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

Athena, John Wayne Gacy was another interesting person.  My brain being what it is I can't now recall whether he was seen as a sociopath or just had some of the tendencies of one.  He was ( if memory serves ) a sexual predator but part of his guise was that he often played a clown for kids functions I believe.  Anyway, he mainly would seek out young gay teens.  When he was done with them, he killed them and buried the majority of his victims in the crawl space of his house.  I think there were at least 33.  I know the number was astounding. 

I think quite a few lives were lost/missing before anyone had the slightest reason to suspect Gacy.  The next door neighbors can have some pretty "wild" things going on.  You never know.

Jackie

Suzie - I'll trade you that pool in the hot weather for snow on the highway when I want to drive to the next town tomorrow. There's a chance it will thaw and melt by morning. Hot weather is so much more reliable!

"Gun Lovers Freak Over Obama’s Executive Actions"

"......They invoke the Constitution to say Obama is acting like a monarch, but the right-wing bloviators only succeed in revealing their ignorance of history and law, writes Adam Winkler"

"As our first national Gun Appreciation Day arrives (isn’t every day in America Gun Appreciation Day?), it’s worth a closer look at the constitutional arguments made by conservative opponents of President Obama’s gun-control proposals........Conservative blogs and Fox News have been filled with indignant protests over Obama’s “abuse of power” and the manifestation of “tyranny” by the “power-grabbing” president. Sen. Rand Paul went on the Christian Broadcast Network to accuse Obama of acting like a “king or monarch.....”

"......But when you scratch even a little beneath the surface of all the hyperbole, one thing becomes clear: The president’s actions don’t violate the Constitution; they only violate his critics’ political positions. In fact, based on the nature of the outcry, it’s Obama’s most strident foes who could use a lesson in the Constitution......"

"......Obama’s critics don’t seem to care that he has in fact issued fewer executive orders than any president in a century—including George W. Bush. (Remember him?) Yet now that Obama may want to use executive orders to do something his foes don’t like, they insist that such actions are a profound threat to democracy itself. This is despite the fact that the president’s executive actions don’t even rise to the level of “orders”; most are only recommendations to agencies or promises to do things that every president does, like nominate an agency head (here, to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which has been without a confirmed chief for years)....."

".......Perhaps the greatest irony here is that it is opponents of Obama’s gun proposals that seem to disregard our Constitution. In states like Texas and Wyoming, gun-rights extremists are pushing their legislatures to enact laws declaring new federal laws on guns unenforceable. Yet the Constitution unambiguously declares the “laws of the United States . . . shall be the supreme law of the land.” This provision was specifically intended by the founders to prevent states from interfering with national legislation, and yet for some reason, the right-wing outrage machine has remained silent on these clearly unconstitutional state efforts......"

Full article:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/01/19/gun-lovers-freak-over-obama-s-executive-actions.html

Suzie - you would be quite right to be afraid driving in the snow. It's the drivers who forget to be afraid, aren't careful and cause accidents.

I will give my region's meteorologists the benefit of the doubt and say that this topography must be complicated to predict. Because otherwise, they are twit heads! We were promised 2-4 inches between Thursday and Friday and got nothing.

I want snow.

Blue, enjoy the most effective of therapies!

Donald Rumsfeld was a stone, cold sociopath, IMO. Incapable of showing an iota of empathy for the soliders he was sending and under-equipping. Couldn't give a damn when 9/11 or Katrina happened. You could tell how forced and hollow his words of condolence were. There were a few sociopaths in the Bush years. Probably Charles Addington, the Black Adder, as Maureen Dowd called him, would fit the bill. He was Cheney's chief of staff after Scooter Libby.

Many serial killers are, of course, sociopaths. Particularly those who display a superfical charm (wich is a trait of this). The archetypal pschopath was the very handsome, charming and intelligent Ted Bundy, of course. 

Majority leader Tom DeLay - remember the "Hammer"? Definitely a sociopath. Dirty, unscrupulous, no empathy and utterly, utterly ruthless and devoid of purpose other than his own aggrandizement. He would have made a good mafia don.

Another sociopath....soooo, charming, too: Bugsy Siegel. And definitely Charles Manson.

Hitler? No, IMO. A fanatic. Those are scarier. The same goes for Osama bin Laden.

Thanks Yorkie....I read a book about Gacy, and though my mental faculties are well enough I can call to mind a lot, some of the finer details ( possible diagnosis etc. ) just don't hang in there.  I am just glad to have basic recall.  I do a lot of crossword puzzles ( do need more reading which  may happen now my daughter is here and does so much ) and I can find time.  In fact, there was a time, non-fiction was almost all I read.....starting way back with the Charles Manson murders.  It was such a remarkable book ( horrid as the recitation of events were ) and so alien to the sort of life I lived ( seldom even knew of anyone so deranged at that time ) that it set me on the path to wanting to know hows and whys.  I am still sometimes amazed at how much insanity can happen before there is some address and redress.

Jackie

Jackie, having read your very comprehensive and thoughtful posts all these months, I find what you say about your brain almost impossible to believe! You must have been a real mental powerhouse before is all I can say!  

Heard on the news last night that W won't be at the inaguration. Neither will his father, but he's in poor health. Wonder what W's excuse is?

I am very scared for President Obama at his inaguration. There are so many nuts out there that hate him and want to do him harm. I know he has the best security in the world.

Mary

Yes-Athena-I loved James Herriot's books! Read them all several times. My 85 year old mom raves about the show you're talking about, but I haven't seen it myself.

Mary

As you know, this old conservative isn't an Obama fan, however, I try to keep my thoughts to myself in consideration of you all who love him. I agree to disagree, but I do pray for him daily. I pray for his safety ( I wish him no harm). I pray for wisdom for him, and I pray for his health, and his family.



On the other hand, I'm guess I'm one of the idjuts, cause I love GWB. I know he made many mistakes, but I believe he is a good man.



That said, I love the stories you all share on here. Movies, books, art, music, mental health, world news, and personal stories. I believe I'm a bit older than most of you. I'm 62. I've seen a lot in my lifetime. The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly.



Sometimes you make me cry, sometimes you make me laugh, but you always make me think.



Blessings to Y'All

Paula

Yes, Paula, we will have to agree to disagree on GWB, but I do appreciate your contributions to this thread. Civility when discussing politics-imagine that!

Yorkiemom-those VP choices would have been deal breakers for me too, had I considered voting for either McCain or Romney. They were the ones that scared me at the thought of either man winning the presidency.

Mary

Oh, meant to say - W isn't going to DC to stay to be near his Dad - just out of hospital, doesn't seem to be well.  Sad.  He is SUCH a gentleman... at least that's what the papers are reporting....feels true.  Also praise W for staying out of the picture, which seems to be traditional for former Prez - well, except for WJC, but he's such fun to hear!  Still remember his performance at Convention in August - he does a better job of "selling" BHO than BHO does.

Happy Monday soon....cold, but not as cold as 4 years ago.  Meanwhile, we expecting daily temps in low teens for most of next week...now THAT is cold.....

Sunflowers~I did not know that Janis would have been 70 today. Amazing! I loved her. I remember going to the movies in the 70's to see a documentary about her. She appeared on a talk show in the doc. and said she was going to her hometown for the first time in many years. She had been made fun of in school, but she was so looking forward to going back home, cause now, she was going home a STAR!



I get AC every third week. My oncs reasoning is (no Neulasta) you have more time to rebound, plus there's less chance of developing leukemia down the road.

I did some research on Robin Roberts go GMA. She had breast cancer in 2007. She was on AC. They said, that is INDEED why she had pre-leukemia. It's rare, but it happens.



By the way, Robin returns to GMA on Monday.



Paula