the Travoltas' Scientology beliefs had anything to do with their son's death.

We will know soon enough once the autopsy results are made public. For all we know, Jett could have simply slipped and fallen in the tub, hitting his head. Until we know definitively, speculation is rather pointless.

Here is a video clip that has been making the rounds of the internet:



I admit while watching this that nobody leads a 16-year-old by the hand unless he had some serious cognitive problem. Having worked with a couple of autistics, it would seem he was one.

Miscellaneous

The death of John Travolta's son Jett gets curiouser and curiouser. There will be an autopsy performed.

The explanation of the causes of the child's health problems is bizarre, to say the least. Scientology is nothing but a crackpot cult.

As I was surfing the internet this afternoon after a nice time with my niece visiting antique shops around southern Oregon, I came across this article about psychiatry critic Thomas Szasz, which I found interesting.

Szasz, one of these libertarian types, founded an organization back in 1969 which has Scientology support, though Szasz himself isn't a member of the cult: the Citizens Commission on Human Rights.

Miscellaneous Commentary

There is something truly sick in our culture when parents who murder their disabled children are given more sympathetic treatment than the garden variety child killer.

It's stressful to raise any child. Just because one is disabled doesn't give a parent the right to kill them.

More commentary about the sympathetic treatment of child-killing parents is here and here.
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And it ain't just in the United States that disabled people are treated like chattel. This outrageous judicial decision in Korea has generated a storm of protest, as it should:

On Nov. 20, the Cheongju District Court convicted a grandfather and three uncles of a teenage girl of sexually molesting her from August 2001 to May of this year. But Judge Oh Jun-keun handed down a three-year suspended sentence to the 87-year-old grandfather and two uncles, 57 and 42, for raping the now-16-year-old girl, who has mental and developmental disabilities.

Another uncle, 39, was given an 18-month suspended sentence. Judge Oh said his involvement was relatively minor.

“It is inhumane for the accused to have repeatedly violated the young victim, who is their relative, by treating her as a tool to release their sexual desires,” Judge Oh said in his ruling. “It is necessary to hand down serious punishment taking into account the victim’s grave mental state.”

The judge, however, said he showed leniency because the relatives, not the parents, have raised the victim despite economic hardship.

“Taking into consideration her disabilities, she needs continuous support and help from the accused, who are her family members,” the judge ruled. “Some of the accused are aged and ill, so it is difficult for them to endure prison life. Therefore, I suspend their prison terms.”

The judge himself ought to be in jail.

As the World Turns.

A pit bull attack left a horse so badly injured, he had to be euthanized:

Eventually, Adams went into her home to get a pistol and shot one of the dogs, although it survived, as Bolzle said it was a superficial wound. However, Adams said the other dogs then left her horse alone.

Three of the dogs were surrendered by the owners to Animal Services, Bolzle said, while the fourth, who they said wasn't involved (though Adams said she saw blood on it) and has a litter of pups, remained at the home. The three dogs were subsequently euthanized by Animal Services.

At that point Adams said she went to the horse she's owned for four years, and on which she's competed in barrel racing, to try to stop the bleeding. In the meantime, the horse in severe pain struck her in the head, and she also later felt chest pains from the stress, resulting in hospital trip.

Lisa Adams said there was a lot going on during this time and it seemed it "happened so fast" but it also seemed "to be in slow motion."

"It was a horrific thing," she said "I hope to help someone else from having it happen," she said of her reason for telling this story, which received coverage Sunday from a Reno television station.

"I'm hoping somehow, someway, people will be more cautious (with dogs)."

Of the dogs, she said, "They shredded a 1,200 pound horse."

She noted the horse had part of its face torn off and injuries to its neck and chest and left front leg was seriously damaged, almost completely detached and evenetually was the reason a large animal surgeon recommended the horse be put down.

Adams said just about everyone in the neighborhood has domestic animals and she doesn't understand why someone would bring dogs like that there.

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I think the belief the rise in autism has to do with the fact more people are being labeled it rather than a real increase in its incidence.
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A happy ending isn't quite here yet for the Aguirre twins, conjoined twins separated in 2003. They still need more operations.
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I hope before too many years I relocate to Portland. The bike-friendly atmosphere is a draw, among other things.

I have always like this city, but right now I am going to have to stay in Nevada unless I come into some kind of windfall.
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As the World Turns.

Bucking worldwide trends, Mount Shasta in northern California is getting more glaciers.

I wish that mountain and the surrounding area were made into a national park.
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Hollywood writers will go on strike.
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Meanwhile UAW workers are getting the shaft from Chrysler.
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Slots are seen as no sure thing for Pimlico.
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Long Island schools, likes schools all over the country, grapple with the challenge of an explosion of autism cases.
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As the World Turns.

Evidence is showing autistic girls are different from autistic boys.
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For some reason Matt Drudge is still popular.
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The Animal Liberation Front is at it again.
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In this article from a month ago, cycling great Greg LeMond bared all about the demons in his past.
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As the World Turns II.

In Scotland today, Tiger mauled a woman in the head.

She had to have two stitches in the head.
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A new study is promising regarding autism.

As the World Turns.

Hare today, gone tomorrow.
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So is there an "epidemic" of autism? The answer, according to this writer, is no. There is an increase in those being diagnosed with autism spectrum.
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Chaz Higgs' attorney is confident he can get him off on murder charges.

The trial starts tomorrow, but I won't be in town to see it.
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As the World Turns.

Oregon stupidly is going to make their alternate assessments for moderate-to-severe disabled schoolchildren more academic.

Some of these kids, such as severe autistics and those with severe cerebral palsy CAN'T recall simple text when read aloud.

It's another absurd mandate having no basis in reality.
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Right-wing shill extraordinaire, Victoria Toensing, demands to know why only Scooter Libby is being persecuted by prosecutor Fitzgerald.
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A high incidence of autism in New Jersey is explained.
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As we all know, NAFTA helped stop the flow of illegal immigration into the United States.
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Oprah has taken to the racetrack, and she pulled off a three-quarters of a length victory in Barbara Fritchie Breeders' Cup Handicap at Laurel Park yesterday.

Oprah Winney, that is.
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These Mount Hood mountain climbers fared better than those ones in December.
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