David Brooks’ column in today’s NYTimes titled “Let’s All Feel Superior” begins with the following twaddle: 

“First came the atrocity, then came the vanity. The atrocity is what Jerry Sandusky has been accused of doing at Penn State. The vanity is the outraged reaction of a zillion commentators over the past week, whose indignation is based on the assumption that if they had been in Joe Paterno’s shoes, or assistant coach Mike McQueary’s shoes, they would have behaved better. They would have taken action and stopped any sexual assaults.Unfortunately, none of us can safely make that assumption.”

And twaddle it is. 

I know hundreds of people, hundreds, who, seeing what Mike McQueary saw, would have called the cops. 

I’ve long suspected David Brooks of possessing the kind of smug, neo-con world view that only a tiny fraction of the human population is capable of judgment–a Hamiltonian position certainly, and one that trickles down the legs of conservatives everywhere. What a sad column he has written. How vainglorious and shallow. Twaddle that stinks.

Jackals that the jackals would despise…

The line is Pablo Neruda’s. I remembered it while watching a news roundup of the GOP “foreign policy” debate and hearing the assorted desperados declare that torture is an excellent practice. At one point I thought Michelle Bachman was going to hold up a box of cereal called “Torture Toasties”–”All the human misery children can absorb!” Lost on every one of these bandits is the understanding that abduction and torture never happens in a vacuum. The discontented of the world are acting out of exhaustion and frustration, for long before 9-11 they saw rivers of blood in their cities and towns, saw the blood of children in the streets; the cold war was fought in their villages, the losses were substantial and real in Afghanistan. We armed Afghanistan. We watched it burn. We trumpeted our victory in the cold war. We left people in the dust. The people at Guantanamo are real people. Forget the sophistry and self-congratulatory revisioning of history–Bachman declaring that waterboarding produced real information–a lie, a total lie–forget all that. Just remember that we are holding people in an illegal prison and that we’ve decided this is business as usual. Jackals would turn their backs on us. I salute Senator John McCain for his declaration of dismay at the criminal chatter coming out of the Republican debate. Torture is torture. It seems that we have crafted a world order in which it never stops.   

Editorial: When Actions, Assurances Are At Odds
(Des Moines Register)
November 10, 2011

DES MOINES, IOWA– [Excerpt provided by Inclusion Daily] In the 1970s, Congress created a network of organizations to help protect people living in institutions. Disability Rights Iowa receives federal money to advocate for disabled and elderly Iowans. The organization may be at odds with politicians or owners of senior living businesses, so its leader needs to be passionate and have thick skin.

Sylvia Piper was that leader for 11 years in Iowa, and she was critical of Democrats as well as Republicans. During the tenure of Gov. Chet Culver, a Democrat, she clashed with state agencies over the care of people in two state mental institutions. During the eight months after Republican Terry Branstad was sworn in as governor, Piper clashed with his administrators — and then was fired.

A few weeks earlier she released an open letter to Branstad. She wrote that because of his “political choices, people are suffering and dying on a regular basis in Iowa’s nursing homes.”

While there may have been exaggeration in her statement, she was giving voice to what many Iowans were thinking.

Entire article:
Editorial: When actions, assurances are at odds
http://tinyurl.com/6wpx9h7

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# 4 HEALTH CARE

As Demand Increased, 28 States Cut $1.7 Billion From Mental Health Budgets
(Kaiser Health News)
November 10, 2011

WASHINGTON, DC– [Excerpt] More than half the states have cut their mental health budgets since the recession hit home, while the economic slump has pushed up demand for such services, according to a new report from the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

General funds for mental health — excluding funds brought in through Medicaid and other federal programs — are down $1.6 billion overall between fiscal year 2009 and fiscal 2012, a period when 28 states plus D.C. reduced mental health outlays.

That’s actually a slight improvement from the $1.8 billion slide that NAMI reported through FY 2011. Thirty states increased their budgets for FY 2012, but “these increases do not mitigate the damage that has been done,” the NAMI report noted.

Between FY 2009 and FY2012, four states — South Carolina, Alabama, Alaska and Illinois — cut their mental health budgets more than 30 percent. Ten others reduced their budgets by more than 10 percent.

“Mental health treatment in this country is so fragile, so inaccessible and so variable that taking out that much money really staggers it,” said NAMI Executive Director Michael Fitzpatrick.

Entire article:
States Cut Mental Health Budgets As Demand Increases
http://tinyurl.com/74xqu3q
Related:
28 states, DC cut $1.7B in mental health funding (Associated Press)
http://tinyurl.com/7r8dcr2

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

NEWBURGH – The US Government has filed a civil rights lawsuit against Newburgh-based law firm Larkin, Axelrod, Ingrassia and Tetenbaum, LLP, and one of the firm’s partners, John Ingrassia, alleging discrimination on the basis of disability in violation of federal law.

The firm and Ingrassia are alleged to have discriminated against a client, Lauren Klejmont, on the basis of her disability, by refusing to meet her in their offices because she was accompanied by a service animal, her dog.

See full story: http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2011/November/09/LarAx_suit-09Nov11.html

See full story: http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_19282441

I had the privilege of speaking on Friday last at the 40th anniversary celebration of Syracuse University’s Center on Human Policy, Law, and Disability Studies. The honor stemmed from finding myself in the company of some very principled and accomplished activist-scholars. SU’s commitment to establishing the rights of people with mental illnesses and people with profound disabilities goes back to the late sixties. Faculty at Syracuse like the late Burt Blatt, and the still extant Steve Taylor and Doug Biklen helped to lead the charge that brought the criminal conditions in our nation’s mental hospitals to wide public attention. In recent years they have lead the effort to assure equitable and inclusive public education for children with disabilities. Why should I be grumpy? Because I see how few academics, even in fields like disability studies wake and sleep with the knowledge of institutional and political abuse regarding people with disabilities. The GOP’s basic plan to slash “entitlements” (a term I do not like–as if asking to live was some kind of social privilege) is built on the premiss that our nation’s most vulnerable citizens should be allowed to lose all hope for health and education. There is not a modicum of exaggeration in this claim. Amazing enough. Meanwhile I see calls for papers theorizing the disabled body, as if life in the streets was simply a settled matter. I see in the literary sphere conferences like the redoubtable Associated Writing Programs, the “AWP” where, if you examine the panels of academic creative writing types you would never know that human rights violations against people with disabilities are legion or that the Los Angeles County Jail is the US largest psychiatric hospital. I have the utmost respect for scholars who believe ardently in scholarship that transcends the ingrown and static preoccupations of much that merely passes for progressive teaching and research in our time. I am worried that non-speaking people with autism who are keenly literate may never find jobs. I worry a good deal. I discomfited alright. And I’ll be darned if I’m going to shut up.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Viaticum

When you go ten miles away

I'll go along for nine miles.

Then I'll leave you a hairpin

As a compass for your route.

Pao Yu

(Translated from the Chinese by Kenneth Rexroth)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Serotek conquers a new frontier for blind veterans

Media Contact: pr@serotek.com

(612) 246-4818. Ext. 104

Technical Contact: info@serotek.com

Minneapolis, Minnesota – November 11, 2011 – More than 13% of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have suffered severe eye injuries that result in blindness. In recognition of this year's Veteran's Day celebration, Serotek Corporation is offering all blind veterans a lifetime subscription to its popular System Access Mobile Network (SAMNet).

SAMNet is Serotek's renowned Internet communication portal that delivers the most complete content ever assembled for the blind. With email, news, blogs, podcasts, streaming radio, described video service for thousands of movies and more, veterans will have access to a new world of communications right at their fingertips.

"For many veterans sight loss is the new battleground," says Serotek's Chief Executive Officer, Mike Calvo. ""We want to do our part to help them face the challenges ahead with the same tools and confidence they showed in service to our country."

To that end, Serotek is offering lifetime access to SAMNet for all legally blind U.S. veterans. Individuals who can provide proof of status as a legally blind veteran will be eligible for the program, which will officially kick off on December 15. In addition to the wide array of content already available on SAMNet, Serotek will further customize the service by creating chat rooms, forums and other exclusive communication channels to help facilitate networking opportunities among veterans.

To stay on top of this latest initiative, please subscribe to the SAMNet-vets mailing list, where you can learn more about SAMNet and the program specifically designed for this segment of the country's wounded warriors. You can also get an overview of SAMNet and other Serotek products, and you can begin a 7-day free trial of these products and services by visiting http://www.satogo.com. Serotek looks forward to welcoming veterans to the SAMNet community, and the company is proud to offer this simple, intuitive means of connecting with family, friends and the world.

About Serotek

Serotek Corp. is dedicated to accessibility anywhere for blind and visually impaired people around the globe. Based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the company is led by a growing staff of blind visionaries dedicated to expanding an accessible digital lifestyle through innovative, affordable and easy-to-use products. To learn more about the company's growing range of products and services, visit http://www.serotek.com

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Shocking New BSDC Abuse Details Emerge After Newspaper Pushes For Records Release
(Omaha World-Herald)
November 8, 2011

BEATRICE NEBRASKA– [Excerpt provided by Inclusion Daily Express] The special-needs resident kept taking off his shirt one hot day last summer at the Beatrice State Developmental Center. 

And that annoyed Cameron Barnes, the man's caregiver.

So when they entered an elevator, Barnes told another employee who was with them, "You might want to turn around for this one." Then Barnes slammed the resident's head into the elevator wall at least six times, eliciting screams of pain, according to an arrest warrant affidavit unsealed Wednesday in Gage County Court.

Moments later, Barnes encouraged the co-worker to feel the bumps on the right side of the resident's head.

It's just one incident of abuse described in affidavits from a Nebraska State Patrol investigation that has produced more than two dozen felony charges against five former staff members at the center.

The court records became available Wednesday after The World-Herald raised a First Amendment challenge to keep an important judicial case open to the public.

Entire article:
Beatrice chokings, punchings detailed
http://www.omaha.com/article/20111103/NEWS97/711039917
Related:
BSDC arrest warrants unsealed (Beatrice Daily Sun)
http://tinyurl.com/84yhs6w
More details released in alleged BSDC abuse (Beatrice Daily Sun)
http://tinyurl.com/7hd3aa4
Beatrice State Developmental Center (Inclusion Daily Express Archives)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/institutions/neb/bsdc.htm

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# 3 EUTH