As I've mentioned a couple times over the past few months, I have this couple in my practice who are full-fledged teabaggers. I won't go into personal details...they don't matter.

Today, the woman came in excitedly saying that she couldn't wait until she could go with Michele Bachmann in her walk thru the Capitol. And wasn't I excited? I replied that I couldn't be happier for her and her self-actualization.

Of course, she asked me what that meant, and so I told her that a gentleman named Maslow came up with a hierarchy of 'achievements' (yes I know it's more complex) and the pinnacle was 'self-actualization'...and proceeded to explain the concept to her for an individual's needs, potential, etc.

I told her that marching with Bachmann is the greatest honor which she could possibly achieve, and that she should be very proud of herself for that.

I could see that she wasn't certain that what I said was a compliment, so she asked me what I thought of Glenn Beck's book which she had had gift-wrapped for me a couple visits before. I replied that once I began reading it, I couldn't wait to finish it.

She smiled...and then looked at me furtively and quizzically.

Keep 'em guessing I always say...

So here I am at 5:40 in the AM, thoroughly disgusted by the decrepit nature of American political theater (for a change), so I figured I could tell a story...just between friends...

A few years ago, I had this patient, one of those roly-poly guys, peculiar and vaguely disturbed. Had a live-in gf of course(!), not bad looking but nuttier than a fruit-bat (sic and sick), but that's a story for a different day. So I'm working in my room, and I see my normally efficient, very professional hygienist, who at the time was with me over 25 years, nearly gasping, so I immediately excuse myself and walk over to her.

Me: What's wrong?

Her: You know ****** ***********?

Me: (Eyes rolling BEFORE the fact) Yeah...????

Her: He reached up and touched my chest. (Giving large-knob-turning pantomime)

Me: Go to the office and sit down, I'll take care of this.

Walk into Asshole's treatment room...

Asshole: Hi doc...

Me: Yeah, "hi"...listen...did you touch ^^^^^^'s chest just a minute ago?

Asshole: Yeah...I'm sorry...I couldn't help it...

Me: Uh-huh...first of all, if I ever hear that you do that again, or anything like that, I'm gonna come find you and kick you in the nuts so hard that your next hygienist is going to have to clean around them. Second of all, you're out of here permanently and you know why.

Asshole: OK, I'm sorry....

Me: I know you are; you're sorry that I'm not screwing around with this situation. You're sorry that I didn't think that 'boys will be boys'. The only reason that ANY woman would be within three football-fields distance of you is that they're being paid...no, let me correct myself, HIGHLY paid, to provide services to you. (I wanted to say that this probably included his gf, but I was going to keep this as 'professional' as I possibly could.) I'll send your records to your next dentist and would advise you to be careful in the future, you never know what is going to happen to you if you do stuff like that to someone.

***************************

I still see the gf, interestingly enough, and of course, he told her what he did...she didn't think it was all that bad 'considering', but that just goes to show you how nuts she is. (And yes, she would be considered 'not unattractive' but has that insane look that is pretty creepy.

***************************

So when I hear that these 'elected representatives' have been pinching and squeezing their staff members bodies, and then sanctimoniously walk onto the house or Senate Floor and talk about morality, restraint, and the like, I could puke. and Re-puke.

I was just at the dedication of a magnificent new high school in my Community - I'll spare you the details of why I was there. After the speeches, they had a ribbon-cutting and the big asshole whom I had never seen before, standing next to me, sneered: "We'll be paying higher taxes for this place for the next 20 years." To which I instantly replied, "I'd rather pay for this than pay for blowing up already nearly pulverized rocks in Afghanistan."

He just grunted...

I smiled smugly to myself...

The TBS coverage of my Philadelphia Phillies...

I'm being only slightly funny here: The networks have clearly decided that they want a Yankees-Dodgers World Series so there has been an all-out blitz to portray every member of the Dodgers as Hall of Fame material and that the Phillies are at best 'ordinary'. It is just unbelievable how this parallels the wishes of the MSM that Bush Jr. be elected and re-elected. The jargon is different, the shameful PR is of the same ilk.

...all we ask for is a fair shake - we're not getting it.

Mrs. Intern and I went to see Capitalism: A Love Story last night, and within the first two minutes, tears began slowly forming at the corners of my eyes and continued for most of the film.

I have never been moved in this fashion before - certainly I have cried at movies, but in passing, picked myself up thereafter and went on with whatever I would be doing: eating dinner, reading, watching TV, making love. But last night, after the film, after dinner, I came home utterly exhausted and somewhat enervated and depressed, and just went to bed after President Obama's speech. I feel emotionally hung over this morning and have a whole day of work travails to perform, but I cannot shake the sense of sheer emotionality which has come over me.

It is unusual to have any movie, much less a documentary, whose narrative picks you up, brings you along accelerating the entire time, and then deposits you with an even more powerful conclusion than one would ever think was possible in this modern age. The newsreel of President Roosevelt was a master stroke. The 'rich' ironies of the entire film were perfectly juxtaposed. those who were interviewed or whose lives were recorded were just right.

Right now, I would place this film on a pedestal with CBS and Murrow's Harvest of Shame as the most powerful contemporaneous documentaries which I have ever seen. i'm certain that other people have titles which they might add or perhaps disagree entirely, but for me, this was a transcendental experience of richness and complexity beyond the norm.

I went to a continuing education course given by a well-known local specialist whom I don't particularly like personally, whose work is not all that great dentally, but is recognized throughout the USA for his dento-political work in organizations and he is also a member of the lucky-sperm club - his dad was also 'famous'. As many of our com-padres here are in the profession, he's Jewish. But that's incidental...or at least WAS until this meeting.

So the gentleman begins his talk by saying that it's great to be here in Philly with all the familiar faces blah blah blah, and then, accurately and humorously, stated that it is harder to speak in your hometown because everyone knows your faults intimately. Pretty self-effacing...and a 'good line' especially at these meetings...because it's TRUE.

At that point, this other dentist who happens to be professionally-politically connected but in different circles, said REALLY SNIDELY, and I'm quoting EXACTLY (because I'll never forget THIS), "Well, if you were a Christian, you would know that even Jesus wasn't welcomed in his home town."

The speaker to his credit, said, "I guess I'm going to have to catch up on my reading." and went on.

After the presentation, my Gentile buddy who came to the lecture with me started apologizing for what this moran said." I asked him, Did YOU say that crap?" He replied, "No..." So I said, "Don't apologize to me...go over and tell that putz that he was out of line, and that even if he were born again, that statement had no place in a secular public forum." Of course, that didn't happen.

In all these years of going to functions, I have never heard anyone say anything like that and believe me, we have our share of evangelicals and proselytizers. This country is collectively losing its dignity, its propriety, and its hesitancy to withhold racism and other forms of bigotry.

When I ran into the speaker a couple days later, I asked him it he thought that the moran believed that he was at the joint Session of Congress rather than at a dental meeting. OF course he gave me a PC reply, and said that he didn't take any offense. I responded by saying, well, you sure couldn't have come to that conclusion watching your eyes and body language at the instant it was uttered. He, of course, didn't respond.

So it goes...

upon reflection for the past few days is that there aren't MORE cases such as the Sparkman Incident in this country. And yet...

Who knows how many unreported silent deaths there are: people abducted surreptitiously on back roads of quiet country areas, or Interstate Highway breakdowns or those who take a chance at a rest stop and never are seen again. Or those who are 'runaways' in cities or elsewhere where sociopathic individuals recognize that no family will come looking to claim the person soon after or possibly ever. Or 'unwanted' infants and children of people whose circumstances are such that homicidal tendencies overshadow normal altruistic species-continuing behaviors.

And others.

In this case, we FINALLY heard about this after many days of local reportage only, and if the individual had not been an employee of the Federal Government, we might never know about this occurrence. For the sake of argument alone, suppose the victim here were simply a citizen who had, again for the sake of argument, had an Obama/Biden bumper sticker and ran into the wrong group of hostile folk. Suppose the gentleman and his auto simply disappeared into the wilderness of Daniel Boone, and some months later, say the car was found. Would any of us ever be aware of this? Would the local law enforcement publicize this type of case, knowing the far-ranging implications of such a release of information...and there isn't even a corpse to prove that there was a homicide, that body having been buried in some Godforsaken place and probably decomposed/eaten by wildlife?

The fact that this man was left this way sense a message...yes I know the investigation is not complete, but again, say for the sake of argument, someone utilized this method in order to throw authorities off the track and steer them in the direction of hate groups or at the very least, casual Limbaugh-listeners. The fact that we can easily accept the existence of such hate OF A CENSUS WORKER speaks volumes, as they say.

This case has been brought to the fore by the MSM because it possesses certain elements of interest for potential viewers and also, perhaps more importantly, because it was shoved in their faces by 'alternative' media and Internet. No matter the outcome, this is a terrible, frightening circumstance involving torture and eventual death of a man. On a higher level, it is a terrible and frightening circumstance involving the torture and death of what many Americans considered their inherent safety and well-being. Mass-media stories such as "Psycho", "Deliverance", "Breakdown", "Switchback" and the magnificent NBC mini-series "Chiefs" have shown that such things may occur in someone else's backyard. (Please note that all these stories' titles consist of one word, and one word only. This is a testimony of the horror beneath.) Americans should realize that this may occur on their very own block, and may well emanate from the vicious hated being stoked by the Right wing and their apologists in the Press.

These tin horn George Wallace/George Lincoln Rockwell types don't even have the balls to say that they're doing whatever the hell they're doing because they don't-like/don't-want-to-see/don't-want-to-be-near/don't-(fill in the blank) black people.

In the old days, the governors of certain states, the elected representatives in the State or Federal Houses and Senates used to have the balls to just say that they were doing 'whatever' to separate the (fill in the blank designated term of malicious hatred) from the God-fearing white people. they lynched, they wore white sheets, they used fire hoses, they beat and tortured minorities and their supporters in broad daylight with movie cameras running. They just didn't care.

These creeps just run around and hide behind the pernicious use of alternative language. They're bastards AND cowards.

In the largest gathering of humankind since history has been recorded, an estimated 135 million individuals attended the Conservative-minded March on Washington otherwise known as 9/12. "We sure as Hell put those Muslims who attend the Hajj to shame." Said Buck Diktus, a self-proclaimed rancher and cattle-farmer from Butte, Montana.

Despite photographs which indicate that only 40,000 to 60,000 individuals at most attended, Conservative adviser and self-proclaimed photographic expert Ron Christie (pictured below)




stated that..."there were so many right-minded people in attendance that the digital images ran out of available pixels. this is an issue we Republicans have long-warned the Cable News Channels about, but to no avail since they are controlled by the Radical Left."

There were many vendors present at the rally; the busiest was the concession selling a brown shirt which was available in all sizes. Also doing a brisk business were the booksellers, a new book upon the scene entitled "My Struggle" was selling out. According to organizers, this tome was published posthumously - the author having mysteriously died in a great fire in 1945, although there were some reports of his living under an assumed identity in Brazil or Argentina.

Plans for a second march entitled "Night of the Crystal" were announced.

I believe that it's time that we took a stand against these fascist pricks who are attempting to play jiu-jitsu with our policies and our elected representatives. I believe that it's time that we debased ourselves somewhat...no, I'll correct that, an inordinate amount, and silence these motherfuckers once and for all. These ignorant, piss-ant tin-horn Mussolinis who lie, cheat, and steal their way to the Presidency twice, to various House and Senate seats - remember Max Cleland - and to local offices must be stopped in the 'coarsest', albeit LEGAL manners within our grasp.

To paraphrase the character played by Sean Connery in The Untouchables: if they use their rhetorical fists, we use a rhetorical club; if they use a verbal knife, we use a verbal gun. It's the only way this is gonna work...no more Mr. Nice Guy...just ask President Dukakis, President Mondale, and President Gore how that worked out for them. There is no more moral high ground when dealing with these bastards: the time to act is NOW.

Somebody sends you one of those Glennbeckian e-mails, you tell them to go fuck themselves; somebody sends you lies about one of Obama's speeches/statements which never ever occurred, you tell them that if they ever send you another one like that, you'll tell them all about what their sister was up to with you in the back seat of that car when you were in high school; if someone starts talking about Obama's birthplace, remind them that they probably have some half-brothers themselves running around from what you heard about their father.

Get the idea? It works.

Otherwise, we're going to have the AP publishing more articles about why we're wusses.

This is only slightly "Swiftian" in nature...I'M MAD AS HELL AND I'M NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANYMORE. WE WON THE FUCKING ELECTION AND NOW IT'S TIME FOR THESE BASTARDS TO GET OUT OF OUR WAY, SO WE CAN BEGIN TO FIX THE GIGANTIC MESS THAT THEY GOT US INTO.

but I don't care at this hour of the AM...

I watched the Kennedy Memorial last night, moved to tears at times, laughing out loud at others, just as many others here did, and inspired by each (other than that shit McCain), I got to thinking about my close friends many years ago...

When I was a young dentist, most if not all of my friends were dentists or dental personnel, such as laboratory folk, or even young-lady-staff members of other offices (it was an 'exciting time' in my life) simply because it was easiest to have a working discussion about the day's events, have people understand the context of an incident, interaction, or event, or just plain gossip about the resident population of dental folk (not as dull as it sounds).

This of course is not unusual for anyone....but I'm allowed my narcissism at this age and stage...

I counted among my acquaintances many whose personal, professional, and especially political personae would revolt me now: RWers, marital cheats, anti-intellectuals (!), brazen hucksters, and in retrospect, I almost can't believe that I even had a polite conversation with several of these, much less communed, socialized extensively, went on Convention Trips with, and even 'dated' (to be polite). But the one aspect of their existence which was critical/pivotal was that they understood the daily 'process' in which they and I were immersed, and no one, and I mean NO ONE outside mine or anyone's particular business, profession, marital status, etc., can REALLY REALLY comprehend, and that of course explains 90% of why there was the 'bond' which allowed such disparate folk to get along.

In addition, many of us were, despite differences in attributes, extroverted feeling people, who enjoyed the repartee, stories, advice-giving, whatever.

And so I saw this in last night's remarkable service. Senator Hatch is still a sanctimonious schmuck, probably wound tight as a drum, but had much in common with Kennedy as well as a probable longing to be as adventurous and downright behaviorally-insane - in a good way - as Teddy was...Orrin certainly looks repressed to me. I don't really care if Hatch's behavior truly emanates from a belief-system or not: the net effect is that he successfully has managed to keep a good portion of America down, all the while having a rousing time with his buddy Teddy whilst he votes against aid to the poor, against veterans benefits, against the Democratic President's nomination to the Supreme Court, and has the temerity to get up on the dais, weep openly and legitimately for his best friend in the whole world, and stand against every principle which the now-deceased Senator ever worked for, and we're supposed to accept this as 'business-as-usual'. Wink wink; nod nod.

But in the context of the Senate, and for the idiosyncratic individuals who make up this august but peculiar body of people, they were truly connected - you could see that in Hatch's demeanor, and his staccato laugh of a nervous, frightened man will forever be my vision of him now. I used to think of him as the inspiration (I know it wasn't really) for the Senator from Nevada in the Godfather: unctuous, warm in public, vicious and cold and bigoted in private, and very creepy with peculiar overtones which don't bear discussion at this time. But now, I'll always visualize this overwhelmed, emotional, inadequate persona who was deemed an effective tool by his masters a long time ago, and used effectively. My Pittsburgh-born father of blessed memory once said in referring to some outrageous position taken by Hatch: "What else do you expect from a Mormon born in Pittsburgh?"

I'm deeply moved by the loss of Senator Kennedy - it dredged up all the upset which I felt that Friday Afternoon in 1963 and that morning when I awakened to Bobby's death, having gone to sleep the night before thinking that he probably would be the next President, rescuing us from the Vietnam War and internal turmoil resulting from that and from the death of Dr. King. I grieve for America, for we have lost a champion, a powerful, extraordinary champion, for the ordinary man and woman.

Hey everyone, hear me out for a moment:

Do you have 'friends' and acquaintances who tell you 'how you're going to feel' when such-and-such happens? Do they preface it by telling you WHAT'S going to happen long before it might, even though they have absolutely no idea whether it will happen or not, and it is much less likely that the negative consequences will occur?

Today, at a gathering, people were telling me how I was going to negatively feel after a moderately-consequential POSITIVE life event. Not a NEGATIVE one, but a POSITIVE one. After the thirteenth or twentieth or thirtieth person did this (having lost count), I responded, quietly but firmly, "You know, you are the same person who told me that my kids were going to be real sassy to me when they were young, that they would act out horribly when they got to Junior high school, that the girls would have sex/stay out all night/get pregnant/catch VD when they were in high school and college. You are the same people who told me that I would find myself crying uncontrollably after my parents would die, and that I'd never ever really come to terms with their deaths - a priori you said this. You also said that my practice would slow down as I aged and that my patient population would age with me and that I would not acquire new patients in the younger generations. None of these things happened or even CAME CLOSE to happening, so why should I assume that your assessment of my situation, my psyche, my personality should be any more accurate than the utterly fallacious arguments which you posited all these years? Would it make you FEEL BETTER if you were right, and all these negative consequences came out of this? It is much more likely that everything will go reasonably well, as things have in the past with regard to these issues in my family/career, and I make the assumption that history will repeat itself. If it doesn't, it doesn't, and I'll deal with that outcome if and when the time comes."

Stupefied, each of the people to whom I repeated this statement just stood there...saying nothing. It was my turn again: "Do you think for one moment that your projection of how you felt, what you endured, what you did and didn't do, would make me feel better about my situation, or would I feel worse? Given your track record in the past, and you KNOW you were mightily mistaken, why didn't you just say, 'Good luck to you, I hope things go well.'? Is there some reason that you want me to FEEL BADLY even though I should be feeling good about (the thing)?"

Now these folks are quite bright and intellectual to a man and woman. They each nodded as though they understood my point. I find that I always offer encouragement, not discouragement. Just a thought for the day...

On edit; subj line: OK OK...

We're sick of your petty crap...you're just all so full of shit with respect to these issues, you hypocritical, lying bastards,...your "elected" Republican morans can't even keep their dicks in their pants, running all over the hemisphere to get laid by ANYONE other than their wives, taking bribe money from giant corporations and then pissing all over the wretched masses who spend money AT those corporations, as though Big Business could possibly survive without the middle-class and poor customers. Dumb bastards that you are, we're on to you and your ways and we will defeat you at every turn. We are in control and we will metaphorically crush your little 'rebellion'...you went from playing Darth Vader to Luke Skywalker in three years. The obverse and reverse of the same coin, eh?

We've got you EXACTLY WHERE WE WANT YOU!!

today, I was overwhelmed.

I had gone into my office to see a patient who was in some fair degree of pain,('Yay' me, right, on a Sunday with the Phillies playing and all...who sez we dentists aren't sensitive...and no, I didn't charge her for the visit, since there's more adventures ahead with this tooth), but I digress.

As I was walking back to my car I saw a young lady who anyone could describe as attractive: blond hair in pony tail, about 30, very very long arms emerging from a sleeveless top...but what caught my eye was the first case of macrodactyly I have ever seen. Two of her fingers were at least eight inches long and well over an inch in diameter on her right hand. I was overwhelmed and still am -- it was just the most incredible sight I've seen in a long time and is in fact, a reminder of many issues.

The first and most important is that she was seemingly an otherwise normal person, walking with her family and enjoying the day.

The second is that she made no attempt to walk with her hand in a pocket or under a handbag as many do who have had traumatic injuries or birth defects.

The third is that it is imperative that all people have a RIGHT to health care and it is not up to anyone who is a 'disinterested' (read: profit-making) third party to decide who is eligible for what kind of care. Obviously, this had not been attended to for whatever reason, quite possibly a reasonable medical/orthopedic one, when she was a child, but having nothing to do with her, it once again reaffirmed my opinion that although we live in a country known for its great hospitals and medical schools, there are millions upon millions who have no or limited access to health care, and as with education,or the inadequacies thereof, it is ultimately the society who suffers due to the lack of productivity directly related to the lack of general health of an individual.

Although the cliche is that "it is cheaper to bury someone than to save them", that is not true by a long-shot. The lost productivity, altruism, and spirit of those associated with the departed is a cost too great to imagine.

So from an ethical, moralistic, humanistic, socio-political point of view, I am entirely pleased that I went in to see this toothache today.

(Reminds me of James Burke's "Connections"...well, not quite.)

One of them, and perhaps the most insidious one, is that he is the seemingly appointed purveyor of World War II and Holocaust Revisionism. It may take 300 years, but I am willing to bet that the object of this movement is to ultimately almost totally downplay the Evil of the Axis (not Bush II's, the 'other' one) and question the need to have gone to war with the Germans and the Japanese. If you think that this cannot happen, regard this: a couple years ago, my kid came home with the thought that Genghis Kahn was not so satanic because he, according to one of her classmates, had no choice but to exterminate whole villages and towns because he did not have a large enough army to watch over the conquered lands. So, in the much much later words of the Corleone family, "It was just business." Of course, growing up in my household, she knew better, but it's all out there and these young people have no idea how horrible those times were. After all, it's not on the Gameboy, so how should the masses know?

It will take a little longer, but eventually these isolationist fascist/racist/misogynist/anti-Semitic bastards, if they get theri way, are going to have the world convinced that due to Roosevelt's foreign policies, we were deserving of the Pearl Harbor attack, that the Jews, gypsies, homosexuals and 'the like' were not only not massacred almost in toto, but that those 'few' who were killed brought it on themselves, that Hitler only wanted limited land to sustain his growing population and 'superior' culture, and that America should have listened to Charles Lindbergh (not played by Jimmy Stewart) and stayed home.

On edit: what is in here that was worth an 'unrec'? Is this DU or Freep City?