So he more or less likes what he 'sees', (rhymes with pees), and tells me that for a young guy I did OK and what was my secret of maintaining good humor since most 'younger' guys who have my 'problem' are bitter and angry and such. I told him that every time he was examining me or that I would have to perform my 4X/daily catheterization for three frigging months, or go for one of my surgeries or outpatient procedures with the urologist or the nephrologist, I would think of one particular joke and it would make me laugh every time. Of course, he asked what joke it was, and of course, I was happy to tell him:

There's a man walking between the 70th floor of the Chrysler building and the 70th Floor of the Empire State Building on a tightrope, OK? At the exact same time, half a world away in Australia, there's a man receiving oral sex from a 97 year old woman. They both have the exact same thought at the exact same time. What's that thought?

"Don't look down."

So he laughed and I went to work, at which time I was bombarded by lunacy the likes of which I haven't experienced in a long time. And that was just the Staff. The patients were 'even woise'. Then I see that Mr. Edwards (rightfully IMO) beat that specious case against him (for now at least) and even Tweety got it right, IMHO, that the Rethug prosecutor, a holdover from Bush II, went on to win the Rethug primary down there. So it seems that Mr Edwards has learned, and some of the rest of us hopefully have learned, that one must stay away from these sticky, sociopathic individuals who, on the one hand, are charismatic and yes, sexy (think Glenn Close in the movie) but OTOH are dangerous barracudas. We encounter them in all walks of life and are often taken in by them, to our detriment. Edwards should have known better than to get involved, no question.

And then, on edit, I watched a drunken ex-pResident on TeeVee with his peculiar wife.

So then I meet with this guy to set up, perhaps, a new credit card vendor, and he goes thru all these machinations about how he will save me 5 cents here and 12 cents there...and at the end, he gives me this pad upon which to sign an electronic signature. So halfway thru the first signature I ask, "What am I signing?" so he shows me this document and I see a $200.00 setup charge which he hadn't mentioned to me. He quickly stated that he was going to waive the charge. I calmly, for a change, said to him, "You know what, I want to waive ALL the charges and I want you to sign something which I'm going to write that I won't be charged for setup, for batches for the first six months, and for per-transaction fees (which are in addition to the percentage taken by the company on each M/C or Visa or Amex or Discover). so he was so shaken that he actually agreed which REALLY pissed me off because I've been paying these for 30+ years for no apparent reason, other than I didn't ask. BTW, we as merchants pay more when a customer/patient uses the Rewards Cards...so guess who's paying for that Macy's Gift Card or that trip to San diego? the merchant...who raises prices/fees accordingly over the years of high credit/debit card fees...for me, over 800 dollars monthly for the simple RIGHT to take credit cards rather than checks or cash, yes I pay almost ten grand a year in fees. If you add the ridiculous interest which these companies charge, there's no wonder that they are the richest people in the Known Universe.

So then I decided to write a post on my favorite website...

it is a code word...like a "terrorist fist-bump"...

In one of the James Bond novels, Bond calls his superior, M, and tells him that he's off with his new assistant Felicia. M puzzles, "Who?" Bond says "F-E-L-I-C-I-A", meaning Felix Leiter of the CIA...

The Rethugs are telling the flocks..."no worries, we're CIA, we've got this one."

Only half ...

If my grandmother had had wheels, she'd have been a locomotive...
I'm really getting sick of the Yahoo/Politico/AP-type coverage which shows on the one hand, that Obama has 240+ votes but is in danger of losing because the ReTHUGS may be able to "peel off" (i.e. steal) other states. So what the propaganda is stating clearly is that Obama has a ceiling but R-Money will run the table and win out,

Run the table with WHAT? His winning personality? His Cayman bank accounts? His fluency in the FRENCH language (of all things)? His consistent conservative agenda? His language skills? His humane treatment of animals? His bullying of a gay guy (OK, THAT one may work in this moran-ic electorate).

The real campaign hasn't started yet and I recall hearing the same crap when McCain was nominated: Reverential War Hero, Plain-speaking, Maverick, Experienced, Venerated in the Senate, Beautiful and poised wife and family, Adopted a child of color (not his idea), Scion of generations of Military Officers. Then, when the campaign began: left his first wife 'cause she was injured (even Nancy Reagan wouldn't have anything to do with him after that), stupid, ill-advised pick for VeePee, lame-assed approach to the conflagration which was the economic near-collapse of the USA and possibly the entire world, and more.

People are not yet paying attention as they say every four years. When they do, they'll see R-Money exactly for what he is and isn't, and they won't much like him. As I've pointed out in a few posts, even his own can't stand him personally and that's most unusual for the RWers these days. Stay tuned, the fun has yet to begin.

otherwise known as "Psychos-R-Us"...

Long fucking day it was, and it only lasted five hours, since we leave early for the so-called three-day holiday...it is actually more like Gilligan's Three Hour Tour.

Asshole #1: Extreme RW, racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic (but they often go to Jews-like-me for their doctoring), violent, pistol-packing, hater. told me that the problem with the Jews was that they hadn't accepted Christ, and all the countries and peoples who had rejected him had fallen off the precipice, or words to that effect. He's dangerous and creepy, and would be Zotted at Freeperland for being over-the-top...that's how bad. so I just look at him and smile grimly to myself. Thank God he's got good teeth, otherwise I'd have to see him more than twice a year: today's quote, "It's the Liberals' fault that my co-pays are so high." That's the only sentence which didn't include profanities.

Asshole #2: Pedophilic racist: i had to eliminate "Boys Life" from my magazine rack because he used to tear out pictures surreptitiously (he thought). Hates black people "because" his son-in-law's brother was killed by a drive-by shooter. Incidentally, his son-in-law isn't one tenth as angry at the race and gets along famously with my assistant who is great and happens to be AA. The pedophile has nine lives and has survived every major illness any one of which would have killed me years ago.

Asshole #3: Extreme RW woman, hates working-class folk even though she is one. thinks Teachers should work for minimum wage, and that one of the big problems in America is that the Civil War was also one of abolition. So, I ask her, is she a States' Rights person? Her reply: absolutely, unless the State wants to enforce liberal, commie tendencies like reproductive rights and contraception and worker-safety laws, and voting rights...you get the point. Her second biggest complaint is that Truman integrated the Armed Forces. Needless, to say, she doesn't even mention President Obama, probably for fear of having a visit from the Secret Service.

Now it's time to make a vodka gimlet, kick back, do the laundry, watch the Phillies try to lose another one, and attempt to calm down from a bad day.

1. I miss my Mom terribly: she died of her worst fear - a stroke - six years or so ago, and her loss to the family, to her friends, to the Progressive movement at the Jersey Shore, was immense. She was of course, irreplacable to me, but the whole generation is irreplacable: the mixture of altruism, of experience through the Depression, through WW II, through the rise of technology from radio through the computing age, from Hoovervilles, through FDR, through the Great Society, Vietnam, and Reagan/Bush/Bush II is a remarkable lifetime. She once told me upon reflection, that the mostg amazing occurrence as far as she was concerned was the fall of the Soviets: that she was born into the pre-Revolution and thought that it would last for centuries. She was interesting: he first husband, my brother's father, who died very young, had received an invitation to attend a meeting in the late-thirties. She told him, an aspiting actor (his Best friend was a very young Burgess Merideth), that you can't go to a Communist meeting - that he/they will be blacklisted forever and probably 'outed' by someone there who claimed to be one of the most fervent 'adherents'. They didn't go, and she was absolutely right: no one who attended could find work locally or in New York, practically forever, even though many were considered 'rising stars'. That she never believed in the forcible overthrow of the governement and that it was treasonous behavior to believe that it was the right thing to do. She was a real patriot, unlike these BS artists you see on FOX and in the rest of the media today. Really, my only regret with respect to her life, is that I didn't sit down with a video camera and ask her all the questions I should have...most of this information is now lost forever, since she was the last of the generation of the family.

2. This Romney business, as I pointed out last week, is just despicable. I'm only a couple years younger than he is, and if I had a nickel for everytime I heard the word/accusation "homo", "fag", "dyke" or other epithet relating to gay or lesbian students or those accused of being same, at my boarding/day school in New Hope, PA I would not have any financial worries. i could tell you about the 'pranks' that were played upon these people, but it would nauseate you beyond belief on this day. Suffice it to say that Romney's statement that that issue was the last thing on his mind was a BALD-FACED LIE as far as I'm concerned. All of these assholes, and believe me, we thought they were assholes at the time, could talk about was who was or wasn't probably gay - although that word was never used in my day, as I outlined abve. It reminds me of when the Lower Merion School Administrator made the statement that their IT people were so busy doing sork, that they didn't have time to view Porn, during the infamous Webcam case which indirectly and directly involved my own child. i knew at that point that they were lying through their teeth. It's just that one statement that makes you KNOW.

3. As I've mentioned numerous times, I watch old TV shows while I do my bookwork and charts in my office, and I'm on the first season of Mission: Impossible now, and just saw the episode where the Team has to discredit a Nazi living in South America. Many of the statements made by his cohorts, i've been reading lately, just not in Fiction, but on 'mainstream' channels and outlets. We sure have come 'a long way' since the thid 1960's haven't we?

4. We just got a PA photo ID for my 96 year-old FIL, and we were lucky that the lady working had just gone thru some emotional crisis and really didn't give a crap that he didn't have all of his documents just the way they like to have them with 'raised 'seals' and all. His Drivers' license had expired technically too long ago, but she looked at it and said, OK and now he'll be able to vote for sure. He used to be one of those "Independents" but now he's a Dem due to the pure, unadulterated hatred which is emanating form the Rethugs. He's actually quite amazed by: he's fully lucid and lives independently - his mother made it to 104, also fully sentient. I think he's one of those Ashkeazy Jews that New York mag profiled last November. Amazing group of individuals.

5. A Happy Mother's Day to All...may you have the blessings of the Age.

So the erstwhile nominee of the fascist-leaning or worse, Republican Party is not only a specialist in animal cruelty, he's a homophobic bully who assaulted and gang-terrorized a fellow high school student and is not at all specifically remorseful or apologetic for any of his aberrant (or as he might call them: "wayward" acts, or, as my departed father might call them, crimes against humanity AND dogs, for that matter.

As I posted over the weekend, I repeat my claim that he is an emotionless, disordered individual who needs significant behavioral therapy and medication.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002650463

I would preface this by stating that no, I'm not Bill Frist, and yes, I can watch someone at length and posit that he or she may possess certain, shall we say, 'attributes', which are less than desirable as a candidate for public office, most certainly the Presidency of these United States. And no, I am not a psychologist or psychiatrist but I perform clinical interviews every single day, have performed well over twenty thousand in a practice lifetime and I will say that for the most part, I read people pretty well. See, the way I look at this stuff is that everyone has a 'schtick' and is more than entitled to have it, as it is critical for masking the inner self within a society which does not accept the 'id' very well in most situations involving what most of us would agree are 'normal people'. And please for the record allow me to state that I have treated a fair number of Philadelphians of great privilege - that is to say, the old-line money whose origins date back to the early 1800's and even earlier in a couple cases. They are, for the most part, fascinating people: they have great social skills when interacting with 'ordinary' folk, and yet not for one minute are you disabused of the fact that they are 'special'. It is a remarkable dynamic which I actually enjoy experiencing: it is a well-honed social skill which is obviously inculcated from youth. And although a number of these people hold political and social views which I find odious, the vast majority with whom I have interacted are really quite understanding and pragmatic when it comes to social issues. Now this may be due in part to the fact that here in Philadelphia, we have a Quaker tradition which pervades many non-Quaker Protestant sects - at least that was explained to me by a Lutheran minister a number of years ago.

I've been watching and listening to Romney for a long time now, and in my very humble opinion, I believe he has a real emotional lack which prohibits him from 'connecting' with the 'ordinary' citizen. The hair, the smile, the clothes, the skin, the tone of voice, and all the other characteristics which manifest themselves publically are refined to the nth degree. This is more than 'deliberate'; it is not 'incidental': this is critical to his candidacy and the perception of his public persona.

So you say, "Yes, this is all obvious. Letterman, Stewart, and Leno have been making jokes at Romney's expense for a long time now." Where I differ from the traditional point of view is that I believe that the issue is not that he only identifies with the wealthy (e.g. the NASCAR owners "gaffe" but that his limited script is the cover for a true lack of emotionality consistent with a position on the Spectrum of appropriate disorders - I'll leave it to you to fill-in-the-blank. He has limited range of emotion, his smile, his frown, his expressions, are all well-schooled and quite consistent no matter what subject he is addressing. For a moment, please allow me to digress: back in the old days, Nelson Rockefeller who was by almost all accounts 'successful', had been a dyslexic by some reports. Long before it was in vogue to treat this properly, he obviously was schooled and overcame this issue with vigor. He had the money, the best evaluations and treatment, and the desire to achieve his goal. Romney has done the same, but his fundamental problem is that that which he lacks, cannot be cured by treatment. At that level one form his background would require a world-class ease and serenity, and quite frankly, he doesn't have 'It'. Now before you tell me that Bush, Jr. was a first-class idjit and incompetent, may I remind you that he was not only sociopathically at ease - they possess little or no anxiety - but that everything was being manipulated at the highest levels for him - he was fully protected by an enormous machine which underlies our entire society and is the elephant in the room, so to speak.

Romney has no such ease: he 'mis-speaks' because he has no idea that what he is saying is offensive to many, he has no comprehension at a deep or at a superficial level of what anyone might infer from his statements. i would venture to say that privately, he is uneasy with himself, he is nervous and sees people (and dogs) as objects, and recites lines which he has rehearsed in his head many many many times. Many people here call him a 'liar' - this would be true if he were based in the same reality sphere in which the rest of us function, but he does not see time or events in a linear or in a planar fashion: he simply makes statements. Or sings songs: like a child who has nothing else to say who might just start singing or humming a song, romney had run oujt of words and was uneasy, so he sang. He stated that the "trees were the right height" - does that not strike anyone else as quite strange? The perception not that the trees were leafy green, or the kind he grew up with, or emotionally pleasing in their beauty, but that they had been lined up perfectly? Anyone here ever know a child who lined up his or her toys perfectly as a rule? Who sees things in that manner ONLY? I have known several and all have been evaluated and found to have 'issues'.

I know what you're thinking, but please let me state this: obsessive-compulsive behavior differs from obsessive-compulsive disorder in that the latter results in the disruption of normal existence. That you can check the stove or the light a couple times before you leave the house, but IF YOU CAN'T LEAVE THE HOUSE because you're checking the burners, then you have a problem. This man has a problem, and it is both concerning and dangerous to have someone whose range of emotion is so shallow that he cannot perform normal functions and/or identify with others. Again, in my opinion, I believe that the fact that many of his own Party members cannot endorse, accept, or deal with his inevitable nomination speaks volumes about his persona and his personality. I believe that he is moderately 'disordered' for these and other reasons. I would implore Americans to, just this once, attempt to perceive the depth and complexity of this extraordinary personality, rather than simply explaining him by using terms such as 'uncaring', 'tone-deaf', or others of that ilk.

asked Howard Fineman, who had just used the word 'hubris', if that was "a real word" and did George Stephanopoulis make it up and "what does it mean, smart alec?"

Anyone see this??

"Things you say with Out-of-control-diabetes for 100, Alex."

wunnerful!!!

Right outside my window: 100-200 protestors accompanied by a horde of police on bicycles and motorized vehicles marching around town: signs include the usual and some creative ones including, but not limited to, "Naked Dancing is not a threat to anyone" and others.

Helicopters overhead and many parked and plainclothes police and security guards at banks.

Interesting day here...