It just happened again! I pull up a post and there is a horrible, horrible picture that had NO WARNING in the thread title. Some people, such as myself, are hypersensitive to horrible graphic pictures and cannot stand to look at them. When we view them, they literally stay with us for the rest of our lives. For the first few days, we can't get the pictures out of our minds and we have a severe emotional reaction to them. These images never leave our minds.

Please, please, PLEASE, if you want to post some horrific picture, PLEASE include a "GRAPHIC WARNING" sign in your thread title.

I'm going to keep this kicked because too many people seem to get their ya-yas by doing this lately. I don't know if they're completely ignorant or they just don't care. Either way the psychological damage is incalculable.

For those of you with this condition the Thread: "Dog of the year helps 8-year-old boy with autism find his voice" contains one of these horrific pictures.

Voter suppression and gerrymandering will, indeed, be HUGE obstacles in the upcoming elections and both will have to be dealt with; however, one area that seems to get no attention is the lack of Democratic candidates in too many elections.

After Dean, the Party Intelligencia decided to go back to the 6-state strategy. The result is that there is no party support, in any way, for the vast majority of elections. That means it's up to the locals to find, recruit and support challengers in EVERY race. I can't tell you how often the Republican Congresscritters from my area run unopposed. Either that or the Democrats throw in a "sacrifice candidate" who is, basically, a placeholder and does no campaigning, no debates, nothing. The thing is, I know this situation isn't unique to my area. I would think that this is a part of our Democratic process in which all DUers can engage. If you're looking for something to do in the 2014, maybe consider candidate recruitment. Or . . . run yourself.

As terrible as this SNAP cut is (notice they could find money to continue the Bush Tax Cuts for the Wealthy), it's even worse given that Thanksgiving and Christmas are just around the corner. Not only that, kids will be out of school during those times which means no school breakfasts/lunches.

I've decided that every time I go to the grocery store I'm going to try and buy 5 extra cans of something -- tuna, soup, spaghettios, whatever I can find -- and donate them to our food bank. If I had money I'd donate that too but I don't so this is one little thing I, as one solitary individual, can do. I'd like to invite other DUers to think about doing this or something like it to help alleviate some of the extra strain our local food banks will be under in the coming weeks. I've volunteered at my local food bank many times and I can tell you every little bit helps and is greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your consideration.

LTH