Anger turned inward

I'm not a shrink. Nor am I a psychologist or a social worker.

I know how it is to feel very depressed, the kind that comes from internal factors, i.e., chemical imbalances and hard wiring in the brain, as I have been diagnosed with Bipolar I Disorder and am currently being treated with drug therapy. I have been in therapy for nearly five years.

The other form of depression is caused by extrinsic forces you cannot control such as the death of a loved one, a lost job and other life shattering events, which usually resolves with time and action. Sometimes you'll hear that depression is anger turned inward, much of which is caused by protracted feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. Many times people who are depressed need short term drug therapy to get them over the hump and back into the swing.

I think the American people are very depressed and yes, living those lives of quiet desperation because of the tremendous change and upheaval we are currently experiencing. Affected folks who are in their 50s and 60s are especially hit hard because they simply don't have the time to make up for losses caused by Obama's lame policies--and, yes, they're angry. Once that anger sets up and is equated with a foreclosure, a job loss or the dependence upon others for help, or all of these events occurring at the same time, facing the black dog of depression is probably unavoidable. We're only human, after all.

Moreover, there's insult to injury amongst older out-of-work men and women, which is the result of the generation gap between younger workers and them. Ageism is the large unspoken problem for many of these workers and again, that lack of control, and hurt, continues. No wonder so many people have given up looking for jobs. The longer they stay out of work, the older and less relevant they feel. And the more entrenched they seem in their spheres of no influence. They are in a helpless state.

And to whom do people look for some solutions? Well, that's another source of disappointment and frustration. We see a boy king--our president--who is doing his best to quickly push through all the progressive, collectivist, wealth redistribution programs he can, while we're supposedly not looking, and while Harry Reid hijacks the democratic process by removing the super majority vote from the senate rules. In the meantime, we have no representation. Depressing.

College graduates, dressed up and no where to go, must be distressed that they cannot find the job to pay off their student loans and instead find that unemployment among that group is beyond 53%. Young taxpayers must be miffed that they're being asked to subsidize the older and sicker among us while they are hale and hearty themselves. Why should they bear the burden of the rest of the world involuntarily? And why does this version of the Obama administration continually cozy up to immigration politics such as it did yesterday when he and Mrs. Obama met with protesters who are fasting at the Washington mall? Can't he differentiate between the war veterans he kicked out during the shut down and a bunch of illegals who are owed absolutely nothing from the rest of us? It is most depressing to see his constantly challenged allegiance going astray one more time. He does not have the impluse of a president who takes seriously his job of loving America first.

Instead, we are subjected to such onerous, behemoth POS legislation called Obamacare, about which we were lied to by the President of the United States. Instead of demanding that this entire debacle be defunded, we watch Capitol Kabuki theater. Any dollars which we have tried to put aside for retirement (if we have any), are becoming less valuable by Quantitative Easing, another useless scheme the Obama Regime has lain on the American economy. This redistribution of wealth is probably the most insidious of all of Obama's games. Once planted in the infrastructure, Obamacare will wipe out billions of dollars in wealth and destroy the insurance industry in the process. Of course, this was always designed to get the system to its end game--the universal care, single payer system. It's depressing to realize that death panels, euphemistically called health care rationing, are in our future. The eugenicists can't be far behind. In fact, some of them even wrote part of the law. What's particularly frightening--and depressing--is that the death panels will single out people like me, those they consider marginal because of mental health issues. Pretty Nazi-ish if you ask me.

Watching today's media is depressing. It is especially so as we view the Versailles press surrounding the White House and its inhabitants. For instance, did you know that the President hosted a Thanksgiving dinner for ten guests? And when he was asked who those guests were, the White House refused to give up their names. It is a private dinner...on tax-payer's china, in the tax-payers house, with tax-payer's wine and beef or turkey, and who paid the chefs and servers with tax-payer's TAXES! And the press corps just sits and slobbers over this president.

Depressed yet?

The list of the most remarkable changes and insults include our Middle East policy, what's left of it. It's interesting that we're challenging China militarily, not sure what that's about; and I'm not quite understanding the Muslim appointments in the White House, except there are six of them in high tier jobs which are connected in some way to Islamic relations. I wonder if we have the equivalent positions for other major religions. Somehow, I doubt that. All of this is rather depressing because Obama's actions seem so unilateral and dictatorial. He thinks he's Teflon...no, wait. He has been made Teflon by his toady press corps. So much more slobbering that it's slippery out there.

And finally, this morning, I am drawn to the latest, "I dreamed of  Peyton Manning," by Maureen Dowd, the leftist New York Times columnist. She states she is a latecomer fan to football (please, Lord, save us) and, with her new found "knowledge," attempts to compare the stars in football to characters in Jane Austen novels such as Sense and Sensibility and Emma. She says she's an RGIII fan. Wait till she finds out he's a practicing, demonstrable Christian! She'll have to look away when he gets down on his knee and prays and thanks God for the TD. Oh, and she wants to support a team that is not boorish. Well, that lets out the Steelers and the Raiders. Presumably, those would only include squads whose zip codes abut oceans. I'm pretty sure my Kansas City Chiefs would be considered peasants and most unworthy of her appraisals.

Now the lefties are fooling around with my football. Jane Austen indeed! Where's my antidepressant? Quick, before I get real mad!

Thanks for the read.

Where I was the day JFK was killed

Today. November 22, 2013. Fifty years later.

As I write, this morning in southern California is an exact copy of the one in Ft. Worth, Texas the day President Kennedy was shot--cold and rainy. I was an eighteen-year old freshman at Texas Christian University in Ft. Worth, Texas, preparing for my half day of classes. As I fixed my hair and applied my make up, the voice on the AM station in my dorm room updated us with the juicy details of where the Kennedys had been the day before and where they were going: how President Kennedy and his wife had been to Houston where they had visited NASA; how the First Couple alit in San Antonio and had spread their magic there among local Latinos.

Finally, dead on their feet, the President and Mrs. Kennedy ended activities that day at the Hotel Texas in Ft. Worth. Not to be embarrassed by their vocal, snobby neighbor Dallas, the locals decided to doll up the President's suite by borrowing sixteen original works of world famous art from some of Ft. Worth citizens' private collections. Dallas was always putting down Ft. Worth, calling it Cowtown. In the meantime, Ft. Worth, usually shrugged and just counted their money and tried not to worry about it. This time, a nerve must have been struck and putting on airs seemed appropriate. It's probable neither of the couple really saw the paintings as tired as they seemed to be.

The next morning--very early--November 22, 1963, the President appeared out in front of the hotel in the rain and entertained the crowd, while the First Lady was deciding what she'd wear today. The forecast was for clearing and sunny skys, typical of a warmish fall Texas day. She decided on a pink mohair wool suit trimmed in blue with a matching signature pillbox hat. Pure Jackie. Practical as well, Mrs. Kennedy had worn that same suit before at least five times.

Back on campus and late for my lab, I left the Kennedys with a background of clinking silverware and a small voice noise at the morning breakfast just as the President began speaking about how no one ever worries about what he and Lyndon were wearing that day. What a lovely sense of humor and delivery JFK displayed. No wonder everyone loved him.

Some time after noon, as I was leaving my English class in Sadler Hall, and stepping out into beautiful sunlight, I saw a small crowd and someone I recognized as Tom Sawyer, a guy who ironically looked very much like JFK. I heard him shout above everyone, "Kennedy's been shot!"

We were all in shock, then came tears, then the heartbreak, then the reality.

Then we all got caught up in the 24-hour per day television spectacle.Watching TV was what Americans did for three or four days. It was brutal emotionally because of the Kennedy family, especially Jackie and her children. Copious tears and upheaval was the order of the day. It was hideous.

The collateral rites and activities that accompanied the funeral of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy were fitting of a hero, even one who was a deeply flawed man in the flesh, yet carried a cache of morality that captured the American spirit and hope in all of us. He was a leader of men, profoundly dismayed by Communism and Socialism. He made no apology for hating organized crime. He knew that all boats float, and regardless of his father's dubious and downright illegal methods of obtaining money, he understood capitalism. Moreover, he was a demonstrated warrior and  Naval Officer who had seen action. He was one of the greatest generation, after all, who saw America's future as her best ever.

Unfortunately, many, many people believe that there is much more to the President's assassination than we're told. I've wrestled with it and have come up with maybes and nothing more. Knowing that politics is not only dirty, but also deadly, I can't help but wonder who else wanted him dead. We are now seeing how his personal conduct would've blown up in his face through blackmail. Then, a more conservative public would probably have turned against him. Then, there was the mob...and his mistresses he shared with Sam Giancana...and Frank Sinatra...and with Bobby...and then there's Marilyn. Camelot may have been only temporary anyway. How sad.

Fifty years later. Same day and date, same Thanksgiving week. Same questions. Eerie

Thanks for the read.

Bill Clinton's shot across O's bow

Has the Hillary Clinton campaign for president unofficially begun? Her husband, the ever subtle Bill, has offered some advice to a president in steep decline: President Obama, live up to the promises you made in the name of the Federal Government and let people keep their current health care plans.

President Clinton's guidance, however timed, most certainly gives his fellow democrats the cover they're seeking to drop this load of legislative dung--and the presidential dung maker--to make way for a new and improved health care plan; this time, however, the plan would be simpler and without personal indemnification and fines. It's the new Hillarycare 2.0, coming soon to all American homes--but, only for those who actually want it. President Clinton is using this issue as a front loading cover for Mrs Clinton's terrible job performance at the State Department, part of a likely constellation of many, many left wing ideological issues that she and her fellow big government-loving dems embrace as an instruction to a favored way of living one's life. Forget Benghazi and those enriching Chinese deals of the 1990s, she's your gal, your first woman president.

Mrs. Clinton's asking/instructing/conniving with her husband to kibbitz over Obama's broken promises can be enough to start the discussion on overturning and/or changing the entire law to fit her view of universal health care. During the presidential primary, she went to the mat insisting there was no way Obama's proposed health care plan could coerce the American public to buy insurance. It could not fine, nor for that matter, incarcerate anyone who would not go along with the plan, as it would be unconstitutional, and impossible to enforce (ironically, Chief Justice Roberts and the rest of the Supreme Court's left side declared the money part of the law a tax such that the IRS could enforce the fines and  impose possible jail sentences for recalcitrance).

That was then. Now we have a troubled and challenged system implementation which comes as a gift to the republicans and something that can be compared to a case of shingles for democrats; and strangely, a demonstrable boondoggle and an eerily untoward Obama legacy to Hillary Clinton. She can sing to the heavens for her good luck. What's eerie is that the Clintons usually make their own luck.

The Clintons are masters in the milieu of public imagery and perception management. They know they must react as opportunity presents itself. The ex-president carefully places a statement, usually some sugar coated criticism, and the media gratefully sends it into the stratosphere, like a second coming, for all to hear and see. Notice that Mrs. Clinton does not speak publicly unless it is a controlled interview or from the dais accepting an award or presenting a speech. She's not ready for her close up--probably deciding if she'll go Full Monty on a face lift. (I think she should, by the way.)  She will defy gravity, she must, according to Millineals.

Poor President Obama. I don't believe he realized back in 2007 just how harsh top flight politics would be. He's being directly hit for how he treated Mrs. Clinton in the primary. No matter how many career appointments, no matter how much he covers up for her on Benghazi, she'll never forgive him. In addition, this health care issue is a trickster which must be managed often offstage. More well-thought-out bombs will be launched as the need for ship-jumping increases in the party, and as the reality of the constraints and expense of Obamacare become known to the American people. Some of it has already started with Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana talking up her own changes to the ACA. The congressional elections are just a year a way, after all. The outcry is bound to increase.

In the meantime, let the salvos continue!

Thanks for the read.

Incognito's bad attitude

Much to the great concern and dismay of most of my girlfriends, I am a crazy sports fan--most particularly of college and professional football. I have my favorite teams which I expect to light up my life beginning late summer and through bowl games, playoffs and well into the next February when the time for the greatest football show of all time finally rolls around: The Super Bowl.

Great expectations
It's good to have two teams* to root for in case one of them turns into a doggie and you have to wear a bag over your head in shame. Sometimes, you have to wear two bags if both your teams let you down. It can be a devastating passage in one's life to have the quarterbacks you've helped raise (in your mind), get manhandled by five or six semis dressed up like defensive linemen because your offensive linemen look like Bambi on an interstate at night.

Yes, heartbreak accompanies the downside of fandom. It is a hazard which we must prepare ourselves for. I think the professionals should call it "Rams Syndrome." Perennial Los Angeles Rams fans know what I'm talking about. As far as I know, there is no cure, only learning to live with it.

Sticks and stones
Because I have invested nearly fifty-five years to the practice of watching football (I was a cheerleader in junior/high school and am a coach's kid), and because I'm old, I am claiming a certain right to holler about this ridiculous Incognito/Martin bullying baloney.

This issue belongs with the players, the owners and the coaches. Hazing is not new. Listen to the ex-NFL guys asserting the locker room activities, hazing practices, etc. Martin was stupid to bring it to the media and now Incognito will have to go away for a while. It's all so absurd. These are words, people. Words. So, Martin makes a federal case out of it? Please. He's an NFL player, for cripes sake. He can't take it? Please. He gets zero respect from me.

Non-fans can ride their high horses all they want; the fans of football understand that these very special people who number in the low thousands, these super human physical powerhouses provide the kind of competitive spirit and excitement that can't be found anywhere else in the world. In fact, football is the last truly American sport.

If non-fans in the media don't like football, they can try to outlaw it. As far as I know, it is still legal to play and watch football.

Weed out the bad apples and move forward. Like this is anything new...

Thanks for the read.


*Texas Christian Horned Frogs (Where's my bag?)
  Kansas City Chiefs 9-0