Category: Random thoughts…

Subtitle: It could be…

I really had no inspiration to write anything today because I was working on my non-virtual work related activity locally.

However, I decided to tune-in to Facebook, catch up on my FB News Feed, and the topics, posts, and stories just set me off emotionally!

First it was the pending lawsuit over the election fraud in the US pertaining to the Democratic Primary votes, and then it was various posts regarding the tragedy that occurred in Orlando, Florida. If you don’t know about that one, 50 plus individuals were gunned downed the other night in a Gay nightclub by an alleged Islamic whatever.

The latter was the most disturbing for me because it had to do with guns, secondly because it targeted a minority, and thirdly because the news media is trying to use that ‘Islamic’ card again to place the blame.

My first thought was the Sandy Hook Massacre of children by a young man, Adam Lanza, who allegedly had Asperger’s Syndrome.

If you remember that news cycle, all of us autistics were shivering in fear thinking that our neighbors, friends, and acquaintances might think that any one of us could replicate that same mayhem. And many of us autistic writers immediately got busy trying to debunk the connection of having Asperger’s or autism with violence.

Here we go again! This time it’s another news cycle using Islam or being Muslim as a reason for unfathomable violence, when in fact it probably has nothing to do with it.

When one individual decides to do such horrific carnage, there’s a lot more to the story than their religious affiliation or political viewpoints. Those aspects may play a part, but the root of their decisions to do such anti-social behavior is primarily based on their psychological instability.

There are a ton of catchy labels to attach to those types of psychological profiles including sociopath and psychopath, but labels are totally irrelevant.

What is important is how easy it is for someone that is psychologically unstable to acquire the means to perpetrate such horror.

In the US we have a cultural problem and an archaic aspect of the US Constitution called the Second Amendment. Compared to other World Cultures, the US is an infant. We basically became an official “country” in the late 1700’s, and if one studies the history of other large countries, most are much older and have had the time to mature to a logical way of operating.

Guns and ammunition are still relatively easy to acquire in the US. We have Gun Shows, Gun Stores, and even Walmart sells guns.

Part of the cultural problem is that a lot of US citizens still fear that either the US Government might become a ‘Police State’ and infringe on their rights, or they fear that some criminal might try to invade their home, steal their belongings, and even kill them. The latter I can understand and agree with, and I see no issue with a sane individual owning a handgun to protect themselves or their family.

This latest US mass killing which is marketed as one of the worst yet involved assault weapons which are capable of killing lots of people very quickly, and that’s what happened.

Today is Monday, and I guarantee you by Friday this will blow over in the news media, just like what happened with the mass killing of children at the Sandy Hook Elementary School.

However, before this totally blows over, I wouldn’t be surprised that they claim the gunman was autistic or had Asperger’s Syndrome. That seems to be another easy excuse to use besides somebody’s religion, and there’s another murder trial going on right now where the defense is using ‘autism’ as a defense mechanism.

Will I stop getting on Facebook and avoid social media altogether to avoid being emotionally set off? No, I won’t.

But I will chime in with my thoughts on these issues even if they are not related to autism, because I am scared to death that we autistics will be used again as scapegoats for the actions of maniacs.

To be continued…

Subtitle: It’s start with the letter ‘m’…

There’s a topic that I like to write about which starts with the letter ‘m’. This ‘m’ thing has been one of my closest friends, one of my best healers, and the number one place that I like to go when I need to either escape or find a connection.

We autistics often feel like the “third wheel” or “an alien from another planet”. I’m certain that I come from an “alien oval planet” but I suspect other autistics might feel that they come from triangular or even square planets. 🙂 In the end it doesn’t matter because we just feel different than most people who cross our paths.

However, sometimes ‘unlike beings’ can discover that either they share a certain trait or they share a common interest. And when that happens, there’s a connection between those two different entities.

Creating a connection with someone is how a friendship is started or even a romantic relationship. That bond will hopefully grow to unexplainable proportions that often lasts a lifetime.

The bond that I cultivated at a very early age was with that ‘m’ thing, and over the first decade and a half of my life the ‘m’ thing enabled me to successfully communicate verbally with humans. It was a long process that required lots of work and practice on my part, but it worked.

As an old autistic surveying the chaos in the world with humans that either don’t get along or feel that they need power over other humans, I often think that they need to meet my friend the ‘m’ thing, find some common ground or common interest, and realize that they might not be as diverse as they thought.

This last thought came to me as I was perusing the latest news-bytes in the US about the remaining Presidential candidates, Clinton, Sanders, and Trump.

On one hand it’s quite entertaining to watch either The Bernie and Hillary Show or watch the one-man show, The Donald Show.

Each is trying to differentiate themselves from the other and win favor with the American people in order to be the next US President; unfortunately only one will achieve that honor and the losers will have to find something else to do.

And probably the saddest part of this that I’ve noticed is how the voters get so fired up against one another depending on who they like that they forget they all share the same species and country.

Not all autistics get along either but normally we find some common ground or motive to rally around to unite us. Most of my autistic friends deplore Autism Speaks so that is our thread to unite us, i.e. Light It Up Gold and NOT Light It Up Blue. 🙂

My friend the ‘m’ thing has some unique powers in my view that could help with almost any chaos or disagreement by transcending language, country, or political party with sounds to evoke emotions, and most of the time the ‘m’ thing creates a unifying result amongst diverse humans that is indescribable with words.

If you have your doubts or you don’t believe me, watch the attached video and formulate your own thoughts.

This is my ‘m’ friend at his or her best.

To be continued…

Subtitle: Not too many I hope… 🙂

I was perusing the Internet and stumbled on the attached Huffington Post article which includes several Tweeted photos of interracial couples including a couple of photos submitted by Sen. John McCain’s (R) son with his beautiful wife.

What I have read is that the majority of autistics are innately non-bigoted in the way that we think, and we are less likely to become bigots as we grow into adulthood. Therefore we can infer that bigotry is caused by an environmental occurrence and is not necessarily a genetic predisposition but who knows; since I deplore bigotry of any kind I will assume that is a correct statement.

This article and substance is timely since a couple of US States are attempting to turn back the clock and reintroduce legislation to permit both interracial discrimination and sexual orientation discrimination; i.e. Kentucky and North Carolina.

When I recently read about Kentucky trying to reintroduce interracial marriage discrimination I started chuckling. And the reason for that is I am a descendent of probably the very first legal interracial marriage between a white man and an African-American woman, and guess what state that occurred in, Kentucky circa 1873.

My paternal great-great-grandmother Elizabeth whom I’m referring to above was the product of a white slave owner and a black African-American woman, and for the first eleven years of her life she was an African-American slave. She was born in Georgia and at some point she ended up in Kentucky when she finally became a “Freed Slave” as a result of the end of American Civil War circa 1865.

Now my great-great-grandfather John who was half white and half Native American knew that Elizabeth was a “freed slave” and that did not deter him from falling in love with her, marrying her, and subsequently having three children together, one of which is my great-grandfather.

I reference this snapshot of my ancestry because it got me thinking, “Just how far back did autism occur in my ancestry?”

Since autism is very prevalent on my maternal side but only slightly prevalent on my paternal side based on my research and analysis, I’m wondering if there’s a connection of autism, the story of John and Elizabeth, and the assertion that most autistics do not share the non-autistic trait of “bigotry”.

Therefore, if we’re going to continue budgeting the majority of money for research in lieu of providing support and services for those living with autism, I would like these kinds of questions answered versus what gene combination is responsible for autism. 🙂

I think it’s far more interesting and may lead to new interventions to cure despicable human behavior such as bigotry. 🙂

To be continued…

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/john-mccain-son-old-navy-ad_us_572a2969e4b096e9f08fe4fc?cps=gravity_5059_7124461948081139230

Subtitle: What’s the relationship between the two?

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been trying to put my finger on the similarity that I notice between the current US Presidential race and the frequent rants by my fellow tribespeople.

We have the Reality TV Series, the Republican Primary with the lead star Mr. Donald Trump, and we have the Game Show, Truth or Dare!, starring Sen. Bernie Sanders and Secy. Hillary Clinton. Sen. Sanders keeps telling the truth to the viewers which wins them over, and Secy. Clinton keeps daring him to unseat her rightful place as the Democratic Presidential nominee. 

It’s been so fun watching this, I’ve barely written anything recently! 🙂

Today I was wrapped up into reading all sorts of newsbytes and articles about these two shows and simultaneously thinking about the big day, April 2nd Autism Acceptance Day, when it finally occurred to me the connection between the two.

Angry Americans are finally getting their frustrations voiced by either voting for Sen. Bernie Sanders or Mr. Donald Trump in their respective primaries.

Angry Autistics are getting ready to blast the internet with Light It Up Gold on April 2nd and for the entire month of April.

In fact, we autistics usually use April to really let off a lot of pent up anger towards Autism $peaks and the companies that support that organization, both in personal posts on the myriad of autism related Facebook groups, and by some amazing autistic bloggers and thinkers that really know how to rally the troupes!

One thing that has become pretty clear to me watching and reading about these political reality and game shows is that the media is the glue and distributor that makes or breaks a political candidate, and they are also responsible for the success of Autism $peaks.

I rarely see nor read any media report about the faction that is anti-Autism $peaks. It is completely one-sided with stories about an Autism Walk in Timbuktu or some story with photos about some building that is lighting it up blue for autism! [barf]

In a previous post I suggested that we autistics need an autistic Sen. Bernie Sanders or an autistic Mr. Donald Trump to lead us if we are going to have a revolution to get our autistic voices heard in order to change how money is used to fund autism related research and services. That’s part of the solution.

After thinking about the similarities we share with Angry Americans, I think the most urgent problem to solve is getting the attention of the big media outlets.

So Lighting It Up Gold on the internet is a start, but we need to Light It Up Gold in realtime in a really big way.

The Washington Monument and most importantly the Golden Gate Bridge comes to my mind…

[To be continued…]

Happy Autism Acceptance Day April 2nd!

Subtitle: I guess it’s because autistics like him regardless of what country they live in…

Since the US Presidential election cycle is the hot topic on Facebook in most groups, and we appear to have three frontrunners, Mr. Donald Trump, Secy. Hillary Clinton, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, it appears that we only have one candidate that has been consistent over the years with their rhetoric and their political philosophies.

Mr. Donald Trump used to be a staunch Democrat and a Hillary Clinton supporter, Secy. Hillary Clinton used to be a Republican when she was in college and worked on the Sen. Barry Goldwater Presidential campaign in the 60’s, and Sen. Bernie Sanders has always been a Democratic Socialist striving to help and represent the disenfranchised, i.e. poor people, women, and minorities including people of color.

The video below within the first few minutes substantiates that assertion and they are the same ideas that he is talking about in 2016.

I guess autistics are pretty good at figuring out who is telling the truth and what makes sense, versus who’s faking it with empty slogans and excuses about previous decisions…

YouTube Video: Sen. Bernie Sanders circa 1988

Subtitle: I have no [insert here] idea…

However, I have shifted from apolitical (don’t give a damn) to political (maybe I do give a damn) during this current US Presidential election cycle.

I like to ‘think’ and that requires being objective about others’ opinions in order to formulate my own opinions about topics.

In thinking about a President Hillary Clinton versus a President Bernie Sanders, I have read and thought about a lot of information pertaining to both candidates.

On one hand, I would love to see a woman US President, but on the other hand, I want someone leading the most powerful country on this tiny round small planet that cares about his or her fellow human beings, and represents my interests, not those of large donors.

It appears to me that the US is suffering an epidemic of Dumb Virus.

That has to be the case with so many US citizens attending rallies and supporting Mr. Donald Trump.

In fact, he is so far ahead in the Republican Primary that the Republican Party elite is trying to plot an overthrow at the Republican Convention.

How they plan to pull that off is a mystery! 🙂

However, if they think that they can do that, then the Democratic Party elite might want to consider the same tactic if Secretary Hillary Clinton is the likely nominee.

The reason for doing that is the fact that it is estimated that 30% of Senator Bernie Sanders’ supporters will either not vote or write his name in on the US Presidential ballot.

Should that occur and Mr. Trump survives the plot to overthrow him, he will probably be the next US President.

The result will be a better B-Movie than we’ve been watching for almost a year.

Unfortunately, the genre of that movie has yet to be disclosed.

It might be a comedy, a war movie, a science fiction thriller, or an historical documentary epic!

If the screenwriters of that movie need some ideas, here goes:

a) How the President Lost His Toupee
b) The Battles of World War III
c) The Making of the US Civil War II
d) The iPhone Enigma – cracking the code!
e) The Building of The Great Wall of the United States of America
F) (we’re F**k’d) all of the above 🙂

[To be continued]

Article and op-ed: Nevermind The Election – Bernie Sanders Has Already Won

Subtitle: Because autistics have immense empathy and care about our planet and the people that live on it.

A few years back I decided to be apolitical due to my frustration with the US political system. I concluded that the US is a two party system of Plutocrats and Plutocrats Lite.

However, I have been emotionally uplifted with hope that there is a possibility for change.

And that change is dependent on the leadership of someone special that truly represents the majority of US citizens should you happen to live in the US and be a US citizen.

In my daily Facebook autism related newsfeed I see many posts by members from all around globe posting videos and comments about Sen. Bernie Sanders, all of them reflecting a sincere hope that he will be the next US President.

And they do that because all US Presidents have a significant impact on world politics which can directly affect them and their country.

I am extremely touched that the international autism community has become so involved in the US Presidential election.

We autistics think logically.

We autistics are generally bigot free individuals.

We autistics recognize the truth versus the lies and the pettiness.

We autistics care about our fellow human beings, our fellow creatures, and our tiny small round planet that we all share.

It appears that a lot of autistics feel the Bern!

I feel the Bern and I hope you do too.

Video: Now Is The Time (Bernie 2016)