I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

Hi Guys,

Just wanted to stop by and tell Yorkie I love the pics!  What an interesting vacation you had!

I've been reading about Lance today.  I find myself very angry about what he's done and all the people he's tried to fool.  I wonder if he would have had so much support for Livestrong if he had been honest early on about the doping.  I really doubt it.  I think he's an egotistical fraud.  I read the comments he made to Oprah and he didn't sound one bit contrite.

BTW ... I have three guns.  Two pistols and a shotgun.  I have plenty of property to do some target practice ... just haven't bothered to get to it.  Plus, I'm lazy about cleaning the guns after shooting them.  Since it's been so long, I probably ought to devote some time to cleaning them anyway.

hugs to all,

Bren

How can you kill a zombie???  It somehow seems that a crossbow would be irrelevant.

3monstmama~my 24 year old son, Jesse, loves Seattle, fog and all. Our background is also Scottish. He loves rainy or foggy days, and wears flip flops even in Ohio winters as long as there's no snow.



When Jess was a little guy we played a game ( our own little game ). I would bend over, walk funny (kind of like I walk naturally now) chase after him in slow motion, and in a funny yet scary voice I say, " MONSTERMAMA!!!" To this day, he sometimes calls me Monstermama.



I fought off the bug last week without any antibiotics and today....Ta Da....My WBC was higher than before I ever started chemo!!! So, Gals, I have AC #3 under my belt. She did tell me my hemoglobin is a bit low, so get the protein in.



I don't use alcohol or street drugs, but about Wednsday I'll be wishing I lived in WA or Colo.



Ye Old Hippy

I highly recommend a book called The Sociopath Next Door. You will recognize so many people you've encountered in life! 

I watched some of CBS This Morning before going to chemo today. They were talking about Armstrong, and how threatening he was to people, especially to anyone who could out him. But, that's typical of people taking steroids. MEAN!!!! Just ask my DH how true that is chemo week. Lol



Paula

Chickadee...they would be Johan Bruyneel who was Armstrong's Race Director through the years and Dr. Ferrari.  Bruyneel has a hearing with USADA upcoming -- not sure what his defense will be given Lance's recent revelations.  He is also named in the Landis suit below.  Dr. Ferrari has already been given a lifetime ban by USADA.  They are both European, so dealing with their own "worlds."

Floyd Landis (a former teamate of Lance) has filed a federal whistleblower case against Lance (and some of his business associates) for defrauding the US Postal Service of $30 million.  Last I heard, DOJ was deciding whether to join the case by Landis.  Landis won the TdF in 2006, but failed a drug test...he basically lost everything and finally fessed up to using drugs, while taking Lance down, a couple of years ago.

Most of Lance's other teammates exchanged immunity with USADA for testimony against Lance.  Lance never contested the charges with USADA, so not sure what happens to them.  Many are still active GC riders.

I've wondered how this is really much different from Bernie Madoff, except it is fraud by a thousand paper cuts.  He's defrauded insurance companies, sponsers, sports companies, and ruined careers, all worth millions of dollars, yet really, is there something he can be charged with?  He can be sued, but my bet is Lance has a few Swiss bank accounts.

Alexandria - is it different?  One is more explicit, but in the end...

I'm going to say this again. As an ardent TdF watcher, Lance Armstrong gave me many hour of good entertainment.  Nothing can take that away.  And I'll always remember that when he was studied as a human specimen, the researchers had never seen someone with his V02 max (one's ability to transport oxygen).    He also did this thing going up hill...using high RPM's in an easy gear, unlike anyone.  No matter the slimeball he is, he was one of my favorite riders to watch.

Still think it's different.  Armstrong cheated at sporting events, but the people who lost money, for the most part, were people who were trying to profit on his celebrity.  Some of the people who had careers ruined were going along with his plans.   IMO that is different from actually taking people's money- not just people, but charities, including Holocaust charities, claiming to be investing it - when you're just using it to fund your lifestyle, many of the people and organizations ruined had no idea what was happening .  Both are fraud, both are despicable, but while Armstrong's intent was to enrich himself, it was probably not with the intent or the knowledge that the result would be to deprive other people of the life savings they had entrusted him with, which Madoff certainly had.  

Well, there go my braggin' rights, right down the tube.  I checked and I still see the picture.  It may be a copy right one as I just took it out of the link.  My....Pres. is so handsome. 

Sure glad it is Friday.  I'm a little whipped.  My sleep patterns got a little wonky last night....waking up every hour the last 3 & 1/2 that I slept.  I think I'm just not doing enough to get good and tired. 

Yorkie...that book sounds interesting.  I may have to 'get' a copy myself.  I have ( would have to go find it now as I don't recall the name ) a technical book by Herman Checkley which delves into sociopathic behaviors.....very interesting to me. 

I'll see you all tomorrow.

Jackie

Yum Chickadee.....

Just read this on Addicting Info.  I wanted to put it all in but am hoping that I I just put the "gist" in, maybe there won' t be all the funny marks.  Never tried it that way so we'll see.

The headline is

HYPOCRISY PERFECTED -- N.R.A gets death threats, Blames Obama

NRA President David Keene would like you to feel bad for him. After years of ensuring unnecessary gun proliferation at the behest of the gun industry, Keene has found himself on the losing end of the gun debate and he’s feeling put upon. Specifically, Keene is receiving death threats for his role in making sure mass murderers have as easy a time as possible getting the guns they need to wipe out a classroom of kids.

I can’t imagine why people are upset with him.

But Keene knows who to blame! Just like guns are never responsible for the astronomical amount of gun violence in America, so, too, is Keene’s efforts to get more guns out on the street completely unrelated to his unpopularity!

It’s really all Obama’s fault:

What this reflects are two things. One is the uncivil way in which idealogues on the left in this country go after their enemies. The second thing it shows is the reflection of the left and the President of the United States’ attempt to demonize and blame those who disagree with them for everything that he doesn’t like. (SOURCE)

Curiously, Keene didn’t seem particularly put out over the past 4 years as fellow NRA death merchant, Wayne LaPierre accused President Obama of getting ready to “destroy the Second Amendment:”

Guess you won't see me shedding a tear.

Jackie

Sociopathy. Psycopathy. Always a subject of fascination for me because I am horribly "square" and have, professionally, encountered pure evil many times, and believe strongly in the need for good to triumph over evil.

"The Sociopath Next Door" has been on my books to read list. Some people are soooo naive....they think these monsters don't exist - that naivete is almost as dangerous as the sociopathy itself.

I want to make a difference in the world and rid it of as many sociopaths as possible.

There are sociopaths who will never, ever offend. There are serial killers who are not sociopaths. Evil lies next door, often in good clothing.

In a legal sense, what Madoff did was infinitely worse than what Armstrong did. In a moral sense, too, since so many more innocent people were hurt.

The badness of the action is not necessarily a sign of the evil-ness of the person.

One of the most awful sociopaths I have ever heard of - one who truly makes me shudder - was someone known as the "Stamp Man." He robbed post offices, and he did so because he got such a kick out of hiding in the bushes and seeing postal workers frantically wondering what had happened. That, my friends, is Satan. No one died.

Jeffrey Dahmer, who killed and ate body parts of about a dozen boys....was NOT a sociopath. He had great remorse for what he did.  

Now, Armstrong. Is he a sociopath? I don't know. That is a diagnosis that should be made very carefully and after much thought. Food for thought....

Friday Brain Droppings.

Paula - You made me think of Andrea Yates, the schizophrenic mother from Texas who drowned her six children because she believed they were posessed by the devil. Not a sociopath. A good but extremely ill women who finally got the mercy she deserved. An unspeakablew tragedy that was.

I wonder, though, if our Newtown shooter was a sociopath. Mental illness does not preclude sociopathy, and callous-unemotional traits are relatively common in Asperger's.