[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtNxpn6NltU[/youtube]
I’m kinda busy today on a side project, but over on Slog I’ve posted a rather massive piece I’ve been working over the last few days, in which I ask, is Rep. Dave Reichert brain-damaged?
And I’m not asking it in a snarky, mean-spirited, metaphorical sense. I’m asking it literally, based on medical literature and recent events that suggest that Reichert’s brain may actually be damaged.
Now, I’m not suggesting that Reichert’s hand-sized cerebral blood clot is necessarily an indication of prior brain atrophy or wasting, or that such a severe head injury, untreated as it was for two months, would have certainly caused permanent impairment.
[…] But extended or even permanent impairment is far from out of the question … thus it is not unreasonable to expect that a brain trauma as severe as that described by Reichert, in a man of his age, and untreated for so long, could very well have resulted in some degree of permanent neurological impairment.
You’ll need to read the whole thing for the background, but I ask you, if President Obama had suffered a similar injury, and then gave an interview like the one in the clip above, don’t you think this would be the number one story on talk radio and cable news?
I’m just sayin’.
Wow, I’m speechless.
That was like Fred Armisen’s “news headline guy” character on SNL Weekend Update.
Except that for that guy, the problem might be that his brain moves faster (and less linearly, to be sure) than his mouth. Or that he’s high-functioning Asperger’s.
Even at his peak, Reichert would never have been accused of being high-functioning.
Brain scans of 2,200 Republican test subjects revealed that Republicans don’t have any cerebral matter.
You’ve sunk to a new low on this one Goldy. And you call Tea Partiers wing nuts?
You want to know why Reichert hasn’t had as many district campaign appearances as you think he should? BECAUSE HE’S IN CONGRESS!! HE WORKS IN D.C!! He isn’t a multi-millionnaire like his opponent who doesn’t work, doesn’t bother to vote, and has beaucoup leisiure time she can devote to running for whatever office will gain her entry into liberal DC cocktail parties.
Get your butt out of your Lazy Boy and go to a parade or community picnic in any of dozens of 8th district towns and you’ll see Reichert at campaign appearances. Meeting voters face to face.
No wonder bloggers like you are never considered serious journalists. This kind of reporting isn’t worthy of publication in anything but a tinfoil hat liberal conspiracy theorist rag. Oh wait…………that’s right………Slog published it.
The Washington Education Association endorsed Reichert in this election cycle as well as 2008.
WTF?
Well, we sure as hell know that twice-beaten Darcy Burnout’s brain was damaged. She is still to this day mesmerized, curious about, and distracted by shiny objects. ‘War sucks!’ Yeah, how did her little “Reprehensible Plan” work out again? LOL. At least Goldy has finally stopped chasing her around with his little pencil-dick pointing north.
And I agree with #4. See ya Libby-tards.
Clingy @4,
Read the post. The sparse schedule I cited was during the August congressional recess, when he was back home in his district. Duh.
Reichert has never answered the question of why he received the best medical care we have to offer for his head injury, but he doesn’t think anyone else should. He has been on the public dime for health care ALL of his adult life. He’s receiving a fat pension from his police gig and now a fat paycheck and the best medical care money (taxpayers) can buy for his congressional job. And, he was off work for quite some time recovering – at full pay- while voting at every chance to cut unemployment, minimum wage, etc. for everyone else. He is disgusting.
@4) Parades don’t exactly tax the mind.
DelBene has been an overachiever and workaholic her entire life. She has an MBA, was a founder of Drugstore.com which she took public, and a Senior Microsoft VP. She hasn’t had any easy gigs. Suzan continues to work 24/7 on the campaign. Leisure really hasn’t been something she’s devoted much time to.
@4, Clinging to your stupidity and venality, expecting that one’s representitives in congress are of sound mind is not really so much to ask. Of course, you support people like O’Donnell and Angle, so you probably won’t understand the fact that these people have the power to wage war, drop bombs make laws, you know, inconcequencial banal stuff like that. Your outrage is a sociopathic charade.
I saw that interview when it aired on King 5. Reichert was seriously concerned about them shaving too much of his beautiful hair to perform the surgery, so they drilled through it. ???
This is a well written post. This should be in all the Major PNW papers, and possibly nationally. This is pretty important, because there is something seriously wrong with Reichert. His emotions seemed not effected, but he isn’t completing his thought process.
Let’s say he was just “stupid” like Senator Jim Inhoffe stupid. He would hammer on some ill informed point, or say something about how there too much regulation on business, etc.
Instead, he can’t explain a complete thought, he goes off on Madoff, then Fannie and Freddie, then HCR, instead of answering the question. He is trying to make sense, but he is having a difficult time trying to put his words together.
There is something going on with Reichert. He needs to be upfront about this. I realize for the State GOP, it is a bit too for a new candidate for a battleground district, but he acts like a person who has some serious brain damage, and subdural hematoma can be a fatal injury…
I was wondering if the reason Reichart didn’t decide to step down this year, after discovering his condition, is that he’s only 60 years old. He now has a pre-existing condition. If the Republicans have their way and repeal the Health Insurance Reform Act, then he’s not covered for the condition under private insurance.
In other words, he needs the job for the insurance, otherwise he might die. Maybe he intends to hold onto the job until he’s 65, and can qualify for Medicare?
Welcome to the world the rest of us live in, Dave.
Of course, the Republican reaction will be that it’s rude to even discuss this issue.
But if it were Patty Murray, they would be demanding her immediate resignation without further investigation.
@4,6
Watch the video. Listen to what Reichert says. He’s not making any sense.
If Reichert wins re-election he needs to be recalled. Go ahead and stick another Republican in his spot for the rest of his term. The man’s obviously not making any sense.
I am guessing that Reichert hasn’t stepped down, because his district is critical for the GOP, it is always a battleground district, and they couldn’t get someone with the campaign funds and name recognition to take over… Hence the really low key PR release downplaying Reichert’s hospitalization. This was pretty serious, and obviously he has some damage to his frontal lobes or to his broca area. His answer to Robert Pak’s area shows that he is having problems with planning, and what happens is that the thoughts come out without any sort of process. Hence his answer was all over the place and ended up with health reform at the end of his answer and word salad..
Reichert needs to drop out. I would say this to any congressional candidate. His mannerism and other parts of his brain seemed fine, but there is something obviously wrong.
Of course, I realize that Reichart’s symptoms might not be evidence of any problems with the function of his higher reasoning abilities.
It could well be that the very process of drilling the holes in his head caused just enough damage that it effects his communication functions. Like a stroke victim, he knows exactly what he wants to say, but he just can’t get his body to respond. It’s very frustrating for those affected.
In such a condition, he could continue to serve in Congress, provided that he can still communicate well in some way – such as in writing, typing on a computer, etc.
There was plenty of room in Reichert’s skull for a hand sized blood clot. Frankly, I see no difference in his behavior.
This is still the same man that the 8th district elected to represent their interests in congress — and don’t forget about the Green River Killer.
Maybe we should ask Bill Frist. He has experience with these tricky video diagnoses.
As much as I think Reichert ought to be replaced by a competent Democrat, I can’t say that Reichert did anything wrong to deserve his illness. Like many of us, he has just encountered a situation in life which has adverse consequence. Sometimes, life isn’t fair.
If I had an employee working for me who had a similar condition, I would make every effort to accomodate them. If they couldn’t perform their job adequately, I would try to give them another job they could handle. I would try just about everything I could to keep him on the job, as long as he wanted to be there. But I would also be there to make sure he doesn’t do anything which would damage the company.
Is being in Congress different enough, that he should be required to prove his competency or step down? It’s certainly a very demanding job, and an important one. He is really accountable only to the voters, so no one with authority over him can watch his performace.
But in all fairness, I can’t say he should resign. We let one Democratic Senator (I forget his name) stay in office in 2006 despite a debilitating brain injury. We also let Teddy Kennedy stay in office while he fought against his cancer, a fight which he ultimately lost not long before he would have had a chance to vote for health reform.
But this is an election year. It’s one thing to say whether or not we should make a Congressman resign before his term is completed. When he’s up for re-election, his electorate decides whether or not to “renew his contract”. They should have all the evidence they need to make a proper decision.
Is this really any different than the way he behaved before the subdural hematoma?
That kind of bleeding can be damaging, and can also be pretty benign in terms of cognitive effects. The older you are when it happens – due to normal cerebral atrophy of aging – allows more room for a space-occupying bleed without pushing too hard on anything vital. In kids and younger folks with bigger brains, the strict volume limits of the bony cranium and the relatively larger brain make such bleeds much more likely to be devastating. Therefore, I’m not totally sure of Goldy’s thesis, particularly given his idiocy prior – I do think Reichert was and is a dim bulb and merely a successful political opportunist. (Or perhaps a useful tool of intelligent political opportunists.)
His behavior in the interview reminded me more of Palin and her version of word salad (which is actually a neuropsychiatric descriptor of certain behaviors that neither of them really rise to, but it’s a useful image) – what she does regularly (and somewhat more smoothly) and he is doing here is getting in over their heads and throwing all the ready catch phrases and scripted memes out – hoping that something sounds at least passingly like intelligent analysis and comment – but is really quite empty.
@19
We’ve let all sorts of people stay in office when they should have been removed.
“& for what”? To prevent the next wall street bailout and/or next great depression, that’s what!
Unfortunately, it’s hard to tell a brained damaged republican from your run of the mill republican in most instances. They seldom make much sense or form sentences well. It’s funny but the description below of symptoms of a brain injury could also be used to describe most of the republican front runners for the white house in 2012.
“For some time after a concussion, people may experience headache, dizziness, fatigue, poor memory, inability to concentrate, trouble sleeping, difficulty thinking, irritability, depression, and anxiety. These symptoms are called the post concussion syndrome.”
rhp6033 @19:
The 2006 Senator, who suffered a ruptured AVM (arteriovenous malformation), is Tim Johnson of South Dakota. He returned to the Senate about 9 months after his incident, then successfully won his 2008 campaign for reelection. While his speech is still a bit slurred, his mind is just fine.
Liberal Scientist @20,
Yes, atrophy leaves more room for larger blood clots, and in fact leaves one more susceptible to a CSH (more room for your brain to bang around in there and tear some membranes.) But…
The flip side to that is that a clot that big suggests that Reichert has already suffered substantial brain atrophy, whether due to age or some other disorder. And it also makes recovery from injury that much more difficult.
Palin’s mannerism and speaking style is a bit different. She shows her insecurity that she isn’t well read or well prepared by going putting way too many words into her sentences. She also ad libs and then goes back to her prepared remarks.
Her Katie Couric interview showed someone who wasn’t prepared, and was trying to hide she wasn’t prepared.
Reichert’s answer is different, he is not connecting with his thoughts. He basically not filtering them. He wants to put them together, and I think he knows it. Instead of flustered he seems tiny bit frustrated in the video.
Combine with all these cancelled appearances, and poor performances in front of the Seattle Times, there is something wrong.
Palin’s problem is her own insecurity, and her short attention span. Reichert is probably having problems speaking and probably comprehending some of the issues. I am lean to that his broca’s area has been effected.
Didn’t Reichert play a little football in college? Perhaps one to many shots to the head?
Of course, I played football too. As a lineman, I got hit every single play. That might explain a few things, as well… :(
Wow. I think Reichert is a decent fellow, who doesn’t really mean anybody any harm. But, he was way over his head going to Congress in the first place, and now we see that he can’t string two phrases together that fit, let alone two sentences. This man has no business voting in a legislative body that enacts laws that impact everyone on the globe. I might hire him to cut my lawn, but that’s about it.
@4 It’s not possible for Goldy to sink to a new low. Even at his lowest, Goldy is so far above our trolls, there’s an abyss beneath his feet.
You all should give up on politics for a couple of minutes and checkout these photos.
http://www.boston.com/bigpictu.....ystem.html
Reichert is retired on LEOFF1, a member since 1972, therefore he has full paid medical till death, paid for by King Co., not the State. The law was changed to LEOFF2 in 1977, with the medical greatly reduced,so I doubt if he is in Congress for the medical, since you usually can’t get more than 100% coverage. He does get 2% retirement for each year of service, guessing 64% of Sheriffs pay?
Yea, well, while you obsess over me . . .
Obama approval hits new low
[http://edition.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/09/24/obama.approval.poll/index.html]
In fact, CNN is putting Rasmussen to shame with these latest numbers.
And your little discussion here won’t have the slightest impact on the election results in November, when I hand Suzan her head . . .
Just sayin’
e 32: Well, no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public. The people who are responsible are those who voted Republican.
Re 33
Thanks for so clearly enunciating the disdain many progressives have for the majority of Americans who think their political philosophy a load of horse droppings.
Famed Obama ‘Hope’ poster artist losing hope
http://www.realclearpolitics.c.....e_map.html
Town halls going south
Welcome November
No Vote on the Tax cuts, No budget, what the H do we pay these people for?
CNN fired their news president. Now we’ll finally see real poll numbers from CNN.
rhp6033
Football? Now you are hitting below the belt dude!
It occurs to me to wonder how many people in Congress, especially the elders in the Senate, are mentally impaired by health problems? It’s not something that usually comes up, but we know that Reagan was demented for the last years of his Presidency. Be an interesting question to discuss with Steve!
His performance in this interview would not to me indicate any overt evidence of cognitive deficiencies arising from trauma. Her remains highly verbal throughout. He retains eye contact with his interviewer. His grammatical structure and syntax are quite confusing to the listener at times, but these are hallmarks commonplace to spoken (as opposed to written) patterns of communication revealing cognition. Even professionals who speak for a living on television or radio will sound like this from time to time if they aren’t reading a script. Unscripted, “stream-of-consciousness” conversation about complex topics often sounds this way. Most of us aren’t all that good at verbally communicating complex ideas in impromptu speech. Who can forget The Watergate transcripts? And despite how nonsensical he may sound, his phrasing and structuring of discrete verbal clauses indicates relatively high verbal functioning.
But Lee is also right. He does sound alot like Fred Armisen’s character from SNL. Which probably indicates that he simply isn’t prepared for the question, hasn’t been prepped (or doesn’t respond to prepping) and is engaging in a kind of verbal salad of “smart sounding” phrases that don’t really make any sense in order to cover for the fact that he has no working familiarity with global financial systems, financial regulations or the legislation in question.
He’s probably not brain damaged.
He’s just dumb.
Jews 1, Bigots 0
CNN reports that a Neo-Nazi skinhead couple in Poland who have known each other since childhood have just learned they’re both Jewish.
HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR
Rabbit,
got a link for that? Much as I’d like to believe it, I can’t find it on cnn’s site, even using search.
@42, Rob: Here’s one such link….
http://www.aolnews.com/world/a.....h/19648414
Enjoy.
Rob, link.
FTFY. We know empirically that Alzheimer’s affects brain function years before it becomes impossible to ignore.
I’m trying to make sense of this: you believe that Republicans agree that their philosophy is a load of horse droppings? If they agree that their philosophy is horse droppings but they continue to believe in it, isn’t it sensible to have disdain for them? And do you really believe that conservatives are a majority in this country?
Narcissism Unbound @ 34,
Ah, the lazy conservative mind in full flower. That someone repeats the oft repeated remark by H.L. Mencken is expressing “disdain” for “the majority”? You are being glib as usual.
But really, coming from an egotistical gasbag who routinely posts here his firmly held opinion that “most people” are dumb, lazy, bad financial planners, incapable of any personal initiative, or just brutish members of a common ordinary and not very bright herd (that he is soooooo far above), the attack on somebody else for expressing “disdain” strikes this observer as rather disingenuous.
Based on the clip Goldy scored of Reichert admitting duplicitous behavior to keep the financial & campaign support of east side conservationists- the part of the brain responsible for deviousness and dishonesty is still working fine, thank-you.
English is so hard for some….
Disdain was modified by ‘many,’ not all. But your philosophy shows un underlying lack of faith in the basic competence and intelligence of people.
You assume that a person can’t negotiate a contract with their employer or for their home without government assistance. You assume that once they have it’s inevitable that their evil employer or the rapacious bank somehow defrauded them. Of course, the employer or banker is fully responsible for their signature on the contract, but in your world view the poor citizen can’t possibly understand contracts and isn’t. You assume that they can’t procure health care unless government provides it. You assume many won’t find a way to raise their children or pay their rent without assistance.
Now that is the truly patronising world view, not conservativism.
Proud of being an ass- You forgot to finish the last word in your tag. That aside, I have never once said any of the things you say I did. But reality and progressives are so distant from each other, I’m sure this presents no difficulties to you. After all, you believe I said those things, so it must be true that I did, right?
Sharply opposed to the progressive beliefs, Conservatives are fundamentally optimistic about their fellow citizens.
We believe that if you give a man a level playing field and the scope to exercise his talents he’ll do well on his own. We beleive that most will make good decisions, and those who don’t will learn from them, doing better another time. We believe government is a necessary thing, but one which must be watched as we protect our liberties of person and property.
But then, if I had the dim view of my fellow citizens as low grade morons incapable of the most basic functions of life some progressives have overtly, and all subconciously believe, I suppose I’d want a government nanny for all of them too.
Indeed.
But that doesn’t address “the majority of Americans who think their political philosophy a load of horse droppings.” So I’ll ask again, since you didn’t understand last time, if conservatives agree, as you say, that their philosophy is horse droppings, but they continue to believe in it, isn’t it sensible to have disdain for them?
And then you go on with a pile of assumptions, to which I can only reply by quoting your own words: “I have never once said any of the things you say I did. But reality and conservatives are so distant from each other, I’m sure this presents no difficulties to you.
Rob,
Fair enough. If someone wanted not to understand my sentence you quote, I did leave room for that.
Most Americans think both extremes of conservative and liberal thought a pile of horse droppings. But we are and will likely remain a center right country. What you and your friends would like to see as demographic shifts these past two elections are the pendulum swing common to American politics. It will swing back, probably in the coming elections. You and yours do not represent mainstream American thought, and when fear and anxiety aren’t driving them Americans won’t vote for the far left your party is increasingly veering toward.
And I stand by my comments about the low respect progressives have for people, conscious or not. All areas of life must be regulated, given a government program and money to spend on the ‘problem.’ Whether my child riding a bicycle without a helmet or my signing a note on my house, I’m incapable of doing this without government protecting me from myself. This is the core of progressive thought, that left to themselves people can’t make it, and they need government to help them.
@32 Well, no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public. The people who are responsible are those who voted Republica
—
Yea, well, talk about calling the kettle black, the poll numbers are driven by independents abandoning Obama, not Republicans. And for that matter, Obama isn’t exactly sitting pretty with his own base these days. Of course, the HA faithful couldn’t get enough of Obama’s “We are the ones we have been waiting for” narrative 20 months ago . . . but that was then. These days Obama barely gets mentioned on HA.
e 53: Which is exactly the point of the quote. Polls also reveal that most independents vote Republican.
So — big surprise — they are going to vote that way again. Probably the best thing that could happen to Democrats is for the American electorate to get a refresher course in Republican asswipery.
Go ahead and bang your gong. You guys may win a battle here and there, but you will lose the war. Try ‘repealing’ the healthcare bill after people get wind of SPECIFICALLY what they are repealing.
I didn’t choose to not understand, it doesn’t make any sense.
This, like your “involuntary” image of pot users, is just a fantasy that you choose to believe, because it makes life easier when you can divide it up into “good” and “bad”. Life is, of course not so simple. But it’s funny that you can complain about someone ascribing beliefs to you based on a stereotype of conservatives, when you repeatedly do exactly the same thing. PKB.
I have never once said any of the things you say I did
Not only are you disingenuous, you are a liar. You have posted such opinions repeatedly.
Your contempt for “ordinary folks” is palpable.
“…that if you give a man a level playing field”
Why is is so hard for you to understand that this question is fundamentally at the heart of political debate? Liberals and conservatives have fundamentally differing ideas about what constitutes “a level playing field” and how to go about providing for it.
This delusion is peculiar to modern movement conservatism. That somehow their ideas about social welfare reside in a higher moral plane. It’s a frame created decades ago at the height of the civil rights movement as a means for conservatives to counter liberal alignment with civil rights and to exploit white resentment.
Laissez faire and “hands off” approaches to the well being of the citizenry are not somehow morally superior. They merely support maintaining the status quo.
Just to be unambiguous about it…
You know fucking NOTHING about progressive thought. Your stupidity and ingorance and lack of essential understanding about the world, this country and it’s history, problems and what can possibly be done to preserve and protect the capitalist economic system, our democratic Republic you parade without shame for all the world to see.
Christine O’Donnell emerge from tha sphincter of yours if and when hour head ever pops out.
What a god-damned moron you are, sir.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Sarah Palin and
Raven in post 39 really makes a powerful point. There are numerous issues that decrease cognitive function in our Congressional representation, and they continue to compound, like interest. Reichart’s TBI is just one of them. As the NFL and NCAA are discovering, TBI’s (and certainly drilling in the brain is a traumatic brain injury) can be permanently debilitating increasing the injuries. But our legislators are also suffering from sleep deprivation, air pollution (microscopic particulate matter for example 6 to 8 times greater than the safety allowance on the East Coast), frequent long flying (decreases muscle mass and elasticity and swells the brain), and so forth.
We also have the aging problem, with the average age of Senators at 62 and the average age of House members at 57. The median ages are 50 and 48 respectively. These are fifteen to twenty years higher than the mean (and median) of the US population. Age by itself decreases cognitive function, that can only be overcome with exercise, sleep and active learning each day. When i look at CSPAN, i am not reassured by the physical fitness of most of our legislators; even the younger ones aren’t looking all that great.
You assume that a person can’t negotiate a contract with their employer or for their home without government assistance.
No. We know that there are unscrupulous people who will take advantage of people’s trust, and accept that the law is a tool to protect the average person from nefarious business practices.
You assume that they can’t procure health care unless government provides it
No. We know that insurance is a risk pool, and the larger the pool, the more the risks and costs are shared, which means the service can be provided at a lower cost to everyone. The largest pool would be created by a single payer system.
You assume many won’t find a way to raise their children or pay their rent without assistance.
No. We know that many people will not be able to find jobs, because there are not enough jobs for everyone. We also know that it is not in anyone’s best interest to let those people starve to death in the street.
Oh yeah, one more thing:
Sure, that pretty much describes where the Democrats are today, to the right of where the Republican party was when I first voted.
I live in WA, but not in Reichert’s district. Even so, how has this not had more attention? Wow.
It’s a sad situation, but he should probably step down, or at least drop out of the race.
61 – Few seem to notice (or even be aware) that The Great Kenyan-Socialist-usurper is politically to the right of Tricky Dick. It’s frightening how far we have drifted toward becoming One Nation Under John Birch.
worf,
yeah, but lost and his ilk will go on screaming about “teh ebils of teh socalism” anyway.
I am more than mildly surprised that local print media didn’t launch an investigation into Reichert’s possible impairment after he disclosed to King TV last month that his injury was much more significant than it had been portrayed initially.
I watched Robert Mak’s recent interview of Dave Reichert and I thought Reichert’s responses showed impairment when compared to interview tape from 2008 and earlier. In previous years he was able to parrot the Republican Party line and then expound a bit. Now he seems to get lost even in canned responses.
I think questioning whether a candidate’s health impairs his/her ability to perform the job is resonable. It was in answer to press questioning that both Sen. Tim Johnson and then Senator Joe Biden released their medical records. In Johnson’s case tests showed physical impairment but no cognitive impairment. Biden’s medical records were similarly reassuring.
Why haven’t the Times, PI and The News Tribune asked Reichert to release his records?
Those Tax-Raising Democrats …
We all know Obama is raising everyone’s taxes, right? Bullshit. Taxes are lower now than at any time in most people’s lifetimes.
“Taxes this year will come to less than 15% of GDP, the lowest share since 1950.”
— The Economist, Sept. 18-24, 2010, p. 46.
lost: “Sharply opposed to the progressive beliefs, Conservatives are fundamentally optimistic about their fellow citizens.”
You have the equation precisely backwards, lost. American conservatism has always been marked by an insular, exclusionary, “I’ve got mine, so fuck the rest of you” attitude. Conservatism feasts on fear, paranoia, and disdain for diversity. Why else the conservative approaches to gun rights, immigration, the United Nations, new and different ways of thinking? At heart, American conservatism doesn’t give a shit about others. It is essentially a very selfish perspective on the world. Progressivism, however, arises from concerns for our fellow humans. We also are realistic in recognizing that the cards are stacked against the average citizen, so we need government to step in on occasion to reshuffle the cards. The tension between conservatism’s selfishness and progressivism’s concern for the common good is what lies at the heart of our political differences. Don’t try to recast conservatism as a caring ideology.
You don’t need much of a brain to just do as you’re told.
He has “Agent Orange” and his bunch to tell him how they’d like him to vote and some staff or consultants to tell him what will or will not play well back at home.
Nice work if you can get it.
Mitch @5
I asked them the same question…it has to do with him not being in favor of merit pay tied to test scores. His opponents have said things like ” I would have to look at that” and the union has immediately written them off. I don’t think Reichert knows much about it, but he is smart enough to know that its the right thing to say to a powerful union. bleah…..
@47 “Narcissism Unbound @ 34”
I do believe that we’re reaching consensus here. Lost has NPD and he has it bad.
@49 “You assume that a person can’t”
No, but I assume you can’t. In fact, I know you can’t. Can’t what, you ask? You can’t argue a point without contructing a strawman first.
@49 “Now that is the truly patronising world view”
heh- Patronizing. Coming from Mr. NPD. LMFAO!!
@49 “But reality and progressives are so distant from each other”
Oh Lordy. ROFLMAO!! I can’t take anymore!
@50 “Sharply opposed to the progressive beliefs, Conservatives are fundamentally optimistic about their fellow citizens”
It’s no doubt that conservative optimism of your fellow citizens that causes you to hate on the poor and the unemployed.
@50 “We believe that if you give a man a level playing field and the scope to exercise his talents he’ll do well on his own.”
Unless they’ve ever received an unemployment check or have been on welfare. Then they’ve become lazy, shiftless bastards, destined to forever suck on the government teat.
@50 “But then, if I had the dim view of my fellow citizens as low grade morons”
Lost does not, I repeat, does not have a dim view of the poor and the unemployed. He just thinks they got what they deserve.
@52 “and when fear and anxiety aren’t driving them Americans won’t vote for the far left”
Indeed. Americans hate progressives for the way they kept pushing their fear button with all those orange terror alerts and stoked their fears of being attacked by Saddam’s kid’s model airplanes.
@52 “And I stand by my comments about the low respect progressives have for people”
Nailed us again. It was that lack of respect for Americans that led us progressives to instill fear in them of the dreaded Islamic boogeyman.
I really do believe that Lost is losing his battle with NPD.
Re 67
I’ve just realized that in my frustration with basically intelligent folks who believe palpably wrong things about the economy or government I’ve been extremely rude. For this I apologize.
I won’t ever apologize for having strong opinions. I won’t ever apologize for the content of those opinions. But tone matters as much as content in dialogue. Usually I try to answer incivility with civility, and honest disagreement with honest statements about what I beleive. But I have been rude the past week or so, and rudeness isn’t ever excusable.
Steve,
Keep up your amateur psychologist routine, if it amuses you. It costs me nothing, and seems to yield endless hilarity for you. So if it makes you feel better….whatever.
Re 64
Yes. So long as it is my sincere belief that America was formed on sound principles and that socialism and progressive thought take us away from them, I will say so. So long as America remains the last best bastion for the individual on the planet, I’ll fight to keep it that way.
In advancing the individual we advance society as a whole. In advancing some vague notion of ‘society’ at the expense of the individual we gain nothing and lose much.
lost @ 52: “and when fear and anxiety aren’t driving them Americans won’t vote for the far left”
Do you honestly believe that? Do you honestly believe that the electorate’s apparent swing to the right that we may be seeing at the moment is not driven by fear and anxiety?
Re 73
Honestly? I think that 2 years into a presidency blaming the opposition starts sounding stale to the electorate. I think that historically Americans are leery of any one party having too much control, so that plays into it.
And I think that folks without jobs or the likely prospect of finding one are scared and will vote accordingly. So fear plays into it, sure. Fear about the economy helped elect Obama. Fear about the economy may help cause his undoing as well.
It may also be a backgroung anxiety that Americas best days are behind her. I personally don’t think this has to be true, though of course it can be made to be true under the right circumstances. But if our fellow citizens do vaguely feel this, it isn’t uncommon to have a surge in nostalgic visions of the days of our fathers or grandfathers play a role in politics. If this were the case you’d see a shift to the right as a consequence.
Whether I beleive that to be the case or not? I don’t know. I simply don’t have the data to say one way or the other.
lost,
I know this is pointless, but: America isn’t that last best bastion for the individual on the planet, that would be Somalia, where you can do whatever the hell you like as long as you got the guns to back you. Those of us on the opposite side of the fence from you have realized that individuals don’t ever succeed on their own, they succeed when society gives them the means to succeed. Without society and all the infrastructure put in place by that society; schools, roads, water and sewer systems, airports, etc., there would be no Bill Gates, no Warren Buffet, no Waltons or Kochs, no Jobs or Allen or Ellison. There’d be nothing but a bunch of warlords killing to protect their fiefdoms, like Somalia. You can disagree with that all you want, but you’re wrong.
blaming the opposition starts sounding stale to the electorate.
They say NO to almost everything. They have no credible ideas. Blaming them makes sense to me.
The deficit? Most of it is because of continuing the policies of the last administration from tax cuts to war. See John Leonhardt’s piece in the NY Times for the details.
Obama has retained these policies in part because of the makeup of the Congress, in part because the political realities of special interests and their army of lobbyists inside the beltway and partly because he’s a cautious man who wants to serve out 8 years even if it takes some time to figure out how to navigate this alligator swamp. Inheriting such a horrible mess didn’t help in the least either.
I would meet you halfway on that one.
Society provides the structure within which individuals can’t prosper. Few businesses can prosper without a stable legal and political system, an educated workforce, good transportation infrastructure and so on.
What seems to me to be missing from progressive thinking about this is the role of the individual. Given roughly the same starting point a person from a ghetto can rise to success and he or she owes society something for this. But they did this from effort and discipline and good choices also. We disagree mostly on how much the successful owe their less successful fellow citizens who had the same chances, but made different choices.
Progressives/Liberals are right in some things. Because we’ve always done it that way is no reason not to try to do it better. Because the Constitution was written a certain way 250 years ago doesn’t mean it can’t be altered within the means provided to fit new realities or more enlightened ways of thinking. In my view it just has to be within that ordered method for change provided or we risk anarchy and a dimunition of the document as a whole.
In the push and pull between the opposite ends of the political spectrum we hopefully find some happy medium that avoids the errors of either end. Hopefully. Though the tone of politics from either side makes me doubt that at the moment.
Re 76
With all due respect, we ask a leader to lead. Yes Obama has a stringent opposition, though I may disagree with your characterization of it. One test of leadership is how the president works with or around that opposition to accomplish his or (eventually) her objectives while retaining respect for the democratic systems.
In this light it isn’t surprising that some disappointment with President Obama is felt, particularly among independents who viewed him (erroneously, and maybe even unfairly) as post-partisan.
re 77
This referred to Robs comments at 75.
And the first sentence was written with an error. it should have read “Society provides the structure within which individuals can prosper.” It read ‘can’t.’ Mea Culpa.
Yawwwn.. Teddy Roosevelt was a progressive. Lots of things he did any progressive today would agree with and lots he did we don’t care much for as is the case with Obama today.
Was Teddy a socialist?? Hardly….
Do we want to go back to Bush or pine for McCain? Hardly…
78 – Obama has led.
Politifact.com has determined he’s kept 24 out of 25 of his top promises from the campaign.
His record stands out well in that regard. Look it up.
If anyone is disappointed in his job performance it’s not for lack of trying to do what he said he’d do.
@71 “Keep up your amateur psychologist routine, if it amuses you. It costs me nothing, and seems to yield endless hilarity for you.”
Here’s the deal, you arrogant shit. You don’t like the NPD diagnosis because it hits you where it hurts. And it hurts because it’s true. You got one thing right, though, it does yield endless hilarity for me.
“So if it makes you feel better….whatever.”
Thanks, dumbfuck, cuz I’m gonna keep on doing it.
@74 “I think that 2 years into a presidency blaming the opposition starts sounding stale to the electorate.”
It must have been quite stale for you when Republicans blamed Clinton for everything that went wrong for the first seven years of the Bush administration and then starting blaming Obama before he even took office. You fucking hupocrite. I mean, really, Lost, when have you fucks ever taken responsibility for anything that went wrong on your watch?
@74 “It may also be a backgroung anxiety that Americas best days are behind her. I personally don’t think this has to be true”
And yet you’re the only one here who ever talks about ditching this country to move to another. You’ve said repeatedly that you’d do so because you see our country’s best days as being behind her. You long for the 19th century, the days before Wilson and the “traitor” FDR. How do you reconcile that one, Lost? You can’t. That’s because you have your head permanently stuck up your America-hating, dumbfuck, NPD ass.
Re 82
And you enjoy this beautiful day as well, Steve.
“In this light it isn’t surprising that some disappointment with President Obama is felt, particularly among independents who viewed him (erroneously, and maybe even unfairly) as post-partisan.”
The disappointment, you dumbfuck twit, is in how long it’s taking Obama to clean up the huge fucking disaster you assholes left behind. The answer to this frustration is definitely not to be found in giving you the damned keys to the car again as we already know that you can’t fucking drive.
Re 82
“Here’s the deal, you arrogant shit. You don’t like the NPD diagnosis because it hits you where it hurts.”
Odd. I don’t remember a mental health professional having any personal knowledge of me having diagnosed NPD or anything else.
So no, it really doesn’t bother me, hit me where it hurts or in fact ring true in any way to me. And I’ll save you the classic pop psychology response. ‘Denial is a sign of the problem.’ Which of course begs the question- If I deny being addicted to Cocaine because I feel no attraction to it, have never touched it or even physically seen it to my knowledge am I addicted to Coke? The answer of course, is no. But again, if it gives you pleasure to play psychologist, have fun.
It’s far too beautiful an autumn evening to be inside. Taking the kids and dogs for a walk, so I’ll wish everyone a pleasant evening.
@86, Remember, sidewalks are socialist attacks on your free market individualism, so keep off them.
And repeat your chant as you walk; “Obama’s a mooslim, Obama’s a mooslim”.
“I don’t remember a mental health professional having any personal knowledge of me”
You’re so fucking overboard it doesn’t take a professional to diagnose what ails you. That said, psychology was my profession before entering engineering. You display your symptoms with every post. You can’t seem to write two fucking sentences without displaying symptoms. And it’s not like I’m the only one who recognizes what’s fucking wrong with you:
@47 “Narcissism Unbound @ 34”
You fucking reek of narcissism.
“And I’ll save you the classic pop psychology response. ‘Denial is a sign of the problem.’”
Denial is a sign of the problem, you fucking ding-a-ling! The difference between a narcissist denying his narcissism and a non drug user denying that he uses drugs obviously escapes you. The one is in denial, the other isn’t.
You’re too fucked up for words. If you weren’t such an ass, it’d be a matter for concern. Seeing as how you are an ass, I hope you drown in it.
@49 >> You assume that a person can’t negotiate a contract with their employer or for their home without government assistance.
How do you define government assistance?
Most of the “government assistance” in employer contract law was over things like minimum wage, overtime, safety concerns, paying the employee for work done. Think of how employers treat illegal aliens. That’s want employees would be like without “Government Assistance”.
Most of the “government assistance” in real estate law was over things like realistic interest rates, red lining, shoddy work and so on. Do you think real estate agents should be allowed to cheat anyone who doesn’t realize it?
>> You assume that once they have it’s inevitable that their evil employer or the rapacious bank somehow defrauded them.
Not all of them, but enough that we need to regulations to protect against them. Are you saying there is an acceptable level of evilness for you? It’s OK for banks to defraud 30% of their customers in ways that they won’t notice so long as they don’t take advantage of you? It’s OK for employers to take advantage of 45% of their employees so long as they don’t take advantage of you?
>> Of course, the employer or banker is fully responsible for their signature on the contract, but in your world view the poor citizen can’t possibly understand contracts and isn’t.
What percentage of citizens is the bank or the employer allowed to take advantage of? Just the ones that are desperate for a job? Just the ones that don’t have the time to learn all about real estate law?
>> You assume that they can’t procure health care unless government provides it.
Some cannot.
>> You assume many won’t find a way to raise their children or pay their rent without assistance.
>> Again, some cannot. What do you propose society do with them? Are you willing to abandon them to death or begging in the street?
Why do you want an America modeled after Calcutta?
Shorter Steve-
I believe you to be a narcissist with whose politics I disagree. Therefore I hate you. I hate you a lot. I hate you. I hate you. I hate you.
There. Wouldn’t it have been easier, not to mention more honest, to have written that, Steve?
“I don’t remember a mental health professional having any personal knowledge of me”
Well, how many of these encounters DO you remember?
That’s because ylb you are as dumb as dirt. There are many ideas from the Republican/Conservative side starting with their Health Care proposals back in early summer 2009. Progressives rejected them because they didn’t attack the “institutions” progressives wanted eliminated.
Stay dumb as dirt, you prove it every day!
Why do you want an America modeled after Calcutta?
Obviously, it was all FDR’s fault.
Blue John,
It’s not ok to defraud anyone in either banking or employment contracts. So in answer to your question in zero percent of cases is fraud acceptable.
If fraud exists and can be proven that’s one thing. If the borrower or employee simply couldn’t be bothered to understand the contract they signed they are responsible for it, whether they like it or not.
As for health care there may be a tiny minority who doesn’t have a monthly cell phone bill, cable bill, daily Starbucks and on and on who genuinely can’t afford to pay cash for a doctors visit or dental cleaning. For everyone else they made choices to watch HBO rather than go to the dentist. Emergency rooms will and must see anyone with emergent medical care required, mostly with the cost written off and no attempt to collect payment. Alan Grayson was simply lying with his ridiculous 44,000 deaths due to lack of insurance.
<i.Progressives rejected them because they didn’t attack the “institutions” progressives wanted eliminated.
Of course, this is as opposed to the “institutions” you wanted eliminated, neh?
You call this an argument? You are pathetic.
Wow this thread is saved for the next time some HA DUMMOCRAPT progressive attacks Puddy for calling leftist all the appropriate names Puddy thinks of.
Look at all the names you fools have called lostinaseaofblue here.
Then there’s rujax. Telling someone how progressives think. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
There are many ideas from the Republican/Conservative side….
OK. Name one.
Well Blue John, we had to pass the bill so we could learn what was in it. Now that we see what is in it, the majority of Americans REJECT IT!
FartASS@97…
Nope… Puddy already placed many of them into TEH HA DATABAZE KEEPA ylb has.
YOU ASK HIM. Puddy already referred to one in #92. YOU ARE TOO STUPID to read!
Balls up FartASS. Ask TEH HA DATABAZE KEEPA ylb!
@77,
so we agree that socialism is a good thing, we just disagree on how much. OK. But I don’t understand your point about the role of the individual. Hell, we’re all individuals, how can we not be thinking about our roles?
Lostinaseaofblue…
It was a beautiful day. Puddy was with the Susan Komen 3 Day Walkers. Puddy heard many sad stories especially of one lady who lost their relative to breast cancer yesterday. How many moonbats participated?
Probably ZERO!
“People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.” George Orwell
Puddy rewrite… “Progressive Libtardo Moronic Memory Malady Moonbats! sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough conservative men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.”
What institutions does Puddy want eliminated FartASS? Search Google. Ask TEH HA DATABAZE KEEPA ylb.
Balls up FartASS. Ask TEH HA DATABAZE KEEPA ylb!
Lost,
I think there is a huge gray area in “If the borrower or employee simply couldn’t be bothered to understand the contract they signed they are responsible for it, whether they like it or not.”
What you define as “not bothering to read”, I define as “written in a way that most people don’t understand the consequences of them.”
Help me out here. You must have information about this I don’t. Can you site three examples where a person got into a miserable contract because they had “not bothering to read” it?
You and I are “smart”. We read our contracts and try to figure out the parts we don’t know. I guess I really would like to know what kind of Americans you think doesn’t need the government assisting them to keep them out of bad contracts?
Alan Grayson was simply lying with his ridiculous 44,000 deaths due to lack of insurance.
And yet, with a minimum of effort, it’s possible to find the study he cited. He was not lying, it said that. You will likely challenge the report because the facts don’t fit your agenda, but Grayson didn’t just invent the number out of thin air.
http://www.pnhp.org/excessdeat.....adults.pdf
It was mentioned in
http://www.scientificamerican......2009-09-17
And the discussion between the science deniers and everyone else was fascinating. The deniers attacked anything as wrong that did not agree with their world view.
@102
Orwell was a Democratic Socialist. He fought on the lefty side in the Spanish Civil War. ;-)
Plenty of people on the left serve/d. I’m related to more than a few of them.
@ 94 –
From word one, this paragraph is utter nonsense. You begin with your typical elitist hatred of the poor and strawdog building. Here’s some news for you – there are currently over 40 million people in the USA living below the official poverty line of 22K for a family of four. They aren’t uninsured because they refuse to forgo their “daily Starbucks”. They are uninsured because there are no jobs for them, or the part time work they can get doesn’t offer insurance. It’s not a mystery.
As to your assertion that Grayson is a liar, chew on this, From Scientific American.
So, are the editors of Scientific American, the doctors at the CDC and everyone else involved in this well documented study liars as well, or just Rep. Grayson?
If you have nothing to add to the discussion beyond what you heard on The Glenn Beck Show, do us a favor and keep it to yourself.
@102
Btw, it’s not left/right. It’s middle-upper class/working class.
“What institutions does Puddy want eliminated FartASS?”
You tell me. You’re the one who wants them eliminated. Maybe you can find them in YLB’s database.
Fucking moron.
From the NPD addled mind of Lost, “Therefore I hate you. I hate you a lot. I hate you. I hate you. I hate you.”
Geez, project much, Lost? heh- It’s an NPD thing. You might consider checking into it. If you don’t have insurance coverage for that, bring a chicken with you when you go to see the shrink.
Puddy moans, “Look at all the names you fools have called lostinaseaofblue here.”
heh- Puddy takes offense at namecalling. Too fucking much. Take a blue pill. No, better take two.
We’re not calling him names, my imbecilic fool of a friend, we’re simply describing him. Big diff, don’t you think?
“How many moonbats participated?”
So where you you when we shaved our heads for Susan Koman back in 1995? Huh? Huh?? Well, where were you?
“Puddy heard many sad stories”
You are a sad story.
Back to Lost, “As for health care there may be a tiny minority who doesn’t have a monthly cell phone bill, cable bill, daily Starbucks and on and on who genuinely can’t afford to pay cash for a doctors visit or dental cleaning.”
Say, Doc, how about I trade you a Starbucks for PET scan? Eh, sorry, we ain’t got no chickens.
Lost would no doubt resent the fact that we had a phone when my Mom and I were on welfare. heh- Such an extravagance. That phone call that saved my Mom’s life when she had a heart attack? Eh, I could have used a neighbor’s phone. Oh, wait, they were on welfare too. And when we got to the hospital? Oops, no chicken. Damn!
Sigh! That Lost. Always coming up with clever wingnut ideas to kill my Mom.
@109 “You tell me. You’re the one who wants them eliminated. Maybe you can find them in YLB’s database.
Fucking moron.”
Ouch! That one really did have me LMFAO.
Psycho-Fool whines, “Look at all the names you fools have called lostinaseaofblue here.”
followed by,
“Progressive Libtardo Moronic Memory Malady Moonbats!”
and then,
“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA”
Oh, noes! There’s that psycho-laugh again! He’s psycho, I tell you, psycho!!
Uh, you’d better make that four blue pills, Puddy. And four more in the morning.
heh-
Steve is a moron everyday.
Do you understand what HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA really stands for and when Puddy uses it?
Stupid Solution – it really keeps you DUMB!!!!
Hey Steve Stupid Solution…
How many names did you call lostinaseaofblue just in this thread?
Puddy will wait. Puddy already counted!
DUMB ASS!
FartASS,
Where has Puddy said he wants to eliminate anything FartASS? You claimed it, so pony up. Dickbreath!
Puddy suggested you check TEH HA DATABAZE KEEPA ylb.
Balls up fool. Go for it.
Wait a minute… you probably are a eunuch. Puddy has shown up at DL more than twice!
re 114
“How many names did you call lostinaseaofblue just in this thread?”
Really, don’t stress about it on my account. When you rise to the bait of overgrown adolescents like Steve, you only encourage them.
There are some folks who can’t avoid making politics personal. Steve happens to be one of them. He can’t help it, and is more to be pitied than censured.
Honestly, I’d have to care a lot more about his opinion than I do for name-calling to bother me.
Wait, I guess that’s narcissistic, or NPD, or whatever the great psychologist has determined I suffer from. Still, it and the adolescent name calling entertains him, so no harm done.
Still-
Steve, you really ought to seek some professional help for your delusions. I keep telling you, I never knew your mother never mind trying to kill her. I think the term is paranoi. But hey, I’m neither a psychologist (and here’s the important bit) nor do I pretend to be one.
Steve Stupid Solution pretends to be a psychologist everyday.
“It’s a PSYCH 101” thing, remember lostinaseaofblue?
At least Steve Stupid Solution goes cogent once in a while. rujax is 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 percent… uhhhh infinitely psycho!
Watch now the dumb cinder block will appear, fart, and nobody will care!
Of course lost blithely skips over all critiques of his inane ramblings. So… are the editors of Scientific American and the doctors of the CDC liars, or is Rep. Grayson the only one?
HMMMMMMMMMMMMMM?
Worf,
The Harvard Study had issues around the confidence interval per the study detractors.
No, lost has a life. On occasion my wife and kids like to talk to me, morbid as they may seem to you.
I haven’t read the full study, so won’t comment on it, except for a couple of surface observations.
The study authors make a couple of assumptions that don’t seem valid to me. First, that not having insurance means you don’t have access to preventive care. I personally carry only catastrophic care insurance, paying for routine preventive care in cash. My dentist and my annual physical between them cost a little over $500. A year or two ago a local doctors office offered a cash package for a family of 4, with normal preventive care at about $1000. That is, before our dear state forced them to stop, saying they were offering insurance without a license.
The study authors also make no causal link (unless it’s in the study, which as I’ve said I haven’t read) between lack of insurance and death. They merely point to a concurrence. If in fact the study makes a causal link, I apologize in advance. Otherwise the two things have no scientifically proven connection. And Grayson is a grandstanding fool out for his own main chance and some TV coverage. Well, the second is a given, the first would be or not be in the study.
Medical Care in general
At any rate you, Blue John and Steve miss the point.
In my old line of work I went into hundreds of apartments, condos etc for building investigations. The poorest ones had at least 2 televisions with cable. They had cell phones for each kid. They had junk food on the counters, and Starbucks cups. Keeping one cell phone (often cheaper than land lines), eliminating the junk food and starbucks, and cutting the cable would pay or come close to paying for the kids to get preventive care. Not that this matters, because the poor were on medical coupons which gave them this preventive care if they chose to use it.
So don’t tell me people don’t have access to medical care. The very poor don’t pay for it, and anyone else made choices for which I accept no responsibility. If cable tv was more important than a mammogram, how is this the fault of society? If a daily Starbucks is more important than getting your teeth cleaned, how is this the fault of anyone else?
@123 And on the other hand, I and my partner have know a lot of waiters and bartenders and artists. They were the working poor. They had one or two jobs that didn’t pay enough to enough to cover food, rent and medical. So they went without medical and hoped they wouldn’t get very sick and went to the dentist when they had toothaches.
That said, you do have a somewhat compelling argument about preventive care. The kind that is small and affordable.
But your scheme doesn’t cover major medical. It wouldn’t have covered Steve’s mom’s illness. She would be dead, with nice teeth, without government support, if you had your way. How are the poor supposed to cover chemotherapy on a Starbucks a day, or the cost of a triple bypass for the cost of cable each month?
And you don’t like Grayson because he casts you and your kind in justifiably bad light. I wished we had 200 of him in congress!
“There are some folks who can’t avoid making politics personal.”
Do you see me talking politics? I heap the scorn on you because I simply don’t like stupid, arrogant shits like you, left or right. And I especially don’t like people who hate on the poor.
“In my old line of work I went into hundreds of apartments, condos etc for building investigations. The poorest ones had at least 2 televisions with cable. They had cell phones for each kid. They had junk food on the counters, and Starbucks cups.”
Good fucking grief! Lost cruises through a building and now he thinks he’s qualified to judge the lives of the poor. Such arrogance!
Speaking of arrogance, I have an idea! How about we march through a few NPD symptoms and see how Lost scores!
“Believing that you’re better than others”
Hmm, now who do we know around here who thinks he’s better than the poor?
“Failing to recognize other people’s emotions and feelings”
heh- I’m sure poor people see you as a fucking empath. Fail!
“Expecting others to go along with your ideas and plans”
And if we don’t, we must be stupid fucking libruls.
“Taking advantage of others”
Did the boss know that you spent your days on his dime surveying all the tenants cell phones, TV’s, cable connections, Snickers and Starbucks cups?
“Expressing disdain for those you feel are inferior”
I somehow suspect that you corraled the poor people’s vote on that one, Lost.
“When you have narcissistic personality disorder, you may come across as conceited, boastful or pretentious.”
Oh, no, that’s not you. No, sirree, Lost, that’s definitely not you. heh-
“You may belittle or look down on people you perceive as inferior.”
heh- That’s not you either. You get bonus points here.
“Others may not enjoy being around you.”
Um, how about a show of hands. Who enjoys having Lost around? Well, you got Puddy’s vote, Lost, but he’s psycho, so I’m not sure that helps your case here. There’s the Psycho-KLOWN. Oh, wait. Fail.
“Having a fragile self-esteem”
You seem awfully sensitive about this NPD thing. Is it because it knocks you down a notch in the ol’ self-esteem department?
“People who have healthy confidence and self-esteem don’t value themselves more than they value others.”
Does anybody believe that Lost considers the poor to be equal to him? Anybody? Geez, not even you, Puddy?
“Appearing as tough-minded or unemotional”
In you case, block-headed with zombie-like emotions is more like it. I’m gonna give you bonus points on this one too.
“You may have a sense of entitlement.”
Dammit! It’s your money, and you should be able to keep it!
“Believing that you’re special and acting accordingly”
When you diss the inferior poor, does that make you feel, um, special? Isn’t that what you’re really acting out here in your comments?
Think NPD, Lost, because you have it firing on all cylinders.
Pffft.. We discussed all of them. All of them were WORTHLESS!
Tax cuts for the rich and the BP’s of the world doing anything they damn please – that one worked out great in the Gulf.
That’s all Republicans got – that’s all they will EVER have!
What a tool!
How can someone as dumb as dirt discuss anything intelligently? You are your own echo chamber. Wait a minute ylb… FartASS said there were no ideas.
Maybe you should replay them since Puddy placed them on HA since you claimed to discuss them!
Pavlov sez, thanks for playing sucka! So typically stupid!
Ok what are the Republicans going to propose after November?
Oh it’s in that “PLAGUE on America” that even Red State panned.
Always been and always will be a miserable tool.
Dumb as dirt ylb, PLAGUE on America? You are now drinking James Clyburn’s kook-aid? The fool who claimed DUMMOCRAPTS tampered with voting machines when the moron Alvin Greene won the primary? That fool Clyburn? Another reason you are dumb as dirt!!!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Why did Red State pan it moron? Cuz Red State claimed the Pledge to America didn’t go far enough. The PLAGUE is You love to tell half truths ylb, that’s why you are as dumb as dirt.
Pavlov sez wait for the ad hominem attack for TEH HA DATABAZA KEEPA using some stupid link again!
You mean it’s not batshit insane enough for Red State and the likes of you??
Of course it isn’t. ALMOST NOTHING IS!
Of course like a zombie you’ll vote for it in a flat second.
Always been and always will be a miserable tool.
@54 Try ‘repealing’ the healthcare bill after people get wind of SPECIFICALLY what they are repealing
Right, Dems have been making this argument since the law passed . . . just wait until people discover what’s in it and that’ll turn those terrible poll numbers around. Well, it hasn’t happened, and in fact the numbers have hardened – against the legislation.
In any event, since you and the other HA faithful bought Obama’s messianic “we are the ones we have been waiting for” message hook, line and sinker, your judgement by now is just a little discredited.
Amazing how little Obama is mentioned on HA now compared to those heady days.
130 – Heh. Yeah the country will just love that “Plague on America”.
They’ll just fall head over heels for “Agent Orange” and that ghoul in the Senate, the way they did for philandering Newt.
What a prop! It will be quickly forgotten and discarded as the Republicans gin up worthless hearings and give endless speeches about the virtues of doling more tax cuts to their rich masters and apologizing to Wall Street and Oil Company CEO’s for Obama making even a half-hearted attempt to reign in their abuses.
Steve,
To all appearances you have done well for yourself. From what you write you’re successful at your chosen field, and could have been at a different one. You’re happily married or partnered or whatever. You seem to have friends here, and I assume from the rest of your life professional and private.
Maybe it’s time to put the inferiority complex away, and enjoy the decent life you’ve earned. Maybe it’s time to stop projecting those feelings onto others, deal with them, and move on.
Or if it releases some pressure in you to keep harping about an imagined illness in me, please, be my guest.
Have a nice Sunday and a good upcoming week.
Lost, your blind assertions and your beliefs do not an argument make. You made an assertion that Rep. Grayson was lying. When shown twice that, in fact, he wasn’t, you dismiss the proof, which “you haven’t read”, with no other proof than that “…the authors make a couple of assumptions that don’t seem valid to me.” And we should trust you methodology over that of Scientific American and the CDC because… why? What empirical evidence can you show to back up your position? Can you show a counter study, or an article, (from a reputable source, not World Nut Daily) That disproves the study? You need more than your Glenn Beck tactics around here, I’m afraid. And that includes your disturbing, anecdotal “evidence” (“gathered” by your snooping around in their homes – god, you are creepy) that poor people are secretly living high on the hog surrounded by TVs and cell phones.
Your utter inability to form a rational argument supporting your position without relying on strawdogs, red herrings, blind assumption and your own anecdotal evidence illustrates precisely what is so despicable and dangerous about conservatism. Your entire belief system is based on your own unshakable feelings of superiority. Hubris. Pride. Call it what you want – it’s one of the sins your religion preaches against.
Re 133
Well, fairly angry response to a measured statement, but that’s par for the course..
What I wrote at 121 was that the study seemed to have 2 flaws, and enunciated them. Of course, you don’t bother to answer either, but then again that too is par for the course here.
Care to comment on the seemingly sloppy science? That is, without establishing a causal link between lack of insurance and mortality they brazenly claim 44,000 deaths.
Nor do they anywhere prove that lack of insurance means a denial of preventive medical care. As I’ve written, nearly any American spends sufficient discretionary income to afford a yearly physcical and dental cleaning.
Want to talk about the very real problems around catastrophic care and limited access there. Fine. That’s a legitimate point. A heart attack, cancer or any other expensive procedure can cause economic problems even for comparitively wealthy uninsured. Certainly it poses real issues for the poor.
But that isn’t what the welfare for insurance companies Obama signed does, is it? It says that we all must pay for a certain kind of insurance whether we need it or not, whether it makes fiscal sense for us or not. It is a gift to insurance companies with the IRS enforcing it. But Grayson couldn’t grandstand, or Schultz self righteously pontificate, or Pelosi weep bitter tears over structural changes within the existing system that would solve the problem. So they aren’t interested in that, just in remaking all of health care badly for their own political or personal gain.
As for the purely personal attacks, you can keep them. If you have something to the point to say, I’m all ears. If you want to try to distract me with personal animus, Im familiar with this technique. Frankly, I have always thought it the sign of a lack of real argument.
BTW, I have read the study now, and both of the critiques above stand. Why did the CDC or Scientific American buy off on this? Search me. That isn’t my problem.
At any rate, I’m unaware of any reason the CDC would have an involvement in health insurance policy. They have a job to do, and would be wise to keep to it rather than venturing into politics. Otherwise they risk looking partisan rather than scientific. As for Scientific American, they have an editor who picks what to carry and support. Look to his or her politics, and Iyou find an answer to their support for this study.
You must be pretty thin skinned to find my response “angry”. I did not attack you, call you names or defame you in any way.
I see no sloppy science here – the study shows that people without insurance delay treatment, and that delaying treatment causes the amount of deaths cited in the study. It’s pretty straight forward, and you have done nothing to illustrate the fallacy, if there is any, in the argument. Hypothetically, let’s say you’re correct and the study is flawed and doesn’t show what it purports to. Can you point to a reputable source that bolsters your argument? Because if presented with a choice between the CDC and the editors of S.A. and your word… well, anyone would be a fool to cite you (or me) as a more credible source than S.A. and the CDC. You then, again, wrapped it all up with the tidy assertion that the editor(s) of Scientific American published the study to further some nefarious agenda. And yet you accuse other people of paranoia.
Interesting.
“Maybe it’s time to put the inferiority complex away”
To be serious for a moment, and I’m very seldom serious, many years ago I decided that, if I were to become truly free, one of the things I had to do was to let go of any feelings I had of my own self-importance. This was shortly after I had supposedly become “free” – an emancipated minor at the age of seventeen. By the time I was eighteen I had more dreams come true than most people will ever know. The realization that I had at the time, that I was not truly free and might not ever be free, was a real life changer. Letting go of one’s feelings of self-importance. It’s so easy to say, not so easy to do. Inferiority complex? No, not really. I just know that I’m not better than anybody else. One big difference that I see between you and I? You seem to think you’re better than the poor. I know that I’m not. I see the only thing being of any importance in this life is one’s nearness to God. In this quest, attaining what I call the “totality of freedom”, I have no advantage whatsoever over the poorest person on the planet.
and in the final analysis, we have…
Dave Reichert – 3
Dorki Burner/Dave Ross – 0
even goldy’s masturbating over darci’s campaign photo’s couldnt help her win an election(even in a year dominated by D’s)
Hey TEH HA DATABAZE KEEPA ylb, first you claimed
Then wehn busted for the 4,434,234,856,789,123,213th time the dumber than dirt fool farts
First moron, where has Puddy commented on the Pledge to America except in rebutting of your useless commentary?
Second, it’s now apparent you didn’t read the Red State commentary.
Third, you have no response to James Clyburn, another of Pelosi’s crazy crew. What a moron! You have no memory of what peeps say. You jump to use them when you READ something you want to use. That’s why…
Fourth, you continue to demonstrate to all you are still dumb as dirt!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Hey worf,
You seem to skip over the anti-Harvard study argument by others Harvard’s strange control and experimental assumptions in their regression and related analyses. Did you notice as they added more control variables the NUMBER DROPPED?
This is why Grayson is a tool, fool and a ghoul! Man is he ugly!
@138
Meanwhile, “The One” is hitting a new low:
http://www.realclearpolitics.c.....-1044.html
The HA faithful aren’t exactly hitting the ball out of the park with their judgement.