Post-Election Stress Disorder

When I was a youngster, I read a quote by Sherlock Holmes.  He said that the truth is far stranger than fiction.  It's funny because Holmes is/was a fictional character, but, nonetheless, I thought he was wrong.  In my young, concrete, adolescent mind, I figured that the feverish imaginations of humans would be far stranger than the truths in the world.

I was very much mistaken (which means that I was wrong.)

It seems that each week, sometimes each day, I read about something that makes me close my eyes and shake my head in wonder.  The latest is this nonsense about PESD.  I promise you that I'm not making this up.  Sometimes I parody a point of view, but this is real.

‘PESD’ Is PTSD For Dems Who Can’t Stop Crying Over The Election

Post-Election Stress Disorder in Women, an article in Psychology Today, outlines why women are more susceptible to the disorder.

This article lists some common complaints from women:

“I haven’t slept in two days…”
“I can’t stop sobbing…”
“I am having nightmares…”
“This reminds me of when I was sexually assaulted…”
“I thought I was over all of my past abuse but now it’s back…”
“I can’t sleep, can’t eat, can’t function…”

Nancy Molitor, a psychologist in the Chicago suburbs says, "I have people who've told me they're in mourning, that they've lost their libido."

There's tons more of this nonsense if you care to do a Google search.

Uncharacteristically, I'm simply speechless.  I'll try to find some words, though.

I thought that the country would go down a bad path with the election of Barack Obama.  I did not and do not agree with his political positions.  However, I do believe in America.  America is a country that survives oftentimes in spite of its leadership.  Through history, America has had some strange leaders, but there is a corrective force in America that most other countries do not have: The People.

Obama was a radical president by any standard.  Whether you approve of his politics or not, one has to admit that his agenda was implemented with uncharacteristic vigor and success.

To those of us who do not approve of his politics, his success in office was a disaster.  To those who do, it was a triumph.

The degree of his success in radically changing the political landscape of America is reflected by the degree of popular uprising in the election of November, 2016.  This is the nature of American politics.  It's a self-correcting process.

Swings between liberal and conservative administrations has been going on since our country was founded.  Why should anyone expect anything different?

The fact that there are Americans who think that the world has come to an end is a testament to their ignorance of the American system, and it's an insult to their fellow Americans.  Our forefathers believed in the common sense of the electorate; they believed in the common man.  Sometimes it may seem as though the common man has lost his collective mind, but, over time, he gets it right far more often than pundits and politicians.

Trump may indeed be a man of extremes, or he may not be.  Either way, there's a correction to his policies coming down the pike in a few years.

You may or may not like that, but your anxiety isn't a mental disorder.  It's self-important, self-entitled, self-imposed drama.  Get over yourself, you're no more or less important than the rest of us.

By the way,  I'm sorry about your libido.

TheCurmudgeon

Berkeley's Brand of Tolerance

Unbeknownst to me, there's an English guy who is Greek, half-Jewish, gay and very conservative. 

Weird, huh?

This guy has so many political identity categories that it's hard to keep track of them all.

Oh, and he mostly dates black guys.

Meet Milo Yiannopoulos.

I'm not much in the mainstream of trendy things.  Most would say that I'm so far out of the mainstream that I haven't seen flowing water in years.  They'd probably be right.  I came to know about Milo because of the riots at Berkeley last week.  He was scheduled to speak there but lots of people didn't like that much.

The Cute Blonde and the Picture Frame

Katie Richter
a.k.a. The Cute Blonde

I hate to say, "I told ya so," but I did tell you so.  Come to think of it, I guess I don't hate it all that much.

For context, you may want to review my post entitled Conscientious Abstention.

There I documented the schizophrenia surrounding the issue of denying services to those with whom one disagrees.  The case study was a baker in Colorado who didn't want to make a cake for a gay wedding.  Of course, he was vilified by the press.  And, of course, he was sued by the gay couple.

I warned you there that this policy would come again but with different examples, including liberals refusing to provide services for those with whom they disagree.

To be fair, it wasn't much of a prediction because, in the post, I cited three other incidences where liberals refused service and no one seemed to care.  It was obvious that it would happen again.

And now it has.  And it happened in Colorado.  Gotta love the irony of it all.

American Stew

Rosalynd Harris

While perusing the news online this morning, I read a heartwarming story.  It seems that some white guys from Texas went to Washington, DC to witness President Trump's inauguration. 

During their stay, they ate at Busboys and Poets where they were served by Rosalynd Harris.  Ms. Harris had recently been a part of the Woman's March and was proud to have participated.

Ms. Harris happens to be black and she admits that she was a bit prejudiced when she found out that these guys were in town in support of Mr. Trump.

One of the men complimented her on her smile and they all chatted a bit. It was a friendly exchange between people of different worlds, races, and ideas.

It was America.

Imagine her surprise when she picked up the ticket after the men had left.  For a meal costing $76, they'd left her a $450 tip and a message.

Remodeling America's Bathrooms

Eureka!  I have found the solution to America's bathroom problem.  With all the fake problems in America today (economy, unemployment, terrorism, for example) the real issue is the bathroom crisis that the transgenders amongst us are experiencing.  It's appalling, really.

So, I've been putting my considerable brain power to work on the problem.  After an exhausting matter of seconds, I've cracked the code.

Conscientious Abstention

I've been reading about celebrities refusing invitations to perform at the Trump inauguration.  Honestly, I couldn't care less about who performs, so that's not the point of this post.

It did, however, lead me to wonder about how this relates to some other news making abstentions in the past few years.

It seems to me that abstaining from an activity approved by the left is considered an egregious affront to humanity, whereas abstaining from activities blackballed by the left is considered heroic.

As I've said in previous posts, I'm not interested in telling anyone what, or what not, to do, thus, it troubles me when one group forces their will upon another person or group.

The Object of Hope

I've been thinking again about hope.  I guess the statement by Michelle Obama about having no hope put it back in my mind.  I wrote a post a bit ago about the subject of hope called Lemonade or Mountains?

In that post I made the comment that Hope is only as good as its object.

For illustration, let's consider trust: Trust, like Hope, is also only as good as the thing being trusted. 

Here's the illustration: Say you're walking on a pier made of boards and you 'trust' that it will be safe.  However, the trust you have is only as good as the state of the lumber upon which you're walking.  You can trust 'til the cows come home, but, if the board is rotten, you will fall.

So it is with Hope, and we naturally ask, "In what do I place my Hope?"