Anti-vaxxers shouldn’t use my autism to justify their bad choices
Published: Quartz (February 18, 2015)
I still remember the first article I ever wrote about growing up with Asperger’s Syndrome. It was compelled (I’m reluctant to say inspired) by some of the controversial reports that circulated after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting claiming gunman Adam Lanza had an autism spectrum disorder.... Read Original Article
Maturity: Learning It’s Not About You
Published: Good Men Project (February 14, 2015)
Matthew Rozsa discusses three ways in which being mature can be reduced to a single lesson: It isn’t about you.
Everything you need to know about maturity can be boiled down to one lesson:
It’s not about you.
I’d like to claim credit for this realization, but the accolades belong to my close friend Rosalia.... Read Original Article
Don’t blame atheists for the Chapel Hill shootings
Published: Daily Dot (February 12, 2015)
The Chapel Hill shootings are a wake-up call for American atheists.
Although there is still uncertainty about Craig Stephen Hicks’ motives for murdering three Muslim students at the University of North Carolina, much attention has been drawn to his outspoken atheism. “The man’s bigotry clearly had a role in this, and the source of that bigotry was ‘anti-theism,’ as he himself put it on Facebook,” wrote one commenter on Reddit’s r/atheism subreddit.... Read Original Article
Why ISIS and Republican zealots have more in common than you think
Published: Daily Dot (February 11, 2015)
If there is one thing we can learn from the Christian Right’s continued response to President Obama’s National Prayer Breakfast speech, it is that religious prejudice isn’t limited to any specific religion. Ironically, the online effort by social conservatives to rebut Obama’s most controversial point—namely, that we “remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ”—wound up demonstrating precisely why he was correct in making it.... Read Original Article
Soul-Searching of an American Insomniac
Published: Good Men Project (February 10, 2015)
I am an American and an insomniac … and that link is not coincidental.
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My insomnia is a distinctly American trait.
Obviously I’m not arguing that only Americans suffer from insomnia, but as a nation we are undeniably prone to it. Studies reveal that roughly 60 million of my countrymen have a hard time going to sleep at night, with roughly 22 percent of the population experiencing insomnia every or almost every night.... Read Original Article