Are Republicans Sociopaths?

Some characteristics of Sociopaths

• Glibness and Superficial Charm

• Manipulative and Conning  -- They never recognize the rights of others and see their self-serving behaviors as permissible. They appear to be charming, yet are covertly hostile and domineering, seeing their victim as merely an instrument to be used. 

• Grandiose Sense of Self -- Feels entitled to certain things as "their right."

• Pathological Lying --Has no problem lying coolly and easily and it is almost impossible for them to be truthful on a consistent basis. Can create, and get caught up in, a complex belief about their own powers and abilities. Extremely convincing and even able to pass lie detector tests.

• Lack of Remorse, Shame or Guilt -- A deep seated rage, which is split off and repressed, is at their core. Does not see others around them as people, but only as targets and opportunities.
• Shallow Emotions -- When they show what seems to be warmth, joy, love and compassion it is more feigned than experienced and serves an ulterior motive. Outraged by insignificant matters, yet remaining unmoved and cold by what would upset a normal person.

• Need for Stimulation -- Verbal outbursts are common. 
• Poor Behavioral Controls/Impulsive Nature

• Irresponsibility/Unreliability -- Not concerned about wrecking others' lives and dreams.
• Contemptuous of those who seek to understand them

• Does not perceive that anything is wrong with them

• Authoritarian
• Paranoid
• Incapable of real human attachment to another

• Unable to feel remorse or guilt

• Extreme narcissism and grandiose

• May state readily that their goal is to rule the world

Life Goes On

So, now, life continues. My dear brother has left his life and our lives.
One of the issues too complex to fully grasp is this notion that life goes on. Most of us are so consumed with ourselves, that we think the rest of the world must be also. And if not, why not? After all, I’m so terrific, I deserve all your attention all of the time. And then we go, we disappear into the netherworld, and the rest of the world (at least some tiny part of that world) grieves briefly, a day, a week, a month, a year, and then moves on, captured again by that larger world to which we all belong, whether we know it or not. And move on we must.
So what are we to make of this sense of self-importance that is in fact so completely ephemeral? It is not, I believe, that we are actually unimportant. Oh, we are to most of the larger world, but our purpose in holding this sense of ourselves, may lie in how we connect to that larger world. If nothing lies beyond, one surely reasonable assumption, then what matters is our brief time here. For we hold no influence over the great beyond, religious dogma notwithstanding. Rather, our purpose seems to be to forge connections to other persons, connections that will bring some small joy, and connections to this larger world, connections that enhance rather than damage that larger world.
So, when we are kind and true to our loved ones, we bring joy, and that joy may spread to others around this globe—the butterfly phenomenon. And when we protect the little ones, in their hours of need, we serve the larger purpose of sustaining those who depend on us. A Native American writing on this issue proclaims:

“It doesn’t interest me to know where you live, or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair,
Weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done for the children.”

Then, when we depart this life, and depart we must, we will have left something behind that lives beyond our brief term here.
Each of the people who preceded me and touched my life, affected who I am. In turn, I affect those whose lives I touch, even briefly. If my touch is gentle, they may remember, and my purpose is fulfilled.
So did my brother, and now he is gone. And so our lives continue, briefly, but meaningfully. The world continues, and that is a good thing.

A Good Man

Siblings: Bill, Richard & Ruth

My brother just left this life. Another truly good man has passed on.

Brothers are many things. Siblings squabble as they compete for attention with parents and with the world. But this particular brother was special and occupied a special place in my life. He was the most important man in my life.

We were part of a dysfunctional family. My father was unable to cope with being a husband and a father. So, he drank, often and to excess. My Mother was left to cope with her three children and her aging parents. When he was home, he was unpleasant, so when he left, which was most of the time, we all breathed easier.

My sister was ten years older, and so she seemed part of another generation. So, my brother took over as the man in my life. We lived in Manhattan. My Mother worked to support us, and my brother and I were like Don Quixote (Bill) and Sancho (me), tilting at windmills all over the city by ourselves. When he went to Central Park, he took me along. Sometimes, we actually fished in Central Park Lake. We played in the streets, stickball, or War, or marbles, using the sewer grates as the marble home.

Bill played baseball and basketball,. And he dragged his little brother along with him to watch. Once, we went swimming at some public pool uptown, and someone stole our clothes. We walked back to our Second Avenue flat, in wet bathing suits to await the return of our Mother.

If I ever tried to do something stupid, as little brothers are wont to do, he stopped me, acting as my protector. We played together at home after school, sometimes dueling, playing our game of war. Other times, we sat quietly, listening to The Shadow, or Inner Sanctum, or the Jack Benny show on our radio in the front room.

No one in our family had ever advanced beyond high school—most never finished high school. Bill was admitted to Stuyvesant, a competitive school for very bright kids. When my Mother moved us out of New York City to a little community in Rockland County, Bill moved too, despite having to leave Stuyvesant. We lived in a little house, a one-time tiny community clubhouse that my carpenter grandfather turned into a two bedroom home. While my Mother continued to work in Manhattan, my ne’er do well father was supposed to be caring for us and working in the area. One morning, a cold winter’s morning, after the oil heater failed, he just left his two sons alone, in a cold house, as he could no longer cope. My brother coped, and my Mother came to our rescue, as she always did.

Bill finished high school in Spring Valley. He graduated early, at age 16. He decided that he was too young to go to college, so he went to work for a year. Then he was admitted to college, and worked full time while he attended school full time. He married before completing college, but he finished and went on to complete graduate school in chemistry. He was a determined young man, determined to succeed in a world that valued achievement. He achieved.

But in his striving for success, he never forgot to be a brother, and a husband and a father. He was devoted to his wife and his children, til the last breath took him from us. And he received love in return. He died in the arms of his family, at home, where he wanted to be. He is gone now, physically, but he lives on in my mind— and in the minds of his loved ones--my memory bank is full of good memories. They remain vivid. A brother who fulfilled and surpassed my needs and my expectations of a loving, caring brother, and mentor. I miss him, but I hold him close.

I add below some very old pictures, of days past, mostly happy memories of a baby, a young boy, a young man. he may be out of our reach, but he is very much within our memory banks.

Bill and our grandma Schmidt, by The East River

Bill was a secular humanist, but earlier, a choir boy, with sister Ruth:

Bill, maybe age six, with sister Ruth and GP Inglis in Brooklyn, circa 1937:

Bill and Richard, swimming  in New City park Lake, circa 1946?

Bill, Richard & Mother Daisy

And Bill as a young married man, with Edythe, baby Claudia and the Schmidt clan.

The Games

As I said, "let the games begin" and begin they have. Right out of the box, we now have death threats and other threats of violence coming from the right wing. Violence seems to be their preferred dispute resolution mechanism--democratic processes, like voting are not high on their agenda.  They are after all, heavily armed and, now, dangerous.
Tactic #2, after violence or the threat thereof, is patent obstructionism, of the kind practiced yesterday by senator Burr of North Carolina. He "objected" to an upcoming meeting of high level military and defense officials, many of whom traveled thousands of miles to be in Washington to present their needs to Congress. Senator Burr, deferred to his cranky Republican colleagues who wish no progress on any front. Why? Well, just because they can. The US Senate is nothing if not dysfunctional.
So, after many months of "just saying no", Republicans are now cranking up their campaign to obstruct progress toward resolving problems facing the Nation--many of which came about because of Republican strategies. Fairly clearly, Republicans care less about America than they profess. In fact, one might reasonably ask when the Republican party turned anti-American. They are yelling about "states rights", they yell about seceding from the Union, they are threatening violence against lawmakers, and now they simply "object" to formal meetings at which our hard-pressed military can discuss what they need in the future to defend America.
And on the sidelines, their cheerleaders, the Faux News Network, owned by foreign money (Mr. Murdoch as we all know is right wing Australian), scream on, with psychotics like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck urging the population to revolt.
All this because of a legislative enactment to provide health care to some 40 million Americans, and to rein in insurance industry excesses.  Apparently, Republicans are opposed to you getting decent health care that you can afford.  They, after all, have plenty of money to buy any level of health care they wish. For the rest, "let them eat cake."
Or maybe it has nothing to do with health care per se. Maybe it's that old thing that lingers in America--racism once again raising its ugly head.

Let the Games Begin

So now, onto Stage Two. That's the stage in which Republicans deny that they have lost a conventional legislative battle--one side had more votes--why how tyrannical of those dems. They actually chose voting as a way to resolve disputes. Republicans seem to prefer demagoguery (or just lying) and shouting/crying on their main PR outlet--the Faux News Network.
So now the standard Republican strategy of last resorts--States Rights. Let's see, when was the last time, they used this strategy? Why, I think it was in the 1960s, when they attempted to roll back the Civil Rights legislation. It was also used in the argument that produced the Civil War.
This would all be more interesting if it were about anything more than simply attempting to deny Democrats a victory. Because that's how the Republicans have cast this great battle--it's a "Win-Lose" game. From the beginning, even before there was a health care bill, they mounted their all-out assault, specifically to kill the Obama Administration. Any legislative victory by Obama was to be denied--anything really large, like Health Care Reform, they would use any ammunition they could find, or really invent. So, they resorted to their main tactic--lies. They lie with great facility. And they can't claim it is some guys off in a dark corner doing this--no, their main republican partners--from Sarah Palin to the ever-present Willy Krystol, and their Darth Vader character, Dickie-bird Cheney--all are in the business of lie-creation. Because that's who they are.
All this, so as to deny health care to some 40 million Americans. Way to go Republicans.

health care reform . . sort of

So, the Dems finally did the right thing and voted to change the way we finance health care in this vast, screwed up nation—at least some of them did. Our own congressperson, Larry Kissell, decided that he would join the republicans , thereby assuring that we would not vote for him again come this Fall. The reform leaves out the main thing I wanted to see—a single payer system, and they couldn’t even muster the courage to include a public option. Still some progress to cover the uninsured, and nullify the worst excesses of our rapacious health insurance industry, remains largely good thing, a plus for the American people.


I realize that many people will be disappointed, even “shocked, shocked” to discover that congress would dare do such a thing. Those who seem most outraged are the small army opposed to Gay rights, and a woman’s right to choose. They are supportive of life in the womb, while remaining opposed to life outside the womb.


And it remains to be seen how the American people will react to this mostly courageous act of congress. The bullies at the Faux News Network and its tail, CNN, will of course begin screeching immediately. But they screech about everything Obama wants to do, since they are both racist and fascist. I wonder sometimes how the actors who play reporters on the Faux News Network feel each day as they assume their roles as either crazy people or neo-fascists. I wonder whether any of them actually regret taking all that money to dupe the American people daily. Still, if you’re a failed actor who couldn’t make it on Broadway or in Hollywood, I suppose a daily gig on the Faux News Network is not all bad.


So let’s see whether the Senate has any cajones.

Pope Apologizes

The Pope apologizes for the ongoing and historic abuses of children (and adults) entrusted to their care.
Can the Pope excommunicate himself?
But, what am I thinking? He's an infallible Nazi.

Altogether now . . .
The Catholic Church sat on a wall,
The Catholic Church had a great fall,
All the Pope's horses,
And all the Pope's men,
Couldn't bring Catholics together again . . .