Martin Howe

See my reply to a similar thread here.

I went to a mainstream school as well, simply because in my time, nobody in the UK had ever heard of Asperger's Syndrome and special needs education, or what passed for such in the 1970s and early 1980s, was only used for the really badly disabled children. The usual stuff, bullying or occasiaonally popularity, oddness, standing out from the crowd, etc. As secondary school, they used to put me to work in the school library during long lunch hours, because I had my head in the clouds of physics and astronomy and just could not relate to the mundane everyday things that other kids did in the playground. I did play chess for the school a few times, but found it difficult to cope with kids from other schools. Had no real friends and college then university was the same; I keep in contact with only one or two people now. The real problem was jobhunting after university, but that's best kept for another thread on its own. As to help or assistance, a typewriter for school exams, but nothing else. The child autism clinic arranged the typewriter, but missed the aspergers of course as this was 1978-1981 and nobody over here in the UK had heard of it. I did apparently see a child psychologist at 9yo because of my oddness, but instead of saying "Let's find out what this is.", apparently they told my mother "Oh, he'll grow out of it!"; probably no money in the kitty. Lucky this isn't America or I could sue them

Unless somebody can come up with a plausible explanation to disprove the "autistic look", I'd have to say it correleates with my own experiences well. Even today I still get weird catcalls from kids (i.e., people aged 15-25) merely by walking past them, catcalls that have the same tone as the "hey look at the weirdo" stuff I remember kids using in primary school. A lot of it is from girls or young women too, who in the past at school or further education college - so we are even talking young women not just girls - would often attempt to "adopt the wierdo as a sort of pet or mascot"; of course none of it was sexual or romantic, though often they'd pretend to "try it on" to see how I reacted. On that note, I think to say autistic people are handsome, particularly men, is misleading; rather they seem to have a childlike innocence and on some level girls/women want to "mother" them. Speaking as a member of another forum where we had a "show your true face" thread, not only does that hold true for a lot of the men, many of the women on the spectrum look really really cute, like a "awwww" kitten picture, and I would imagine for the same reason. I have certainly always fancied cute, rather than glamourous women, to be sure. Finally, there was this guy who used to live near me and every day on my way to work, I'd see him walk to his car, muttering to himself and apparently in a world of his own, get into his car and drive it away. He seemed to cope with driving safely, but on the pavement seemed to rely entirely on instinct as to whether anybody was about, could hear him or what. It was almost as if driving is a high danger thus more caution but as a pedestrian there's less danger so can relax a bit. I used to think "poor sod". LOL, it never occured to me that others saw me like that Images: Am I autistic? You decide! (Oddly enough, while learning to drive and passing my test over the last two years, my hazard awareness as a pedestrian has improved somewhat as well).

Rather than "contradicting", I'd call it "having to make the best of a non-ideal situation" in which some sort of theoretical answer that doesn't involve compromise or contradiction isn't possible. Ideally there'd be no discrepancy between the party and the local MP. Perhaps there'd be some sort of neutral parliamentary advocate for the constituency, with the MP being a separate function. Perhaps some form of PR instead. I don't know. The point is that under the current system, discrepancies do arise and we just have to manage them as best we can and thus compromise or contradiction is inevitable in some cases. But there are laws against race hate, just as there ought to be; I don't consider that PC, but common sense. Where I disagree is when it becomes un-PC to even discuss many issues because people believe something without regard to reason, just because somebody's feeling are hurt if the opposite were true. Perhaps an example is in order here and I shall use an issue which I'm still thinking about rather than one on which I have already made my mind up. Consider gay people being allowed to adopt straight children. Nowhere have I ever seen anybody on either side of the debate give a reasoned logical support of their point; the pros usually shout down the antis with "human rights" or "people's feelings" and the antis usually call it "unnatural" or "against the word of god". Suppose it were proved scientifically that a gay couple can bring up a straight child effectively so the child grows up into a functioning straight adult; would the antis accept it with good grace or would they spend hours looking for ways to find a loophole? Or suppose that it were proved scientifically that a gay couple cannot bring up a straight child effectively so the child grows up into a functioning straight adult; would the pros accept it and or would they want to put civil rights over a child's welfare? Either way, discussing this generates such hatred from the PC brigade who say it is offensive to even suggest that gays cannot bring up a straight child even though nobody has yet come up with a generally accepted scientific proof of whether it is true or not. Reverting to the more general case, surely deciding whether something is true or not should come first, before hating people who do/don't agree with it? Surely accepting the consequences of something being true or false is more civilised that allowing something to be done or not be done just because somebody wants to do it or not do it (i.e., without regard to the consequences)? PC to me means lack of objectivity. It means that in many situations, what minorities want takes precedence over the safety of the majority; that is the anthetisis of a civilised society, the foundation of which, due to the imperfect universe we live in, is discipline and sacrifice. Thus I am truly against people having any but the most basic human rights and am 100% in favour of free speech no matter how offensive UNLESS it is spoken ONLY to cause offense or hate, in which case it should be illegal (but on the proviso that only the INTENTION counts; not the EFFECT, because that's merely lack of self control). Until people are required by Law to not take offense at the mere mention of any idea that does not correspond with the majority view; until people are required by Law to consider things by reason before condemning those who don't agree; until people are required by Law to accept that an idea might be true/false in a way they can't see at that time; until the Law states explicitly that just because a majority believe/disbelieve something doesn't necessarily mean that it is/isn't true; ... until these things happen, PC should, in my opinion, be illegal.

Sure, I imagine it is offensive, but please be careful not to "shoot the messenger". I'm not agreeing that Christians are actually like that, rather acknowledging, as an issue which needs to be handled, that a lot of people do believe that Christians are like that. It has become clear in recent years that a large number of people believe that a significant number of Christians are homophobic in the extreme. My point is that regardless of whether any of us here believe it or whether it is true, many people do believe it. Thus because so many people believe it, I felt it important to explicitly deny to those people (who believe it) that the candidate in question is such a person. I'm sorry it might have seemed like a statement of agreement with those beliefs, rather than dealing with the fact that the beliefs exist; it seemed at the time that the current discussions this forum would give enough context to disambiguate the meaning, but I guess not all people are aware of all of the beliefs and controversies surrounding the subject.

Nicola "Machinery"* Bryant for me! (* Apparently Peri had never seen a dalek before)

Unfortunately, some of the issues raised here are a consequence of having to vote for a person instead of a party; every party likely has a rotten apple in their barrel and it makes voting an issue if the local candidate for one's preferred party (1) believes some things with which one disagrees and (2) has not formally undertaken to put personal beliefs aside when on the job. On which note it is also worth noting that MPs, like any public servants, have to represent their constituents and sometimes this will involve matters of concience; politicians have to be guided by the party line and civil servants by the law. The worst case is when two protected rights conflict (e.g., religion vs sexuality) and in such cases a public servant must be prepared to hand a particular case over to somebody else if they simply cannot bring themselves to do it. For example, the business of a magistrate who wanted not to support a gay couple in adopting a straight child; the magistrate had a duty to hand the case to another magistrate and the court had a duty to support him in doing so. Presumably he was sacked because he wouldn't go along with it? Personally I shall be voting UKIP, mainly because I am fed up with political correctness and the destruction by the EU of our right to govern ourselves, compounded by the fact that the two main parties are both rabid europhiles who are going out of their way to avoid giving the people a referendum on such an important matter. Labour have already lied about a referendum, Tory have already lied about their commitment to one; the only thing I like about the LibDems is their commitment to reform the voting system, which UKIP will do anyway. I don't agree with the designation of "Far-Right", "common sense" is what I would call it; but in any case the local UKIP candidate is not a homophobic christian nutter so I have no problem voting for him.

Blimey, hope BD has a good lawyer Perhaps Ian Hislop could suggest a few (Wasn't Billie Piper 18 when they met and 19 when they married? Or is this not about her?)

There's no provision for aspergic adults here and I have a letter from the doctor to prove it. Nevermind the Dark Ages, East Anglia still seems rooted in the era of the Angles where health provision is concerned. Anyway, back to the topic: I guess the first time I conciously knew that I was different from other children was at the local theatre watching a pantomime. Having been exposed to shows like Star Trek by the age of seven and on seeing the big bad monster appear, with everyone running around in terror like headless chickens, I asked mum why didn't the government give the soldiers lasers instead of halberds and er, well, just kill it.

This is unbeliveable In 1981 there was no disability rights, AS hadn't even been heard of in the UK, dys-whatever were poorly understood, etc. Yet I still was permitted to do my CSE, O and A levels on a typewriter. I'm just amazed that in the 30+ years since 1981, what with the DDA, SEN and all that stuff that kids have now, people are still having to fight for their rights regarding handwriting (Oh and mine is legible now, though slow to make)

Well done, hope it goes well

Yes, couldn't agree more. Inhumane farming of animals is an abomination so fortunately more and more stuff is free range; however, many people think eating meat at all is wrong... yet one cannot "murder" a non-sentient being. Nor can one "enslave" them, so Frakes can hang his head in shame for not refusing on principle to speak that line

So many of them apply to all of us though; you'd think I was half woman reading that list. Not sure whether to laugh, cry, or buy myself a lovely pink dress

This seems to be an Invision Power Board problem - Duke4.net forum does the same. Spookily, both forums have remembered me for several days now; usually I have to re-login on both every day.

Wow! Bit late, but Happy Birthday and Christmas too

Er, I think I'll jus' go with the usual Happy Christmas, folks and a prosperous new year!

SO sorry... We lost five cats over the last year or so to various illnesses (including my beloved avatar cat), unheard of to lose so many in one go; I know how you must feel

Sounds cool, I'd go for it. How did it work, did people just make a dummy thread in the forum titled Username - TV Region or something like that? Presumably a mod is needed to create a subforum.

Since some people set the location item in their profiles and some don't, perhaps it's just down to privacy? Presumably anybody who doesn't mind does set that item and those who do mind don't. Maybe I'm a bit dense on this, but given that, what would a forum thread give us that the location setting displayed in the sidebar wouldn't?

Hi Kerry and welcome to the forum. Lack of support for adults in many areas is a big problem but getting a diagnosis can be helpful if only so that one's own efforts can be better directed. Hope it goes well

Hi and welcome to the forum

The disability advisor for Pathways to Work called it "Aspergus" syndrome - and she already had another client with the condition At least she'd heard of it unlike the guy who followed her - he learnt soon enough

Been at it here in Waveney for the last two days on-and-off. Not too thick in the town/village but our Tesco driver told us it's quite bad on the roads and most local tradespeople are starting their rounds early in case it gets worse. Drifts all over the Norwich-Lowestoft road, for instance. Oh and watching cats watching snow is such a hoot

I've been where your daughter is now and it sucks big time; so welcome to the forum and good luck for the future The folks here are all very nice and help each other a lot so you're sure to find support here

These are matters that I have considered for some time and really want to thrash out and come to a comprehensive viewpoint; that will inevitably take time and the best I can do to answer the original question for now is "the jury is still out" and this. FWIW