NOTE: SEE NEW MATERIAL BELOW.

On the Huffington Post, Erik Sean Nelson reacts to Sarah Palin’s remarks about her son Trig in her resignation statement. An excerpt of the piece, entitled “Palin Will Run in ‘12 on More Retardation Platform”:

She said that the “world needs more Trigs, not fewer.” That’s a presidential campaign promise we can all get behind. She will be the first politician to actually try to increase the population of retarded people. To me, it’s kinda like saying the world needs more cancer patients because they teach us such personal lessons.

Her first act as President: To introduce a Pre-K lunch buffet that includes lead paint chips.

Nelson is identified on the site as a fiction author and comedy writer.

Editor’s note: Nelson’s column was last seen by me at about 7:00 p.m. eastern. By 10:10 p.m., it had apparently been taken down.

UPDATE, 5:39 a.m., July 4: Here’s a screenshot of the full Erik Sean Nelson piece, as it appeared on the Huffington Post, and here’s the full text. It includes the lines:

Her policies will increase jobs because Wal-Mart is building new stores each day and someone has to be the greeter.

This will lead to smaller government because fewer Americans will have the cognitive ability to hold a government job.

Readers, what’s your opinion? Was this funny, or did it go too far? And who can explain why was it taken down?

UPDATE #2: Here’s a link to the Twitter responses to Nelson’s piece, many in full outrage mode.

UPDATE #3: An apology from Erik Sean Nelson has appeared on the Huffington Post website, stating that he took down the post after receiving two complaints. Trouble is, his apology has a time stamp of 6 p.m. Friday night, and I viewed his piece on the site at 6:52 p.m.

Here’s the text of Nelson’s apology in its entirety:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin abruptly announced today that she is stepping down as governor, fueling speculation that she is preparing a 2012 presidential run.

In a hastily arranged press conference near her home in Wasilla, Palin said she would step down on July 26. An excerpt from her remarks:

… this decision comes after much consideration, and finally polling the most important people in my life – my children (where the count was unanimous… well, in response to asking: “Want me to make a positive difference and fight for ALL our children’s future from OUTSIDE the Governor’s office?” It was four “yes’s” and one “hell yeah!” The “hell yeah” sealed it — and someday I’ll talk about the details of that… I think much of it had to do with the kids seeing their baby brother Trig mocked by some pretty mean-spirited adults recently.) Um, by the way, sure wish folks could ever, ever understand that we ALL could learn so much from someone like Trig — I know he needs me, but I need him even more… what a child can offer to set priorities RIGHT – that time is precious… the world needs more “Trigs”, not fewer.

Palin’s son Trig has Down syndrome.

(AP/CBS photo)

From the Education Week’s On Special Education Blog, the Arizona Daily Star’s Puzzle Pieces Blog, and Newsweek’s The Human Condition Blog:

Dr. Eric London resigned this week from his post on the scientific affairs committee at Autism Speaks, citing ethical differences over the advocacy organization’s stance on the autism and vaccine debate. London was a co-founder of the National Alliance for Autism Research (NAAR), which merged with Autism Speaks in 2006.

In a public resignation letter, London said he was stepping away from the New York-based organization because it continues to push for research into an autism-vaccine link, which “he can no longer ethically support.”

London said Autism Speaks’s arguments that “there might be rare cases of ‘biologically-plausible’ vaccine involvement…are misleading and disingenuous” and adversely impact autism research and public health.

Alison Tepper Singer resigned from her post as executive vice president for communications and outreach for Autism Speaks earlier this year for similar reasons and started her own advocacy group, the Autism Science Foundation (ASF). London serves on the scientific advisory board at ASF.

Jeff Gordinier from Details magazine writes about his Las Vegas road trip with the serene and restrained Bill McMullen, 28, and his virgin frat boy companion, Otto Baxter, 21, who is hoping to score.

The twist: Otto has Down syndrome, and Bill is his paid personal assistant.

My job,” Bill says, “is to help Otto live his life how he wants to live it.”

This is Otto’s first trip to America, but his story became widely known in the U.K. after his mother, Lucy Baxter, gained media attention “when she went public about a topic of great delicacy, telling reporters that she wanted her son to find a woman who would introduce him to the pleasures of sexual congress—and saying that she would go so far as to help him track one down.”

Lucy Baxter’s point is that her sons are free to make their own decisions; she says she has no intention of becoming Otto’s sexual procurer. “I think it would be fairly sordid to go to a brothel,” she says. “I wouldn’t be all that happy about it. But if that’s what Otto wanted to do, I would certainly not stop him. There is a big difference between what I would like and what Otto would like and what I believe Otto has the right to have. I’ve been speaking about the rights of disabled people—the fact that he has the right to choose—and I won’t stop him in what he decides.”

(Details magazine photo)

Over at the New York Times Motherlode blog, commenters are hotly debating the motives of a Texas woman who plans to adopt a six-year-old Chinese girl with scoliosis. The comments were prompted by the first in a series of guest posts by Jenny Staff Johnson about her adoption journey.

Johnson, who has two sons with her husband Mark, says she always wanted a daughter named Rosemary. She and her husband embarked upon a Chinese adoption, and found the wait was shorter for children who are older or have disabilities. Authorities sent her photos and information about dozens of children. Among them was an unsmiling girl who “appeared to have no physical or developmental problems other than a severe curvature of the spine.” An excerpt

We could handle this? Couldn’t we? Could we?

The stress was far worse on me than on my husband, who is a miracle of certainty in his own decisions. While I thought, read, fretted and cried, he quietly advocated for this to be our little girl. I took a hard look at our lives and wondered whether it might be better[to] minimize risk, to abandon the daughter-dream altogether and throw myself back into work as a writer. I could get a nanny, rent an office, and make a proper go of it as I hadn’t done in almost a decade. This fantasy held sway for about 24 hours, and Rosemary began to recede. But I just couldn’t make the call telling the adoption agency we wanted to return her file. Instead, at the end of the 30-day period and on election day 2008, we made a different call. Bring her home we would.

… Why have we chosen all this? Mostly because we want a little girl in our lives to complement our beautiful, rambunctious boys. And, I now realize, I must have inherited something of an adventure gene from my daughter’s namesake.

Johnson and her family have left for China to bring the girl home, and she will post updates as their journey continues.

See also: Gaithersburg woman helps kids with Down syndrome find homes — [MD] Gazette

By Rachel Dornhelm on NPR’s Morning Edition

People with developmental disabilities like autism and Down syndrome always have a hard time finding work. It’s estimated that two-thirds of them are unemployed.

These days things are only getting worse, advocates say, as almost every state is considering deep cuts in funding for programs that help people with disabilities find and keep jobs. John Kemp of the U.S. Business Leadership Network says negative stereotypes also pose a major obstacle to employment.

Michael Medina, who has developmental disabilities, struggled to find another job after the closing of the store where he’d been working as a janitor. But he was one of the lucky ones. With the help of The Arc, he was hired as a bagger at Trader Joe’s.

Cover story from CommonWealth magazine (registration required). An excerpt:

The cost of special education in Massachusetts is approaching $2 billion a year, but there is little evidence that the state’s huge investment is paying off as hoped.

… A three-month investigation by CommonWealth found what few in 2000 anticipated: The number of special education students, after dropping sharply in 2001, rebounded to near its previous level even as overall school enrollment was shrinking.

Special education children, as a group, are falling further behind their regular education peers every year, and an achievement gap of large proportions has opened between special education students in wealthy and in poor communities.

Comments begin here.

The magazine has posted a ‘correction and clarification’ of the story here.