Freedom In Wickedness

deducecanoe:

ivydoor:

deducecanoe:

future-psychiatrist:

Low functioning autism is at the most sever end of the autism spectrum. Everyone in this category suffers from some form of mental retardation and is usually unable to communicate verbally. 

Doctors classify people with low functioning autism by measuring their IQ so they can tailor their education and daily living requirements. Though the prognosis may seem grim for those with this type of autism some can be taught how to communicate with sign langue. As well, some of the symptoms can be managed with medication.

Symptoms:

• Has an IQ less than 80
• Sever memory impairment
• Has few expectations
• Has severely limited language skills
• Are either far too sensitive or not sensitive enough
• Does not take notice of the people around them
• Preforms repetitive or ritualistic behaviors
• Self-injury (either intentional or unintentional)
• Makes odd gestures

Articles On Low Functioning Autism: 

• Wikipedia
• Love To Know
• Aspergers vs. Autism
• About.com

There’re so many things wrong with this. I don’t even know where to start.

Okay, maybe I’m just cranky, but I’ve had it up to here with people telling me my kid’s prognosis is “grim” (or some variation of doom and gloom). Fuck all of this. Seriously. My kid has an awesome life and he’s a good person. He’s hilarious (sometimes only to him, but I don’t know many 18yo boys who aren’t hilarious in their own mind) and loving and he spends his time doing what he likes. Just because you can’t understand him doesn’t mean he can’t communicate. We have whole conversations even when we don’t have his device handy. You just have to listen carefully and he’ll make his point. According to his IQ test, his IQ was >25. So much bullshit. That kid can outsmart me on my best days. We figured out he was color blind for red and yellow (the colors being used in class for math manipulatives) and I had the teacher switch him to black and white only. He went from flunking objectives all year to passing 100% WITHOUT EVER PRACTICING BEFORE THE STATE TESTING. He’s been known to get everything completely wrong and then as soon as they turn the camera on for testing, he does everything perfectly right. He can be a deliberate asshole like that sometimes. LOL He’s not unintelligent, he just needs accommodations to let his intelligence show. I’m tired of people telling me what he can’t do. This is the first time I’ve ever really been LET ME EXPLAIN YOU A THING about him on here and I’m sorry to go off like this. It’s just that I’ve hit my limit, kwim?

The thing is, IQ tests are designed for neurotypical people. People with communication difficulties, or people who do not think in a typical manner have trouble with them. I test “normal” because I am completely rubbish at math. I look at math problems and they look completely like jibberish. I do, however, remember everything I read. Certainly that has to count for something. I’m sure your son’s actual smarts are somewhere in a normal or advanced range.

And being non-verbal doesn’t mean shit if you have alternative communication methods. Needing accommodations does not mean someone is un-smart or that they have a terrible “locked in themselves’ future. It means the rest of us have to work harder to find a communication method that works. My sibs and I have whole conversations that sound like jibberish. But we understand each other :)

We convey a feeling by bringing up past experiences “Charlie make me a pie!” expresses a certain thing about our mom that probably only we understand (it expresses an emotion and a concept). That’s what I love so much about Tumblr. I can say “FEELS” and everyone grasps the emotion behind what I am saying without me having to go into a lengtly “i connect to this post because bla blabla or illustrate using personal history. You know??

I think OP (and the medical community at large) have very little understanding of what actual autistics go through, even though they toss around labels like “high functioning” and “low functioning.” my therapist classifies me as “high functioning” because I can hold a job down. Meanwhile I can’t go to the grocery store without having a breakdown. So, y’know. Six of one, half dozen of the other. I drive. But I have trouble figuring out where medians are sometimes. And it took me six years of solid trying and practice to get my license.

Just because I can pass for normal and say what people want me to say (or what I think they want me to say in social situations). But it takes its’ toll on me, y’know? I mean, several nervous breakdowns’ worth of toll. Breakdowns that took months to recover from. Functioning labels are largely based on how well someone can pass for NT. Because it makes NT people uncomfortable when we don’t pass. That’s all it is. It’s about the comfort level of those around us. Not as to whether it actually helps us.

The IQ test was specifically designed as a measure of academic development relative to age, and the scientist who came up with it EXPLICITLY declared that it should not be used as an intelligence test.

bzedan:

girlsgetbusyzine:

writeswrongs:

cumaeansibyl:

coffeeandconlangs:

Unnecessary “fillers” in our speech. I’d rather have “like” than up-talking, though (if we had to choose one, that is). Ewwww, up-talking. Then again, a combination of the two would render me homicidal maniac.

Like, did you ever notice? That, like, the speech patterns people, like, think are stupid?  Are, like, commonly associated with, like, women?

And, like, there’s this thing? Where, like, women aren’t supposed to be, like, assertive? So they, like, qualify their speech? Because, like, we’re not supposed to, like, stand by our opinions?

1) humiliate women so they don’t feel qualified to speak authoritatively about anything

2) humiliate women for speaking in such a way that reflects how you treat her

3) laugh, you are superior because you don’t use words like “like.”  It isn’t as if being a huge stupid asshole has ever made you worse than a woman who speaks with verbal tics.  

And like? It is super annoying when the speaking habits of a particular area or sub-group is treated as ignorant, because they don’t live in somewhere considered smart.

Has anyone like, noticed that NASA/Caltech JPL is located in the San Gabriel Valley? So like, the VALLEY GIRL VALLEY is actually the home of the super-smart aerospace engineering types that run the unmanned space probe program, which is totally more successful than the vaunted manned space program?

(via theprophetlilith)

quickhits:

Boy finds loaded assault weapon in movie theater bathroom.

9news.com: A 9-year-old boy found a loaded handgun inside an Ybor City movie theater bathroom on Father’s Day.

The gun was a Glock 26 9mm.

“My son opened the door and immediately said dad there’s a gun in the bathroom,” recounted Wesley Noland, the boy’s father.

Noland was at the Muvico theater in Centro Ybor with his two sons to see the new Superman movie.

He said the weapon was sitting on top of the toilet paper dispenser.

“When I was in the bathroom there were two other fathers and three kids and the theater was very busy and the place was full of kids and families.”

Noland, an ex-Marine who has a Concealed Weapons Permit, said he immediately secured the handgun and called police.

“That the gun could have been picked up by a child, or it could have been picked up by a convicted felon or a rowdy group of teenagers or something like that,” Noland said. “But in any case, it could have been used in a crime or accidentally discharged and it could have killed somebody in the theater — worst of all a kid.”

The Glock 26 semi-automatic pistol was covered under the now-expired Assault Weapons Ban — which means that America is now so saturated with firearms that you can just find assault weapons just laying around.

[photo via Wikimedia Commons]

What is it with certain anti-gun people being downright desperate to attach the scare word “assault weapon” to every firearm ever? Fact is, the Glock pistol is not covered by the federal AWB or any other legal definition of an “assault weapon”.

Can we get over the magic scary word and actually have an honest discussion of the issues?

(via brashblacknonbeliever)

tepix:

freedominwickedness:

widdershinsgirl:

lesserjoke:

antigovernmentextremist:

gerrycanavan:

Jury nullification. Pass it on.

Jury nullification is so fucking important.

This is something that more people should be aware of, if only because (in many states, at least) defense attorneys are actually prohibited from mentioning it to jurors. The law allows a jury to return a “not guilty” verdict contrary to the facts of the case, but not for the defense to inform them of that power or to argue for its application in the current trial.

Again: Jury Nullification has a HORRIBLE history. In American history it has frequently been used to get people off for doing TERRIBLE THINGS TO DISFAVORED MINORITIES.

And this isn’t just in Redneckia either. In the Bay Area in the early 21st Century, a jury of 12 found four men NOT GUILTY for raping and murdering Gwen Araujo because “deception.”

When people talk about jury nullification as a good thing, I think of Gwen.

Or more recently, the Texas man who was found NOT GUILTY of murder for gunning down an escort who declined to have sex with him.

So, it’s a good rule that gets used by bad people.

It’s not a rule at all, it’s a loophole. The principles of Western jurisprudence are very clear that the jury is supposed to rule based on the facts and the law; nullification exists because the jury can’t be forced to return a guilty verdict even when it is blatant that they are ignoring the law or facts.

widdershinsgirl:

lesserjoke:

antigovernmentextremist:

gerrycanavan:

Jury nullification. Pass it on.

Jury nullification is so fucking important.

This is something that more people should be aware of, if only because (in many states, at least) defense attorneys are actually prohibited from mentioning it to jurors. The law allows a jury to return a “not guilty” verdict contrary to the facts of the case, but not for the defense to inform them of that power or to argue for its application in the current trial.

Again: Jury Nullification has a HORRIBLE history. In American history it has frequently been used to get people off for doing TERRIBLE THINGS TO DISFAVORED MINORITIES.

And this isn’t just in Redneckia either. In the Bay Area in the early 21st Century, a jury of 12 found four men NOT GUILTY for raping and murdering Gwen Araujo because “deception.”

When people talk about jury nullification as a good thing, I think of Gwen.

Or more recently, the Texas man who was found NOT GUILTY of murder for gunning down an escort who declined to have sex with him.

widdershinsgirl:

pyrzqxgl:

android-necromicon:

fuckyeahspiritedaway:

musicluvnhill:

mrowp:

Please don’t buy this system.

Technology is getting creepier.

So I know a lot of you like Xbox and I do as well, but I feel it’s necessary to spread this information around as much as possible. 

The Xbox One is just a fail in my eyes and I thought that before I even read this information. I believe the reveal was a joke and all these features just show me how awful it is.

A lot of you won’t care, but I think it’s really important for people to see just how invasive these features are.

SO basically dont buy it.

Orwell never considered they might make you pay to have big brother’s camera installed. 

Some people will say “Well just unplug it when you’re not using it!”

Do you remember to unplug everything connected to your video game system when you’re not using it?

Should you HAVE to unplug everything connected to your video game system when you’re not using it?

NO!!!

Things to note:

The PlayStation 4 also has a camera. It’s sold separately, but it “may be required” for PS4 games and a lot of the console’s advertised capabilities are disabled without it.

The “one in two cams hacked” figure refers to webcams on computers, not cameras on consoles. A general purpose computer is much easier to hack than a specialized console.

A company having patents on a given feature does not mean that said feature has actually been implemented. Sony’s DRM patents are just as extensive as Microsoft’s, and include things like security chips that lock a physical disc so it can only ever be used by one player account on one specific console.

(Source: comradical)

widdershinsgirl:

blackfemalecoders:

“Without Women, Computing as We Know It Would Not Exist.”

Lynn Conway: Dynamic instruction scheduling, superscalar design and completely changed the way microchip design was taught on the university level.

(Source: womenrockscience)