International Badass Activists
Welcome to the Divergent Revolution.
(Originally posted Apr 17 2008 12:00am) My son was born after midnight during the cooler days of May, before the Central Valley could blaze triple-digit temperatures. The delivery room was packed full of people. The doctor, several nurses, my husband, my parents and my mother-in-law were in attendance. As my son emerged into the world, …
Continue reading "Learning to accept my autistic son | By Eve Reiland (nee Hinson) circa 2008"
Cop “Gifts” Attempted Murderer in Court with Bottle of Lotion
Kevin Rojas ambushed and shot an undercover Jacksonville police officer multiple times during a traffic stop in 2016 was sentenced to life behind bars this past Wednesday. In March 2016, Rojas had an altercation with his girlfriend when he produced a gun, fired it a few times and indicated the day may be his last. Rojas then took off in a car and began driving erratically. That’s when the officer who was taking his son to school decided to pull Rojas over. That’s when the then 19-year-old began shooting through the windshield of the officer’s car. Three bullets hit the officer, including in the face. Luckily, the officer’s son was not struck. The officer fired back as Rojas ran away. Rojas then stole a truck and raced back to his neighborhood, barricading himself inside his home after crashing the truck…
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I just finished a controversial new book, To Siri With Love by Judith Newman. Reading this book made me feel like memoirs from autism moms are a thing whose time has come and gone . . . At the same time, I can’t help but believe the publisher who brought this story to market, and the reviewers …
Continue reading "Thoughts on To Siri With Love | John Elder Robison"
First of all, a confession: I think the wage gap is fine. I am paid much less than men with my experience and track record, and I don’t care, because I want to be with my kids. Still, I know many people are passionate about closing the gap. In this post, I will tell …
Continue reading "An open letter to everyone who is concerned about the wage gap | Penelope Trunk"
Peels of thunder as if from the throne
Feels like lightning inside my bones
I throw up my hands
I have no control
I don’t understand
Which way do I go?
I turn to the sky
To the storm cloud
Asking God why
Praying out loud
Peels of thunder as if from the throne
Feels like lightning inside my bones
Drops on my face
Wetness of rain
The amazing grace
Lessens my pain
The howling wind
Move in and bring
Beginning and end
All the angels sing
Peels of thunder as if from the throne
Feels like lightning inside my bones
One of the linguistic areas autistic people have particular difficulty with is metaphors. Sometimes that leads one to being fascinated by metaphors—I am thinking here of Nietzsche and of myself—but even in that fascination, even as that fascination helps one become familiar with metaphors and how they work, the fact is that when I hear a metaphor, I immediately make the literalist association, before jumping to the metaphorical meaning.
Hyperbole—that is, overstating things—is a kind of metaphor. For the literalist mind, hyperbole is itself difficult. You are more likely to say things as you literally see them rather than providing sufficient hyperbole to be polite. And heaven help an autistic trying to be romantic! That will require careful planning to figure out what hyperbolic statement to say before it’s said, meaning spontaneous romantic sentiments aren’t likely.
Our daughter, Melina, has a hyperbolic statement she uses all the time: “You’re the…
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