Tag: fear

TBC: Morning Musing 6.1.15

Happy first day of Hurricane Season everyone! I have 3 articles for your perusal this morning!

First, boy we’ve come along way from FDR:

Chill Out, America

These days, prominent experts and politicians seem determined to keep the American people in a perpetual state of trembling fear. Richard Haass of the Council on Foreign Relations thinks “the question is not whether the world will continue to unravel but how fast and how far.” The outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Martin Dempsey, told Congress last year that “[the world is] more dangerous than it has ever been.” (Someone really ought to tell the general about the Cold War, the Cuban missile crisis, and a little episode known as World War II.) Not to be outdone, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger believes the United States “has not faced a more diverse and complex array of crises since the end of the Second World War.” And then there’s CNN and Fox News, which seem to think that most news stories should be a variation on Fear Factor.

One could multiply alarming forecasts such as these almost endlessly. As investigative journalist David Sirota tweeted in response to a recent speech by New Jersey governor and erstwhile presidential aspirant Chris Christie, where FDR told Americans the “only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” today’s politicians and pundits mostly tell us to “Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.”

Jump!

And So It Begins

Twas the day before the night before Christmas and not a shopper was stirring not even a crotchety old hen or Marine Corps. vet.  The flag industry was dying like so many others and here I sat thinking WTF is next.

So the book keeper goes to the boss the other day “We’ve got 8k in the bank and here’s 8k in checks to sign to pay off vendors” “We’ll be solvent till January first”  Now I’m one to get nervous needlessly, I suffer from anxiety and depression so forgive me if I sound like I’m freaking out because I am.  Forty seven years old, under educated, legally blind, 16k in debt, living in a company supplied house that’s ready to collapse from rot and termites, BC/BS is calling everyday for the 2 or 3 grand I owe em and the NJ Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired is spending huge dollars to make my workplace more accessible for me by buying CCTVs, Screen Readers, Glasses and other nice toys but I have to remain employed for 90 days or I loose them.  I have my health though, well maybe, haven’t seen a Dr. in four or five years, my teeth need to be serviced and I’m 47 with all that that implies LOL.

It could be worse though for tonight I have a roof over my head and probably will for a while longer at least, I’ve got food and friends to help if I need. I’m not one of the third of humanity living on less that two bucks a day and I still have hope!!

Merry Christmas Happy Hanukkah and a Safe, Healthy and Happy New Year to all

Safari in Ohio

The Ohio Sheriff’s Department had the chance to go big game hunting without even having to buy airline tickets to Africa:

Ohio farm owner killed himself after letting animals loose, police say

Police say the owner of a wild animal preserve set wolves, bears, and lions free before dying from a self-inflicted wound.

This story is in The Guardian.

In all, so far, the authorities have killed :

  18 Bengal Tigers, 17 Lions, 8 Bears, 1 Wolf.

There’s more:

Popular Culture 20110128: Left and Right TeeVee Adverts

This piece was partially inspired by a conversation that I had with Kossack smileycreek in the comments after my most recent Pique the Geek installment.  That commentor’s sig line included words to the effect that all that the Republicans have is fear.

To a point I agree with that, but I would also add greed to it.  Greed has a component of fear in it, since greedy people always have the fear that they will not get enough of whatever their particular greed includes, but is enough of a distinct desire as to be included separately.

On Wednesday past, I logged all of the adverts on two TeeVee shows, Glenn Beck from the FOX “News” Channel, and The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC.  I believe that most would agree that one is pretty right wing, and the other pretty left wing.

There Is No Righteousess In Your Darkest Hour

A year or so ago I wrote a post that referenced the Sleater-Kinney song “Sympathy”. I return to it here for a slightly different reason. Its poignant, profound lyrics are written from the perspective of a mother whose newborn son’s survival hangs in the balance. In her desperation and fear, she calls out to God.

The Week in Editorial Cartoons – Misremembering George W. Bush

Crossposted at Daily Kos and The Stars Hollow Gazette



Bush Memoir by Rob Rogers, see reader comments in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Buy this cartoon

George W. Bush is on a book tour with his new autobiography.  According to critics, there isn’t a lot of new or revealing material here.  W still believes the war in Iraq, tax cuts for the rich and torture were all good ideas.  He didn’t really need to publish a non-reflective memoir to tell us that.

The Week in Editorial Cartoons – Republican Thuggery on Full Display, Part I

Crossposted at Daily Kos and The Stars Hollow Gazette



Rob Rogers, see reader comments in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Buy this cartoon

This election season has brought out some real ghouls, some, but not all, as a result of the Tea Party.  These monsters are great for cartoonists, but not so great for the voters.  The saddest part is, none of these characters offers a message of hope.  It is all about tearing the other guy down.  I know this kind of negative campaigning happens with every election.  It just seems more frightening this year.

‘Deer in the Headlights’ — They’re Not!

Supposedly ‘Uncertainty‘ is the new Corporate buzzword.

Uncertainty‘ is the Mantra that keeps them FROZEN with inaction.

Well I guess, a lot depends on what kind of ‘Action’ — were looking at.

America’s Corporate Cash Cushion

Jonathan Cheng, WSJ Market Beat — Sep 17, 2010

The Federal Reserve put out its quarterly report on fund flows today, which shows corporate balance sheets more or less flat at $1.845 trillion, compared to $1.847 trillion in the first quarter of 2010.

[…]

Companies weren’t stuck like a deer in the headlights because of regulatory or political uncertainty,” he said. Instead, he says corporate directors have been spending on capital expenditures, M&A, and buybacks and dividends.  [ … according to Anthony Carfang, from at Chicago-based corporate treasury consultancy Treasury Strategies.]

Dividends and buybacks, like the ones announced after market close yesterday by Texas Instruments, are on the rise […]

Be afraid, be very afraid, people — Or so the Corporate Speakers are telling us.

Media Firestorm and the Qu’ran

Actions like this enrage many not only those they are directly pointed at!

In this case, just like if others were to announce then do a burning of another’s religious teachings book, it would enrage many of different faiths or even not following an established faith or beliefs.

This past decade has had nothing to do with religious ideologies except by those extremist preaching the total opposite of all the established religions beliefs and those who support same while claiming they are members of the true ideology.

Reductionism, Not Western Civilization, is the Great Satan

Those currently in opposition to the construction of a mosque near Ground Zero don’t seem to want to understand the whole picture.  They will not even entertain anything other than views stepped in prejudice and fear, seeing an enemy in the face of every person of Middle Eastern descent.  While in stuck in this merry-go-round that passes for substantive discourse, they are trusted supporters of a system that sees the sum of its parts as more important than the whole.  Today’s believers in preemptive prejudice take stock in reductionism, a theory that justifies bigotry nicely.  Indeed, their system of belief relies more on personal bias and illogical rationales rather than outward truth.  The spread and growth of this, its own near-religion upsets me more than that of the genuine terrorists themselves.

Mullen “blood on the hands”: Wikileaks

And They Claim ‘christianity’

This is just the recent but think back these years and all read and heard or watched, this is what a big part of recruitment looks like {and rise of hatreds and thus blowback}, add in the killing, maiming, destruction and creating refugees from their homes and country,  and add in while in theaters demeaning those that live there and their neighbors and not only in theater but across this country many doing same!

The Making of a Criminal Terrorist Mindset


April 12: Rachel Maddow previews the two-hour msnbc special documentary based on Timothy McVeigh’s prison interviews, scheduled to air April 19, the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing.

McVeigh’s path to terrorist

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