This is a test

I seem to be having some problem with posting, so this is a test

Interesting Psychological Phenomenon

It is hard not to notice that the same people who flock to Michael Moore's conspiracy-spiked mumbo-jumbo, and who nod sagely at the spurious illogic of his dubious connections, also refuse to accept ANY evidence or documentation that Iraq/Saddam might just possibly have had connections with al-Quaeda. Or, that Saddam tried to get uranium from Niger. It is so much easier to believe that our own president has evil and suspicious motives, I guess, than to imagine that a mass murderer like Saddam may have linked up with other international mass murderers to conspire against the United States. That kind of possible "collaboration" is deemed ridiculous, while the "collaboration" hinted at in Farenheit 911 is considered likely. When it is a conspiracy theory that enhances and confirms your world view ("America is Evil")then evidence is optional. When it is a conspiracy theory that challenges that world view, then no amount of evidence is sufficient to prove it.

Democratic Party Mental Status

A Mental Status Examination (MSE) is a psychiatrist's way of determining the intellectual, emotional and behavioral status of patients/clients. A good MSE includes the following areas: Appearance, Behavior, Speech, Mood & Affect, Thoughts, Orientation, Memory, Concentration, Insight, and Judgement. Let's go through them one by one:

APPEARANCE: obsessed with hair and looks in general
BEHAVIOR: erratic; one minute calm, the next raging, out of control; filled with anger and hate and this is reflected in their
SPEECH: increased volume; sometimes screaming
MOOD: deeply depressed since they lost the presidential election of 2000; still clinging to the belief that they "really" won
AFFECT: the depression is expressed with an affect of anger that they are no longer in control of things
THOUGHTS: extremely paranoid (everything bad that happens is part of conspiracy by the Bush Administration; there is a conspiracy to silence them by their critics; everything they don't agree with is a "lie" and/or "exaggerated"); delusional (Bush is a bigger threat than Osama Bin Laden or al Quaeda; September 11 is a Bush conspiracy; the War on Terror is not necessary and the threats are not real; We went to Iraq for our oil interests; Israel and the U.S. are the the real monsters in the world--I could go on, but you get the idea); psychotic and out of touch with reality (Michael Moore, most of the vocal Hollywood Democratic crowd; Terry McAulliffe; Charles Rangell (he wants to bring back the military draft); Carl Levin; Robert Byrd, Ted Kennedy; Howard Dean)--I could go on, but you get the point.
ORIENTATION: September 10, 2001
MEMORY: Both long- and short-term memory is impaired (for evidence of this you have to look at statements made by them during the Clinton Administration (e.g., about Iraq and Saddam's level of dangerousness) and more recently during the Bush Administration. The contrast is unbelievable. Almost all of them agreed with the proposition that Saddam and Iraq were an imminent threat--even Clinton bombed the guy); but their memory also appears to be selective and partially obscured by their intense rage and anger at the outcome of the 2000 election.
CONCENTRATION: willing to concentrate on their rage; on ridiculing Bush and his efforts to protect America, but very unwilling to concentrate on the actions and behavior necessary to protect our Homeland. Of course, if another terrorist attack occurs in the U.S. it will be Bush's fault; not their obstruction of his every effort to keep us safe.
INSIGHT: extremely poor (there is virtually no recognition of the consequences of their current behavior, which at best can be characterized as divisive and malignant). They refuse to take responsibility for the 8 years of inaction; appeasement; passivity and general denial leading up to 9/11; and are even in more denial now about what is going on in the world. They live in a La-La land where thugs like bin Laden can be reasoned with and think that by acting against him and others of his ilk we will bring their wrath down on us. On the contrary, their wrath will come whether we act or not. At least by acting, we have some slim hope of preventing the worse of what they can do. But, who cares? When 20,000 Americans are killed by a suitcase nuclear weapon in Houston, it will be Bush's fault, not the terrorists, after all.
JUDGEMENT: extremely poor; by focusing on trivialities and convincing Americans that they aren't better off (in spite of every economic indication to the contrary) they show their true inability to lead this country.

DIAGNOSES:
AXIS I - Major Depressive Disorder with psychotic features;
AXIS II - Narcissistic Personality Disorder (with paranoid features)

THERAPEUTIC PLAN: Although Kerry and Edwards are not as lunatic fringe as many of their supporters, their judgement is very questionable since they do not denounce this lunatic group, but instead embrace it. While Bush and Cheney have social policies that I happen to disagree with and have not been particularly fiscally conservative THE ONLY ISSUE THAT IS IMPORTANT FOR ME IS THE WAR ON ISLAMOFASCISM (otherwise known as the War on Terror) and I do not believe that either Kerry or Edwards has the moral or intellectual integrity to pursue it. It is a matter of life and death. VOTE FOR BUSH / CHENEY

Delusions

Virginia Postrel writes that Libertarian hawks who have become anti-Bush are deluding themselves that Kerry will be more fiscally restrained. Actually, I have been a bit surprised by the Libertarian attitude toward Bush. Granted, he has not been much of a fiscal conservative, but it would seem to me (and I have been a Libertarian for many years--in fact, I have voted Libertarian in almost every election except the presidential election of 2000) that the international situation and Islamofascism is a far more pressing issue. And if those same Libertarian hawks imagine that Kerry will protect America's values, defend and promote Freedom and oppose the jihadists, they are seriously delusional.

Which leads me to a mental status examination of the Democratic Party. In psychiatry, the mental status examination is the most important part of the evaluation of a client/patient. It provides information on higher cognitive functioning; intellectual functioning; abstract functions and thought processes; appearance, behavior and speech. It is essential to perform the mental status examination (MSE) to make an accurate diagnosis. Tomorrow I will perform an MSE on the Democrats and then compare it to one on the Republicans. Libertarians would likely refuse to participate in such a thing, or go all Szaz-like and refuse to admit that mental illness exists--so I won't bother to evaluate them. See you then!

Here we go, Part III

This is the final test! I think finally everything is set correctly finally (I hope!)

Here We Go - Part II

This is also a test. I will eventually get it right!

Here We Go

This is a test of the new blog