Displaying 1,291 To 1,320 Of 5,146 Comments The GOP and the Clinical Definition of a Sociopath One of the hallmarks of the decline of civilization is the rise of the sociopath as the norm. Tonight on PBS News, they projected Obama’s loss since 68% of Americans think he’s doing a bad job on the economy. Oh? Really? I am momentarily in NE Ohio (sorry all my Ohio allies and friends – family crisis, no time for fun such as meeting up with you all) where I am meeting innumerable people who think things are getting better for them, feeling optimistic and hopeful – and these are conservative Dems who could go either way but DO think Obama is making progress. Allow me to say that if Newt wins in 2012 or if we lose the Senate and still don’t regain the House, I seriously am moving to Canada. I cannot take any more from a nation of people who cannot see the truth and a way forward other than doing what we’ve always done in lifting up the 1 percent. I make policy based on Peggy – Peggy is a housecleaner with her own business. She and her daughter do it, and her daughter has just gone back to school to get her commercial drivers license to drive trucks for the companies engaged in Marcellus shale fracking. Is Peggy stupid? No. Is her daughere? No. For years their house was across from stip mining – and they had “black water” that was unpotable. She does not want that back – but she pays attention to who is doing what. She approves of the METHODS of the company her daughter will drive for – and her daughter suddenly has the chance to earn upwards of $3000 per month net – maybe considerably more. Peggy, her husband, and her daughter are the salt of the earth. They are “one foot in front of the other”, living in a nice trailer they renovated and improved, making ends meet however they can. Peggy and I share herniated disc problems – and she STILL does house cleaning and did through the entire 4 months it took her to get health insurance so she could have surgery. She showed up, in great pain, every single damned day and did her work. Peggy is amazing but not unique. So her daugher is leaving the business to drive for a company doing fracking. Can I oppose fracking? Of course. Will I oppose ALL companies and ALL method? Nope. I will listen to Peggy and the EPA in equal measure – if it can be done well, with minimal environmental impact AND give Peggy’s daughter her job – then I will not oppose it. And I will watch this president give the same thought and consideration to the pipeline, to fracking, to every issue – it’s NOT cut and dried. The people impacted environmentally are also impacted economically – they will tell me what I need to know. They will be heard by this president. And if any fool decided this president as opposed to the House is the source of our problems, then I REALLY do not want to live in this nation any more. There is such a thing as being too stupid to live. I fear we’re nearly there, just like ancient Rome. Sigh. I want what’s best for Peggy and her family. They have lived on the edge for over 30 years since the steel mills closed and we blew off all blue collar people. This president hears them. I don’t know Peggy’s politics, but I sure as hope she hears this president. I hope this nation does because any other choice is a step backwards, away from Peggy’s stability and toward consolidated power for the 1%. Voting is imperative for us all, but for me it’s also for Peggy. She deserves a break today. So do we all. » Posted By choicelady On December 9, 2011 @ 5:20 pm I am so NOT happy that Arpaio is placing unvetted “volunteers” armed and trained with very few hours into Maricopa Co. schools. That includes one where my granddaughter goes!!!! She is six. She is small. All we need is some nervous Rambo wannabe over-reacting and doing harm to her and her little classmates. All “by accident” of course… I read that the very youngest of the 20 children murdered at Sandy Hook had 11 shots in his small body. There is not enough BODY in children that small for this to happen. I can’t get past that since that’s the age of my granddaughter so I have some points of physical reference, and it’s sickening to think this happened – it’s despicable anyone would do that kind of harm to a child. And now untrained, unvetted “volunteers” could be the source of other children’s death or injury all so gun nuts can feel like John Wayne. Protecting the targets is my political choice. Damned if I’m standing with those who are armed and dangerous no matter WHO they are. » Posted By choicelady On January 16, 2013 @ 1:02 pm Our good friend SueinCA posted a blast from the past reminding us that when the Black Panthers – who’d been murdered in their beds in Chicago by the police – wanted to arm in self defense, THE NRA BACKED LAWS PREVENTING IT. So who’s the racist, hmmmmm? » Posted By choicelady On January 14, 2013 @ 7:49 pm Oh – oh – this is GREAT! If he seals himself off from the rest of us, think of how nice it will BE! I LOVE this – I’ve urged these goobers and wingnuts to be self sustaining for YEARS. It means we don’t have to put up with them at all. EVER AGAIN!!! I seriously do not care if it’s like Jonestown. Seriously. Leave them alone, and the kids won’t get hurt. They have every right to circle the wagons. So long as they aren’t plotting against us (making them radically different from retired Gen. Jerry Boykin, Xe, etc.) they can do what they bloody well want to, and then WE ARE FREE of them. Go for it Becky. Please. » Posted By choicelady On January 14, 2013 @ 7:46 pm kes and Sally – I never stop thinking about that over the top scene in Steve Martin’s 1991 film, “L.A. Story” where he and his girlfriend driving to brunch, realizing it’s a certain date that starts the “Los Angeles road rage gunfire” season, load the gun and get ready for 65 mph shootouts with other angry drivers. It’s SO outrageous – but that’s not far off the NRA mark! Yah – I sure want to live like that… Someone wrote after Newtown that while we’re debating Second Amendment rights, where are the rights for the targets? I have no desire to have to be packing just to get groceries. I think most people feel the same – and have the RIGHT to feel that way! » Posted By choicelady On January 12, 2013 @ 8:10 am Sally – that IS how the skilled interrogators work! They build a relationship and imply they already know stuff. It never fails. That’s why during all previous wars, we never used torture. Intelligence gathering is harmed, not helped, by its use. In a really good but incredibly hard to read depiction of torture in days gone by, the late French philosopher, Michelle Foucault, noted that torture is NEVER about unearthing truth – it’s about displaying total power and control over subjects and striking fear into those NOT tortured to force them to be compliant with the superior powers. The book is “Discipline & Punish”, and the descriptions are horrific, but his point is essential to our understanding (and no, you don’t have to read it – I just MADE his point!) Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney all knew the use of torture was never about information. They were fine with torture because they were enthralled by massive regression to a kind of “divine right of kings” use of vile force to subjugate people before the ‘shock and awe’ of the US. That is why, at the core of who they are, they were so despicable. Their neo-con/Dominionist minds were willing to abandon every shred of democracy to reinstate absolutism – US absolutism – as the prevailing force in the world. And the rejection of absolutism by this current administration is why they hate Obama. He stands for democracy, the rule of law not of men, and the rejection of the idea that the US should rule unilaterally and everywhere. Rejection of torture is the rejection of supremacy and the recognition of global humanity. Can’t have that in a neo-con/Dominionist world. » Posted By choicelady On January 8, 2013 @ 11:05 am Since I was once a board member of a national organization against torture, it peeves me NO end that this film promotes the idea that torture got the essential intelligence. It did NOT. We followed the trail, worked with interrogators, and know that the only thing they learned they already knew – couriers were used to transmit info. The REAL intelligence was far more deliberate and diligent, and using this experience as a justification for torture is wrong and misleading to the low info voters who think we should be John Wayne. So I’ve not gone to see it because if I’m pissed BEFORE seeing it, I’m not going to like it no matter what. What I find fascinating is the lack of deference to Obama in the film AND the silence from Obama’s critics who said he’d committed treason in recounting what had happened in the rescue (which we have always made public – with the quiet provision that they never tell the whole truth.) But because this film leans toward the Right’s arguments, there is dead silence on its depiction of the events. That leads me to believe much of it is inaccurate. I’m tired to the bone of the war of propaganda. The film lost all cred with me over torture – I know some of the leading experts in the field – and thus the rest is highly dubious. Feh! » Posted By choicelady On January 7, 2013 @ 8:08 pm food – Mike Royko named it “the universal sign of disrespect”. I think that’s an elegant way to discuss this Constitutionally-protected gesture… » Posted By choicelady On January 4, 2013 @ 6:52 am Dear food – NO one really knows when Christ was born, so maybe you got to celebrate the REAL date? Whatever the day, it is the spirit, and you all did it fine. We are all so happy you had family together – congratulations! Enjoy! » Posted By choicelady On December 26, 2012 @ 8:55 pm Thank you foodchain! Yes, life is one and the same: hard and fragile. When you get to dodge the outcome, it’s a total relief and blessing no matter what. It’s been a very scary two weeks, but things are SO good, and the healing goes on. That is all I ask. It’s what I received. Amen. I so appreciate your concern! » Posted By choicelady On December 24, 2012 @ 9:13 pm Thank you, dear Kalima! You among us all, know the loss and fear of loss. I hope good memories are carrying you through this Christmas, the first without your father. You are very much in my thoughts and heart tonight and tomorrow – it’s the turning of life, but it’s never easy. May you have a joyous Christmas and peace in your heart and life remembering your dear father. Thank you for your concern. I discovered how to breathe again! Love you! » Posted By choicelady On December 24, 2012 @ 9:10 pm I will, glenn, I will, and thank you for your care! » Posted By choicelady On December 24, 2012 @ 9:07 pm There IS nothing more or better than what you have, who you are, KT! » Posted By choicelady On December 24, 2012 @ 3:30 pm We had the flood gates open on 11/22/63, and they never closed. Oh the Birchers and other anti-communists had paranoid tendencies back to forever, but it was the ineradicable doubt about the safety of our entire government that turned so many of us fearful in general. Add into that the very REAL pressure from communities of color to expose the virulent racism against them. They were and are victims of hate. So “being a victim” looked like the way to get your group’s point across, but it became a way of life for many who were part of the people NOT exploited, too. I once dated a guy to whom NOTHING bad had EVER happened but who believed in his core he was exploited, victimized, and long suffering. He was white Irish, had a loving family I adored, and basically violated every opportunity he had to make his own life better – too busy feeling sorry for himself. But it was the bandwagon of the 1970s – jump on and ride it. And too many never got off it. We all want people to honor our story. Vets deserve it, minorities need us to hear, women have deep unresolved issues of violence to discrimination – and we are all tone deaf to one another’s travails. When we are not heard, we get angry and defensive. And thus moves huge portions of American society – we are all ‘victims’ even if we don’t know of what. The government is the target right now because of 30 years of GOP drumbeat. Corporations are rising – accurately – as the real source of harm. But somewhere, somehow we need to rebuild community, to pay attention to those we don’t like as well as those we do, to find common solutions. And we need to do this FAST. If we feel efficacy in our own lives, we will be far less likely to demonize someone else for the ‘harm’ we feel and MUCH less likely to pick up a gun to settle the score. What is clear about the Planet is that we all have had some real travails in our lives – but we all have found a way out. I detect NO ONE here who has animosity to others or a sense of utter futility. We make our way partly together, and it is one place where community has really been created. We have made the effort. It has kept us whole. Happiest of holidays to all on the Planet. We make a difference by continuing to care about one another. That’s the greatest gift of all. » Posted By choicelady On December 24, 2012 @ 3:28 pm Hi glenn, what a thoughtful and lovely message to share! Our smallish UCC church no longer has midnight services, so we’re headed over in a bit. Kinda takes the sparkle off having “Christmas Eve” at 5:30 in the afternoon, but hey… MY present this year is a healthy husband. Had angioplasty last Tuesday for two clots that would have, had they gone bad, led to a “massive” heart attack. Probably would not have survived it. I am breathing great sighs of relief and gratitude. That is ALL I want for Christmas – a live husband! I got it. Hug those you love closely and deeply – life is sometimes hard but is also damn fragile. All we have to get through it is one another. The only edict Jesus gave us was “Love ye, one another” so let it rip! It’s what he was all about. Every other belief and philosophy tells us the same. (Ayn Rand was NOT a philosopher so you can “include her out” as Yogi Berra used to say.) Happiest of holidays, whatever you do. May you have peace on earth, goodwill to all. » Posted By choicelady On December 24, 2012 @ 3:14 pm A beloved friend won my heart with the funniest recounting of a “survivalist” show outside Chicago just before Y2K. One point he’d raised is why the vendors were, if they expected the end of the world, accepting CREDIT CARDS??? Bito has this from the OTHER end – buying and charging in full expectation of NOT ever paying! Oh, well. Bito dear – if you HAVE your party, we will all come. Maybe you’ll go broke, but DAMN if you won’t have a heckofa time! Love you dear- » Posted By choicelady On December 13, 2012 @ 7:11 pm There is a wacko Dominionist (yes, I KNOW that’s redundant) who says it’s the REAL sign of Obama being the Devil – it’s the second term (sort of) so it’s the DOUBLE of 666. What more proof do you need? » Posted By choicelady On December 13, 2012 @ 1:18 pm OMG – I had NOT heard that! This IS the problem with Rambo wannabes! I don’t fault the man who was trying to help, but I am VERY glad someone stopped him from compounding the mistake by killing yet another innocent person! Under pressure the chances of error by armed by-standers is horrifically likely. Wow. This is an amazing and eye-opening story! » Posted By choicelady On December 13, 2012 @ 1:14 pm Oh wow – we were SO worried about you!!! I’m awfully sad about the two people who were killed – they sounded so wonderful. TERRIBLY glad it did not involve you and yours! » Posted By choicelady On December 13, 2012 @ 1:12 pm So much for that “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse from your teeming shores…” That IS the point of America. Refuge for those who have been abused by other nations. Like to know HER family history. Only some of us have come from middle class (“middling sort” as the Brits said) backgrounds all the way back, and those of us who did – I, for one – are GRATEFUL for it and open our hearts to those whose voyage here was fraught with pain and fear. I welcome the wretched to America – it’s why we exist. Ms. Coulter is free to go live in Costa Rica with Rush. BTW – when is Rush leaving? He PROMISED he would if Obama won again. » Posted By choicelady On December 13, 2012 @ 7:13 am Excellent! » Posted By choicelady On December 9, 2012 @ 12:43 pm When the Dems have enough sense to support policies that keep business moving but the GOP will kill business and credit and smooth operations over ideology, business better WAKE UP and figure out that government – a thoughtful, functional, adult one – is NOT their enemy. » Posted By choicelady On December 7, 2012 @ 2:53 pm May I say, as one of the few who has seen Blue Licorice products AND their creator in person, that SueinCA does lovely work. She is very imaginative, and she is JUST as smart,funny, and wonderful as you all think! I am privileged to know her! I recommend her products highly! » Posted By choicelady On November 26, 2012 @ 7:15 pm Hey bito – here I was thinking you were going to say you had a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit since it was in the 80s. We were sort of in your neck o’ the woods – Phoenix – for T’giving. If I had more than two days to be spent with family, I’d have come to meet you. NEXT time for sure. We had just Wed. and Thursday, so it wasn’t feasible this time. I totally agree about the slavering commercialism. I remember as a little kid that it was precisely the same – and totally different. I grew up outside Chicago, and going into the city the day after Thanksgiving was exciting because you’d go to Marshall Fields for the unveiling of the Christmas display windows. Everyone wanted to see that – and then you’d shop. But it was far more modest. I don’t think my family was much different from “The Christmas Movie” – nothing terribly elaborate, all of it fun. My mother once gave my brother two boxes of Post Toasties with dried fruit because she thought it too expensive for everyday purchase – and it became THE family Christmas memory and laugh! (Yes – she had something else for him, too.) Books, clothes, scarves, ties, occasionally something for the home such as a decorative vase or cutting boards. That was the haul. By the time I was in my early teens, I could buy my immediate family Christmas presents on my own with money saved up from babysitting. That’s how simple it was. And I do not recall other people being much different – when was it that it became essential to buy major big-ticket items for even small kids? We never had “door busters” because we did not buy budget busters. Maybe Marx was right about the ‘fetishism of commodities’ replacing the reality of human relationships, but I am sensing a major change largely due to the work people did – had to do – to register voters and get them to the polls. That may have been a major first step toward rebuilding community and making neighborhood caroling with hot chocolate and cookies far more attractive than 42″ TV sets. I live in eternal hope! At any rate – I’m sorry I did not get down there to meet you. You were in my heart and thoughts. And I treasure you far more than any material item. We WILL do this! » Posted By choicelady On November 25, 2012 @ 7:35 pm They wouldn’t WANT them back because these people did mess them all up! But wouldn’t it be rich if it was Mexican police asking all these folks, “Papers, please”!!! I think the worst decision EVER was to let the Confederate states back into the union. I know Lincoln wanted first and foremost to preserve the union – it was his one bad choice. Once they lost, they should have been made a colony at best. They’ve been a thorn in our side ever since. And the idiocy of it all is that the vast majority of people extolling the virtues of the Old South were victims of the planter class and the Confederate gov’t. They really need to wise up! So this time if they really want to go – LET them. » Posted By choicelady On November 20, 2012 @ 8:20 am bito dear, the freeway along which I travel is such an eyesore a few billboards would not change a thing. Your POINT, however, remains excellent – locals are out when the GOP is in the statehouse control, all the while yammering about oppression from the feds. It not only depends on whose ox is being gored but whether YOU are the ox or the gore-or. (I know. I made that up. Sorry.) Saw Kalima’s post below! Congrats on getting decent representation back! That was too close for comfort – Rep. Giffords deserves to have her legacy carried on by a good person. Now she will. GOP folks are nuttin’ but hypocrites. Did not used to be that way. But for the majority of my life, depending on where you lived, they were Birchers, McCarthy-ites, the folks who put “under God” into everything, and just plain dim. GREAT GOP members to be sure, but even then, they were not the majority. I hold few hopes that the party will ever get back to the level of TR, LaFollette, or much less Lincoln. » Posted By choicelady On November 18, 2012 @ 7:17 pm Yikes. It’s freaking scary when Newt’s the adult in their playroom. Shudder. » Posted By choicelady On November 18, 2012 @ 7:09 pm Clear Channel has a lot of billboards around Sacramento – several are begging to be rented but remain empty. Not sure why – bet they’re more expensive, and it would not surprise me if this is retaliation for their phony “voting fraud” rents back east. But they are NOT doing well here, even with the easy stuff! » Posted By choicelady On November 18, 2012 @ 4:33 pm I do!!!! Thank you!!!! » Posted By choicelady On November 14, 2012 @ 7:09 pm I am, as Molly Ivins used to say, whomperjawed that the fact one candidate has better policies and can explain them better is “cheating”. Sorry, Charlie – health care is a human responsibility, one to the next, not a handout. Says so in Matthew 10. I’m unfamiliar with the Book of Mormon, so I’d not know where to go to find this, but you CAN find it in the Bible. The president has done more that is in compliance with Christian values than you ever DREAMED of. If that’s salesmanship, then you’ll have to look at Jesus, too. I think it’s moral persuasion, not bribes, but if you want to think people of color are so cheesy and stupid that they’d look on being allowed to LIVE via health care coverage as a bribe – well, then, you and I have nothing to discuss, Mitt. But I’d like to let you in on a secret, Mitt. It’s the real deal. I’m telling YOU and no one else, Governor. You lost for one reason, Mr. Governor. We did not like you. » Posted By choicelady On November 14, 2012 @ 7:08 pmComments Posted By choicelady
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