Warning: Offsite links are not safe spaces. Articles and comments in the links may contain ableist, sexist, and other -ist language and ideas of varying intensity. Opinions expressed in the articles may not reflect the opinions held by the compiler of the post and links are provided as topics of interest and exploration only. I attempt to provide extra warnings for material like extreme violence/rape; however, your triggers/issues may vary, so please read with care.
Photo by Flickr user Ben_Smith_UK, Creative Commons license.
Rhydian Fôn James at The Guardian: Comment is free: We want to work – but government would rather cut costs than help us
The vast majority of pension credit claimants make genuine claims for money to support them in old age. Only a few very strange people would suggest that pensions should be cut for everyone, just because a handful of pensioners play fast and loose with the system. And yet, that is the argument made for the sick and disabled. Why? It is all about the tabloid-stoked perception of anyone claiming disability-related benefits as potential scroungers who are able to work. This line of thought suggests that most disabled people are capable of some kind of work – however minimal – and that benefits disincentivise work. Such thinking allows the government to take a hacksaw to the welfare state in the guise of benevolence aimed at reducing fraud.
Jim Kenyon at Valley News: ‘Temporary Custody’ (content note, descriptions of police brutality)
After going outside, McKaig spotted a police officer standing on the steps leading into Burwell’s townhome. The officer wasn’t hard to miss — he held a high-powered rifle. “I know the man who lives there,” McKaig recalled telling him. “He’s a black man with a medical problem who was recently taken by ambulance to the hospital.”
Two officers — one female — apparently were already inside Burwell’s home. Upon arrival, Cutting said, officers discovered the man inside was unresponsive, and found smoke in the home emanating from a lamp that had been knocked over.
If the officers had stopped on the second floor to look at the pictures of Burwell and his elementary-school aged daughter displayed under the dining room table’s glass top, they probably would have had pretty good confirmation that their burglary suspect was in fact the townhome’s resident.
Shaun Heasley at Disability Scoop: Chemical Castration Drug Peddled As Autism Treatment (h/t Lauredhel, content note, neurobigotry)
However, many medical experts are questioning the claims, saying that there’s no reason to suggest a link between autism and mercury and that there is no proof that Lupron would help remove excessive amounts of mercury from the body. What’s more they are highlighting the risks that Lupron can bring patients including heart problems, stunted growth and impotence, reports the (Fort Lauderdale) Sun Sentinel.
Anna Gorman at the Los Angeles Times: Mentally ill immigrant detainees should receive legal representation, suit says
Immigrant detainees with severe mental disabilities have a constitutional right to legal representation in immigration court, according to a lawsuit filed late Monday by a coalition of legal organizations.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Los Angeles on behalf of six immigrants from California and Washington who have been diagnosed with schizophrenia, depression and mental retardation and are being held in immigration detention centers around the country or are fighting their cases in immigration court.
“If someone cannot understand the proceedings against them, due process requires that they be given a lawyer to help them,” Ahilan Arulanantham, director of immigrants’ rights for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, said in a statement.
AllAfrica.com: Disability Movement Contributes to NCC
Mr Ngwale said 18 disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) with representation from most provinces met from Thursday to Saturday last week at Capital Hotel in Lusaka where it was resolved that Article 53 clause one of the Draft Constitution be amended to address concerns of persons with disability.
Mr Ngwale said in an interview in Lusaka yesterday the disability movement discussed and adopted principally, Article 53 of the Draft Constitution.
Article 53 clause one reads that persons with disabilities are entitled to enjoy all the rights and freedoms set out in this Bill of Rights on an equal basis with others.
Potentially relevant to your interests! I am back at Bitch Magazine for the next eight weeks under the title ‘Push(back) at the Intersections.’ A bit more about what I will be talking about:
I’m interested in how people interact with feminist critiques of pop culture, and I’m not just looking at nonfeminist responses, but also feminist ones. Some of the strongest pushback when it comes to feminist explorations of pop culture comes from within the feminist community, rather than from outside it.
Push(back) at the Intersections is about challenging dominant narratives, starting with ‘feminists united against the world.’ There are, as we know, all kinds of schisms within feminist communities, many of which play out over old and tired ground, including in the world of pop culture discussions.
I’m glad people are noticing the Lupron thing. I sometimes hang around the skeptical blogosphere, in particular the part dealing with the antivaccination movement, and it is utterly horrifying what some of these parents are subjecting their children to. I am getting a bit tired of the constant “but but but autism is so HORRIBLE think of the poor parents!!!” when it comes to shit like this, or like chelation (where I know of at least one autistic kid who died). Especially because the skeptical blogosphere tends to focus more on factual and scientific inaccuracies and often buys into ableist myths about autism and so the actual autistic *kids* who are going through this don’t always get as much attention as they should.
That said, the article is making me :/ with its “but but but autism is so HORRIBLE think of the poor parents!!!”, mischaracterisation of autism (although of course if I actually mention this anywhere I’ll be met with “but you have AS that’s completely different you have NO IDEA what our little demon children are like” ><) and completely buying into the idea that autism is increasing when, you know, widening diagnostic criteria and diagnostic substitution could explain all of the increase. Sigh. Baby steps.
This Lupron thing is really distressing. I mean, when people’s bodies stop making testosterone it can lead to feelings of listlessness, no drive to do anything… that’s not something you should inflict on someone lightly. Also, it’s creepy that they’re giving this to people to get rid of their “sexual behaviors.” Like, the guy mentioned in the article, the 18-year-old, he’s definitely old enough to be in control of his sexuality. It bothers me that his parents would just step in and decide for him that his sexuality is inconvenient and it should go away.