Just going back to what Velodog said before about whether people with AS should be allowed to vote and be allowed credit and stuff like that... I reckon those things should be determined by whether you are capable of holding down a job, earning a living and paying taxes, not whether you are capable of making what other people would consider to be rational decisions. If you pay into their system, then you should be entitled to participate in it (whether it means anything to you or not), and whether your decisions are deemed rational or not by those who control the system.
I don't think that people with AS are necessarily vulnerable as jurors or witnesses but they may see things from a different perspective. We'd probably be more sensitive and emphatic to certain issues than NT's such as hyper-sensitivity but jury's operate on majority decision anyway so a bit of difference of opinion wouldn't be the end of the world.
I still agree with MacBeth that there is a certain amount of vulnerability associated with AS though. Some people are more high-functioning and maybe have parents who taught them the rules of society better than others, but my personal opinion is that the rules of society are not inherently intuitive to all people with AS and some people pick them up faster than others. I find that I mostly learn from my mistakes.
I'm 100% certain that Gary McK knew exactly what he was doing when he was hacking those computers but I don't think he realised the severity of what he was doing. The fact that he left messages for them to let them know suggest that it was non-malicious.
I'm not saying it's not a crime, but the US are just making a big sensation out of it, like they do out of everything else. Probably because they're embarrassed that they didn't bother to secure their network so now they need someone to blame and need to raise the money to get proper security.
It's pathetic. Gary McK is prepared to admit to what he did and why. They should try to understand him rather than tarnishing him with their NT brush and be reasonable about the whole affair. It's fine to punish him because it was a crime but the punishment needs to be proportionate.
Sam :@
01 Aug 2009, 10:55 am
