Recent comments
ADHD: Hunter in a Farmer's World
Thom Hartmann has written a dozen books covering ADD / ADHD - Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder.
Join Thom for his new twice-weekly email newsletters on ADHD, whether it affects you or a member of your family.
Thom's Blog Is On the Move
By webmaster
Hello All
Thom's blog in this space and moving to a new home.
Please follow us across to hartmannreport.com - this will be the only place going forward to read Thom's blog posts and articles.
http://www.cnngo.com/tokyo/sleep/yoshidaryo-japans-most-famously-decrepit-dormitory-179885
Our son sent us some pictures of a dorm at Kyoto University in Japan.
@Fbacher, are you saying that the same person can be afflicted with both psychosis and schizophrenia?
@maxrot & mstaggerlee
re gerald: Many people have talked to gerald about the way he posts. He's replied by saying 1) that he seeks to take people out of their comfort zones and 2) that it makes his day when he's pissed someone off.
He also said that he posts the links he posts to share information and some of the stories he links to are very good, but it seems that "shock value" is more important to him than sharing important informatioin to him. Several people have told him they are less likely to take his posts seriously or read them at all because of his outrageous over the top style, but he hasn't changed very much.
The Protest Psychosis is a podcast that I just heard that is appropriate to the era of protest highlighted by the Kent State massacre.
Synopsis:
Psychiatrist Jonathan Metzl treats people in the clinic whose lives are afflicted by severe psychosis. But he also documents an explosive 'other' history of schizophrenia, and what he sees as its transformation from a diagnosis of feminine docility or creative eccentricity, to one given to angry black men during the civil rights era. You'll never see medicine and the mind in quite the same light again.
@maxrot, I remember Kent State and Jackson State. I remember the administration trying to make the point that the kids who were killed were not real students, but hippie hangers-on. Agitators
@mstaggerlee, prior to my enlightenment, I voted for the 1st Bush when I was able to make my first Presidential vote. I then voted for Perot, I sensed that neither Bush or Clinton were right, I doubt Perot was right either, but I sorta considered my vote as an anti establishment vote at the time. I don't remember who, or if I voted in the next election (I know I didn't vote for Dole, I may have already begun voting for whatever Green canidate was running). Then Nadar (living in CA I didn't worry much about how my state would go), Kerry, Obama. Other than the President, I vote for a Green wherever one runs now. I can't say I really had any idea what I was voting for when I voted for Bush, I was just ignorant and figured he was the most likely one to win. I have since developed my political awareness a wee bit.
N
@Nels - I had the privilege of casting my first official vote as an American citizen of legal age AGAINST Richard Nixon. :-)
Geez'um almighty... its intimidating being on this blog sometimes. How many people here actually remember Kent State? I was born 5 months after it happened... y'all making me feel like a wet behind the ears newbie, like I'm walking amoungst the legendary hippies of lore. Vietnam, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, the Counter Culture wars are all things I've read about, I barely remember the Ford/Carter election.
N
@mstaggerlee, I can't afford to buy it.
N
@mstaggerlee, I'd say that gerald's point of view that America is acting reprehensibly is correct, to a point. I would even agree with a statement (if he so stated it this way) that there are a lot of Americans that are all to happy to see are weapons used to kill anyone who dares stand in our way. I would agree that the majority of our leadership is all to happy to take the money from our Industrial Military Complex and allow are Military too lax a hand in achieving questionable goals. I can agree with that. I can't however say all Americans are bloodthirsty and war addicts, it's just not that way at all. In fact I would say their is more of a sin of omission with a substantial portion of Americans, basically Americans that just don't pay attention and say nothing, or care nothing about it. It isn't that they desire cruelty, they just cross the street and ignore the mugger and victim (so to speak). I can even agree with that.
But there are a lot of Americans that do care, and struggle constantly to hold their government to account. I don't know if gerald agrees with that.
N
@Nels - Having no hope of his own, it appears that Gerald's defense mechanism is to try and make the rest of us as hopeless as he is.
But remember this - Just cuz that's all he's sellin', don't mean that you are obligated to buy it. ;-)
I must also disagree with Gerald, on the simple basis of historical fact, regarding whether in a war, one can kill another who had previously been a friend.
In our Civil War, most of the officers on BOTH sides, went to West Point together. Many of themen who became the Northern brass had been quite friendly with those men went on to become Confederate officers. Once friends, later sworn enemies - politics makes life strange indeed.
Kent State 40 years ago... let's not forget that the Guard back then was made up of "weekend warriors", and guess what, they were similar ages to the students. I had friends on both sides that day. It's questionable the ones holding weapons had the discipline to handle a couple thousand students moving towards them. The mistake was deploying armed guard onto the campus. What followed was merely escalation in the heat of the moment.
@gerald, I disagree with that. Many other nations participate just as much as America does in killing, if not now then in the recent past, such as colonial wars through out the 18th, 19th, 20th centuries up to today. Many dictators, kill their own people, and they do so without the support of America. If you think America stands alone in its ability to spill blood today, then I suggest you start researching what's going on in China, Russia, etc...
America plays the roll of the world's policeman, and by the nature of police work, we practice police brutality to keep the other nations in line with our sense of priorities. If China were able to be in our place, they would act the same, if Russia were in the same position they would act the same, if Germany was in the same position, they would act the same, if Canada was in the same position, they would act the same, if France, England, Italy, Spain, Egypt, Somalia, Columbia, Vietnam, Korea, Japan, Ireland, Iceland, Norway, Finland, Switzerland, Sweden, Greece, Serbia, South Africa, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Sudan, Ethiopia, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador.... was in the our place, they would act the same. Don't pretend that this is some sort of unique ailment that festers in America only. Your just being narrow visioned and dishonest with yourself when you do that. Second, not every American has bloodlust, c'mon, are you serious when you write that all Americans want to kill? Who do you think you're writing to on this blog? Cambodians? Take a step back and think about what you're writing, and try to look at it as if someone else is writing it to you as an American they hardly know.
You've already condemned America as a hellhole unable to change. If that's what you truly believe, where in this world is there hope for humanity? If every country that holds power can only abuse it? What of the activists that work hard make this country a better place? What of the activists in other countries that try to make their country a better place? What if they all just said, our country is a hellhole and there is no hope? Who wins then?
N
War is a narcotic.
War is a narcotic. War gives certain people a high. The longer a war lasts the more power goes to the government.
We start hating through language and from language we start to want to kill people. War gives the addictive personality meaning. The state begins to define our being. The state must control us in order for us to kill. We cannot look at another person as part of humanity. Friends do not want war. You must, in war, want to kill and a person cannot be a friend to a person whom he is out to kill. People become intoxicated in war toward killing. You lose yourself and your identity as a human person in war.
If you oppose war, you court physical violence to yourself by the nationalists who desire and crave killing and war. You need moral courage to oppose war in America, a land that is overrun by nationalists who want killing and war.
Human beings do not want to kill other human beings. We had an opportunity to build friendships but we became racists.
The Republican Party possesses extremists who are doing great damage to our relations in the world. Once you become violent, you hang onto and remain violent because you cannot behave any other way. Violence comes back to haunt a country. Our violence to other countries will come back to haunt us. We do not have the right to control other people.
@Maxrot, I call my house representive and my two senators. Actually, I have called Gary Peters more frequently than the other two senators. I have three patriotic Americans whom I can contact. Prior to Gary Peters, our district had a a goose-stepping Republican in Joe Knollenberg. He was a royal pain in the butt.
@Maxrot, you are absolutely right! But, we are the only nation on earth that is truly glorified in the killing of God's children. The killing of human beings by Americans is an addiction. The killing and slaughter of human beings offer Americans their daily high.
That's a good amount of time you spend talking to God gerald. How much time do you spend writing or calling your Senators, Congressmen and political party compatriots?
N
We Die Alone
When John Paul II was Pope, he said that in death we die alone. We will be judged by our deeds. We will not be able to blame another person for our sins.
On a daily basis I have prayers that I say. Here are the prayers.
I will say an Act of Contrition.
I will also say a Prayer for a Spiritual Communion. This is a prayer that asks God to come into my heart in spirit because I cannot receive Him sacramentally in the Eucharist at Mass.
I will also pray the Holy Rosary.
I also give thought to the Devotion of the Drops of Blood Lost by our Lord, Jesus Christ, on His way to Calvary. This is a devotion that was given to St. Elizabeth, Queen of Hungary, St. Matilda, and St. Bridget by God and it was blessed by Pope Leo XIII on April 5, 1890. We are to pray two Our Fathers, two Hail Marys, and two Glory Bes for three consecutive years. From this devotion we will receive graces and our souls will not be damned to hell.
I will also pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. This chaplet was given to St. Faustina by Jesus and blessed with Pope John Paul II’s approval. If the chaplet is prayed, even the most harden sinner can be saved. Jesus promised St. Faustina that He would stand between God, the Father, and the sinner asking God to forgive the sinner.
Yes, we do die alone but there are ways to prepare us for God’s final judgment.
@gerald, is there any nation on earth that you know of, that isn't a cold calculating killing machine? I can't think of any.
@rladlof, when it comes to attending the Church of the Blessed Hooters, the Church of the Holy Orbs, etc.. you can never be too safe, attend on all Sabbaths that their may be. In fact if you can wing it, start by going on Thurs. night and stay through to Sunday evening. You may wish to attend a variety of these Churches, for variety is the spice of life and your soul may just need that.
N
#69 from May 3, 2010, Maxrot, these are the people who do not like government until they need government.
The United States of Hell is not a nation but a cold, calculating killing machine.
@Posters, ther is a saying, "What goes around, comes around." Whitey's racism and racial profiling will come back to bite them on their behind. Whitey will always be in the power structure because they will find ways to eliminate non-whites from voting. We are NOT a democracy. We are an evil, vile, and wicked nation.
Just curious. What does the problem with PIGS have to do with oil?
How does Germany and Denmark protect their manufacturing? Do they have tariffs? Do they require government to buy national products? I always thought the democratic socialist countries were stable (and happy) because of their progressive income tax structure.
@ MAXROT: Which Sabbath . . . The one that comes from “I am your Lord, your God, who lead you out Egypt to be your god” OR the one that Christians snaked from the Babylonians?