I'm divorcing Blogger

Pursuant to my aforementioned troubles with the original Blogger software, I've moved my blog over to Wordpress. It's at
http://robertamorris.wordpress.com

I'm still tweaking it.

Template hell

In an attempt to edit my profile, I managed to screw up the code for my blogger template. Ergo, the text that should be on the top right is now on the bottom left. I'll keep working on this.

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"The real truth of the matter is...that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government ever since the days of Andrew Jackson..."
—Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1933

"We can have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both."
—U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, ca. 1936

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."
—Dwight D. Eisenhower, Farewell Address, January 17, 1961

"impulsive, impetuous and impatient"

In a recent article on his N.Y. Times blog, Nicolas Kristof brings into focus John McCain's "impulsive, impetuous and impatient" personality. (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/opinion/28kristof.html)
His column cogently points out the dangers of these behaviors, particularly as they might impact foreign policy. The press, however, seems reluctant to bring attention to to the question of McCain's mental health. It is almost certain that he suffers from post-traumatic stress syndrome.

In a well documented article by Ted Sampley, published by the U.S. Veteran Dispatch in December of 2007 ( http://www.usvetdsp.com/dec07/mccain_suicide_ptsd.htm) the writer states:

"McCain says because he survived 5½ years of brutal torture, while a prisoner of the communist Vietnamese, he is better qualified to be president of the United States than any other candidate. McCain claims his POW sufferings included three years in solitary confinement where he was tortured so badly that he "broke," causing him to attempt suicide.

What McCain's promoters have carefully edited out of their McCain-for-president equation is his post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Department of Defense psychiatrists have evaluated McCain for PTSD several times, the results of which remain locked by privacy laws.

PTSD can develop after exposure to a terrifying event or ordeal in which physical harm occurred or was threatened. U.S. government studies have concluded that former POWs "may remain embroiled in a harsh psychological battle with themselves for decades after returning home."

It does not take a battalion of psychiatrists to link McCain's erratic, compulsive, and combative behavior to PTSD. It is obvious to anyone familiar with the symptoms of PTSD that Sen. McCain is mentally unstable. The office of the Presidency requires a person whose judgment is not impaired, and McCain's behavior in the last week alone, calls into question his ability to handle stressful circumstances.

McCain's sudden and virtually inexplicable choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate brings us face to face with the terrifying possibility that this totally unqualified and vacuous woman could accede to the presidency. It is not only that Senator McCain could die or suffer a recurrence of cancer while in office, but that the extraordinary stresses of the position could catapult him into a psychotic episode during which he would be unable to fulfill the duties of the presidency.

It is important that the national press follow the courageous lead of Nicholas Kristof in calling to public attention the real perils of a McCain presidency. Hopefully, he will also find it appropriate to address the factors that contribute to this "impulsive, impetuous and impatient" behavior.

For more information about post-traumatic stress disorder, you can visit the site of the National Center for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder at http://www.ncptsd.va.gov/ncmain/information/

So that explains it! The disturbed psyche of George Bush

I tend to look at the world from a Jungian perspective, although I'm not a psychologist. So I was fascinated when I came across a review of a book, Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President, published in 2004 and updated in 2007, by psychoanalyst Justin Frank. Frank has impeccable professional credentials, writes for Salon and blogs at the HuffPost (His political leanings are obvious.)

In a precis of his book for the History News Network, Frank imagines his reaction if Bush came to him for analysis.

If he presented an inflexible worldview characterized by an oversimplified distinction between right and wrong, good and evil, allies and enemies, I would question his ability to grasp reality. And if his actions revealed an unacknowledged – even sadistic – indifference to human suffering, wrapped in pious claims of compassion. I would worry about the safety of the people whose lives he touched.

Although I don't think that psychotherapy could help W (his personality disorders are so deeply rooted) it's nevertheless illuminating to read that Bush, as a child, blew up frogs (I'm not kidding!), is most likely a dry drunk, and was profoundly affected by the death of a younger sister from leukemia when he was seven. (His parents went golfing the next day; Barbara later sank into a depression.)

There's also an interesting review of Bush on the Couch by Lauren Langman, a Professor of Sociology at Loyola University. Adding a sociological perspective to Frank's psychoanalytic approach, Langman says that

Dubya embodies qualities that have long been part of American culture, beginning with its Puritanical moralism.

Interesting stuff.

Jesse Helms and the zoo

North Carolina has a wonderful zoo, in Asheboro. My next door neighbor was there last week and reported that, despite an active donor group, some of the exhibits are being closed because the NC government isn't providing adequate funding.

This isn't the first time there's been a challenge in getting money for the zoo. When the initial appropriation was being discussed some years ago, the late Jesse Helms (he became "late" today) delivered what is probably his most famous quote: "Why build a zoo when we can just put up a fence around Chapel Hill?"

For a quick look at Chapel Hill, which has more Ph.D's per capital than anywhere else in the US, look at this article from the New York Times.

Tummlers

In his memorial reporting yesterday, Chris Matthews referred to the late and much-missed Tim Russert as a tummler. This is one of those Yiddish words for which there is no English equivalent, but it's generally used to describe someone, such as a social director or entertainer, who encourages guest or audience participation. You don't have to be Jewish to be a tummler, but it helps.

The last of the great Borscht Belt tummlers is gone now, but I'm lucky to have seem two of them while they were still with us. In the mid-60s, when I lived in Manhattan, someone invited me to see Jan Murray at B'nai Brith benefit performance. Murray was the king of the one-liners, at the top of his game. There was one unforgettable line, about the hazards of driving low-slung European sports cars: "I stuck out my hand to make a turn signal and castrated a cop."

More recently (a relative term at my age) I saw Red Buttons. I was spending the weekend at a conference at the Nevele (now the Nevele Grande) when the activities board announced that Red Buttons would be performing, to replace another comedian who had cancelled at the last minute. I dashed to the theater to make reservations, and spotted Buttons on the stage, testing the sound system, so I hung around in the lobby. Buttons came through the door a few minutes later, greeted by an almost hysterical red-haired lady who gave a memorable geshrei,

"Red Buttons! I thought you were dead!."

Buttons had an amazing sense of timing. Take a look at his last performance, at a Jerry Lewis telethon.




A friend who lived on the margins of the theater world once took me backstage to meet Jackie Mason, who (to tell the truth) didn't seem very happy to have visitors. His schtick repeated what is probably his most famous line, that the "only space Jews care about is closet space."

But he struck me then as a verbissiner.

My conclusion was confirmed recently by Mason's tirade against Obama on his vlog. (Don't try to watch the whole thing; it's a disgrace.)

One of the bloggers at Chimere says that Condi Rice is also a verbissener.

If nothing else, Condi's got an expression that Yiddish describes best: verbissener. Loosely translated, it means you look like you've just sucked a whole crate of lemons and y'aint happy 'bout it.

As Russert used to say "What a country!"