An 800 Pound Gorilla

Another blog about what words are correct.

Have you noticed that the phrase, "Ignoring the 800 Pound Gorilla in the room", has disappeared from news commentary and polite usage? Just now on TV I heard a reference to the 2000 lb elephant in the room. The other day I heard someone refer to the 1000 lb Bear in the room. It is as if they are searching for a new metaphor that is politically correct.

Now AXA Equitable is still using their 800 lb Gorilla to get baby boomers to buy retirement plans and there is still a Gorilla Insurance Marketing, but they may fall to the PC axe soon.

Recently I discovered from the news that Negro is now a racist term, even though we will be using it in our 2010 Census forms. I remember when Black was a racist term and Negro was the polite and correct term. Once in the 1980's when I was invited to address a meeting of the local chapter of the Colored Women's Clubs of America, by an elderly black woman whom I worked with, I was told to use in my speech about desegregation the term "people of color" and not black or worse African American.

Things are always changing, that's true, but it seems as though in this age of the Internet and cable TV we have sped up the evolution of political correctness . Calling someone a retard has long been unacceptable, now the concept of being retarded is incorrect. So be it.

I'm not saying this is wrong, just that for some of us the adaptation time is to fast. What we need is some sort of annual, or maybe monthly newsletter or something where we can find out what is currently in and out, right and wrong. I'm not an advocate of linguistic relativism mind you, but I just need some way to keep in touch with it.

Say, does anyone know what ever happened to the pancake places called Sambo's?

Dumbo's Feather: Why Antidepressants Are No Better Than Placebos?????

Holy Shit!

Newsweek says antidepressants don't work.
That those of us suffering from "clinical depression" who have used antidepressants and have used them to crawl up out of the bowels of hell, are just holding onto Dumbo the Elephant's feather and just "believe" they work. You forgot to make important that part of the story you see, the part about, for those that "NEED" them they actually do work.

The Story:
"The Depressing News About Antidepressants"
"Studies suggest that the popular drugs are no more effective than a placebo. In fact, they may be worse."

After a long story damning antidepressants they thew in this little caveat.

"Which returns us to the moral dilemma. In any year, an estimated 13.1 million to 14.2 million American adults suffer from clinical depression. At least 32 million will have the disease at some point in their life. Many of the 57 percent who receive treatment (the rest do not) are helped by medication. For that benefit to continue, they need to believe in their pills. Even Kirsch warns—in boldface type in his book, which is in stores this week—that patients on antidepressants not suddenly stop taking them. That can cause serious withdrawal symptoms, including twitches, tremors, blurred vision, and nausea—as well as depression and anxiety. Yet Kirsch is well aware that his book may have the same effect on patients as dropping the magic feather did for Dumbo: without it, the little elephant began crashing to earth. Friends and colleagues who believe Kirsch is right ask why he doesn't just shut up, since publicizing the finding that the effectiveness of antidepressants is almost entirely due to people's hopes and expectations will undermine that effectiveness."


Moral dilemma? You don't even know what the moral dilemma is. God forgive you, you don't know what you have done.

Words fail me here.
What kind of stupid fruitcakes are the writer and editors that put this out?
This is nothing but a criminal obstruction of responsible mental health care.
Shame on them, shame on their stupidity, shame on the magazine that allowed this.

I have been on antidepressants for 15 years. PTSD from Vietnam, the rape and murder of two of my staff members, and my involvement with the Oklahoma City Bombing progressively drove me into deep clinical depression. Prosaic saved my life for a time, subsequent antidepressant medications have allowed me to live a somewhat reasonably normal life.

I have a deal for the idiots at Newsweek. Let me go off my meds for three days and then you guys and I will discuss whether antidepressants will work while you are locked in a room with me.

So you think you are saving people by freeing them from the lies of the pharmaceutical companies. God help you, you self-righteous fools.

How many troops from Iraq/Afghanistan with PTSD or seriously depressed housewives from Dallas will read your tripe and go off of or not go on antidepressants and will kill themselves and/or others. It's already too late people, your garbage is out there, you are already killers. How does it feel? Maybe you need some antidepressants so that you will think you feel better.



Stupid, ignorant, irresponsible, .... words fail for what you have done.
You best find a hole somewhere in Tibet maybe and crawl in it, you are not going to believe the wrath that people will direct your way. (Clinical Depression is often accompanied by anger and sometimes rage, you guys have offered up a great target for displacement of the same)

Because this post has opened up too much of my soul to the subject, I don't want nor will I allow comments here about it.

No, Texas You Can't Secede Either

Following up on my Waco breakfast meeting:
For those that would answer that your State should secede or your not sure about it:

"Do you believe your State should secede from the United States?
Yes 23%
No 58%
Not Sure 19%"
you need to check out the law on this. Not just the law about what you think, but the law about what others must do about what you say and do.

U.S. CODE TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 115—TREASON, SEDITION, AND SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITIES
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/usc_sup_01_18_10_I_20_115.html

Furthermore:
The Supreme Court in its opinion in Texas v White (74 US 700 [1869]), said that the entry of Texas into the United States was its entry into "an indissoluble relation." Legally, Texas did not secede even during the Civil War. It said that only through successful revolution or mutual consent of the State and the United States could a State leave the Union.

As odious as Texas politics can be at times, most probably The United States will still not give mutual consent to leave. So Texas or any other State could only secede by revolution which infers the use of force and thus is treason under the U.S. Code.

Now for you 23% of rank and file Republicans who want to have your State secede from the United State you are flirting with treason, pure and simple. For the 19% who are not sure, whether you fish or cut bait you are doing the same thing.

For you "fellow travelers" who listen to and associate with these persons and do nothing when things heat up, best you check out Chapter 115 above.

Some things it is just not sane to be "cute" about.

Or Is It America's Cold Civil War?

Well I think I flipped my modifiers. It would have to be a Civil War that is a Cold War, so it would be a Cold Civil War. Otherwise it would be a cold war that is civil and we know from the news of today that the Daily Kos poll of over 2000 self declared Republicans that the current Civil War is not civil and just barely cold even.

Here are the results of the Daily Kos Poll:

Should Barack Obama be impeached, or not?
Yes 39%
No 32%
Not Sure 29%

Do you think Obama is a Socialist?
Yes 63%
No 21%
Not Sure 16%

Do you believe Barack Obama was born in the United States, or not?
Yes 42%
No 36%
Not Sure 22%

Do you believe Barack Obama wants the terrorist to win?
Yes 24%
No 43%
Not Sure 33%

Do you believe ACORN stole the 2008 election?
Yes 21%
No 24%
Not Sure 55%

Do you believe Sarah Palin is more qualified to be President than Barack Obama?
Yes 53%
No 14%
Not Sure 33%

Do you believe Barack Obama is a racist who hates White people?
Yes 31%
No 35%
Not Sure 33%

Do you believe your State should secede from the United States?
Yes 23%
No 58%
Not Sure 19%

Should Congress make it easier for workers to form and join labor unions?
Yes 7%
No 68%
Not Sure 25%

Would you favor or oppose giving illegal immigrants now living in the United States the right to live here legally if they pay a fine and learn English?
Favor 26%
Opposed 59%
Not Sure 15%

Do you support the death penalty?
Yes 91%
No 4%
Not Sure 5%

Should openly gay men and women be allowed to serve in the military?
Yes 26%
No 55%
Not Sure 19%

Should same sex couples be allowed to marry?
Yes 7%
No 77%
Not Sure 16%

Should gay couples receive any state or federal benefits?
Yes 11%
No 68%
Not Sure 21%

Should openly gay men and women be allowed to teach in public schools?
Yes 8%
No 73%
Not Sure 19%

Should sex education be taught in schools?
Yes 42%
No 51%
Not Sure 7%

Should public schools students be taught that the book of Genesis in the Bible explains how God created the world?
Yes 77%
No 15%
Not Sure 8%

Hell that's enough. My fingers are tired. Read it at the Daily Kos.
One thing for sure, at least one in five self identified "republicans' are friggen out of their minds.
The pundits are having a field day with this even as we speak. Both sides say this validates their positions about the other.

What do you think?

By the way Bill O 'Riley called the poll a fraud. Check out the polling company Research 2000 and see for yourself if they are legit.

The American Civil Cold War

Fox Most Trusted Name In TV News ?

Fox is the most trusted television news network in the country, according to a new poll out Tuesday.
A Public Policy Polling nationwide survey of 1,151 registered voters Jan. 18-19 found that 49 percent of Americans trusted Fox News, 10 percentage points more than any other network.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/32039.html#ixzz0eLhdCTTl

At first I was surprised, but then it made perfect sense. American voters are split almost exactly 50/50. The elections of 2000, 2002, and 2004 proved that. 2006 and 2008 was not so different to negate the trend.

So from a purely political standpoint the conservative "FOX" brand news got support from 49% of the registered voters and the "Liberal Media" brand news (in the aggregate) got 51% support.

Now go back to that article above and read the comments at the end. There were 1110 comments. A random sample of 100 comments show conservative name calling and anger in 73% of the comments. With 25% showing liberal disbelief and 2% saying "so what".

What does all that mean?

It means "It Ain't Over Till It Is Over".

The American Civil Cold War is still being fought.

AMERICA: A Fixer Upper But Not For THEM

Since 1968 America has been controlled by politics and politicians that have sucked us dry.
The "so-called republicans" have run up our credit cards and deferred maintenance on America until the point of almost no return. Now they gather around out in the yard with their hired rabble and point and criticize and say, "you're spending too much to fix up this house!"

The house is falling down. They let the pipes burst. They let the rain in, the birds nest in the attic, and the squirrels eat through the walls. The termites on Wall Street have eaten at the foundations and the very weight bearing members of the walls. Now they have the gumption to say, "damn that's an ugly house, it is not worth spending what it would take to fix it."

So what do they do? Well they move out and leave it for us. Us, who have no where else to go. Move that wealth overseas, they say, and they do it. Some stay here, but in gated communities, but most just go off-shore in the yachts and cruise ships.

But you just wait, after we fix it all up, they'll be back flashing the original deed and try to take it back.

Meanwhile they want us to pay off their credit cards and fix up the place that they've let go to hell, but don't spend too much doing it. You guys, they say, can do all of this with just your sweat equity, we know you can. Oh yes, and damn us if we send THEM the bill for what we are fixing.

Stop Over In Waco

In the free breakfast area of the motel there was a framed letter next to a signed framed photograph. Dick Cheney complimented the motel for his comfortable stay there while visiting George W. Bush's ranch in Crawford. The TVs in the breakfast area were tuned into FOX news, and the paper available at this motel chain that was normally USA Today was replace with the local Waco paper.

While I was working on a plate of excellent biscuits and gravy and sipping some pretty good coffee, I was engaged in conversation by one of the other patrons. FOX was touting the State of the Union message by President Obama that was scheduled for that evening. My new little time friend didn't have much good to say about Obama. I kept my reply comments neutral and low key. But I guess because I didn't loudly agree with him he tagged me as "not on his side".

We have lost our friggin minds. You know you should be able to eat breakfast in peace and not be given a political blood test by the others in the room. Now I know I was in Texas, and the heart of Bush country as well, but gee guys, let it alone.

By the way "truck drivers" have no qualms about saying directly what they think of having a black President and a woman Speaker of the House. There is no softening on their wording about that.

I keep thinking that we have become a nation of bullies and cowards. I see it on TV every day.
The hate of those trying to bully the nation is palatable. The cowardice of those afraid of losing their political positions is appalling.

Then there is the vultures like Roger Ailes from Fox who are intent on making a profit from the American discontent by fostering 9/12 type organizations and half truth news.

In the sum it may be Jon Stewart and the Comedy Channel that are the only winners.

One thing for sure, either I won't stay over in Waco next trip, or I will choose a different motel.

How will this end? Lord knows, fire or ice?