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?"

Walking on Water

The Pope and an Indian Chief

Once upon a time, The Pope and an Indian Chief were fishing.  The Chief needed to heed the call of nature so he stepped out of the boat, walked a sufficient distance away, relieved himself, and returned to the boat.

After a bit, the Pope had a similar need, and, following the example of the Chief, stepped out of the boat, whereupon he sunk.  Rising back to the surface sputtering, The Pope said, "Wow, I didn't realize the power of your magic."

The Chief replied, "It's not so much a matter of magic as much as knowing where the rocks are."

OK, not that funny of a joke, but I was put in mind of that old joke when I heard Mike Huckabee last week.  He said that the media is so anti-Trump that, if Trump was seen walking across the Hudson, the headline the next day would be, "Trump Can't Swim."

Civil Discourse

I was talking to a colleague the other day about politics.  Usually not the best plan, especially when I knew that she always votes opposite me, but I never claimed to be the smartest guy in the room, so I just rattled off something that Obama did that I didn't much like.

Her response wasn't ugly, but she certainly put the best spin on it.  Well, I countered, Bush certainly didn't do that.  She agreed with that, but then proceeded to put the worst possible spin on Bush's actions.

It got me to thinking about how we view politics and politicians.  I concluded that we are pretty schizophrenic about it all.

Seriously... I'm Hopeless

It's a common enough refrain in my life: "You did what?!  You're hopeless!!"  Mom said stuff like that to me when I was growing up.  Other women in my life have made similar comments as well.

So, being a betting man, I'd be willing to bet that I actually am hopeless.  A handful of women are unlikely to be wrong about such.

Which brings me to another woman in my life who has recent informed me that I'm hopeless.  Yes, my first lady says I'm hopeless.  You are too, by the way.  She was talking to her collective American children, just like my mom used to talk to her urchins.  Unlike mom, though, Ms. Michelle sent her message via Oprah.

“We feel the difference now. ... Now we’re feeling like what not having hope feels like. … What do you do if you don’t have hope, Oprah?”

Michelle Obama

Cindy's All Grown Up

Susan Olsen

Susan Olsen, better known to me as Cindy Brady, just got fired from her job as a radio talk show host in Los Angeles.  She was fired because she referred to a gay actor with "an offensive term for gay men."  My, my, my little Cindy.

Wonder why she'd do such a thing?

The Thought Police

Chip and Joanna Gaines

Ok, ok, ok... I was mad when I wrote Bedrooms and Minds.  I'll admit it.  But I wasn't wrong.

Since I wrote that piece yesterday, I've followed the story on my twitter account and I'm continually amazed at the idiocy I see displayed.

Bedrooms and Minds

Chip and Joanna Gaines

Once again, I'm amazed about the ridiculousness of some Americans.  Tonight I became aware of the case of Chip and Joanna Gaines, the couple who star in the reality show Fixer Uppers.  They remodel houses to the delight of audiences across America.

I mean, I guess they do.  I've never seen it, although this past summer I did stay in a VRBO house that they featured on the show a few years back.  All I can say is that the house is cool.


They appear to be a handsome couple.  I'm not really qualified to comment on his appearance, but she's a knockout.

The Idea Man

Ronald W. Reagan

Yesterday, I wrote a post about ideas.  I got to thinking about how that related to politics in my lifetime and I wondered how our recent presidents rated in the arena of ideas.

The converse, of course, is how much they rely on issue-driven agendas.

For me, this is an interesting question.  It requires a fair amount of thought because I don't want to be biased about it.

Ideas vs. Issues

A couple of weeks ago, I thought that I'd get a twitter account and see what that was all about.  I now follow a couple of news feeds and some accounts related to college football.  It's hard to believe how uninformed and how ugly many of the comments are.  Nothing in my life has prepared me for how vitriolic some people can be.  And they're especially vile on platforms where they can type to an unknown person rather than confront them face-to-face.

They remind me of strutting roosters: big-talking, puffed-up, self-important chickens.

Big Laws, Little Laws

Donald J. Trump

This year we had a presidential election.  I say that in case there's a person reading this that has been under a rock.  The way things are going in America, perhaps it's not such a bad idea.

Here's the thing... The general election was between Donald J. Trump and Hillary R. Clinton.  If there were ever two more controversial candidates in American history, I'm not privy.