Leave it to Obama to come up with an idea that will make people feel useful and connected on a day when we’re all supposed to be cowering under our dining room tables being fearful and grateful that we have so many strong men to protect us from the evils of the world.

9/11?  What’s all this about 9/11?  I keep hearing from Glenn Beck that we’re supposed to remember 9/12.  After all, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels this way, all those 9/11 victim widows really made me sick after the first year or so, amirite?

With some care ful Googling, I was able to find some footage of Obama’s very first national service rally.  Scary stuff! 

(BTW, I don’t know if it was the Ebonics or what, but I couldn’t understand what those people were saying…)

I am kind of enjoying the way the GOP is aligning itself with the actively psychopathic.

“Volunteering? WE HATE IT. Helping our community? WE HATE IT. Empathy? WE HATE IT. Adorable babies, puppies, and kittens? WE HATES THEM FOREVER. Are we popular enough to win elections yet?”

I am kind of enjoying the way the GOP is aligning itself with the actively psychopathic.

You won’t enjoy it when they retake power thanks to Democratic wankery. This country is SO fucked…

It’s telling how they’re afraid that a “national day of fear that helps the GOP” might be transformed into a “national day of service that helps Democrats”.  Because memorials are just zero-sum games whose only value is how much they help your political party, not a way to honor the dead.

i love the right nattering on about ‘statist idolatry’ ... is that anything like the Pledge of Allegiance?

“I am kind of enjoying the way the GOP is aligning itself with the actively psychopathic. “

I think the term is “sociopathic.”  And yes, the GOP has lost their ever-loving minds.  I need Dave Chapelle to come out of his funk and do an HBO special about a Black President finally made the GOP lose their minds.

“I am kind of enjoying the way the GOP is aligning itself with the actively psychopathic. “

I think you mean “sociopathic”. (Their aligning with the psychopath crowd is demonstrated by everything else they do, though.)

“Atlas Shrugs is worried that this will be the launch of Obama’s private civilian army, because it makes sense that the man in charge of the most advanced military force on the planet would build up a subsidiary army of college students and stay-at-home parents whose main training will be in phonebanking and pamphlet-stuffing.”

Makes perfect sense to me.  Our enemies will soon learn to fear the Fightin’ Cold-Callers.

Damn, too slow!

“i love the right nattering on about ‘statist idolatry’ ... is that anything like the Pledge of Allegiance? “

No, but it is a good name for a rock band.

I was at the dentist a few years ago, and making appointment for my next checkup. They asked me if I minded being seen on Sept. 11. I said huh? And the woman told me a lot of people won’t make appointments for that date. Hiding under the bed instead?

i love the right nattering on about ‘statist idolatry’ ... is that anything like the Pledge of Allegiance? - glengarry

This is standard right wing fare.  Remember these are the people who are most concerned about government interference in health (death panels and what not) but who are happy for the government to ban a medical procedure that, in some circumstances, is necessary to preserve life.  These are people who believe in the magical powers of the invisible hand and the awesome might of the free market and then can’t stop whining about cultural decay when the free market produces lyrics they don’t like.  These are people oh so concerned about the financial effects of government subsidized health care (and other social programs) who somehow don’t bat an eye at paying a heckuva lotta money for a war of choice.

Anyway, histro-geek—you are aware that all of GW Bush’s failures will be blamed (both by the wingnuts and “even the [so-called] liberal media”) on his deviations from conservatism rather than his reactionary ideologies.  Conservatism can never fail, it can only be failed, eh?

BTW—agreed with you, Steve La Bonne.  The Dems have been handed an opportunity to make over the country the likes of which have not been seen since the days of FDR, and yet they are still gonna fumble the pass and break their fingers on the football in the process. 

Of course, part of it is that they listen to the media and thus believe “well, even the liberal media thinks that we need to be ‘moderate’ in order to maintain power” and indeed this is true—since people still believe the media is liberal, even if they are otherwise inclined to support a progressive agenda, they’ll balk when “even the liberal media” is only luke-warm about it.  Of course the media, fearful of letting their supposed liberalism show, will be “objective” by repeating every GOP talking point.  And the tone with which they do this will be further evidence that the media is liberal.

The GOP’s having convinced the majority of America (including many Democratic leaders and the media themselves) that the media is liberal is perhaps the most brilliant thing they’ve ever done.

I was at the dentist a few years ago, and making appointment for my next checkup. They asked me if I minded being seen on Sept. 11. I said huh? And the woman told me a lot of people won’t make appointments for that date. Hiding under the bed instead?

It’s more about superstition, I think.  In a weird way, 9/11 has become the new Friday the 13th and people try to steer away from it because it’s now a bad luck day.

Psychopathy is a mental disorder usually marked by egocentric and anti-social behavior. Sociopathy, I believe, refers more to one who lacks an active conscience.

says wikipedia about psychopathy:

The psychopath is defined by an uninhibited gratification in criminal, sexual, or aggressive impulses and the inability to learn from past mistakes.  Individuals with this disorder gain satisfaction through their antisocial behavior and lack remorse for their actions.

Both are used interchangably. Although Martha Stout would have something to say about that.

My comment about sociopathy and psychopathy was in reply to Barbara and SFAW.

“Both are used interchangably.”

No, they’re not. Or at least, not correctly. Psychopathic behavior generally includes sociopathic behavior, but does not begin and end there.

And the definition you block-quoted conflicts with your “interchangably” comment, by the way.

But isn’t mass volunteerism exactly the red herring libertarians and Randroids always wave around as an excuse to deny government help to the needy? You know: we don’t need a government health care option, because people can just have bake sales to raise money for family members’ medical care. Or, we have no need to offer charity in the form of free food, because volunteers run soup kitchens.

So libertarians and Randroids should be jizzing themselves blind over a National Day of Service. They could point to it as Why We Don’t Need Enforced Gubmint Charity, because when merely asked, people will voluntarily donate blah blah blah.

SFAW, I am not a psychologist. I quoted wikipedia. I read Stout’s book, and a couple others, which does not make me an expert, by any means. It probably makes me more wrong than the average person.

We are in agreement. My opinion is that, yes, psychopathic behavior may include sociopathic, but sociopathic does not necessarily include psychopathic.

If you do know what you’re talking about (that sounds pithy. I don’t mean it to be.), is my first paragraph correct, or at least in the right direction?

Thanks

It’s telling how they’re afraid that a “national day of fear that helps the GOP” might be transformed into a “national day of service that helps Democrats”.  Because memorials are just zero-sum games whose only value is how much they help your political party, not a way to honor the dead.

You’re actually more right than you realize.  Wingnuts are against this because it will (understandably) make a Democrat look good.  It’s also a big factor (although certainly not the only one) in the health care “debate”.  Most of them realize there won’t be death panels, but what really scares them is that Democrats will do something that’s good for America, which will make them look good in upcoming elections.  So, rather than try to look even better the Democrats, Republicans just try to bring down the Democrats.  Jon Stewart summarized it nicely in response to the cash for clunkers program - “they’re determined to find a cloud for this silver lining” (paraphrased from memory).

What really strikes me about this is the contrast with Dubya’s annual ballyhoo about the National Day of Prayer. Our former Republican President was all about making a public showing of piety-cum-patriotism and hoping for good things to happen, while our current Democratic President asks us to make good things happen by doing good things. How very illustrative.

Memorial days are made for self-aggrandizement and moralizing pomp: for speeches about service not for service itself. They’re a mourning holiday. That’s what they’re designed for. Look at the history. Trying to make it more just reminds people how lazy they are.

The administration bought into their own bullshit -as liberals will- and succeeded in doing nothing more than pissing off the reactionary base. Meanwhile the renditions continue and Bernanke is back for 4 more years.

I’m beginning to wonder if any government can succeed at anything with the instantaneously critical media noise machine in the background.  No sooner is any proposition put forward than there are 50 people pissing on the parade.  How is the public ever going to gain confidence in anything?

Being pessimistic today.  Not like me.

John -
I think we’re in violent agreement, actually.

And, not to worry, I didn’t take your comment as pissy. Although I’ve never seen anyone lisp when they write.

“So libertarians and Randroids should be jizzing themselves blind over a National Day of Service. They could point to it as Why We Don’t Need Enforced Gubmint Charity, because when merely asked, people will voluntarily donate blah blah blah.”

Yes, but doesn’t it cross the socialism line because the president (i.e. the gumbint) is mobilizing people to do it? So because the govnmit is in there at all, we can’t trust it. Down with national service!!

seth -
What exactly is your point? I mean, outside of dumping on liberals and the Administration that is.

That Obama isn’t doing everything you wanted him to do? That he may be continuing one of Bush’s bad policies? That liberals suck? That sanctimony is the new black?

Or are you just visiting from some libertarian blog?

(Oooh! Apparently it’s just a run-of-the-mill “I hate Teh Left” blog, but with “art” pictures. Und Kunst!  Gee, thanks for bringing your special brand of Culchah over here!!)

“Down with national service!! “

We have always been at war with National Service.

There’s an easy way to get the Republitards on board with the National Day of Service - let them privatize it.
They can either award no-bid contracts for “volunteering” to their cronies at HalliburtonBlackwaterKBR or outsource “voluntereering” to Chinese sweatshops and skim 90% off the top!  WIN!

Leave it to Obama to come up with an idea that will make people feel useful and connected on a day when we’re all supposed to be cowering under our dining room tables being fearful and grateful that we have so many strong men to protect us from the evils of the world.

Protect you?

Get your own table, woman.  There’s only so much room to tremble under this one, and us wingnut men will not hestitate to give you feminazis equality by using our strength to shove you out.  And we’d also like you to quit stealing the bedcovers while we’re trying to hide beneath them from the boogeyman.

SFAW - fair enough.

I know alot of words. I just forget what they all mean.

John -
Me too. I hate it when that happens.

The problem is that, spurred by Obama’s mind control, people will be volunteering for things like cleaning up neighborhoods, bringing food to the hungry, building shelter for the homeless and suchlike liberal things that the wingnuts always say private individuals should do. Instead they should be volunteering to inform on their neighbors, purge their local libraries of improper books, and join mobs to drive “undesirables” out of town.

What’s that about a civilian national security force? I thought that’s what the national guard was? That’s like when somebody types teh and my brain automatically interprets it as “the” for me…. wtf is a civilian national security force supposed to be? Which has fuck all to do with a national day of service, but, what was he talking about there?

When will we libtards admit that marking 9/11 by trying to act on the best parts of our nature means the terrorists win?

Does this mean it’ll stop showing up on my calendars as “Patriot Day”? Because between currently living in Massachusetts where we also have “Patriots Day”, and at the time living in North New Jersey where 9/11 had jack shit to do with patriotism and everything to do with spending the entire day running around calling neighbors and relatives to see if they were still alive, I always found that particularly obnoxious.

“What’s that about a civilian national security force? I thought that’s what the national guard was? That’s like when somebody types teh and my brain automatically interprets it as “the” for me…. wtf is a civilian national security force supposed to be?”

National Guard is actual military.  Hence the ability to pack them up and deploy them to a foreign country whether they want to go or not and the whole “you’re not supposed to use them as police” thing.  Presumably a civilian national security force would be more akin to the brownshirts or what the various militias fancy themselves to be.

Wait a minute, you stuck with him when the stimulus bill reserved $212 million to promote teenage pregnancy?!?! “...You should abstain form sex at such a young age, but here’s a trashcan full of condoms to go hogwild with.  Have at it youngins!...”
New Jersey DWI lawyer

The right wing(nut) reaction to proposals like this are exactly why I put my volunteer time, talents and skills into projects and efforts outside the US, helping out communities in developing countries where they’re actually GLAD to have my help.