OK So this is now a post about my jackass brother.

Background - Our mother had a stroke about 7 weeks ago. He came down to FL where me and my Mom live, (she with her boyfriend) and stayed a couple days when she was in the hospital. So he knows how bad she is.

She has expressive aphasia which means basically she forgot every single word she ever knew how to speak. She can understand what you are saying but cannot reply. Although she is in a rehab now and having intensive speech therapy she can now speak small sentences but it is very halting and she even gets confused playing solitaire, (which is one of the things I try and do with her after I saw the occupational therapist do)

Anyway, I have joined Strokenet.com I have looked all over the internet for therapies and treatments for her. I found one drug that they have found useful for stroke survivors and I told the nurse and she is now on it.

I found this video, (I will post the link after I find it here) where a man is speaking of a brand new therapy for people with this type of aphasia. Basically it is the idea that if someone speaks slowly the person with the aphasia will be able to follow them and speak almost like the person. It is quite amazing. I also found a study about this type of treatment and it showed that the people who had it made much greater strides than the others in the study.

So I tried to make a video by myself of just my lips reading a cook book and my camera video was broke. So I asked my brother, who I had already sent the link to the video to, to make some for her. He is a pastor, (the is the big hint) at a Presbyterian church and they know a lot of people so I thought he might know someone with a good video recorder and also because I feel like I am the one doing all the work trying to help our mother and he should do something for a frigging change.

So I sent him the link to the video AGAIN and asked him AGAIN if he would do this for our mother and I just got an email back from him. Here are some of the sentences from the email.

" I read a great deal (hours, every day). But I do not read (much) on my computer screen. And I almost never watch videos on the computer that last more than a minute or two." "

"That is simply my temperament. My not watching the videos is not a matter of indifference to you or mom. Nor is it a judgment on the content or message of the video"
My not watching the videos is not a matter of indifference to you or mom. Nor is it a judgment on the content or message of the video. I have a friend here at XXX Church who often sends me videos of sermons and other spiritual lectures he is excited about. And, I know I disappoint him when I do not watch them. The things he sends to me are on subjects on which I have some familiarity and expertise – yet I find no enthusiasm for interacting with them via a computer and/or video. Give me a book. Or, if the material is available on CD, give me a CD and I will listen to it while I drive. I am currently working on a series of lectures on the history of food while I drive. "

" So, please do not take things personally, or think that I am not interested in mom’s recovery, when I do not watch these videos on the computer. That is simply not a venue easily accessible to me"



OK so basically he is saying that the 5 minute video that I send and TOLD HIM was of a new treatment for the problem our mother is having is not in the proper format for his ass to use.

I feel like sending him the research abstract from PudMed on this type or therapy with the instructions, "Go to page, hit "Control P" then "Enter" and when a paper comes out of your printer take it out and read it you lousy self absorbed bullshit artist.

Another edit: I have been at the rehab almost every day since she has been there. I understand that he can't be there but for the love of God he can't do anything?

EDIT again: You don't have to watch the video. It is just an example of this type of therapy that I am trying to get my brother to understand so we can help our mother using it.

Here is the video - It is amazing what they are doing.

This is a video. But it is amazing and wonderful.

All you pro-death penalty people who say it's not about revenge or any other negative

reason have you ever seen the large groups of people who congregate outside of a jail when someone is to be executed who are cheering and having a grand old time that this person is going to die or has just died?

Are they there because they think that the murder rates is now going to go down and thus they cheer?

Are they there because this execution will make our country safer and thus they cheer?

Or are they just into revenge and like the idea of killing and use this barbaric practice to indulge themselves in something they would never do themselves?

If the death penalty does not make the homicide rate go down and indeed the evidence suggests that it causes the homicide rate to go up because it creates a society that condones murder. And if the death penalty causes the states to spend more money than they would if they person were just locked up for life. If it tortures the families of the criminals and if we are the last country in the civilized world to uphold it.

Why are these people cheering?