Activist Blogging ...

You may or may not know that April is Autism Awareness Month. Well, it is. And my friends at the Annie and Burl Live! Blog Talk Radio show are going to do a special show about Autism on Wednesday night from 10 pm EDST until 12 am EDST (that’s 9-11 central, 8-10 mountain and 7-9 pacific for the time zone math impaired).


They are hoping to have some guests on who can talk about Autism and answer questions from people and maybe cut through some of the more confusing aspects of the condition. It should be a very informative and enlightening show for anyone who has a loved one or friend who is Autistic, or anyone who is just interested in learning more about it.

Also appearing on the show will by my good friend Rockdog. Rockdog is a regular contributor to the Annie and Burl Show, and has had his own personal experience with Autism with his son.

Each year Rockdog and his son participate in an Autism Walk to raise money and awareness. You can check out their team pages HERE and HERE. And while you're there, if you feel like sponsoring Rockdog and his son you can do so from those sites.

And then you can go to Walk Now for Autism and find out where and when a walk will be held in your area.

And then you can go to Autism Speaks and learn even more about Autism.

If you don’t get a chance to listen to Annie and Burl when they’re live then you can always listen in the archives or even download them on iTunes.

And if you don’t get a chance to listen at all you can still go to Autism Speaks and learn more about Autism and what you can do to make a difference.


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And, just because you might not have been outraged yet today, let me tell you what the Arkansas Legislature did this week.

A bill came up that would require insurance plans to cover treatment of Autism. The bill passed the state senate with a UNANIMOUS vote. So, it’s clear that there is a bipartisan consensus that this is a good idea and the right thing to do, right? Not so fast.

The bill then went into committee in the house where it needed 11 votes to go on to the floor where it was pretty positive it would pass. And Gov Beebee had said he would sign it.

It only got 9 votes in committee.

How did this happen you ask? Well, it got 9 yes votes, 2 no votes and NINE COWARDS DIDN’T VOTE.

You know it’s one thing to vote no. Maybe they have a legitimate reason for voting no. I can live with that. But, if you’re going to use your position in the state house of representatives to protect insurance company profits over the well-being of the people you represent, then at least have the decency and courage to actually cast the vote. Fucking pussies.