This article is written from a personal viewpoint and all statements made are either correct at the time of publication or an expression of opinion.

Even though Midnight in Chicago isn’t in the strictest sense a company or organisation, I’m listing it as such because there is no indication as to which individual is primarily responsible for the BS that goes on with it’s primary commentary location – the blog.

The co-owners are Elyse Bruce and Thomas Taylor. Both support bullying by trying to expose little bits and pieces of people as revenge for people not answering some very probing questions either about themselves or about the organisation that they are a part of. Both also support the idea that bad ASD related behaviour should not be tolerated in spite of any provocation. This is demonstrated clearly in the matter of 11 year old Zakh Price, who attacked a teacher at his school and was subsequently charged with assault by the school in late 2009 or early 2010. People who blamed the school for the handling the whole thing were roundly abused by MIC, and this is when they started cherry picking information with the sole purpose of discrediting the organisation and/or the individual. This activity was contradictory to their claim of looking after Bruce’s son, Lewis, who was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome (now Autism) and also a number of other unrelated problems. I sincerely doubt that Bruce is a good parent.

MIC’s primary target at the time was Carole Reynolds, Zakh’s grandmother who was trying to do the right thing and call the school district to a count for their handling of the matter. This resulted in a number of people, including Marc Rosen and Harry Williams, getting rightly angry with MIC’s blatant ignorance of Zakh’s plight.

The issue began as far as MIC was concerned when Carole advised on her Facebook account that she was seeking to speak with the lawyer who was prosecuting in the school’s action against Zakh – or that was the way MIC approached the commentary when it said no such thing. She simply asked if it was a good idea. Carole was trying to find a lawyer and was having no luck. For the record, when there is no formal representation there can be a temporary proxy and Carole could have fulfilled that quite well – especially as a member of the family. Eventually they found someone, and MIC decided to question why the public defender that had been appointed was kicked to the curb. That’s none of anyone’s business! If you have a better option you take it! And it looks like they got one.

MIC then questioned an attempt to start a Paypal account for donations, when the lawyers were free. Hey idiot! Lawyers being free doesn’t pay for the court costs! That’s what that was for! That started a huge amount of nitpicking that was definitely a case of bullying – and it could only have been for one reason. To undermine the defence of Zakh’s case and make sure he was punished for something that he shouldn’t have been.

Not to mention the situation with the DHS in Oklahoma already being involved because of Zakh’s older brother (also on the Spectrum it appears) being careless in the midst of puberty with girls and they completely over reacted and that’s how the family ended up on the DHS books to begin with. Carole has been helping fight them ever since. Moving just 15 miles wasn’t enough in my book even if it was across a border. They should have left the region entirely. The whole problem here was it was a mess that was being made worse by the way it was being handled by the government – and did MIC care? NO! All they cared about was bullying Carole who was (to these two foul people who run MIC) making nothing but trouble. She was trying to clean up a mess, idiots!!

Carole figured the state school district was behind MIC’s attacks. She’s wrong. Elyse in particular is an individual with a sick idea about assistance, and not much knowledge about the ins and outs of legals and finances of lawyers thereof. I want to point out that in the US health system (the joke that it is) there can easily be three or four different evaluation results. Questions based on a false premise are lies by proxy and Carole knew it – and continuing to ask them is harassment. She should have expected people to fire back at her in the same terms, and she had to temerity to call foul on it! Good for Amy Caraballo and Dave Wilde for calling her out on it. And a quick point – if Midnight in Chicago isn’t a not for profit organisation, they are a business if they make money! I wonder if they’ve been paying their taxes for said profits? I wonder if the business is even registered as such (if the law in Canada is the same as it is in Australia). Draw your own conclusions on that one. I think I’ve said more than enough to prove my point on this part of the history.

Later in 2010, MIC did it again – this time targeting the Autistic Women’s Network (AWN). This attack earned Bruce and Taylor the Idiot of the Month for September, as Corina Becker (a member of Phil’s World) is a member. Consequently we were also joined by Heather Sedlock and her husband Jerry. The whole point here was that they wanted to contact the person in charge – and no one was telling MIC who that was. The AWN knew that MIC had a history of bullying and were rightly protecting that person. But in retribution, MIC proceeded to cherry pick again.

This started when Bruce was rightfully criticised by Amy Caraballo. Bruce tried to ignore it, but her postings on her blog proved otherwise. She didn’t realise just how foolish she was making herself look – and that was Amy’s intention without a doubt. Bruce made the connection to the AWN, and decided to complain to them to try and pull not only Amy away but also Carolyn Fuentes and a number of others, including Corina and Marc Rosen. Bruce tried to find who was in charge in order to get an explanation. But she didn’t get anywhere because she didn’t understand or accept the idea that the AWN was and is a Network. She should look it up for goodness sake. Nit picking that by making reference to a guide as to how to run groups that “Fund raising Professionals” was a shot in the dark that missed by miles. Pursuing such an expectation and criticising the absence of it was trouble making at it’s finest and made Amy’s attacks look like the work of an Angel of Mercy – not the Devil Incarnate!

Finally – the straw that broke the camel’s back. That was the attack on me when MIC found out they’d won the Idiot of the Month award for September. This attack earned them a nomination for the same award for October (the award went to Oliver Canby that month). It was again a case of cherry picking. Without looking at the full story behind the Federal Court case in 2000 and the Federal Magistrate’s Court in 2002, they tried to paint me as a liar without actually saying so. They also plucked archived material from my pro wrestling character sub site “Lucky Phil Lewis” and tried to use that as real to further discredit me. That only discredited themselves, and lucky for them they did it in such a way that I can’t put a finger on a cause of action for a lawsuit. But it made them an enemy, and I said so. They thought it was a threat – but I will state here and now that this article is what I meant when I said “that” (making an enemy out of me) “is something that you just don’t do”.

The core of the attack went to my refusal at the time to revoke Nick Dubin’s award. I placed it on review only, pending a court decision in the matter of his downloading child pornography (this has since been revealed in part and the award has been revoked). Whilst an illegal act in upon itself, MIC refused to acknowledge the possibility of research – and in the process tried to act as judge and jury on the matter. That sort of activity deprives a defendant of the right to a fair trial, something that everyone (even Saddam Hussein, Timothy McVeigh and the 20th 9-11 terrorist) is entitled to. In the case of Dubin – not as far as MIC was concerned. They wanted ASAN, the AWN and GRASP to make a statement and attacked them for not doing so. Those groups did not make a statement because they were waiting for the due process of law to be completed. That is the correct thing to do.

And even after that they still wouldn’t stop, although it was predictable and really nothing much was different to what won them the Idiot of the Month Award in September (Marc Rosen tried to nominate Elyse again for November, but again missed out this time to NRL player Joel Monaghan).

Finally, when Best was found guilty of defaming me on January 24, 2013, I alerted MIC to the online evidence of my Asperger’s diagnosis. They ignored it.

Paranoia runs rife between Bruce and Taylor. They are unable to be constructive as a result and can not be relied upon when it comes to any activity within the Autistic Community. They are bullies and deserve every level of contempt that can be thrown at them. MIC is an enemy of Autistics and should be avoided at all costs.

PHIL GLUYAS

Note: The site is now marked private after being cleared a little while ago for reasons unknown. Carole Reynolds passed away on March 31, 2015. Zakh will be an adult now.