Free Speech - What Ezra Levant and Stephen Boissoin are Fighting For

What Happens if Jennifer Lynch Gets Her Way

Jennifer Lynch wants to tighten up the Hate Speech areas of freedom of speech legislation in our country, to properly criminalise hatred. I for one do not want her to have anything to do with it. Get out of the hate speech/free speech business like you belong Jennifer. You are wasting my tax dollars, while you mainly persecute people that He Who Will Not Be Named In My Blog thinks are worthy of persecution, not necessarily a good basis, and that nobody else has ever heard of. Oh, and the others that you and your CASHRA colleagues have chosen to behead metaphorically, have spoken the truth, but have offended somebody's feelings, and we have this wonky legislation around the country that allows their lives to be made hell for of all things, telling the truth.

It's really not that bad. What are you going on about anyway, mbrandon8026? Wake up, people. Look over at England to see where we will be in a few years, where offending somebody's feelings gets you, if they have the might of government and legislation they can tweak to their liking to make you dance to their tune.

In the United Kingdom, they have these things called Anti-Social Behaviour Order or ASBO. An ASBO may be issued in response to "conduct which caused or was likely to cause harm, harassment, alarm or distress, to one or more persons not of the same household as him or herself and where an ASBO is seen as necessary to protect relevant persons from further anti-social acts by the Defendant".

Anti-social behaviour has typically included such egregious acts as spitting, begging, fare dodging, dumping your garbage where it does not belong, making unnecessary noise, intimidation and the like.

These cases go before magistrates, and hearsay evidence is allowed, though higher courts can choose to discount hearsay evidence totally, partly or maybe.

An anti-social behaviour order is a Court Order which tells an individual over 10 years old how they must not behave. An Order can contain only negative prohibitions. To obtain an ASBO a two-stage test must be satisfied by the applicant authority. The first is that the defendant has committed acts causing or likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress within six months of the date of issue of the summons. The second is that an order is necessary to protect persons from further anti-social behaviour.

This all sounds like our kangaroo courts we lovingly call HRCs/HRTs.

So, into this nonsense comes Ted Atkinson. Ted, who is now over 80 years of age is a former member of Her Majesty's Military Service, and is active in Pro-Life work, though hobbled by disease. Here is some of what happened to him in his own words.

"On May 4th, 2006 I was convicted at Swaffham Magistrates Court, Norfolk under the Malicious Communications Act for sending pro-life material through the post to Mrs Ruth May, Chief Executive of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kings Lynn.

Mrs Ruth May sent for the Police because this material alluded to the murder of unborn babies. I was fined £500 and was made subject to a 5 year Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO). The hospital placed me on the barred list and will not treat me unless I’m in a life threatening condition. I subsequently discovered that the same hospital murders more than 5 babies per
week.

On 12th December I was arrested for the same thing, this time for sending material to the Adjustamatic bed company in North Wales when cancelling an order for an adjustable mattress. This time I was charged for both breaching the Malicious Communications Act and breaching my ASBO which runs for 5 years.

After a committal hearing at Kings Lynn Magistrates court on Friday, 9th January, I was committed for trial at Kings Lynn Magistrates for Wednesday, 4th March, 2009.

I am already having £5 per week deducted to pay off the £500 fine. It seems that if I am found guilty, I could go to prison for 5 years.

I am 77 years of age, I have diabetes, inflammation around the heart with a narrowing of the arteries, arthritis affecting both hands and a bad hip.

However, I have no trade, no profession, no debts and no dependents so I can afford to place my neck on the block.

I am under no illusions, as the world sees these things, that it is an exercise in futility, like a man who tries to hold up a Churchill tank armed only with a pea shooter and a pocketful of peas, but I can clear my conscience before Almighty God.

Perhaps it shows the double standards that are practised in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital when I tell you that in that same hospital there is a leading surgeon, a Mr Bone, who has undergone a sex-change operation (as if anyone could) because he has some weird notion that he is really a woman.

This ASBO was issued against me to render me inactive and silent in the face of the abortion holocaust. At Swaffham Magistrates Court in 2006 I asked the Judge, Philip Browning if he thought that murdering unborn babies is antisocial but he ignored me."

In Court, Mr. Atkinson said the purpose of sending the images had been "to educate", adding:

I accept that the documentation was highly distressing. It's horrendous, monstrous and sickening but it represents the truth of what is going on in our world. Everyone in this courtroom knows that abortion is murder and no one has the guts to say it.

In sentencing Atkinson, the judge said: "It is clear that you intended to shock and I am certain your purpose was to cause distress and anxiety."

For having forcefully exercised his right of free speech in protecting unborn babies and causing 'upset':

• On 4 May 2006, Atkinson was jailed for 28 days.
• Plus an extra 14 days in prison for non-payment of a £650 fine imposed in 2002 for a similar offence.
• Plus the old age pensioner was told that an order would also be made for £500 of the £700 court costs to be deducted direct from his pension.
• Plus he was given a five-year anti-social behaviour order and was told by district judge Phillip Brown that if he disobeyed the ASBO he faced five years in jail. But Atkinson replied "Then you may as well lock me up and throw away the key."
• Plus his area hospital now formally denies him all but treatment for life threatening illnesses
• Plus his area hospital has taken him off their waiting list for surgery on his hip justifying it with this statement: "Our legal advisers were consulted and their opinion was that this man's actions contravened the Natioinal Health Service Zero Tolerance policy in cases of abuse or unacceptable behaviour towards our staff."

Mr. Atkinson hurt people's feelings by telling the truth. The people who's feelings were hurt were more powerful than him, and had legislation working in their favour even if they had to bend it to their purpose, since it sure did not fit as it was designed.

Mark my words. If we stay silent in this country, this will be our fate. I do not want Stephen Boissoin's blood or the blood of any other martyr for free speech on my hands.

Stephen, if you have the courage to speak the truth as you understand it, do so, not that you need my permission to so do. If my feelings are hurt, I will get over it, though I may pout for a bit. I have done sinful things in my life and I wish someone who spoke with truth and authority had had the courage to speak up to me and tell me I was on a wrong path at those times. I might not have listened, but then again, I might have, and saved myself and people I love a lot of heartache. But, we will never know, will we?

We need people speaking the truth as they understand it in this country. Then we have the chance to build up our own consciences and form ourselves and conform ourselves to the truth. Everything else is Blah, Blah, Blah.

Ontario Human Rights Travesty - Plus 1

I Got Friends in Low Places

You may recall how I started this blog writing about a case involving a friend, a now retired grade school principal who was being harassed by the Ontario HRC here. That particular travesty carries on to its logical conclusion.

There was however a second case filed against her, a sort of second hand smoke case, if you will, which under the circumstances made a lot of absurb Stanley Kubrick style sense, as you will soon see. We recently caught up on a number of things and this second travesty and her handling of it was one of our topics for discussion, so I thought you would like to know.

When she became principal of her last school, she inherited her staff, as is the case, including her secretary. This particular secretary had outlasted several previous principals, not because of her competence, but because of her union card. Many of today's principals are classic enablers and so an incompetent secretary can get by shuffling a little paper here, and a little paper there, and be nice to the parents and kids, though generally accomplish nothing in a day. However, this particular principal had a full plate professionally, and personally as I described earlier, and so her BS tolerance was less than her predecessors. She wanted work to be accomplished on time and with some degree of competence. She actually wanted the school bulletin to be prepared on time, and by the secretary, not by her for the secretary, as an example.

Well, the secretary had never had to work for a living, and she did not appreciate the "feelings" that this generated for her. Feelings, nothing more than feelings. Woe, oe, oe.

If this incompetent woman had worked for me on my staff in industry, she would have lasted 15 minutes on the first day that I arrived in my job. I would have fired her ass, with a smile on my face, and a severance cheque in my hand, and whatever termination benefits were appropriate for someone of her years of (dis)service. However, you can't do that in a school board. So, you set yourself up for what followed.

So, when she saw the HRC claim arrive from the parent against my friend the principal, didn't she get a bright idea. She filed her own HRC complaint, because she claims she was being racially discriminated against. Oh, she also got to be a witness for the case against my friend on the other complaint. No hidden agenda, of course in her testimony, HAH. The investigator probably had a little trouble putting one and one together there and getting two.

Well, in the Spring, the HRC advised my friend and the School Board that the secretary's case had been rejected (after 2 years). They said it lacked merit. No kidding.

Well, I spoke with my friend again the other day, and suddenly it has merit. Give me (or at least my friend) a break. This secretary has refiled her claim, and it now has wheels. Why does this happen? Because it can. It is paid for by our tax dollars. The secretary has no skin in the game, other than the 10 minutes it took to fill in the paperwork. You and I get to pay for this nonsense.

But my friend has a new attitude towards both cases, since she retired at the end of the 2008 school year. She has had a low stress year since then, and sees the world differently. She and her husband have spent over $20,000 defending her against 2 bogus HRC claims for over 3 years.

She has no intention of ever darkening a school's doorsteps again in any capacity, and the board will pay any fine levied against her as a result of this nonsense. She has no intention of spending any more money on this stuff, and does not care what the result is.

The HRC/HRT could in the end order her to take sensitivity training, which was the plan in the other claim. What will she do? She could attend and take a soft pillow. She could tell them to go and perform physically impossible sex acts on themselves, or likely she could just ignore them. They might get her teaching certificate suspended, like she cares.

In the mean time, she has learned to quilt, and the quilting stores love her. She paddles in a dragon boat, and she enjoys her life.

Oh, and she told me to tell you she agrees with Ezra. Fire. Them. All. Or maybe she used another F word. I forget.

Is Gay Pride an Oxymoron?

Festivities in Toronto Last Week should Bring Shame not Pride to Gays Everywhere

I know a young pair of women quite well, who claim to me that they are Gay, and I take them at their word. However, their gayness is such a small part of the panoply of them as individuals and even together that it is not particularly noticeable, nor should it necessarily be. These two women are the two kindest people that I know. You don't have to spy on them to catch them doing some kind act for one or many others in this world. They are pretty out there about it, not by drawing attention to themselves. It's just that whenever you try to get together with them, they are busy doing something for somebody to help them out. So, when I think of a noun to describe them, it is "friends", and when I think of an adjective to go along with it, I think of "kind". Gay does not factor into it. It neither adds nor detracts.

Contrast this with the Pride Parade in Toronto this past week, and these two pictures that have been posted on the internet from it that form part of the collage of depravity that transpired in Ontario's largest city. Please note that there is nudity in both of these pictures. In the first picture, Toronto's Finest look on here. In the second picture, we see a bunch of old men displaying what they were born with in front of the Hudsons Bay store here. Have you no shame?

It is my understanding that public displays of nudity are illegal in this country. Yet, the police of Toronto were only into crowd control. I wonder if any non-gays watching the parade had taken off their clothes and yelled out, "I am not gay", if they would have been arrested. Anyway, if someone were to walk down Yonge Street naked today, I expect that they would get arrested, as well they should.

Our Federal government gave $400,000 for this tourist spectacle. Words fail me.

The City of Toronto scaled back Canada Day festivities but this garbage went on. The City workers are on strike so they won't pick up the garbage, but they let it happen on the street.

The behaviour in this parade was disgusting. It did nothing to make non Gay people supportive of gay people, nor should it make the many well meaning gay people in this world proud of their fellows who were there. The lack of denouncement of the behaviour by the Police of Toronto and the elected leadership of the City was disgusting, and should be reflected at polling time by the electorate.

Stephen Boissoin is not supposed to comment on such depravity because the Alberta HRC forbade him from doing so. They muzzled him forever from "publishing in newspapers, by email, on the radio, in public speeches, or on the internet, in future, disparaging remarks about gays and homosexuals." But really, they aren't just muzzling him, they are muzzling us all. And it is not just the Alberta HRC, but all their fellow members of CASHRA.

So, if you find this kind of disgusting behaviour is not your cup of tea, then continue to say nothing as you have in the past, and watch it grow. Don't forget to "tut, tut" when it goes more southerly than you would like. Oh, and blame the government for it. But, whatever you do, sit on your hands and do nothing about it.

When the world around you goes to hell in a handbag, then look in the mirror, and repeat the following quote from Pogo: "We have met the enemy, and he is us."

Independence Day Weekend- Gordon Sinclair Perspective

Maybe You Remember 1973 It's a Lot Like 2009

1973 was a bad year for America. The US economy was in tough straits, Vietnam ended badly, and friends were hard to come by. But one unlikely curmudgeon, Gordon Sinclair, stood up for our neighbours to the South, on his radio broadcast at Radio Station CFRB in Toronto on June 5, 1973. In his most famous "Let's Be Personal" broadcast, he read what he had just written about "The Americans."

Here's what he said on the radio that day about our friends.

And, here's the background, and what happened after that made it so significant to the relations between our two countries and how it inspired our good neighbours at a time when most everyone else was turning their backs.

Happy Independence Day Weekend, Neighbours and Friends.

God Bless America

Independence - May You Keep It and May you Be Worthy of It

Here, on this Memorial of American Independence Day, is the Preamble of that great document that saw the formation of our great neighbour to the south, The United States of America. Happy Birthday America. It is one of the finest documents crafted by mankind, containing truths that are as relevant in Canada as they are in America, and today as they were in 1776.

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

hen in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.

Speech is Tyranny

Popehat Speaks

On July 1 Popehat had this to say about Free Speech.

Works for me.

Human Rights for All Humans

Conception to Natural Death

I was raised in the Roman Catholic Church, took a sabbatical for a decade, and returned to find that it didn't catch up to me. I caught up to it kinda. Kathy Shaidle calls herself a relapsed Catholic. She has a way with words, that girl. I find that if you take the personalities out of it, and research the teachings of the church, by reading and listening, there is a marvelous tapestry there, but only if you are open to it. Otherwise, you can just call it noise from a bunch of old men, and then not have to engage your brain to think about what the bunch of old men might be saying.

Anyway, the Catholic Church teaches that life is sacred from Conception to Natural Death. That makes the Catholic Church and all others who support the front end of this teaching in opposition with the world that we live in today, particularly with our North American culture of death for the unborn.

Jennifer Lynch, Barbara Hall and the other members of CASHRA are quick to jump on the bandwagon to have us protect the rights of people of different races, colours, creeds, yada, yada, yada.

Heck, we are so afraid of offending Gays, that we invite them to prance around naked on Yonge Street and make complete fools of themselves with police protection while they break the laws of the land. When they are allowed to break the laws of the land in their senseless frivolity, they are denying me my rights. But that is not my real point here.

Human Rights are meant to allow us as human beings to have the possibility of enjoying life, liberty and happiness.

Show me an aborted child who got that, and explain to me why the rights of the mother, who in most cases chose to do what she did, (along with some male who was equally responsibile for the situation), are more important than the child's rights.

My grandson died last year because of the lies that have been told by too many people for too many years about the rights to abortion that women have, and because there are too few people who can stand up and speak for the unborn children of the world.

Big Blue Wave does. read what she has to say here.

Apology and A Lesson Learned

Blogging is Not for The Faint of Heart and Can Get Lonely

On Canada Day, I was sitting at my computer minding my own business, as if blogging about what Jennifer and her horde are doing to the huddled masses is really minding my own business, or at least I started out that way. Then I had a sudden brain wave, or so I thought. Come to think of it, it was accompanied by a little rumbling sound. Turns out some thought it was a collective brain f?rt. Though it might have been a collaborative brain f?rt. At age 59, it seems I have more of the latter than the former, but with diminishing mental capacity I seem to be challenged to recognize the latter from the former in time to stop them.

I have become aware that there are a number of the Bloggers out there whom I respect for their opinions, meaning that I agree with them, not that they are right or that I am either. To me their writings seem to be catholic, though many are also Catholic. Anyway, I thought of something of a Group Think (as one tiny blogger would later say) nature, or so I thought. A late respondent's take is much more subtle. He gently distinguished between collaboration and collectivism. So, I communicated it to them in an email. What the heck! It was a stat holiday. Who's going to be reading email on a stat holiday for one thing, and who's going to do more than hit the delete button on an email from mbrandon8026 anyway? Wrong and Wrong. Some folks, like Kathy Shaidle, work for a living by blogging, and writing for publication by others, and so Canada Day was not really a holiday for her or for them.

I left my computer for a while to tend to some other things, it being a holiday and all. When I returned about 90 minutes later, there had been a storm of emails from around the galaxy, some sparking a little incremental dialogue, and a couple from a blogger, short in stature, under five feet she says, but tall in verbal acuity, who proceeded to verbally rend me asunder, so to speak, kinda, but not really.

I learned a little blogging etiquette, I think. I mistakenly thought that because a bunch of people were saying similar things about the same institutions, in this case the HRCs in this country, that they/we were of a common mind and purpose, sort of collaborativish. That theory works in Corporate America where I learned it, even though I personally spent some of my own time swimming upstream against the corporate flow. You know. Common Goals. Corporate Logo on Company T Shirts. Go Team. I guess that sounds more like a collective doesn't it.

When I saw the news about the dry T-Shirt slam Jen contest, and the denunciation of the winner, with the slogan "This T-Shirt exposes Jennifer Lynch to hatred and contempt", my mind moved on to Company T-shirt and we're in this together stuff. Forgive me, folks. It was a conditioned response. I mean, I have a closet full of old corporate t-shirts, caps, jackets and even underwear. You should see my tattoo. It's right here on my ... Well, you get the picture, or maybe you don't. Anybody want to sing Kum Bay Ya.

But, I meant it in a small "c" collaborate way, like sharing recipes, not trade secrets. Not meeting in the boardroom every Monday morning at 8 am with Blackberry at the ready to brainstorm strategy, so we hit the decks running for the week. I don't miss those days. Heck, I don't even remember those days. In fact, I probably meant it more in the "can the new kid (old man) come over for a play date once in a while to see your new toys?" When I was 9 years old, I was too little to hang out with the cool kids. Now at 59, I still can't hang out with the cool kids. Maybe it's my e-breath.

So, after the storm subsided, I returned to tapping away at my keys, metaphorically bloodied, but not bowed, somewhat chastened, humbled once again in the inexorable journey of life. I mean, I just used 3 big words in one sentence, so I can't be that bloodied.

So, I apologize to the group of bloggers I sent my email out to in the first place if I offended you, and particularly the diminutive one. I shall temper my enthusiasm somewhat or maybe I won't, and use my blog to communicate my thoughts. After all, that is why I am writing it, and shall use email to communicate directly with those I have cause to communicate directly with, individually. Call it a lesson learned by a relative newby even if I am personally older than dirt.

There. I feel better.

What is Really Important?

Can an HRC give you an AH HA Moment?

When I awoke the other morning, I had this story in my head that I wanted to relate to my readers.

It happened many years ago when my then wife (as opposed to my now wife) and I were members of a small parish here in London Ontario. The pastor was Fr. Jim Williams, who stood 6 foot 4 inches tall and was called "Tiny" Williams by those who loved him. I have no idea what those who feared him called him (probably "Sir"). He was Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia of the Diocese and Grand High Mucky Muck also for all I know, and a good man, excellent priest and a fine preacher.

But, to my point. His homilies often started like this: "I am going to tell you a story, and it is a true story." Well, I am going to tell you a story and it is a true story, and you may choose to believe it or not.

About 18 years ago, when my children were small and we lived in Tiny's parish, which was tiny, even though he wasn't, we met some very fine people, which you, of course run the risk of doing at any time, anywhere. Many of them had young children like we did and so children's activities at the church were a magnet for developing relationships. Another was the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA). I was sponsoring a male friend who was planning on joining the church, and the wife of another friend of mine was sponsoring a young woman who was planning on joining as well.

The young woman who was joining was special. We all knew it, and she was very much in love with her husband. Even though they were both young she was his second wife, as his first wife had drowned in a scuba diving accident. She was a teacher in one of the local Catholic high schools, and as a young teacher got the left overs as part of the drill.

As the RCIA programme, which started in September worked its way towards its festive conclusion at the Easter Vigil, we all fell in love with her. Her beautiful faith and sweet personality won over all our hearts.

But she had a health problem. Her lungs were not strong. Her principal had given her last choice of home rooms and she had gotten the one nearest the student's smoking pit, not a problem for most people, but not a good thing for her. It made her sicker day by day.

Here's the thing. She spoke to the principal and asked for reassignment, but he would not accommodate her request. She did not complain to her union representative. She did not file a Human Rights Commission complaint. She endured the situation. Did she make the right choice? You decide when you read the end of the story.

In late winter, one day she was taken by ambulance to hospital from school. She went into a coma from which she never recovered. She was in the coma for a couple of weeks. The woman who sponsored her and her husband and I visited her often, as did others who had become her friend. Her husband was needless to say devastated. We were all very distraught that such a tragedy could befall this beautiful young woman, and felt particularly sad for her husband. We were praying for a miracle.

Then one afternoon, a day or so before she died, I was sitting in the waiting room at the ICU of the hospital with my friends, and went in to sit at her bedside and pray for her and her husband. I begged God fervently to heal her. I mean, I used big words and everything. I had my head down and was holding her hand as I praised God and exhorted him to do the right thing for this young woman and her husband. HAH! I look back at that moment and my arrogance astounds me, but God's answer to my prayer was even more astounding. Here's the Ripley's moment.

For some reason I looked up then, and over beside the bed, I saw Jesus Christ standing there with the young woman standing beside him in her hospital gown holding his hand, yet she was still bodily lying in the bed. I looked at Him, and then at her, seeing the bright smile on her face. I stammered something like: "Ok, then," got up and left the room.

I went outside to my friends, told then what I had seen, and for the first time in a while we were all at peace with whatever was going to happen with our friend and her husband.

She passed away shortly thereafter. After the funeral, I told her husband what I had seen, and it helped him have peace about her death. He moved away and I have not seen him since, though he is in the county somewhere I believe. I hope he is well.

My friends purchased a Catholic book store, The Mustard Seed here in London, which the wife runs and it is a testament to their faith. And me. I am blogging what you are reading here.

Did our young friend, now deceased, make the right choice?

Is that even the right question? "All things work to good for those that trust the Lord." Her faith in life and death inspired her husband, my friends and me, and countless others. We all saw the beauty of God's creation in another human being, if only briefly. We had Ah Ha moments.

Tell me, have any of you ever had an Ah Ha moment brought to you courtesy of your local HRC? Yet, we are all created for these moments.

The Brain and Relationships

What Has This Got to Do With Human Rights?

All my life I have had difficulty forming and maintaining meaningful relationships. It might have been influenced by the facts that I was always small for my age, and because of a quirk of birth date and intelligence was almost 2 years younger than my class mates throughout school. I have blogged a bit about the emotional challenges of being raised in my family of origin and that played a part in it as well.

But, it was not until about 18 months ago that I found out some things that had been making it almost impossible for me to succeed in relationship no matter how hard I tried. It falls into the category for me of: "All things turn to good for those who trust in the Lord."

When I had my motor vehicle accident 5 1/2 years ago, my life changed drastically. I have never been able to return to work. My brain functions for a few hours, and then it shuts down. I have never been able to remember even what it was I used to do at work, or the names of the people I worked for, or most of the names of people I worked with even.

When I finally realised that I would never get back to work again, work I really loved doing (I think or I would think if I could think - you know what I mean ... I think) I became depressed. I became depressed because nobody had any answers for me. No scientist to this day knows why the brain really does what it does, and how to make it do what you want it to do. So when it malfunctions as mine was doing, they just say rest and it will get better. It didn't.

I ended up seeing a psychotherapist and doing EMDR as a therapy modality with a wonderful therapist named Kathy Karn, whose web site is here. Along the way, she had faith in me that there was something physically wrong that could be diagnosed and that she knew a place I could go to for some answers.

She recommended that I go to the Amen Clinics, whose web site is here. The Amen Clinics were started by Dr. Daniel Amen, an American psychiatrist who believed that by using SPECT scanning he could diagnose problems in the brain and find treatments for people to improve their lives. As he himself says, psychiatry is the only field of medicine where the doctor does not actually examine the part of the body for which he/she is providing diagnosis. Interesting point. Over the years they have done tens of thousands of scans of brains.

So, in January 2008, while my wife and I were staying in our motorhome in Tucson Arizona, we made a trek to Dr. Amen's clinic in Newport Beach, CA. I underwent a series of brain scans on their pretty sophisticated imaging equipment, provided them with all the documentation that I had from testing done on me over the last few years, plus as much of my personal history as my wife and I could provide. In the end, we met with one of the highly qualified clinic psychiatrists, a doctor with more initials after his name than letters in his name.

They were able to diagnose that I had incurred a brain injury, though SPECT imaging is not tissue sampling so cannot date stamp the damage. But, more important for my ability to have meaningful relationships, particularly with my wife, they showed us both that I have had ADD since my childhood, and explained to me what that meant to me in my behaviours, and gave me ways to deal with it.

Dr. Amen is very strong on healthy brains. Those of you who followed the NBA playoffs might have read of him calling out Lamar Odom, who though a talented basketball player is mercurial to say the least in his play. Sometimes on, sometimes AWOL, mentally. Dr. Amen, a Lakers seasons ticket holder wrote a letter to Laker's managment and the LA Times because Odom is a notorious candy eater, including during the middle of the night. Dr. Amen knows about sugar and the brain,.

The clinic recommended that I take GABA to calm my brain, because the brains of people with ADD are in need of constant stimulation. So in my case, I tend to speak sometimes without apparently thinking, as a form of self stimulation to try and keep myself alert. Who knew? Not me that's for sure. My wife said I was often edgy. I did not recognise that because it was nothing new for me. If you only know edgy, what's edgy and what's calm? Now, after over a year of using GABA, I know calm, and I like calm.

They also recommended Omega 3,6,9 fish oils for brain health, so I take capsules of that every day, and we eat fish regularly, since fish contain those fish oils, of course.

They recommended that I continue therapy, which I did.

The end result is that I really fell in love with my wife and she with me, because I became real, and dependable to be real, not just whatever hit the sirface of my being. ADD people are very much driven by whatever hits the surface, by the instant stimulation.

What's this got to do with Human Rights? Actually, nothing and everything. I qualify as a disabled person, as does my wife. We have disability incomes for which we are grateful. We have made accommodations for ourselves in our lifestyle, and accommodate each other daily as we need to. If you meet us on the street, you will not know to look at us that we are disabled, and as a rule that is the way that we want it to be.

We have done the best we can to make our lives better recognising our disabilities, but also our strengths. The above is one example where from the disability came strength, which will stand us in good stead for the rest of our lives together.

I appreciate when people do recognise that we have reached the end of our abilities, and they lend us a hand, as many have done and continue to do, some very particularly. I have no intention of demanding my rights. I am more interested in taking responsibility for my own actions, and making the best of my situation.