Friday, December 28, 2012

Hillary''s Headache, John Kerry's Moneychicks and Obama's Return

Imagine if it were learned that the weapons used at the consulate murders in Benghazi were found to be the same weapons involved with Fast and Furious.  That would bring it all to a head and Hillary would be having royal conniptions.  When you read those sentences, perhaps you chuckled, but think of all that has happened under the Obama administration and you can see how serious this really is.  We have weapons-illiterates making laws about weapons when they cannot even define what an assault weapon is.

But gun control aside, let's all pray for Hillary to recover from her immaculate concussion so that she can testify about Benghazi before that Communist sympathizer, John-Swift-boat-Kerry, takes over as Secretary of State.  That is, if he actually gets the appointment.  As for me, I'd rather see his wife get the assignment since that's where Kerry got his monetary success in the second place--the first place was through his wealthy first wife.  Imagine Kerry bashing the USA during the Vietnam War--we marines put a person like that in the same category as Hanoi Jane Fonda.
Oy my head hurts

So will Hillary actually say anything of real substance about what she knew regarding Benghazi?  Will OJ ever find out who really killed Nicole?   I suspect not.  In fact, I suspect Hillary will do an Obama--she'll claim ignorance of the facts due to the large number of people in the agency.

I have to give our fearless leader credit for cutting short his Hawaiian vacation (although Michelle and the kids are still there spending our tax money at about a million dollars a day) to deal with the fiscal cliff.  Why he left for vacation in the first place vexes me, but I am easily vexed by irrational behavior.   But getting back to Benghazi--see how easy it is to get distracted with all the crap that's going on--I listened to Glenn Beck pointing his finger at Obama with a theory that the Ambassador, Chris Stevens, was probably more involved with gun-running for Syria, than with "helping the little boys and girls of Benghazi."

Politics stinks and politicians are the source of the odor.



Thursday, December 20, 2012

Violence, Hillary, Gun-Control and Asperger's

If Hillary Clinton is responsible for the State Department and its handling of the Benghazi murders, why is she getting a free pass because she hit her head?  Why isn't the lamestream media not covering it? Oh wait--they're covering a more important issue--gun control and how guns were responsible for killing those sweet innocents in Newtown, CT.  They jumped on the anti-gun, anti-NRA bandwagon before the echoes of the shooting faded.   In fact, Piers Morgan was gleeful about the shooting because it helped push his anti-gun agenda forward.  This is just one example of how sick some liberals can be. To see his tweet, go here .  This is what a liberal looks like when he thinks he's not being watched.

The carnage in Newtown wasn't the fault of the guns that were fired, but of the young man who pulled the trigger.  They say he had Asperger's Disorder but I have my doubts.  I've worked with patients with this disorder and I am not certain Adam Lanza suffered from it, in spite of the fact that I have never met the killer.

Some of the diagnostic criteria for Asperger's are: 

a) inability to pick up on social cues and lack of appropriate social skills.  People with Asperger's just don't seem to understand the other person's body language, for example, and they have difficulty maintaining a normal conversation because they  tend to interrupt or go off on their own tangent.

b) like the movie "Rain Man," they are generally creatures of routine and habit and dislike changes in these routines.

c) they may display a formal way of speaking and use vocabulary advanced for  here .  This is what a liberal looks like when he thinks he's not being watched.

The carnage in Newtown wasn't the fault of the guns that were fired, but of the young man who pulled the trigger.  They say he had Asperger's Disorder but I have my doubts.  I've worked with patients with this disorder and I am not certain Adam Lanza suffered from it, in spite of the fact that I have never met the killer.

Some of the diagnostic criteria for Asperger's are: 

a) inability to pick up on social cues and lack of appropriate social skills.  People with Asperger's just don't seem to understand the other person's body language, for example, and they have difficulty maintaining a normal conversation because they  tend to interrupt or go off on their own tangent.

b) like the movie "Rain Man," they are generally creatures of routine and habit and dislike changes in these routines.

c) they may display a formal way of speaking and use vocabulary advanced their age, but may also have difficulty understanding a simple joke by a peer, or have problems understanding sarcasm.  Also, their conversations tend to be very one-sided--they talk mostly about what they want to discuss.

d) they may avoid eye contact and have strange facial expressions or postures, not unlike Chris Matthews, Joe Biden or Michael Moore, but unlike these liberals, they are often intelligent, likeable individuals.

e) they often have only a few interests in life.  My patient, for example, was interested in owning a yacht, a farm, or land in Pennsylvania, all for the purpose of making money.  His only other interest was in astronomy, which is supposedly fairly common with Asperger's syndrome.

These are many, but not all of the symptoms in Asperger's, but what is true about all of those individuals with this syndrome is that no two are exactly alike.  What I have found in the cases I've worked with (and I must admit that these were merely a few cases overall), is that not one person with Asperger's syndrome showed any propensity for violence, and, in fact, abhorred it.  The other thing I've found is how frequently many clinicians have had difficulty in performing a clear differential diagnosis--that is, diagnosing Asperger's where schizophrenia may have been more accurate for a particular patient.  Interestingly too, is the fact that Medicaid did not reimburse the clinic for patients with Asperger's syndrome and what the administration tended to do was to rediagnose the patient with schizophrenia because of some similarities of symptoms between the disorders.

The problem of gun control, as I see it, is not keeping guns out of the hands of responsible Americans, but in keeping them out of the hands of those with severe mental disorders, like schizophrenia, where 18% of murders are committed by people with this diagnosis, not with actual Asperger's.  If state laws made it easier to commit adults with schizophrenia and other severe disorders, I believe gun-related violence/murders would incrementally decrease.

What do you think?  Please comment.



USA Christmas in the Future


Well it's almost Holiday Day, but first we have Holiday Eve.  That's when all the little girls and boys wait for the arrival of toys under their holiday tree.  Songs will be sung on the radio; old familiar tunes like, "White Holiday,"  "The Twelve Days of Holiday," and my favorite, "Here Comes That Fat Guy."  Other songs from the past are no longer sung, tunes like "Little Drummer Boy," "Silent Night," and "Good King Wenceslas," (a.k.a. "Good King Worstershire Sauce") because they offend atheists.

I remember a time when movies were innocent and bereft of "cool violence." Today we have the cool guy, good or bad, acting violent but it's okay because he's cool.  Gone are such flicks like:  "It's a Wonderful Life," and more hard boiled movies that had characters who actually fought against evil, like "Dirty Harry."

In my little town of Bedford Falls, New York, we used to have a manger scene in the town square.  We had Catholics, Protestants, Jews and Hindus in the town who loved the way it looked and respected the celebration of those who believed that the child in that manger was the son of God, even if they may not have believed it themselves.  We even had a few atheists who didn't believe in God at all, but were okay with others believing in Him, so they looked upon the nativity as something perhaps quaint or interesting, but certainly not offensive.  But that was then and this is now.

Now the atheists and Muslims are offended by Christian displays of Christianity.  The atheists feel sick when walking past a nativity scene, and Muslims feel angered that a "false god" is being worshiped.  Orthodox Muslims are funny that way--just not "ha ha" funny.  They have warned the town fathers that if this obscenity continues, heads are going to roll.

But my mind keeps going back to the past, to the days of Bing, and Nat the King, and Johnny Mathis and the Beaver.  I miss Christmas trees, and movies like "The Bells of Saint Mary," and people greeting me in stores with "Merry Christmas," instead of "Happy Holiday."  Dang--even the word 'holiday' comes from the words 'holy day.'  So why are people so offended?

I believe it's a lie.  I think atheists are just angry creatures who see life in concrete terms, and Muslims believe that life begins at death where "it's my way or the highway for nonbelievers. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!  MERRY CHRISTMAS! MERRY CHRISTMAS! MERRY CHRISTMAS! MERRY CHRISTMAS! MERRY CHRISTMAS! MERRY CHRISTMAS! 

Have a safe, wonderful, enjoyable and spiritual Christmas.

Monday, December 17, 2012

Why Liberals are Wrong About Gun Control

Gun control is hot on the burner again. Liberals have the fantasy that if we put regulations on the ownership of guns, like liberals have put enormous regulations on business, this will solve the problems of the lunatics who go out and kill innocent victims.  This will be as effective in preventing these crazy killings as the business regulations have been on improving business.  In states where there has been gun control, the problem still exists.  We will always have crazy people who do horrible things, whether they do it with guns, like in Newtown, or with a knife, like in China this week.

Liberals want a simple solution because the problem with these murders registers with the least logical part of their brains, their emotions.  If we keep people from getting guns, then people cannot shoot other people with guns and the problems with guns will be solved.  Presto.

If this were only true.

Max Fisher, in the Washington Post (12-14-2012) speaks to the fact that the USA has a significantly higher number of gun-related killings than all other developed country--about 20 percent higher than average.  This means, according to Fisher, that you are twenty times more likely to die of a gunshot wound in the USA than in most other nations.  (Curiously, Mexico, Syria, Libya, and Egypt were not mentioned).  It almost sounds like just by going out your door, you stand a really good shot at getting shot.  

It's the old liberal mathematical fallacy about cause and effect: the more guns, the more people will be killed by guns.  That's like saying that 97.3% of all people who died of lung cancer in the USA were daily users of toilet paper, therefore toilet paper causes cancer.

Professor Stephen P. Segal studied murder rates and mental treatment policies in a report entitled "Civil Commitment Law, Mental Health and Services and US Homicide Rates."  The shocker was his finding that "less access to psychiatric inpatient beds, and more poorly rated mental health systems were associated with increases in homicide rates of 1.08 and 0.26 per 100,000, respectively."  And the real clincher was the fact that there was a far different rate of homicides between states with different involuntary civil commitment (ICC) laws.  Segal stated: "Broader ICC criteria were associated with 1.42 less homicides per 100,000."  In other words, the easier it was to commit some crazy person with homicidal tendencies, the greater the decrease in homicide--the decrease being around 1/3 fewer incidents.  In fact, where the prison population was examined in Indiana, it was found that at least 18% who committed violent crimes with firearms, were schizophrenic or otherwise mentally ill.

So the NRA is correct in saying that guns don't kill people; people kill people.  But even more importantly, seriously mentally ill people kill people at disproportionate rates.  

As a former psychotherapist-turned-writer, I believe that a big part of the problem lies within the entertainment industry.  Movies glorify violence and video games gives you practice at it, but with a detached, psychological distance.  Interestingly, the movie industry is overwhelmingly liberal (just ask Obama), and liberals are the biggest anti-gun group on earth.

We need to be silently respectful.  We need to bury those little children and hug our own.  We need to come up with real solutions rather than "feel good solutions," because those do not work.

We need to love, and we need to pray.  We need to treat each other better--we're all Americans, but you almost wouldn't know it anymore with the current administration.

Peace and love.

Friday, December 14, 2012

An American Tragedy

Newtown, CT: Adam Lanza, twenty years old, woke up this morning, got his mother's gun and shot her in the face, killing her.  Then he went to the school where she taught and began shooting the children from her class.  Eighteen children died outright and two more died in hospital, and six adults were dead when it was all over.

Lanza used weapons that belonged to his mother, and they were legally purchased.

So what we know is that the shooter shot his mother in the face, then killed the children she loved, and then he shot himself.

I believe that this is not a matter about gun control.  This isn't political.  This is becoming a serious societal issue having to do with the devaluing of human life and the media's glorification of violence.  My heart and prayers goes out to the parents of the children and families of all the victims, whose shock is unimaginable, and whose grief has to be boundless.

Please have the sensitivity to not make this political and keep it in perspective--it was the act of a seriously mentally ill person, an act that needs to be better understood to prevent a recurrence; not to ratify or support a political agenda.

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Boiled Rice and Chicken Obama

Get Outta My Face
The Obama administration has done nothing to keep North Korea from firing a long-range missile.  Will he write them a strong letter?  We  can count on that.  Victoria Nuland, after she appeared as the host of SNL, and Susan Rice, after she admitted that she lied about the Benghazi debacle, have both spoken about North Korea and we are safer as a country for this.  And if you believe that, you might also believe that chickens will one day blacken the sky.  

As I write this blog, I have just learned that Susan Rice has withdrawn her name for consideration for Secretary of State.  That makes room for Swift Boat Kerry, the man who posed for a photo op at the Communist Museum and refused to support our nation in the Viet Nam War, and the guy who made his money the old fashioned way: he married into it--twice.

So here's the situation: we have Iran with its obvious disregard for stopping its nuclear proliferation, and North Korea, with a means of getting a missile to the USA.  We also have an administration that does nothing more than talk about it, write strong letters and impose useless sanctions that are laughed at by our enemies.  We can all hold hands and sing Kumbaya, pretending that all is well with the world, but before long, we'll all be singing it in Arabic.


My latest novel, Jihad Joe, is about Islamic terrorism and suspense.  In it I challenge the precepts of the religion through my protagonist, Zed Nill, a journalist, captured by terrorists and who is destined to be killed if the American President refuses to release three Gitmo prisoners.  Of course, American policy demands we never give in to terrorists, and for Zed, the clock is ticking.

Jihad Joe Soft Cover       



Banning All Weapons: Guns, Knives, Cars, Wit

If AR-15s were banned, the shooting in Portland, Oregon would never have happened with an AR-15.  If Chevy SUVs were banned, there would have been no honor killing of a young Muslim girl by her "dishonored" father by a Chevy SUV.  And if honor killers and other murderers only used Chevy Volts, President Obama would not have been re-elected, or maybe he would have anyway.

Whenever a senseless killing takes place with a firearm, the liberals knee-jerk response is to spout anti-gun rhetoric.  They actually believe this will stop the killings. They blame the gun rather than the shooter.  That's like having a war on terrorism, a tactic, rather than a war on Islamic terrorists, the people using the tactics of terrorism.

If gun control really works, then why does Chicago, one of the nation's strongest gun control cities, have a disproportionate number of firearm murders than cities with lighter restrictions?

I'm not a pro-gun advocate like some people I know, but I am a strong advocate of our Constitution, and I see how it is being circumvented and basically laughed at by this administration.  Some liberal politicians, like Al-I-Sucked-At-Being-A-Comedian-Franken, are even trying to pass legislation that would allow cell phone companies to implant a phone application that secretly tracks the user.  How unconstitutional is that?

If our country continues to go along its present course, we will become a Big Brother state.  We will continue to give up our basic freedoms because somehow we think the government can do a better job at protecting us from terrorists even though North Korea, Iran and China, not to mention the Islamic world, are on a crash course to crash with us.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

They're Going Nuts in Lansing

They're going nuts in Lansing.  They knocked down a Koch Brothers tent with people inside, cut the ropes, then cut the canvas as they swore at the victims of their violence who were still inside the tent.

They're beating drums in protest like children throwing a tantrum.  But it looks like the Freedom to Work Bill is going to pass.  If Michigan becomes a Right to Work state, which it appears will happen, workers will have the right to join or not join a union.  But Democrats, like Doug Geiss, say "there will be blood."  Even Obama stuttered his approval of the demonstrations and the socialist values of the demonstrators.

Now Obama can talk about something else other than the fiscal cliff.  Maybe that isn't so important anymore, like Benghazi, Solyndra, or Fast and Furious.  Unkions are important to him--maybe because they gave so much money to his campaign.  You would think Obama would be in President Mode rather than Campaign Mode, but he's a much better campaigner than he is president. He is a much better socialist than he is a capitalist.

The Great Uniter Obama is and always was, the Great Divider.

Hey Hey Ho Ho

Hey hey, ho ho, union choice has got to go!  

That isn't exactly the chant that's being voiced in Lansing, Michigan, but that's what it's all about.  A right to work state is unfair because it gives individuals the right to join a union or not to join a union.  That's just not fair to those people who choose to work without a net--the protection of a union that ensures that work gets done at the level of the poorest worker, the slowest on the assembly line, the guy who takes the most sick days.  Everyone should pay union dues whether they like it or not--freedom of choice is un-American--wait--maybe I'm wrong.

One of the protestards said that everyone has the right to work, but they don't have the right to work for lower wages.  Why not?  Isn't that free market?  And now that Obama won a second term (and hopefully a final term), he jumped on the pro-union bandwagon.  Surprised?

But Dumbocrats say right to work is a political ploy.  Interesting in light of the fact that unions have contributed to Obama's re-election overwhelmingly while Republican union members are forced to pay dues that go to re-elect a socialist.  Now that, my friends, is un-American.

In the states that have passed the Freedom to Work Law, there is a significantly higher rate of employment.  The only people who really benefit from unions in today's world, are union leaders whose salaries are enormously disproportionate to the actual workers they represent, and people like Obama whose re-election was due to unions and the media.

Thursday, December 6, 2012

The War on Eid and Christmas

Secular liberals and the atheist organization Freedom From Religion, have been attacking Christians and Muslims in their ongoing war against religion.  At this time of year it is Christmas that is being attacked, but during the Islamic holy time of Eid, they have been loudly protesting the public prayers that go on in the streets or in pubic malls, and they will not rest until all religions are quietly praying to be left alone.


Wait, I just remembered, Freedom From Religion hasn't protested against Islamic public displays of prayer.  Maybe they need to go to London where Muslims have been blocking streets with their bodies, praying to Allah and making a big fuss about how great their god is and ours not so great.  Like the secular left, they too would like Christmas to die--like Coptic Christians in Lebanon, for example.

The Constitution provides for freedom OF religion, not freedom from it.  Calling a Christmas tree a "holiday tree" is a lie and an insult to several billion humans on this planet.  But is it surprising that this administration, and these socialists who hide behind the title of liberals, shred our Constitution?  Obama wants to do it with congress and their power of the purse.  Why not everything else?

It's getting dangerous folks.


My latest novel, Jihad Joe, is about Islamic terrorism and suspense.  In it I challenge the precepts of the religion through my protagonist, Zed Nill, a journalist, captured by terrorists and who is destined to be killed if the American President refuses to release three Gitmo prisoners.  Of course, American policy demands we never give in to terrorists, and for Zed, the clock is ticking.

Jihad Joe Soft Cover       



Half Time Bloviating

A man murders his girlfriend, the mother of their 3 month old daughter.  He shoots his girlfriend nine times as the infant's grandmother arrives at the scene and calls 9-11 as she lay dying in her mother's arms.  The killer goes to his job--a football stadium--and fatally shoots himself in front of his boss--the head coach.  Bob Costas, a sportscaster speaks about this crime at halftime of a football game.  Instead of speaking about the killer, Jovan Belcher, he speaks about the "culture of guns."  In effect, Costas blames guns for the crime--if Belcher did not have a gun, this would have been prevented, he said (I paraphrase).

If Nicole Brown Simpson had a gun, maybe she would be alive today and O.J. would be dead.  If Belcher killed his girlfriend by running her over with a Chevy Volt (fat chance he would have owned one, but I'm just trying to make a point), would the liberals ask for a ban on the car voted sexiest by Obama?   Of course not; don't be ridiculous.

So now we have to watch football half time announcers make political statements about what they obviously are not expert about? 

Where Costas took the opportunity to denounce the "gun culture," he said nothing about what the real issue was--domestic violence.  That's what happened.  That's what Belcher did--he was a murderer and Costas used his sports platform to discuss guns rather than murder.  That was my take and the take of many viewers I've heard speak.


My latest novel, Jihad Joe, is about Islamic terrorism and suspense.  In it I challenge the precepts of the religion through my protagonist, Zed Nill, a journalist, captured by terrorists and who is destined to be killed if the American President refuses to release three Gitmo prisoners.  Of course, American policy demands we never give in to terrorists, and for Zed, the clock is ticking.

Jihad Joe Soft Cover       

 

BREAKING: Trump Appeals Fani Willis Non-Disqualification Decision

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