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My thoughts on the debate.

BOTH candidates made crucial mistakes in the eyes of this special educator.

Romney said “disabled child”
Obama said “autistic kid”

They didn’t use People first language, which puts the person before the disability.
Here is what they should have said…

Romney “child with a disability”
Obama “kid with autism”

Yes. It does make a difference.

Hasselhoff, Civil Disobedience, and Castles

So this week consisted of mostly classes and other such boring things. I went for a run through the park and met a lovely police officer. I got to touch / stick my finger in a vena cava. I made pumpkin pancakes, mac and cheese, and peach cobbler. But, I promise, some exciting things did happen!

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People First Language

Just going to throw out there, that if you are discussing special needs or anything about individuals with special needs, always put the person first.

Similarly to the fact that it would be inappropriate to say “The schizophrenic person” it’s equally rude to say “The autistic child” or the “special needs individual”.  You put the person first because there is more to the individual than their disorder, disease, condition, etc.  You would say:

The person with schizophrenia

The child with autism spectrum disorder

The individual with special needs

People first

When it comes to managing a technical team, if you are thinking about what the technology can do or how much code can you get them to write, then you are doing it wrong.

It is about what people can do with the technology and what a team of people can produce. Not the other way around.

Remeber the fundementals. People first.

A well focused team with great communication will over-perform in the best way possible. Clear, respectful and open communication is the secret to a successful team.

My Small Town: New York City

image

When you look up New York City in Google,there are literally millions of pictures, links, and stories about the grandness of my City. The towering buildings, large-than-life sized parades, the Avenue Of the Americas. This City  jolts you, it’s sheer massive size (and population) is electrifying. I have had my heart at the top of the world. This City will stop at nothing to keep moving; it’s the sad fact that turns so many people off about New York. Forget about sleeping, the City won’t even stop to hear your cries, to console your heart and mind. It is a ride that moves thousands of miles per second.

You want to get off the ride?

Fine. But don’t think about getting back on the ride, because the rat race will still be there. Back in college, when I would visit my parents house, through my window, I used to hear a man kiss his wife, open his front door and start his car to commute to work. It  was four o’clock in the morning. Every week day, he would do the same dance with New York City.

The People Connection

On the other hand, the ironic thing about New York is the smallest of it. Through the years, I have met friends, gone to events, and collected a support group of sorts. All of my misfit, brain, and good folk friends have shared the Empire State with me. The countless “one more” drinks, coffee breaks, ear drum busting music filling our souls while we try to conquer this impenetrable Metropolis.

Have you met….? Why yes I have many times.

With a City of 8 million souls, the idea of running into the same people can seem counter intuitive. There’s just too many people. Yet, this blog post was inspired by email with another introduction not needed. The social circles widen, the go-away parties/sleepless nights are replaced/done in tandem, with weddings, births and promotions. You discover your friend is friends with your co-workers, your ex, your boss. New York starts to feel very small. And Connected.

I started my adult life in New York City wanting to tame New York City. The Empire State will be under my rule and I will break all the rules. It’s funny because New York has tamed me. The uncharted lands have become home, and I want nothing more than cook a dinner filled with love and kinship for my brethren.


“We must abandon invisibility as a goal for interfaces; it’s misleading, unhelpful and ultimately dishonest. It unleashes so much potential for unusable, harmful and frustrating interfaces, and systems that gradually erode users and designers agency. Invisibility might seem an attractive concept at first glance, but it ignores the real, thorny, difficult issues of designing and using complex interfaces and systems. We might be better off instead taking our language from typography, and for instance talk about legibility and readability without denying that typography can call attention to itself in beautiful and spectacular ways. Our goal should be to ‘place as much control as possible in the hands of the end-user by making interfaces evident’. Of course the interfaces we design may become normalised in use, effectively invisible over time, but that will only happen if we design them to be legible, readable, understandable and to foreground culture over technology. To build trust and confidence in an interface in the first place, enough that it can comfortably recede into the background.”

No to NoUI – Timo Arnall

So much yes in this post. 

While I was at YLF we had a speaker

and her entire speech was based off people first language. It really hit home, like instead of saying “oh the wheelchair girl” say “Sarah, the girl that uses a wheelchair.” or “that black kid” say “Ryan, he’s of African American descent”

We’re all human, it doesn’t matter if you’re differently abled, or ANYTHING. We’re people first then our differences. But our differences make us all unique.

Inclusive Language, Exclusive Language, Limiting Language

People first language. 

The concept behind people first language is that an individual is so much more than the limited information indicated by one label. I’m not talking about the derogatory, offensive terms like retarded and faggot. I get very little argument when I speak about how these words are not acceptable in any situation.

However I still hear a great deal of “label first” descriptives. Descriptors like autistic student (just read that in a tumblr post that prompted this response). Special needs children (that was in a webinar about equity and inclusion, believe it or not). Learning disabled kid, handicapped, blind man, fat kid, blonde woman, gay man, cancer patient….

Can any one of you think of one single word that describes you fully? I know I can’t. We are so much more, so multi-faceted, so incredibly interesting, don’t limit us by describing someone with a label first.

Is it worth it to you to challenge yourself to use people first language? 

powerful words that stuck with me

We were talking about autism in class one day and someone mentioned the phrase “autistic child…*something something something*” and right away our prof corrected them by saying something along the lines of “We don’t define them by their disease. Saying autistic person *child in this case*, means that they are essentially human second and disease first. The correct alternative is ‘child with autism’ in this case”.

Just something that stuck with me.

“He has the social skills of a disabled cow. I'm sorry, a cow with a disability.”

—Rachel

An Open Letter to Ann Coulter- in response to her tweet during the final presidential debate

specialolympicsblog.wordpress.com

An open letter from Special Olympics athlete and global messenger John Franklin Stephens to Ann Coulter after her tweet during last night’s Presidential debate:  ”I highly approve of Romney’s decision to be kind and gentle to the retard.”


Sometimes people can be so - disappointing. I admire this guy’s ability to respond with such civility. 

in case you haven’t noticed, i’m that damn liberal tree-hugger your grandpa warned you about

“Whatever women do that seems to separate them from “true” motherhood is seen as misguided, or at worst, selfish. If we formula feed we’re not giving our babies the best start in life. If we work outside the home, we must do it with tremendous guilt and anxiety. Time away from our children in the form of an occasional movie or hobby is seen as a treat rather than an expected part of living a full life.”

Jessica Valenti, I’m Not a “Mother First” (The Nation)

I’m really tired of being told I’m not a good mom, or that I don’t love my children enough, because 1) I divorced their father 2) I work full-time 3) I sometimes go out and do things WITHOUT THEM. 

THE HORROR. 

Growth is GOPstopO programming


The Authors of Genesis respond !!

You might not think we were there but we were there !! God personally invited us up into a cloud where we could clearly observe the entire Adam and Eve affair and then report back for the peopling of Israel and of course Go West Young Man …

I thought it was Adam that told you everything ex post facto. No no that would be heresy !! you mean hearsay?


GOPstopO programming is truly ingeneous because it has everyone arguing on behalf of the GOPstopO.

Now for those of you that are newly swept up into the GOPstopO confidence game, alternatively titled, “business must grow”, this is how it works (just turn on MSNBC or FOX for proof):

So here’s a Democratic, and “He” is going on about something and here comes a GOPstopO who says, “Well surely you agree that business must grow”. To which the Democratic immediately springs to attention and dutifully says O yes Sir, Yes Sir, of course, Sir. And then the GOPstopO exits with the line, carry on, (aside: schmuck).

Jaggin Johnny is getting pretty good at this, Ole puss jowls McConnell, though, needs some serious lipo and nip tuck.Watch out for that twitch, Mitch.

So the Obama crew got wise, they just flat out hit the pavement in Detroit City, with grow grow grow jobs jobs jobs. So there really is no difference in this regard, if there ever was. Afterall they’re one party, so they all want the same thing.

The reason this continues is that no one in the USA is allowed to understand that Communism is an evolutionary inevitability. It’s like death, there’s nothing you can do, it’s going to happen. But it doesn’t happen immediately. So the big boys that are living better than you can possibly imagine will either be dying with cancer of the asshole or are dead already before they’d even notice.

But democratic-republican programming on autopilot like Unix and Fortran makes you believe that Communism means immediate violence, lime pitting the GOPstopO, giving “their” White women to the Black Panthers, their homes to Gay male prostitues on crack and then making all of those nice men and women that trade stocks on Wall Street go clean toilets or wash dishes. Violence only happens when Nazis are hired to convince you they are the solution to communism. The whole thing is kind of like … Niagara Falls:


But if Government supplies the subsistence needs for all of the citizens in the USA, then all that’s left is the greed and avarice of business; and then that would be their problem, not ours

That’s their attitude towards us why should ours be any different towards them? I guess that’s why they purport to be or are Xtians. I’m not; so I don’t “turn the other cheek”: they say fuck me? I say fuck you. Get hip, they’re due no sympathy.

Right now, as a Nation of People, we are at the most important place in time and circumstance, wherein it shall be determined what the remainder of our lives shall be. We can, by Free Will, make that determination, ourselves, or we can allow business to make it for us, through their direct agency, the Democratic- republican Party. It’s that simple.

Think of it as a stage or plateau, or maybe a sort of video game - viz., the reality of USA capitalism is that a portion of it’s success is totally dependent upon the abject exploitation of the basic needs of humanity - i.e., if you, through your government provide subsistence to each and every citizen, then that part of capitalism dies because it’s purpose and means for existence dies. So if you want it to live then you shall serve it and it shall exploit you and drive you into the ground by depriving you of the basic subsistence needs that every human being requires.

Here’s the catch. By allowing that Old form of capitalism to die the remaining parts prosper.

Now this may seem strange to some people but to those that truly understand Communism, it makes perfect sense, because communism only becomes inevitable when Bourgeois Society has reached it’s ultimate ability to grow at which point it begins to fall apart and give way to Communism - that is - all distinctions between the Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat cease to exist.

So in actuality this is the GOPstopO’s problem because they’re the ones that represent the greed and avarice of business and the sole means by which this greed and avarice exists and continues is by forcing you to be at the complete and total mercy of private business to supply all of your basic subsistence needs, which you may then only acquire if you work for them as an indentured servant

While they seem to be talking the talk, what they are actually doing is supporting the various industries whose way of doing business is obsolete - Exxon in particular - which serves as the greatest of all imagineable drags to Our Progress as a Society and Our needs as people, fuck the business bullshit, they had their 100s year go at it. Let Our wealth be measured by the healthy existence of every citizen providing for all citizens’ basic subsistence needs through Our government. You want more? Go to the private sector, and now you’ll actually be able to afford to, while not going cold and hungry.

People in the USA tend to think of everything as the reality of their own mind.

I look out across the hilltops and there are so many trees I could burn them all and never run out, but the other 16,000 people that live here couldn’t, especially if some unregulated private property business comes in clear cuts the hills and exports the whole load to some foreign country. So what do “Americans” do? O we’ll compete for the trees and the “Man” that wins can then do whatever “He” wants with them. That’s the GOPstopO’s freedom and democracy. So as soon as we start thinking in terms of the community and the best way to utilize these limited resources instead of allowing business to do it - which is what the Democratic-republicans want. Then the better off we’ll be.

And we ought to encourage women to do likewise, rather than longing for these winning Alpha males; behind every great man is a great woman? Well in this case it’s most likely her pussy that’s making the guy cut down all the trees and that’s probably all Ayn Rand longed for too, some guy to do something like that for her pussy. Yep, that’s them, they live in the Frank Lloyd Wright up there where all the trees used to be. O dear we must invite them to the inauguration !!

Get up and Go with Joey Blow !! grow grow grow jobs jobs jobs fight fight fight win win win pussy !! sigh I think I’ll write an epic novel about it; how I adore AM radio advertising.


GOPstopO programming (along with their subsidiary Democratics) is made possible by the Thomas Jefferson ideal that you can force people to do things on the basis of a majority vote; and then if that doesn’t work … kick their ass? Of course military spending is a problem, you saw what happened to tommy’s friend.

In Contrast

The Federalist* ideal is that a majority cannot deprive people of the commonly recognised Rights of Persons, whether this is under pretense of majority rule or anything else - unless there is a compelling interest to do so - that is - an express duty, purpose and obligation of government cannot be done in any other manner; and thus, that the primary purpose of government is to protect Civil Society from arbitrary deprivations, paraphrasing our 1st US Supreme Court Chief Justice, John Jay ‘neither the power of the many over the few nor the power of the few over the many’; and that anything short of that is either a State of Nature or mob rule.

Consequently, “limited government” has two separate meanings to a Federalist as opposed to a democratic-republican.

To a Federalist, limited government means, that government has no Right to wrought such deprivations -e.g., under color of States Rights, majority rule &c, which is pretty much what the Radical Republicans attempted to redeclare with the 14th A. US Const; and why enactments in pursuance of that authority are considered by the US Supreme Court as “remedial” in nature.

When Hamilton wrote that the Courts are the least dangerous department in the Federal government it meant and still means that the Courts duty and obligation is to assure the vindication and protection of the Rights of Persons and other rights and has no Legislative or Executive capability or function

As happened, from time to time, the Courts have laid down a principle of law and Presidents have said, ‘go piss up a rope’; and what can courts do in that situation? Nothing, because they have no executive power to carry out their decisions.

Now this is an important distinction, because in England, the Judiciary was created by the Crown, as a Division of Labor; so that the Powers possessed by the Judiciary had been the Powers of the Crown and the creation of the Judiciary was a Legislative function, whereas the creation of the House of Lords was a function of war and aristocracy - viz., you are my officers in our victorious battel, I as Lord of this Land bequeath to thee …. And thus, in certain situations, by virtue of the origins in Curia Regis, the House of Lords had - e.g., final say over the decisions of Kings Bench (the highest court); and the Power of Equity, once an extension of Papal rule, by the eccelsiastical courts, was eventually assimilated into the Power of the Throne, by exercise of Sovereign Prerogative.

So from this division of labor certain duties and obligations which began as a sort of new shoot on a plant became a new plant

But the conflicts regarding supreme authority went on for 100s of years in England - viz., whether the power came from the Throne, in obligation to the people, as according the the Great Treatise of Bracton or whether as alluded by Blackstone, I Blkstn 156-167, from the people, thus represented by Parliament So to settle this sordid affair, there was a new beginning, the creation of an independent Judiciary, which was extremely important to the Federalist Party which sides with the ideal that sovereignty is an inherent quality of each individual, (Jay, Ibid) that we the Citizens are “sovereigns without subjects” so that the creation of these various divisions were by the Supreme Law of the Land with the necessary and proper incidentals thereof left to Congress.

To anyone with a classical understanding of law, as opposed to what is apparently imposed on the mind by the USA fraternity system, State or National sovereignty as explained by Vattel and others, is an extension of individual sovereignty. The Rights of a Person are extended to be rights of the CORPORATE state. There is no other way this could happen. The corporation is comprised of people, but when those people die the State still continues. The 11th Amendment doesn’t change that it simply forbids the sovereign individual from suing a State unless the majority of the State allows it and in other regards Congress allows it by remedial legislation.

Abolishing the 11th Amendment would end the war on women and a lot of other remnants of Confederate Nazi horseshit that ought to have been put away a long time ago.

Conservative people like to say that FDR corrupted this independence - e.g., with his court packing scheme - the fact is that the independence of the USA Judiciary was never seriously challenged until the Presidency of Richard M. Nixon, and was then continued by RayGun and the GOPstopO Presidents thereafter.

In short, they want to be the sort of King that would fire a Judge because he said that the ultimate sovereign power resides with the people

And the principle reason Judicial Independence was never challenged is precisely because of it’s independence. It’s sort of like having a talking head and threatening to slap it silly if it doesn’t shut up. But in order for everyone to be a Conservative you have to have everyone believe that you’re Conserving the real thing, the primordial origin, whether it’s the original formula of Coca Cola or the Garden of Eden; and if a talking head says you’re full of shit then it may not appear that you’re really a Conservative at all; otherwise, why or how could it possibly matter? So Nixon resigned.

It reminds me of Salome

And Conservatives continue to assert some alleged non independence with the Chief Executive or the States, previous to Senators being popularly elected. Say what’s that bundle you’re carrying there under your arm wrapped in the black cloak and what’s that muffled sound.

Modern day Republicans have this Holier than Thou phobia about wanting and needing to be Right; that they need to be distinguished as a separate and distinct entity or faction. As if they hold the Chalice, the Shroud, the Arc !! and go to remarkably absurd lengths in their attempt to create this impression.


And it is in consequence of this form of Holier than Thou chauvinism, hyphenated with the aforesaid Majoritarian ideal, that alters the sensibilities of those misled by the whole thing, until the actual meaning, of democracy, itself, is altogether obfuscated; and this is especially true in regard to the meaning of limited government and the roll of the courts

To Blackstone the essence of democracy is the Jury system, where the truth of facts, presented, is determined by peers of the accused. More than likely peers as in the House of Lords; and yet as he says, where the law rests in the heart of the Court.

The Key, is deliberation, once knowing the facts

And the purpose of civil deliberation, under Federalist ideal, is that if a problem or issue is discussed and all of the participants are reasonable and work within the same Constitutional framework, that they will all reach the same conclusion; the final resolution, serving as witness, therefof. The analogy of Courts decisions evidence the existence of the common law.

Obviously, civil deliberation has an entirely different meaning to democratic-republicans

Above all they tell us “that reasonable minds may differ”; Consequently, nothing needs be reasonable with Democratic-republicans, they table that aspect immediately and merely build a majority and then attempt to rule, thereby - e.g., ok fellas let’s all get together and agree on the same things, o you mean get our stories straight? yeah yeah that’s the ticket; and paradoxically, it is this very absence of reason as well as all other semblance of morality, which naturally results in an unstable majority - that is - people stray from one side to another, because the want of reason is nearly as powerful as sex, once basic subsistence is provided. So very little gets accomplished because there is no reasonable basis for agreement, other than bribery, and then as they’re patting their breast pocket, we’re told, it’s “compromise”.

The stark omission, in the case of the USA, is a National purpose and principle.

Which is one of the reasons war is so popular. Differences end at the water’s edge.

So the Federalist Party is sent home and the Democratic-republicans, hurry into Federal office with a Cheese Fit for a King and ready to “bring home the bacon” - The Big Cheese and “pork barrel” politics. America’s staple diet.

If you ever go before a Congressional Panel, say this, “I just want to ask one question: Where’s the Big Cheese”.

The Democratic-republicans figure that the best thing they can do, short of destroying the Federal government altogether, is use their majority to divy up the spoils - that is - use the Federal government to collect taxes and then by majority rule send the money back to the people that will, in return, vote to keep them in office, perpetually, and thus draw a handsome salary and other perqs (perquisites); hold their lapels as great men, drool down their lonsdales and belt down the single malt on every glorious majoritarian victory.

Now we have the crew newly represented by Paul (why is this man smiling) Ryan: do away with all government functions except defense; just collect the money Nationally, divy it up and ship it home in the form of Block Grants - viz., NSA for their cronies in State government - and then the States may spend the booty any way they like - e.g., tax the fuck out of those filthy Jews in NYC and send it on down to Mississippi to help Good Christian White Folks destroy Planned Parenthood and abortion. Here you go Old Miss, Our Bounty from those filthy Jew bastards in NYC. Use it to deprive the Niggers from voting; well, we can’t tell ya what to do - nudge nudge wink wink - but those gotdam miscreant heathen Liberals that stole our Nigras !! so here’s a Block grant with zero mandate - Do what Thou Wilt shall be the whole of the law !!

And because Federalists along with Communists have been proscribed from human existence - within the borders of God Bless America (it needs it) - no one knows, cares or even has the ability to comprehend any alternative.

Working within democratic-republican boundaries is capable of producing only one result. It’s all for business and business must grow

It’s like those little puzzle squares where you try to put the numbers in order. So at election time the democratic-republicans take it out of your hand mix it all up, hand it back, the election is over and viola !! all the numbers are in order again !! and then in 4 more years you get to do it again, but every two, you also get to show them how pissed off you are by voting for the person you actually don’t want to vote for at all. How provincial. See that flag over there, I’m gonna play the national anthem and you salute it. Yes Sir.

The majoritarian ideal also alters the significance of religion.

The Federalist Party always made some allusion and appeal to ‘religious sensibilities’

So at various times, through our brief National history, the post Radical Republicans have resorted to this fact; and it all goes back to their Phobia of needing to be above everyone else with their their Holier than Thou bullshit. The Democratics of course always had this with their Southern Confederacy, the epitome of White Christian Heterosexual Patriarchy. And similar to White Supremacy the contest became who could prove themselves to be the most sexually repressed; all of which eventually led to such things as:

What if Mary had an abortion !! What if Mary was a Lesbian !! that’s why we want to have government force woman pregnant by rape to have the child, ‘cause He’s a coming !! OMG could you picture Jesus Christ and George Washington doing Gay porn; no but I can see far less people interested in Mitch McConnell, doing it or even watching it; but I think if he was caught with Jaggin Johnny that might go Viral. We were watching the game, we don’t know how this DVD got in here. Please Johnny don’t start. It’s making me hard again.

Both factions have been so long on this religious pseudo morality schtick that they apparently thought that if the Pope is with them on abortion then he’s surely with them on Social Darwinism too

Christ talk about obsolescence, it’s either Divine Right ecclesiastics competing with Kings, gee I guess Parliament won that one, no wait here comes Richard Nixon !! Well at least Jews have their own little beanies, but only the men 8-|

Anyway Smilin Paul Ryan turned up at Georgetown University, where Rush Limbaugh called the woman student a whore for complaining that the Catholics deprived her of birth control pills but it’s ok now because she’s marrying a man. So the Pauli crew figured, hey, we’re on a roll with this shit why not !! The response, that follows, by the Roman Catholic woman, is the epitome of the sort of religious sensibility to which the Federalist party appealed:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Awesome report, Chris

I apologize for the adverts. Just pause it after the report.

The remarkable thing about Ryan and who he represents is that they fail to realize that this is Our government, the people; instead they accept and believe as a forgone conclusion that government has been destroyed or is some sort of separate entity, in short, a government of and for business, not people. When this particular Pope was chosen it was absolutely clear that he was going to go hand in hand with the GOPStopO, Christ that must have cost them billions. The GOPstopO are Divine Right Monarchists. They are precisely the antithesis of what Constituted America is. So what does the last of the great Divine Right Monarchs do, takes it out on the women.

I think a Writ of Praemunire is in order.

It all goes back to what i said earlier, “fuck me? no, fuck you”. If you want to interfere with Our lives by imposing your religion, then I for one am going to impose mine against you - until you stop - and the only thing that prevents this from being absolutely equal is your property and democratic-republican apoplexy on invokation by the magic word.

If there is to be a compromise and there shall continue a government for business and a government for people then you ought to insist that the government of the People maintain, in all aspects of government, a preferrred position over business. Just ask yourself, “who is it for” Ryan makes his and Mittney’s position clear in the clips, according to them it’s for business you’ve been divested. I have one thing to say to that

Fuck you too.

~~~~~~~

* Footnote - Federalist, refers to the original Federalist Party - e.g., (amongst others) George Washington, John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin; and James Madison (before siding with Jefferson’s Democratic-republican Party). Please do not confuse and confound this with “the federalist society” which is actually the anti-thesis of what the Federalist Party stands for and are actually anti-federalists which was/is the Party that opposed the Constitution. The federalist society are from the States Rights Goldwater coalition.

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