If you’re looking for an alternative to reading about the shutdown, Matthew Baldwin is writing for a month about his son, who has classic autism. Here’s the first post. It’s really good.
Here’s an open thread.
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R-Jud
My Bean’s autistic. I don’t know whether to thank you for this or not, as I am now imagining her getting away from her class on a school trip…
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
Thanks for the great diversionary reading tip. It’s quite good.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Me personally, life is oddly good – got a new job. Turns out they are in desperate need of experienced electronic technicians now. Back in the work force and yes, deliberately used up all of UI so suck on Ted Cruiz. Even better my old boss at the defense sub contractor wants me back; if the House can ever be bothered to pass a serious budget, since there is like three years of order backlogs that will need to be done next year. Nice to be 50 years old and wanted as an employee.
Savor that last bit for a moment – the conservatives are the ones who fucked up the Military Industrial complex in ways the left never dreamed of doing. The teatards really seem to believe the military is some kind of militia that needs no public funding. I suppose they think we can just offshore DOD equipment production to China or Russia.
jurassicpork
After a year-plus sabbatical, Assclowns of the Week roars back with a 94th edition. On the spit this week: The Republican Party, Ted Cruz, Guido Barilla, John Boehner, Sarah Palin and much, much more!
cactusjackwallace
Thanks for posting this. My lovely little girl is high functioning autism, but the thought of her wandering off fills her mother and I with fear. Once she slipped away in a crowded park and that was the longest 5 minutes of my life. I can’t imagine how Matthew felt.
WereBear
Congrats! And yeah… Teahadis: so stupid they have lapped themselves and are now working for the Left!
jibeaux
@R-Jud: For what it’s worth, buddying up and repeatedly counting heads are pretty much constantly done on field trips. I chaperone them regularly, usually only have 3 to 5 kids to track.
ericblair
@WereBear:
It’s because they’re firmly and utterly convinced that The Military is not The Gummint. It’s also hands-down the most soshulist part of the country, which is totally ignored. There are a bunch of double-dipping ex-military, GI bill, TRICARE or VA-using, DoD civilian teatards who will tell you straight up that nope, the gummint never did anything for me, no sir.
R-Jud
@jibeaux: Oh, I know, I used to teach first grade myself. It’s just an irrational fear I have. And it’s impossible not to worry about a kid who likes everyone and who, 50% of the time, will answer the question, “What’s your name, little girl?” with “You!”
We’re trying to use the scripting thing to our advantage by getting her to memorize our address, but it’s tough.
Belafon
Reposted from an earlier thread:
From DailyKos, Andrew Sullivan may be hitting his broken clock moment, but all the bells went off at the right time, The Nullification Party:
Higgs Boson's Mate
My wonderful, autistic son is 26. He is not as severely afflicted as Matthew’s son. He knows enough to know he’s autistic and he keeps on keeping on. He has a job at a local grocery store and this year I taught him to drive because he finally told me that he felt ready to learn. Like many functioning autistics he does some things very well and others not at all. Driving is one of the things that he does well. I didn’t let him see the tears of joy I wept when he earned his driver’s license.
Cacti
If you need morning laugh, the GOP has landed a new celebrity member in Rob Schneider.
You see, it’s California Democrats’ fault that Rob hasn’t made a movie in 7-years. And the reason is because the Dems made California non-competitive.
And all this time, I thought it was because Rob wasn’t funny and couldn’t act.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Cacti:
Next up; Pauly Shore declares his support for Rand Paul.
Violet
@Cacti: It’s not even true. IMDB shows he’s been in several films in the last seven years and had his own (failed) TV show called “Rob” that was on just last year.
What a typical Republican. Blame everyone else for your own problems.
rachel
@Cacti: Yeah, me too. Go figure.
piratedan
sorry to be OT:
per a posted tweet over at LGF, supposedly Tom Clancy died last night in Baltimore
scott (the other one)
On behalf of my fellow California Democrats, may I just say: you’re welcome, world.
Ash Can
@Belafon: I hesitated to post these here, because mistermix’s original post and link deserved to stand on their own and generate discussion. Since you’ve broken the ice, though… :)
Here, courtesy of commenter darthstar at LGF, is a link to an Ezra Klein interview with Robert Costa on the subject of John Boehner vs. the House GOP. It’s not a long read and may have been mentioned here already, but it should be required reading for everyone here. DougJ wasn’t kidding about Costa — his NRO cred notwithstanding — doing a good job of reporting on the House GOP.
Belafon
@Ash Can: Whisper whisper (I wouldn’t have done it if he hadn’t declared this an open thread.)
Ash Can
Also, courtesy of the same LGF commenter, it looks like the Washington Post celebrated its first day under new management by pink-slipping the Magical Balance Fairy. I’d love to see her stay away, too, and not sneak back in through a door some Very Serious Pearlclutcher left ajar for her, but I know better than to hold my breath.
Amir Khalid
From Marc Thiessen’s pointers on hostage-taking:
Is anyone reminded of a scene from Blazing Saddles?
@Cacti:
And, to paraphrase what Roger Ebert once said to Mr Schneider about one of them, his movies suck.
Cacti
@rachel:
Former SNL C-listers can form their own chapter with RNC (Schneider, Miller, Lovitz, etc.).
Ohio Mom
Ah, the memories this post/thread brings… Like the time my little autie did wander off during a first grade field trip. That was probably the fifth or sixth field trip since preschool and the first trip the teachers told me I couldn’t chaperone, it was time to give another mother a chance.
When my kid was about 8 or 9, we worked with a couple of behavorists from a local agency on getting lost and what to do. For months and months. We’d go to the supermarket or the library, I’d slip away. The behavorists helped him learn to recognize that mom was gone and he was therefore, lost. Then they taught him to go to someone behind a counter and show them a card from his pocket. It said something like, “My name is X, I need help. I get confused easily and might not be able to answer your questions. Call my mom on her cell at, Call my Dad on his cell at.” He never had to use the card but it was a comfort knowing we had a system in place that might work if needed.
Now he is 16 and has a cell phone he knows how to use. Hallelujah. Sometimes our spectrum kids make more progress than we think they will. Being realistically hopeful is a challenge to maintain though.
Violet
@Amir Khalid: Saw on the news that President Obama is cutting short his trip to Asia due to the mess in Congress and is going to miss visiting your lovely country.
Gene108
@Belafon:
Changing the rules of the game to make sure their guy wins is not new for Republicans.
They did this in 2000 Presidential election with regards to voter purges and culminating in Bush v Gore. Winning is all that matters to them. Any process that does not lead to a Republican win must be and will be ignored and trampled on.
Watergate was not an aberration. It set the rules of the game for the modern Republican Party, because so many Nixon flunkies became players in the Reagan, Bush I and Bush II Administrations.
Thus we get Iran-Contra and all the Bush II scandals.
And now this tantrum over Obamacare.
rikyrah
Once Alienated, and Now a Force in Her Husband’s Bid for Mayor
By MICHAEL BARBARO
Published: October 1, 2013
She was the seventh-grader too frightened to stand in front of the room because her white classmates would mock her, contorting their mouths to make their lips look big. She was the smoldering teenager who took to writing poems every day to wrestle with her isolation and anger. She was the eldest daughter of one of the only black families in Longmeadow, Mass., who arrived home to see their new house scrawled with racist graffiti.
“I had never had a deep sense of belonging anywhere,” recalled Chirlane McCray, whose husband, Bill de Blasio, is now the front-runner to become the next mayor of New York. “I always felt I was an outsider.”
Now, this onetime student of powerlessness, a woman whose early identity was profoundly shaped by feelings of alienation — because of her race, her gender and her evolving sexuality — is emerging as the ultimate insider: a mastermind behind the biggest political upset of the year and a sought-after voice as the city re-evaluates what it most wants from its first family.
New York has begun to digest the jarring contrasts that Mr. de Blasio, an avowedly activist, tax-the-rich liberal, would provide should he capture City Hall after 12 years of rule by a data-driven billionaire.
Less understood is the role his wife, a 58-year-old poet, has played in molding his political vision and propelling his ascent toward the mayor’s office.
As much as anyone on his staff, Ms. McCray has built and guided her husband’s campaign, thoroughly erasing the line between spouse and strategist.
Political meetings are planned around her schedule. She sits in on job interviews for top advisers. She edits all key speeches (aides are known to e-mail drafts straight to her).
Her encounters with city life directly influenced Mr. de Blasio’s approach in the campaign. Ms. McCray was horrified when St. Vincent’s Hospital in Greenwich Village was razed to make way for luxury condominiums: 30 years ago, despite the fact that she had no health insurance, doctors there kept her alive after an acute asthma attack. So at her urging, the closing of city hospitals became a central theme of her husband’s candidacy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/02/nyregion/once-alienated-and-now-a-force-in-her-husbands-bid-for-mayor.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&hp&
NotMax
Open Thread?
50 men in high heels for a good cause this past weekend.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Ohio Mom:
So true. When our son was in second grade his teacher asked us if we’d mind if he wasn’t in his class’s school Christmas show number. That very dedicated woman couldn’t get him to stop rolling around on the floor during the song. Of course we agreed. Privately, we thought it was hilarious. “That’s our boy.” To parent an autistic is to make the best of it every day rolled over.
Morbo
Open thread you say? How about a video of GWAR covering Billy Ocean?
R-Jud
@Ohio Mom:
This is a great idea. We’re lucky in that our four-year-old can recognize when we’re gone, and has been trained to state her first and last name when asked. We’d been trying to get her to memorize her address, but a laminated card would be good. She’s a bit of a neat freak and likes keeping things safe in her pockets, so she wouldn’t be likely to lose it.
WereBear
Heck, we are all like that. Just depends on what those “things” are.
I can write computer programs in simple languages… yet cannot balance my checkbook without electronic help.
WereBear
@Violet: Gotta admit: when your most famous film is the one where women pay money to sleep with you… THAT’s a serious suspension of disbelief, right there.
Violet
@WereBear: Was thinking the same thing.
Amir Khalid
@Violet:
I suppose the louder Republican voices are going to berate him for insulting us. (It’ll be something to see; Malaysia doesn’t get much in the way of global media attention.) But he’s only doing what any head of state/government must, when pressing domestic matters arise. Nobody ever takes it as an insult.
Botsplainer
The world is a slightly better, less wingnutty place. Tom Clancy died.
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music-arts/author-tom-clancy-dead-66-article-1.1473782
Why can’t this happen to Limbaugh?
Higgs Boson's Mate
@WereBear:
Good point! Autism heightens that characteristic to a point where people who aren’t knowledgeable about the disorder find it incomprehensible that autistics just don’t “get” some of the simplest things when they are so capable of others.
Violet
@WereBear: I know! That film was just so ridiculous–as if it could ever happen. Now the young Richard Gere film…
WereBear
I see Limbaugh going as a combo of Howard Hughes (reclusive, attended only by paid acolytes,) and Orson Welles (the morbidly obese part, not the artistic genius part, natch.)
Mumbling, insane, covered in Twinkie crumbs, and screaming for more scented candles to be lit because he can still smell the stench of his rotting soul…
Belafon
@Botsplainer: Because he pays boys from the Dominican Republican to crawl around in his arteries to scrape the cholesterol off the insides. At least that’s what I think his trips are for.
Comrade Mary
I can’t believe I’m linking to Stuart McLean, but for all his mannered mawkishness, he does have a few funny stories.
Scroll to the September 14 show (“Autumn”), launch the player, and go to the 13:06 mark to hear “The Class Trip”.
Punchy
@Botsplainer: Especially with all the Patriot Games that Limbaugh is playing. He’s become a Clear and Present Danger.
shelly
Don’t forget sweet Victoria Jackson, who compared the Sandy Hook shootings to abortion.
Anoniminous
@R-Jud:
Try writing a little song with your address as the words. Studies have shown the more neural paths to a piece of information the longer the persistence of the info and music is one of the best ways to create a large number of neural paths.
If you can make it rhyme, so much the better.
Burnspbesq
Marty Lederman does a typically thorough and thoughtful job of disassembling the recently declassified FISC opinion on the legality of grabbing bulk telephone metadata under Patriot Act Section 215.
http://justsecurity.org/2013/10/01/kris-paper-legality-section-215-metadata-collection/
Note to Cult of Greenie: This is what quality legal analysis looks like. If you can point to a single instance of Greenie producing work of this quality, kindly provide a link.
Felonius Monk
@Cacti: How can you not put Victoria Jackson at the head of that list? It all has the odor of yesterday’s garbage.
Ohio Mom
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: That story made me chuckle. I could see it in my mind’s eye and hear the tentativeness in the teacher’s voice — my kid’s teachers always seemed a little afraid to make requests like that even though I made sure to regularly tell them how much I appreciated all they did.
I’m sure your son had a good reason to roll around on the floor, just like I know my kid has good reasons to do all the inexplicable-to-the-rest-of-us things he does.
Jebediah, RBG
The “unskewed polls” guy thinks President is “actually gay.”
Well, that no-neck genius was totally right about the election. We should probably trust his expertise on sexuality, too.
Punchy
@shelly: It’s funny and quite sad, because when I think of comedy, I think of Republicans. Or not.
Dennis Miller has to be the best example of such high quality and talented wit completely going down the shitter. I hope he likes radio.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Punchy:
Yep. when Miller brought his act to CNBC (I believe) back in 2004 his inclusion of a chimp was pure comedy lead.
WereBear
True. Dennis Miller’s whole schtick was faux-highbrow references thrown out at lightning speed with heavy sarcasm.
That just don’t play in Conservaville.
Roger Moore
@Burnspbesq:
I think this gets to my biggest complaint about Greenwald. He pretends to be doing real legal analysis, but he’s really doing legal advocacy. He’s doing the equivalent of writing an argument to a jury rather than a briefing for a judge. People who listen carefully to Greenwald are getting at best a highly slanted view of the issue but frequently seem to be fooled into thinking they’re getting the whole story.
Botsplainer
@WereBear:
The biopic would be epic. This one can be done as a big screen extravaganza, not just some piddling “direct to cable” Lifetime film.
I’m picturing Philip Seymour Hoffman in a fat suit portraying the later in life Limbaugh, raging at everything and everyone.
Botsplainer
@Roger Moore:
Problem is, shitty lawyers always get confused and pretend that their shrill, hyperbolic advocacy consists of principles of law when they’re generally diametrically opposite.
Villago Delenda Est
@Botsplainer:
Why can’t it happen to the Dark Lord Cheney? And his entire family?
More proof that there is no god.
Roger Moore
@Punchy:
The Republicans really are funny, though definitely in the laughing at them, not with them style. I don’t think it’s intentional, though.
Mnemosyne
@WereBear:
Dennis Miller is now doing radio commercials for a car dealership here in Los Angeles. That’s where being a wingnut comedian takes you.
Jebediah, RBG
@Mnemosyne:
Wingnut comedy can never fail; it can only be failed.
WereBear
@Botsplainer: Yes! I even have a title:
Death of a Demagogue
I have a gub
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: That’s a great story, and something I could so easily see my own son doing. Thanks mistermix for the link. Matthew’s son sounds exactly like mine, but a few years older. His description of the gum ritual in the car had me cracking up.
The hardest thing for me as the parent of an autistic child is the fear of what his life will be like in the future, given the extra challenges he faces. I appreciate the stories from those of you who have been at this a lot longer than my wife and I. With a little luck, and if the repubs don’t destroy the world, we’ll find a way through.